The Hokitika Borough was the borough council covering the urban part of the town of Hokitika, New Zealand between 1867 and 1989, when Hokitika Borough and Westland County merged to form Westland District.
The Hokitika Borough was the borough council covering the urban part of the town of Hokitika, New Zealand between 1867 and 1989, when Hokitika Borough and Westland County merged to form Westland District.
During the time of the West Coast Gold Rush, Hokitika became the capital for the West Coast of the South Island. A Town Improvement Committee was established in 1865. This committee was succeeded by a new Municipal Corporation, for which a nomination meeting was held on 25 September 1866, where there was great confusion about the correct electoral procedure. As more nominations were received than were positions available, an election was held on 3 October. [1] Many members of the Town Improvement Committee did not make the election, [2] and the councillors elected were W. Hungerford, James Bonar, Charles Williams, James R. Anderson, R. Ecclesfield, A. Cumming, William Shaw, [3] F. L. Clarke, and J. Fitzsimmons. [4] [5] The councillors first met on 9 October 1866 [6] and elected James Bonar as their first chairman. [5]
The Hokitika Borough was originally formed under the Hokitika Municipal Corporation Ordinance, 1866, an act passed by the Canterbury Provincial Council. The ordinance was passed on 27 December 1866, and assented by the Superintendent, William Sefton Moorhouse, on 29 December 1866. [7] One of the purposes of that ordinance was to declare the election of the first nine councillors as valid. [8]
The Municipal Corporations Act, 1867 was passed by the New Zealand Parliament, and this allowed for towns to be constituted a borough, and Hokitika Borough was incorporated on 24 August 1868. The area of the borough was 1,280 acres (5.2 km2). [9]
The Westland Province was a province of New Zealand from 1873 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. The capital was Hokitika.
The Canterbury Province was a province of New Zealand from 1853 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. Its capital was Christchurch.
Richard Harman Jeffares Reeves was a New Zealand politician of the Liberal Party. He was acting Speaker of the Legislative Council in 1905.
Superintendent was the elected head of each Provincial Council in New Zealand from 1853 to 1876.
Charles Edward Button was a solicitor, Supreme Court judge, Mayor of Hokitika and later Birkenhead, and an independent conservative Member of Parliament in New Zealand. Born in Tasmania, he came to New Zealand with his wife in 1863. He first lived in Invercargill, then in Westland, and after a brief period in Christchurch, he settled in Auckland. He was an MP for two periods, and when he was first elected to Parliament, he beat his colleague, friend, political opponent, and later Premier Richard Seddon; this was the only election defeat ever suffered by Seddon.
The 4th New Zealand Parliament was a term of the Parliament of New Zealand.
Joseph Petrie was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from Westland, New Zealand.
John Bevan was a 19th-century member of the House of Representatives. He was an auctioneer and merchant from Hokitika on the West Coast of New Zealand.
Gerard George Fitzgerald was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in New Zealand. Like his brother James FitzGerald, he was a journalist of considerable ability, and co-founded The Southland Times in 1862. For the last 19 years of his life, he was editor of The Timaru Herald.
Robert Caldwell Reid was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from the West Coast, New Zealand. Born in Scotland and attracted by the gold rushes in Victoria and the West Coast, he was later the proprietor of a series of newspapers.
John White was a 19th-century member of the House of Representatives from the West Coast, New Zealand.
The Mayor of Hokitika officiated over the borough of Hokitika in New Zealand. The office was created in 1866 when Hokitika became a municipality and a borough two years later, and ceased with the 1989 local government reforms, when Hokitika Borough and Westland County merged to form Westland District. The first Mayor of Hokitika was James Bonar.
James Holmes was a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council from Hokitika on the West Coast.
Westland County, also known as County of Westland, was a local government area on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It existed from 1868 to 1873, and then from 1876 until 1989. In its first incarnation, it constituted the government for the area that was split from the Canterbury Province, with the West Coast Gold Rush having given the impetus for that split. It had the same administrative powers as a provincial council, but the legislative power rested with Parliament in Wellington. The first Westland County was the predecessor to Westland Province.
The Mayor of Grey, often referred to as the Mayor of Greymouth, officiates over the Grey District of New Zealand which is administered by the Grey District Council with its seat in Greymouth. The current Mayor is Tania Gibson. Two predecessors to this office were the Mayor of Greymouth, officiating over the Greymouth Borough Council from 1868, and from 1877 the chairman of the Grey County Council.
The Greymouth Borough was the borough council covering the urban part of Greymouth, New Zealand between 1868 and 1989, when it became part of Grey District.
The Westland Pioneers' Memorial is a statue in Hokitika, New Zealand, commemorating the pioneer settlers of Westland. Unveiled in 1914, the statue had its right arm broken off in 2009 and was subsequently dubbed Venus de Hokitika. The memorial was relocated in 2016 from its original location on the side of State Highway 6 to the centre of a roundabout in one of Hokitika's main streets.
Rimu, originally known as Upper Woodstock, is a small town in the Westland District of New Zealand's South Island.
The Ross Borough was the borough council covering the town of Ross, New Zealand and the nearby locality Donoghues, between 1878 and 1972, when Ross Borough was merged back into Westland County.
Westland Hospital was one of two hospitals in Hokitika, on the West Coast of New Zealand. It was founded in 1865 and closed in 1989.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cyclopedia Company Limited (1906). "Corporation Of Hokitika". The Cyclopedia of New Zealand : Nelson, Marlborough & Westland Provincial Districts. Christchurch: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand . Retrieved 23 September 2015.