“Built for Justice” by Terry Carson

Published by AlibiPress.

Lawyer, writer, and keen amateur historian Terry Carson has always felt that the role courthouses played in our small town history has been overlooked. Now following nearly four years of research and after embarking upon photographic safaris all around the North Island, his book 'Built for Justice – Visits to old North Island Courthouses' – has remedied this perceived neglect.

From Waimate North's 1862 Rununga Courthouse, now located in the Kaikohe Pioneer Village in Northland, through to Petone's crumbling Edwardian era courthouse, under threat of demolition in the south, sixty-one old North Island courthouses have been photographed and their history researched for this book. All the courthouses featured in the book were built before 1950, many in the 1890s-1900s, and they show off a wide range of architectural styles. The main criteria for inclusion in the book was that the buildings still had to survive in some form

'Built for Justice' is a beautifully produced hardcover book, designed by award winning book designer Anna Egan-Reid. It contains over ninety photographs, including current photographs of these buildings in their present uses: as local museums, information and arts centres, cafes, private residences and B & B establishments, as well as a few that still operate as courthouses. Through historical research, use of old newspaper reports and memories and anecdotes from 'old timers' the human stories behind these old courthouses have now been told.

'Built for Justice' takes the reader on a fascinating trip down memory lane to a time when almost every small town had its own courthouse, post office, general store, local policeman, and justice was administered and seen to be done locally. This is a timely book with recently announced government changes placing many small remaining operating courthouses under threat of closure, and some of these unique and attractive old buildings now facing an uncertain future.

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