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City Engineer's Department

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WCC, Town Clerk's Department early correspondence

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Correspondence

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WCC, City Engineer's Department files

Descriptive Data

Archives Identifier00009Date Range1890-2008DescriptionThe filing system was created and used by the City Engineer’s Department and its successor agencies over a 75 year period. Functions and activities performed by the Department that are reflected in the filing system include works, construction and maintenance; cleansing and waste collection/disposal; housing and subdivision development; subdivision control; building control and inspection; regulatory activities such as issuing of health and boarding house licences; design; town planning; traffic engineering and vehicle fleet management.

Documents on file include, but are not restricted to, complaints from the public, applications, inspection notes, reports, plans, photographs, procedures, contracts, notices, resolutions, agreements, conditions, estimates, briefings, receipts and invoices. Correspondents include ratepayers, contractors, developers, Council officials and staff such as the Town Clerk (to whom the department reported), central government officials, officials from other local bodies, manufacturers and suppliers.

A full list of the subseries’ subjects follows:

1/- Abattoirs
2/- Accidents
3/- Quarries
4/- Beaches and Baths
5/- Town Planning/Acts, Regulations, Bylaws
6/- Building
7/- Crematoriums
8/- Health/Food and Liquor Licensing
8/- Traffic (Note: when the health/food licensing function was shifted to the Environment Division this subseries was re-purposed for traffic)
9/- Licensing of Boarding Houses
10/- Contracts 11/- Conveniences
12/- Drainage
14/- Smoke and Flume Nuisance
16/- Estimates
17/- Exemptions – Land
18/- Trees
19/- Footpaths
21/- Insurance
22/- Land [Council-owned]
23/- Equipment and Plant
24/- Libraries
25/- Gorse
26/- Lighting
27/- Loans
28/- Awards
29/- Public Health
30/- Paving/Resurfacing
31/- Parks and Reserves
33/- Staff Appointments
34/- Statistics
35/- Streetworks (also known as Condition of road files)
36/- Subdivisions (Subdivision control was controlled until 1968, when it passed to the Town Planning Department; the City Engineers Department remained involved in the process)
37/- Housing
38/- Transportation
39/- Vehicles
40/- Water Supply
41/- Slips
42/- Substations
43/- Refuse Collection
44/- Tram and Bus Routes
45/- Premises (also known as Condition of premises)
46/- Stormwater
48/- Petrol/Oil Installations
49/- Signs and Clocks (Note: there are no files concerning clocks)
50/- Miscellaneous (Note: there are subject divisions within this subseries e.g. 50/241/- Tips)
51/- Hoardings
52/- Water in Wellington (Note: concerns forestry in the Akatarawa watershed and the Wellington Regional Water Board)
55/- Airport
56/- War and Emergency Services
57/- Scenarios (Note: concerns publicity)
58/- Town Planning
59/- Associations (i.e. membership of and attendance at meetings of)
60/- Civil Defence
61/- Wellington Airport, Terminal Area
63/- Private Ways
64/- Temporary Milliscreening Plant (Includes sewage treatment in relation to Clearwater Project)
65/- Trade Waste
66/- Architects’ project files
70/- Water Resources (Wellington Regional Water Board)

The City Engineer's filing system largely parallels the Town Clerk's system of filing (Series 00001) and there is often duplicated information between the two as a result of the two Departments working together. However, no one set of files contains all the relevant papers.

In May 1994 a new Council-wide filing and classification system was introduced and the majority of the filing system ceased to be used. The 8/-, 12/-, 19/-, 35/-, 40/- and 46/- subseries continued to be used by the Infrastructure Directorate and its successor agencies through to the 2000s. These files were stored at City Records in the Civic Administration Building or at Online Security offsite storage and were transferred to Wellington City Archives in 2010.

The majority of the files were retained in the custody of the City Engineer’s Department and its various successor agencies until the early 1990s. Some files were held at what was referred to as the ‘store,’ which would have been either the Torrens Terrace or Tory Street works depots. From the early 1990s files were progressively transferred from the Town Hall basement to storage at the Council’s Barker Street store. They were subsequently transferred to Wellington City Archives in 1995.

The 55/- subseries passed to Wellington International Airport Ltd. (WIAL) when it became a commercial enterprise in 1990. Most of the 55/- files were transferred to Wellington City Archives from the airport in March 2000 and the remainder in June 2010.

Certain subseries are more complete than others. In most cases the reasons for gaps in the subseries are unknown although there are some subseries where information was incorporated into subsequent filing systems: 8/- Health/Food and Liquor Licences - many files were retained, and renumbered into a new sequence by the Environment Division when it took over the licensing function. These files are part of series 00037 – Environment Division 7/- Health files. 66/- Architects project files - gaps in the sequence may be due to the setting-up of the corresponding WCC Corporate Classification subseries 1105- Five subseries had post-2000 material removed and retained at City Records for incorporation into the WCC Corporate Classification System: 8/- Traffic, 12/- Drainage, 19/- Footpaths, 35/- Streetworks, 46/- Stormwater.Quantity (Linear Metres)587MediumFileSystem of ArrangementMultiple number subject-based filing system with 66 subseries. Some files have associated plans, photographs and published material.Collection TypeWellington City Council

Correspondence

Laying Cables, All Districts, Electricity Department, correspondence file

Laying Cables, All Districts, Electricity Department, substation and cable plans

Damage by Earthquake, 155-157 Lambton Quay, WCC, building permit for reinstating parapets

Damage by Earthquake, 155-157 Lambton Quay, WCC, correspondence file

Fowlhouses, General

Waterworks materials, pipes, valves etc. ordered by waterworks engineer

Administrative work procedure, Waterworks Department

Pumping station, Ohariu

Water services, Albermarle Road

Weekly reports from caretakers of reservoirs

E Upchurch, Seepage, Wallace Street

National Roads Board, Annual reports

National Roads Board, Highways standards

Traffic - Haining Street, Frederick Street

Waterworks, Costs and charges

Watermain laying, General file

Building: Flats, Angus Avenue, Structural Developments Ltd, additional related documents

Building: Flats, Angus Avenue, Structural Developments Ltd

Building: Civic Administration Building, foundations & heating chamber, progress reports

Building: Civic Administration Building, foundations & heating chamber

Housing, Flats 9 Austin Street, WCC

Document Folder

Building: Civic Administration Building, foundations & heating chamber

Public Hall Licence: Kent Terrace, De Luxe Theatre, Embassy Theatre

Building: Housing for Employees, Post & Telegraph Department

Laying Cables, All Districts, Electricity Dept

Wilton Bush Reserve, Wadestown Otari Plant Museum

Building: Flats, Angus Avenue, Structural Developments Ltd

Building: hostel, 280-282 The Terrace, Victoria House Students Hostels

Damage by Earthquake, 155-157 Lambton Quay, WCC

Earthquakes, General

1942 Earthquake Damage: Damage To Civic Buildings In Vicinity Of Town Hall; Town Hall, Old Technical College, Old Education Board Building, Old Library, City Engineering Department, Traffic. Sanitary and Reserves Office.

Series

WCC, City Engineer's Department's Contracts

Greater Wellington Regional Council's Water management records

WCC, Town Planning Department's files

WCC, City Engineer's Department Maps and Plans

WCC, Public Health Department Health Licence files (7/-)

Maps and Plans

Plan of Otari Open-Air Native Plant Museum

Access Information

Restriction StatusOpen

Related Agencies

Controlling or Creating AgencyCity Engineer's DepartmentRelationship Date Range1923-1972

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WCC, City Engineer's Department files