REVIVAL OF MEMORIES

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 103, 3 May 1934, Page 10

REVIVAL OF MEMORIES

TALES OE EARLY

WELLINGTON

EARLY SETTLERS' EXHIBITION

Tales of forty, fifty, and even ninety years ago wero exchanged by old settlors and descendants of old settlers while they and visitors inspected the exhibits staged by the Wellington Early Settlers' Association in'tho Town Hall last night—the first showing of the season. On the stage in tho Concert Chamber, was tho mahogany chair used by George Hunter, Wellington's first Mayor,- elected in''October, 1842. Upon the chair reposed the beaver hat worn by him when, as a young man, he, left England for New Zealand.- Nearby was a plan of tho town of Wellington. as drawn by Samuel Cobham, of ■ London, for the New Zealand Company—located on the Hutt River. An inquiry mado by a reader of the "Evening Post" recently is answered on another plan of the town of Wellington drawn by Sam Chas. Brees, principal surveyor in 184-1. How many wharves were in Wellington in the forties? The answer is six—Brown's Wharf, where the secretary of tho association, Mr. W. 'Toomath,- remembers having fished as a boy, on a site of the present Lainbton Station; and thcu running south-east,were Taine's Wharf, Moore's, Queen's, Swinburne's, Hunter's, and Rhodes's Wharves. "I CAME TO NEW,ZEALAND IN. HER!'' The past is dead only when strangers inspect the relics of 'the past. Tim animated scenes last evening suggested that tho past possesses a' significance not easily discernible except in such an environment. "The ship Wairarapal Well, I came to New Zealand in her in 1877," said an .old man with tlie tones of youth. "May I securca copy of that picture1?" He is to have'one within a week. . "I used to row my skiff in the early days over tho very spot where wo are now in the Town Hall," said Mr. Charles Tandy, born in Taranak! Street, and son of tho late George Tandy master lighterman in the harbour. M~r. Tandy's exhibition of pictures of ships of all kinds created a great deal of interest. Several albums containing yellowed photographs of sailing vesels had been filled only after a lifetime of collecting. Mr. Tandy declared proudly that he had pulled skiffs over waters between Taranaki Street and Kaiwarra, where moss-covered buildings now stand—"and I had an unbeaten record for rowing in pleasure skiffs," he added. Mr. Tandy's pictures of ships are part of a collection acquired by the Turnbull Library some years ago froni the late Mr. ]?. G. Layton. GARDEN IN MANNERS STREET. ■ '.'I can remember peaches growing in the garden'of 'Barney.' Rhodes, later the-Hon. W. B. Rhodes," said a vicepresident of the Early Settlers'. Association, speaking to a "Post" reporter. " That garden ran from James Smith's corner to the site of tho old Opera House. Just onthis spot-of the Town Hall cattle ■used to W pushed overboard from the shins, to swim ashore to -the cattle yards where the Bank of New Zealand now stands on the corner of Manners Street." "We iiscd to call—and some oldtimers still call—Lambton Quay 'The Beach,'-" said another early settler. You couldn't turn out of Willis Street into 'The Beach' unless tho tide was out."

"AVell, well, just look—that's a picturo ot a woman over ninety years of ago taken ten years' ago—here is a picture of her as a tiny tot going to church with her mother," said another visitor The object of. the exhibition as described by official of the association is to stimulate an interest in old Wellington and in the research efforts being undertaken by-members of the Early .bottlers^ Association. The main part of the exhibits has been presented to the association by Mr. Louis E. WaTd the author of "Early Wellington," arid this is the first time his collection has been exhibited to the. public. :Amongst those present last evening was his Worship the Mayor (Mr. T. 0. A. Hislop), who was shown round' by Professor PP. Wilson, the president, *r -n?"m ' Carter ' ""^"President, and Mr. W. Toomath, secretary of the association.