Council crest returns to its maker... for now

Another link to Devonport’s past independent status has gone, with the removal of a bronze Devonport Borough Council crest from the council’s former building at 3 Victoria Rd.

A former deputy manager of the council, Richard Tong, made the crest after leaving the job in 1984. It was based on a copy made of architect Edward Bartley’s original drawing of the crest, designed a century earlier in 1886.

The bronze crest depicts Takarunga and Maungauika with a sailing ship in the foreground and Rangitoto in the background.

Devonport Borough Council celebrated 100 years in 1986.

The borough council agreed in writing that the plaque would be returned to Tong, or his successors, if the organisation was subsumed in a local-body amalgamation, as occurred in 1989.

Tong left the crest on the building, but has now recovered it, due to the building going up for sale this month.

Two versions of the crest exist. Tong’s original work had a casting fault. He plans to give this to Devonport Museum.

He will retain the 25kg work from the council building.

“It’s in safekeeping. I’ll pass it on to my son until Devonport is reconstituted and then he can pass it back,” Tong quipped.

Local government was on a “centralisation buzz” at the moment, Tong said, but he was optimistic community administrations such as the old borough council would one day return.

A breakdown of staff ratios in 1985 illustrated how much individual attention was available for residents of the borough (which reached from Devonport north to near Takapuna Grammar School).

Its 76 staff incorporated administration and clerical duties (14), engineering (3), inspectors (2); works (43); library (5), town planning (2) and government work schemes (7).

“The phone lines were manned from 8am till 4pm,” recalled Tong. “It was pretty easy to get through.”

As for the former council building, he can’t see it being an easy sell, considering the amount of retail space currently unoccupied in central Devonport and its need for earthquake-strengthening work.