© 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.

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‘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.

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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.

Tenuous Tenancies 18

Mead, A. D. and J. A. McPherson, The Waitakere Ranges and their Forest

Parks, Auckland,1962. Thompson, Paul, The Bach, Wellington, 1985. Turner, Arnold R., ‘Arthur David Mead: “The Father of the Centennial

Memorial Park”’, Roundabout, July 2005, pp.70-74.