MAORIS KNEW PLAINS WERE RICH

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 94, 7 May 1937, Page 31 (Supplement)

MAORIS KNEW PLAINS WERE RICH

JT WAS NATURAL that in the early days of land ; settlement in New Zealand the rich inland plains shonld haye been singled out for earliest settlement as offering greater and quicker returns from cnltivation. It may seem strange, though, that the Ruataniwha Plains were settled upon rather earlier fhan the rieher Heretaunga Plains. This ihay have been beeause^there was a much greater aniount of nativo settlement in and around the Heretaunga Plains, portions of which were eultivated by the natives for the growing of wheat, maize, oats, potatoes, kumeras and melons. This meant that the natives were more loath to part with this land than with some of the land in the interior of the province of which they did not make so much uso for cultivation. This is borne out by the faet that, whereas the undulating land in the interior could sometimes be leased at one shilling an acre a year or les3, the richer plains were leased Et from 2/6 an acre to 5/- an acre. At the latter price some of the hill lands were actually purchased, but it has to be remembered that the purchase

price did not represent the whole of the cost of the land. The cost of having all deeds drawn up in bdth English and Maori and of securing the multitudmous signatutos requirod before a transfer could be madc coraplcte added very much to. the cost of the land, snd 'in many cascs the actual purchase price would be actually treblcd before the land became the property of the purchaser, The Heretaunga Plains, or at*" leasfc that portion .of them upon which the Borough of Hastings now stands, wero first leased to Messra. Thomas Tanner and William Rich by the native owners somewhere about 1864 or 1865. This block comprised that portion of the plains between the Ngaruroro rivcr and what was then known as Waitio creeR, but which afterwards became the ordinary bed of the -Ngaruroro river when the grcat floods of 1867 caused the rivcr to alter its course from onp side of the block' to the other. After the lease had been in existenee for some years the lessees foxmed a syn* dicate of seven members, who became commonly known in Hawke's Bay as

the "Twelve Apostles," and they purchased the freehold from the natives. The purchase price is said to have been thirty shillings an acre, but as has already been pointed out the actual cost would probably not have been less than double that amount. The land comprised in the borough of Hastings does not by a long way em brace all of the land purchased by the syndicate, though much of the land

outside the borough has since been put to such productivo use that it has materially assisted in the development of the town to its present position as vne of the leading boroughs of the Dominion. When the purchase of that pOrtion was made there was no suggestion of a borough- or even of a town being built on it. The plains were rich, arabla land, suitable for fattenlng stock or growing crops, and there their , value ended. •' That this is a fair statement of the case is shown by the faet that about six or seven years later Mr. Thomas Tanner, who owned the portion of the plains on which Hastings has since been built, offered land in Hastings for £3 an nci'e and was accepting payment in labour. This was little, if anything, more than what the land had cost six or seven years earlier, and it is recorded that a large block, eoyering the area along what is now Heretaunga street, from the TJnion Bank corner to the Havelock bridge and on the other side along Karamu road to a point afterwards occupied by IZr. C. A. Fitzroy 's residence, was offered at £4 an acre about this time aud failed fco find a buyer. Theso facts, though, may bo» brought inlo truer perspectivo if wo consider tho circu instances of tho time. The land which forincd the foundation for the borough of Hastings was swainp aud pasture land when it was sold for £3 an acre or less, but it might have been swamp and pasture land still had the pioneers who took it over at that price donc nothing to change it. But they did, because they had invested money and wished to earn some return for it. Bverything that has been dona for tho development of Hastings since

then has been actuated by the sama motive. .Nearly twenty years after the borough was formed (the status of borough was c'onferred in 1886) the annual rateable value of the borough was £54,000, which, based upon a five per cent. valuation of principal value, made the principal value about £1,080,000. As the borough has an area of 5740' acres/ this means less than £200 an' acre, including the valuable township seetions in the centre of the town. Among those .who availed themselves of Mr. Tanner 's offer to acquire land and pay for it im labour tvere Messrs. James Boyle, Francis Hicks, Guy Hamilton and Samuel Lowe. Shortly after Mr. Tanner had made an offer of some of his land at £4 an acre without selling it, the idea of carrying a railway thrpugh tho district was mooted. One idea was to carry it. from Clive to Havelock North and then across to Te Aute, but as this would cut out all the rich flats beyond Wai tangi, ■ including Pakowhai, . the whole of the Heretaunga block and Pakipaki, the Government engineer who wa3 called npon te report,- Mr Car- | ruthers, strongly recommended the present route as being much more likelv £o produce rovcnue at an oarly , datc. ■- Thus, when the route of Ihe railway had been praclically deeided upon, "l involved acquiring land along this route and paved tho way for a new township — Hastings. Tho route of the I railway passed through the land which shortly before had been acquired from 1 Mr. Tanner by Mr. Francis Hicks, and in 1873 Mr. Hicks cut up 100 acres into town lots. That was tho beginning of the devclopmont of Hastings.