Ashburton Borough Centenary/First Borough Council

The first Mayor of the Ashburton Borough was elected on September 2nd, 1878. Two stood for office; both were keen businessmen and had already served on the Ashburton Road Board. Mr Thomas Bullock was also a member of the County Council. On this occasion he defeated his friend, Mr Donald Williamson, by 111 votes to 49 to become the first Mayor of Ashburton.

On September 4th, the first election for nine Councillors returned: Donald Williamson, Joseph Ivess, Edward Saunders, Robert W. Shearman, Weymouth Roberts, Andrew Orr, Rudolph Friedlander, George Parkin, James Campbell. The seven unsuccessful candidates were: Messrs Robinson, Fowler, Leggett, Firth, Quill, Chapman and Sandoe. A procession of varied vehicles drawn by horses and donkeys and accompanied by a brass band wielded all sorts of devices such as brooms, paint brushes and loaves in celebration of the occasion, and to the vast amusement of the onlookers.

Town Hall

The first meeting of the new Borough Council was held in the Town Hall, privately owned in spite of its title, which had just been built on the site now occupied by the Bank of New Zealand, on Monday, September 9th, 1878. The Mayor presided and, with the new Councillors, signed the declaration. J. Ivess and E. Saunders were absent.

The minutes of the first meeting were signed by Mr Charles Braddell, though he was not actually appointed clerk till the second meeting on September 23rd, from among several applicants. He was an accountant with offices in Montgomery’s Buildings on the southern side of the Burnett and East Street corner. There were doubts about the capacity of his office to cater for the new Council and the clerk was instructed to have a press for newspapers and a table and 12 chairs ordered.

A sub-committee of Councillors Campbell, Shearman and Friedlander was set up to arrange for the taking over of funds in hand from the Road Board for the sale of land and these ​amounted to £1,140 in all. Fourteen immigration cottages in the Borough were also handed over.

The new Borough needed bylaws and a committee of Councillors Ivess, Orr, Williamson, Roberts and Friedlander was set up to attend to this task.

Messrs Roberts and Parkin were appointed a committee to supervise a survey map of the town to be compiled by a licensed surveyor, showing the levels of all the streets. Tenders were invited for this work. At the next meeting, C. E. Fooks and Son were appointed and duly completed the map after an extension of six weeks because the north-westers were so fierce that they were unable to take the levels necessary. Fooks and Son were also commissioned to make a tracing on cloth of 2,000 acres of railway reserve between Tinwald and Rangitata to be forwarded to the Government with a request that the same be reserved as an endowment for the Borough. This application was finally blocked.

A Valuation Roll had to be prepared, and it was decided to call tenders for the job. At a later meeting Mr Mutch was appointed to complete the task by November. Needless to say, there were some deficiencies and objections from section holders, but these were ironed out later by the same valuer.

It was decided to write to the Government for an account of the reserves in the Borough, together with the reason for which they were reserved. This list was sent by the Crown Lands Department on October 21st, 1878, but did not include the reserves set aside for educational purposes. The Road Board surveyor complained that the gravel pit at the corner of East Street and the North Town Belt was encroaching on the Waste Lands adjoining and advised the Borough Council to apply for a bigger reserve.

The County Council offered a grant of £5,000 to the infant borough to set up a water supply, a vexed question that is causing just as much concern in 1978 as it did in 1878. We have always had either too much or too little and problems have continually arisen from both.

At this first meeting, the matter of a seal was considered. Land leases and bylaws had to carry the Borough Seal. It was decided to call tenders for the design and six designs were submitted later by Mr Ivess for the Seal Committee. One by Mr Watkins at the cost of £6 was chosen and the execution of the work was done by Edwards, Dunlop and Co., of Sydney, for £17/12/6. The splash of bright red has livened up the Council Minute Books many times in the ensuing 100 years.

Applications were to be called for the position of Town Clerk at £100 p.a. and at the next meeting, Mr C. Braddell was officially appointed.

So ended the first meeting of the Ashburton Borough Council.