The Timaru Herald – Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The day that Timaru won independence
Timaru came of age on July 13, 1868, when it was officially constituted as a borough. Eight men – Samuel Hewlings, Arthur Perry, George Cliff, Robert Taylor, John Melton, Francis W. Stubbs, Richard Turnbull, and George Healey – were elected as the first council. The first task facing seven of them at the inaugural meeting – Mr. Healey was absent – was to elect a mayor from their number. The two most likely were Mr. Hewlings and Mr. Perry. Both were nominated, and Mr. Hewlings was elected the first mayor of Timaru.
The only other business for the day was to set council meetings for the second and fourth Mondays of each month and to call tenders for a town clerk. At its third session, the council appointed Mr. Lough as its town clerk, at a salary of £100 a year. He was required to provide two sureties of £100 each. Mr. Hewlings remained as mayor for three years, twice being elected unanimously by his council. Mr. Lough occupied the town clerk's chair until 1905 and was considered to have guided the affairs of the borough wisely.
The constitution of Timaru as a borough followed a long battle for autonomy. In November 1865, the town won individuality as a municipality but continued to come under provincial government control. Seventeen candidates were nominated in October for the nine seats that would make up the Timaru Municipal Council. Mr. Hewlings, although only in the middle order of the poll, was elected chairman because he was one of the longest-serving residents in the community.
The constitution of the Municipal Council put an end to the Timaru Roads Board, which was charged with the upkeep of streets, with the council taking over that organisation's liabilities and assets. However, the Municipal Council was ineffective, having to ask the government for assistance for anything it needed. Three years later, it left the new borough council the unhappy legacy of a virtually unserviced town. It was in debt to the tune of £500, and on August 24, 1868, it struck a rate of one shilling in the pound on all rateable property and instructed the town clerk to prepare a rating list for the borough.
As quickly as it could, the council prepared its rate demands, but was then faced with the problem of collecting them. It was not until March 1869 that a valuation roll was completed, and the council could look forward to some reliability of income. Until then, it was forced to rely on a bank overdraft to meet its commitments. The council's first meeting was held in the Club Hotel, but it then moved to the Mechanics Institute in North St. A section behind the Bank of New Zealand was purchased as a site for council offices, and the building on the site served the council for about a decade.
Plans were then made to construct new offices on the same site – almost directly opposite Barnard St – and the foundation stone was laid on March 1, 1877, amid much criticism from the public and councillors. The existing council offices were built in 1912 and subsequently enlarged to cover the frontage of King George Place between Barnard St and Latter St.
In terms of public works, the council was fortunate to have a strong and cheap labour force at its disposal – prisoners from the Timaru Gaol on Heaton St. Early records show repeated requests for this labour, and most of the streets south of North St were formed originally by the convicts. King St and Craigie Ave were also cut from the clay by the prisoners, but the final forming was done under contract.