Thirty years before this flood, in 1867, settlers tried to discuss a solution to flood prevention.
One suggestion was to cut a straight channel for the Tutaekuri from Redclyffe to the Ahuriri inner harbour.
Bends in rivers were places where they were vulnerable to breaching their banks and could overflow.
Another idea was to let the Tutaekuri take a fresh channel out to sea at Waitangi. No agreement would be made, and this followed a general pattern in the decades to follow – much discussion and many meetings, but no agreement.
In 1867 the Ngaruroro diverted itself in flood and by 1872 it had fully deserted its old path. Before the new channel. it would breach its banks when it swept around the south of Heretaunga (Hastings) and flood the plains.
Settlers began to construct their own stop banks when they developed their properties.
The first public stop bank created by a public subscription was in 1870 at Papakura, Meeanee. It passed its first test during a flood in 1871.
In 1874 a private stop bank on McHardy's property on the opposite side of the river to Taradale did cause some concern for the settlers in Taradale as it would push water from an in-flood Tutaekuri in their direction.
An attempt was made to finance a rival stop bank on the Taradale side of the river, but settlers downstream were not keen as it would push the water out towards them at Waitangi, near Clive.
The stop bank was completed in 1877 and went from Otatara to about 1.5km downstream. This was eventually extended to the Meeanee Bridge.
This piecemeal approach to building stop banks, as predicted, led to flooding downstream as the water would then breach its banks at unprotected areas.
By 1924 there was still no agreement as to a comprehensive scheme of flood control amongst the local authorities, and Moteo and Puketapu suffered after another disastrous flood.
The floods were bringing into question all of the reclamation work going on in Napier. "What was the use of reclamation work until the question of river control was settled," asked a farmer.
Finally, in 1934 after nearly 70 years of disagreement about a scheme and who would pay for it, a river control plan was submitted to ratepayers and accepted.
The Tutaekuri would be diverted to Waitangi, with a stop bank at Moteo to stop an overflow.
The Ngaruroro would have a new channel from Fernhill to Pakowhai with an overflow channel direct to the sea at Pakowhai. It was thought that the 1931 earthquake had changed many hardened attitudes towards flood control by creating some perspective, and the amount of money involved.
The work began in 1934 on the Tutaekuri and in 1935 on the Ngaruroro at a cost of $43 million in today's terms. The Tukituki River needed protection around that time at a cost of $20.5m today.
The Hawke's Bay Regional Council now manages 155km of stop banks and deflection banks in addition to 577km of drainage channels and 287km of willow, poplar and native trees on river banks to slow flood waters, in addition to 196 flood control structures, five detention dams and 18 pump stations, seven mobile pumps and two emergency generators.
• Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a chartered accountant, freelance writer, contract researcher and speaker of Hawke's Bay's history.
