Editing Napier, New Zealand (section)

==History==

===Māori history===
Napier has well-documented [[Māori people|Māori]] history. When the [[Ngāti Kahungunu]] party of Taraia reached the district many centuries ago, the Whatumamoa, Rangitāne, Ngāti Awa and elements of the Ngāti Tara [[iwi]] lived in the nearby areas of Petane, Te Whanganui-a-Orotu and Waiohiki. Ngāti Kahungunu later became the dominant force from [[Poverty Bay]] to Wellington. Chief Te Ahuriri cut a channel from the lagoon to the sea at Ahuriri because the [[Westshore, New Zealand|Westshore]] entrance had become blocked, threatening cultivations surrounding the lagoon and the fishing villages on the islands in the lagoon. The rivers were continually feeding freshwater into the area. Ngāti Kahungunu were one of the first Māori tribes that European settlers had contact with.<ref name="govt" />

===European settlers history===
[[Captain James Cook]] and his crew were the first Europeans to see the future site of Napier when they sailed down the east coast in October 1769. He commented: "On each side of this bluff head is a low, narrow sand or stone beach, between these beaches and the mainland is a pretty large lake of salt water I suppose."<ref name="govt">{{cite web |url=http://www.napier.govt.nz/napier/about/history/ |title=History |work=napier.govt.nz}}</ref> He said the harbour entrance was at the Westshore end of the shingle beach.

After 1830, the site was visited and later settled by European traders, whalers and missionaries. By the 1850s, farmers and hotel-keepers arrived.

[[File:Hasting_Street,_Napier,_1862.jpg|alt=|left|thumb|Hastings Street, 1862]]
[[File:Napier_Barracks_c1864.jpg|alt=|right|thumb|Napier Barracks, {{circa|1864}}]]

The Crown purchased the Ahuriri block (including the site of Napier) in 1851. In 1854 [[Alfred Domett]], a future Prime Minister of New Zealand, was appointed as the Commissioner of Crown Lands and the resident magistrate at the village of Ahuriri. It was decided to place a planned town here, its streets and avenues were laid out, and the new town named for [[Charles James Napier|Sir Charles Napier]], a military leader during the "Battle of Meeanee" fought in the country of [[Sindh]], in the Indian subcontinent. Domett named many streets in Napier to commemorate the colonial era of the [[British India|British Indian Empire]].<ref name="govt" />

Development was generally confined to the hills and to the port area of Ahuriri. In the early years, Napier covered almost exclusively an oblong group of hills (the [[Napier Hill|Scinde Island]]) which was nearly entirely surrounded by the ocean, but from which ran out two single spits, one to the north and one to the south. There was a swamp between the now Hastings Street and Wellesley Road, and the sea extended to Clive Square.

Napier was designated as a [[borough]] in 1874, but the development of the surrounding marshlands and [[Land reclamation|reclamation]] proceeded slowly. Napier was the administrative centre for the [[Hawke's Bay Province]] from 1858 until the abolition of [[Provinces of New Zealand|New Zealand's provincial governments]] in 1876.<ref name="govt"/>

===20th century===
On 3 February 1931, most of Napier and nearby Hastings were levelled by [[1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake|an earthquake]]. The collapse of buildings and the ensuing fires killed 256 people. Some 4000 hectares of today's Napier were undersea before the earthquake raised it above sea level.<ref name="govt"/> The earthquake uplifted an area of 1500&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> with a maximum of 2.7 m of uplift. In Hastings, about 1 m of ground subsidence occurred.

[[Image:Napier Halsbury Chambers n.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Halsbury Chambers (architect [[Louis Hay]], 1932)]]
[[Image:Napier-SoundShell.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Sound Shell (built 1935) at night]]
[[Image:Napier-TypicalView.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Lit-up dome of the T & G building (built 1936) at dusk]]
[[Image:Napier fountain.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Tom Parker Fountain (built 1936) at dusk]]

The centre of Napier, destroyed by the earthquake, was rebuilt in the [[Art Deco]] style popular in the 1930s. Although a few Art Deco buildings were replaced with contemporary structures in the 1960s to 1980s, most of the centre remained intact for long enough to become recognised as architecturally important, and it has been protected and restored since the 1990s. Napier and the area of [[South Beach]], Miami, Florida, are considered to be the two best-preserved Art Deco towns (with the town of [[Miami Beach, Florida]], being mostly decorated in the somewhat later [[Streamline Moderne]] style of Art Deco). Beginning in 2007, Napier was nominated as a [[World Heritage Site]] with [[UNESCO]]. This is the first cultural site in New Zealand to be so nominated.<ref>[https://whc.unesco.org/pg_friendly_print.cfm?id=5125&cid=326& Napier Art Deco historic precinct]. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved on 7 May 2012.</ref> It was denied World Heritage status in 2011 as it did not meet the appropriate criteria. Still, the report of the application acknowledged the Art Deco heritage as "first and foremost of outstanding value to all New Zealanders".<ref>{{Cite news |last=O'Sullivan |first=Patrick |date=16 September 2011 |title='No' to World Heritage status for Napier |url= https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/no-to-world-heritage-status-for-napier/UDYKQFYYNGQ63LHOSK5F5HLWSY/ |newspaper=Hawkes Bay Today |access-date=23 February 2023}}</ref>

In January 1945, the {{GS|U-862}} entered and departed from the port of Napier undetected. This event became the basis of a widely circulated postwar [[tall tale]] that the [[Kapitänleutnant|captain of this U-boat]], [[Heinrich Timm]], had led crewmen ashore near Napier to milk cows to supplement their meagre rations.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

===Modern history===
Napier was the scene of an [[Napier shootings|armed attack by cannabis dealer Jan Molenaar]] on three police officers searching his home in May 2009. He killed one officer, and wounded two others and a civilian. He continued to fire shots from his house, which police besieged, until he committed suicide 40 hours later.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10571362 |title=Napier shooting: Siege over as Molenaar's body located |date=9 May 2009 |work=[[The New Zealand Herald]] |access-date=9 May 2009}}</ref>

On 9 November 2020, a local state of emergency was declared in Napier after the region received 237&nbsp;mm of rainfall across 24 hours – the most daily rainfall in the city since 1963 and the second most since records began.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wiltshire |first1=Laura |title=State of emergency as two months' rain falls on Napier in 24 hours |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/hawkes-bay/123346600/state-of-emergency-as-two-months-rain-falls-on-napier-in-24-hours |access-date=10 November 2020 |work=[[Stuff (website)|Stuff]] |date=10 November 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201110021229/https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/hawkes-bay/123346600/state-of-emergency-as-two-months-rain-falls-on-napier-in-24-hours |archive-date=10 November 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> The event caused widespread flooding, slips, power cuts and evacuations.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Robertson |first1=Georgina-May |title=Napier flooding: State of emergency declared as floods cause landslips, evacuations and power cuts |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300153612/napier-flooding-state-of-emergency-declared-as-floods-cause-landslips-evacuations-and-power-cuts |access-date=9 November 2020 |work=[[Stuff (website)|Stuff]] |date=9 November 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201109100240/https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300153612/napier-flooding-state-of-emergency-declared-as-floods-cause-landslips-evacuations-and-power-cuts |archive-date=9 November 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Flooding in Napier as heavy rain sweeps across North Island |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430190/flooding-in-napier-as-heavy-rain-sweeps-across-north-island |access-date=9 November 2020 |work=[[Radio New Zealand]] |date=9 November 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201109100458/https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430190/flooding-in-napier-as-heavy-rain-sweeps-across-north-island |archive-date=9 November 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

On 14 February 2023, floods caused by [[Cyclone Gabrielle]] destroyed bridges over the [[Tutaekuri River]], and damaged a major regional electrical substation at Redclyffe, which cut power to much of northern Hawke's Bay including its telecommunication infrastructure.<ref name="stuff-gabrielle-transpower">{{Cite web |title=Gisborne and Hawke's Bay could be without power for 'weeks', Transpower warns |last=Pullar-Strecker |first=Tom |date=13 February 2023 |work=[[Stuff (website)|Stuff]] |url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/131223166/gisborne-and-hawkes-bay-could-be-without-power-for-weeks-transpower-warns |access-date=19 February 2023 }}</ref> Flooding also caused extensive property damage to [[Esk River (Hawke's Bay)|Esk Valley]], [[Taradale, New Zealand|Taradale]] and [[Meeanee, New Zealand|Meeanee]], as well as loss of crops, livestock and several human lives.<ref name="stuff-gabrielle-hb">{{Cite web |title=Cyclone Gabrielle: In Hawke's Bay, a week of devastation that time forgot |last=Duff |first=Michelle |work=[[Stuff (website)|Stuff]] |date=18 February 2023 |url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300810707/cyclone-gabrielle-in-hawkes-bay-a-week-of-devastation-that-time-forgot |access-date=19 February 2023 }}</ref>