Letter From Manukau

Barry Curtis Park opening

The Manukau family day at the recent opening of the new Barry Curtis Park was awesome.

The sun gods have been smiling on use in recent weeks and this has coincided with a number of brilliant events, including the opening of the first stage of the new park.

Barry Curtis Park is in the middle of a number of developing communities with different ethnic and demographic make-ups.

To the north of the park is Dannemora, Pakuranga and Howick, to the east is rural  Whitford and Clevedon, to the south are the lifestyle blocks of Redoubt road, Alfriston and Manukau Heights and to the west the working class communities of Otara and Flatbush and business community of East Tamaki.

It is a melting pot.

It was great to see so many people taking in the new park, greeting Prime Minister John Key and enjoying the company of former Mayor Sir Barry Curtis in his day of personal celebration.

The development of the park has taken great effort and was led primarily by council staff; particularly the Parks team and I acknowledge the work of everyone who was part of making Barry Curtis Park a reality.

Howick Historical Village

There's an old saying that if you don't learn from the lessons of history you'll be doomed to repeat them. One of these lessons is to ensure we maintain the record of our history and make sure we preserve the life stories of those who have been before us.

In our community there are a number of very active historical association societies, none more so than the Howick Historical Society led by Judy Wilson. 

They operate out of the Howick Historical village and in recent times have increasingly built on the hard work of their founders.  They've established a library and archive within the boundaries of the village which is a wonderful addition to the area.
I want to acknowledge local historian Alan la Roche's work. Alan's archives of family histories and physical histories of each of the buildings in the Howick Historical village are a great achievement.

The older I become and the more I experience life, the more I understand that today's lessons merely repeat and reflect back to us how we should conduct ourselves in the future.

This is a major principle in city building and living our lives together in reasonable cohesion.

Len Brown

Mayor of Manukau

Ends

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