Hawke's Bay: The history of a province

Hawke's Bay was settled first by the Maori and then, from the 1850's by middle-class businessmen from England and Scotland seeking to acquire land for development. These settlers were young ambitious and worldly, and armed with only minimal capital, in time they established an iron grip on the reins of power, dominating the economic, political and social life of the province. The Maori were eager to cooperate with the new arrivals, but relations soured as they increasingly lost control of their lands. In addition, inter-tribal disagreement and divisions heightened as some Maori supported the newcomers and others bitterly opposed them. This history is a slice of New Zealand's colonial development. It captures the political economic and social life of Hawke's Bay and shows how the legacy of the first settlers continued to shape developments in the region well into the 1950's.