The category-1 heritage listed building at 18 Buckle St will be rolled to the back of its site and then lifted to a new position on a higher level.

The creche, on the northern corner of the Basin Reserve, is the last remnant of the Catholic precinct that used to be in the area and included St Anthony's Soup Kitchen, St Joseph's Home for Incurables, St Joseph's Church and St Patrick's College.

The building is presently all boarded up and is being strengthened in preparation for the move which will take place from May to June

Memorial Park Alliance community relations manager Brian Aspin said the creche was a significant building in the area."It's a physical reminder of the life and beliefs of the nun Mother Suzanne Aubert," he said.

"Her pioneering social work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries made her an important figure in New Zealand history."

The building was the first of its kind in New Zealand, because it was built specifically to care for children while their low-income mothers were at work.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: New Zealand History online

What that moniker frequently amounts to is simply the blatant destruction of buildings which often possess heritage value, history and old world charm. Knock it down and put up something cheap and nasty in its place epitomises all that's mercenary, base and soulless in the New Zealand psyche.

One can speculate as to why so much architectural beauty and buildings of historical character in this country have simply been destroyed by the careless swipe of a swing-ball or bulldozer blade. Some have suggested it's to do with the fact that New Zealand is a young country. We're mere adolescents in historical terms and thus behave accordingly. Unlike other more established European nations, Pakeha culture adds up to a paltry 170 years. We are shallow in the soil, as New Zealand commentator Monte Holcroft once observed, the consequences of which are we haven't grown up, matured or developed a strong sense of time and place and its importance to us as a people. We're opportunists, incapable, like teenagers, of either looking forward too far or back.

Others, in an attempt to explain our cavalier attitude to heritage, point to our rough and gruff nature, the "she'll be right" attitude that goes with a certain careless stance or the more brutal, "put the boot in" call. Continue reading

Sources

• Peter Dornauf in The Waikato Times
• Image: Stuff / The Waikato Times

Peter Dornauf is a Hamilton artist, writer and teacher.