The Petone Town Clock chimes in Jackson Street are now ringing out after being silent for many years. It was my pleasure to formally announce the chimes are back in action at an event involving the Petone Historical Society, Harbour Ward Councillors, Petone Community Board members, members of the JSP committee, Derek Bradley and Gary Nichols from UrbanPlus who arranged the repair, Hutt City’s General Manager Infrastructure Bruce Sherlock, Norman and Linda Wilkins who brought the issue of the clock to our attention and Brian Bennett who repaired the clock.The chimes first rung out 100 years ago. The pendulum clock used a weighting mechanism that kept time using a pendulum and was first of its type in New Zealand. The clock arrived in Petone in 1913 and was installed in its tower by Thomas Ballinger Inc who had premises in Victoria Street Petone. The then Mayoress McEwan, whose husband J T McEwan was Mayor of Petone from 1907 to 1927, officially started the clock with the sounding of the chimes on 7 July 1913. Over those many years since, the clock served the town well. The pendulum of the clock became less reliable as traffic increased along Jackson Street and an electronic master clock was installed to keep the clock on time.The chimes, however, were less appealing to local folk and they were silenced.Now, thanks to the intervention of our council-owned Urban Plus, funds were made available to repair and restore the chimes.Brian Bennett undertook the repairs and has done a very good job. Part of the repair work included limiting the time the chimes sounds to betweenbetween 8am and 7.45pm daily.
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