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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]
Towns and Industries
Towns and Industries.
Though a great part of Hawke's Bay is still, comparatively speaking, unopened, settlement is progressing rapidly, and there are already a number of towns able to take a high place among the most important centres of population in the colony.
Napier is pleasantly situated on the peninsula known as Scinde Island, which is joined to the mainland by a narrow single bank several miles in length. It is a busy town with a population of about 9,500. The business part is on the flat land at the loot of the group of hills that take up the greater part of the peninsula. These hills, formerly barren and waste, are now occupied by numerous private residences, and the very general tree-planting has given the upper town a distinctive and pleaing aspect. There is a good water supply, derived wholly from artesian wells of large size, and pumped by machinery to reservoirs on the tops of the hills. The shipping trade, as the large exports show, is especially active during the wool and frozen meat season. It is still carried on at Port Ahuriri, about a mile from the town; but has recently, in a large measure, been transferred to the fine breakwater which is now partially completed.
The local affairs are economically managed, and the rates amount to only about 2s in the pound. The town is built chiefly of wood, and though it possesses a high pressure water supply and an efficient fire brigade, the insurance rates are very high. Education in the town is provided for by the ordinary primary schools, and by two efficient and successful high schools for boys and girls—both boarding schools. At Hastings also there are two high schools, one for boys and one for girls; while Gisborne and Dannevirke have their respective high schools. The Napier Technical School has already done much good work for the town and district. While referring to educational matters, it should be noted that special exertions have been made in the Hawke's Bay district for the instruction and culture of the natives. The Te Aute College for Maori boys, and the Hikurere School for girls, are well appointed, admirably conducted, and highly successful institutions. The school of St. Joseph at Napier for halfcastes and natives, and the Meanee Mission School, are both carried on by the self-sacrificing exertions of the Roman Catholic section of the community. The work done at Te Aute in particular has been of inestimable value to the district and the colony, not only by familiarising the better class of natives with European literature, and at least the rudiments of culture, but by enlisting their services in the cause of civilisation on behalf of their less enlightened brethren. The splendid work done by the young Maori Party in uplifting the Maori race, is directly due to the influence exercised over the leaders of the movement by the training they received at Te Aute.
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Protected. N.Z. Gov. Tourist Dept. photo.
Aniwaniwa Falls, Lake Waikare-Moana.
Gisborne, the trade-centre and port of what is known as the Poverty Bay district, is a prosperous town of nearly 6000 inhabitants, exclusive of Maoris, and rapidly increasing in size and importance, as the large quantity of unimproved land in the Cook county is fast becoming settled and made productive. There are 1,281,414 sheep in Cook and Waiapu counties.
Clyde, the county town and port of the county of Wairoa, is picturesquely situated on the Wairoa river, about three miles from the mouth. The river is navigable for small craft as far as the village of Frasertown, twelve miles further up.
With a few exceptions the towns and villages to the south of Napier are all situated on the line of railway running from Napier to Wellington. The principal are: Hastings, a rising town of 4,600 inhabitants, Waipawa, Waipukurau, Dannevirke, and finally Woodville, about three miles from the Manawatu Gorge, and distant ninety-five miles from Napier. It is at this end of the district that the Crown has, in the last few years, successfully planted settlement; and, in place of the continuous forest, known as the Seventy-Mile Bush of earlier days, there are now prosperous townships, with thriving industries.
page 296Fellmongeries, soapworks, boot, coach, sash and door, and rope and twine factories are established in the principal towns. During the year 1901 the Hawke's Bay Woollen Manufacturing Company commenced operations in their factory at Napier, and though the company subsequently suspended work on account of financial difficulties the industry is now (1906) about to be revived. The coastal waters teem with fish, and the trawling industry is in a flourishing condition.