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FROM TOWN BOARD TO BOROUGH
COUNCIL: LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN ELLERSLIE
The Mount Wellington Highway District and the Ellerslie Town Board
Local government in the vicinity of Ellerslie began with
the creation of the Panmure Hundred in November 1848. From January
1863 a new body named the Panmure Highway District replaced the
Hundred and in 1865 landowners successfully petitioned for division
of the district into two local bodies: Panmure Township and the
Mount Wellington Highway District. For the next 43 years Ellerslie
and Mount Wellington remained jointly administered, the district
authority being reconstituted as a road board in 1882 under central
government legislation.
 During the nineteenth century board meetings were held at numerous
venues, including the Ellerslie Hotel. Permanent offices were
not secured until 1905 when the board undertook a lease of premises
on the corner of Panmure Road and Arthur Street. The responsibilities
of local government were dominated by metalling and channelling
roads, forming culverts, enforcing stock, dog and weed control, providing charitable
aid, ensuring public health and safety, caring for wastelands and watercourses,
and managing local quarries. Correspondence from residents often complained about
instances of poor sanitation, a danger caused by young boys riding or leading
horses on public footpaths, and unhygienic practices at the Ellerslie Slaughterhouse
near the junction of Panmure Road and Amy Street. The board frequently lobbied
for the provision of a police constable and post office in Ellerslie, for improvements
to the railway station, and for increased public transport facilities.
By the 1890s Ellerslie residents represented almost a third of ratepayers in
the Mount Wellington Road District, reflected in the increasing presence of Ellerslie
residents such as George Peek, William Gavin, and George Wilkinson on the board.
A movement for separation soon emerged and in February 1908 a public meeting
at the Ellerslie schoolhouse voted in favour of local government independence,
eventually culminating in formation of the Ellerslie Town District on the 7th
May 1908. Candidates for the town board were dominated by local businessmen,
many of them drawn from the second generation of families who had originally
settled in the town. Although women often corresponded on local government matters
as unmarried or widowed householders, no female representatives were elected
to local government during the governance of the Ellerslie Town Board.
The formation of the Ellerslie Ratepayers Association, also known as the Ellerslie
Progressive League and the Civic League, encouraged regular communication between
residents and the board. By the 1920s other community groups sought the board's
assistance, including the Modernising Society, the Great South Road Beautifying
Society, and the Ellerslie Social Welfare League.
Among the most significant achievements of the Ellerslie Town Board were creation
of a public recreation reserve in Michael's Avenue, provision of a safe water
supply, construction of a modern sewerage system, installation of street signs
and gas lighting, establishment of a volunteer fire brigade, and the construction
of a post office in the township. In addition, a bequest by Walter Scott and
donations from the Auckland Racing Club enabled the opening of a public reading
room and library between 1915 and 1931. By 1924 a comprehensive set of by-laws
extended from strict building and traffic codes to the regulation of resident's
moral conduct. Provisions banned card playing and athletic exercise in any public
park or reserve on Sundays and strictly prohibited spitting, singing, reading
aloud, lecturing, preaching, playing musical instruments, or creating any other
'nuisance' in public spaces. By 1926 land was purchased on the corner of Panmure
Road (Main Highway) and Pitt Street (Ramsgate Street) for the construction of
municipal buildings.
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