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Although Auckland's municipal history goes back to 1851, eleven years after the foundation of the city itself, it was not until sixty years later that the first building devoted entirely to the purposes of a town hall was opened. Prior to the Proclamation of April 24, 1871, by which the Auckland City Council was constituted under "The Municipal Corporations Act, 1867," local government was a thing of little importance, but from 1871 onwards the municipality began to make headway. At the commencement of this period, only a small office, owned by Messrs. Upton & Co., Booksellers, Queen Street, and located over their shop, was occupied as the first municipal chambers of Auckland. As the Council's affairs prospered, this humble office was found inadequate, and larger accommodation was sought in the old Magistrate's Court, at the corner of High and Chancery Streets. Soon after the opening of the Public Library in the new building, Wellesley Street, in 1887, the Council decided to utilize, temporarily, some of the rooms in this building as Municipal Chambers—that which had been planned for a lecture hall becoming the Council Chamber, and rooms designed for more æsthetic purposes being converted into departmental offices. For nearly a quarter of a century (until the Town Hall was ready for occupation) the Corporation carried on its work here.

The first practical step in connection with the provision of a Town Hall for Auckland goes back to