• Map 3404 courtesy of Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection; dated February 1899, note that significant parts of Devonport hadn't yet been developed.

Auckland Council archival databases

As well as volunteering at Birkenhead and Devonport Museums, and writing this column, I also volunteer at Auckland Council Archives. Specifically, the latter involves the transcribing, or checking previous transcribing, of various former Council’s rate books and War Memorial rolls. I have just finished working on the Devonport Borough rate book for 1900/1901, and starting that for 1901/1902. In 1901 Devonport Borough had 3,823 residents (1799 male and 2024 females) living in 730 houses.

Rates were paid on various parcels of unoccupied land, or land and houses where appropriate, but also on land and shops or stables, along with enterprises such as workrooms, bakeries and even a timber yard. All those paying rates at that time are named and nearly every entry has readily identifiable details as to the land block and allotments, with all having their rateable value as at that time, along with how much was paid in that year, by whom and when. What is notable for that time is that there were a number of women listed as owners: widows, wives and the unmarried.
What is also interesting is the accumulation of land by certain families. By the early 1900s, Ewen and Alexander Alison were being described as the owners of the largest amount of property in Devonport Borough. In fact, for the financial year ending March 1898, the Alison family along with their Devonport Steam Ferry Company accounted for around 5% of the total rate income for the Borough. However, one third of the 5% came at that time from Devonport team Ferry Company land leased to the Takapuna Jockey Club (its chairman was Ewen Alison). The Jockey Club was on the land where the Waitemata Golf Club now is.
Also at that time, the Devonport Steam Ferry Company leased land from the Auckland Harbour Board along the Devonport foreshore, along with land for a coal shed and workshop as well as leasing land from the Board on the city side. I retrieved these land ownership details from the online Devonport Borough valuation rolls, which cover 1887 to 1898.
The Council website makes available databases for Borough Council rate books as well. For the North Shore area these are: Birkenhead for 1912 to 1914, Northcote for 1910 to 1919 and Takapuna for 1926 to 1927. These are taken from the earliest held for each borough, and there is also an online Birkenhead Borough valuation roll for 1913 to 1914.
When researching the development of Takapuna’s Tennyson Avenue and generally the Esmonde Road area, I have particularly found the Takapuna Borough Council building permit register from 1913 to 1950 very useful in determining the growth of that area. There is also a list of Takapuna and Milford beach frontage property owners for 1916.
As well as this there are four local Rolls of Honour or War Memorial indexes, for Birkenhead (at the War Memorial Park), Northcote (at the Rodney Road War Memorial Hall), Takapuna (at the War Memorial at Number 1 The Strand) and Devonport (on the local War Memorial).
The databases also include a Waitemata County Council bridge register covering from 1890 to 1940, along with that County’s wine licensing applications for 1916 to 1934. Both those databases include the East Coast Bays and Glenfield and other parts of the North Shore outside of borough boundaries. There is also a database for Devonport Borough Council wage worker pay records from 1916 to 1924.
Also, if you want to see if there are any no-longer-current Council documents or files at Auckland Council Archives, whether from the old Rodney and Franklin District Councils, North Shore, Waitakere, Auckland, Manukau and Papakura Cities, and the old Auckland Regional Council, you go to ‘Search the Archives – Auckland Council’ at the Council website and ‘Search the archives database online’.

david.verran@xtra.co.nz


Issue 122 August 2021