Captain Hamilton info drop: secret city council statue meeting revealed

Saturday, 8 September 2018

People gather to watch the statue of Captain Hamilton being removed from Hamilton's Civic Square. (Video first published in June, 2020)

This article was first published in 2018 and has been updated with the latest developments around the statue.

Vandalism of Captain Hamilton was a risk considered in a secret meeting before the statue was erected in public.

The 160kg bronze statue of Hamilton city's namesake was installed outside city council buildings in Civic Square in March 2013 and was removed on June 11, 2020.

The statue of Captain Hamilton is placed on a truck to be taken away and stored out of the public eye.

Someone might try to damage it, confidential Hamilton City Council papers from 2012 said, but that 'would require significant effort'.

So activist Taitimu Maipi found, when he took to the statue with red paint and a hammer in late August 2018.

**READ MORE:

Kaumatua Taitimu Maipi vowed to tear down the Captain John Hamilton statue in Civic Square. He's pictured here after vandalising it in 2018.

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* The navy commander who never set foot in the city that took his name**

Former Hamilton mayor Andrew King pushed to have the minutes released.

Maipi, who said the statue was an insult to murdered ancestors, was given a pre-charge warning. Yet it didn't stop him. Two years later he threatened to have it torn down.

Hamilton City Council removed it on Friday, before he got the chance.

The council initially wouldn't release details on the 2012 decision to put the statue in Civic Square, because it was made behind closed doors.

At a meeting in September 2018, Mayor Andrew King proposed making the information public, and won the support to make it happen.

The artist's brief was: 'to create a bronze statue of Captain Hamilton, after whom our city was named', according to agendas and minutes from 2012.

The money came from the Gallagher Group, which wanted to mark 75 years in business and 150 years since Hamilton was established.

The artwork was expected to cost about $140,300, the released council papers said.

Mesh Sculpture Hamilton Trust was also involved, taking charge of the project management.

Those two groups asked for the report to the meeting to be confidential 'to assist with the management of public debate around the artwork', the agenda said.

Gallagher Group and Mesh asked for a report to be kept confidential 'to assist with the management of public debate' and avoid putting funders off future projects (file photo).

'Funding for public art projects could be compromised by debate on uncompleted artworks, jeopardising potential funders' confidence for future projects.'

Vandalism and the risk of 'a negative response to the work' were flagged as potential risks in a report to councillors on the operations and activity performance committee.

The statue would go in a highly visible location within current CCTV coverage, the report said.

'Graffiti should be removed as and when it occurs, vandalism would require significant effort to damage the works.'

Those behind the artwork were also keen to avoid a negative response to it, and charged Mesh and the council communications team to work out a plan for releasing information on it.

The proposal went through the three-stage public art process council was using at the time, which included assessment by a public art panel.

Tainui and local iwi advisors are listed in an October 2012 agenda as parties involved in the project, which staffers flagged as having a very short timeframe.

At the end of that meeting, Councillor Dave Macpherson was the only one to vote against the statue.

Cr Martin Gallagher had declared a conflict of interest and left the meeting for the item, but the other councillors voted in favour - Daphne Bell, Peter Bos, Margaret Forsyth, Roger Hennebry, Pippa Mahood, Angela O'Leary, Maria Westphal and Ewan Wilson.

The agenda notes that there should be ongoing consultation with iwi and stakeholders.

At the November meeting, councillors agreed that work should start on the statue, that council should accept the gift in principle, and to work with Gallagher Group and Mesh on communications.

That resolution was proposed by Cr John Gower and seconded by Cr Peter Bos, but the voting record was not released.

Cr Gallagher again declared a conflict of interest.