History

The area became home to a number of Māori tribes from the 13th century. From about 1823 the Māori began having contact with European whalers as well as traders who arrived by schooner to buy flax. In March 1828 Richard "Dicky" Barrett (1807-47) set up a trading post at Ngamotu (present-day New Plymouth). Following a bloody encounter at Ngamotu in 1832, most of the 2000 Āti Awa [iving near Ngamotu, as well as Barrett, migrated south to the Kapiti region and Marlborough. European settlement at New Plymouth began with the arrival of the William Bryan in March 1841. European expansion beyond New Plymouth, however, was prevented by Māori opposition to selling their land, a sentiment that deepened as links strengthened with the King Movement. Tension over land ownership continued to mount, leading to the outbreak of war at Waitara in March 1860. The present main highway on the inland side of Mount Taranaki follows the path taken by the colonial forces under Major General Trevor Chute as they marched, with great dificulty, from Patea to New Plymouth in 1866.The confiscations, subsequently acknowledged by the New Zealand Government as unjust and illegal, began in 1865 and soon included the entire Taranaki district. The release of a Waitangi Tribunal report on the situation in 1996 led to a lengthy debate.

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