Early Napier
The Ahuriri area’s rivers, wetlands, lagoons and fertile land produced important resources, making the area an attractive place to live. Settlement is thought to have begun in the twelfth or thirteenth century and Ngāti Kahungunu became the dominant iwi from the sixteenth century. There were several pā at what became Port Ahuriri and Napier. As a result of inter-tribal warfare, around the 1830s many local Ngāti Kahungunu sought refuge in Māhia. When missionaries and other Europeans began arriving in earnest after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the exiles had returned and Te Koau, near Te Pakake, became the principal local pā.
With the Ahuriri Purchase of 1851, the Crown acquired the lands between the Tutaekuri River and north to the Mohaka area, inclusive of Mataruahou and most of its surrounds. A few years later, in 1855, Napier was established by the government. The site was not promising because road access was difficult and future expansion would be challenging. However, Napier had a port, which was an important factor in Napier becoming Hawke’s Bay’s early administrative, commercial, and social centre. The population rose steadily: 343 in 1858; to 3,514 in 1874; and 8,774 in 1901. Napier’s geography limited its growth, until the 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake lifted the ground level by as much as 2.7 metres in some places.
In 1855 a town plan for Napier was produced by Alfred Domett (1811-1887), commissioner of Crown lands in Hawke’s Bay. The plan was ‘for a complete town, and laid down a pattern of roads and sections, with sites being reserved for public facilities.’ One of these public facilities was an area of land named Clive Square, envisaged as a recreation space or ‘village green’. Recent archaeological work has found evidence of pre-European Māori occupation of Clive Square. Clive Square was initially favoured as the town’s centre, but the rapid growth of businesses elsewhere in the town meant this never eventuated. When the Hawke’s Bay Provincial Council was abolished and replaced by the Napier Borough Council, the ‘Reserve known as Clive Square’ was included in the Napier Borough Endowments Act 1876 for the ‘use benefit and improvement of the Borough of Napier.’
From early on in Napier’s colonial history, the residents of Napier made good use of Clive Square for sporting and cultural activities and entertainment. In the 1860s an area of the Square was filled in and levelled for cricket and football matches. The Napier City Band (formed in 1868) gave recitals in the Square and it was the site of regular military inspection parades and of visiting entertainment such as circuses.
Clive Square’s champion, William Blythe
In 1884, the Recreation Ground took over as the town’s main sportsground and in June that year Mr W. R. Blythe wrote to the Napier Municipal Council with a proposal ‘for the improvement and adaptation of the southern portion’ of Clive Square. The proposal involved the erection of a ‘substantial and sightly fence’, a central concrete square with powerful gas lights installed on each corner, the creation of paths and planting and a band rotunda. Blythe explained that the cost of the gas lamps would be met by four local men and gave a personal undertaking to raise £100 towards the cost of the improvement work.
By 1884, William Robert Blythe had lived in Napier for almost 14 years and had established himself as a successful businessman with an interest in civic matters. Born in 1841 in Scotland, Blythe learned his trade as a draper in Lancashire, England, then moved to St Helens in the same county and purchased an interest in a chemical manufacturing firm. He arrived in New Zealand in 1870, and settled in Napier, where he worked as a salesman for a general goods store with drapery before starting his own business, Blythe & Co. described as a ‘general drapers and outfitters’, in May 1872. He married Fanny Maria Robinson in 1874 and their first child was born the following year. They would go on to have a further five children together, three daughters and three sons in total.
Blythe purchased rural and urban property in Napier and Hastings and the wider Hawke’s Bay region, building up a substantial property portfolio. One of his primary residences was a villa on Shakespeare Road, but in his later years he had residences on Sealy Road and Cobden Road. The family were comfortable enough to employ staff such as a nurse, housemaid and cook. Blythe was a founding member of the Napier Chamber of Commerce.
Blythe took a strong interest in military and defence matters, serving as Captain Commanding of the Napier Rifle Volunteers in the 1880s. Through letters to local newspapers and participation in the Union Debating Society, he voiced his opinion on matters of defence and presented his ideas for the structure of New Zealand’s forces. Blythe’s son Girthon served in the South African war and Blythe was involved in organising Napier’s celebrations to mark the end of that war, described at the time as ‘a gentleman always to the fore in patriotic displays’. Blythe was also a member of the Napier Rifle Association and took a recreational interest in hunting game. He often served as a chairman, committee member or patron of a wide range of sporting teams, including swimming, athletics, cricket, football, racing and rowing. He also founded the Port Drum and Fife Band.
Poultry raising and exotic birds and animals were also of interest to Blythe. At the 1893 Napier Poultry and Canary Association show, he exhibited ‘a number of newly imported fancy birds’ from 60 he had imported from Sydney, along with a pair of Russian guinea pigs and a monkey. Later that year he released a pair of Kookaburra in the hope that they would ‘thrive and breed.’ In 1900 he donated three bantam hens to each primary school in the district ‘with a view to encouraging the children to take an interest in poultry raising.’
Blythe was known as both a generous man and a good employer. He donated to various causes and liked to see credit given where he believed it was due. In 1896 the Hastings Fire Police acknowledged a letter of thanks and a cheque from Blythe, noting he was the only person to recognise the efforts of the Police in this way, despite the number of people they had assisted and the thousands of pounds worth of property they had saved since their formation. By 1897 he had 66 staff across his Napier and Hastings stores and he regularly held events such as dinners, balls and picnics to thank and reward them.
Blythe’s prominent role in the community was already evident by 1881, when he was one of a small group presented to visiting Governor-General Sir Arthur Gordon. He was made a Justice of the Peace in 1885 and was a member of the 1897 Flood Relief Committee. He took an active role in politics, chairing a committee of John Davies Ormond’s supporters in the lead-up to the 1884 general election, at which Ormond won the Napier seat. Blythe was a friend of George Henry Swan, Napier’s Mayor from 1885 to 1901.
Blythe’s active interest in public amenities and beautifying Napier was evident from 1881 when he wrote to the Napier Borough Council about tree planting, and the following year he was part of a group who sought permission to erect a fountain and drinking trough on Beach Road. Around New Zealand at this time, other like-minded citizens were also beginning to lead their communities to improve their environments, and the formation of various scenery preservation societies, conservation groups and beautifying societies from the 1880s onwards indicates that Blythe was at the forefront of this movement.
Following Blythe’s proposal to the Council regarding improvements to southern Clive Square in June 1884, the Clive Square Improvement Committee was formed, of which Blythe was a member. Fundraising events including a concert at the Theatre Royal and a fair were held, but by February 1885 planting season was drawing near and only £18 had been raised after expenses. In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, Blythe announced a public subscription scheme to raise the remainder of the £100 contribution he had undertaken to provide towards the project. In addition, he noted that the Garrison Band had committed to performing in the Square each week during fair weather months if enough was raised to install a band rotunda at an extra cost of £50. On the first day of public subscriptions £46 was collected and by April 1885 Blythe had forwarded a £100 cheque to the Council and requested that the four gas lamps supplied by private citizens be erected immediately.
In September 1886 paths were completed, grass sown, trees planted and the band rotunda constructed. The opening of the newly appointed Square on 29 November 1886 was a festive occasion, featuring a torchlight procession, music and fireworks. For the official part of the proceedings, Blythe joined Mayor Swan on the stage, who commended Blythe for his initiation of the work, adding that he ‘may be called the father of the work.’ The northern end of Clive Square was left undeveloped to serve as the playground for students of Napier Main School just across the road.
Blythe’s efforts in beautifying Napier continued after this work on Clive Square. In a letter to the Daily Telegraph in 1900 he described Napier as a ‘perfect little Cinderella of a town’ and asked, ‘cannot we supply the new frock, slippers, bits of ribbon, etc., in the shape of a judicious revision and extension of our tree planting?’ Swan and Blythe were then involved in the setting up on a Beautifying Association for the city. Soon after, Blythe left on a trip to the United Kingdom, his first since leaving thirty years earlier. By this time his wife and all three of his daughters had died and he planned to visit two of his sons who were living there. The high esteem in which he was held is evidenced by gifts given to him by his peers and employees, a gathering in the Criterion Hotel presided over by Mayor Swan and the City Band ‘playing a number of selections on the wharf in his special honour’ as his ship departed.
Blythe returned home in 1901 and in 1902 his sizeable Napier store was rebuilt in brick and extended from Emerson Street to Hastings Street. By May 1903 he sailed to Australia for his health; and although he had planned to return to Napier he died there on 7 December, aged 62. Blythe’s daughter Isabella had died in Sydney four years earlier and he was buried there with her.
Commemoration
In the month following Blythe’s death, a committee was formed to raise funds for a memorial fountain. The Hawke’s Bay Herald encouraged contributions, noting: ‘There are few citizens who in their time have exerted themselves more unselfishly for the good of their town than the late Mr W. R. Blythe. All who have been interested in the welfare of Napier can recall not only the energy with which he himself devised and promoted schemes for the benefit and advancement of the place, but also the sympathy and assistance which he rendered to the efforts of others’.
On 10 June a meeting of subscribers to the Blythe Memorial Fund confirmed the committee’s selected design, described as ‘a cast-iron fountain, 10ft 8in high, chased and otherwise ornamented.’ In July the Napier Borough Council agreed to its placement in Clive Square, with the fund to meet all costs associated with the fountain’s installation and the Council to provide free water.
The fountain was placed at the southern end of Clive Square and its plaque is dated 1904, but it is not known when the fountain’s installation was completed or if any kind of unveiling ceremony took place. The choice of a fountain reflects the common use of such installations, in that period, to commemorate civic-minded and philanthropic individuals. The fountain’s decorative features include herons, which are appropriate to Blythe’s interest in birds, and lions, a symbol of the British Empire and associated with the military and qualities such as strength, courage and loyalty.
An early photograph of the fountain shows turnstiles on either side of it, but these were removed, probably in the 1910s, and replaced with planting. In advance of the Prince of Wales’ visit in 1920 another round of improvements to Clive Square was made. Under the direction of Charles Corner, Superintendent of Reserves, the Square’s picket fence was removed and replaced by a limestone surround. ‘Superfluous trees and shrubs’ were replaced by ‘palms, trees and shrubs of a sub-tropical nature.’ The water supply to the fountain was turned off in 1920 and photographs of the fountain after the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake show it planted with greenery.
In 1924 Napier’s war memorial Cenotaph (List No. 113) was erected in the northern portion of Clive Square, followed by the Napier Women’s Rest (List No. 1180) in 1926. During the official opening of the Women’s Rest, the northern part of the Square was officially renamed Memorial Square. Despite being used for many years as a road, it wasn’t until 1962 that a strip of land dividing Clive Square and Memorial Square gained the status of a legal road (Emerson Street).
On the morning of 3 February 1931, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed at least 256 and injured thousands more in Hawke’s Bay. Buildings in Napier and Hastings crumbled and fire quickly tore through Napier’s central business district. The damage was catastrophic. The Blythe Memorial Fountain was damaged in the earthquake and photographs show the pedestal of the upper half of the fountain dislodged and leaning significantly to the west. This upper part of the fountain was removed and stored, and was not restored until 1999, when the upper basin was reinstated without the heron that had once stood in its centre. The band rotunda installed as result of Blythe’s efforts was also badly damaged in the 1931 earthquake and in 1934 it was replaced by a goldfish pond. In the weeks following the earthquake, the rebuilding of central city business premises was forbidden, to allow thoughtful planning of the town centre’s reconstruction. Instead, government funding was provided for the construction of temporary shops and offices in Clive and Memorial Squares, making these spaces integral to the city’s post-earthquake infrastructure.
Water was restored to the fountain in 1962. Subsequently, despite descendants of Blythe keeping an eye on the fountain and making donations towards its upkeep, prior to 2015 the fountain had received little maintenance and ‘some pretty serious decay had set in on the panels, pipe work and fixing bolts’. In 2015 Napier City Council undertook a comprehensive restoration of the fountain, which involved completely dismantling it in order to treat and restore each portion, replacing its lead pipes, re-levelling its base, recasting several missing pieces which had been damaged or destroyed, and repainting it in what was considered ‘an appropriate Victorian colour scheme’. Since restoration, the fountain has become a favourite site within Napier for photobloggers; both local and those from further afield. Comments in response to posted photographs praised the restoration and lamented that it had not occurred earlier . In a May 2015 Council publication, Mayor Bill Dalton noted that many compliments had been received following the restoration of the fountain.
