Heather Ayrton JP calls it a day

EXEMPLARY EFFORT: Heather Ayrton (centre), Rex Faithfull JP (left) Phyllis Rintoul JP, Graeme Kitto JP, Mayor John Carter, Sally Macauley JP and Roger Barnard JP.

Heather Ayrton JP, QSM, has brought an end to 40 years of service as a Justice of the Peace, a contribution to her community that was acknowledged at a luncheon last week.

Those who paid tribute included fellow JP Sally Macauley, who doubted that many people would have contributed to their communities as she had done, not only as a JP but for 27 years as a coroner.

She had also led a demanding life outside those roles, not least as wife to husband Robin, with whom she raised four children, now most successful in their own right. Between them they had produced 11 grandchildren for her to enjoy.

Mrs Ayrton also worked for the NZ Herald as a journalist for 35 years, is a church warden and past chairman of the Kaikohe Heritage Mid North Trust, has sat on the Northland DHB's Ethics Committee, was elected to the DHB in 1990 and was also seconded to the Auckland Health Board (for 10 years), was a founding member and chairman of the Northland Conservation Board, a member of the Lotteries Communities Distribution Committee and Historic Places Trust (of which she is now an honorary life member). And she is a marriage celebrant.

In 1998 she was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for services to the community.

Mrs Ayrton said she had initially been approached by Hobson MP Logan Sloane, who was looking for a successor to late Norman Maxwell as a JP, at a time when an effort was being made to encourage more women into the role.

She clearly recalled the first time she entered the old courthouse in her new capacity, and being asked, in all seriousness, by Jack Byers if she should not have been wearing gloves and a hat.

Some months later a police officer delivered a small, clearly petrified boy to the same courtroom to give evidence, the youngster rushing up to the bench to jump on her knee.

That incident gave impetus to the building of Kaikohe's current courthouse, which opened in 1992.

Mrs Ayrton said she continued to be amazed by how many people thought JsP were paid for their services. They never had been. Nor had she and Jack Byers been remunerated over all the years that they oversaw general and local body election recounts.

In 1981 she was appointed Coroner, one of the lesser known roles of Justices of the Peace. She was just the second woman to be so appointed (after late Maureen Jarman, also a member of the Hokianga/Bay of Islands branch of the Northland Justices Association).

She continued to serve as the local Coroner until the introduction of a new regime under the advent of the Coroners Act 2007, at which time she was believed to be the longest-serving woman in that role in the country.

And while it was with a "certain sadness" that she had decided to retire, she accepted that, with the passage of time, one became conscious that "one ain't what one used to be, and age does weary one".