William Mason (architect) - To New Zealand

To New Zealand

Perhaps ambition called again. He was offered an appointment as "Superintendent of Works" to the nascent government of William Hobson, Lieutenant Governor designate of New Zealand, which he accepted, sailing to join Hobson at the Bay of Islands where he arrived on 17 March 1840. He thus became the first professionally trained architect in New Zealand. His title was officially "Superintendent of Public Works" but he maintained he had been appointed "Colonial Architect". He adopted that title which was used by government officers in addressing him. He went to assist with establishing the new capital, Auckland, in September 1840. There he oversaw the erection of the prefabricated first Government House before resigning in 1842 and going into partnership with Thomas Paton. Formerly the government postmaster Paton had also resigned and the two men set up as auctioneers and architects. Mason designed the church of St Paul which was started in 1841. He had bought land and now built on it without making a fortune, put up premises for the New Zealand Banking Company and designed houses. He became involved in other commercial affairs but in 1841 his nine-year old son was drowned in a well. The boy may have been murdered and his parents were deeply distressed.

By 1844 there was plenty of business but little architecture. Mason dissolved his partnership with Paton and took up farming in Epsom. He designed a windmill there and may have had some hand in the building of St John's College at Epsom, but these were architecturally unproductive years. He continued farming in various places around Auckland and entered public life. In 1851 he was elected to the Common Council of Auckland, but eventually a substantial commission turned up. Mason was living at Howick late in 1854 when he was appointed architect of the 10,000 pound project to build a new Government House. The result was a large, two story, neo–classical building, whose manner may not have been entirely of Mason's choosing. It is made of timber treated to look like stone. Its principal facade has a central breakfront with round–headed windows in the upper floor. It has been the subject of rather mixed reviews since its completion in 1856 but it is a substantial house for New Zealand at the time and of its nature a significant building.

Mason was now Architect to the Auckland Provincial Council. In April 1856 he became President of the newly formed Board of Works. Amidst disputes about the new Government House he returned to his Howick Farm in February 1857. Early in 1860 he stepped back from this again moving into Howick village. As tension rose with Maori he became a Captain in the Auckland militia.

In October 1861 he let his name go forward for election for the Pensioner Settlements, an Auckland seat, which he represented in parliament from 1861 to 1866, when he retired from parliament. At that time, the colonial parliament still met in Auckland. There he sat alongside Thomas Russell who soon established the Bank of New Zealand, with the benefit of a parliamentary Act. The bank had early information about the discovery of gold in Otago, which was then transforming the colony's prospects and was soon to change its demography. Mason was commissioned to design the bank's premises in Dunedin and Wellington which profoundly affected his later life. It seems that early in September he visited the southern settlement and made the decision to relocate there. At the same time an advertisement saw him selling his house and chattels in Auckland. The transfer document shows him as a "Gentleman", "late of Auckland but now of Dunedin".