page_title: Napier, New Zealand
section_title: European settlers' history
hierarchical_section_title: Napier, New Zealand / History / European settlers' history
caption_attribution_description: English: A typical view of The T &amp; G Dome in Napier, New Zealand, at night. New Zealand Historic Places Trust Register number: 183.
context_page_description: Napier is a New Zealand city with a seaport, located in Hawke's Bay on the eastern coast of the North Island. The population of Napier is about 62,800 as of June 2019. About 18 kilometres south of Napier is the inland city of Hastings. These two neighbouring cities are often called "The Bay Cities" or "The Twin Cities" of New Zealand. The total population of the Napier-Hastings Urban Area is 123,960 people, which makes it the sixth-largest urban area in New Zealand, closely followed by Dunedin, and trailing Tauranga.
  Napier is about 320 kilometres northeast of the capital city of Wellington. Napier has a slightly larger population than its neighbouring city of Hastings and is seen as the main centre due to it being closer in distance to both the seaport and the main airport that service Hawke's Bay, and Hastings' population figure includes 13,950 people living in Havelock North, which is often considered a town in its own right. The City of Napier has a land area of 106 square kilometres and a population density of 540.0 per square kilometre.
context_section_description: Captain James Cook was one of the first Europeans to see the future site of Napier when he sailed down the east coast in October 1769. He commented: "On each side of this bluff head is a low, narrow sand or stone beach, between these beaches and the mainland is a pretty large lake of salt water I suppose." He said the harbour entrance was at the Westshore end of the shingle beach.  The site was subsequently visited and later settled by European traders, whalers and missionaries. By the 1850s, farmers and hotel-keepers arrived.
  The Crown purchased the Ahuriri block (including the site of Napier) in 1851. In 1854 Alfred Domett, a future Prime Minister of New Zealand, was appointed as the Commissioner of Crown Lands and the resident magistrate at the village of Ahuriri. It was decided to place a planned town here, its streets and avenues were laid out, and the new town named for Sir Charles Napier, a military leader during the "Battle of Meeanee" fought in the province of Sindh, India. Domett named many streets in Napier to commemorate the colonial era of the British Indian Empire.
  Napier was designated as a borough in 1874, but the development of the surrounding marshlands and reclamation proceeded slowly. Between 1858 and 1876 Napier was the administrative centre for the Hawke's Bay Province, but in 1876 the "Abolition of Provinces Act", an act of the New Zealand Parliament, dissolved all provincial governments in New Zealand.
  Development was generally confined to the hill and to the port area of Ahuriri. In the early years, Napier covered almost exclusively an oblong group of hills (the Scinde Island) which was nearly entirely surrounded by the ocean, but from which ran out two single spits, one to the north and one to the south. There was a swamp between the now Hastings Street and Wellesley Road and the sea extended to "Clive Square".
caption: T & G Dome at dusk
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