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© Emma Louise Joyce 2005
Tenuous Tenancies:
A History of the Cornwallis Baches
By Emma Louise Joyce
An essay submitted in the category of historical research for the 2005 J. T. Diamond Essay Competition.
Tenuous Tenancies 2
In 1978, the Auckland Regional Authority (ARA) published B. W. Hayward and
J. T. Diamond’s extensive compilation of archaeological sites in West
Auckland. Item number A125 in Historical Archaeological Sites of the
Waitakere Ranges, West Auckland, New Zealand refers to the existence of
baches at Cornwallis ‘on natural flats and terraces above and behind [the]
beach’. Hayward and Diamond record that approximately 70 baches were
built at Cornwallis after 1900 only to be demolished in the 1960s and 1970s.1
In actual fact, it was only one year before the publication of Hayward and
Diamond’s work that a bulldozer had destroyed the last bach. Although the
Auckland City Council had decided to remove the last six ‘squatters’ homes a
few months earlier, the final destruction had been delayed in order for the
squatters to have time to remove their possessions from the baches.2
Historical writing about the significance of baches in New Zealand
rhapsodises these ‘assemblages of fibrolite and corrugated iron’.3 Kevyn
Male suggests that baches built in the immediate two decades following World
War Two are part of New Zealand’s ‘cultural history’.4 Similarly, writing about
the baches at Cornwallis eulogises their existence. According to John Lifton,
the bach community at Cornwallis was ‘in the best tradition of New Zealand’.5
This essay explores the history of the baches at Cornwallis.
1 B. W. Hayward and J. T. Diamond, Historic Archaeological Sites of the Waitakere Ranges, West Auckland, New Zealand, Auckland, 1978, p.20. 2 Clipping from the New Zealand Herald (NZH), 5 July 1997, File no: CORN2841/58, Auckland Regional Council Records and Archives. 3 Paul Thompson, The Bach, Wellington, 1985, p.5. 4 Kevyn Male, Good Old Kiwi Baches and A Few Cribs Too, Auckland, 2001, p.8. 5 John Lifton, Cornwallis, Palmerston North, 2002, p.11.
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Figure One: The coloured area marks the area Hayward and Diamond recorded as A125 – the Cornwallis baches.
Source: B. W. Hayward and J. T. Diamond, Historic Archaeological Sites of the Waitakere Ranges, West Auckland, New Zealand, Auckland, 1978, map 8.
Tenuous Tenancies 4
The McLaughlin family established the Cornwallis Park when they gifted 1900
acres of land to the Auckland City Council in 1910. In 1915, as part of the
Auckland City Markets and Endowment Act, the Council was given the power
to lease part of the Cornwallis Park excluding the foreshore for a term ‘not
exceeding twenty-one years’. During the Act’s second reading in parliament,
John Payne, Minister for Grey Lynn, argued that allowing the Auckland City
Council to lease the right to erect buildings was ‘dangerous’ for ‘no local
authority should have power to curtail in any shape or form the public park
spaces of the people’.6 Payne’s criticism of the Act illustrates that the issue of
how best to make use of Cornwallis Park began only a few years after its
establishment. However, on the 29 March 1916, in asking the Council to
‘kindly grant me a permit to build a week’s end shanty at Con Wallis [sic] Park’
C. Leathert of Onehunga became the first person to receive permission to
erect a bach on the Park.7 His request was met on the provision he would
pay a one-pound annual rental, ensure efficient sanitary measures, agree that
no bush would be destroyed and that the buildings would be demolished
within one month of the Council issuing an order for their removal.
The Council’s provisions illustrate uncertainty as to the position of baches at
Cornwallis. They were unwilling to extend tenancies of the land beyond a
year and reserved the right to have the baches removed at their discretion.
However, this did not deter other Aucklanders from seeking to build their own
bach. In the period from Leathert’s request to 1919, a number of Aucklanders
had applied for permits to build baches at Cornwallis. Often referred to as 6 New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, vol. 73, August 19-September 17 1915, p.159. 7 Letter from C. Leathert to Town Clerk, Auckland City Council (ACC), Cornwallis Park – Erection of Tents and Weekend Cottage 1916-1921, ACC 275, File no: 17-006, Auckland City Council Archives.
Tenuous Tenancies 5
‘summer cottages’ or even a ‘Summer Seaside Shack’, requirements for the
erection of baches remained the same as the provisions given to Leathert.8
By 1919, it appears members of the Council were becoming concerned at the
positioning of the baches and proposed a trip to Cornwallis in order ‘to report
upon a scheme for the permanent lay-out of cottage sites’.9 The City
Engineer recommended the surveying and subdivisions of sections for
‘leasing purposes’. The subsequent report to the Chairman and Members of
the Council’s Reserves Committee recommended that space be marked out
specifically for the siting of ‘week-end cottages’. Recommendations governing
materials to be used in construction and the need too keep the baches forty
feet apart were also laid out in this report. A further provision of tenancy was
added to those issued to Leathert in that ‘no fences shall be erected’.10
In 1925, the Council revoked a one-year old decision ordering the termination
of all tenancies. Instead of destroying the baches, the Council sought to
ensure that all new permits and dwellings would continue to enable members
of the public to walk along the beach frontage. The report’s conclusion
illustrates the Council’s somewhat ambiguous position on the baches. While it
would no longer be seeking the termination of tenancies, it reiterated the fact
that ‘the tenancies are in every instance merely permits to occupy during the
pleasure of the Council’.11 Lifton argues that the Council consistently
8 Letter from R. Reilley? to Town Clerk, ACC, 31 January 1918, ACC Series 275, Box 95, Item 25/272, 17-006. Letter from H. A. Kennett? to Town Clerk, ACC, 18 March 1919, ACC Series 275, Box 95, Item 25/272, 17-006. 9 Letter from Town Clerk , ACC to Chairman, Auckland Harbour Board, 25 September 1919, ACC Series 275, Box 95, Item 25/272, 17-006. 10 Report ‘Cornwallis Park’ to Chairman and Members of the Reserves Committee, 3 December 1919, ACC Series 275, Box 95, Item 25/272, 17-006. 11 Report ‘Cottages at Cornwallis Park’, 23 April 1925, ACC Series 275, Box 95, Item 25/272.
Tenuous Tenancies 6
‘inferred’ that the annual rental was a permanent contract.12 However,
bachowners in the 1920s were less sure of their status. In response to a
Council memorandum requesting bachowners ensure that the area around
their properties remained tidy and ‘free of tins, bottles and other rubbish’,13
one bachowner, Mr. Belcher, stated that it was the houses closest to the
beach that were causing the most problems. The residents there lived in
‘mere hovels’ and possessed a ‘total disregard for reasonable cleanliness’.
On the other hand Belcher, and another resident, wrote that getting rid of their
waste in the channel on an ebb tide was an ‘easy and effective method of
disposing of this rubbish’. Moreover, Belcher suggested if tenancies could be
secured on a 21-year lease rather than on an annual basis ‘it would
encourage the erection of a better-type of house’.14
According to one letter writer to the Auckland Star in 1934, Cornwallis was
becoming more popular with holidaymakers yet it remained neglected by the
Council. He demanded the Council put in a ‘little effort’ to ‘make this attractive
spot more attractive’.15 The 1930s witnessed the onset of increasing agitation
to give more permanent protection to the Waitakere Ranges. A Star editorial
in 1937 recommended the creation of a national park in the Ranges as the
best means to preserve a ‘national heritage’. ‘Checks’ would need to be
made on the ‘further erection of dwellings and summer cottages’ within the
confines of the proposed park.16 In 1940, a citizens’ committee proposed the
acquisition of land in the Waitakere Ranges as a ‘permanent memorial to 12 Lifton, pp.47-8. 13 Letter from Town Clerk to bach owners, 26 September 1928, ACC Series 275, Box 95, Item 25/272. 14 Letter from Mr. Belcher to Town Clerk, 27 September 1928, ACC Series 275, Box 95, Item 25/272. 15 Auckland Star (AS), 3 January 1934, p.6. 16 AS, 16 December 1937, p.6.
Tenuous Tenancies 7
Auckland’s first 100 years’.17 As Arnold Turner writes, ‘the Auckland
Centennial Memorial Park arose out of the vision and determination of those
people who dreamed of a great park in the Waitakere Ranges’.18 Cornwallis
Park was incorporated into the new Centennial Memorial Park.
The period from the creation of the Centennial Park fostered anxiety upon the
part of the bachowners. The Auckland Star commented in 1946 that although
Cornwallis had been in the possession of the Council for the past 35 years; it
had shown little interest in doing anything with the land. However, the
publication of a recent report expressed the Council’s intention to;
‘resume occupation of sections on the lower areas along the
beach frontage as well as other sections which may be required
for the purposes of a reserve which is to be developed for use
by the public generally’.19
Naturally, the bachowners were concerned at the implications this policy had
for their continued tenancies. The Council sought to remind bachowners that
there were no guarantees buildings on rented land would be permitted to
remain standing at the end of each 12-month period. On the other hand,
tenants believed the Council should not have encouraged the construction of
a certain standard of home when its demonstrated position on management of
the park was unclear.20
17 A. D. Mead and J. A. McPherson, The Waitakere Ranges and their Forest Parks, Auckland, 1962, p.1. 18 Arnold R. Turner, ‘Arthur David Mead, “The Father of the Centennial Memorial Park”’, Roundabout, July 2005, p.70. 19 AS, 9 January 1946, p.7. 20AS, 9 January 1946, p.7.
Tenuous Tenancies 8
Figure Two: The Cornwallis baches in 1946 when the Council sped up moves for their destruction.
Source: Auckland Star, 9 January 1946, p.7.
In June 1950, the attitude of the Council towards the issuing of tenancies at
Cornwallis became clearer. With advice from the city solicitor and in
consultation with a lawyer representing the Cornwallis Residents’ Association,
the Council resolved to;
‘…adopt a policy of making the whole of Cornwallis Park a recreation
reserve for the use and enjoyment of the public generally and that
henceforth no tenancy of any unbuilt on site at the park be granted’.21
21 Letter from Town Clerk, ACC, 2 June 1950, ACC Series 275, 369, 53-59.
Tenuous Tenancies 9
In order to carry out this policy, the Council advised that baches built on land
nearest the foreshore were to be removed no later than 30 April 1959. The
owners of baches whose residences were further back from the foreshore
were granted until the 30 April 1964. All future applications for transfers of
tenancies would carry this provision.22
Throughout the 1950s, the Council appears to have consistently maintained
its belief that the baches were to be destroyed in order to reserve the space
for a park. It suggests Council was concerned that the rights of bachowners
were encroaching on the ordinary person’s right to access and enjoy the
beach. Similar sentiments were expressed by a person using the pseudonym
‘Puponga’ in a December 1952 letter to the editor of the Star. This person
claimed that bachowners acted as if they had hegemony over the beach and
asked ‘just what rights have the bachowners to keep this park as a private
beach against [an] increasing Auckland population?23 As Lifton argues,
bachowners were not prepared to surrender to Council’s determination to end
their tenancies.24 However, as well as fighting the Council, bachowners
realised a need to defend themselves in the eyes of the public following the
printing of Puponga’s letter in December 1952.
‘Missus Cornwallis’ believed that overnight bachowners had ‘become
monstrous citizens who are unlawfully, maliciously withholding something
from the rest of the citizens of Auckland’.25 The first to challenge Puponga’s
22 ibid. 23 AS, 10 December 1952, p.2. 24 Lifton, pp.49-51. 25 AS, 13 December 1952, p.2.
Tenuous Tenancies 10
claims was T. Stanley, secretary of the Cornwallis Residents’ Association.
According to Stanley, residents did not desire to render a public beach a
private one. He added that there was ‘plenty of beach’ at Cornwallis for
everybody. There was never any intention of impinging on the right of the
public to access the beach. Indeed, members of the public utilised private
pathways for this purpose. Another bachowner answered Puponga’s claim by
remarking that Cornwallis was ‘still a reserve’ and no resident had ever
presumed the right to deny access across his land. Moreover, Stanley
believed that the 1915 Act guaranteed residents 21-year leases despite
repeated inferences on the Council’s part that annual rent only meant an
annual tenancy of the land.26
In 1946, bachowners insisted that they were ‘entitled to moral consideration’ in
shaping park policy as they had ‘made Cornwallis what it was’ in the
construction of concrete walls to prevent erosion.27 Similarly, bachowners
over the summer of 1952 and 1953 defended their rights to occupy public land
by stating their history of managing the Park. Stanley argued that in the
absence of residents, the attraction of Cornwallis would be lost as the land
became overrun by gorse, blackberry bushes and other weeds; just like the
rest of the donated parkland.28 For C. R. Lewis, the Council allowed the
letting of bach sites in order to gain revenue, as it had no plans to develop the
land into a public park.29 Indeed, Lewis postulated that ratepayers would
appreciate receiving the annual rents from the bachowners after paying for the
26 AS, 16 December 1952, p.2. 27 AS, 9 January 1946, p.7. 28 AS, 16 December 1952, p.2. 29 AS, 12 December 1952, p.4.
Tenuous Tenancies 11
harbour bridge, an underground electric railway and various sewerage
schemes.30
Puponga dismissed the bachowners insistence of custodianship and rejected
their ideas the Council develop what he termed the ‘inferior ends’ of the beach
for public use.31 He emphasised that in the wake of the granting of a
perpetual lease for a golf course at Cascades Park; it was important to ensure
that public land would be available for when ‘greater Auckland of the future
may demand it’. Indeed, ‘parkland is our heritage’. However, V. E. Rothery
maintained that baches made Cornwallis what it is; without shops or a post
office ‘what a deserted wilderness it would be’ attracting very few visitors.
Cornwallis is not a private beach and bachowners allowed all to play on their
lawns even if it necessitated the picking up of visitors’ rubbish every evening.
Rothery believed that allowing the development of more baches would allow
the ‘greatest number of citizens to enjoy the pleasures the reserve has to
offer’.32
According to the letter William Fordyce wrote to the newly elected chairman of
the Council Parks and Reserves Committee in March 1954, it was precisely
the development of baches that was denying ordinary citizens access to the
beach. Fordyce implored the new Chairman to show equal ‘determination to
do what he could to have the baches removed from Cornwallis’ as his
predecessor had done. Such a determination was ‘in the interests of the
common man’. Indeed, Fordyce declared his intention to do all he could ‘to 30 AS, 30 January 1953, p.2. 31 AS, 15 January 1953, p.2. 32 AS, 31 December 1952, p.2.
Tenuous Tenancies 12
ensure that our grandchildren and other people’s grandchildren will be able to
make better use of the land donated than we were able to’. The extent of
bach developments in the last few decades meant that the only available
picnic site could be found near the wharf. A situation had arisen where
residents had developed an attitude of ‘you can’t shift us, look at the
permanent houses we have built’ yet as Fordyce points out, there was never
any guarantee the tenancy agreements were in perpetuity. The Council’s job
was to ensure that this land was ‘not locked away by lease but are left free for
development when the Citizens of the future need them’.33 A clipping from
the Herald in 1955 implored the various Domain Boards, as ‘custodians of our
heritage’ to maintain public land for anticipated future use. Citing Cornwallis
as an example, ‘Pohutukawa’ demanded that public land be ‘guarded against
the actions of those boards who would lease them to bachowners’.34
Lifton quotes a bach owner who laments that in 1970 ‘at the stroke of a pen a
whole community was wiped out’.35 However, not all baches were destroyed
in 1970 in order to create the reserve. In 1977, the Herald reported that six
baches had remained rental and rate free and occupied by squatters. Despite
their presence on public land, these baches displayed signs declaring them
private property and warning off trespassers. This caused some anger among
those who had witnessed the destruction of their own baches almost a decade
earlier without even having the opportunity to remove all their personal
33 Letter from William Fordyce to Chairman Parks Committee, 18 March 1954, ACC Series 275, Box 383, 54/59. 34 Clipping from NZH, 21 December 1955, ACC Series 275, Box 383, 54/59. 35 Lifton, p.51.
Tenuous Tenancies 13
possessions.36 At an April meeting of the Council, it was resolved that all of
the remaining baches would be destroyed in June of that year.37
On receipt of eviction notices, the remaining bachowners again invoked a
sense of custodianship in justifying their continued tenancy. On behalf of the
bachowners, Vernon J. Harrison wrote that the occupancy of baches over
most weekends and holiday periods enabled persons to be on hand to tow out
cars that had got stuck in the mud, to clear broken bottles from the beach and
to render first aid. The sense of inevitability surrounding the future destruction
of the baches saw Harrison plea with the Council to grant a longer period in
which to remove their possessions. After all, we [the bachowners] have been
and proud to be, part of the history of Cornwallis’.38 Such pleas did allow an
extra grace period but did not ultimately stop the final destruction of the
baches. As the Herald declared in July 1977, ‘the last cottage crumbles’.39 A
picture shows a large bulldozer driving through the bach accompanied by a
caption describing that it was ‘leaving the site clean for grassing into picnic
areas’.40 Although the ARA had been managing the park for several years,
formal control was only handed to the ARA in 1983. The ARA’s 1985
guidelines for the management of Cornwallis advocated the development of
the area into a ‘regional beach park with a natural back-drop within the wider
36 Clipping from AS, 19 March 1977, CORN 2841/58. 37 Letter from B. C. Dunn to Butler, White and Hanna Barristers and Solicitors, 4 May 1977, CORN2841/58. 38 Letter from Vernon J. Harrison to D. G. Lee, 13 April 1977, CORN2841/58. 39 Clipping from NZH, July 5 1977, CORN2841/58. 40 Clipping from NZH, July 6 1977, CORN2841/58.
Tenuous Tenancies 14
regional parkland of the [Waitakere] Ranges’.41 It seems baches did not fit
with the desire for Cornwallis to return to a natural state.
Although the baches are long gone, the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) has
erected a sign at the entrance to the park informing visitors of their one time
existence. This sign also recognises the connection the former bachowners
have to the park. This sign, and this story of the baches, are not the only
reminders of West Auckland’s cultural heritage to be found at Cornwallis.
Although it cannot be determined if they are the work of the bachowners,
hidden in the regenerating native bush, one can find concrete steps, walls and
seawalls.
Figure Three: Park interpretation sign erected by the Auckland Regional Council informing visitors of the Cornwallis baches. (Author’s own)
41 Auckland Regional Authority, Waitakere Ranges Regional Parkland (Includes Auckland Centennial Memorial Park) Management Plan, Auckland, 1985, p.79.
Tenuous Tenancies 15
Figure Four: Concrete seawall. (Author’s own)
Figure Five: Concrete steps. (Author’s own)
Tenuous Tenancies 16
Figure Six: Concrete wall. (Author’s own)
In recent times, we have become accustomed to media reports illustrating
instances (real or perceived) where access to the beach is being impeded.
Many lament the fact that properties on the coast now have million dollar price
tags and yearn for the good old days of bach ownership. However, this
nostalgia disguises the fact that debates over access to and use of the
foreshore are historical. As this essay has illustrated, the position of baches
at Cornwallis were always tenuous and subject to concerns that they were
encroaching on the rights of the people to enjoy their heritage. Moreover,
understanding the tenuous tenancies gives insights into the cultural heritage
of West Aucklanders and Aucklanders in general and their attempts to ensure
the continued enjoyment of a beautiful little beach surrounded by bush on the
shores of the Manukau Harbour.
Tenuous Tenancies 17
Unpublished
New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, Welllington, 1915. Statutes of New Zealand, Wellington, 1915. Archives and Manuscripts
Auckland City Council Cornwallis Park, Erection of Tents and Weekend Cottages, Series number
ACC 275, Box 21, File number 17-006 Auckland City Council Archives. Cornwallis Park – General, Series number ACC 275, Box 369, File number
53-59, Auckland City Council Archives. Cornwallis Park – General, Series number ACC 275, Box 383, File number
54-59, Auckland City Council Archives. Cornwallis Park – General, Series number ACC 275, Box 402, File number
55-59, Auckland City Council Archives. Cottages at Cornwallis Park, Series number ACC 275, Box 95, File number
25-272, Auckland City Council Archives. Auckland Regional Council Cornwallis Baches, File no. CORN2841/58, Auckland Regional Council
Records and Archives. Newspapers
Auckland Star, 1945-1970 Published Auckland Regional Authority, Waitakere Ranges Regional Parkland (Includes
Auckland Centennial Memorial Park) Management Plan, Auckland, 1985.
Auckland Regional Council, Regional Parks Management Plan: volume 1:
Overview and Strategic Direction, Auckland, 2003. Auckland Regional Council, Waitakere Ranges Regional Parkland (Including
Auckland Centennial Memorial Park and Lake Wainamu Reserve) Management Plan: 1st Review, Auckland, 1992.
Lifton, John, Cornwallis, Palmerston North, 2002. Male, Kevyn, Good Old Kiwi Baches and a Few Cribs Too, Auckland, 2001.