Dargaville memorial town clock

Dargaville clock war memorial c1986.

In 1923 Dargaville solicitor Mr G.N. Hayes undertook to present a town clock to the people of Dargaville, in memory of his late partner, Charles Darling, who had been killed in the First World War, and as a memorial to fallen soldiers from the district. The clock was installed in the tower of the Dargaville Post Office building (opened in 1914). On 7 March 1925 Mr Hayes formally presented the clock to Postmaster-General Gordon Coates; Mrs Hayes then ceremonially pulled the ribbon which started the clock.

The building, on the corner of Normanby Street and Hokianga Road, no longer serves as a post office, but is listed as a Category I heritage building. Read more about this building on Heritage New Zealand's website

See also: ‘Memorial Town Clock: Presentation to Dargaville’, Northern Advocate, 3/11/1923, p. 5; ‘Dargaville Town Clock: Memorial to Soldiers’, NZ Herald, 7/11/1923, p. 10; ‘Gift of Town Clock’, NZ Herald, 18/2/1925, p. 2; ‘Time at a Glance: Dargaville’s New Clock’, Auckland Star, 9/3/1925, p. 4; ‘Dargaville Clock: Presentation Ceremony’, NZ Herald, 25/3/1925, p. 10; ‘Celebrating a Century’, Kaipara Lifestyler, 23/9/2014.