An independent Petone patron: Vera Ellen
Since retiring as the Matron of Hutt Hospital in 1987, Vera Ellen has focused much of her 20 years of public service in the Petone community. ?I was bored after having such a busy job, so I got involved with virtually everything,? says Ms Ellen. Ms Ellen is the president of the Petone Historic Society, a board member of the Britannia House, and a committee member of the Petone Community House. She also helped set up the Lower Hutt Women?s Centre and is proud of the fact the centre nearly owns the property. ?I love Petone, and I?m very protective of it,? she says. In that same year as her retirement Petone celebrated its centenary. However, the jubilations were short-lived for Petone die-hards like 83 year-old Vera Ellen. ?In 1987 we were celebrating 100 years, and the next year we were amalgamated, it was such a shock. ?The community board was formed, and that was a great put down,? she says. Although Petone had three representatives in the newly formed Lower Hutt Council, Ms Ellen says the Petone Community Board kept ?fighting one fire after the other? as the new council sought to exert its control over them. ?We were very unhappy and the Council was quite tactless and gleeful that they had come out on top. ?Before that there was only a friendly rivalry between Petone and Lower Hutt,? says Ms Ellen. Resistance stemmed from the fact Petone had been independent for 100 years, and was the first area to have a Mayor and elected councillors in 1887. At the time Petone residents were ?very bolshie about it?. ?Samuel Raven Johnston was the first Mayor, and his wife was Elizabeth Riddler, for whom the street is named after. ?We had this sense of identity that we didn?t want to lose,? she says. Ms Ellen served three terms on the Petone Community Board with a break in 1993 to join the Wellington DHB, which at the time encompassed Hutt Hospital. Around the same time Petone lost its independence the National government forced a radical reshuffle of the country?s district health boards. ?That was when [then Minister of Health] Simon Upton did his thing,? Ms Ellen says. She stayed at the Hutt DHB for 18 months before leaving in disgust at the reshuffle. ?It was a coup throughout the country with the disestablishment of all the boards, sure, some of the people probably needed to go. ?But it was replaced by the Crown Health Enterprises, it was a ghastly sort of thing, which was absolutely hopeless,? she says. Ms Ellen became a Justice of the Peace and returned to the Petone Community Board to keep up her involvement in local affairs. She is still serving on the board, and surprisingly enough lives on Riddlers Crescent.
