Cornwall Park — one man’s legacy
A remarkable gift to the nation from an extraordinary man lives on as a testament to foresight and generosity
To call anyone the “Father” of a city is of course a European construct, yet few people anywhere can have quite the claim to the title as Sir John Logan Campbell has on Auckland.
Indeed, when you read this newspaper or patronise some of the city’s still-leading businesses, you are in some way connected to his legacy.
And this becomes even more the case if you are one of the four million visitors who enjoy Cornwall Park every year.
Today we are celebrating Sir John’s 200th birthday. To mark this an excellent collections of his writings, Reminisces of a Long Life, edited by R C J Stone, is being launched. But it is also a good time to acknowledge someone who left so much that we all still enjoy. For a city whose growth is so often seen as driven by chance and commerce, Sir John’s generosity and foresightedness shaped it as well.
When he made a gift of Cornwall Park to the people of New Zealand in 1901 Sir John provided for it to be funded in perpetuity, so future generations could enjoy it at no cost. This legacy continues today with the park funded entirely from Sir John’s bequest with no input from either taxes or rates.
It was back in 1840, shortly before Christmas, when the young Campbell set up shop in a tent where Queen St meets the harbour today. For the newly arrived 22-year-old from Scotland it was hardly an auspicious beginning, although that does not seem to have held him back at the time.
As a young man growing up near Edinburgh, Campbell trained to be a doctor but abandoned that plan to farm sheep in New Zealand, only to change his mind again after witnessing the devastation of a drought in Australia.
Instead, he became a trader, and from his waterfront tent went on to help found or play a very early leadership role in many organisations we know today, including NZI, Lion Breweries and the ASB Bank and BNZ.
The newspaper he helped found, the Daily Southern Cross, would become the New Zealand Herald.
Sir John, as he would later become, enjoyed success but in 1885 as Auckland sank into depression (“I am positively bled to death,” he declared) he struggled to survive. The asset he fought hardest to keep was Cornwall Park.
Sir John was not only generous but smart. Having seen Auckland grow, he could picture how valuable an oasis the park would become. He also bequeathed the land surrounding it as a source of income, with the houses built here still providing the leasehold income that funds the park today.
As chairman of the Cornwall Park Trust Board, I feel privileged to help ensure this legacy is protected and continues to be enhanced.
When he made a gift of the park, Sir John engaged one of the world’s leading landscapers of the day, Austin Strong, from San Francisco to shape a place of genuine beauty and rest. This is a tradition we are continuing, with a long-term masterplan for continuous landscaping improvements for the generations to come.
As well as Cornwall Park, Sir John’s legacy helps numerous causes, including the Auckland City Mission, the Cancer Society, Mercy Hospice and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
But Sir John’s best-known legacy is the park and the one most widely enjoyed. The rewards it offers are enhanced by knowing the story of how we come to have it. And the best way of acknowledging this gift is simple: Go to Cornwall Park and enjoy it.
[Sir John] could picture how valuable an oasis the park would become.