McLean only lasted around a month in the job, stating the town clerk should be paid a full-time salary, and not have any business ties.
His replacement at a full-time salary of £250 ($45,000) was Captain Maurice Norman Bower and he would prove to be its most long-serving Town Clerk to this day. He was also appointed treasurer in 1879, at a salary of £100 ($21,000) after doing the job at nights for free.
He was born in 1834 in Caen, Normandy, and was referred to in Napier by his military title of captain, He served in the British Army with the 13th Light Dragoons and the 10th Hussars in the Crimean War. He took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade, when British light cavalry attacked Russian forces during the Battle of Balaklava in October 1854, and was one of the few to escape from this unscathed.
He made his way to New Zealand, arriving in 1857.
In Auckland, he was put in charge of a Military Stores Department, where he remained until the outbreak of the Māori Wars in the Waikato in 1863. Maurice was then given a commission as a sub-inspector in the Colonial Defence Forces and was promoted to inspector when his supervisor died of battle wounds.
He joined the Waikato Regiment as captain in 1865 and stayed in the military, taking part in the Waikato and East Coast campaigns. He resigned his commission in 1868 and came to Napier as District Quartermaster.
Around 1870 he was a hotel proprietor in Taupō, and two years later in May 1872 his wife gave birth to their son – the first European child born in the town.
Captain Bower administered all the work involved in building Marine Parade and its seawall as competently as he carried out his other duties. It appears his wealth of knowledge was often tapped by other councils.
Correspondence that Captain Bower replied to was varied, and Masterton Borough Council in 1883 asked him what the best appliances were for sweeping chimneys. Oamaru “relied upon our versatile ex-captain of cavalry for information as to the best way to plant trees in streets, when to plant them, and so on. Never daunted, Captain Bower undertook to reply to the letters.”
Illness overtook 76-year-old Captain Bower in 1910, and the Napier Borough councillors decided to give him a “prolonged holiday”. The mayor, J Vigor Brown proposed six months leave on full pay for Captain Bower, which was seconded by Cr Bee, and unanimously passed. This raised eyebrows around New Zealand at the generosity, but not to the Napier Borough Council, who valued his years of service.
Still suffering bad health in 1911 – Captain Bower made the decision to resign as town clerk, but continued as treasurer, much to the annoyance of the Napier Ratepayers Association.
This was because he drew a salary of £250 ($53,000) and according to the association all he did was sign a few cheques taken up to his Milton Rd residence.
Captain Bower also received a pension from the council of £400 ($84,500) per annum. What used to cost the ratepayers £400 was now £650, the Napier Ratepayers Association complained.
New Zealand Truth was equally non-charitable to Captain Bower, printing an article in 1910 saying: “Captain M N Bower, Napier’s high-salaried town clerk, who ought to have been retired 15 years ago, but Napier hasn’t had the moral courage to mention the matter to the old centenarian (he was 76 years old), who is an institution in the municipal building.”
A Hawke’s Bay Herald obituary on his passing in April 1913 stated: “Bower St is named for Maurice, and his feat of service of 37 years at Town Clerk will most likely never be repeated.”
- Captain Maurice Bower and many other contributors to Napier’s Marine Parade history are featured in my latest book: Promenading: Napier’s Iconic Marine Parade.
