Petone Borough Council Minute Book 1915-1918

As many of you will know or even have witnessed there was a terrible fire in the old Petone Municipal Buildings on 3rd January 1985. The fire was deliberately set in the records room and as a result hundreds of early Petone records were burnt. Many of these are now in Hutt City Council Archives – some beyond hope without expensive conservation treatment but some legible if badly singed round the edges.

Fortunately the minute books, the core records of the Borough, were protected by thick covers and although a lot of the bindings are destroyed, the text is still legible. However, they are very large volumes, as you can see in the photograph on the right, and every time they are opened more parts fall off. If this were to continue then the parts falling off would eventually eat into the text block and future generations wouldn’t be able to find out the history of Petone for themselves. Therefore the worst affected minute books have been closed to researchers for some time.

However, not all is lost! Money was pulled together from a digitisation project fund and the first four minute books covering the period 1915-1926 were microfilmed. The work continues are part of the archives programme of providing access to Council Records. 

The bottom photograph shows a page printed from our microfilm reader of the bylaws which were discussed at the meeting of 23rd March 1925. Now these microfilms can be used in place of the originals keeping them safe from damage.

 (Ref: Arch 17650)