Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

[introduction]

page break

In 1851 the Common Council of Auckland was elected under a special charter. The following were the councillors:—East Town Ward, Mr. Edwin Davy; Middle Town Ward, Mr. Archibald Clark; West Town Ward, Mr. Patrick Dignan; Suburban East Ward, Mr. F. W. Merriman; Suburban South Ward, Mr. A. B. Abraham; Suburban West Ward, Mr. James O'Neill; Onehunga Ward, Mr. S. Norman; Panmure Ward, Mr T. M. Haultain; Otahuhu Ward, Mr. J. A. Hickson; Howick Ward, Mr. A. Macdonald; Epsom East Ward, Mr. John Newman; Epsom West Ward, Mr. William Powditch; Tamaki West Ward, Mr William J. Taylor; Tamaki East Ward, Mr. William Mason. Mr. Archibald Clark was elected Mayor. The council held office for only one year, for, in 1852, when the next election was advertised, so little interest was taken in the proceedings that they fell through for want of a quorum. The Provincial Council, therefore, finding that no governing body existed, framed an act to form a town board or board of commissioners, and on the 30th of May, 1863, a public notification was issued by Mr. Robert Graham, as Superintendent of the Province of Auckland, setting forth that “The City Board of Commissioners” was constituted by an Act of the Auckland Provincial Council, entitled the “City Board Act, 1863, for the purposes of the better government of the City of Auckland.” After the elections, which occupied two days—the 28th and 29th of May—the Board was declared to consist of Messrs Thomas Macready and David Graham (East Ward No. 1); Mr Thomas Macfarlane (East Ward No. 2); Mr Richard Ridings (East Ward No. 3); Messrs John Finlay and Andrew Beveridge (West Ward No. 1); Mr Patrick Darby (West Ward No. 2); and Messrs Herbert Ashton and George Webster (West Ward No. 3). Of these once well-known citizens Mr. Patrick Darby is now (1900) the sole survivor.

At the first meeting of the Auckland City Board of Commissioners, or “The City Board,” as it was familiarly termed, which was held on the 2nd of June, 1863, Mr Beveridge was elected chairman at a salary of £175 per annum. This election created a vacancy in the representation of West Ward No. 1, to fill which Mr. (now the Hon.) William Swanson was elected. Mr. H. D. Morpeth was appointed to the offices of clerk and secretary at a salary of £150; and at a remuneration of £300 per annum Mr. James Stewart was installed as the first City Engineer. Messrs William Aitken and Hugh Reid were the valuators. On the 2nd of February, 1864, Mr. William Anderson, who for so many years has held the position of City Engineer, was made Foreman of Works.

Tuesday in each week, at four o'clock, was the time fixed for the meetings of the Board; and the first public work ordered was the repairing of the “Stairs at the Head of Custom House Street”—the “Jacob's Ladder” so well remembered by the old residents.

A rate of sixpence in the £ for general purposes was struck on the 8th of September, 1863, and Mr J. W. Diddams was appointed collector, at a remuneration of £150 per annum, and two and a half per cent. of the amount collected. Mr. Herbert Ashton was appointed honorary treasurer. The total revenue of the Board for the first thirteen months of its existence was £16,341 11s 10d, and of this sum £10,900 7s 9d came from the Provincial Treasury.

Mr. David Graham, Mr. John Watson Bain, Mr. George Webster, Dr. Lee and Mr. P. A. Philips followed Mr. Beveridge in the chairmanship in the order named, the last-mentioned being elected on the 16th of December, 1869.

There can be no doubt that the old City Board did much useful work, but its power for good was greatly hampered by the peculiar and poorly defined relationship between the City and the Provincial authorities. The awkwardness of this doubtful relationship is noticeable throughout, but particularly in the records of the meeting of the 29th of December, 1864, at which two letters were read from the Superintendent, the first declining to contribute half the cost of repairing Ponsonby Road, and the second requesting the Board to repair a portion of Karangahape Road. His Honour was requested to reconsider both his letters. With this kind of see-sawing in full swing, it was impossible that anything like a satisfactory condition of the city could be achieved, and it was a lucky day for Auckland when the old Board gave place to the Auckland City Council, which came into existence in 1871. The fact that the Borough was proclaimed under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1867 shows that little time was lost in securing for Auckland the advantages vouchsafed by that statute. The credit for this promptness fairly belongs to Mr. P. A. Philips, then chairman of the City Board, and afterwards longer and better known as town clerk of Auckland. Through his initiative Auckland was constituted a borough under “The Municipal Corporations Act, 1867,” on the 24th of April, 1871, and at a meeting of the City Board of Commissioners, held on the morning of Monday, the 22nd of May, Mr. Philips read the proclamation in the General Government Gazette, and declared the City Board duly incorporated as the Municipal Council. The members of this board, who thus became the first City Councillors of Auckland, under the new constitution, were:—Messrs Atkin, Asher, Bugden, George, Hampton, Macready, Staines, Smart, and Tonks. These members, at the same meeting, elected Mr. Philips as the first mayor of Auckland under the new Municipal Corporations Act. After holding the position for three years in succession, Mr. Philips declined further re-election to the mayoralty, and accepted the more permanent, though less prominent, office of Town Clerk. Since then Auckland has had fifteen mayors, and of her ex-mayors, Messrs Tonks, J. Hurst, Clark, Waddel, Boardman, and Crowther are now dead, but Messrs Philips, Prime, Brett, Peacock, Devore, Upton, Holland and Dignan are all still more or less actively engaged in commercial and political pursuits.

When the Borough of Auckland was instituted it consisted of the North, South and East Wards only, Grafton, Karangahape and Ponsonby Wards being added in 1884, when the number of councillors was increased from nine to eighteen. Though the Borough now consists of 1762 acres, and is joined by the Boroughs of Parnell, Newmarket and Grey Lynn, with Devonport and Birkenhead separated only by the harbour, there are still some thickly populated parts, adjoining the city and certainly belonging to it, which are not included in any borough, and therefore, not mentioned in the quarterly returns of the Registrar-General. Much confusion is caused by this, as upwards of 12,000 citizens are omitted entirely from the quarterly returns, and even in the annual returns. The figures for the “road districts” are the same for every year of the quinquennial period. Yet some of these road districts, such as Mount Eden, for instance, are more closely connected with the city than are the suburban boroughs, and not beyond the latter as a casual reader would suppose. That Auckland suffers by the discrepancy between the real population of the city and suburbs and the quarterly published figures is beyond question; and it is, therefore, satisfactory to note an agitation in favour of a “Greater Auckland” to include all the suburbs.