Water woes remain ahead of Napier’s 150 years as a borough: Michael Fowler

Its surrounding swamp nuisance, bad roads, inadequate water supply and sewerage amenity led to the formation of the Napier Borough Council on November 29, 1874. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library

Michael Fowler is a Hawke’s Bay author and historian mfhistory@gmail.co.

OPINION

Early Hawke’s Bay settler, Henry Tiffen, suggested to the Napier people in August 1873 at a public meeting that the only way that an adequate infrastructure for public amenities could be afforded for them was through the creation of a municipality.

However, when it was known by the good people of Napier they would be rated for the pleasure of becoming a town board or borough, most went cold on the idea of paying rates to it (not surprisingly), and a petition in favour of establishing a local authority was soundly defeated by a countering one.

The Hawke’s Bay Provincial Council, under superintendent John Davies Ormond, was then the funder through local taxation of public works in Napier but its revenue was spread thinly throughout the province.

Ormond realised Napier’s water supply, firefighting ability, road repairs and sanitary issues could only be solved by the city having its own local government to become self-sufficient.

He took up the cause in 1874 by first criticising the Napier people “for their lack of interest in public affairs and poor contribution to rates for public purposes”. Other New Zealand towns, he said, did much better.

The Hawke’s Bay Herald (ancestor paper of Hawke’s Bay Today) took up Ormond’s cause, appealing to the Napier people that they would continually suffer with open drains, swamps, unsealed streets and fires unless something was done.

Napier’s water supply at that time consisted of artesian wells at the White Swan Brewery and the Botanical Gardens. These were not linked by pipes to town.

Water carriers shipped barrels of water down the Tutaekuri River into Napierfor domestic use, but this supply was insufficient to fight fires.

It was hoped that a private company would take over Napier’s water supply, but nothing came of this due to the cost of financing and arguments of where to lay the pipes.

The debate over the need for the public amenities led to a public meeting called by Ormond on July 29, 1874. Some speakers favoured a town board – it was a cheaper form of administration, but couldn’t borrow like a municipality, such as a borough council, could.

Almost unanimous support was shown for a municipality, and 184 men signed a petition to be presented to parliament to proclaim Napier as a borough, which was gazetted on September 11, 1874.

Napier was proclaimed a borough on November 29, 1874, and its boundaries defined. The town was divided in five districts, which contained 493 electors.

The first elections were held on January 18, 1875, and the nine successful councillors (all men of course) were to elect a mayor from their number, who was Robert Stuart, despite polling second-to-last.

Stuart and his eight councillors set about solving Napier’s public amenity problems, and the Napier Municipal Council Empowering and Waterworks Loan Act of 1875 gave them the ability to borrow £10,000 ($1.75 million in today’s money) at no more than 8% interest. This was arranged through the Union Bank of Australia.

A well was sunk in Raffles St at the end of 1875, which could supply 150,000 gallons (681,913 litres) a day for the “flats”, and a reservoir was established in Sealy Rd to supply Shakespeare, Cameron and Coote Rds, and other areas outside of the main in Raffles St.

It wasn’t long until William Colenso and other residents of Napier Hill (Mataruahou) objected to paying a special water rate “to pay for the flats!”, and to other council decisions.

On its 150th anniversary of becoming a borough, and now a city – along with 67 other territorial authorities, Napier is grappling with Local Water Done Well, a central government directive that seeks answers to questions it faced a century and a half ago: the provision ofwater supply, and how, and who will pay for it.

It appears, indeed, that there is nothing new under the sun and history has a habit of repeating itself.

* Michael Fowler’s Stories of Historic Hawke’s Bay is available from Wardini books, Havelock and Napier, and Whitcoulls Hastings and Napier.