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Point Howard
Point Howard and Lowry Bay, Eastbourne, 1939
Point Howard and Lowry Bay, Eastbourne, 1939
Map
Coordinates: 41°15′04″S 174°54′25″E / 41.251°S 174.907°E / -41.251; 174.907
CountryNew Zealand
RegionWellington Region
CityLower Hutt

Ngaumatau – Point Howard is a suburb on the Eastern side of Te Whanganui a Tara - Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. [2]

Pre-European Settlement

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Ngaumatau – Point Howard is a headland and bay situated south of Waiwhetu and the estuary of Te Awakairangi – Hutt River.[3] It is the first of a series of bays on the eastern side of Te Whanganui a Tara - Wellington Harbour which wind their way to the Pencarrow headland. Maori legends and oral history record the hills in this area being clad in rare New Zealand beech forest which reached down to the shoreline. [4] Maori are first associated with the Eastern Bays around 1400 BC.[5] The Wellington area (Whanganui-a-Tara) was occupied by Ngati Tara around 800 years ago and they were in turn supplanted by Ngati Ira and their Rangitane allies connected to the Ngati Kahungunu whose lands stretched into Wairarapa and Hawkes Bay. Between 1820 and 1840 they competed for control of the land with Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Toa from North Taranaki and after losing several battles the Ngati Toa supported the iwi of Ngati Tama and Ngati Rangatahi in their occupation of lands around the Hutt Valley. By 1840 Ngati Toa Rangitira was the dominant Iwi in the Wellington region.[6] During this period the eastern bays of were sparsely inhabited and primarily used as fishing grounds. The major Maori Pa in the area was at Waiwhetu and land access to the eastern bays was by a steep track which ran up the long sloping ridge named Ngaumatau by Ngati ira. The name meant, bite of the fishhook. [7] Te Atiawa chief Puakawa was killed in his garden at Ngaumatau – Point Howard shortly after the arrival of European settlers in the ship Tory in 1839. [8]

European Colonisation

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The first Europeans to visit the Bays were probably whalers and traders but European colonisation of Ngaumatau – Point Howard began with the 1826 survey of Te Whanganui a Tara - Wellington Harbour by Captain James Herd onboard the ship Rosanna. [9] This was followed by Colonel William Wakefield and the New Zealand Company’s choice of harbour for their first settlement and the arrival of settlers in 1839, on board the ship Tory. Captain Chaffers named the headland next to Lowry Bay, Point Howard after Philip Howard a member of the New Zeland Committee Association. [10] Point Howard was originally part of Lowry Bay but remained undeveloped by Europeans for most of the nineteenth century. The Wairarapa Earthquake of 1855 was a significant event as it saw the land around the estuary uplift by nearly 2.0 metres to create land access along the base of Ngaumatau – Point Howard and this allowed the development of road access to the southern bays. [11] In 1877, Hugh Sinclair, who owned a large proportion of the land around Ngaumatau – Point Howard, laid out a subdivision plan of the area which included multiple access roads. Few sections were sold in the initial offer and the development was abandoned. [12] By 1891, the land was still part of Lowry Bay and owned by the wealthy lawyer Dillon Bell. In 1905, legal requirements of Bell’s family trust forced the subdivision of his land. The Lowry Bay Estate Company was formed to subdivide the northern section which included current Ngaumatau – Point Howard. Thirty-six subscribers brought 1000-pound shares to qualify for a ballot for the prime sections, but it was 1920s before all the sections were sold. By 1938 there were 29 houses on the whole estate. [13]

Development

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In 1907 the Hutt County Council began work on widening and constructing a properly formed road. [14] An expansion of industrial sites at Seaview on the northern approach to Ngaumatau – Point Howard in the 1920s led to major developments for the suburb. After Seaview was identified as a site for the storage of oil the Texas Oil Company (Texaco and later Caltex) bought five acres in 1929 and built oil storage tanks. [15] A new wharf and pipeline were constructed at Ngaumatau – Point Howard to allow tankers to pump oil to the tanks at Seaview. Up till the 1930s the eastern bays were reliant on rainwater or access to a stream but in January 1932 work began on water and sewage infrastructure. [16] As this coincided with the depression years men on relief wages were employed to excavate a site at the top of Ngaumatau – Point Howard for a new reservoir to supply the eastern bays with water. [17]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Area was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Alison Carew & Mary McCallum, Eastbourne 100years; the borough of Eastbourne 1906 – 1989 and beyond, Pencarrow Press with the Historical Society of Eastbourne, 2006.
  3. ^ Ruakura Consultants, Te Awakairangi – Hutt River, Wainuiomata River, Akatarewa River and other Hutt River Tributaries, Cultural Value Report, 2017
  4. ^ A. Beaglehole and A. Carew, Eastbourne; a history of the eastern bays of wellington harbour, Historical Society of Eastbourne, Eastbourne, 2001, p.2
  5. ^ A. Beaglehole and A. Carew, Eastbourne; a history of the eastern bays of wellington harbour, Historical Society of Eastbourne, Eastbourne, 2001, p.4
  6. ^ Ruakura Consultants, Te Awakairangi – Hutt River, Wainuiomata River, Akatarewa River and other Hutt River Tributaries, Cultural Value Report, 2017
  7. ^ A. Beaglehole and A. Carew, Eastbourne; a history of the eastern bays of wellington harbour, Historical Society of Eastbourne, Eastbourne, 2001, p.12
  8. ^ A. Beaglehole and A. Carew, Eastbourne; a history of the eastern bays of wellington harbour, Historical Society of Eastbourne, Eastbourne, 2001, p.14
  9. ^ A. Beaglehole and A. Carew, Eastbourne; a history of the eastern bays of wellington harbour, Historical Society of Eastbourne, Eastbourne, 2001, p.19
  10. ^ AG Bagnall, Okiwi; European occupation of the Eastern Bays, Port Nicholson, an outline history, The Mahina Press, Eastbourne, 1972.
  11. ^ Ruakura Consultants, Te Awakairangi – Hutt River, Wainuiomata River, Akatarewa River and other Hutt River Tributaries, Cultural Value Report, 2017
  12. ^ A. Beaglehole and A. Carew, Eastbourne; a history of the eastern bays of wellington harbour, Historical Society of Eastbourne, Eastbourne, 2001, p.28
  13. ^ A. Beaglehole and A. Carew, Eastbourne; a history of the eastern bays of wellington harbour, Historical Society of Eastbourne, Eastbourne, 2001, p.69
  14. ^ A. Beaglehole and A. Carew, Eastbourne; a history of the eastern bays of wellington harbour, Historical Society of Eastbourne, Eastbourne, 2001, p.89
  15. ^ A. Beaglehole and A. Carew, Eastbourne; a history of the eastern bays of wellington harbour, Historical Society of Eastbourne, Eastbourne, 2001, p.89
  16. ^ Alison Carew & Mary McCallum, Eastbourne 100years; the borough of Eastbourne 1906 – 1989 and beyond, Pencarrow Press with the Historical Society of Eastbourne, 2006.
  17. ^ A. Beaglehole and A. Carew, Eastbourne; a history of the eastern bays of wellington harbour, Historical Society of Eastbourne, Eastbourne, 2001, p.141
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