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'Russell', formerly known as 'Kororareka', was the first permanent European settlement and sea port in New Zealand, as well as the country's first capital. It is situated in the Bay of Islands, in the far north of the North Island. As at the 2001 census it had a resident population of 804, now risen to around 1,100, though much of the accommodation in the area consists of holiday homes or is for tourist use.

Contents

History

Māori origins

Capital of New Zealand

Modern times

References

External links

History

Māori origins

When European and American ships began visiting New Zealand in the early 1800s the indigenous Māori quickly recognised there were great advantages in trading with these strangers, who they called ''Tauiwi''.
The Bay of Islands offered a safe anchorage and had a high Māori population. To attract ships, Māori began to supply food and timber. What Māori wanted were respect, plus firearms, alcohol, and other goods of European manufacture.
Kororareka developed as a result of this trade but soon earned a very bad reputation, a community without laws and full of prostitution, and became known as the "Hell Hole of the Pacific".^[1]. European law had no influence and Māori law was seldom enforced within the town's area.

Capital of New Zealand

By 1840 it was an important mercantile center and served as a vital resupply port for whaling and sealing operations. When the Colony of New Zealand was founded in that year, Governor Hobson was reluctant to choose Kororareka as his capital, due to its bad reputation. Instead he purchased land at Okiato, situated seven kilometers to the south, and renamed it Russell in honour of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord John Russell. A year later the capital was moved to Auckland on the orders of the Australian-based British colonial authorities.
At the beginning of the Flagstaff War in 1845 (touched off by the repeated felling and re-erection of the symbol of British Sovereignty on Flagstaff Hill above the town), the town of Kororareka / Russell was sacked by Hone Heke, after diversionary raids drew away the British defenders. The flagstaff was felled for the fourth time, and the inhabitants fled aboard British ships, which then shelled and destroyed most of the houses.^[2]

Modern times

Kororareka was part of the Port of Russell and after Russell (Okiato) became virtually deserted, Kororareka gradually became known as Russell also. In January 1844 Governor Robert FitzRoy officially designated Kororareka as part of the township of Russell. Today the name Russell applies only to Kororareka while the former capital is known either by its original name of Okiato or as Old Russell.
Russell is now mostly a "bastion of cafés, gift shops and B&Bs". It also boasts the oldest industrial building in New Zealand, Pompallier House, a printery / tannery / storehouse of the early missionaries, as well as well as Christ Church, the country's oldest surviving church.^[3] The surrounding area also contains many expensive holiday homes, as well as New Zealand's most expensive rental accommodation, the Eagles Nest, where a single night costs at least NZ$ 1,800, and the main villa is NZ$ 150,000 a week.
The car ferry across the Bay of Islands, the main tourist access to Russell, runs between Okiato and Opua.

References

1. ''Whykickamoocow - curious New Zealand place names'' - McCloy, Nicola, Random House New Zealand, 2006
2. Russell (from the Lonely Planet New Zealand, 13th Edition, September 2006.
3. ''Russell - the sleeping beauty'' - ''New Zealand Herald'', Sunday 28 August 2005

External links

★ Russell (a local page about the town)

★ Russell Info (tourism information from bayofislands.net)