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Report of Representative on National Historic Places Trust
The foundation chairman, the Hon. C. M. Bowden, retired from the Trust in May of last year, and Mr. Ormond Wilson was appointed as his successor.
Many of the seventeen regional committees established in 1951 are now vigorous bodies. They have made general surveys of their districts and are now submitting to the Trust lists of historic buildings, sites and monuments, with their recommendations. They are also organizing the recording of buildings and sites by photography and detailed scale-drawings, in accordance with a directive issued by the Trust. All but two of the committees have been visited by the Chairman and the Secretary during the year.
Ten plaques have been set up in New Zealand to mark places of local or national importance. There are many other interesting sites which do not warrant plaques, and about which it is desirable to give a visitor more information than the arrow limits of a plaque would permit. For such sites a standard form of notice board has been designed. The colour chosen is a pale blue with white lettering.
A party has done more recordings of rock-shelters in the Waitaki and Ahuriri valleys. Latex moulds of rock-carvings at Kohi Gorge, Waverley, have been successfully made, and the shallow cave containing them has been closed by heavy wire netting.
Te Porere redoubt, the site of Te Kooti's last major stand, has been placed in the care of the Trust by the Maori owners. The earth work has been cleared and will be fenced, and access to the site will be improved by the construction of two small bridges.
Grants have been made for the maintenance of two old houses, the “Levels” (Timaru) and the “Cuddy” (Waimate), for repairs to the Anglican Church at Pukehau (Hawke's
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Bay), and for the restoration of the Kaiapohia Pa (Canterbury) and the Paremata redoubt. Arrangements have been made for the Trust to put a plaque and notice-boards at the “Elms” (Tauranga), and notice-boards at Onawe Pa (Akaroa) and at Kemp's Pa (Wanganui River).
The matter of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul is still unresolved, and the struggle to save it from demolition goes on with great vigour and with wide public support. The Trust's failure to save Bethune's Building, in Wellington, calls attention to the limited sanctions the Trust can apply.
The annual Government grant was reduced by almost 50 per cent., to £4,500, for the year 1958–59. This will meet the administrative costs of the Trust and its regional committees, and allow current projects to continue. Finance for some major projects in the coming year will have to be found from reserves if the grant remains at last year's figure.
With the rapidly increasing number of projects that the regional committees are submitting, additional staff will be needed to cope with the research and the field-work these projects involve. A substantial grant has been made to the Archaeological Association to establish a site recording system. This system, in a few years will be of great assistance to the Trust in establishing the historicity of many pre-European sites.
J. D. H. Buchanan,
Representative on National Historic Places Trust.