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From Heritage New Zealand, Winter 2005

Genesis: The Origins of the Trust

by Paul Christoffel

The establishment of the Historic Places trust was a turning point in national maturity.

When the Historic Places Act was passed in 1954, it had overwhelming parliamentary support thanks to a combination of factors that included increasing nationalism and historical awareness.

The experience of depression, economic recovery and war profoundly changed New Zealand society. As social conditions worsened in the early 1930s, many New Zealanders looked beyond traditional colonial values for solutions to their country’s problems. One result was the election of a radical
Labour Government in 1935 that significantly increased the role of the state during its 14 years in office. Culture, arts and historical scholarship were among the areas to benefit from the reforming Government’s largesse.

Heritage pioneer Joseph William Allan Heenan, 1888-1951. Photo: Alexander Turnball Library F-20963-1/4 John Pascoe Collection*

An important figure during this period was Joseph Heenan, a keen scholar and undersecretary for Internal Affairs.With the help of his Minister, James Parry, Heenan ensured his department took the lead in organising the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of organised European settlement. He persuaded the Government to commission a range of centennial historical surveys and to establish a group of Government historians within his department.

The 1940 centennial celebrations were a great success, despite the onset of war.A re-enactment of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi was held in the grounds, which had been gifted to the nation in 1934 by Lord and Lady Bledisloe. Nga Puhi built a whare wananga on the site especially for the
occasion. Thousands travelled from all over the country to tour the centennial pavilion in Wellington, which had an estimated 2.6 million visits in six months. Over the next decade, many
districts celebrated the first significant arrivals of European settlers.

Carver, Tuhaka Kapu demonstrating his skills at the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition in Wellington. Photo: Alexander Turnball Library 1/2-036996:F*

Prime Minister Keith Holyoake claimed some years later that, thanks to these centennial activities, “many people in New Zealand for the first time became conscious of the fact that we really did have a history of our own, quite separate from the history of the Mother Country”. While Holyoake’s claim appeared to ignore Maori, he did validly reflect a growing nationalist trend.

Writers with a distinctly New Zealand voice, such as Frank Sargeson, emerged in the 1930s and ’40s. Historians took an increasing interest in New Zealand history. In 1947, the Government adopted the Statute of Westminster, a British Act that removed most of the remaining vestiges of imperial control over New Zealand affairs.The Government formed after the 1949 election was, for the first time in the country’s history, overwhelmingly dominated by men (and one woman)
born in New Zealand. The nationalist trend was hardly universal – huge crowds turned out for the 1954 royal tour – but a change was clearly underway.

Historical societies and similar organisations also played an important role.As Kynan Gentry’s research has shown, they were influential in creating awareness of New Zealand’s heritage and what was under threat.

During the Wellington centennial celebrations, there had been public outcry over the neglect of Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s memorial.

The Department of Internal Affairs purchased and renovated Pompallier House in Russell and began identifying historic places. Concerned citizens campaigned to save Partington’s windmill, a prominent Auckland landmark for nearly a century, which was demolished in 1950.

"Partington's Mill" by W.S. Dudley, watercolour. Photo: Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki

A more successful campaign launched that year prevented Wellington’s oldest Anglican church from being moved from Taita to Stokes Valley. The Christ Church campaign in particular was accompanied by a call for the Government to establish an organisation akin to Britain’s National Trust.

Joseph Heenan had suggested the National Trust idea to the Government shortly before his retirement in 1949. Heenan considered there was a need for a body that could guide the
Government in prioritising purchases of important historic buildings, as possible candidates for purchase were offered to his department from time to time.

Although Labour was defeated in the general election that year, the idea found a champion in National’s Parnell MP Duncan Rae, a history graduate, war veteran and teacher. Rae had been involved in historical preservation activities in the 1930s and was concerned about the increasing threat to the country’s historic sites, both Maori and European. He learnt a salutary lesson from the loss of Partington’s windmill, and was spurred into action by a desire to prevent further losses of historic treasures. He co-opted the assistance of like-minded citizens to draft a private member’s bill to implement
the National Trust proposal. An important difference was that the New Zealand body was to be a Government-funded rather than a strictly private body, which proved to be a stumbling block. As only Government bills could contain spending proposals, Rae’s bill had to be withdrawn, despite significant
parliamentary support. Fortunately, Internal Affairs Minister Charles Bowden was sympathetic to the cause and agreed to Rae’s request to sponsor a similar Government bill.

When the Historic Places Bill had its second reading in 1954, many MPs spoke enthusiastically in its favour.The public campaigns over Christ Church and Partington’s windmill had clearly had an effect, as had the rising tide of heritage had been neglected and historic sites vandalised and demolished.
Important historical documents had been lost, most recently in 1952 when a fire in Wellington’s Hope Gibbons building destroyed Government department records. Others spoke of the proposed trust’s important role in marking and maintaining places of historic value to the Maori people and correcting historical inaccuracies perpetuated in historic plaques.

The Historic Places Act was not the first Government initiative to protect historic buildings and sites. For example, the Scenery Preservation Act of 1903 empowered the Government to acquire land of “historic interest”, and in 1928
legislation was passed to conserve the Canterbury Provincial Government Chambers in central Christchurch.What made the establishment of the Historic Places Trust a significant reform was that it represented an on-going commitment to preserving the country’s history that would be less vulnerable than before to the political whims and fashions of the day.

This commitment was reflected in other contemporary developments. The Geographic Board was established in 1947 to ensure the integrity of place names, and in 1953 a new Town and Country Planning Act gave local authorities greater powers to protect historic buildings. In 1957, the Government set up National Archives as a custodian for official records.

Duncan Rae told Parliament in support of the Historic Places Bill that “no country can afford to neglect its history”. Clearly, fellow MPs and many others in the community agreed with him.