Napier (Ahuriri in Māori) is a port city in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. It has
a population of 58,100 as of the June 2009 estimate. Less than twenty
kilometres separate the centres of Hastings City and Napier, and as such the
two are often called "The Twin Cities" or "The Bay Cities". The population
of the urban area of Napier-Hastings is 122,600 which make Napier-Hastings
the fifth largest urban area in the country, closely followed by Tauranga
(116,000), and Dunedin (114,900).
The city is 320 kilometres (by road) north-east of the capital, Wellington.
It has a population slightly smaller than the Hastings District, but as
Hastings is administered as a district, Napier is the only official city in
the Hawke's Bay region. Napier is the largest cross-bred wool centre in the
Southern Hemisphere and is the export servicing area for Hastings District
which is one of the largest apple, pear and stone fruit producing areas in
New Zealand. It has also become an important grape growing and wine
production area with the fruit passing from the growers around Metropolitan
Hastings and then to Napier for exporting. There are large frozen meat, wool
pulp and timber tonnages passing through Napier's port.
Napier is a popular tourist city, and has one of the most photographed
tourist attractions in the country, a statue on Marine Parade called Pania
of the Reef. Her statue is regarded in Napier in much the same way that the
Little Mermaid statue is regarded in Copenhagen. In October 2005 the statue
was stolen, but it was recovered a week later, largely unharmed. Thousands
of people flock to Napier every February for the Art Deco Weekend event - a
celebration of Napier's Art Deco heritage and history. Other notable tourist
events attracting many outsider's include the region's annual Wine & Food
Festival (named Harvest Hawke's Bay), and Mission Concert at the Mission
Estate Winery in the near by town of Taradale. Past artists have included
Chris De Berg, Olivia Newton-John, Eric Clapton, Kenny Rogers, Ray Charles,
and Rod Stewart.
History
Māori history
Napier has well-documented Māori history. When the Ngāti Kahungunu party of
Taraia reached the district many centuries ago, the Whatumamoa, Rangitane
and the Ngāti Awa and elements of the Ngāti Tara iwi existed in the nearby
areas of Petane, Te Whanganui-a-Orotu and Waiohiki. Later, the Ngāti
Kahungunu became the dominant force from Poverty Bay to Wellington. They
were one of the first Māori tribes to come in contact with European settlers
Chief Te Ahuriri cut a channel into the lagoon space at Ahuriri because the
Westshore entrance had become blocked, threatening cultivations surrounding
the lagoon and the fishing villages on the islands in the lagoon. The rivers
were continually feeding freshwater into the area.
European history
The first European to see the future site of Napier was Captain James Cook,
who sailed down the east coast in October 1769. He commented: "On each side
of this bluff head is a low, narrow sand or stone beach, between these
beaches and the mainland is a pretty large lake of salt water I suppose."
He said the harbour entrance was at the Westshore end of the shingle beach.
The site was subsequently visited and later settled by European traders,
whalers and missionaries. By the 1850s, farmers and hotel-keepers arrived.
The Crown purchased the Ahuriri block (including the site of Napier) in 1851
In 1854 Alfred Domett, a future Premier, was appointed Commissioner of
Crown Lands and resident magistrate at Ahuriri. A plan was prepared and the
town named after Sir Charles Napier, hero of the Battle of Meeanee in the
Indian province of Sindh. Domett named many streets in the settlement to
commemorate the great colonial era of the British Indian Empire.
The town was constituted a borough in 1874 and development of the
surrounding marsh lands and reclamation proceeded slowly. Between 1852 and
1876 Napier was the administrative centre for the Hawke's Bay Province, but
in 1876 the Abolition of Provinces Act dissolved provincial government.
Development was generally confined to the hill and to the port area of
Ahuriri. In the early days Napier consisted of an oblong mass of hills
(Scinde Island) almost entirely surrounded by water, from which ran out two
single spits, one to the north and one to the south. There was a swamp
between the now Hastings Street and Wellesley Road and the water extended to
Clive Square.
1931 earthquake
On 3 February 1931, Napier was levelled by an earthquake. The collapses and
ensuing fires killed 256 people. The figure would later rise to 258 as two
people were missing, presumed dead following the quake. The town centre was
destroyed and rebuilt in the popular Art Deco style of the time. Some 40 km²
of today's Napier was undersea before the earthquake raised it.
Although a few Art Deco buildings were replaced with contemporary structures
during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, most of the centre remained intact for
long enough to become recognized as architecturally unique, and from the
1990s onwards had been protected and restored. Napier and South Beach in the
US city Miami are considered the two best preserved Art Deco towns, Miami
Beach being mainly in the later Streamline Moderne Art Deco style. As of
2007, Napier has been nominated for UNESCO World Heritage Site status, the
first cultural site in New Zealand to be nominated.
Modern history
In January 1945, the German submarine U-862 entered the Port of Napier
undetected. That event later became the basis of a widely circulated
post-war myth that Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Timm took his crew ashore near
Napier to milk cows to supplement their rations.
Napier Hill was the scene of a police siege of an armed offender in May 2009
with one police officer and the gunman killed, and two police officers and
a member of the public wounded.
Geography and climate
The town is on the Bluff Hill headland and the surrounding plain at the
southeastern edge of Hawke Bay, a large semi-circular bay that dominates the
east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The coastline of the town was
substantially altered by a large earthquake in 1931. The topography
unfortunately puts Napier in danger from a tsunami, as the centre of the
commercial city is near sea level, should the sea ever crest the marine
parade the sea would run through to Ahuriri. Napier also lacks any (natural)
sandy beaches (sand is imported to maintain a small ~50m beach near the
port). Luckily for Napier residents, nearby Hastings District features some
of the premiere beaches in New Zealand.
Several smaller towns lie close to the city, the closest is Taradale the
location of some of the region's oldest established wineries. Other
surrounding towns include Bay View, to the north, Clive, to the south,
Flaxmere, west of Hastings, and Havelock North. As a territorial authority,
Napier City is surrounded by the much larger Hastings District.
The town enjoys some of the highest sunshine hours in New Zealand (second to
Nelson), the warm, relatively dry climate the result of its location on the
east coast, a Mediterranean climate delivered from the waters to the north,
and its strategic position in Hawke's Bay. Most of New Zealand's weather
patterns cross the country from the west, and the town lies in the rain
shadow of the North Island Volcanic Plateau and surrounding ranges such as
the Kaweka Range. However, the town is prone to the remnants of tropical
cyclones from the central Pacific Ocean, which occasionally are still at
storm strength by the time that they have reached Hawke's Bay. Thunderstorms
are not very common in Hawke's Bay with less than 10 thunderstorms a year.
They are most common in the summer caused by the sometimes extreme surface
heating. Hail from thunderstorms can damage vineyards and orchards. The
hailstorm of 2 March 1994 created hailstones up to 3 cm in size and caused
around NZ$10.8M worth of damage to orchards and vineyards. It remains New
Zealand's most costly hailstorm.
Tourism
Napier's major tourist attraction is the town itself, which draws Art Deco
and architecture enthusiasts from around the world. The rebuilding period
after the 1931 earthquake coincided with the shortlived and rapidly changing
Art Deco era and the Great Depression, when little 'mainstreet' development
was being undertaken elsewhere. As a result Napier's architecture is
strikingly different from any other city; the other notable Art Deco city,
Miami Beach, has Streamline Moderne Art Deco. The whole centre of Napier was
rebuilt simultaneously. In many ways it resembles a film set as it has whole
streets of 'in period' buildings, but it is a real city and the buildings
are original.
Economy
The range of industries in Napier and its environs include the electronics
industry, the surrounding area wool trade, and the manufacture of fertilizer
and wine. Napier was home to one of New Zealand's largest smoking tobacco
plants. On 9 September 2005 British American Tobacco announced it would
close the Rothmans factory, due to diminished demand. Production has moved
to Australia. The art deco-style factory had been producing up to 2.2
billion cigarettes a year for the New Zealand and Pacific Island markets. In
March 1999, 19 people lost their jobs there because "fewer people are
smoking".
Napier suffered a double blow from service amalgamation towards the end of
the century. The local newspaper, the (Napier) Daily Telegraph, was combined
with the (Hastings) Herald-Tribune to form a new regional newspaper Hawke's
Bay Today. The Napier offices were closed down in favour of locating the
offices in Hastings City. The next rationalization saw the closure of the
Napier Hospital, and the services where amalgamated with the Hastings
Hospital creating the Hawke's Bay Regional Hospital located on the
preferable Hastings site.
Local Government reform was mooted in the late 1990's and a referendum was held in 1999 proposing an amalgamation of the Hastings District Council with the Napier City Council. Although supported by approximately two thirds of Hastings voters, Napier voters rejected the proposal by a similar number. The referendum was defeated. The Mayor of Hastings [Lawrence Yule] has announced he will be standing for Mayor again in 2010 on the platform of local authority amalgamation.
No comments:
Post a Comment