General early Napier land use
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 after the Treaty of Waitangi’s signing, the exiles 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 (Napier Hill) and most of its surrounds. A few years later, in 1855, Napier was established by the government, with the town primarily located on the hill and around its base. The population rose steadily: 343 in 1858; to 3,514 in 1874.
Potential for a port proved the main drawcard to the area, but a port was no use without land onshore to build support infrastructure and a settlement. The town site had a lagoon and estuary on one side; shingle, sand and the pounding Pacific Ocean on the other. This provided limited space for laying out the town. Town planners were up for the challenge, and a programme of reclamation started circa 1860, to transform the undulating boggy ground into land fit for development.
Much of the early town was laid out at the foot of Mataruahou’s southwestern side, and protection from the sea soon became a pressing need. During bad weather or tidal surges waves would wreak devastation on the town, water inundating streets, often overwhelming the breakwater and rudimentary retaining along the sea front. Therefore, a sea wall seemed a sensible investment and in the late 1870s the Napier Municipal Council proceeded with the task to construct protection works. It was a challenging job and, as the report of an early autumn storm of 1878 reveals, waves still broke through the new sea wall, onto the street and the front yards of Marine Parade properties.
Over the next decade, the newspapers recount the battle between the protection efforts of the council and the might of Mother Nature and plans for substantial protections works were advanced. During 1886 there was a period of severe storms which had a massive impact on the beach front. A storm in early August 1886 was described thus:
"A tremendous sea was rolling into the bay yesterday, and at about 9 o'clock last night, the waves were washing over the Marine Parade, and the sea water was flowing down the streets running at right angles from the beach. Shortly after 9 o'clock the road protected by the retaining masonry work began to subside all along the wall, followed soon after by the destruction of long stretches of the latter. The strongly built portion of the wall in front of the Court house was all undermined before 10 o'clock, and a large section of it fell over bodily with a crash after one more than usually heavy breaker. In the other direction the wall fared still worse, section after section falling over on that part of the beach between Mr McVay's and Sale-street, and the roadway being sliced out for a couple of foot back from the wall….When the tide was nearly at its full many of the houses along the Marine Parade were deluged with water, and in some of the yards light articles were afloat."
Immediately after this event the council undertook to look at alternative plans to the inadequate existing sea walls that had been built on unstable shingle foundations. The council overseer was instructed to draw up plans for ‘sheet piling’ or concrete and stone work sea walls. The chance to draw up new plans for Marine Parade also gave progressive Mayor George H. Swan (1833-1913) the opportunity to promote his pet project for the Marine Parade. Swan’s vision included increasing the street’s width:
"…making thereby a grand esplanade and utilising the grand beach frontage that they had to the bay. By doing so they would be doing a great and useful work; they would be taking advantage of the natural gifts they had, the magnificent climate and sea-front, neither of which was possessed by any town in New Zealand, and which ought to be utilised, and which was a duty devolving on the Borough Council. They ought to take the matter into serious consideration. They had it in their power if means were devised, to make this a pleasure resort, making Napier the Brighton or Scarborough of New Zealand."
The substantial nature of the required protection works and talk of improvements along Marine Parade meant projected costs were high. Suggestions for raising the necessary funds ran from a levy from ratepayers, or to break up Clive Square into leasable sections which was an action requiring parliamentary legislation to carry out.
One approach of reducing these costs was for the council to apply to the Justice Department to secure a promise of prison labour from the Napier Gaol for the construction of the wall. Prison labour had already been utilised to provide heavy lifting for some protection work, such as hewing and moving stone and rubble for the previous sea wall and Marine Parade road in 1880. However, local experience during the 1880s was that permission to use free prison labour was infrequently given - the lack of prisoners, especially physically fit inmates, being the main excuse.
In other places around the country the lack of suitable late nineteenth century prison labourers does not seem to have been such a problem. There were a number of significant nineteenth century buildings and structures throughout New Zealand built and maintained with the assistance of prison labour, such as Mt Eden Prison in Auckland (List No. 88), New Plymouth Prison (List No. 903) the Tasman Street Wall, Wellington (List No. 7758), Kau Point Battery on Miramar Peninsula, Wellington (List No. 7542), Addington Water Tower in Christchurch (List No. 5390), Fort Taiaroa on Otago Peninsula (List No.369), and sections of the Otago Harbour Sea Walls (List No. 4726).
The Justice Department itself was not averse to using prisoners locally. Their headquarters in Napier was the Courthouse (List No. 1127), a fine two storey building with a prime position right on the waterfront on Marine Parade. The location meant potential inundation was a constant threat in bad weather, and protection works for the courthouse came up several times over the years in town council proceedings. At one stage after water ‘surrounded the Supreme Court buildings, penetrating beneath the front door and leaving a mass of seaweed, shingle and debris on the verandah’, the Justice Department itself used prison labour to erect protections works in front of the courthouse.
The storm of August 1886 severely tested the existing beachfront protections in front of the courthouse, to the point of failure. This prompted the Justice Department to enquire of the council what steps they were taking to fix the wall. In reply, Swan asked if the Department would grant the use of prison labour to make temporary repairs. The reply was affirmative, but at the cost of half a crown per man per day. The council had wanted free labour, so declined the offer. A terse response was meted out by the Minister for Justice, stating that the department would hold the council responsible for keeping the court’s buildings safe.
The council debated the matter much over the next few years, but cost stalled progress. The urgency of the works was raised again in early 1888, particularly because the high tides had exposed the water main that ran along Marine Parade. The idea of a rates levy was mooted again in early August and by mid-month the council passed a special order to set the variable rates for the borough. Around the same time, plans were to be drawn up in earnest by local engineer for hire, John T. Carr. He had approached the council, offering his services to prepare protection works plans and supervise the construction of the works. By the end of September tenders were advertised for two sections of wall and road formation and were promptly awarded to a large local contract firm, Messrs Griffin and Glendinning. The first section of works was from the southern end of the White Road (Hastings Street) to Edwardes Street, with the second contract section from Edwardes Street to Emerson Street - a combined length of around 1500 metres.
The use of prison labour came up again in council planning for these 1888 sections of sea wall. Locals were aware of the Justice Department’s lack of enthusiasm for free prison labour, and, when in September 1888 the department transported seven prisoners to New Plymouth to help with building a breakwater, seemingly free of charge, opprobrium poured forth in the pages of the local press. This appears to have prompted a change of heart, because in October 1888 it was reported the Justice Department would allow prison labour, alongside council staff, to be used to help construct the section of sea wall from the courthouse north to Coote Road.
The different phases of construction were reflected in the methods employed for building the sea wall. The two contracted sections were made from concrete cast using timber forms, whereas the one council/prison labour section was constructed from concrete mortar, lime mortar, and stone and infill rubble. Prison labour also extracted some of the construction materials for the northern section, including the stone and rubble, sourced from a nearby quarry at the foot of Bluff Hill. As construction progressed during November, stone masons were employed to help with the section being made by council staff. These first two sections of the sea wall were completed by contractors by March 1889, and road on the town side of the wall was quickly formed. The addition of a concrete parapet, sitting above the level of the road was added to the prisoner/corporation labour section in April 1889.
The whole edifice was tested not a month later when an autumn storm battered the town. A small section of parapet in the contractor section at Edwardes Street gave way under the battering, but the rest of the wall held fast. Engineer Carr inspected the wall after the storm, noting the wearing of the fresh plaster, and some cracking on the plaster face due to the settling of the foundations. This event saw Carr recommend the addition of buttresses to the parapets of both concrete and stone sections, at 15-foot intervals and 30-foot intervals respectively.
The sea wall was then extended further north in November 1889. The extension was fifteen chains (~300 metres) to Coote Road as originally planned, and prison labour, council staff and hired stone masons undertook the work. This section was completed in October 1890. Parapet wall forming occupied the rest of 1890, with the masons busy constructing a beach access point opposite the courthouse.
Again, the weather proved challenging in 1891 with a February gale forcing waves over the sea wall, uprooting new planted trees on Marine Parade and sweeping away the construction gear set up at the north end of the wall. To the south between Edwardes and Raffles Streets, the parapet wall was destroyed, and the local press blamed faulty workmanship for the failure. Masons and council staff began repairs to parapets in late March 1891, with the addition of buttresses along the newly repaired sections of wall. This work continued throughout the year.
In 1892 work to extend the sea wall further from Coote Road to the breakwater began. The line of the road was lowered road with the spoil providing fill for the town side of the sea wall. This was the final section of the sea wall construction. Progress of the final section of the sea wall was hampered by storms, but works were completed by the end of 1892.
Development of Marine Parade
The impact of the sea wall was significant, both to people living in Napier in terms of protecting their property, but also for those wishing to promote the town as a tourist destination by allowing the formation of a beachfront esplanade. By the early twentieth century Napier was actively being advertised as resort town – sun, sea and an esplanade to make the most of both. Swan’s vision for Marine Parade saw the now iconic Norfolk pines trees planted parallel to the sea wall around 1891, footpaths built, and the provision for entertainment through installation of a band rotunda. In the early twentieth century, the area around the band rotunda, between Emerson and Byron Streets, played a central part of town life, being the scene of many notable civic events. All this was possible because of the protection provided by the Marine Parade sea wall.
Where Mayor George Swan started the impetus of civic improvements in the town, one of his successors, John Vigor Brown (1854-1942) kept up momentum on Marine Parade, with bathing facilities, including the Swan Memorial Pool, developed during his initial time in office.
The earthquake of 3 February 1931 wrought devastation throughout the Hawke’s Bay on a scale not witnessed before New Zealand, or, arguably, since. As with so much of Napier, the sea wall and surrounds were impacted, particularly the section to the north of Coote Road, which was destroyed by a large landslip from Bluff Hill. Given the prominence in the townscape there are many emblematic images in the days post-earthquake that show Marine Parade in a state of disrepair, the sea wall prominent amongst the devastation. The beachfront area proved vital in the days immediately post-quake as people set up camp on the beach, wary of seeking shelter in quake damaged dwellings. Furthermore, because the land uplifted by over six feet during the earthquake, the shore on the eastern side of the sea wall substantially increased leaving little functional need for the existing sea wall.
While the civic beautification and tourism developments on Marine Parade in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were figuratively and literally underpinned by the sea wall, this changed fundamentally after the 3 February 1931 earthquake. Mayor Brown, in his third and final stint in office (from 1927-33), guided the initial response to the quake, and established the structure that led the post-quake rebuilding of the town. The tragedy of the quake provided opportunity for renewing the town. In this milieu, Marine Parade was reformed and re-visioned to such a degree that the new civic space was much more than a mere reconstruction of what had been there before. The platform for developing this new beachside space was dumped rubble and debris from destroyed buildings in the town, and at this time small sections of the now redundant sea wall parapet were demolished to make way for new developments. The grand new Marine Parade included gardens, a sound shell, playgrounds and tennis courts on the new flat land created on top of the debris pile on the beachfront. Other sections of the above ground parts of the wall were incorporated into new developments, such as garden edging. However, most of the sea wall structure was buried by the new works. From the mid-1930s this part of Marine Parade also became an important commemorative space; the most substantial feature was the New Napier Arch, remembering the courage of Napier people during and after the earthquake.
In post-quake Napier tourist promotions, Marine Parade was a dominant feature. While development slowed during the Second World War, other iconic additions were made to Marine Parade during 1950s, such as the Pania of the Reef statue, an outdoor skating rink, the Napier War Memorial and an aquarium. In the late 1960s Marine Land sea park was also opened on Marine Parade, becoming one of Napier’s major attractions. All these developments had an impact on the above ground parapet section of the sea wall.
During infrastructure work in 2013 a 10 metre section of wall was removed and reinstated. This sparked local interest in the wall, to the extent that the Napier City Council installed a light well to allow the public to see the workmanship and extent of the sea wall below the ground.
