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 overty
Bay was settled centuries ago by the Ngati-Porou and, when Cook
arrived in October 1779, their settlements and pa were scattered
over a large area of the East Coast. Cook’s encounters
with the locals were not happy ones, and after a few days of
trying to establish friendly relations with the Ngati-Porou,
he set sail noting:
... we weighed
anchor and left this unfortunate, inhospitable place, on which
we bestow the name of Poverty Bay, as it did not afford a single,
article which we wanted, except a little firewood.
 'Poverty'
was a massive misnomer as the bay is now the centre of one of our
most productive agricultural and horticultural areas. This development
has not been without its cost, however. Pioneer farmers, anxious
to make their land productive, removed large areas of bush with
disastrous consequences. The steeply sloping land, denuded of its
cover, was unable to hold the soil after heavy ram and now shows
the scars of enormous erosion.
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