Tauranga Historical Society: Early Infrastructurists - Tauranga's First Four County Engineers

Friday 12 February 2021

Early Infrastructurists - Tauranga's First Four County Engineers

At the turn of the twentieth century the Tauranga County Council was in the confident hands of its elected chairman, J AM Davidson of Te Puna. He, the Cyclopaedia of New Zealand noted [1], “is at present [time of publication, 1900-1901] chairman of the Tauranga County Council. He has been chairman of the Te Puna Road Board since his arrival in the district and has taken a general interest in local matters.”

The route to local power and influence in the new settlement was, quite literally, via its roads. Politicians decided the timing and committed the money; and appointed staff, the County Engineers, built them. In the early days of the Tauranga County, however, qualified engineers were almost as hard to find as stone to make the roads with. Consider, therefore, the satisfaction of County Clerk John H Griffiths when he gazetted an advertisement for the position of County Engineer in 1907. He knew he would get at least one good-quality candidate – Archibald Campbell Turner, often also referred to as Captain Turner [2].

Advertisement for County Engineer

Captain Turner had been working on and off for the Council, in an ad hoc, private capacity, for at least a couple of years. A gnomic reference in a 1905 Audit Office letter reminds the Council [3] that a 5 per cent commission can be drawn from grants (for public works) “only where the Council has no salaried Engineer.” The letter was referred to Captain Turner.

The evidence shows it was quite a stretch for the Council to commit to a salaried appointment [4]. A 1906 discussion of the pros and cons showed a reluctant Vesey Stewart successfully deferring the matter for a month, but by the time Griffith’s advertisement was posted matters had crystallised into an offer of an annual salary of £200 plus the opportunity to continue with private work. It is tantalising, therefore, that the printed Conditions of Engagement to be found pasted inside the relevant Minute Book of County Council meetings has at some stage been hand-amended to strike out this provision.

Terms of employment, County Engineer

Archie Turner held office until 1912, but the indefatigable Vesey Stewart, apparently now reconciled to the position, invited the Council to consider appointing a successor Engineer in 1910. The meeting [5] not only traversed the same pro and con arguments as four years previously, but also revealed that the job now cost £225 p.a. and the annual public works grants administered amounted to £2000. It may be that Stewart had observed early the ill health Turner was suffering from – Davidson referred to this in his 1911 retirement speech [6] – and in January 1912 Archie relinquished his position [7]. He had been “informed by his doctors that he must give up surveying except in very flat, even country. They informed him that ordinary county work would not be injurious, but as every now and then the Council requires deviation surveys to be made, he thought it advisable that he should give the Council the required notice of resignation ... he regretted having to take this step as his connection with the Council has always been of a most agreeable nature. In the meantime he will go on with the surveys when he has time, as best he can, until the arrival of his successor.”

Archibald Campbell Turner died on December 30 1912 aged 78 [8]. His were big boots to fill, and the Council was seriously challenged by the range of demands he had been able to meet and the modesty of his salary [9]. For a while the County’s new works were taken on by a combination of private contracts with W. H. Dunnage, another colourful and adventurous surveyor [10], and A.W.H. Gray, a ‘Supervisor’ rather than a qualified engineer, but evidently something of a godsend through the labour and funding scarcities of the war years. By the time J R Page was appointed in 1920 [11], the salary of the County Engineer was £600 and – a sign of the roading times – he would provide his own car.

Like the infrastructure they made, County Engineers are often ignored or at best taken for granted. But contemporary records of our developing colony show that a great deal of attention was paid to their career moves and intriguing initiatives (such as Taranaki’s F.R. Basham’s advocacy of tar- and even concrete-sealed roads). Those who interest themselves in Tauranga’s civil engineering stories can learn much about the day-to-day realities of economic and social life in our district – and make the acquaintance of some powerful, appointed officials who exercised a great deal of influence on the lives we lead today.

I am indebted to the staff of the Western Bay of Plenty District Council for allowing me research access to the original Minute Books of the Tauranga County Council.

Tauranga Historical Society

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Friday 12 February 2021

Early Infrastructurists - Tauranga's First Four County Engineers

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