1900: Bluff Courthouse

October 9, 2018

By AHNZ

Probably this is the building Joseph Ward opened in 1900 as the new Customs House and Court House combined. The Liberals, especially Ward, loved creating fancy buildings to their own honour (eg consider Dunedin’s Railway Station.) And this was his home town and his triumphant return to parliament.

However, by 1938 there was an unsuccessful attempt to make the second floor of the Post Office into the Court. Perhaps the building was lost in this period?

A Magistrates Court existed until at least the 1950s but may have used the Town Hall or some such.

I think it’s long gone. Certainly could not find it from the ground. Probably in the 1930s, perhaps because Ward and the Liberals just needed a quick pop-up display of grandiosity. The weeds against the fence in this picture suggest it’s not exactly a respected grass-roots institution.

Image ref. 1/2-C-000403-F; Alexander Turnbull Library

Shared by Historical South Island

Update 2020: Apparently the picture is of a courthouse built in 1862 and demolished in 1964; Ref. Southland’s Past; Facebook

This raise the question- Was it re-opened in 1900 or had it been passed over, a new building built? If it was replaced in 1900, why? If the court was replaced in 1938, why?

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