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The Historic Rates Books Search provides access to Wellington city's unique collection of historical rating information. It aims to reduce handling of the original rates books, which are very fragile, and provide wider access.
Rates Book Search
Detail of rates book entries
You can search rating records for early Wellington city (the area now stretching from Thorndon to Newtown) from 1863-1866. Information has been transcribed from early Wellington City Council rate books.
You can search the Historic Rates Books to find:
- where people lived
- who lived in a particular area
- what people's properties were like (from fenced paddock to cottages and well-known establishments)
While every effort has been made to transcribe the rate book entries correctly, the early handwriting is not always easy to interpret so there may be some errors.
Some of the information has been standardised to make searching easier. For example, where retained, abbreviations have been standardised and abbreviated names have been spelt in full.
Notes:
- Rating Year
The rating year at this time was 1 April to 31 March, and the rate books were written before the rating year began. If ownership of a property changed during the year, the original owner's name would be crossed out and replaced by the new owner. To avoid confusion and for consistency we have only recorded the owner listed at the start of each rating year.
- Private Streets
Private streets were not maintained by the Council so were not recorded in the rate books. Instead, properties were listed under the nearest public street.
- Street Names and Spelling
The names and spellings of streets that were used when the rate books were compiled have been kept. Knowing whether a street name has changed may help when searching the database or viewing the results of a search.
- Original Errors
We have not attempted to correct any errors that may have been made when the rate books were written up. For example, corner properties may be listed under either of the two streets. It is also possible that some properties were mistakenly listed under an incorrect town acre number.
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