The population is generally well integrated, and runs its own Health Service with a small hospital and a network of clinics, many in isolated communities. There are also physiotherapy and radiography services. No-one pays to see the doctor, or for medicines or other treatment, though many pay KOHA, a freewill gift. The Hokianga is also a wide river, which at one time was the communication system, the few roads being very bad. Now the roads are better, and a vehicle ferry runs across the harbour every hour.
Hokianga people are mostly financially poor, work being hard to find, though once there was plenty.
Government policies over many years have made so many people drift to the cities, which are overcrowded. One day someone will wake up to the fact that in this Communication Age it doesn't matter much where you live as long as there is a good phone line and postal service. There are many small enterprises here which deserve notice, including a firm publishing children's books, more than one business consultancy, a brewery, many horticulturalists and arboriculturalists, a host of craftspeople, and a growing tourist industry which offers a very wide range of activities to suit most tastes.