Historic Hawke’s Bay: Diversions prove no match for Tūtaekurī River

Napier Boys’ High School surrounded by flood waters in July 1927. Credit: Collection of Hawke's Bay Museums Trust, Ruawharo Tā-ū-rangi, 4775 b

If you stood on the area of what is now Napier’s Marine Parade in the later part of the 19th century, chances are you would get a strong, odorous smell.

When the wind was coming from the direction of the Whare-o-Maraenui swamp – containing most of Napier’s sewage disposal – this was especially true.

This was not ideal for an aspiring tourist town promoting the health qualities of a relaxing seaside walk taking in the fresh, sea air.

A solution to this problem was found in 1886 when the Tūtaekurī River was proposed to be dammed and diverted from an area southwest of Meeanee called Beatson’s ‒ a fellmongery.

The Tūtaekurī’s new path would go into the south side of the Whare-o-Maraenui swamp (instead of directly into the Ahuriri inner harbour lagoon), skirting Wellesley Rd, with the objective to carry the sewage in the swamp out to sea, and in times of flood, silt deposits would go into the swamp, assisting with its reclamation, and prevent the inner harbour from silting up.

And of course, the smell would disappear – and “convert what threatened to become a fever-breeding swamp into a flowing river of sweet water”.

The cost of the project, completed in 1891, was shared with the Napier Borough Council and the Napier Harbour Board, with the Hawke’s Bay Herald reporting the cost blowout for the project was “like most engineering estimates when water has to be dealt with this proved fallacious”.

The diversion was apparently successful until the flood in 1897 caused the Tutaekuri to abandon this course and once again flow direct to the Ahuriri lagoon.

A system using ejector pumps was developed in 1908 to push the sewage, which was concentrated at the eastern part of the Inner Harbour into the outgoing tide.

Another diversion of the Tūtaekurī took place in 1921, when a cut was made past the Meeanee township to take the river in a straight line, before travelling along a path alongside George’s Drive, and then into the Ahuriri lagoon.

A cut was made in 1922 to divert the Tūtaekurī away from what was then Scinde Island (Mataruahou) and into the Ahuriri lagoon, further south.

Napier Boys’ High School – which used to be on Scinde Island, had shifted to its present location in Chambers St when the plan to divert the Tūtaekurī to a route that would travel directly behind the school, before turning into George’s Drive.

This naturally worried Napier Boys’ High School, and they were concerned about inadequate protection from the Tūtaekurī and raised their concerns with the Napier Harbour Board to keep “the course of the Tūtaekurī as clean and straight as possible”.

Unfortunately, their worst fears were realised on Saturday, July 2, 1927, when at 5.30pm, the stopbank behind them gave way, and within almost an hour the grounds were three feet (.9m) under water.

The 60 boarders, of which one was Hugh Baird, went from their ground-floor dormitories to the first floor when water invaded the building.

Hugh tells the story that headmaster W A Armour, on the afternoon of July 3 took him first in the rowing boat to a mound and told him to stand in that spot and yell out if the water started to move out higher up his body.

Standing up to his knees in water, he watched Mr Armour rowing the other boys in groups away to higher ground, with him occasionally yelling out to Hugh “Is the water getting higher?” Hugh took the photo shown of Napier Boys’ High School underwater and as a newspaper report stated, “The great brick buildings stood out as an island.”

Understandably, the Board of Governors of Napier Boys’ High School did not want a repeat of the flood, and asked engineer C D Kennedy to report protection measures, and to inform the Education Department of the school’s plight.

The Napier Harbour Board informed the board in 1928 that protective works done at Awatoto should protect the school – which they appeared to have done, with no major flooding occurring before the Tūtaekurī would once again be diverted.

The diversion of the Tūtaekurī to a mouth at Waitangi had been talked about for more than 60 years, until finally in 1936 this occurred, with a new course formed at Powdrell’s bend (near Powdrell Rd).

It wouldn’t however, be the last of disastrous floods, and only two years later, the Tūtaekurī in flood during April 1938, nearly wrecked the new road bridge at Waitangi.

Michael Fowler mfhistory@gmail.com is a Hawke’s Bay historian.