Hawke’s Bay
Te Matau-a-Māui
Pastoral country whose wealth was built on wool and the big sheep stations, and the site of the 1931 earthquake that levelled Napier and rebuilt it in Art Deco.
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5 events in Hawke’s Bay between 1864 and 1988
Pai Mārire spreads
Te Ua Haumēne’s faith, blending Christian and Māori belief, spread from Taranaki across the North Island and was met with force by the Crown.
TaranakiTe Kooti escapes from Rēkohu
Deported without trial, Te Kooti seized a schooner, sailed 300 prisoners home, and led a four-year pursuit through the Urewera that never caught him.
Gisborne and Te UreweraTe Kotahitanga — the Māori Parliament
Te Kotahitanga o Te Tiriti o Waitangi
A Māori parliament met annually for a decade, seeking the self-government promised by Te Tiriti and passing its own legislation.
Waipatu, Hawke’s BayThe Hawke’s Bay earthquake
A magnitude 7.8 quake levelled Napier and Hastings and killed 256 people — still New Zealand’s deadliest natural disaster.
NapierCyclone Bola
Over 900 millimetres of rain fell on the East Coast in three days, stripping hillsides and cutting the region off. Three people died.
GisborneMeanwhile, nationally
10 events that reached Hawke’s Bay along with most of the country. They still shade the map and sit on the timeline above, but they are not Hawke’s Bay’s own history.
New Zealand Settlements Act — raupatu
Te raupatu whenua
The Crown took roughly 1.2 million hectares from iwi deemed to be in rebellion — including from communities that had never fought.
The Native Land Court is established
The court converted customary communal title into individual freehold — the mechanism by which most remaining Māori land was lost, without a shot fired.
Vogel’s public works and immigration scheme
Julius Vogel borrowed £10 million in London to build railways, roads and telegraph lines, and to bring 100,000 assisted migrants.
The provinces are abolished
Nine provincial governments were swept away and replaced by central government plus counties and boroughs — the shape of local government for the next century.
First refrigerated cargo sails for London
The Dunedin left Port Chalmers with 4,900 frozen carcasses and arrived in London 98 days later with the cargo sound. It changed the country’s economy permanently.
Port ChalmersNew Zealand enters the First World War
About 100,000 served overseas from a population of just over a million. Around 18,000 died and 41,000 were wounded — proportionally among the heaviest losses of any country.
New Zealand declares war on Germany
‘Where she goes, we go’ — 140,000 served overseas and nearly 12,000 died, from a population of 1.6 million.
The 28th (Māori) Battalion
Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū
A volunteer battalion organised by tribal area fought through Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy, and took proportionally the heaviest casualties of any New Zealand unit.
Britain joins the EEC
New Zealand’s guaranteed British market for lamb, butter and cheese began closing after ninety years. The economy has never worked the same way since.
The Springbok tour
Fifty-six days that split the country. Protesters occupied the pitch at Hamilton and stopped the game; by the final test, police in riot gear fought crowds outside Eden Park.
Rugby Park, Hamilton