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Mayor of Lower Hutt
Coat of arms of Lower Hutt
Incumbent Campbell Barry since 2019
Style	His Worship
Member of	Hutt City Council
Term length	Three years, renewable
Inaugural holder	William Fitzherbert
Formation	1891
Deputy	Tui Lewis
Salary	$158,000
Website	Official website

The city of Lower Hutt, New Zealand, was first proclaimed a borough on 1 February 1891. Prior to this it had been part of Hutt County, initially as a Roads Board and from 1881 as a Town Board.

Since 2019, the mayor has been Campbell Barry.

History

The Hutt County Council was established in 1877, covering the region from Wellington's south coast up to Waikanae, excluding Wellington City. The county council was headed by a chairman rather than a mayor. As the region grew, urban parts of the Hutt County became autonomous boroughs with Lower Hutt becoming its own borough in 1891 with a borough council headed by a mayor to be directly elected by ratepayers. William Fitzherbert was elected unopposed with six borough councillors also being elected. From the 1920s on population grew quickly and in 1941 Lower Hutt became a city after reaching the required population of 20,000 for city status. As a result of the 1989 local government reforms Lower Hutt City amalgamated several of the neighbouring authorities including the Petone Borough Council, Eastbourne Borough Council and Hutt County Council (centred on Wainuiomata) as well as land on the waterfront formerly in the possession of the Wellington Harbour Board. The sitting mayor of Lower Hutt City was elected as mayor of the expanded Hutt City Council in 1989, however retaining the title mayor of Lower Hutt despite the "Lower" being dropped from the name of the council.

The longest-serving mayor was Percy Dowse who held office for twenty years, from 1950 to 1970.

List of mayors

Mayors of Lower Hutt have been:

Key

  Independent   Citizens'   Labour

	#	Name	Portrait	Term of office
	1	William Fitzherbert		1 February 1891	18 November 1898
	2	Walter George Foster		18 November 1898	5 March 1900
	3	Edmund Percy Bunny		5 March 1900	24 April 1901
	4	Orton Stevens		24 April 1901	26 April 1905
	5	Thomas William McDonald		26 April 1905	1 May 1907
	6	Thomas Peterkin		1 May 1907	6 May 1909
	(3)	Edmund Percy Bunny		6 May 1909	7 May 1914
	7	Henry Baldwin		7 May 1914	8 April 1918
	8	Percy Rishworth		27 April 1918	21 December 1921
	9	Will Strand		21 December 1921	16 May 1929
	10	Sir Alex Roberts		16 May 1929	13 May 1931
	(9)	Will Strand		13 May 1931	10 May 1933
	11	Jack Andrews		10 May 1933	9 June 1947
	12	Ernst Peterson Hay		9 June 1947	20 January 1949
	13	William Gregory		14 March 1949	18 November 1950
	14	Percy Dowse		18 November 1950	9 December 1970
	15	Sir John Kennedy-Good		21 December 1970	24 October 1986
	16	Glen Evans		24 October 1986	31 October 1995
	17	John Terris		31 October 1995	10 October 2004
	18	David Ogden		10 October 2004	9 October 2010
	19	Ray Wallace		9 October 2010	12 October 2019
	20	Campbell Barry		12 October 2019	present

List of deputy mayors

Key

  Independent   Citizens'   Labour

Notes

1. Fuller, Piers (10 November 2019). "Are our mayors earning their pay rises?". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
2. McGill 1991, pp. 119–20.
3. Long, Jessica; Tso, Matthew (13 October 2019). "Lower Hutt elects New Zealand's youngest ever mayor, Campbell Barry". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
4. McGill 1991, p. 120.
5. McGill 1991, pp. 152–3.
6. McGill 1991, p. 208.
7. Ewan, Audrey; Elphick, Michael (16 October 1989). "Lower Hutt embraces Evans-led team". The Evening Post. p. 5.
8. "Mr Percy Dowse, Lower Hutt's Mayor for 20 Years, Dies in Hospital at 72". The Evening Post. 9 December 1970. p. 6.
9. McGill 1991, p. 212.

References

• McGill, David (1991). Lower Hutt – The First Garden City. Petone, New Zealand: The Lower Hutt City Council. ISBN 1-86956-003-5.

• Mayors of Lower Hutt
• Lists of mayors of places in New Zealand