Editing Nelson, New Zealand (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of the Nelson Region, New Zealand}}
[[File:Nelson cathedral.jpg|thumb|[[Anglican Diocese of Nelson|Diocese of Nelson]] [[Christ Church Cathedral, Nelson|Christ Church Cathedral]] on Church Hill, central Nelson]]

===Māori settlement===
Settlement of Nelson began about 700 years ago by [[Māori people|Māori]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/10289/2690/1/Lowe%202008%20Polynesian%20settlement%20guidebook.pdf|title=Polynesian settlement of New Zealand and the impacts of volcanism on early Maori society: an update|last=Lowe|first=David J. |year=2008 |publisher=University of Waikato|access-date=29 April 2010|archive-date=22 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100522032853/http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/10289/2690/1/Lowe%202008%20Polynesian%20settlement%20guidebook.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> There is evidence that the earliest settlements in New Zealand were around the Nelson–Marlborough regions. Some of the earliest recorded [[iwi]] in the Nelson district are Ngāti Hāwea, Ngāti Wairangi, [[Waitaha (South Island iwi)|Waitaha]] and [[Kāti Māmoe]].<ref name="Walrond">{{cite web|last1=Walrond|first1=Carl|title=Nelson region – Māori history |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/nelson-region/page-4|website=[[Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand]]|publisher=[[Ministry for Culture and Heritage]]|accessdate=18 September 2021|date=7 September 2010|archive-date=18 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918070806/https://teara.govt.nz/en/nelson-region/page-4|url-status=live}}</ref> Waitaha people developed the land around the Waimea Gardens, are believed to have been the first people to quarry [[argillite]] in around Nelson. They also developed much of the Waimea Gardens complex – more than {{Convert|400|ha}} on the Waimea Plains near Nelson.<ref name="Te Tau">{{cite web|last1=Mitchell|first1=Hillary|title=Te Tau Ihu|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/te-tau-ihu-tribes|website=[[Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand]]|publisher=[[Ministry for Culture and Heritage]]|accessdate=15 September 2016|date=10 February 2015|archive-date=28 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828130409/http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/te-tau-ihu-tribes|url-status=live}}</ref> In the early 1600s, [[Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri]] displaced other [[te Tau Ihu Māori]], becoming the dominant tribe in the area until the early 1800s.<ref name="Walrond"/> Raids from northern tribes in the 1820s, led by [[Te Rauparaha]] and his [[Ngāti Toa]], soon decimated the local population and quickly displaced them.

Today there are eight mutually recognised tribes of the northwestern region: [[Ngāti Kuia]], [[Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō]], [[Rangitāne]], [[Ngāti Toa]]rangatira, [[Ngāti Koata]], [[Ngāti Rārua]], [[Ngāti Tama]] and [[Te Atiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui]].<ref name="Walrond"/>

===New Zealand Company===

====Planning====
The [[New Zealand Company]] in London planned the settlement of Nelson. They intended to buy from the Māori some {{convert|200000|acre|km2}} of land, which they planned to divide into one thousand lots and sell to intending settlers. The company earmarked profits to finance the free passage of artisans and labourers, with their families, and for the construction of public works. However, by September 1841 only about one third of the lots had sold. Despite this, the colony pushed ahead, and land was surveyed by [[Frederick Tuckett]].<ref name="DNZB Tuckett">{{DNZB|last=Somerville|first=Ross|id=1t108|title=Frederick Tuckett|access-date=16 February 2015}}</ref>
[[File:(Nelson_from_Church_Hill_looking_east).png|left|thumb|260x260px|1845 Nelson from Church Hill looking east]]
Three ships, the ''[[New Zealand Company ships#Arrow|Arrow]]'', ''[[New Zealand Company ships#Whitby|Whitby]]'', and ''[[New Zealand Company ships#Will Watch|Will Watch]]'', sailed from London, the expedition commanded by Captain [[Arthur Wakefield]]. Arriving in New Zealand, they discovered that the new Governor of the colony, [[William Hobson]], would not give them a free hand to secure vast areas of land from the Māori or indeed to decide where to site the colony. However, after some delay, Hobson allowed the company to investigate the Tasman Bay area at the north end of the South Island. The Company selected the site now occupied by Nelson City because it had the best harbour in the area. But it had a major drawback: it lacked suitable [[arable land]]; Nelson City stands right on the edge of a mountain range while the nearby Waimea Plains amount to only about {{convert|60000|acre|km2}}, less than one third of the area required by the Company plans.

The Company secured land, which was not clearly defined, from the Māori for £800: it included Nelson, Waimea, [[Motueka]], [[Riwaka]] and Whakapuaka. This allowed the settlement to begin, but the lack of definition would prove the source of much future conflict. The three colony ships sailed into Nelson Haven during the first week of November 1841. When the first four immigrant ships – ''[[New Zealand Company ships#Fifeshire|Fifeshire]]'', ''[[New Zealand Company ships#Mary Anne|Mary-Ann]]'', ''[[New Zealand Company ships#Lord Auckland|Lord Auckland]]'' and ''[[New Zealand Company ships#Lloyds|Lloyds]]'' – arrived three months later, they found the town already laid out with streets, some wooden houses, tents and rough sheds. The town was laid out on a [[grid plan]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schrader |first=Ben |date=26 March 2015 |orig-date=11 March 2010 |title=City planning – Early settlement planning |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/city-planning/page-1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923041133/https://teara.govt.nz/en/city-planning/page-1 |archive-date=23 September 2023 |access-date=23 September 2023 |website=[[Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand]] |quote=The New Zealand Company settlements – including Wellington, New Plymouth and Nelson – were highly planned...All towns were laid out on a rectilinear or grid plan. |ref=Schrader}}</ref> Within 18 months, the company had sent out 18 ships with 1,052 men, 872 women and 1,384 children. However, fewer than ninety of the settlers had the capital to start as landowners.

====Cultural and religious immigrants====
[[File:Lutheran Church of Upper Moutere, February 2007.jpg|thumb|St Paul's Lutheran Church, [[Upper Moutere]]]]
The early settlement of Nelson province included a proportion of German immigrants, who arrived on the ship ''Sankt Pauli'' and formed the nucleus of the villages of Sarau ([[Upper Moutere]]) and Neudorf. These were mostly [[Lutheranism|Lutheran Protestants]] with a small number of [[Bavarians|Bavarian Catholics]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theprow.org.nz/society/german-settlement-in-nelson/ |title=German Settlement in Tasman Nelson New Zealand |website=Theprow.org.nz |access-date=8 August 2016 |archive-date=17 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417072526/http://www.theprow.org.nz/society/german-settlement-in-nelson/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1892, the [[New Zealand Church Missionary Society]] (NZCMS) was formed in a Nelson church hall.<ref name="NZCMS-Mission">{{cite web |url=http://www.nzcms.org.nz/our_mission.html |title=NZCMS |access-date=18 July 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014031447/http://nzcms.org.nz/our_mission.html |archive-date=14 October 2008 }}</ref>

====Problems with land====
After a brief initial period of prosperity, the lack of land and of capital caught up with the settlement and it entered a prolonged period of relative depression. The labourers had to accept a cut in their wages. Organised immigration ceased (a state of affairs that continued until the 1850s). By the end of 1843, artisans and labourers began leaving Nelson; by 1846, some 25% of the immigrants had moved away.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

The pressure to find more arable land became intense. To the south-east of Nelson lay the wide and fertile plains of the Wairau Valley. The New Zealand Company tried to claim that they had purchased the land. The Māori owners stated adamantly that the Wairau Valley had not formed part of the original land sale, and made it clear they would resist any attempts by the settlers to occupy the area. The Nelson settlers led by Arthur Wakefield and Henry Thompson attempted to do just that. This resulted in the [[Wairau Affray]], where 22 settlers and 4 Māori died.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Wairau incident |url= https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/wairau-incident |website=NZHistory |access-date=31 March 2020 |archive-date=16 January 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200116101013/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/wairau-incident |url-status=live}}</ref> The subsequent Government inquiry exonerated the Māori and found that the Nelson settlers had no legitimate claim to any land outside Tasman Bay.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Wairau massacre |url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NENZC18440622.2.11 |date=22 June 1844 |work=Nelson Examiner |via=Papers Past |access-date=31 March 2020 }}</ref> Public fears of a Māori attack on Nelson led to the formation of the [[Nelson Battalion of Militia]] in 1845.

===City status===
[[File:NZL-nelson-christ-church-turm.jpg|thumb|Church Steps (sometimes called the ''Cawthron Steps'') from Trafalgar Street up to the 1960s bell tower of Christ Church Cathedral]]
Nelson township was managed by the [[Nelson Province|Nelson Provincial Council]] through a Board of Works constituted by the Provincial Government under the Nelson Improvement Act 1856 until 1874. It was proclaimed a Bishop's [[Episcopal see|See]] and city under letters patent by [[Queen Victoria]] on 27 September 1858,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nelsoncitycouncil.co.nz/civic-symbols |title=Civic symbols |publisher=Nelson City Council |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110120071325/http://www.nelsoncitycouncil.co.nz/civic-symbols |archive-date=20 January 2011 }}</ref> the second New Zealand city proclaimed in this manner after [[Christchurch]]. Nelson only had some 5,000 residents at this time. [[Edmund Hobhouse]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theprow.org.nz/nelson-s-landmark-cathedral/ |title=Nelson's Landmark Cathedral |publisher=Prow |access-date=14 December 2010 |archive-date=30 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230054543/http://www.theprow.org.nz/nelson-s-landmark-cathedral/ |url-status=live }}</ref> was the first Bishop. The Municipal Corporations Act 1876 stated that Nelson was constituted a city on 30 March 1874.

===Nelson Province===
[[File:Nelson in New Zealand (1852).svg|thumb|The [[Nelson Province]] as constituted in 1853]]
From 1853 until 1876, when provincial governments were abolished, Nelson was the capital of [[Nelson Province]]. The province itself was much larger than present-day Nelson City and included all of the present-day [[Buller District|Buller]], [[Kaikōura District|Kaikōura]], [[Marlborough District|Marlborough]], Nelson, and Tasman, as well as the [[Grey District]] north of the [[Grey River / Māwheranui|Grey River]] and the [[Hurunui District]] north of the [[Hurunui River]]. The [[Marlborough Province]] split from Nelson Province in October 1859.

====Provincial anniversary====
[[Nelson Anniversary Day]] is a public holiday observed in the northern half of the South Island of New Zealand, being the area's provincial anniversary day. It is observed throughout the historic Nelson Province, even though the provinces of New Zealand were abolished in 1876. The modern area of observation includes all of Nelson City and includes all of the present-day Buller, Kaikōura, Marlborough, Tasman districts as well as the Grey District north of the Grey River / Māwheranui and the Hurunui District north of the Hurunui River. The holiday usually falls on the Monday closest to 1 February, the anniversary of the arrival of the first New Zealand Company boat, the ''Fifeshire'', on 1 February 1842.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theprow.org.nz/events/nelson-anniversary-day/#.V6aVedR94_4 |title=Nelson Anniversary Day |website=Theprow.org.nz |access-date=8 August 2016 |archive-date=16 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816064532/http://www.theprow.org.nz/events/nelson-anniversary-day/#.V6aVedR94_4 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Anniversary celebrations in the early years featured a sailing regatta, horse racing, running races, shooting and ploughing matches. In 1892, the Nelson Jubilee Celebration featured an official week-long programme with church services, sports, concerts, a ball and a grand display of fireworks.

====Time gun====
In 1858, the Nelson Provincial Council erected a [[Time signal#Signal guns|time gun]] at the spot on Brittania Heights where Captain Wakefield erected his flagpole in 1841. The gun was fired each Saturday at noon to give the correct time. The gun is now preserved as a historical relic and the [[Sequoiadendron giganteum|Songer Tree]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://register.notabletrees.org.nz/tree/view/749 |title=A unique record of the Notable Trees of New Zealand |publisher=Register.notabletrees.org.nz |access-date=23 March 2014 |archive-date=23 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140323104528/http://register.notabletrees.org.nz/tree/view/749 |url-status=live }}</ref> marks the site on Signal Hill of the original flagpole.<ref>Jeff Newport: A Short History of the Nelson Province. Page 18.</ref>