The name comes from the port of Plymouth, in Devon, England, as many of the first European settlers came from Devon and Cornwall. It was settled by the Plymouth Company, a subsidiary of the New Zealand Company.Originally called Ngāmotu (the islands), the site of New Plymouth was occupied for hundreds of years by Māori. Pākehā traders set up a trading station at Ngāmotu in 1828, but it was not until 1841–42 that planned settlement by the Plymouth Company brought 868 immigrants from Devon and Cornwall in England to the ‘New‘ Plymouth. In 1860 war broke out between Pākehā and Māori over a proposed land sale at nearby Waitara. A decade of conflict followed, severely curtailing the development of the town and the surrounding area. By 1885 it had a port, and rail links to the province and Wellington.