Early New Plymouth (to 1864)

In 1840

soon after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the advance party for the European settlement to be called New Plymouth was sent out from Plymouth. It was led by surveyor Frederic Carrington.

When they arrived here, they found a district which had been occupied at various times by many groups of Maori.

Here are the known sites, with their names.

Carrington had been working on the survey of English towns in connection with the drawing up of electoral boundaries under the Reform Act of 1832. Like many other nineteenth century town plans, his one was very formal, a system that went back to Edward I, who built two towns of this format, one at Conwy in North Wales, and the other in Aquitaine, another of his troublesome dominions.

Here is his original plan:

The really surprising thing is how little this plan has changed, even though much of it was not developed until many years later. Lots of these sections and streets are in exactly the same spots today. And very few names have changed. Only the green belt around the outside has been absorbed into the newer suburbs; even parts of that have been preserved as parks and public spaces like schools.

In 1860, the Taranaki War broke out with shots being fired and the British forces suffering a defeat in the first battle near Waitara.

So the military authorities hastily set up a defence system for the town.

The innermost defence was a system of trenches, as shown on this map:

Further away, a ring of fortified lookout sites gave warning of any hostile movement in the surrounding area:

Several of these sites are no longer recognisable, but Marsland Hill, which was the camp and central command post, and Fort Niger are still clearly marked.

One of the most controversial battles was at Waireka, to the west of New Plymouth. For a discussion of the arguments, you need to read James Belich's book on the New Zealand Wars. Here is a map of the Waireka Battle site: