Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst with direct descendants of Francis Hicks, one of the town’s founders, celebrating Hastings’ 150th birthday. Photo / Ian Cooper
Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst with direct descendants of Francis Hicks, one of the town’s founders, celebrating Hastings’ 150th birthday. Photo / Ian Cooper
Opinion column by Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst
Last weekend we commemorated and celebrated the 150 years that have passed since Hastings became a town; acknowledging the heritage of our beautiful home Heretaunga Hastings.
Since its beginning, Hastings has grown, progressed and advanced as a community, culturally and as an economic powerhouse.
Our Hastings story is one of a self-made town, proudly built by families who invested their time, energy, and wealth into creating the place we know and love today.
Many of our roads, parks, reserves, churches, and flood protection, were gifted by the founders – both Māori and European.
The development of Hastings went hand-in-hand with the establishment of our major industries - meat processing at Tōmoana and Whakatū, fruit processing at Frimley, followed by food processing at Wattie’s, along with agricultural and pastoral farming across the fertile Heretaunga plains and surrounding foothills.
The civic service held to celebrate the founding of Hastings 150 years ago also drew on historical and cultural elements of Heretaunga’s rich history. Photo / Ian Cooper
Our town’s founders always knew Hastings would be the service centre for the wider district and region – they knew a successful Hastings future would rely on a town and country interwoven in partnership. The railway was the key to Hastings’ rapid establishment, made possible by the railway reserve land Francis Hicks set aside in 1873.
It was wonderful to have the family members of Hicks, one of our town’s founders, join us for the commemorations.
The devastating 1931 earthquake rocked the region, but many wooden and concrete buildings remained standing.
Our Spanish Mission, Stripped Classical, and Art Deco buildings rose out of the rubble and today are the gems in our crown. The descendants of the Hastings founders re-built Hastings with the six CBD blocks separated by the main trunk railway line.
Trains were expected to promenade slowly through the CBD toward the station while passengers admired the highly decorated street façades. Russell St was at the time considered a beautifully arranged, intelligently designed, high-class retail strip. We are proud that today some of our original retail businesses are still trading in our city.
Harper Hicks, 8, a great-great-granddaughter of Francis Hicks, helped plant a native tree at Cornwall Park to commemorate the town her ancestors helped found. Photo / Ian Cooper
By the 1950s Hastings had recovered from World War II; production and export of meat and wool were rapidly increasing, but the CBD was considered to be in the doldrums. Hastings retailer HB Poppelwell felt it needed uplifting, so Greater Hastings Inc was established – an early form of the Hastings Business Association.
The inaugural blossom festival of 1950 was their first event. The parade became a spectacle attended by 40,000 to 50,000 people each year. Parade visitors travelled by special trains from Palmerston North and Wellington.
In the 1950s and 1960s Hastings produced 30 per cent of New Zealand’s apples and the Freezing Works was our largest employer. In 1964 Hastings’ Public Relations Office called the Hastings district the “Fruit Bowl of New Zealand” and it stuck.
With the growth in our primary industries and a shortage of labour, we welcomed new citizens from across the world. Today, we proudly celebrate our diverse, multi-cultural community who bring to Hastings their skills and their wonderful individual cultures and cuisine.
The late 1970s were more challenging times with an economic recession that dragged on into the 1980s. Tōmoana and Whakatū Freezing Works closed; the loss of jobs impacted heavily our people and these were some of Hastings’ darkest years.
The rain and wind didn’t keep everyone away, there was a large turnout of young and old wanting to take part in the historical moment of celebrating 150 years of Hastings. Photo / Ian Cooper
The reorganisation of Local Government in the late 1980s amalgamated the Havelock North Borough, the Hawke’s Bay County and Hastings City Council into the Hastings District Council. The Hastings district boundaries expanded from the mountains to the sea.
Now that we are 150 years old, we ask ‘Where to from here’?
Together we have recently faced a world global pandemic, our community has been devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle, and housing, health, education and jobs for our people are issues still to be resolved.
We have great people and our community is strong. We will overcome our challenges.
We are grateful to our business community who continue to invest in our people and our place.
We treasure our strong partnership with mana whenua. Together with our iwi Māori partners, we will grow a community where everyone thrives and benefits.
We are grateful and indebted to our founders and what they did for Hastings 150 years ago - their legacy is what we see and are proud of today. We have been, we are, and we will be stronger together.
