THIRTY-SIX YEARS AGO

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 204, 8 May 1912, Page 7

THIRTY-SIX YEARS AGO

FROM TOWN BOARD TO BOROUGH. AN INTERESTING DOCUMENT | UNEARTHED. (By "The Antiquary.") i The advent of the Greater New Ply- ! mouth scheme, marking, as it uni doubtedly does, an epoch in the history of the town, serves as sufficient excuse i for recalling another cr\ none the less important in its day, in the local municipality—the change from town board to borough council. Added interest is lent to this little excursion into "The folios hound and set By Time, the great transcriber, on his shelves, Wherein are written the histories of ourselves," by the bringing to light of the original petition presented to Parliament, praying that the settlement might have the hall-mark of stability placed ,on it, in the shape of the name "borough." Quite accidentally, the writer came across this time-encrusted document last week, which still reposes in the possession of the man ('-'Walter Henry Scott, of New Plymouth, in the province of Taranaki, in the colony of New Zealand, builder," to quote from the quaint phraseology of the petition itself) who stood sponsor to it. This takes us back to January 26, 1870,. when New Plymouth- was, as Mr. Seot't puts it, "less than a village." The petition ran as follows: "To His Excellency the most Hon. George Augustus Constantine, Marquis of Normanby, Earl of Mulgrave, Viscount Normanby, and Baron Mulgrave._ | . . . Governor and commander-in- ' chief in and over Her Majesty's colony of New Zealand and its dependencies and Vice-Admiral of the same.—The petition of the undersigned inhabitant householders of the town of New Plymouth, boundaries whereof are hereinafter more particularly set forth, humbly showeth" —and here follows a lengthy and involved statement of the town boundaries. The petition concludes:—"The said town is under the control and management of a Town Board constituted under the provisions of an ordinance of the Provincial ■ Council, intituled the town of New Plymouth, Public Works Ordinances, | 1864. Your Excellency's petitioners therefore humbly pray that your Excel- j lency will be pleased to constitute tt\P) said* town of New Plymouth a borough under the Municipal Corporations Act, j 18C7. And your Excellency's petitioners, j as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.— New Plymouth, January 26, 1876." THOSE WHO REMAIN. The petition is attested to by W. H. Scott, witnessed by C. D. Whitecombe, I J.P., and subscribed to by' 118 rate- : payers. Of these, all save seventeen have passed to the 'realm "of the other living called the dead." The seventeen, who "include well-known residents, comprise:—Josiah Hosking, Joseph Pennington (of Inglewood). Edward H. Bullot, Robt. C. Hughes. Walter Morey, Thos. : Colson, IT. Revell, Wm. Davidson, Gerivase Hammerton (Patea), James Ken■worthv, Alex Shuttlcworth. Arthur Stan- ; dish. Harris Ford, A. Hood, W. IT. Scott, "Esau Marsh, and Geo. Cock. Glancing J at the 118 names, one sees several old identities and prominent citizens who are J alive to-day. Selecting a few of the j names, it is interesting to note that the [ signature of Mr. Arthur Standish, who was elected the first Mayor of the borough, appropriately heads the list. The next petitioner of note is the late Mr. Fred A. Carrington. He was employed by the original New Zealand Company, and on him devolved the important and responsible work of choosing a site for the town of New Plymouth, and subsequently surveying it. He was a member of the Legislative Council and at ona time Superintendent of New Plymouth. The name of the late Mr. T. ll'.-.ig, fatiiet of Mr. Newton King, is familiar to many. In the early provincial days he held the post of provincial secretary, and he was ; the first mnnaser of the local branch of the Bank of New Zealand. Further I down on the petition one sees the names •of the late Mr. James Paul (a former Mayor). Mr. Harris Ford (at present chairman of the Pukekura Park Board), Mr. Scott, himself, who has bpen living in retirement for some years past, Mr. Geo. Cock (an ex-Mavor and a prominent present day citizen), the late Mr. W. Seffern (for Tears editor of the Taranaki Herald) ', Mr. R. ('. Hughe* (who is in practice as a solicitor), the late Mr. John Beale (a member of the old town board under the provincial council), the late Mr. Wm. Northcroft (a surveyor, who was once provincial secretary). The last name on the petition is that of the late Mr. h. A. Cholwell, who was clerk to the town board, and (subsequently the first clerk of the borlough council. WHERE FAITH IN THE TOWN HAS

PAID. Opposite the name of each petitioner! was set the value of rateable land held by him in the proposed borough. In this connection it is interesting to note that on paper the biggest property owner in those davs was Mr. Win. Courtney, whose land was valued .it £IBO9. The only other valuations nf £IOOO or over were those of Messrs. A. TTood ( £1187). F. Carrington (£1005). and E. J. Cudd (£1011). Exactly what + .he afore-men-tioned propertied supposing they were intact, would fetch to-dav would doubtless cause many an ancient pioneer to regret that lie' had not speculated in land. I it took a power of to ob- j tain the 118 signatures, so '".'eat was the pessimism of the time rr-rarding the town's future. The petition got as far j as the House of Representatives, where it was defeated, at the instance of the opponents of the proposal, owing to some small technical fault. Nothing daunted, however, Mr. Scott went over the whole ground again, with the result that on August 11, 1876, New Plymouth ceased | to be a town board district and became a ' borough. The second petition reposes, to-day, in the departmental archives at Wellington. OUR FIRST COUNCILLORS. The personnel of the first council was as follows:—Mr. A. Standish (Mayor), Councillors J. (Colonel) Ellis, R. Chilman, W. 11. Scott. A. Laird, D. Callaghan, T. E. Hammerton, J. M. Vivian, and Walter Read. For a time the borough council had a hazardous career, New Plymouth at that time being, according to Mr. Scott, one of the poorest boroughs in the colony. FIGURES TELL. Ono of the surest barometers of a town's progress is the municipal balancesheet. Comparing that of last year with that of the year 1870, it is seen that in 36 years the total receipts of the borough from all sources, exclusive of loan money, have grown from £I9OO to no less than £33,250! A WORD TO THE WISE. A word for those who superintended the affairs of the borough during its infancy. Many of them did so, under the worst of conditions, at large personal sacrifice, at a time when there was little honor and very small dignity attached to their office. Yet they persevered for i the good of the town and the community ( in general, and to-day posterity reaps ! considerably of the benefits of their j labors. Reward was neither asked for j nor expected, but what does dishearten the few remaining veterans, at times, is the comparatively poor response, now-a-

days, of many of those best qualified to act, when it comes to filling local municipal offices—not necessarily only councillorships. Not only in holding office, but in combining for the welfare of the town generally, it is to be regretted that there is sometimes lacking that spirit of true civic life, which should be a predominant feature of every municipality. Is it that the tendency of the present generation ie to leave everything to the State io do; or to the elected beads of our local bodies f One sincerely hopes that this apparent indifference is not symbolical of the setting in of the decay of independence, even if only in a collective sense. Many citizens could do worse than commit this short proverb to mind: "In the multitude of counsellors there Is safety"—and progress too, ibr that matter. As a final word i» posterity, when the present generation lias in its turn joined the "great majority," t« have cause to bless or regret its predecessors?