He wasn't as keen on the place as his boss Governor George Grey, and Alfred called Napier "a precipitous island of barren, uninhabited ridges covered with fern and rough grass dissected by gorges and ravines, with a narrow strip of shingle skirting the cliffs, and joined by the mainland south by a five mile [includes modern CBD area] shingle bank ... a hopeless spot for a town site" (however, with its natural harbour at Ahuriri, Napier was an important location for coastal shipping around the colony).
Not only was Napier surrounded by tidal lagoons and swamps, but it had the sea to contend with. What is now the Marine Parade area was subject to flooding and erosion when stormy seas could reach as far as Hastings St. With scarce land available, this obviously presented quite a problem for the fledgling town.
What could be a typical adverse weather event occurred in May 1877 when strong winds from the south to southeast direction caused large waves to break over what is now the Marine Parade road, wrecking the sea wall and flooding Hastings St.
The 1874 Napier Court House on Marine Parade (now Department of Conservation) literally had the beach on its doorstep and was vulnerable to stormy, high seas. The Court House did have a sea wall in front of it, but during the 1877 storm - when the sea wall was being damaged, the Justice Department sent a telegram to the Napier Borough Council Town Clerk to inform him if their building was damaged the Council would have to pay for the repairs. The building, however, escaped major damage.
Under Mayor George Swan it was decided to build a new sea wall in 1888, as the 1870s one was in a bad state of disrepair. The Council would be responsible for the sea wall from Emerson St to the beginning of White Rd (now Hastings St) and prison labour would be used to complete the wall to Coote Rd - including in front of the Court House. The wall was finished in 1889. A further extension of the wall was made in 1892 toward the Napier Hill.
The original sea wall was around 3 metres deep. A viewing window has been made on the sea side of the wall opposite the museum building, and you can see the the original depth of the wall and what the construction was like.
Storms continued to batter Napier and, just after the sea wall had been completed, a large storm hit Napier in May 1889. During this storm tons of shingle was pushed up against the sea wall reducing the depth of the wall on the beach side, and some damage was caused to the wall. It was decided to add some buttresses to parts of the wall (others were added later) to provide further strength, and these can be seen today protruding from the wall at intervals on the footpath side of the wall.
Later a retaining wall was built on the beach so shingle pushed over the retaining wall in rough seas was trapped, thereby lifting the level of the beach and protecting Marine Parade from rough seas. I have also heard that contractors were encouraged to dump solid materials in that area to provide further infill.
At the time of the 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake the original 3mdepth of the sea wall on the beach was only about half a metre. The earthquake uplifted the beach by about 2metres, meaning high seas would never be a problem again for buildings on the Marine Parade, and plans could be made to further extend the Marine Parade over the beach side of the sea wall, which had started to occur before the earthquake, but could now occur on a much grander scale.
Rubble from the earthquake wrecked buildings and limestone infill from the Bluff Hill landslide were used as a base over the shingle.
Michael Fowler is taking a break from his column until February 4, 2017, but we will feature four of his favourite columns from 2016 during the month of January.
Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is the heritage officer at the Art Deco Trust, and trainer in accounting for non-accountants www.financialfitness.co.nz
Michael's books A Collage of History: Hastings, Havelock North and Napier and From Disaster to Recovery: The Hastings CBD 1931-35 are re-released for Christmas and available at Whitcoulls, Hastings and Napier; Napier I-site; Art Deco Trust Napier; Wardini Havelock North and Napier; Hastings, Taradale and Napier Paper Plus and Poppies Havelock North.
