RECOLLECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 94, 22 April 1931, Page 6

RECOLLECTIONS.

Yes! when they told me of the huge crowds in Queen Street on the occasion of Auckland's ninetieth birthday the years fell away and I was a child living with my parents in Hepburn .Street in the year 1565. My only recollections of that neighbourhood is being awakened at night to see a fire across the gully (Auckland was all hills and gullies those days), which destroyed a row of twelve houses. My parent*, left Auckland shortly after that to live at Waiuku. Between 1565 and 18G9 my father brought me to Auckland in a cutter which ran from Waiuku to Onehunga a-nd was in charge of a man called Antonio. Coming down we got on a sandbank, and while waiting for the tide to take us off spent part of the time fishing. The sailors made billy tea and it certainly tasted good. Arriving at Onehunga, we took a bus to Auckland town, where my father talked over matters with the Education Board and then took me to Vaile's drapery shop to buy a winter jacket, the money for which I had been saving for three years. During our wanderings about town I remember father taking my hand to lead me across some planks over water just about where the Shortland Street post office is. Yaile's shop was on the wrong side of Queen Street, as we called it, and you had to go down one or two steps to enter. Some years afterwards a fire swept several of those shops away. In 1574 we were living in Hobson Street in a house that had been occupied by Bishop Coke, if I remember rightly. To attend St. Paul's School from there we walked over Barrack Hill (which is now Albert Park) and past the old barracks, which were then used as an emigration depot—no trams in those days. The city was steadily growing, and it was a great event when, the Theatre Royal and Abbott's Opera House opened. What thrills we had when Bland Holt brought his company to our city! Auckland also had the enjoyment of splendid opera companies those days. Then horse cars were started. Oh, what a day that was for the public! The drivers were so kind that they would stop the car while one ran into a shop to pick up a parcel. As the years passed on improvements and advancements continued, until now we have our- beautiful city, which we old colonists have seen grow, and love. I am sure I am only expressing the wish of all true colonists by saying may Auckland not only be a Queen Citv but a clean, wholesome one. —AN OLD COLOXIST.