NZ Lighthouse Funding To Change
By Sue Clark on Aug 5, 2008 in News 
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From Shipping Fees To Taxpayers
Government officials in New Zealand are considering whether taxpayers ought to foot the bill for lighthouse maintenance and upkeep of the buildings rather than rely on the maritime safety fees they’ve collected from ships and ferries over the years. Around $500,000 is spent annually on the care of 23 classic lighthouses from those funds. A lot of the lighthouses are cast iron and extremely susceptible to rusting from the sea and wind.
One of the options Maritime New Zealand, the lighthouse operators, is considering is to transfer ownership of the lights to another Crown agency and to lease them back at the same cost as a “modern equivalent asset,” according to director Catherine Taylor. “Regardless of what happens, the lighthouses are an important asset and will remain in Crown ownership to be preserved on behalf of the public,” she said. In the story at the New Zealand Herald, she refused to speculate on which agency might get the lights. Possibilities include the Treasury Department and Ministry of Transport.
Cape Brett Lighthouse Before and After
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| 60 layers of paint had to be removed | Closeup of the tower after completion |
Putting a Price On The Lights
Although those of us that love lighthouses and consider them priceless, Maritime NZ has recently undertaken to evaluate them for the purpose of finding alternate funding to support the ongoing upkeep. With that in mind, they hired Graeme Horsley to put a price on the lights. It took a year, but all 97 of the country’s tower licenses now have a price on their heads.
According to Horsley, the valuations were very difficult because of historic land ownership investigations, obscure tenure and a long paper trail. A lot of the lighthouses were shipped over from Great Britain to be assembled on site, however, the newer “lights on a pole” are obviously valued differently.The light on a stick at Maori Rock is valued at $35,000, while the lighthouses below, Nugget Point and at Tiritiri Matangi, are valued at $253,000 and $680,000 respectively.
| Nugget Point Lighthouse | Lighthouse at Tiritiri Matangi |
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| Valued at $253,000 | Valued at $680,000 |
“The old lighthouses have beacons which shine out for more than 20 nautical miles but due to technology changes, new ones only need to be a light on a simple pole that reaches out the same distance,” Horsley said. “You can replace an old lighthouse for a fraction of the cost.”
Replace? Never. The old lights are irreplaceable. A pole on a stick comes nowhere near the beauty and romance of these gracious NZ beacons. They are a priceless asset, and can never be duplicated again.
Photo Credits (Some rights reserved):
- Cape Reinga by Clouds76
- Cape Brett Before by Arfrank
- Cape Brett After by Kiwi MikeX
- Nugget Point Lighthouse by Azzaroni
- Lighthouse on Tiritiri Matangi by Pluckytree
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