Clive flood memorial, Napier

The Clive flood memorial on Marine Parade, Napier, was erected in 1900. Plaques on both the northern and southern sides read:

THIS MONUMENT / WAS ERECTED / BY THE PEOPLE OF NAPIER / TO COMMEMORATE / A DEED OF HEROISM / BY WHICH TEN MEN LOST THEIR LIVES / ON GOOD FRIDAY 16 APRIL 1897/ IN ATTEMPTING TO RESCUE THE / FLOODED OUT SETTLERS OF CLIVE.

The names of the men are listed on the other sides of the memorial: Arthur McCartney, Frederick Cassin, John Rose, Herbert G. Oborn, John Prebble, Florence O’Donovan, Alfred Stephenson, George Chambers, Henry Brierly and Frederick James Ansell. Their names are followed by the text: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’.

On Good Friday 1897, after a long downpour, the Tutaekauri River threatened to engulf the township of Clive. The first two boats sent from Napier to rescue the residents of Clive were overcome by the surging floodwaters and the ten men on board drowned. Only four bodies were ever recovered.

A monument recalling the men’s sacrifice was unveiled on the Napier waterfront on 26 September 1900. It had been paid for by public subscription and designed on an honorary basis by local architect D.B. Frame. The imposing 36 ft high limestone and bluestone structure combined the form of an obelisk with the functions of a drinking fountain.

Sources: ‘The Flood Memorial: Unveiling the Fountain’, Hawkes Bay Herald, 27/9/1900, p. 3; ‘Clive Flood Memorial’, Napier City Council website; Peter Wells, ‘A Stranger to Napier’, Napier Athenaeum, vol. 1, no. 8 [2011].