Hastings Fifty Years Ago

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 256, 13 October 1923, Page 1

Hastings Fifty Years Ago

THE BIRTH OF A TOWN From Waste Acres to Progressive Centre SUNDAY, July Bth of this year, was the fiftieth anniversary of the rapidly growing town of Hastings, which sprang into being from what was jeeringly described at the time as "a few waste acres,” on July Bth, 1873, when the late Mr. Francis Hicks offered by public auction some hundred acres in thc vicinity of the land he presented to the Government for railway purposes,' now occupied by the Railway Department leasehold in Russell Street, from the Post Office to the Heretaunga Street corner and round Heretaunga Street to Thomson’s boot shop. Later 111 the year Mr. James Boyle sold what was described as Hastings South. Although Hastings had been conceived years before, this sale registered the birth of wha twas destined to become the present borough, which was then christened Hastings, not after the English watering place, as some people even now suppose, but in consonance with the Indian nomenclature which had already claimed this part of the province in Napier, Meeanee, Clive, Harelock, and surroundings. PURCHASE FROM NATIVES. Before proceeding with the story of the foundation of the town, whose destiny is to be the City of the Heretaunga Plains, it may be as well to epitomise the previous history

of the district, for the information of those recent settlers who have not the knowledge of the story which is tradition to the old identities of Hastings. As is already so well known to the older generation, the Heretaunga block, a portion of Hastings, was first leased from the Natives in 1864 or 1865, by Messrs. Thomas Tanner and William Rich. The block comprised portion of the district then known as the Karamu Plains, between the Ngaruroro River and what was then known as the Waiteo Creek, but which later became for a while the bed of the Ngaruroro, owing to thp great floods of 1867 causing the river to alter its course from one side of the block to the other. After the lease had been in force for some years, the lessees formed a syndicate and purchased the freehold from the Natives. Amongst those admitted to this partnership were Messrs. Gordon, Hill, J. N. Williams, J. D. Ormond, A. FI. Russell, W. R. (afterwards Sir William) Russell, and Rev. Samuel (afterwards Archdeacon) Williams. It has been said that these pioneer settlers obtained the land for ‘‘a song”— at 30/- per acre. But as at that time the greater portion of Hastings, lying between the racecourse and the old Ngaruroro River, was a swamp, and other portions on that side were in a similar condition, in addition to which the population of the entire province was scanty and scattered, it will be seen that these sturdy settlers, who set out to blaze the track for our present day comfort and prosperity, paid the full market value for the land. •NO BUYERS AT £5 AN ACRE. The demand for land did not increase, and some six years later Mr. Tanner offered an acre of the best ground in the present borough for every three acres ploughed. That is to say, he was offering land for £3 an acre and accepting payment in labour. Yet he could find very few to take advantage of these liberal terms. In 1871 Mr. Tanner tried to sell his land for £5 an acre, and even less, but he could not get a buyer. Another of the syndicate offered two young Englishmen, just out from England, 660 acres in Blastings for £3 10/- per acre, but they declined. Early in 1873 the members of the partnership had to defend themselves before the Native Lands Alienation Commission, against the charge of unfair dealing in their land transactions with the Maoris, but the case against them collapsed utterly, and Judge Richmond’s report said: "The complainants failed to establish either their particular complaint or any other ground for impeaching the good faith of the transaction.” SALE OF TOWN LOTS. The idea of carrying the railway through the district had developed in 1873, and Mr. F. Hicks cut up a hundred acres into town lots, which were offered for sale by public auction on July Bth. Commenting on Mr. Hicks’ enterprise, which launched the embryo city, a newspaper published at that time said: “A Mr. Francis Hicks, it appears, having presented the Minister of Public Works with a section of land on the Karamu Plain for a railway station, has decided to lay off one hundred acres in the neighbourhood of the gift for a township, to be called Hastings. Our Icontemporary is under the impression that it is not improbable the proposed new township will eventually become the capital of the province. Will somebody be good enough to lay off into another township a few waste acres in order that we may have one more future rival of Napier? The next day the same publication reported the progress of thc sale as follows:—• ‘‘The township of Hastings was disposed of by public auction on Tuesday (July Sth) by Mr. Lyndon, when 144 sections, comprising narly 35 acres, were sold at prices which spoke well for the quality of the land and the situation of the embryo city. The average price per acre was about £56, and the total sum realised over £l9OO. The sale was not concluded by nightfall, and was postponed until the .following day, when it was resumed at 2 p-m.” It is not improbable that Lyndon road was named after the auction who conducted the historic sale. HICKS’ TITLE CHALLENGED. It would seem that Mr. Hicks’ title to the land was also challenged, because, on the same date, the paper in question says: “It will be seen that Karaitiana Tukonioana, for himself and other grantees, disputes Mr. Hicks’ title to the block of land that gentleman has laid off for the township of Hastings, and which he is now offering for sale. We refrain from making any comments; all we can say is that if Mr. Hicks’ title is not good, by reason of the grantees who sold the land having complained of the legality of their own actions,, before the Native Lands Alienation Commission, then there is not a title to a property in the province without a flaw. It may be taken as a curious circumstance that Karaitiana did not take the same course with Mr. Hicks when that gentleman bought the land as he does now to intending purchasers of the block from Mr. Hicks.” This challenge, however, seems to have been the dying kick of certain Native chieftains, who were jealous of the increasing value of the lands they had sold, due to European cultivation and the influx of population, for nothing more seems to have been heard of it, except that a Native chieftain (Karaitiana) contemplated laying out a rival township at Pakowhai, a proposal which never reached a practical stage, probably owing to the fact that it was too near Taradale, at that time a vigorous stripling community' that had ambitions of its own.

THE FIRST HOTEL. Later a local newspaper draws attentipn to the proposal to build the Railway .(now the Grand') Hotel in the following terms:— Tenders are called by Mr. Sutton for the erection of a hotel at Hastings. If all the purchasers of sections 111 the new township are equally disposed to turn their newlyacquired property to account there can be no doubt that eventually a city of the plain will arise that will have some pretensions to being considered the capital of the province.” It will thus be seen that even then a vision of Hastings’ future importance existed. The proposed new hotel later came under the public notice in the following paragraph:— “We have been shown the plans of the Hastings hotel (Railway Hotel, now The Grand), to be erected at the new township on the Karamu Plains. The building, which contains 22 rooms, has been tastefully designed bv Mr. T. R. Cooper, architect, Napier, and the contract for 'the erection of the building has been taken by Mr. John Orr, of Meeanee, and will be proceeded with immediately on the arrival of the timber, which is expected on the ground in about a fortnight. Mr. Goodwin, so long and favourably known as the properitor of the Tavistock Hotel, Waipukurau, is to be the landlord.” The present carnival time is then the jubilee of Hastings’ birth, and there is no longer any doubt that she is well on her triumphant way to becoming the mefropohs of the province and the Queen City of the great Heretaunga Plains.; » & &