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Kōrero: City planning

Nelson town blocks

This map shows the street plan of Nelson – which survives largely as planned – and the distribution of the urban sections. The centre of the plan was Trafalgar Square, which never became a market square, but the site of Nelson Cathedral. The colour coding shows land sales and reserves: blue was land that had been sold, yellow were Company reserves, red were colonial (government) reserves and green were native (Māori) reserves – the Native Tenths Reserves. One hundred acres (40 hectares) of Nelson town (one-eleventh, not one-tenth) was set aside in 1842, but much of this was later alienated by the Crown, to the severe detriment of local Māori.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: MapColl 834.1953gbbd/1842/Acc.3045

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Ben Schrader, City planning – Early settlement planning, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/zoomify/25719/nelson-town-blocks (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Ben Schrader, i tāngia i te 3 March 2010, updated 26 March 2015.