Historic Rates Books - Introduction

Historic rates book

You can complete an online search of Wellington City Council's early rates books. The original books are located at Wellington City Archive.

Wellington Town Board Rates Book

The rating records are from 1863 to 1866 for early Wellington city (the area from Thorndon to Newtown). They provide an interesting profile about the character of Wellington's population and properties - from fenced paddocks to cottages and well-known establishments.

You can search to find:

• where people lived
• who lived in a particular area
• property descriptions
• land and rateable values.

Database Features

Standardisation of Search Terms

Detail of rates book entries

We've standardised some information - for example, we've standardised abbreviations and written abbreviated names in full.

Rating Year

From 1863 to 1866 the rating year was 1 April to 31 March. Rate books were written before the rating year began. If ownership of a property changed during the rating year, the original owner's name would be crossed out and replaced by the new owner. For consistency, only the owner at the start of each rating year is listed.

Private Streets

The Council did not maintain private streets so these were not recorded in the rate books. Instead, properties were listed under the nearest public street.

Street Names & Spelling

We've kept the original street names and spellings of streets that were used when the rate books were compiled. If you know whether a street name has changed then this may widen your search results.

Original Errors

Rates book pages

We haven't corrected errors made in the original rate books. For example, corner properties may be listed under either of the two streets. Some properties were listed under an incorrect town acre number.

Inaccuracies

Information was transcribed from early Wellington City Council rate books. Every effort has been made to transcribe the rate book entries correctly. However, the early handwriting was not easy to decipher.

More Information

City Archives

Related Links

• Archives Queries & Requests Form
• Find Names - LINZ website

Department Details:
Archives