On 7 June 1986 the front page of the Daily News featured the headline “Colour bar irks Bert”. Although this was the year that the All Blacks’ official tour of the South Africa was called off due to that country’s apartheid policies (replaced by the unofficial New Zealand Cavaliers), Bert Squire’s problem was much closer to home, namely, multi-coloured cobblestone paving.
In 1985 Albert Corbett Squire subdivided a plot of land on the northern side of Devon Street West near the Blagdon shops. Work on Squire Place progressed smoothly until the middle of the following year when it was discovered that Mr Squire had decided to shun the usual single-tone footpath and instead lay a variety of coloured cobblestones, “blending and merging into one another”. Bert claimed that this was likely the first time a colour-blended footpath had been installed anywhere in New Zealand.
The New Plymouth City Council’s Works and Traffic Committee discussed the issue in July 1986, a meeting somewhat complicated by the fact that Mr Squire was a city councillor and a member of that very committee. Eventually, after the intervention of town clerk Kinsley Sampson, he was asked to leave the room while the matter was discussed.
Following a decision that the cobblestones would need to be removed, New Zealand’s tabloid newspaper Truth picked up the story with the tagline “Council are off-colour”. If ultimately faced with the worst-case scenario, Bert said he would rather tar-seal over the offending cobblestones than rip them up.
Pragmatism and commonsense prevailed in the end with the verdict that, as the footpath belonged to the council, Mr Squire would be required to provide a bond of $2000 for five years to indemnify them against any additional costs incurred due to its unconventional paving.
Undaunted by the controversy, the carpenter and businessman stood for the mayoralty in 1989 against incumbent David Lean. Perhaps proving that not all publicity is good publicity, he finished a distant fourth (Lean winning for a fourth time) and lost his seat on the council.
Bert Squire died on Christmas Day in 2014, those contentious cobblestones still proudly gracing the street named in his honour – even if their colour has long since faded.
This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.
Related items:
Committee puts foot down (Daily News 9 July 1986)
Councillor claims rights were denied (Daily News1 August 1986)
Taranaki DP15545 Sheet 1 (1986), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)
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