HOME   >   OUR MPS   >   GEORGE HAWKINS   >   SPEECHES

Commissioner Robinson , Superintendent Manderson, Henare Edwards, Inspector McGurk, officers and staff of New Brighton, friends and family _ good afternoon to you all.

Thank you for inviting me to be with you today to celebrate 100 years of policing in New Brighton.

I’d like to also acknowledge my colleague the Hon Liane Dalziel, Member of Parliament for Christchurch East.

Lianne and I have a great deal in common.

We entered Parliament at the same time in 1990, we have offices on the same floor in the Beehive and we share a bench in Parliament.

Like me, Lianne takes a particular interest in police issues, works hard for this community, and I thank her for being with us today.

It is wonderful to be in such a beautiful part of what I see as one of the most attractive cities in the country.

New Brighton wasn’t the first police station in the Christchurch area _I believe that honour goes to Hereford St which opened in 1874.

But New Brighton was one of the first and is indeed an area which has long enjoyed a police presence, in fact pretty much continuously on this very site.

There’s been police on the beach here for a very long time.

It all began, I’m told, as a result of the large numbers of people who from the late 1800s jumped on the then new trams and came out from town for day trips and holidays both here and at Sumner.

In fact, the first temporary police station was set up in New Brighton in 1898, because there’d been an such explosion of population.

By that time some 700 very sensible people had moved to live here permanently.

Things could only get worse, and by 1914 there were 2100 permanent residents and many, many more over the summer months.

That’s when apparently most of Christchurch’s then total population of 58,000 took to the trams and headed out here.

Actually, it was probably around about 1914 that my current police advisor, Gerry Cunneen, - that’s him over there - was a young lad playing on this very beach.

When Gerry grew up he became District Commander of Wellington police district, and now works in the Beehive in my office.

But both he and his brother joined the police, in the early part of last century, right here in Christchurch.

He even served at New Brighton from Christchurch Central for a while, so he was especially keen to come back here for the celebrations.

In fact it was at New Brighton, aged 13, that Gerry had his first exposure to policing and the heavy hand of the law and the power of community policing.

Apparently he and his little brother had been given a new airgun, and they decided to try it out by firing it through peoples’ front fences up and down Oram Avenue.

They discovered firing that firing through iron fences makes a great noise, and they wanted to see if they could wake up the whole street.

Gerry must have been one of the first victims of Neighbourhood Watch, because before they could get away, a Constable rode up on a bicycle and kicked them in places that hurt.

And then he confiscated the airgun.

Gerry’s still looking for it.

I suggest you have a rummage through the lost property box before we leave, Gerry.

It’s a long time since police got around on bicycles, in fact the $16.8m Cabinet committed this week to the 2002/03 police vehicle replacement programme should have see to that, but a strong spirit within the New Brighton area continues.

I noted Inspector McGurk’s comments this week in The Press on the sense of community around here and how police appreciate that.

He also said it’s not unusual for staff to be third generation New Brighton residents, surely rare in this day and age and something to be cherished and admired.

I’d also like to thank members of the wider New Brighton community for the support they offer police. Safe and strong communities are a team effort between police and community members and it appears this area recognises this.

Congratulations, and thanks to everyone here today.

Congratulations to the New Brighton community, the police team, the family and friends who support them in the important work they do, and thanks and rememberance to those who came before.

Those very first officers that began the work so long ago, would be proud, I’m sure, to see what’s been achieved, and excited about what’s ahead in the next 100 years.
Thank you.

 

• OUR MPs | 
• FEATURES | 
• LATEST NEWS | 
• SPEECHES | 
• PORTFOLIOS | 
• POLICY | 
• MULTIMEDIA | 
• SEARCH | 
• CONTACT US