By Roselyn Fauth
There are some things in a town that you do not notice until they stop... for Timaru, unfortunately that has been the case for our town clock.
Long before wristwatches were common and decades before phones took over the task of telling us the time, the town clock was how Timaru moved through its day and gave everyone a standard to set their time hands to. It marked the hour for shopkeepers opening their doors, for workers heading home, for children being called in from the street. The mechanism helped set the rhythm of the locals day.
I had not realised until recently that the clock itself was built in Wellington in 1912 as a smaller scale replica of Big Ben in Westminster, London! In 1913 it was gifted to the town by Mayor James Craigie and installed across the road in the former Post Office. At the time, it made perfect sense. Timekeeping, communication and public service all sat together. When the chimes were first set in motion on 21 June 1913, it was treated as an event. Time mattered, and so did marking it together. There was a bit of controversy at the time, as the chimes were larger than the tower could accommodate so there was some extra thinking and funds needed to accomodate them and set in motion.
Some may not realised but the town’s clock wasn't always above the council. The clock tower used to be opposite, in a tower above the Post Office building on King George Place. By the early 1930s the Public Works Department considered the tower an earthquake risk. In 1933 it was demolished, leaving the town briefly without its familiar marker of the hours and chimes.
Later that year, a new clock tower rose above the Municipal Offices and Public Library. The clock was rehoused in a reinforced concrete tower designed by Victor Panton and built by local builder W. J. Harding. In December 1933, former mayor James Craigie officially opened the new tower. The man who had donated the chimes many years earlier welcomed them into their new home.
Time shifted from the Post Office to the seat of local government.
In 1946, the tower took on another layer of meaning when the Lamp of Remembrance was installed at its summit. From that point on, the clock did not only measure time. It carried memory. It marked the hours while standing watch over lives interrupted by war.
The buildings around it have changed over the years. Interiors have been demolished and rebuilt. Ornamentation has been removed. Yet the clock tower remains. When the council complex was rebuilt in the early 2000s, the historic façades and the tower were deliberately retained. The town clock stayed put.
And yet, even faithful servants grew aged and tired. In 1945, when the clock stopped, the Timaru Herald thought it important enough to explain why. Nearly eighty years later, the story resurfaced again. An article in 2022 reported that the clock had been stopping and starting since 2019. Various measures were taken. A horologist cleaned some parts and replaced others. The council spent $10,000 on an overhaul, then another $10,000 when the clock continued to splutter and fall silent.
Anyone who has ever tried to fix something old will recognise that sinking feeling. It must have felt like a can of worms, and very frustrating. Eventually it became clear that parts were needed from England, unavailable anywhere in New Zealand. Christchurch based horologist Geoff Butler, who has repaired the clock in the past, was engaged once again to carry out the work. Even keeping time, it turns out, is complicated when you are caring for a century old mechanism.
There was a note of humour in the discussion. Councillor Paddy O’Rielly observed that clocks were in trouble all over the district. Temuka’s clock, he said, was faceless. You could almost say it was a district wide problem.
These clocks were never meant to be disposable. They were built to last, to be repaired, to be cared for across generations. They ask something of us in return. Attention. Patience. Respect for the craft that went into them. I assume that most of us no longer check the town clock for the time. But I think it still matters when it stops. It still feels wrong when the hands are out. Because the town clock is not really about minutes and hours. I think it is more about continuit and how we respect and care for things that links us to our past. I like the connection of a device that tells the time is also a link to the times of the past.
Next time you walk past and glance up, remember how much effort goes into keeping those hands moving.
SOURCES
https://www.timaru.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/674035/Historic-Heritage-Historic-Heritage-Area-Assessment-Report-HHA2-Caroline-Bay-Historic-Heritage-Area.pdf
https://timdc.pastperfectonline.com/photo/48A5BDDD-CDE7-4268-9BDB-701430171345