BY PROCLAMATION

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 110, 3 February 1941, Page 9

BY PROCLAMATION

Borough Declared City Lower Hutt officially became a city when, at a special meeting of the council at 10 a.m., the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Parry, read the proclamation of the Governor-General, Lord Galway, declaring the borough a city. This was in answer to the council’s petition under the Municipal Corporations Act, which provides for city status for boroughs with a population of not fewer than 20,000. Lower Hutt passed this total in September, 1910. The proclamation was issued in duplicate, the first being for official record in the Internal Affairs Department and the second, a specially illuminated original, signed by Lord Galway, witnessed by Mr. Parry,' and sealed with the public seal of New Zealand. Mr. Parry said that the council’s request for the latter document showed a true sense of the historical importance of the occasion. It would be a permanent record for the city archives and, impressed with the historical sense of the council, he bad taken from the official departmental records photostats of the following documents . for presentation to the city archives: — The original petition presented for the constitution of the borough, showing in facsimile all the signatures thereto: a map showing the boundaries, as originally prayed for and also the areas which were excluded in the constitution as a result of counter petitions; and the original proclamation constituting the Borough df Lower Hutt, dated January 21, 1891. There was also a precis from the department’s Illes of the proceedings concerning the presentation of the petition, the subsequent action thereon, and final constitution of the borough. The town clerk, Mr. B. S. Knox, presented the mayor with a mayoral chain. The links of this were.given by ex-mayors or members of their families, and the pendant by Mr. John Mitchell, deputy mayor, who has been a councillor for 22 years, and for 10 years of this period deputy mayor. Mr. Knox said the chain had a two-fold significance; that of a mark of honour and respect to the chief citizen of the city and also a reminder of the mayor’s position as servant of the people. The mayor, acknowledging receipt of the chain, reaffirmed his pledge of service to the people and thanked the present council, past mayors and councillors. and all who had assisted in the building of Lower Hutt. He specially thanked Cr. Mitchell, ahd referred to the absence overseas with the 2nd N.Z.E.F. of Cr. J. E. F. Vogel.