1871: Bean Rock Lighthouse

July 24, 2022

By AHNZ

Bean Rock Lighthouse guards the entrance to Auckland Harbor and was officially opened on 24 July, 1871. Apart from being functional it’s a valuable historical monument to a key time in our colonial history.

‘Bean’ was given its name from one of Captain Joseph Nias’ officers who mapped the harbor in 1840 on HMS Herald. During this visit the local Maori chief will have been introduced to William Hobson and will have learned that this man was the Lieutenant-Governor of a new country called New Zealand. Hobson had only been in his new country about a month so it must have been a shock to the locals but they signed his Treaty anyway. During this visit Auckland was truck by struck by a massive tropical cyclone and Hobson himself struck by a heart attack. Ref. 1840: A Sick Dying Governor, AHNZ

The lighthouse, however, is a heritage building that belongs to the era called the Vogel Adventure Second Turning (1870-1890.) The New Zealand economy had been pumped and dumped by the gold rush and the Maori Wars by the end of the 1860s and needed to recover. That would have been prudent, that would have been wise. We didn’t do that.

Instead of facing reality New Zealanders became fanatical followers of a man who plunged the country into massive debt. A healthy, corrective, recession was turned into a depression so bad that it is called The Long Depression. Prime Minister Julius Vogel told the nation it could have a gold rush without gold and was believed by the new generation of naive New Zealanders AHNZ calls ‘the Vogel Boomers.’

On 28 June, 1870, Vogal announced his massive development program. He would import low-skilled (and r-selected) migrants with no jobs or housing to go to and pay for it with debt. He would build infrastructure such as railways, roads, water races and lighthouses on a borrow-now and pay-back-later basis. He would abolish those pesky provinces and govern the country from Central Government in Wellington. The Vogel Public Works Era was supposed to make us rich thanks to the stimulus package of our great Wizard Vogel who had out-smarted the very laws of economics. Of course, it was another government disaster in a history of government disasters. Ref. 1870: Vogal Administers Steroids, AHNZ

Vogal was given the power and now he had to find the money. He was still out of the country looking for borrowing to do in America and Britain in August 1871 when the parliamentary session started up and his Ministry would have to face the music. What did it have to show for itself? Bean Rock Lighthouse.

On 14 August, when parliament resumed and Vogel wasn’t there, the completion of Bean Rock Lighthouse (opened 20 days prior) could be pointed to as their symbol. It was public works. It was for Auckland. It was done by Central Government not Auckland Province. It was our version of New York’s Statue of Liberty (1876) to safely welcome in the new Vogel immigrants to their new deficit-financed home. That’s the context for Bean Rock Lighthouse. It’s an excellent symbol of the 1870s Central Government’s Assisted Passage and Public Works and Anti-Provincial policy.

In defense of Auckland Province, it desired this light house sooner and could have paid for it at an earlier date. Had wanted it done at least 18 years prior. Central Government’s Marine Act had it that only Wellington was the boss of building light houses so they had to wait. Ref. New Zealand Herald 11 February 1869, Papers Past

James Balfour, Colonial Marine Engineer, designed the Bean Rock Lighthouse. He was actually appointed by the Stafford 2.0 Ministry prior to Vogel’s and complete lots of public projects before this Public Works Adventure. Interestingly, he was killed in an unsuspicious death at exactly the time power changed over from one Ministry to the other. Ref. Engineering Heritage New Zealand, Wayback Machine

“It must have been a pleasant home for some retired mariner who, though unable to go again to sea in sail, loved still to have salt water about him. Indeed, even in latter years, many a misanthrope, and, possibly, many a wife-weary suburban husband, has looked at the little cottage in mid-harbor with longing for the peace and isolation it has seemed to offer.” – Auckland Star (1936,) Papers Past

Bean Rock Lighthouse was built to be manned full time. Now it’s uninhabited and a mess inside (see video below) which is a shame. It would be a great place to offer tenure to some of the useless Auckland University faculty members in winter. Or, to reward students with much reading to do in summer.

On October 21, 1912, Auckland Harbor Board gained control of the light house. Since then it has been re-fitted to be automatic so no live-in staff required. Ref. ibid

In 1936 the lighthouse was made electric using a line from the mainland. Today it’s solar powered.

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Image ref. Petra Leary, Ports of Auckland, Facebook (2021)

Ref. Ports of Auckland virtual tour, Facebook (2020)

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