At the beginning of the 19th century, a coastal fringe some deep was densely populated with
Māori.
Iwi from the
Waikato region threatened these
Ngāti Awa, and during the 1820s, many of the inhabitants left Taranaki. In 1832, Waikato
iwi launched an assault with firearms, resulting in the remaining Ngāti Awa being killed or going into slavery apart from the Otaku
pā in New Plymouth. When English emigrants arrived in 1841, they found deserted land. The settlement of the province was organised by the Plymouth Company, a subsidiary of the
New Zealand Company which was later absorbed into its parent company. Taranaki was chosen for the settlement by the surveyor
Frederic Carrington, and New Plymouth was the only town founded in the country founded through organised settlement that lacked a natural harbour. Carrington argued that fertile land and natural harbours don't come together in New Zealand, and that the land is more important for the settlement, and an artificial harbour will later be affordable. He was present when the breakwater was built 40 years after New Plymouth had been founded. ==Anniversary Day==