In 1899, Councillor Linney of the Hastings Borough Council stated that "council is not justified spending money on ornamentation" in regard to a proposal to plant trees from Queen to St Aubyn St. It did, however, pay for the timber tree guards, while public donations paid for the trees.
When the borough council was slow to beautify Cornwall Park, which was a gift from James Nelson Williams, a group calling itself the Cornwall Park Movement formed in 1905 to put pressure on it.
A tight council vote of five to four on allocating funds to the park was carried, but only after intense debate, during which one dissenting councillor proposed they sell part of the park for housing.
By 1907, it appears Hastings was in a bad way.
A visitor wrote to the Hastings Standard that many seemed to be "going to the hotel", indicating there was nowhere for them to sit in the central business district but the pub.
"Surely the religious people should do something about this and have a few seats put in some convenient place for the visitors to rest their wary limbs on ... Where is your Beautifying Society?"
The editor replied: "It is not the province of the borough council to provide street seats for the weary. Perhaps the council will provide seats for tired travellers in the vicinity of the centre of town.
"Until this is done, weary Maoris and their wahines will continue to squat on shop steps, and the exhausted Pakeha will painfully plod on to the nearest pub."
By 1913 there was further discontent with how Hastings looked, judging by comments received in newspapers: "We have the room, we have the climate, and I may say the talent.
"We certainly have no waterfront (a reference to Napier), but to counter balance this, we have abundant space and room for beautifying" (also a reference to Napier, which was busy reclaiming land)."
The city beautiful movement had begun in New Zealand as early as 1888 in Dunedin, and continues today.
Hastings' was formed in August 1913 and the Hawke's Bay Herald noted, "It is unfortunate that most of the work in beautifying has to be left to private enterprise, but local bodies are frequently hampered by a lack of funds, and money cannot well be spent upon flowers, shrubs and trees when drainage, water, etc, are needed."
While many councillors were sympathetic to giving rates funding to beautification, others detested the idea. One was against trees being planted as unsealed streets, when wet, were harder to dry when trees shaded them: "These people should confine their attention to clearing their own backyards."
Unfortunately, and due to World War I breaking out in 1914, the Hastings Beautification Society lasted less than a year.
The secretary, E J Flewellyn King, gained some notoriety when he arrived at Featherston Military Camp and noticed it was arranged like a model town. He set about beautifying the camp by fundraising and getting donations from nurseries and securing the services of a landscape gardener.
A progress league was formed in 1922 to celebrate Hastings turning 50 in 1923, and came up with a number of interesting slogans to try and promote it, such as "Get the Hastings Hustle" and my favourite, "Hastings for push and punch". It did get that in the ensuing years, but not in the manner intended.
This organisation was also short-lived, disappearing in 1924 to be replaced by a retailers' association.
It was the 7.8 magnitude 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake that gave Hastings an unplanned makeover.
New plaster coloured buildings, decorative features and newly planted gardens gave Hastings a pleasing and attractive appearance. However, 40 years later, the CBD looked tired, and a more modernistic approach began to demolish and alter many of those buildings.
Another Hastings Beautifying Association was formed in the late 1960s, led by Hastings cardiologist Michael Bostock.
Hastings, the group thought, was looking like a town that had been built around a railway station and a goods yard (which it had).
His group was concerned with the preservation and planting of trees in Hastings, and in particular were concerned about the development of Flaxmere, which some had identified as heading for social disaster.
While the group did not perhaps achieve what it set out to do, Michael Bostock was instrumental in forming the Pakowhai Country Park Board in 1973, now under the control of the Hawke's Bay Regional Council and now known as Pakowhai Regional Park, near the Chesterhope Bridge.
Jeremy Dwyer (1947-2005), Hastings mayor from 1986 to 2001, started to address the tired look, and hanging baskets were introduced in the CBD, amongst other features.
He also set up Landmarks Trust, which among its other aims, focused on beautifying Hastings, and this continues.
It has been involved with a number of initiatives such as beautifying the former Roy's Hill Dump and installing public architecture in the Hastings CBD.
• Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is an EIT accounting lecturer, and in his spare time a recorder of Hawke's Bay's history.
