Biographies of Chairpersons

Israel Joseph Goldstine OBE
Israel Goldstine was born in Brisbane but brought up and educated in Auckland. He was a barrister and solicitor in Auckland from 1932 until he was appointed to head the first Local Government Commission in 1947. He was keenly interested in local government, being a member first of the One Tree Hill Road Board when he was only in his twenties, then when the board became a borough, he was its first deputy mayor. He became the youngest mayor in New Zealand when he was elected in 1931, a position he held until his retirement in 1947. He was vice-president of the New Zealand Municipal Association, chairman for 10 years of the Auckland Metropolitan Milk Council, member for 14 years of the Auckland Suburban Drainage Board and chairman for two and a half years of the Auckland (NZ) Armed Forces Appeal Board.

During World War II he was appointed to the National Patriotic Fund Board and the National Patriotic Council. He also became deputy chairman of the Auckland Provincial Patriotic Council. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1946.

Archibald Albany McLachlan SM
Archibald McLachlan was born in 1898 at Ellesmere and educated in Christchurch and at Canterbury and Victoria University Colleges, graduating BA LL.B. He served as an NCO in New Zealand during World War I and then taught for several years before taking up a legal career. He was a Christchurch City Councillor 1930-36 and chairman of the Christchurch Tramway Board 1936-41. He stood unsuccessfully for parliament for the United Party in 1928, 1931 and 1935. During the depression years he was chairman of the Mortgage Relief Committee 1937-39 and president of the Assessment Court 1939-44. He served as a Stipendiary Magistrate (equivalent to District Court judge) 1944-54 in Canterbury, West Coast, Nelson, Palmerston North and Wellington, before being appointed chairman of the second Local Government Commission.

John Bradley Yaldwyn
John Yaldwyn was born in Melbourne and educated first at Haileybury College and then at Wellesley College, Wellington. He graduated in law from Victoria University College and practised in Wellington as a barrister and solicitor for many years. Like his two predecessors he had a long involvement with local government before becoming chairman of the third Local Government Commission. He was first elected as Eastern Bays Riding representative on the Hutt County Council in 1937. He served continuously on the council until 1956 and was chairman for two terms.

He was a member of the Hutt Valley Power and Gas Board 1943-1956 and chairman for one term. He also served on the Hutt Valley Drainage Board, the Hutt Valley and Bays Metropolitan Milk Board, the Wellington City and Suburban Highways Board, the Wellington District Roads Council and the Wellington Regional Planning Council. He was a director of the Wellington Milk Treatment Corporation and of Giant Industries Ltd and its subsidiaries.

He was appointed Chairman of the Local Government Commission in 1961 and served until 1967 when he resigned to return to his legal practice.

Hugh Alexander Fullarton
The first Local Government Commission chairman who was not a barrister, was born in Glasgow in 1908 and educated at Wellington College, and at Canterbury University College and Glasgow University, where he trained as a civil engineer. He had an extremely varied and distinguished career in this field. During World War I he was a captain in the Defence Engineering Service Corps. In the early part of his career he worked for the Waimakariri River Trust and the Public Works Department (later the Ministry of Works). During World War II he was closely involved first with the creation of defence installations throughout New Zealand and was then technical adviser to the New Zealand Supply Mission in Washington. For a number of years after World War II Fullarton was involved with the development of aviation, first as assistant aerodromes engineer for the Ministry of Works, then as a civil engineer with the Air Department. In 1955 he returned to Ministry of Works, serving in Otago and Southland, then became district commissioner of works in Wellington 1960-68. In this position he had major responsibility for the design and construction of the Wellington Urban Motorway, particularly the controversial section passing through the historic Bolton St cemetery. His handling of the delicate public issues around this latter marked him as an astute diplomat.

He also chaired three roads councils, was a member of two catchment boards and an associate member of the Wellington Regional Planning Authority.

He was the first chairman to be appointed for a second term to carry through the scheme of reorganisation but the fifth Local Government Commission’s proposals were too controversial for a government facing an election and it was brusquely terminated a year early. Fullarton was later honoured as a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Professional Engineers. He died in 2004 at the age of 96.
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Lt. Gen. Sir Richard James Holden Webb
Richard Webb was born in 1919 at Nelson and educated at Nelson College. He was a career soldier who saw active service with 2 NZEF in the Middle East and Italy 1942-5 then with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, Japan, in 1946 and in Korea 1950-1. He also had postings to the Royal Military College Duntroon, ACT Australia, to the Army Staff College in Haifa, Israel; the Artillery School, Fort Sill Oklahoma, USA; and the Imperial Defence College. He was appointed Quartermaster-General of the New Zealand Army in 1967 and Chief of the General Staff 1971-76. He died in January 1990.

Sir Brian Elwood CBE
Brian Elwood was born in Palmerston North and was educated there and at Victoria University. He practised as a barrister and solicitor in the same city from 1957 until his appointment as chairman of the seventh Local Government Commission in 1985. He was Mayor of Palmerston North for 14 years (1971-85), President of the Municipal Association of New Zealand 1976-9; Chairman of the Manawatu United Council 1981-83; member Wellington Harbour Board 1968-74; member of Massey University Council 1983-5. He resigned in November 1992 to take up an appointment as an Ombudsman. He was Chief Ombudsman from 1994 to 2003.

Ian William Lawrence CBE
Ian Lawrence was born in 1937 in Sydney, but came to New Zealand at an early age and was educated at Victoria University, from which he graduated Ll.M. He has practised as a solicitor in Wellington since then. He was a Wellington City Councillor for 15 years, 1971-86, and was deputy mayor for much of that time, and mayor for one term, 1983-86. Following this he became a Wellington regional councillor and was deputy chairman of the council 1989-92, until his appointment as chairman of the ninth Local Government Commission. He has served on a number of other public bodies including the board of Housing New Zealand.

Sir Ross Malcolm Jansen KBE
Sir Ross Jansen was born in 1932 in Carterton and educated in the Wairarapa and at Victoria University. (He also received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waikato in 1984.) He has spent most of his adult life in Hamilton, where he practised as a barrister and solicitor. He was a member of Hamilton City Council and mayor 1977-89. He was successively deputy chairman and chairman of the Waikato United Council 1980-86 and 1986-89. He was president of the Municipal Association of New Zealand (1984-7), and was Inaugural President of the New Zealand Local Government Association, which superseded the old Municipal and Counties Association. From 1990 to 1993 he was Chairperson of the Waikato Regional Council.

Grant Kirby ONZM
Grant Kirby was born in Auckland and originally trained and worked as a surveyor. He went on to hold a number of senior positions within local government, including Associate Town Clerk of Auckland City Council between 1983 and 1989, and Director of Area Operations for the Council between 1989 and 1993. Since 1993 he has operated his own consulting business, focusing on a number of complex local government related projects in the Auckland Region. In April 2000 Mr Kirby was appointed by the Minister of Local Government as the Commissioner of the Rodney District Council. In that capacity he acted in the place of the elected Council until a newly elected Council came into office in April 2001.