HASTINGS' 50TH: Coat of arms tells a story

HINERANGI VAIMOSO
Fifty years ago being granted a coat of arms was the ultimate step in officially becoming a city. And it was the final step to city status for Hastings.
The Hastings Borough Council decided a coat of arms would be an indicative symbol of its new city status and planning for one began in the early 1950s.
In the book Town and Country, by Matthew Wright, he wrote that by late 1954 the council had decided it would incorporate elements of coat of arms of Hastings in England, the Hastings family and something significant to represent the new settlement.
Permission was needed to use the first two symbols so in November 1954 the town clerk at the time, Noel Harding, wrote to his opposite number in England to get approval. He extended an invitation to the Mayor of Hastings, England, to visit the New Zealand in 1956, the year the town was expected to be proclaimed a city.
Hastings town clerk in England, N P Lester had no doubt his council would agree.
However he had reservations that the incorporation of the English coat of arms would look odd in the coat of arms of a city on the other side of the world.
So he designed a more suitable symbol for the new settlement.
It was October, 1955, before Mr Harding and his council could get started on a definite design.
Gaining rights to have a registered coat of arms was a tedious process which took months waiting for approval from Sir John Heaton Armstrong, Chester Herald of Arms Extraordinary, for the "issue of Letters Patent" from the Earl Marshal. The bureaucratic nature of the process came with a cost - £160 - which was paid by the borough of Hastings, England.
They wrote, "In gratitude to the citizens of Hastings, New Zealand, for their kindness during the war years ... and in appreciation of the long years of friendship between the two towns."
The final design was aimed to be solely for Hastings. According to heraldic artist, Geoff Fuller of Havelock North, the original coat of arms showed the importance of native New Zealand to the settlers.
"It was probably designed in England, so there are a lot New Zealand symbols," Mr Fuller said.
"It represents the wool industry and the native connections."
The sheep is a supportive element and represents the agricultural base in Hastings. The Maori man indicates the cultural background of the area, the kiwi as the crest and the kowhai tree as the mantling defines the native life in New Zealand.
To finish it off, the latin motto translates to "town and country in harmony."
Mr Fuller was the designer of the Havelock North Borough coat of arms and designed the current Hastings district coat of arms in 1993.
The current coat of arms derived from the Hastings City, the Hastings family and the Havelock North coat of arms.
"They tell you what team you belong to and about your origins," Mr Fuller said.
He said he though people should take more notice of these symbols because they told the story of one's history and enabled one to trace one's heritage.