Memory box
While long familiar with the ornamental gates that are a landmark feature at the northern entry to Cambridge, I’ve only just noted their memorial function. The gates were erected in early 1911 to commemorate Thomas Wells, who was the first chairman of the local domain board.
Wells (1842-1910) was afforded an obituary in the NZ Herald at the time of his death in April 1910. Cambridge was said to have ‘sustained a serious loss’ with Wells’ death as ‘during his residence [he] had been identified with practically every local institution in the town and district’.
After serving in the Royal Navy, Thomas Wells arrived in New Zealand in
1860 and was in the naval brigade during the Waikato War. According to his obituary, Wells was injured at Rangiriri and later excelled at business. He helped to found the Waikato Horticultural Society and the Cambridge Chrysanthemum Society and his gardening interests also led to his involvement with the Cambridge Domain Board, serving as its chair from 1880 until
1905.
Thomas Wells was Mayor of Cambridge (1903-5) but, it was said in 1910, he would be ‘longest remembered by the splendid work he inspired in connection with the Domain, which has transformed a wilderness to one of the showplaces of the Dominion’. Wells was survived by his wife and three adult children. Soon after his death a citizens’ meeting held at the Farmers’ Club Room resolved to erect memorial gates at the Domain opposite the Hamilton Road. The gates were designed and built by Messrs McNab and Mason, stonemasons of Auckland, and opened in April 1911 on the anniversary of Wells’ death.
McNab and Mason was also responsible for the South African Troopers’ Memorial in Thames (1902) and the Cook monument in Gisborne (1906). Inclusive of extras, the gates cost just over
£319, that sum having been raised by public subscription.
Recent roadworks have altered the setting of the gates but arguably given them greater prominence. The gates are on the district plan and a poll was taken of the community a couple of years ago to see if there was support for relocating them. Conservation work has restored their Edwardian splendour. Granite columns carry gold leaf memorial inscriptions to Wells and support the wrought iron gates. Within the arch above the gates are the words ‘Naumai and Kia Ora’, as well as the name of the park.
At the opening of the gates Wells was remembered as a ‘just and upright man, a good father, and a friend to all who were in distress’. By accident or design the words upon the gates not only acknowledge Wells’ contribution to the town but also the significance of the lake at the heart of the domain to the people of Waikato Tainui. Ka pai.