It’s happened again.
A plaque installed in Howick’s Fencible Walk Park to replace a bronze plaque stolen from the same spot in March has itself now been stolen.
The first plaque was installed on a low brick plinth in the park on Picton Street in late 2022 as part of the commemorations for Howick’s 175th anniversary.
The plaque’s inscription notes the arrival of the Fencible families who sailed from Britain to Auckland in the “hope of creating a secure and prosperous future for themselves and their descendants”.
When it was stolen, possibly to be sold for scrap metal, the Rotary Club of Howick and the Howick Freemasons Charitable Trust stepped up to fund its replacement, which was installed on July 10.
Howick Rotary’s Madeleine East and the Freemasons Trust’s Mike Abercrombie were on hand with Howick 175 committee member Marin Burgess to mark the occasion.
Burgess said at the time that the replacement plaque was made of cast iron.
It was attached to the plinth using more and longer screws than last time, as well as an adhesive concrete sealant, making it harder to steal.
“It has no commercial value but it has huge sentimental value” she said.
“It provides a connection from 1847 right through to the present day.”
That replacement plaque, which cost almost $2000, has now also been stolen, with its disappearance noted today, September 12.
It follows the theft last week of two plaques attached to a large memorial rock at Howick Beach and which commemorated the lives of three young boys who drowned when their dinghy overturned while they were out fishing on July 15, 1956.
The tragedy sparked the formation of organisation that became the Howick Volunteer Coastguard.
A social media post about the plaques’ theft drew dozens of angry responses, with one person referring to the thief or thieves as “scum” and others speculating the plaques may have been stolen to sell for scrap.
Following that incident, a large object known as a ‘plane table map with distances’ and which was attached to a plinth near the Cenotaph on Stockade Hill in Howick was stolen also.
Its theft was raised by a local resident who informed Howick Local Board chairperson Damian Light on September 11 of the disappearance.
A plane table is described as a device used in “surveying, site-mapping, exploration mapping, coastal navigation mapping and related disciplines to provide a solid and level surface on which to make field drawings, charts and maps”.
The one on Stockade Hill was installed by the Rotary Club of Howick in late 2011 to mark the club’s 50th Jubilee year.
Howick Rotary president Rob Mouncey labelled the recent plaque thefts as “appalling acts of vandalism” and asked, “what is happening our society?”
People with information on the theft of the plaques from the memorial rock at Howick Beach, the plane table on Stockade Hill, and the plaque from Fencible Walk Park can phone police on 105 or the free and anonymous Crimestoppers tip-off line on 0800 555 111.
