Property at 30 Monmouth Street in the process of demolition to make way for Court House development, August 2022
Image by Fiona Kean, Private Collection
If you haven’t been to town lately it’s worth a trip to see the Monmouth and McLean Street block. The site has been cleared for a new courthouse development, which was announced this time last year and is expected to be completed by 2026. Estimated to cost 150 million dollars, it will be the third official site for court facilities in Tauranga - the site of the Magistrate’s Court prior to 1874 is currently unknown.
The first Government Building located on Willow Street between Harington and McLean Streets
Silver gelatin print by T.E. Price, 1900
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0323/08
The first Government Building in Tauranga opened in 1874 and included the Magistrate’s Court, Post Office and Council Chambers. When the foundation stone was laid by Mrs Wrigley, a prominent resident who had been living in Tauranga since 1863, she broke a champagne bottle on it and declared ‘prosperity to this building and to Tauranga’.[i] Unfortunately, the prosperity was short lived, as this fine wooden building burnt to the ground in November 1902 taking all the town’s court records with it. As a side note, it appears that after the fire a free-standing Court House planned for Tauranga did not eventuate.
Proposed Tauranga Court House, No. 1 block plan from elevation and section A.B., No. 2 Two side elevations and outbuildings, Tauranga, J. Campbell
Image courtesy of Archives New Zealand, PWD 20303
The replacement
building on the same site, was opened in 1906 and included the magistrate court
on the first floor along with a Clerk’s office and two library rooms. A
correspondent in the New Zealand Herald had this to say about the
building:
“Now that the Tauranga Post Office is outwardly completed, those who believe that again things are not precisely what they should be, have abundant justification for their belief. Without attempting to criticise the weird type of architecture displayed – if it is a type – it will suffice to briefly allude to the position of the new building. One fact immediately strikes the observer, namely, that the back, not, the front, is turned towards the town, and that the most ornamental portion has been made to face a dead, solid wall of brown earth, nearly as high as itself.”[ii]
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| Now referred to as the ‘Old Tauranga Post Office’, this was the second Government Building on the site. The men in the photograph are believed to be the Post Office staff around the time of opening Postcard by unidentified photographer, 1906 Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0174/09 |
Considering the town’s population growth in the following decades it is surprising that this building would serve the judiciary for more than 60 years. In 1965 a new courthouse was erected on the corner of Harington Street and Cameron Road. It was opened in November by the Minister of Justice Mr J. R. Hanan in front of a large crowd. In 1998 an ‘upgrade’ made the building unrecognisable and several leaks since 2016 led to the claim that the ‘original build was incredibly rough’, something the contractors of the day would no doubt dispute. [iii] Hopefully in the future the facilities to be built on the new site will get better reviews than the courthouses of the past.
Tauranga Courthouse, corner of Harington Street and Cameron Road October 1966
Image courtesy of Gale Collection, Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0005/20/1196
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