Robbie back keeping an eye on his beloved city

By WAYNE THOMPSON

After months of wrangling about the site, a life-size bronze statue of Auckland's only six-term mayor, Sir Dove-Myer Robinson, was finally unveiled yesterday on the Queen St landing of Aotea Square.

Sir Dove-Myer, or Robbie as he was affectionately known, died in 1989. He was Mayor of Auckland from 1959 to 1965 and 1968 to 1980.

He was also a founding member of the Auckland Regional Authority (now council) in 1968.

Deputy mayor David Hay and Auckland Citizens and Ratepayers Now councillors objected to the statue being placed in front of the Town Hall, as agreed by the previous council, and the site for the statue was settled only last month.

The site is about 40m from the hall, beside a plaque commemorating the opening of Aotea Square by Sir Dove-Myer in 1978.

At the unveiling ceremony, tributes were paid to him as a visionary and tireless campaigner for a rapid transit scheme and for cleaning up the Waitemata Harbour.

A friend for 40 years, Professor Kenneth Cumberland, said the statue, by Auckland sculptor Toby Twiss, was a faithful interpretation.

It had Sir Dove-Myer, mayoral chain over an open-neck shirt and sleeves rolled up, in an orator's pose standing on a soap-box type step.

Twiss, 33, never met Sir Dove-Myer. He said he took a lot of qualities that people felt were representative of Sir Dove-Myer and then condensed them for a symbolic work.

"I've tried to make him look like he was somebody to look up to for the future. He battled and achieved good things, and he was an unorthodox person.

"I liked that quality of his."

Dame Barbara Goodman, Sir Dove-Myer's niece and his mayoress for 12 years, said the statue was "very good - we did not want it to be overpowering".

But the former city councillor said the statue was incomplete.

It should be accompanied by an apt Hebrew quotation: "Not thine the labour to complete and yet thou art not free to cease."

The quotation was to have been in brass lettering set in an oval of terrazzo stone paving.

But Dame Barbara said the city council had not made money available to do the inscription.

She asked Mayor John Banks, who helped unveil the statue, to see that the inscription work was done.

A spokesman said quotes were being sought for the work and ways to pay for it were being looked at as the job could cost more than $10,000.

The statue cost $90,000, of which $75,000 came from the council and $15,000 from sponsorship and donations from the Auckland Regional Council and Watercare Services.