1971: Foxton Courthouse Closure

March 31, 2024

By AHNZ

Foxton Courthouse was shut down on January 28, 1971. It was part of a wider trend to cull the country courthouse that was just warming up. National 3.0’s Minister of Justice, Dan Riddiford, was the figurehead behind this one but at the end of the decade that government dropped the axe on 24 of New Zealand’s country courthouses in just one blow. Ref. 1979: Country Courthouse Culling, AHNZ

The court building was ready to go by the end of August 1929 but the court itself had been sitting there since at least 1869 in the predecessor building. Ref. Manawatu Standard (1929,) Papers Past

It’s a credit to our wise 1920s ancestors that they eschewed an official opening event. Thus, keeping the institution of Justice separated from politics and civic ceremony. Indeed, it wasn’t until the Political Disabilities Removal Act (1936) that civil servants even had full political rights. Politicians didn’t get paid in those days and their service wasn’t considered a “job.” By contrast in the 2023 the Ministry for Pacific Peoples spend $40,000,000 just on a going away party for a staff member (Ref. RNZ.) The New Zealand Police seem to create a new uniform modification or vehicle decoration every time a new political cause becomes fashionable (Ref. Another Police Virtue Signal on Wheels, NZB3.) As for the courts, when Justice King took to the bench of the District Court she out-and-out set her own terms: “You will know that this court isn’t like tauiwi courts, this court belongs to a Māori woman” she said without censure (Ref. Social Justice Judges, NZB3.) Foxton’s courthouse belonged to an era of Blind Justice where there was a healthy, deliberate, boundary wall between the essential institutional machinery our civilisation depends upon and the fun we get to have when those essentials are met.

“The Manawatu Herald of 12 September 1929 described the new building: “The new courthouse was used for the first time this morning for the monthly sitting of the Court. The building is a fine structure and contains some excellent workmanship. It is well ventilated while a hot water heating system provides ample warmth throughout the building during the cold weather.” – Hoffman Kiln – Palmerston North, Facebook (2019)

“In July 1929, the Foxton Chamber of Commerce sought an official opening. However, the Justice Department didn’t “favour such functions in respect to Justice Department buildings”. So this was dropped.” – Back Issues: Heritage at risk – saving Foxton’s former courthouse, Stuff (2023)

“This is the first time people have been able to go into the building in about nine years, when the ‘earthquake prone’ virus reared its most annoying head. Some of the museum displays are still in place, so there was plenty to look at inside and ‘lots’ of people checked it out. Anyway, the sign on the ‘Museum Open’ sandwich board reads: “Open – but only today, Spring Fling 2022. The Courthouse Museum has been closed for 9 years, but you are welcome to view it today. Please consider making a donation – so it can be open ‘all’ the time! It looks like we (Foxton Historical Society) will again open the building in early December, when another similar event will be held in the town.” – Random Snippets of History: Manawatu and Beyond, Facebook (2022)

“This will be about the fourth time its been open in the last couple of years, but it got ‘told’ to be shut again a few months ago, which was very frustrating. However, following the recent seismic assessment, we were told a few days ago that we could open again. So its been a bit of a rush. That applies to today only, so back to the drawing board again after that.” – Foxton Historical Society to AHNZ (2024)

The loss of localism in the judicial system has been the gain of many historical societies that converted their courts into museums. Foxton’s court was taken up by the local Historical Society in February 1979. Ref. Stuff, ibid

That was going along just fine until 2013 when the “earthquake prone’ virus struck the museum in  August 2013. Like so many others the goalposts had been shifted about what was safe and what was not. The true agenda, in my opinion, was shutting things down. The pretense was ‘safety’ and the public were willing to go along with that because of the extended panic after the Christchurch earthquakes. To allow an “earthquake prone” building to be used was emotionally equivalent to not being sorry enough about all of those who lost their lives in that natural disaster.

After sitting closed for about 10 years it was announced that Foxton’s museum was saved? Don’t count your giant windmills (another Foxton landmark) before they hatch…

Museums are liabilities, not assets, on local government balance books. They would love to abandon the existing ones. After the 2011 Christchurch quakes occurred it handed councils all over New Zealand the perfect excuse. Scores of our museums were shuttered up and abandoned. Buildings that had stood for generations remain closed to this day under the pretense of ‘earthquake risk’.

Politicians don’t like these liabilities but they DO like building projects and consultants. That’s where they and their flunkies get to exercise power and spend your money.

“Uncertainty about the future of the Courthouse is now all but removed. Planning work is under way; there is funding for that work; and the Foxton Historical Society has a draft Concept Plan…” – Foxton Courthouse saved from oblivion (since retitled as Foxton’s historic Courthouse to get seismic strengthening,) NZ Herald (2023)

Funded Planning Work. A Concept Plan. ‘Additional innovative on-site activities’ planning. None of this means the museum is back. Despite the media spin all it means someone has found a new way to leverage our heritage to launder tens of thousands of our dollars into their own pockets!

“Foxton Couthouse Saved From Oblivion?” More like consultants and planners get yet another contract! Far from facing oblivion they’re never out of ‘work’. eg. Designing harbor bridge cycleways that will never be or government radio/tv mergers that never happen; But they get paid just the same. Don’t mistake activity for progress!

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Image ref. Foxton Historical Society Museum c.1970s, NZ Museums, edit by AHNZ (2024)

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