PAGES FROM THE PAST.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1866, 27 September 1913, Page 15

PAGES FROM THE PAST.

NAPIER IN OTHER DAYS. UPS & DOWNS IN PREHISTORIC TIMES. THE PIONEER SETTLERS. Napier's past contains many interesting ,pages, and not the least striking them arc those that were turned long before cither pakelia or Maori set foot on tho shores of Now Zealand. Away back in the ages when Lake Taupo was a great volcano belching out lava, and pumico the district around Napier was tho centre of violent changes. A big stretch of limestone country, tho geologists tell us, once lay where is now the blue water of Hawke Bay. Tho violent eruptions in the centre of the island gradually caused the coastal' land to subside, and practically tho wholo of the country between Jlabia and the Kidnappers went under water to a depth that slowly increases to about 150 ieet twelve or thirteen; miles out from the present beach. Mr. M. Hill, of Napier, who has probably made the eloscst study of the geology of tho district, is of opinion that at one time a great river, whicli he calls the Wairarapa, flowed through this county in a southwesterly direction, and was fed by the existing rivers of Hawke's Bay and the Manawatu- River as its tributaries. It was in this age, Mr. Hill considers, that tho'Moa flourished in NcW|Zealand, and in Hawke's Bay particularly. There are many theories how the moa. became extinct, but Mr. Hill, after examining the conditions under which moa bones were found at forty different spots in Hawke's Bay,-strongly inclines to the view that the birds wcro instantly killed by the poisonous gases that accompanied some appalling eruption. It was tlieso gases which in a moment slew hundreds when St. 'Pierre, in Martinquo was devastated, and, except on tho hypothesis that sonio similar sudden slaughter took place, it is difficult otherwise to account for the finding of so many complete and undisturbed skeletons of the moa in the limestone caves of tho East Coast. The First Settlers. However', it is not With tlio moa wo are concerned, but with the few hundred acres of limestone lull and dale that tho cataclysms of the past have left standing to form the Scindo Island of and tho flats that man and nature have between them built about its base. When tho systematic colonisation of New Zealand began in 1840 none of the expeditions thought ilawke's Bay worth attention as a field for settlement Emigrants wore brought by tho shipload and set down in Auckhnd, Wellington, Taranaki, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago. in IS-10, and. tho present centres of those provinces immediately sprang into existence. Hawke's Bay at this time was the haunt of no" more than a few whalers w'lio 'had their shore stations at Mahia, Wairoa, and Capo Kidnappers. In 1841 tho Rev. William Colenso was dispatched to the district and built a mission, station at Waitangi, a point oil t'lie beach a few miles south of Napier .at what is now known to Hawke s Bay residents as the " wash-out." This spot was chosen for tho mission station as it was a sort of no-man's-land, and claimed by none of tho rival native chiefs.. There were then three big Maori pas in the bay, one on Tongoio Beach, one at To Awapuni, near Golenso's mission, and the other at Maraetotara, near ,Ca'pc Kidnapper.,. 1 It is rororded that Colenso 'brought tho first cattle and it is related that on the soft marshy ground their hoofs grew up like horns. The first liorso came by sea. in 1846, and. 200 Maori canoes .went out to participate in tho ceremony of bringing it ashore. ' Settlement began on a fairly extensive scale in IS4O, When Mr. H. S. Tiffen drove 3000 sheep overland from Wellington up tho East Coast to I-ourerc. About this time public attention ; ' was directed to the fact that trafficking in Nativo lauds was taking placo'. in -contravention of tho Treaty of Waitangi,. and in 1852 the settlers of Ahuriri, as Napier was then called, petitioned Parliament praying for tho purchase by tho Crown of the Native lands. This petition was signed by thirteen settlers. This is stated to be about tho earliest list extant of the pioneers of Napier. There was no doubt a number of settlers who did not sign the petition. The liknies of those who signed .wore: — B. S. Curling W. Villers A. Chapman J. B. Al'Kain F. Chapman F. S. Abbott G. Rich J. D. Canning. A. Alexander C. H. L. I'elichefc I). Gollan C.,' Canning J. W. Harris The pioneers, evidently the more goahead and adventurous of the emigrants who had landed elsewhere, were thus gradually finding their way into Hawke's Bay, and Sir Georgo Gro.y, who was then Governor of the colony, lost no time in taking steps to reduce the possibility of a conflict between the white man and' the Maori. With this object in view lie induced tho late Archdeacon Samuel Williams, then at Otalri, to take up his residence at To Auto in 1853, and act as mediator .in any disputes that might arise between tho settlers and tiio Native lords of the soil. Scinde Island Bought. • The Government, through Sir Donald M'Lean, Land Purchase Commissioner, about this time bought a number of blocks of land from the Maoris. From the Chief Tareha Te Moauanui was purchased Scindo Island and the surrounding district which now forms the 'townof Napier. In 1855 Port Aiiuriri was declared a port of entry, and a Government offico was opened and placed under the charge of Mr. Catchpool. Tho town was at once laid out, and on April 5, 1835, the lirst auction sale of land took place. Town lots of a quarter of an acre in area were then knocked down at £5 a piece, and only a few of tlicni found buyers even at the price. The favourite anchorage for shipping in thpso days was a little to tho town side of where the Taradalo Bridge now stands, and it was at lirst anticipated that the town would be somewhere down towards there. The headquarters of social life was at a raupo whare, opened by Mr. Munn at this spot as an accommodation house. In 1855 Shakespeare ltoad was laid out. from Port Ahuriri across Scindo Island to tho future town. The hills were then covered with fern, and, were the haunt of the wild pig. .. • . . . ~ . ' . . The first steamer, the Wonga Wonga, appeared on the coast in ,1857, ami among, the earliest passengers she brought to Napier wore Sir Edward Stafford, then Prime Minister, Mr. Alfred Domett, Commissioner of Crown Lands, Messrs. Donald M'Lean and J. T. Wood, Native Land Purchase Commissioners, and Air. .lames Wood, proprietor of the "Hawke's Bay Herald" at that time. Napier has always been a strong sporting centre, ami it is interesting to recall the first race meeting which was held in 180!), in celebration of the separation of Ilawke's Hay from Wellington province. Mr. (now too Hon.) J. 1). Ormond was even then prominent as an owner, but he did not succeed in capturing the principal event of the day, tho Great Hawke's Bay Stakes, oj £50, which' was won by Mr. C. J. Nairn's Charlie Napier. Although Napier had its fair share of war scares in the days of the Maori

I risings very little fighting took place in tho province. In 1857 troublo with tho Natives was feared, and the 05th Regiment was for some time stationed at Napier and had its camp oirwhat is now t'ho Botanical Gardens. When tho town was laid out Indian affairs wcro much to tho fore, and Indian history and geography supplied tho names for some of tho streets and also for tho neighbouring settlements. In tho names of many of the streets, [ howover, the literarv bent of Mr. Alfred Domett, then Crown Lauds .Commissioner, found expression, and tlio names of English authors are likely to be household words in Napier for a long time to come. A Separate Province. By 1860 there were about 500 peoplo in Napier and about 3500 Europeans in tlio district. To-day the number has ..increased to about 12,000 in Napier and Napier South, and 50,000 in the province. As soon as the little community began to feel its feet an agitation at once began to secure independence from Wellington. The principal cause of discontent was that most of the reventio collected by tho Provincial Government in Hawke's Bay was spent in tho neighbourhood of Wellington. A series of indignation meetings was held in 1857 and Mr. J. V. Smith, then member for Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay, in tho General Assembly—a fairly extensive constituency—addressed a meeting at the Royal Hotel, Napier, ami agreed to support a petition for separation. AVhcn Sir Edward Stafford passed his New Provinces Act in 1858 Hawke's Bay at once petitioned for separation in accordance with the provisions of tlio Act, and an Order-in-Council establishing the new province was shortly afterwards issued at Auckland, then tho seat of Government. So slow was the means of communication that this important information did not reach Napier until twelve days later.

The first meeting of the Hawke's Bay Provincial Council took place at the Golden Fleece Hotel in Napier, and of to 'ten members who gathered round the board on that day only one, the Hon. J. D. Osmond, is alive to-day. The council elected Mr. Thomas Henry Fitzgerald as Superintendent, while Mr. Ormond was chosen as Speaker, and Mr. Tiffen ivas first Chairman of Committees. The council continued in existence until the abolition of the provinces in 187(5, and throughout the greater part of its time' was occupied principally with the construction of roads and public works ai ; d the interminable land and Native Questions. A Prosperous Pest. While the back country was being slowly devolopcd a brisk shipping trade sprang up at Port Ahuriri, through whicli, until the construction of the breakwater in the early nineties, tlio whole of the sea-borne traffic passed. The inner' harbour had not then silted up to anything like the extent it did in later years, and vessels drawing as much as fourteou feet could then easily enter and berth inside. AYith tho construction of the railway inland from Napier tlio trade of the'port continued to expand, until tho exports from Napier actually began to exceed those from Wellington. The 'construction of the Manawatu . railway, - howevor, altered the position at once; and diverted a largo part of the former Napier traffic to Wellington.

Napier's municipal'life began on April 2G, 1874, when tho town was constituted a borough. The first mayor was Mr. Robert Stuart, who held office from January 19, 1875, to December, .1878. Tho host-known of the succeeding Mayors was tho late Mr. G. H.- Swan, whose dentil was recorded a -few weeks ago. Mr. Swan held office' as Mayor for sixteen years continuously, and broke all previous records by t)ie length of his term. He rendered great services to Napier, and among other things inaugurated the public swimming baths and the sea wall which protects the town from, the encroachment of tho sea in heavy weather and forms tho esplanade. The Marino Parade was largely the outcomo of, his' public spirit. The town as originally laid out had no road fronting tho sea, and the beach was the back boundary of sections, and presented a generally unkempt appearance. ' In timo a narrow road was formed, aiid there matters stood until in the )vinter of 1888-serious inroads were made by the sea during stormy weather, 'and the safety of some of the dwellings was threatened.' Tlio townspeople recognised the necessity for somo substantial protective work, and a strong sea'wall with an esplanade over sixty feet wide and a milo long was constructed.. Today the Marino Parade is nearly two miles in length, and is planted along its length with Norfolk pines. The Cathedral. A number of other notable improvements mark the year 1888, the most important of them being tlio opening of Napier Cathedral in December of /that year. Tile tower has vet to bo built, but it is claimed locally that tho building as it stands is the largest ecclesiastical edifice in Now Zealand. The extreme length from east to west is about 180 feet, tho navo is 57 feet in width, the cross transepts have a width of ( J2 feet, while tho extreme height of the building is 92 feet. Tho materials used wore red ' brick and white stone, and the style of architecture is thirteenth century Gothic. The architect, the lato Mr.' AV. B. Mountfort, of Chris tell u rch, took special precautions to ensure tho stability of tile building in case of .earthquake. The wido open roof, which has been, described as the finest piece of Gothic timber-work in the Southern 'Hemisphere, constituted tho chief danger, and to meet the strain of a shock buttresses of special strength were provided. Following a practico common in parts of Italy and Spain, where earthquakes are numerous, the main portion of the buttress is inside tho building, and the external projection measures only some 30 inches. It may be mentioned iii passing that the diocese of AVaiapu as first constituted in 1859 did not include Hawko's Bay, but the boundaries were subsequently changed, and the Synod met in Napier for the .first time in August, 1872, under the presidency of Bishop AYilliain AViliianis. The town of late years lias progressed steadily, and many large and substantial buildings hape been erected by public bodies and business firms. The main features of recent history are dealt with separately.