HURD OR UNHEARD?

Wellington's Carillon at The National War Memorial of New Zealand.

To follow is some edited information from Wikipedia and NZ History on the origins and current status of the Carillon:

The National War Memorial of New Zealand is located next to the Dominion Museum building on Buckle Street, in Wellington. The war memorial was dedicated in 1932 on Anzac Day (25 April) in commemoration of the First World War. It also officially remembers the New Zealanders who gave their lives in the South African War, World War Two and the wars in Korea\, Malaysia and Vietnam. 
The War Memorial consists of the War Memorial Carillon, the Hall of Memories, and an unknown New Zealand warrior interred in a tomb constructed in 2004 in front of the Hall of Memories. It was registered in 1990 by Heritage New Zealand as a Category 1 Historic Place.

The Carillon had its beginnings in 1927 when the Wellington War Memorial Carillon Society placed an order to cast 49 bells for their proposed First World War memorial. The Society offered citizens the opportunity to purchase one of the 49 bells that would make up the instrument and within a week the sponsorship for the bells were oversubscribed. Thirty three were dedicated to next-of-kin and the remainder to battles, military units or other groups.

Having allocated the bells, the Society arranged for the casting to be done at at a foundry in Croydon, South London, in late 1927.  Once this was done the tower building got underway.

Following a design competition for the complex and further fundraising to cover the costs of the project, construction on the bell tower began in 1931 and less than a year later, on Anzac Day 1932, the new 50-metre-high National War Memorial Carillon was dedicated. 

Since 1984 the carillon has been substantially rebuilt and enlarged. Twenty mid-range bells have been replaced with 21 smaller treble bells and 4 large bass bells, extending the total range to 6 octaves. The four bass bells were added in 1995 and are named "Grace/Aroha", "Hope/Tūmanako",

Remembrance/Whakamaharatanga", and "Peace/Rangimārie". The carillon currently has 74 bells, with the "Peace/Rangimārie" bell weighing 12.5 tonnes, making it the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. The carillon ranks as the third-largest in the world by total weight.

The carillonist sits at a clavier or keyboard and uses his or her hands and feet to strike wooden keys and pedals which are each connected by a wire to a clapper inside a bell. When a key or pedal pulls on the wire, the clapper strikes the bell to create a sound. The bell itself doesn't move. 

Keyboard for the carillon

Since the opening of the National War Memorial Carillon in 1932 there have only been four official carillonists: Gladys Watkins, John Randal, Selwyn Baker and Timothy Hurd.

In past years Anzac Day and specific battle commemorations had special places in the annual schedule of events. The carillon was played in over 200 hours of live concerts per year and a comprehensive domestic and international carillon teaching programme was conducted under the direction of the National Carillonist, Timothy Hurd...

... In August 2025 however the Ministry of Culture and Heritage announced that it was planning to disestablish the carillonist role - the position that Timothy Hurd has occupied for around 40 years!

Some soulless bureaucrat from the department said that it is a cost cutting exercise and non-essential roles are being disestablished.

"Our intention is to have the carillon played every Anzac Day," the Ministry of Culture and Heritage said.

The tower is scheduled to reopen by Anzac Day 2026  and Hurd's job is set to be disestablished that same week!

This followed months of him working to refurbish the complicated instrument and advising builders how to strengthen the bell frame in the $10 million dollar upgrade.

The ministry's internal report said it might hire a contractor to play it. Its website said the carillon would be "fully usable" once restored.

"We are still working through the details of how that will happen, as part of our change process" a ministry spokesperson said.

Yeah right. From my experience external contractors end up costing more than salaried employees and how many carillon-playing contractors are there out there available at short notice to play a complicated 'machine'?

What the fuck! If anyone needs to be booted out it's the minister for Culture and Heritage and the lackey who's making those stupid statements.

I love the Carillon, having lived in Wellington for my first 30 years. My first primary school was St Joseph's in Buckle Street and the Carillon towered over us and the sound of the bells was magical.

My secondary school was St Patrick's College, also in Buckle Street (on the same site of the old St Joseph's) and in the 1960s the sound of the bells was reassuring and welcomed.

As a small child my brother and I played (not the Carillon keyboard) inside the Carillon while my dad was doing work on both the interior and exterior of the tower. I mentioned this in an earlier post: HOMETOWN

Am I the only one thinking that The Ministry for Culture and Heritage is a classical misnomer?