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Page 2
The new settlement at the edge of the harbor was named Wellington, after the Iron Duke who was in favor at the time, but it really didn't help what was for a very long time a struggling community. Most of the settlers would have in fact starved in that first year had it not been for the Maori. In fact the Maori had taken to growing the imported potato and were to be the envy of the new arrivals for many years.
Also it soon became apparent to the settlers that the northern Petone beach was not an ideal place for a first settlement. The shanty town of tents and lean-tos was not going to be enough to survive this rugged land. Or perhaps it was the sudden flooding of the Hutt River that convinced them, for soon they were pulling up their tent poles and heading to the western side of the harbor.
Now of course Wakefield had to negotiate more land sales from the Maori, who were understandably not too happy about this sudden influx of settlers into their homes. They had perhaps never imagined that over one thousand people would suddenly turn up on their doorstep. Never the less an agreement was struck. Wakefield could buy land from them, but one tenth of Wellington land had to remain theirs for farming and their life style. Of course over the years, the agreement was quietly and skillfully pushed under the carpet- but it could not lie there forever.
But Wakefield had his settlement, but it was going to be a long haul before it began to live up to its industrious namesake. Rugged terrain was not the only problem for the fledgling...
Earthquakes would eventually become just another fact of life, but when a large on visited in 1855, it knocked down houses and chimneys, but miraculously only killed one. It had the benefit though of raising the shoreline, and giving a helping hand to those that were working to reclaim the land from the sea.
It was the work of many lives and several generations to eventually carve out a niche in the harbor of Tara where a capital city could be built. Some of those lives I will have to tell for they are part of the story of the land and this Te Whanganui-a-Tara .
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The copyright of the article Chaos and Change (part 2 of The Harbor) - Page 2 in New Zealand History is owned by Philippa Jane Ballantine. Permission to republish Chaos and Change (part 2 of The Harbor) - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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