Editing Upper Hutt (section)

==History==
Upper Hutt is in an area originally known as Orongomai<ref name="OurMaoriHeritage">{{cite web|title=Our Maori Heritage|url=http://www.upperhuttcity.com/arts-culture/our-maori-heritage/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160126142332/http://www.upperhuttcity.com/arts-culture/our-maori-heritage/|archive-date=2016-01-26|access-date=8 September 2015|publisher=Upper Hutt City Council}}</ref> and that of the river was Heretaunga (today the name of a suburb of Upper Hutt). The first residents of the area were [[Māori people|Māori]] of the [[Muaūpoko|Ngāi Tara]] [[iwi]]. Various other iwi controlled the area in the years before 1840, and by the time the first colonial settlers arrived the area was part of the [[Te Āti Awa|Te Āti awa]] [[rohe]].

[[Orongomai Marae]] is to the south of the modern city centre.

In 1839, the English colonising company, [[New Zealand Company|The New Zealand Company]] made a purchase from Māori chiefs of about 160,000 acres of land in the Wellington region including Upper Hutt.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=New Zealand. Waitangi Tribunal.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53261192|title=Te Whanganui a Tara me ona takiwa : report on the Wellington District.|date=2003|publisher=Legislation Direct|isbn=1-86956-264-X|location=Wellington, N.Z.|oclc=53261192}}</ref> The Hutt Valley is named after one of the founders of this company.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Our history|url=http://www.huttcity.govt.nz/leisure--culture/archives-and-heritage/heritage/our-history/|access-date=2020-10-12|website=Hutt City|language=en}}</ref> Dealings from the New Zealand Company and following that, the Crown (after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840), with local Māori regarding the land in Upper Hutt were flawed including not transacting with all the [[iwi]] that had claims on the land.<ref name=":0" /> Disputes arose and there were skirmishes and warfare in the Hutt Valley in 1846 between troops under [[George Grey|Governor George Grey]] and Māori including chiefs [[Te Rauparaha]], [[Te Rangihaeata]], [[Te Mamaku]] and iwi including [[Ngāti Toa]], [[Ngāti Raukawa|Ngāti Rangatahi]], [[Ngāti Tama]] and Ngāti Hāua-te-rangi.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019|title=War in Wellington|url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/wellington-war|access-date=2020-10-12|website=NZHistory, New Zealand history online}}</ref>

[[File:Richard Barton grave.JPG|thumb|right|The grave of Upper Hutt's first European settler, Richard Barton.]][[Richard Barton]], who settled at [[Trentham, New Zealand|Trentham]] in 1841 in the area now known as [[Trentham Memorial Park]], was the first European resident.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Our history and heritage|url=https://www.upperhuttcity.com/Your-Council/Our-city/Our-history-and-heritage|access-date=2020-10-12|website=www.upperhuttcity.com|language=en-AU}}</ref> Barton subsequently subdivided his land and set aside a large area that was turned into parkland. James Brown settled in the area that became the Upper Hutt town in 1848.

Having divided the land into 100 acre block, the settlers set about clearing the land of its indigenous forest and turning it into farmland. Sawmillers milled larger trees, such as Totara, for building materials and burned off the remaining scrub and underbrush.

[[File:Upper Hutt Blockhouse2.JPG|thumb|left|[[Upper Hutt Blockhouse]] was built as part of a stockade in 1860, during the [[New Zealand Wars]].]]Alarmed by [[First Taranaki War|unrest in Taranaki]] and sightings of local Māori bearing arms, settlers in the Hutt Valley lobbied for the construction of fortifications in Upper and Lower Hutt. The government and the military responded by constructing 2 stockades in the Hutt Valley in 1860. While the stockade in Upper Hutt was manned for 6 months, the threat of hostilities soon passed and neither installation ever saw hostile action.

The railway line from [[Wellington]] reached Upper Hutt on 1 February 1876. The line was extended to [[Kaitoke]] at the top end of the valley, reaching there on 1 January 1878. The line continued over the Remutaka Ranges to [[Featherston, New Zealand|Featherston]] in the Wairarapa as a [[Fell mountain railway system|Fell railway]], opening on 12 October 1878.

By the beginning of March 1914, the area of Upper Hutt controlled by the Upper Hutt Town Board had its own water supply. The supply capacity was increased when the [[Birchville Dam]] was built in 1930.

On the evening of 28 March 1914, fire broke out at the Benge and Pratt store in Main Street. An explosion killed 8 of the volunteers fighting the fire and destroyed the building.

[[File:View of Upper Hutt from Wallaceville Hill, 1924. ATLIB 293874.png|thumb|right|View of Upper Hutt from Wallaceville Hill, 1924]]For many years, Upper Hutt was a rural service town, supporting the surrounding rural farming and forestry community. Serious urbanisation of the upper Hutt Valley only started around the 1920s, but from the late 1940s onwards, Upper Hutt's population exploded as people moved from the crowded hustle and bustle of inner-city Wellington into a more secluded yet sprawling Hutt Valley. In 1950, Trentham Memorial Park was created with an area of almost 50 hectares. 

Upper Hutt continued to grow in population and became a city within the Wellington metropolitan area on 2 May 1966 after the Government Statistician certified that the population had reached 20 000, allowing the Town Clerk to make an application for city status.<ref>{{cite news|title=With City Status Close Upper Hutt No Snake Gully|url=https://newspaperarchives.uhcc.govt.nz/cgi-bin/upperhutt?a=d&d=UpperHuttLeader19641021.2.58&srpos=2&e=------196-en-20--1--txt-txIN-city+status----1964--|access-date=25 October 2017|publisher=Upper Hutt Leader|date=21 October 1964}}</ref>

On 9 April 1976, Upper Hutt became the first area in New Zealand to implement [[Subscriber trunk dialling|subscriber toll dialling (STD)]], allowing telephone subscribers to make national calls without operator assistance.<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 March 1976 |title=Direct toll calls in Hutt first |pages=1 |work=[[The Press]] |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19760325.2.9}}</ref>

[[File:Orongomai marae 11.JPG|thumb|left|Orongomai Marae is named after the Māori name for the area, meaning ''place of Rongomai''.]]
Residential subdivision in areas such as Clouston Park, Maoribank, Tōtara Park and Kingsley Heights continued into the 1980s.

In February 1979 [[Muhammed Ali]] came to New Zealand, staying at Upper Hutt.<ref>{{cite web |last=Boyack |first=Nicholas |date=24 April 2023 |title=When Muhammad Ali was a huge hit in Upper Hutt |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington/131824295/when-muhammad-ali-was-a-huge-hit-in-upper-hutt|access-date=27 April 2023 |website=[[Stuff (website)|Stuff]]}}</ref>

=== Historic places ===
{{Main|List of historic places in Upper Hutt}}
There are twelve historic sites within Upper Hutt included on the [[Heritage New Zealand]] list of historic places, including four Category 1 sites, seven Category 2 sites, and one historic area.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |title=New Zealand Heritage List – Rārangi Kōrero |url=https://www.heritage.org.nz/places |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140326042332/http://www.historicplaces.org.nz/placestovisit/auckland/alberton.aspx |archive-date=26 March 2014 |access-date=8 May 2024 |website=[[Heritage New Zealand]]}}</ref> The historic area, the [[Remutaka Rail Trail|Remutaka Incline Rail Trail]], crosses into part of neighbouring [[South Wairarapa District]].<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |title=Remutaka Incline Rail Trail |url=https://www.heritage.org.nz/list-details/7511/Remutaka%20Incline%20Rail%20Trail |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240729183443/https://www.heritage.org.nz/list-details/7511/Remutaka%20Incline%20Rail%20Trail |archive-date=29 July 2024 |access-date=26 July 2024 |website=[[Heritage New Zealand]]}}</ref>