Nelson
Whakatū
One of the earliest planned settlements, founded in 1842, and the base from which the expedition that ended at Wairau set out the following year.
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3 events in Nelson between 1842 and 1997
Nelson settlement established
The New Zealand Company’s second settlement was founded on a site with far less flat land than it had sold to its buyers.
NelsonThe Wairau affray
An armed Nelson party tried to arrest Te Rauparaha over disputed Wairau land. Twenty-two settlers and at least four Ngāti Toa died.
TuamarinaThe Ngāi Tahu settlement
A grievance first formally stated in 1849 was finally settled: $170 million, an apology, and Aoraki/Mount Cook, vested in the iwi and gifted back to the nation, over land covering most of the South Island.
Ōnuku Marae, AkaroaMeanwhile, nationally
5 events that reached Nelson along with most of the country. They still shade the map and sit on the timeline above, but they are not Nelson’s own history.
New Zealand Constitution Act
Representative government arrived, divided into six provinces — and the property franchise excluded almost all Māori, who held land communally.
New Zealand connected to the world by cable
A submarine cable from Sydney landed near Nelson, linking New Zealand to London by telegraph and cutting communication with Europe from months to hours.
Cable Bay (Wakapuaka), near NelsonThe provinces are abolished
The nine provincial governments were abolished, leaving central government as the single legislative authority, with new counties in rural areas while towns carried on unchanged.
Ernest Rutherford wins the Nobel Prize
Born at Spring Grove near Brightwater and raised partly on a family farm, Ernest Rutherford won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, then discovered the atomic nucleus and split the atom.
Brightwater, NelsonThe Sealord fisheries settlement
The Crown funded a Māori half-share in Sealord and allocated quota, settling commercial fisheries claims nationally in one deal.