The Mayor of Thames officiated over the Thames Borough of New Zealand, which was administered by the Thames Borough Council. The office existed from 1874 until 1975, when Thames Borough and Coromandel County were amalgamated to form Thames-Coromandel District. There were 24 holders of the office.
History The Thames Gold Rush in the late 1860s and the early 1870s made Thames known as a locality, and the township developed from diggers settling in the area. The area was controlled by the Auckland Provincial Council. In late 1871, a public meeting in Grahamstown (one of the two historic towns that now forms Thames) resolved:
That in the opinion of the meeting it is desirable that a Municipal Corporation should be established for the Thames.
This resulted in the forming of a Thames Municipality Committee in early 1872. The Borough of Thames was gazetted in November 1873. The first Borough Council was elected in March 1874. As was practice at the time, the councillors voted one of themselves to be the mayor. William Davies was the only person proposed and voted into the role unanimously in April 1874.
After having served as mayor for a year, James McAndrew was re-elected unopposed in 1890.
Henry Greenslade resigned from the mayoralty on 31 May 1900, as he had bought a farm in Ōhaupō. Francis Trembath succeeded him and was elected unopposed.
In total, there were 24 Mayors of Thames Borough. The last mayor was Wallace (Wally) Brunton, who served from 1959 until 1975. In 1975, Thames Borough amalgamated with Coromandel County, out of which Thames-Coromandel District arose. Hence, the role was succeeded by that of the Mayor of Thames-Coromandel.
Four mayors were also represented in Parliament: James McGowan William Fraser Henry Greenslade Thomas William Rhodes
McGowan was later appointed to the New Zealand Legislative Council. William McCullough was also an MLC.
List of mayors of Thames Mayors of Thames were:
Name Term1 William Davies 1874–18752 J.E. MacDonald 1875–18763 James Kilgour 1877–18784 William McCullough 1878–18795 Louis Ehrenfried 1879–18806 William Wilkinson 1880–18827 William Fraser 1882–18878 Alexander Brodie 1887–18889 William Carpenter 1888–188910 James McGowan 188911 James McAndrew 1889–189112 James Renshaw 1891–1892 James McGowan (second period) 1892–189313 Thomas Radford 1893–189714 William Scott 1897–189815 Henry Greenslade 1898–190016 Francis Trembath 1900–190517 Archibald Burns 1905–190918 Frank Henry Claxton 1909–191019 Henry Lowe 1910–191920 Ernest Napier Miller 1919–192321 Thomas William Rhodes 1923–192722 William Bongard 1927–193123 Sidney Ensor 1931–195924 Wallace Brunton 1959–1975
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