Napier - History

A first attempt to settle Hawkes Bay was made in 1839 when Barney Rhodes established a trading station on the north side of what was then known as Scinde Island. But the buildings were quickly burned down by dissidents who resented his presence. Eight years later in 1847 Alexander Alexander was more successful with his outpost and this success encouraged permanent settlers who began arriving in 1850. The first sale of town sections was made in 1855 but it was never intended that Napier should be anything other than a small village to service a few wharves over in the Inner Harbour. Napier was named after Sir Charles Napier, the hero of the battle of Meeanee in the Indian province of Scinde.

Things changed dramatically in 1931 however. At 10:46am on February the 3rd a 7.9 magnitude earthquake flattened Napier, quickly followed by devastating fires starting from gas jets in chemist shops. With the water mains ruined there was little people could do except watch as the central city burned, creating a pall of smoke visible for many miles.

After the rebuilding was finished the Napier Council started planning Napier's expansion. Before 1931 the western and southern boundaries had been limited by swamp and lagoon. The earthquake lifted some 7,000 acres of lagoon area by up to 2.5 meters and improved a further 2,700 acres suffering from bad drainage.

Much of the land raised was owned by the Napier Harbour Board which co-operated with the Napier Council over the laying out of streets and parks of their suddenly valuable ex-swamp land.

During the war years Napier sent men, food, and seed to help the war effort. Sections of parks and reserves were used for increased production as requested by the Government. Although a blackout was put in place, people were far from enthusiastic about it and the war diaries of German raider sitting off the coast watching, note that the whole Marine Parade was lit and people could be seen dancing. Westshore became part of Napier city in April 1942.