Russell Hotels

Russell, formerly known as Kororareka, was the first permanent European settlement and sea port in New Zealand. It is situated in the Bay of Islands, in the far north of the North Island. As at the 2006 census it had a resident population of 816, an increase of 12 from 2001. Much of the accommodation in the area consists of holiday homes or tourist accommodation. When European and American ships began visiting New Zealand in the early 1800s the indigenous Mâori 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 Mâori population. To attract ships, Mâori began to supply food and timber. What Mâori 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". European law had no influence and Mâori law was seldom enforced within the town's area. On 30 January 1840 at the Christ Church, Governor Hobson read his Proclamations in the presence of a number of settlers and the Maori chief, Moka Te Kainga-mataa. A document confirming what had happened was signed at this time by around forty witnesses; including Moka. The following week, the Treaty proceedings would then move across to the Western side of the bay to Waitangi. By this time, Kororareka was an important mercantile centre and served as a vital resupply port for whaling and sealing operations. When the Colony of New Zealand was founded in that year, Hobson was reluctant to choose Kororareka as his capital, due to its bad reputation. Instead he purchased land at Okiato, situated nine kilometres 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.