The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]
Waitemata County Council
Waitemata County Council.
The county of Waitemata has an area of 613 square miles, and an estimated population of about 7000. The value of ratable property in town districts is £25,739, within road districts, £77,473, in outlying districts, £519,263, and within the limits of the county, £622,475. This does not include the ratable value of the boroughs of Birkenhead and Devonport, which rate on the annual value. There is a general rate of 3/4d in the £, and separate rates of 3/4d and 1/2d in the £ in specified ridings. The total annual receipts from all sources, including rates, licenses, grants, etc., amount to £6,766 1s 4d, and the expenditure to £6,886 8s 8d. Considerable areas of the county were at one time heavily timbered, and the timber industry still provides a great deal of employment. Some of the finest specimens of the kauri pine are still to be found on the west coast of the county. In places the land has been cleared, and the settlers are turning their attention to fruit growing and sheep-farming. The country is mostly too broken for agricultural purposes, but for pasturage it is admirably suitable. The People's Park at Waitakerei consists of 4000 acres, mostly virgin forest, and the splendid waterfalls of Waitakerei and Naihotopu, and the magnificent scenery and natural wonders of the West Coast district, are all within the county. The falls of Naihotopu are now being utilised as an auxiliary water supply for the city, which is, therefore, not likely to suffer any scarcity in future. The well known Waiwere Hot Springs and Sanatorium are situated on the northern boundary of Waitemata. These places are all within twenty miles' ride of the city of Auckland, and are much frequented, especially in summer.
The Waitemata County Council came into existence under the Counties Act of 1877. At its first meeting, held in Auckland, the following councillors were present:—Mr Oliver Mays and Mr R. Mackay, Takapuna Riding; Mr Robert Sinclair and Mr John Lamb, Ararima Riding; Mr Henry Lloyd, Waiti Riding; and Captain C. H. Otway, Manukau Riding. Mr Mays was unanimously elected first chairman of the Council, and, with one short interval, held the office for eight years. When Mr Mays retired from the chairmanship in 1887, he was appointed county clerk and treasurer, and still (1900) holds that position. Waitemata is the premier county of the provincial district of Auckland, and its popularity and success are in a large measure due to the energy and administrative ability of Mr Mays. During the first ten years of the county's existence, thirteen of the sixteen local road boards merged themselves into it. The Council for 1900 consists of Messrs J. H. O'Neill (chairman), R. Sinclair, A. Bruce, A. Wilson, A. J. Hatfield, junior, E. W. Alison, J. M. Phillips, and A. Cochran, junior. The Council, which meets on the first Friday in each month, has jurisdiction over all the country lying north of the Auckland harbour, as far as Waiwera on the east, and the Kaipara river on the west.
Hanna, photo.Mr. J. H. O'Neill.
Mr. R. Sinclair.
Councillor and Mrs. A. Wilson.
Mr Alexander Bruce, who sits on the Waitemata County Council as Member for the Northcote Riding, is also chairman of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1839, and was educated at his native place. On leaving school he acted for two years and a half as page to the late Lord Lindsay, who was celebrated as the author of “Lindsay's Travels in Egypt, Edom and Syria,” a work of great research. Mr Bruce afterwards entered the service of Messrs Blackie Bros., engineers, Aberdeen, and remained with the firm for three years, after completing his apprenticeship. He afterwards worked in Glasgow and at the Blackwall Company's Shipbuilding Yards in London, then one of the largest yards in Great Britain. In the year 1863, Mr Bruce came to Auckland by the ship “Scimitar,” and entered the employment of the engineering firm of Messrs Vicary and Masefield, now Masefield and Co. After being for some time with that firm, he entered the service of Messrs Fraser and Co., and remained there until 1865, when, owing to a lock-out about increased wages, Mr Bruce left the firm. In conjunction with his brother-in-law, Mr Teasdale, he then started in Queen Street in a bakery and confectionery business, which was most successfully carried on for three years. Mr Bruce was then attracted by the glowing accounts of fortunes quickly made on the Thames goldfields, and disposed of his interest in the business. He was mining for a year and a half at the Thames, but had no success as a gold-seeker. He then commenced the more certain occupation of engineer, and was over a year busily employed in erecting quartz-crushing machinery. Mr Bruce returned to Auckland, where he re-entered the employment of Messrs Masefield and Co., with whom he remained for over twenty years, and had charge of a department. Mr Bruce first took part in public affairs in 1884, when he was elected a member of the Northcote Road Board. He remained on that body until its amalgamation with the Waitemata County Council, and was for several years previous to the amalgamation a member on both bodies. He has been continuously a member of the Waitemata County Council for over thirteen years, during which he has been returned three times, unopposed, and twice at contested elections. Mr Bruce has been connected with the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board for eight consecutive years, and is now (1900) chairman of that body. He has been for over forty years a member of the Society of Amalgamated Engineers, one of the largest and most influential societies in existence, and has for many years been secretary to the Auckland branch. As a public man, Mr Bruce is painstaking and consistent, and enjoys the utmost confidence of his constituents. Mr Bruce married shortly after his arrival in Auckland, and of a family of ten, three sons are now, as engineers, following in their father's foot-steps.
Mr. E. W. Alison.
Hanna, photo.
Mr. A. Cochran.
Mr James Martin Phillipps. Member of the Waitemata County Council, is the son of Mr John Phillipps, of the firm of Messrs W. Phillipps and Son, oil and colour merchants, Auckland, and was born in Auckland in 1862. He was educated first at a public school, and afterwards at the Grammar School, and then devoted himself to the breeding of sheep, cattle and horses at his extensive property at Woodhill, Helensville. Mr Phillipps has long been well known as a most successful breeder of draught horses, and horses of his breeding are celebrated throughout New Zealand. Latterly, however, he has gone in more for cattle and sheep. Mr Phillipps has been chairman of the Woodhill school committee for over twelve years; in fact, from its earliest existence. He is also chairman of the Helensville Agricultural Society, and is judge at all the horse shows held in the provincial district of Auckland. Mr Phillipps was elected to his present seat in the Waitemata County Council in 1899.
Hanna, photo.
Mr. J. M. Phillipps.
Hanna photo.
Mr. O. Mays.
Several of the prominent public men in Devonport to-day were his pupils during this period. In 1863, Sir George Grey, during his second governorship, proposed to establish a school for the sons of Maori chiefs, on the island of Kawau, where, being removed from the influence of tribe and custom, they might be educated on purely English lines. On the recommendation of the Board of Education Mr and Mrs Mays were appointed to conduct the institution. The exigencies of the Waikato war, however, prevented his Excellency from carrying out his benevolent scheme. Shortly afterwards the Bishop of New Zealand (Dr Selwyn) offered Mr Mays the charge of the large Native School at Waimate, Bay of Islands, which he accepted; but before he could enter upon his duties, the school buildings were unfortunately destroyed by fire. Mr Mays then commenced business as a general storekeeper at Devonport. He was appointed the first postmaster for that district, and held the office for twenty years. On retiring from business in 1883, Mr Mays was appointed Immigration Officer and Superintendent of Quarantine for the port of Auckland, and carried out his duties to the entire satisfaction of the General Government until the system of assisted immigration ceased in 1889. When the Counties Act came into operation in 1877, Mr Mays was one of the two members then elected to represent the Takapuna Riding in the county of Waitemata. During his thirty-nine years' residence in Devonport Mr Mays has been conspicuously and closely identified with nearly every movement for the advancement of that important suburb. He collected funds for the erection of the first public wharf and the first church, and for the acquisition of the present splendid site of the public school. In 1867 the first road board was established in Devonport, mainly by his exertions, and he was chairman of the board for some years. He represented the local body on the Harbour Board for ten years, and in 1881 he was a member of the special committee, and moved the adoption of its report, which recommended the construction of the large dock at Calliope Point. Mr Mays has been a member of the Devonport Borough Council since 1892. Immediately after his election he moved that a deputation consisting of Messrs J. C. Macky, R. H. Duder, A. Buchanan and himself, should wait upon the Auckland Harbour Board to obtain the transfer of the public reserve at Devonport, known as the “Triangle,” to the Devonport Borough Council. Mr Mays' action in this matter was ultimately successful in recovering for the people of Devonport a valuable block of land, which was originally reserved by Sir George Grey for public purposes, and was specially exempted from sale at the first disposal of Crown lands in the district. The Harbour Board acknowledged the justice of the claim, and assisted in the promotion and passing of an Act of Parliament, authorising the transfer of the land to the local body. Mr Mays has rendered very special service to Devonport in connection with education. Having secured the best possible site for a public school, he urged the committee to obtain a new building, adapted to the needs of the district, and the result was that a vote of £1200 was made by the Board of Education and expended in the erection of the original block of buildings on the present site. As chairman of the school committee for very many years he has, with the cordial cooperation of his colleagues, done a great deal in other ways to place the Devonport school in the front rank of the public schools of the province. The Devonport school committee is one of the very few in the colony which have established a technical work-shop and kindergarten classes; and one of Mr Mays' colleagues on the committee, Mr Edward Bartley, voluntarily undertook the first year's management of the workshop, and brought it to such a state of efficiency that the Education Department gave a yearly grant in aid of the cost. The Devonport school has now a roll of 600 scholars, with a staff of sixteen teachers, and Mr Mays and his colleagues are justly proud of its success. In 1885 Mr Mays was appointed treasurer of the Auckland Grammar School Trust, and his management of the school's endowments has been equal to the progress made by the school itself, which now stands at the head of the secondary schools of the colony. In 1888 Mr Mays was gazetted an official visitor of the industrial schools in Auckland, and devoted a good deal of his time to the promotion of the boarding-out system, which, in the Auckland district at least, has proved a great success. When the Hospital and Charitable Institutions Act came into operation in 1886, Mr Mays was elected to represent the counties of Rodney and Waitemata, and the Borough of Devonport, on the Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. He held the position for six years, and was chairman in his last year of office. During his membership the late Mr Edward Costley bequeathed £100,000 to the charitable and other institutions of Auckland. Of this bequest, £12,150 was for the Old Men's Home, and Mr Mays was one of the first to advocate the erection of a suitable building outside the city for the aged people, who were then lodged in two very old buildings on the Hospital grounds. There was much opposition to this project from those who wished the money to remain on fixed deposit, in order that the interest might be applied in reduction of the rates levied for charitable aid purposes; but the agitation thus commenced was eventually successful, and in 1889 his Excellency, the Earl of Onslow, laid the foundation stone of the new home at Epsom. On that occasion Mr Mays made an impressive speech, in which he gave the history of the benefactors of Auckland, and dwelt especially on the characteristics of the noblest of them all—Edward Costley. Mr Mays is recognised as a high authority on the law relating to local government, in connection with which he has had such exceptional experience. Apart from his knowledge of practical affairs, Mr Mays is a man of much natural ability, and always speaks with persuasive eloquence on subjects in which he is interested. This is so well recognised that, in 1884, a deputation from Sir George Grey's Central Election Committee twice waited upon him, and earnestly requested him to contest the Waitemata seat for the House of Representatives. The committee offered to support him with the whole strength of its powerful organization, and had he allowed himself to be nominated, his election would have followed almost as a certainty. He, however, declined to enter the parliamentary arena. Mr Mays, who has been a Justice of the Peace for a number of years, is further referred to in an article on the Waitemata County Council.
Mr Hugh Munro Wilson has held the position of Engineer to the Waitemata County Council since 1889, and has fulfilled his duties with benefit to the county and credit to himself. He has recently received an additional appointment as engineer of the Waitakerei Water Supply. Mr Wilson carries on an extensive private practice as a mining engineer and surveyor at 16 and 21 Palmerston Buildings, Queen Street, Auckland, and in that connection he is referred to in another article.