Historical Background

Within the Hawkes Bay region, orcharding, viticulture together with various other forms of cash and process food cropping have become increasingly important over the past 30 years, never the less, the pastoral industry; in particular beef and sheep farming continues to be the basis of the Hawke’s Bay rural economy, as it has done from the time of earliest permanent European settlement in the mid 19^th century. The District was amongst the very first in New Zealand to be settled and developed for pastoral farming and from the middle of the 19^th century a number of early settlers acquired or built up very large pastoral runs that at one time covered much of Hawke’s Bay. A break up of these properties into smaller units was initiated in the early 1890’s, a consequence of the Seddon Government’s 1891 Lands For Settlement Act of parliament together with heavy land taxes imposed on large pastoral runs. The act encouraged and enabled land settlement, initially by military and volunteer servicemen, many who had served in the Maori wars. Following world war one the break up of large pastoral runs was further accelerated as a result of government social and economic policy of the day and of course, in many instances, as sons of early settlers inherited and further subdivided properties amongst themselves. Large properties, especially in more favoured farming areas, were broken up to form smaller but economically viable units; commonly of between 900 to 1200 acres. This remains a common size for pastoral properties in Hawkes Bay, although steeper hill country farms having lower stock carrying capacity or potential were significantly larger, while high country properties bordering and within the central ranges were of necessity considerably larger.

Filed under: Hawkes Bay, Moving to New Zealand