Newspaper Article 1958 – Hastings – A City That Grew From a Swamp

This month Hastings holds its city celebrations, highlighted by its annual Blossom Festival.  In this article NELL HARTLEY recalls the history of this city we know as the “fruit bowl of New Zealand.”

HASTINGS –
with its freezing works and fruit industry is …
A CITY THAT GREW FROM A SWAMP

The tall raupo bushes swayed wildly, lashed by the storm.  From deep in the swamp the pukeko’s cry rose above the slate grey scene.  To the east the river ran yellow, broke its banks and swept across to the foothills…

So chants the old-timer in his tale of early Hastings. The great flood of 1867 changed the course of the Ngaruro [Ngaruroro] River and drained a swamp, and from its greasy bottom arose a town called today, in Hawke’s Bay, the “city on the plains.”

But in the beginning Nature’s capricious act was like a mark against the tiny settlement which took years to live it down.

The dismal lagoons and the cries of wild fowl might have been mist across men’s spirits but for the feeling of promise given by a handful of rich men who paid in gold sovereigns at Hicks Store.  They were a syndicate of seven dubbed the “twelve apostles,” who, headed by Thomas Tanner, had purchased the Heretaunga Block (which included Hastings) from the Hawke’s Bay Maoris, and now were busily involved in land deals.

The poor man watched with vicarious interest as the “twelve apostles” tried to double their fortunes.  For it was a lifeless land market.  There were many inducements to buy, and the most famous came from Thomas Tanner.  He offered to accept payment for land in labour – an acre of land for every three acres ploughed.  But there were few acceptances.

Sold To Railway

HOWEVER a man who did buy land this way was Mr. Francis Hick [Hicks], who promptly offered a section to the Government as a railway station and subdivided the balance as business sites.   The sites would have been white elephants without the promise of the railway line cutting through the township, bringing commerce.  Until Mr Hicks’ astute move it was taken for granted that a line would be surveyed through the thriving settlement of Havelock North, two miles away.

In gratitude it was suggested that the new settlement be named “Hicksville,” but the fashion of calling new places after Englishmen famous in India’s history prevailed.  The town was called Hastings, after Warren Hastings, Governor of Bengal.

Hastings made a false spurt of progress with the influx into Hawke’s Bay of Cornishmen (about 1000 with wives and children) from immigrant ships berthed at Napier. These men were employed on the railway and increased the tiny populations of both Hastings and Napier.

The Hastings story is not an epic tale, although in its modern era it suffered in body and spirit by a devastating earthquake which robbed it of population and briefly put the clock back.

Hastings took the routine path of destiny to become a city, but it can claim several distinctions.  These are a few:

When Hastings became a borough in 1886 it was the largest borough in the world, consisting of 5740 acres which was reduced as the years passed.

In early days Hastings was known as the “town of blazes” because of regular fires in the business area. Until 1893 its main fire-fighting equipment was an inadequate manual engine.  A costly main street fire clinched matters.  While the brigade vainly fought the blaze the Mayor called a meeting of councillors and townsfolk on the spot.  The outcome?  A new steam engine costing the fabulous sum of £1100.

The machine’s arrival was cause for a picnic.  Citizens attended a demonstration at the racecourse and would not go home until the lake was pumped almost dry.

Everyone was “agin” the Railway Department following its action during a raging fire in Heretaunga Street in 1907. The hose had to be stretched across the railway line at a time when the train was due, but the station master threatened that if the hose was not removed the train would run over it.  The brigade had no option but to disconnect the hose.  By the time the train passed out of the station – a good 15 minutes later – the fire was out of control.

Early Fire Brigade

EXPLOITS of the fire brigade, opening of the railway, and running of the first Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase;  these events are vignettes of early Hastings and have their place alongside its larger heirlooms – the founding of fruit and freezing industries.

Pioneers were practical and hardworking because necessity prescribed that they should be.  While Hastings was young and elemental, residents’ eagerness was tempered with caution.  Only on rare occasions was the damper of work lifted and men’s spirit left unguarded.

Such an occasion was the opening of the Napier-Hastings section of the Hawke’s Bay railway line.  When the coffee-pot engine pulling two carriages, two trucks and a brake van steamed into Hastings the wife of the founder, Mrs Thomas Tanner, broke a bottle of champagne over its wheels.

Another fillip was the running of the Hawke’s Bay Grand National Steeplechase, a classic event on the Hawke’s Bay racing list as early as 1879.  The steeplechase was over three miles and the smooth surface of the race track was soon left behind as horses jumped the boundary fence and thundered across heavy land (which had just grown potatoes) and out into open country.  Obstacles included ditches, hedges, cattle and potato pits.

Hastings’ real growth dates from the establishment of the freezing works and the fruit industry.  Without them Hastings would never have reached city figures in 70 years.

Founded by the late William Nelson, the Tomoana freezing works was built during a depression which makes that of the thirties look like a picnic.  Wool was about the only exportable part of the sheep, and it was bringing next to nothing to the grower.  Legs of mutton were being hawked in Hastings for 6d each.  In some districts, where flocks had outgrown pastures, sheep were being driven over cliffs into the sea.

Industry Founded

THE new works helped to relieve distress, and foundations were laid for a great industry.

Mr J.N. Williams, who began the fruit industry and built a canning factory, had vision too.  In fact the two men were associated in many ventures that were to benefit Hastings in later years.

Mr Williams, second son of the first Bishop Williams, planted Frimley Orchard with 60 miles of peach trees – the longest groves in the world, it was claimed.  So that there would be no glut of fruit he went to California to study fruit-canning, returning home to set up a factory in his woolshed.

And although the venture was before its time it served its purpose.  It proved that the Heretaunga Plains were ideal for fruit growing; in later years the industry prospered, earning Hastings the title of “fruit bowl of New Zealand”.

Photo captions –

Heretaunga Street as it appears today – the bustling main thoroughfare of a thriving and prosperous centre.

Turning time back over half a century, this photograph shows Heretaunga Street, Hastings, in the year 1900.