Jubilee of the Port of Wellington, 1880-1930

Buick, Thomas Lindsay, Wellington Harbour Board, Wellington, N.Z., 1930

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The original publication details are as follows:

Title: Jubilee of the Port of Wellington, 1880-1930.

Author: Buick, Thomas Lindsay

Published: Wellington, N.Z., Wellington Harbour Board, 1930

Jubilee of the Port of Wellington 1880-1930

WELLINGTON HARBOUR BOARD

NEW ZEALAND

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page

Members of Board, Jubilee Year 1930 6

Whanganui-a-Tara, the Great Harbour of Tara, 1839 8

Captain James Cook, R.N 12

Joseph Somes, Esq 17

Site of Town of Britannia, 1840 19

The Harbour of Port Nicholson and the Town of Wellington, 1842 19

Early Wharves, Te Aro, About 1850 24

Early Wharves, Lambton Quay, 1858 24

Noah’s Ark, Lambton Quay 29

Early Reclamation, Lambton Quay, 1867 29

Captain Chaffer’s Chart, 1840 32

Queen’s Wharf, 1862-3 36

Queen’s Wharf, About 1870 36

Customhouse Quay in 1882-3 41

Queen’s Wharf, About 1880 41

Port of Wellington, 1929 bet. 42 & 43

Harry Chalker, Waterman 48

Sir George Grey, K.C.B 56

William Hort Levin, Esq 59

Post Office Waterfront, About 1885 63

Queen’s Wharf and Entrance, About 1893 63

Customhouse Quay, Paddle Steamer " Colleen,” About 1889 66

Pipitea Point, About 1890 66

Queen’s Wharf, Dates of Construction 70

Queen’s Wharf and Beyond, 1929 71

Diagrams, Finance and Trade, 50 Years’ Progress 78 &79

Plan Showing Land Reclaimed, 1852-1929 82

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5

Acknowledgment.

JN COMPILING this narrative I have been under deep obligations to many who have had previous opportunity of writing on the subject. Mr. Eldson Best’s “ Land of Tara,” and the Discovery of Wellington Harbour,” have been drawn upon. Mr. Herbert Baillie’s " Early Reclamations and Harbour-Works of Wellington ” has been invaluable, and not less so some manuscripts by Mr. Clarence F. Turner on the early Shipping Services to this Port. The Minute Books of the City Council Wharf Committee, and of the Chamber of Commerce in the years when that body was agitating to have a Harbour Board established have been of great service, and necessarily the records of the Harbour Board itself have been freely availed of. In another, but not less important way, I am indebted to a number of gentlemen who have aided me with their research and advice.

T. LINDSAY BUICK

5 Boston Terrace

W ellinston

4th December, 1929.

WELLINGTON HARBOUR BOARD, JUBILEE YEAR 1930. Front Row (Left to Right)—D. J. McGowan, T. Moss, J. G. Harkness, J. W. McEwan (Chairman), C. J. B. Norwood, Captain C. McArthur, C. M. Turrell. Middle Row (Left to Right)—T. R. Barrer, Captain C. F. Post, M. A. Eliott, \V. L. Fitzherbert, H. D, Bennett, J. Marciibanks (General Manager and Chief Engineer), Back Row (Left to Right)—C. H. Chapman, m.p.. D. J. Gibbs (Treasurer and Assistant Secretary), A. G. Barnett (Secretary), Captain F. A Macindoe.

Foreword

/ HIS being the Jubilee Year of the I *1 / Wellington Harbour Board, the m opportunity has been taken to chronicle under the title, “ Wellington a M —the Growth of a Great Port,” by y Mr. T. Lindsay Buick, F.R.Hist.S., the achievements of those early Pioneers and Statesmen, Members and Officers of the Board, whose vision, judgment and courage, has brought into being the Port and Board of to-day. To their memory this Book is dedicated as a humble tribute of the Present to the honoured Past.

To guard this hardly-won heritage, to uphold past traditions, and to meet the demands of progress, is the onerous duty of Posterity.

Chairman

First of January, Jubilee Year, 1930.

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CO

WH ANGANUI-A-TARA. THE GREAT HARBOUR OF TARA. 1839 AFTER A SKETCH BY T. ALLOM.

WELLINGTON

The Growth oe a Great Pori

By T. Lindsay Buick, F.R. Hist. S.

“And the stately ships go on to their haven under the hill.”

( /OR fifty years the Wellington Harbour Board has V? MP been administering the affairs of the Wellington Harbour, but the harbour itself is much older than / that. Indeed there are vistas of hoary time enshrouding its shores, more impenetrable than the mists which at rare intervals fall upon the face of its waters. There is a fascination in the idea that long aeons ago it was a fresh water lake in the midst of a wider land, with a river flowing past where now sweeps Cook Strait. There is food for thought in the conception that vast land movements may have broken down its outer rim and joined it to the sea or that it became a great natural depression as the result of a fracturing of the Earth’s crust. There is an interesting speculation in the “ displacement ” theory of Alfred Wegener, which presuming an eternal drift to the west, sees the South Island torn from the

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North, and Wellington Harbour formed in the wrench. There is, however, little hope, to-day, of reaching back with indubitable certainty to first causes. It is therefore sufficient for our purposes to know that ever since the eyes of man beheld it, Wellington Harbour has been a magnificent sheet of deep sea water, upon whose breast the navies of many nations could safely ride, and conveniently manoeuvre. Twenty thousand acres of sheltered surface, 14 fathoms in its deepest part, with tough anchorage at the bottom, is surely a lich natural endowment of which any country might be proud, and for which New Zealand has reason to be profoundly thankful.

Its discovery is shrouded in obscurity, for it was made in the days of the mists. Polynesian voyagers, in a spirit of great daring, pushing the prows of their canoes into these southern waters, found it; they saw that it was good, and resolved to fill its empty spaces. Kupe, Ngahue and Toi are spoken of as the pioneer sailors who first made their landfall in New Zealand, and laid the foundations of Maori occupation. Over their sea tracks, later, came Whatonga, of mystic name, whose sons Tara and Tautoki, he sent southward from the Bay of Plenty to search for a new home, where he might be free from a scolding wife. Their quest brought them to this great harbour, which they knew Kupe had visited, for here was Matiu (Somes Island) and Makaro (Ward* Island) which he had named. To commemorate their own visit they named Miramar Peninsula, which was then an island, Motu-kairangi. Here, Tara decided to settle, his people taking the tribal name of Ngai-Tara. The followers of Tautoki, going to Wairarapa, became the progenitors of the Rangitane people.

It is somewhat strange that Kupe, the noted geographer, having taken the trouble to name two small islands in the harbour, did not specifically designate the harbour itself. At

♦ Probably so named after Sir Henry G. Ward, a prominent member of the New Zealand Association of 1837.

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least no such designation has survived in Maori memory, an omission fortunate for Tara, whose followers becoming numerous, fortified Somes Island and left abundant traces of their occupation upon every portion of the district. But most important of all, these people gave to the harbour its original name, Whanganui-a-Tara signifying the great harbour of Tara.

As the centuries rolled on there came to this centre of Maori life other home-seekers ; some hoping for relief from the oppression of stronger tribes in the north; some from a love of adventure; some from a spirit of conquest. Each of these influences had in turn modified the character of the first inhabitants, and the latter had, when the Europeans arrived, completely changed it. By this time invaders from Kawhia and Taranaki, grim men possessed of deadly guns, had swept the whole of the southern portion of the North Island, taking possession of the ancient land of Tara, and building their kaingas upon the shores of its harbour, enclosed within a circle of forest clad hills. While these ethnological changes, the result of peace and war, were in course of fruition, a race of men new to these lands cast eyes upon the harbour of Tara, but did not enter it.

On Bth February, 1770, Captain James Cook, in his ship Endeavour, had passed this way, but had not observed the entrance, having turned on his southerly course from Queen Charlotte Sound, too abruptly. His second voyage, in 1773, was more propitious. While leisurely beating across the Strait, which now bore his own name, he observed an “ inlet ” which he could not recall having previously seen. His exploring instinct prompted him to investigate, and the Resolution was put about, with every intention of seeing what lay beyond the towering headlands. As she approached the entrance, the wind dropped and the tide turned. Cook therefore anchored a mile from Barrett’s reef. This was on 2nd November, and

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CAPTAIN JAMES COOK, R.N. After the Painting by Sir Nathaniel Dance, r a.. 1776

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on this day he came into contact with the Ati-Awa inhabitants of the harbour, who put off in their canoes to trade for nails, and to beg or to borrow what else they could.

From his anchorage Cook obtained only a glimpse of their home. He observed that “it lies in north, inclining to the west, and seems sheltered from all winds.” His survey of the place was thus most casual, and before it could be made more complete, a southerly breeze sprang up, whereupon he deemed it expedient to crack on all sail, and “ lead out of the bay,” resuming his interrupted journey to the southward. Although Cook’s own description of this unexplored “ inlet ” was supplemented by others from the pens of the scientist Forster, and of Lieutenant Pickersgill on board the Resolution, the consort of the Endeavour , yet the world was left singularly uninformed as to the real extent and character of the harbour.

To this paucity of knowledge we may attribute the fact that no other European vessel appears to have found the place for upwards of 56 years. By this time colonising schemes had begun to stir the public mind of England, and in 1826 Captain James Herd brought the barque Rosanna into Whanganui-a-Tara, with a small company of Scottish colonists, who hoped to find a new home in New Zealand. There is some reason to suppose that with the Rosanna there came a tendering cutter, the Lambton, in charge of Captain Barnett, but whether this was so is by no means certain. The fact that both ships were here in 1826 suggests they came together, the fact that both captains made charts of the harbour, with many striking differences, seems to favour the view that they were voyaging independently. There is, however, agreement upon the important point that it was out of the visit of Captains Herd and Barnett that the harbour received its first European name, Port Nicholson. Unfortunately a doubt immediately arises when we endeavour to discover whether it was Captain Herd or Captain Barnett who so designated it. The presumption is in favour of Captain Herd. He was not new to these waters. Twice before he had visited New Zealand, first in 1822, and again in

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1825. Whether on these voyages he had entered Whanganui-a-Tara, is uncertain, but in 1832 he published in The Nautical Almanac some

Remarks on the geographical position of several places visited on voyages to the Islands of New Zealand made in the years, 1822, 1825, 1826 and 1827, with explanatory notes by Tames Herd, Commander of the barque Rosanna.

In these “ remarks ” he gives us the first set of printed directions how the harbour might be reached from the sea:—

Wangi Nui Atra,* or Port Nicholson harbour, bears from Cape Palliser N74°W by compass, distant about 8 leagues, and from the high snowy mountains N4O°E. The course up this harbour is N6.3O°W for nearly 9 miles. Here all the navies of Europe might ride in perfect security; at the entrance there is 11 and 12 fathoms of water. Viewing the coast on the eastern side of Cook’s Strait (when off and within a few miles of Cape Campbell) from Cape Pallisser to Cape Tierawittee, it forms in three table lands, Cape Pallisser being the first; the table land which forms the east entrance of Wangi Nui Atra, the second; the Cape Tierawittee,§ the third; between these table lands at this distance there appears to be two deep bights, which is not the case, but low land nearly level with the water. By the above description, this harbour may easily be discovered, as it is close under the north part of the middle table land.

Here Herd specifically refers to the harbour as Port Nicholson, and this is the first known reference to it in print!. It is reasonable to suppose that in knocking about these waters he had come into contact with Captain John Nicholson, a master on half pay in the Royal Navy. Nicholson had, himself in 1820, visited New Zealand in the brig Haweis, and in January, 1821, he was appointed by Governor Macquarie to be Master Attendant and Harbour Master at Sydney*, a position he retained until his retirement in February, 1842, shortly before his death in the same year. At some period in his career Nicholson appears to have played a large and generous part to one whom E, J. Wakefield describes as “ the captain of a Sydney

II J-/. J . • • UUVIIVIU LUV/ UI U * Whanganui-a-Tara. § Cape Tc Rawhiti. t Port Nicholson, as such, was first referred to in the House of Commons on 31st August, 1835. t Vide Sydney Gazette, 27th January, 1821.

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trading vessel,” who in recognition of the kindness of his “ patron and friend ” gave this harbour the euphonious and historic name, Port Nicholson, This grateful sailor, almost certainly, was Captain Herd, in which case it is not unreasonable to assume that he bestowed the name when he completed his chart in 1826.

The Rosanna’s passengers did not settle at Port Nicholson, preferring to try their fortune further north, and after their departure the European connection with the place was rare and furtive until about 1835. The whalers do not seem to have made much use of it, and very little of its actual geography was known until the advent of the New Zealand Company in 1839, for Herd’s chart was never published, and Barnett’s was made public only in 1847. Then we owed it to the Frenchman, D’Urville, and not to a British source.

Still Herd’s printed description of 1832, “ Here all the navies of Europe might ride in perfect security,” had not escaped the notice of the vigilant minds at the back of the New Zealand Company, and when they despatched Colonel Wakefield in the Tory to select the site of the first colony, they held the potentialities of Port Nicholson clearly in view. In obedience to his instructions, Colonel Wakefield entered Port Nicholson on 20th September, 1839, his first discovery being the pleasant one that no bar existed at the entrance, as some of his imperfect charts suggested was the case.

For two years prior to the coming of the Tory, no overseas European vessel had visited the harbour, a reluctance Colonel Wakefield was unable to understand, “ for the navigation at the entrance could not perplex a novice in nautical matters.” As the prow of the Tory*, prophetically ornamented with a bust

* The Tory was piloted into Port Nicholson by Dicky Barrett, a master whaler whom Colonel Wakefield found at Te Awaiti, in Tory Channel. Although not a skilled Maori linguist, he was extremely useful to Wakefield in his negotiations with the natives, and played a large part in inducing them to accept the proposals of the New Zealand Company. He is commemorated in Wellington by Barrett’s Hotel, of which he was the first proprietor, when it stood on the site of the present Hotel Cecil, where it was the social centre of the infant town.

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of the “ Iron Duke,” ploughed its way through the waters of the harbour, those on board saw a sight which deeply impressed them. Charles Heaphy, the draughtsman, looked at it with the eye of an artist :

On entering Port Nicholson one is struck with the grandeur of the view. The harbour resembles an island rather than an arm of the sea, and in beauty certainly far surpasses that of our English lakes. As we worked up to the anchorage, the noble expanse of water, surrounded by a country of the most picturesque character, formed a scene of indescribable beauty; and as the valley of the Hutt river opened up to our view, apparently extending far inland, until bounded by the snowy range, we wondered that a place which seemed so much to invite settlement had not before been colonised.

Colonel Wakefield was disposed to be less sentimental. He saw “ a fine expanse of water, over the whole of which is anchorage ground.” But more important still :

In the whole space no inconvenience can arise to am vessel with the usual precautions, as none but the true wind is felt, instead of the flurries which are so troublesome in the ports I have visited on the other side of the Strait.

An island placed “ near midway down the harbour,” caught his soldier’s eye, as being “ well adapted for a fort which would command the entrance and the whole extent between the hills which enclose the port to the west.”

This was what we to-day know as Somes Island, so named by Colonel Wakefield in honour of Joseph Somes, head of the big shipping firm of Somes Brothers, of London. In 1840 Joseph Somes was perhaps the most opulent shipowner in Britain, but what is of more importance to our immediate purpose, he was Deputy Governor of the New Zealand Company, and subsequently became its Governor in succession to the Earl of Durham. As an ardent apostle of Imperial expansion he was deeply interested in the Company’s venture at Wellington, and

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By Courtesy H. Fildes. JOSEPH SOMES, ESQ. From an Engraving in the Hocken Collection. Dunedin.

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played a great part with both his money and his ability in developing the enterprise. The Tory was purchased from him ; many of the first immigrant ships were chartered from his fleet, and upon him devolved the responsibility of maintaining the voluminous correspondence which passed between the Company and the British Government during later years when misunderstanding had begun to arise. The perpetuation of his association with the founding of Wellington, by giving his name to what at that period appeared to be a point of first defensive importance, was doubtless thought to be a fitting tribute to one whose services to the cause of British settlement in these islands was second only to those of that wizard of colonisation, Edward Gibbon Wakefield himself.

Turning his gaze from Somes Island to the wide expanse of water before him, Colonel Wakefield quickly visualised Port Nicholson as a great emporium of interior trade, supplemented by a busy coastal traffic from both sides of Cook Strait, “ and for the purposes of importation of foreign, and exportation to other countries, of native produce.” Like the Visionary in Locksley Hall, he looked far into the future, and saw “ all the wonder that would be.”

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,

Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales.

As if inspired by this poetic conception, Colonel Wakefield decided that the first settlement of the New Zealand Company should be at Port Nicholson, a decision fortified by the excellent reports of Captain Chaffers of the Tory, who spent five of these early days in charting its extensive waters. It is therefore clear that the merits of the harbour determined the site of the city that has since grown up around its shores, and is now the capital of the Dominion.

Wakefield’s purchase of the surrounding land and all the trouble entailed by his hurried bargain, are now matters of history. So too is the story of how Captain William Mein Smith, who had come out in the laggard Cuba, at the head of the

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surveyors, had in the absence of Colonel Wakefield attempted to lay out the town of Britannia at the mouth of the Hutt \ alley ; how floods had hindered, and finally caused its abandonment in favour of the shore of Lambton Harbour, the original choice of Wakefield, who had at first sight admired the deep bay, where there is shelter from all winds.”

Here upon a narrow skirt of beach, fronted by the sea, and backed by scrub-covered clay cliffs, the first colony was planted ; planted, and nurtured by a faith which seemed to be inspired by the gracious promise given to Isaac of old “ Dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and bless thee.” In this spirit of high hope the colonists had come out, only to face immediate trouble, through the inability of the New Zealand Company to give them satisfactory titles to their land. Two things alone saved the colony from speedy disaster. Because they were in a somewhat weak defensh e position and threatened by their tribal enemies on both coasts, the Ati-Awa natives living at Port Nicholson were o\er-joyed at the prospect of having the protection and trade of European neighbours. They therefore welcomed Wakefield and his people, being as reckless in selling their land as Wakefield was in buying it. The two paramount chiefs at Port Nicholson at that time appear to have been Te Wharepouri, and Te Puni. Ihe former was a man six feet high, who sometimes “ took tea ” with the settlers, when he was remarkable for his good manners, and his voracious appetite. At other times “he drank wine like a good Christian,” but his general demeanour was that of " a restless fighting devil.” This man, in the course of the negotiations, ruthlessly brushed aside the claims of the Te Aro dwellers, and was perfectly indifferent to the future, so long as the needs of the present were served. Te Puni appears to have been a man of milder character. ‘‘A great orator, and a sensible fellow,” he quietly acquiesced, but became the stabilising influence in the dark days when this prodigal disregard of native rights threatened to overwhelm the little settlement.

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The second circumstance which saved the settlement from ignominious failure was the fact that almost every colonist was a man of means, and could stand a siege. They were thus fortunately able to tide over the anxious period, until they could obtain clear and undisputed titles to their town and suburban sections.

Their first houses were of rude and homely structure, mainly thatched with native grass, and in their construction native labour was freely employed. The payment was in kind. “We give them blankets, muskets, powder, tobacco, and shirts in exchange for pigs, potatoes, house-building, thatching, and things of that sort,” wrote one colonist to his friends in England. With this class of remuneration the natives were for a time content, living more or less peacefully in their villages at Te Aro, and Pipitea Point. These first houses, or many of them, were built so close to the sea, that on a windy day the spray was blown into doors, or windows incautiously left open, and at night “ their twinkling lights multiplied themselves in the watery mirror beneath,”

As fresh ships arrived and more colonists poured in, the settlement, which had now been named Wellington, as a compliment to the “ Iron Duke,” rapidly spread from the shore of Lambton Harbour, and the flats of Thorndon, to the heights beyond, but “ the beach ” always retained its supremacy as the commercial centre, and the point upon which the shipping interests concentrated. Between the arrival of the Tory, late in 1839, and a corresponding date in 1842, the port had received 340 ships of an aggregate burden of 54,546 tons. These included what are known historically as the “ first ships,” the Cuba ; the Aurora* ; the Oriental ; the Duke of Roxburgh ; the Bengal Merchant ; the Adelaide ; the Glenbervie ; and the Bolton. Of these the largest was the Adelaide, of 640 tons, but of large and small there was a marvellous augmentation, until within a comparatively short period the total ships entered had grown

* The Cuba and the Aurora were piloted into the harbour by a master whaler named George Young; but popularly known as “ Jordy ” Young.

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to 1,000. This necessarily involved a considerable traffic between the ships and the shore, and some accommodation even if it were crude and scanty, to cope with it.

The first “ landing stage,” for it was nothing more, was one run out by the surveyors in January, 1840, primarily to land their own luggage, tools and instruments. This was on the Petone beach in front of the projected town of Britannia, and it was here that the first settlers landed, and it was over this primitive jetty that their worldly goods were transported to the shore. With the abandonment of Britannia, and the shifting of the settlement to Lambton Harbour, and Thorndon, these waterfront structures necessarily became more numerous, and took on a more permanent form. For a time it had suited well enough to bring the boats to the beach, and there unload their contents, but there were days when a fresh breeze made this difficult, and a splashing sea made it unprofitable.

This, for instance, was frequently found to be the case with the first ferry service established on the harbour. Although the settlement at Britannia had been officially abandoned, it was some time before everyone had transferred to Wellington. Even the New Zealand Gazette, the local newspaper was still being published there, and much in the way of transportation had to be done. To maintain communication between the two settlements, Captain Daniell, one of the Adelaide’s passengers, commenced running his boat daily between the abandoned Britannia, and the embryo Wellington. The boat had an organised crew, the headsman being Joseph Laurence, who had come out with Captain Daniell in the Adelaide. Passengers and cargo were carried, but when the weather was out of humour the boat did not run, and the Thorndonites, and the Larabtonites, were sometimes without their Saturday weekly paper, and no mails were exchanged for that day. Thus with the increase of the boat traffic, the development of the lightering system* in small cutters, and the growth of the mosquito vessels carrying

* The chief lightermen of the early clays were:—Messrs. Richard and William Haybittle, George Houghton, J. F. Wills, Tandy and Pressman.

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on the coastal trade, the need for better landing and loading places, became a real one. The first of these primitive structures to appear was one erected for Mr. J. H. Wallace, at Ihorndon, opposite Bowen Street. Its construction was of the simplest. An empty dry-goods hogshead was carried out as far below low-water mark as it could be placed. When it was filled with stones it constituted the outer pier. Rough wooden trestles were placed at intervals in the intervening space, on which were laid some long straight logs, bound together by wooden ties, and squared on top by the nimble use of an adze. The Commercial Wharf, Tod’s Wharf, and Brown’s Wharf, were north of Wallace’s, and opposite the site of the Hotel Cecil. The former built by a company with a capital of £250, in £2 shares, was completed in December, 1841, and was capable of accommodating vessels of from 30 to 40 tons. Tod’s Wharf was built by a gentleman who had arrived from Sydney in 1839, and who had acquired land in the vicinity of Charlotte Street. Its neighbour was sometimes known as “ German Brown’s ” Wharf. Following southward, other historic wharves were :

Von Alzdorf’s Wharf, also known as Levin’s Wharf, Taine’s Wharf and Mountain’s Wharf

Moore’s Wharf

Plimmer’s Wharf

Tankersley’s Wharf, also known a;

Swinburne’s Wharf, Osgood’s Wharf, Bijou Wharf

Bowler’s Wharf, late Pearce’s

Wharf and sometimes Lyttelton

Wharf

Waitt & Tyser’s Wharf, also known as Fitzherbert’s Wharf, Crawford’s Wharf, Pilcher’s Wharf, Custom’s Wharf

Bethune and Hunter’s Wharf _

Ridgway, Guyton and Earp’s Wharf also known as Hickson’s Wharf,

Wills’ Wharf, Houghton’s Wharf

Rhodes’ Wharf

Opposite Hutt County Council’s Offices, Lambton Quay.

Opposite Evans', Lambton Quay. Near Queen’s Wharf.

Near Empire Hotel, Willis Street

Willis Street, parallel with Old Customhouse Street.

Old Customhouse Street—for bonded goods.

Old Customhouse Street

Old Customhouse Street.

Tc Aro Foreshore

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EARLY WHARVES, TE ARO, ABOUT 1850,

EARLY WHARVES. LAMBTON QUAY. 1858

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In addition to these there were other “ stagings ” along the foreshore, which fifty years ago were not regarded as “ old timers,” but are gradually acquiring that distinction now. The best known of these were Turnbull’s Wharf; Compton’s Wharf ; Anderson’s Wharf ; David Robertson’s Wharf ; and Greenfield and Stewart’s Wharf.

The most substantial of all these early structures was that built by Captain W. B. Rhodes, at Te Aro, off Manners Street. This wharf had four feet of water at low tide, and nine feet at high tide, and was opened for business on 24th March, 1841. Writing a few days before this event, the New Zealand Gazette announced ;

Captain Rhodes has been so liberal as to state that the public are at liberty to make use of it, free of expense. This is a privilege of which many will be thankful, and of which we doubt not most persons resident at this end of the Bay will avail themselves.

Accompanying each wharf was a store, sometimes of considerable dimensions, where the merchant conducted his business, wholesale or retail, and which in the words of George French Angas, a visitor of the early forties, “ gave the town a more imposing appearance than I had anticipated.” Not all the merchants of those days were men trained to business. Most of them came out with the clear intention of settling on the land, but the New Zealand Company having failed to provide them with the land, they turned their attention to commerce, and keen commercial men some of them became. What are we to say of the gentleman who, being unsuccessful in procuring a boat, bought for £5 a Maori canoe, for which his wife fashioned a sail out of bed sheets. In this frail barque he set off to the ship newest arrived, and either bought his own merchandise from the supercargo, or booked his orders for local produce before his rivals knew there was any business to be done. Such an one richly deserved the success he ultimately achieved.

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Even in this small community of 2,000 souls trading was not without its anxieties, for the Hon. Henry William Petre, who was one of the original settlers, tells us that until the Queen’s writ ran in the settlement, which was not for some time, there was no legal process by which debts could be recovered. The small retail shopkeepers knew this, and “ many of them literally lived on the importing merchants.” They discovered that the supercargos of the Sydney traders would do business only on a ready-money basis, and so they dealt with them for cash and bought on credit from the local firms, who soon began to realise the baneful effect of bad debts.

Side by side with wharf-building, boat-building was progressing as early as 1840. When Colonel Wakefield arrived in Port Nicholson, he found a Pakeha, Joe Robinson, building a boat at the Hutt, but owing to the scarcity of nails, and the need to make his own, it was a slow and laborious process. On 3rd October, 1840, the New Zealand Gazette announced ;

A small schooner (about 15 tons) built by Mr. William Wright was launched at the end of September. This is the first vessel built at Port Nicholson, and she is to proceed to Taranaki. She is called the Royal George, in honour of Cook’s expedition to these islands having been in George 111 reign.

Mr. Wright was “ a settler and boatbuilder ” who had come out in the Adelaide, and for a time he sailed his own craft in the coastal trade, to the Royal George being assigned the onerous duty of freighting pigs and potatoes to the ever-arriving colonists.

Before the Royal George was launched, Captain Rhodes had called tenders for the building of a sealing boat, and in April, 1840, Messrs. Henry Meech and Oxenham were established on the left bank of the Hutt River, prepared to build “ every description of yacht, boat, or barge.” It was the

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numerical increase of these small craft which called for the building along the foreshore of the miniature structures known by the generic name of “ private wharves.”

In all the sketches and photographs of early Wellington these wharves and warehouses of the merchants, are prominent features, but probably the most curious object on the waterfront was that known as “ Noah’s Ark. The ship Inconstant, on entering the harbour, on 3rd October, 1849, true to her name, missed stays, and drifted on to the rocks at what is now known as Inconstant Point. By a fortunate circumstance, H.M. Surveying Steamer Acheron was in Wellington at the time, and succeeded in towing the stranded Inconstant into the harbour. Apparently the vessel was damaged extensively, and rather than bear the cost of repairs her owners instructed Messrs. Bethune and Hunter to sell her where she lay on the mud flat at Te Aro. Her first purchaser was a local shipwright. He in turn sold her to Mr. John Plimmer, who beached her, in August, 1850, on the present site of the Bank of New Zealand, under which a part of her hull still rests. Shoring her up, her enterprising owner built upon her deck a structure which served its useful part as a store and auction room for early Wellington, Unique in shape, romantic in history, “ Noah’s Ark ” will be remembered when much else connected with the infant city has been forgotten.

At first the governing authority of this rapidly extending port was the General Government, administering everything from Auckland, through the agency of its local representative. The New Zealand Company had wisely thought to provide a more sensitive piece of machinery in the way of a “ Provisional Government,” composed of the leaders of the new colony, but these local administrators had been, much to the ill-concealed chagrin of the local editor, suppressed by the Governor, Captain Hobson. In his judgment, somewhat distorted by sickness, they were “ rebels,” and their proceedings amounted to " high

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treason.” Accordingly Lieutenant Willoughby Shortland was despatched to Wellington to watch these dangerous people, and to be the official representative of Her Majesty. Shortland had been a sailor, and when he saw Wellington harbour he looked at it with a practical eye. To him it was “ a beautiful and extensive harbour, in which there are no dangers of any consequence,” but it had its limitations in the way of equipment, and so he urged the advantage of a lighthouse and the appointment of good pilots. This need may have been impressed upon him by he fact that while he was here, H.M.S. Herald had called in, and when leaving at night, Captain Nias had considered it necessary to beat out between boats holding torches. In any event some such precaution as beacons and pilots were in the natural order of a new and growing commercial port. When Governor Hobson visited Wellington in 1841, he too, as a sailor, saw the advantage of a lighthouse, and Lieutenant Wood, who had come to settle in Wellington, after having served in the Indian navy, thought that, “ when a beacon is erected on the outer rock of Barrett’s Reef, and a lighthouse built upon the Heads, nothing more could be desired.” Yet though there seemed to be perfect unanimity as to what should be done, there was not the same anxiety to do it. Hobson had many troubles, and no funds. There were the usual official delays, and failing Government action, the first beacons at the Heads were erected by the New Zealand Company. The one on Pencarrow Head, a wooden pyramid, was soon blown down ; the other on the western head being a pyramid of barrels, or “ butts,” as they were called in those days, piled one on top of the other, was more secure, and when painted white, and adorned with a flag, was quite serviceable in clear weather. This was in 1842, and it was not until 20th June, 1844, that the Government beacon on Pencarrow Head was officially announced.

Similarly the struggle to get a lighthouse to succeed the beacons was a slow and tortuous one, until, in 1851, the barque Maria was wrecked on the coast, and 29 lives lost. For this

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NOAH'S ARK, LAMBTON QUAY

EARLY RECLAMATION, LAMBTON QUAY, 1867

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tragedy, the absence of a lighthouse was considered responsible. Yielding to public clamour, Sir George Grey assented to the erection of a light on Pencarrow Head, but it was primitive in the extreme, the white painted building being more serviceable as a beacon by day than the smoky light was as a guide at night. So the agitation went on. The Provincial Council in 1856-57, desiring to improve matters, ordered a new and up-to-date lighthouse from England, but the General Government intervened, contending that under the Constitution Act the erection of lighthouses was their function, and not that of the Provincial Council. The General Government were, however, behind the fair, the lighthouse had been ordered, and when it arrived it had to be erected, which was done at a cost of about £2,500, and its light shone out on the strait for the first time on Ist January, 1859.

The first keeper of this new light was Mrs. Bennett, widow of the original keeper, and one of the wonderful women who did such wonderful work in the making of this Dominion.

The inner harbour lighting did not materialise till sometime later. An official notification in 1858 announced that on and after 6th November, a red light would be displayed on the seaward end of Noah’s Ark, “ for the guidance of vessels coming in to an anchorage in Lambton harbour.” On that night it sent its crimson beams across the dancing waters for the first time, and was the precursor of those many shafts of green, white, and red illumination which now nightly twinkle from the ends of stately wharves like coloured stars in an azure sky.

In 1864, the Provincial Government yielding to the pressure of the Chamber of Commerce, placed a light on Somes Island and maintained it until their abolition. It then passed under the control of the Marine Department, until 1924, when it was taken over by the Harbour Board. From these simple beginnings has evolved that magnificent system of lighting which of

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recent years has made Wellington harbour not only one of the most picturesque, but one of the safest in the world.

Pilotage had at one time been a coincident problem with harbour lighting, but being simpler in character had far outstripped it, and there was always a more or less efficient system of signals and pilots at the service of ships. Ihe earliest effort made to instil something like order into the medley of shipping arriving, was made by the New Zealand Company, when they appointed Captain Chaffers, of the Tory, Harbour Master, but this appointment like the other “ provisional ” arrangements of the Company was disallowed by the Government, and after that the control of the waterfront appears to have passed into the hands of the Customs officials*, until July, 1860, when the Provincial Council appointed Captain John Holliday to be Harbour Master, with a staff of three pilots ; Messrs. Davies, Scott and Holmes.

These gentlemen were, however, comparatively modern. The first old salt to bring the ships in was James Hebberley, of “ Worser ” Bay fame. He was a whaler who had been picked up by Colonel Wakefield, together with Dicky Barrett, at Te Awaiti, and was employed by the New Zealand Company in 1840, to bring their earliest ships to safety. In between times others performed a like duty. There is a story told by Heaphy of a Maori boy named Te Whare, the son of Te Puni, and one of the young chiefs of Port Nicholson, who with a boat’s crew of natives went out into Cook Strait in a gale, and brought in the immigrant ship Olympus to her anchorage, for which service the Company rewarded him with a payment of £5.

*On 20th August, 1841, it was notified; —“ The business of the Customs Department will be executed at the Police Office until further notice.” At that time the Sub-Collector was Mr. P. D. Hogg. In August, 1842, Captain William Hay was appointed Harbour master in succession to Captain Chaffers. He was succeeded by John MacCarthy, and about February, 1848, Captain Charles Sharp, an ex-officer of the Indian Navy, was appointed at the munificent salary of £lOO per annum.

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CAPTAIN CHAFFER'S CHART, 1840

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The first Government appointment was made in 1842, when J. McCarthy became the official pilot. He was succeeded by R. Calder, who retired in 1848. James Ames followed, temporarily, and in 1849, Captain Daniel Dougherty, an American, who had been whaling at Port Underwood, was appointed, and filled the post till his death in 1856.

By this date Wellington had become a place of considerable importance. Its population was then about 4,000 and it was obvious that its business quarter required room for expansion. Hemmed in between the sea and the hills, these limitations were quite incompatible with its growth, but there was only one way to extend, and that was to reclaim from the sea. This need revived an idea first suggested by Felton Mathew, the Surveyor General, when in 1841 he had reported to Governor Hobson that the Customs House should be placed on a site “ that must be recovered from the water.” Before the scheme of reclamation took on the form of a definite plan, there were repeated attempts to widen and improve the “ beach road,” as Lambton Quay was popularly known, for as late as 1850 there was, in places, not room for two drays to pass each other. The first considerable piece of reclamation work carried out was done by the Government of New Munster, the predecessor of the Provincial Council, in 1852, and is technically known as “ Sir George Grey’s reclamation,” which came northward from Old Customhouse Street along Willis Street for a distance of 360 feet with a depth of 100 feet towards the sea*. The contract price was £1,036, and the value realised was roughly £1,992. The success of this work demonstrated the feasibility of pushing back the sea, and from then onwards reclamation has been one of the great contributing factors in the development of Wellington’s port. Altogether some 300 acres have been recovered, 130 of which have been reclaimed by the Harbour Board, enabling them to lay down uninterrupted berthage

♦ The successive reclamations arc shown on a plan at the end of this book.

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accommodation of 2| miles in extent. The system of reclamation created a new era on the waterfront, and struck the death knell of the old romantic private wharf.

The era of the private wharf seems to have prevailed until about 1858, when there began to grow up a general feeling that these slender structures had outlived their usefulness. In all probability many of them had fallen into disrepair, and most of them had become quite inadequate for the service required of them. At the best they could accommodate only the coastal hookers, and shallow water vessels, and in time their wormriddled and barnacle-covered timbers began to call for renewal. The owners visualised a large expenditure upon an obviously out of date system. They were, therefore, unwilling to spend money on further small jetties, but unable to enter upon the enterprise of meeting the growing public demand for one large commodious wharf.

This class of accommodation was the more necessary now since the vessels frequenting the port were of larger tonnage, and the cargoes to be handled, inward and outward, were yearly becoming of greater volume and value. The lightering system, which hitherto had been the mode of dealing with the deep-sea ships, like the jetties, was therefore falling behind the times. Its obsolete methods of repeated transhipments were slow and precarious, involving both delay and loss. The idea, then, of a large public wharf, which had been steadily evolving in the minds of the local merchants, found an open and militant champion when the Chamber of Commerce was revived in 1856.

From the first, the members of the Chamber threw themselves with zeal into the agitation for better shipping facilities, their objective being what they called a “ deep-water ” wharf, situated conveniently towards the business portion of the town, and capable of berthing the largest ocean-going vessels then arriving. To this end they approached the Provincial Council, but for some years without success. In their fourth annual

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report (1860-61) there is a note of fervent regret that, so far, their representations had borne no fruit, but in the following year the note is one of jubilation.

It is with much pleasure your Committee find that their exertions have not been unproductive of good results, the Provincial Council having in the late session made ample provision, by voting a sum of £15,000 for carrying out this much desired public improvement. Active preparations have already been made for the erection of such a structure as will not alone meet the wants of the shipping, but add materially to the progress and prosperity of Wellington, by the facilities which will be afforded for the lading and discharging of produce.

This jubilation was due to the fact that the Provincial Council, after having carefully investigated the several alternative schemes suggested, and gone carefully into the merits of the main one, had, during the Session of 1861, passed an Ordinance authorising the Superintendent to take the necessary steps to have a “ deep-water ” wharf erected at the foot of Grey Street, towards which the rapidly extending Provincial reclamation schemes were creeping. Once having decided that a wharf was to be erected, the Provincial authorities lost no time in giving practical effect to their decision. The plans prepared by Mr. J. T. Stewart, the Provincial Engineer, provided for a structure projecting for 550 feet into the sea, from what was known as “ The Provincial Council’s Reclamation,” which ran along the eastern line of the present Customhouse Quay. The main shaft of the wharf was to be 35 feet wide, with two tees, an inner and an outer, each with a projection of 75 feet. The inner tee was to be situated 300 feet from the breastwork of the reclamation. The piles were to be of heart totara, the decking of heart rimu.

For this work, which was naturally of great relative importance in those days, tenders were immediately called, that of Messrs. McLaggan and Thompson, at £15,420, being accepted. The contractors had contemplated procuring the timber for the piles from the totara bush growing in the Wairarapa, but in

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QUEEN'S WHARF. 1862-3

QUEEN’S WHARF, ABOUT 1870

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this they met their first set-back, owing to the difficulties of transport. Rains made the roads impassable, floods destroyed some of the bridges, then heavy traffic bylaws intervened, which meant that the Wairarapa project had to be abandoned. Finally and after considerable delay, a serious consideration to the contractors, the piles were obtained from the luxuriant forest which then grew in the vicinity of Foxton. Ihe timber was felled and squared in the bush, then rafted out to the schooner in the offing, and in this way brought down to its final destination.

Fortunately there seems to have been no division of opinion as to where the wharf should be situated. There was no “ battle of the sites ” to hinder the commencement of the work, and so on 27th April, 1862, the contractors drove the first pile*, being assisted in this epoch-making event by the Provincial Superintendent, Dr. Featherston. Thus at their next annual meeting the Chamber of Commerce was able to still further plume itself upon the fact that “ the work had been commenced by the Provincial Government upon a scale commensurate with the growing necessities of the port.”

Before the Chamber could celebrate the passing of another year, the wharf was completed, and opened to the public, with appropriate rejoicings. For this event, however, the impatient skippers had not waited, and ere the last plank was laid, and the last spike driven, we are told by the ever-vigilant Chamber of Commerce that :

It has for some time past been constantly made use of by the steamers of the New Zealand Steam Navigation Company; and the Inter-Colonial Company’s steamer Prince Alfred, the largest boat in the habit of visiting this port, has already discharged a large cargo upon it.

* The beautiful casket presented to the Duke and Duchess of York on the occasion of their visit to Wellington on 7th March, 1927, was made from the “ retired ” timber of one of these original piles. It was mainly on the recommendation of Mr. George Allen, a boatbuilder from Deal, who was one of the committee to decide the position of the wharf, that the piles were sheathed, with the result that after forty years service they were still well preserved.

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By Christmas of 1862 the structure was sufficiently advanced to permit of all classes of vessels using it, and the locally owned Wonga Wonga and the Stormbird, had, by the grace of the contractors, been doing so regularly. The first inter-provincial steamer to use it was the Airedale, of 286 tons ; the first overseas vessel to be berthed was the Queen of the Avon, a vessel of 460 tons, commanded by Captain John Jones.

This modest wooden structure was managed, as it had been built, by the Provincial Council, and its earliest wharfinger was Mr. William Spinks. Because there was a Queen and not a King upon the throne of Britain at this period of the Empire’s history, it was felt to be a fitting proof of loyalty that this fact should be recognised in the local nomenclature, and so the structure was started on its career of usefulness with the proud designation of the Queen’s Wharf.

As an adjunct to the wharf there was erected close to it, on the site now occupied by Messrs. T. & W. Young, a commodious building variously known as the Queen’s Warehouse, and the Queen’s Bond, which was opened for the reception of goods on Ist May, 1863.

The development was, however, so rapid that there was little respite for anyone. No sooner had Wellington believed it had made adequate provision for many years than new projects loomed up, and new demands began to pour in. The most ambitious of these was a proposal to establish a mail service between New Zealand and Britain, via Panama. Captain John Vine Hall visited the port in connection with the scheme, the details of which were laid before the Provincial Superintendent.

There was at that time no regular steam service between New Zealand and Britain. The only mail service was the P. & O. boats which ran between Melbourne and Singapore, and there connected up with the Indian Mail Service, through the Red Sea. As yet the Suez Canal had not been cut, and the mails were carried by camel caravan across the desert, and

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shipped from Egypt to England by the Mediterranean steamer. All this was very slow and tedious, and the Panama, Australian and New Zealand Royal Mail Company thought they could improve upon it. Their scheme was to obtain a subsidy of £30,000 paid by the New South Wales Government, £20,000 by New Zealand, £14,000 by Queensland, with a sum equal to the total of these amounts to be paid by the British Government. The company’s steamers were to carry the mail from Sydney, via New Zealand, to Panama, whence it would be railed across the Isthmus to Aspinall, and there picked up by the West India Royal Mail Service, and taken to Southampton. If an arrangement upon some such broad lines as these could be made between the Company and the respective Governments, four fine steamers, the Ruahine (1,503 tons), the Rakaia (1,450 tons), the Kaikoura (1,501 tons), and the Mataura (1,750 tons), were to be specially built for the service.

There is a lure about quick communication with the Home land which has never lost its charm, and Dr. Featherston at once assented to the preliminary provision of an additional £14,000, which would extend the wharf another 200 feet ; and add a further cross-head 300 feet long by 50 feet wide. This it was estimated would give a depth of 26 feet of water at low tide. The framework of this addition was to be of iron, and it was to rest on cylinders and screw piles. There were also to be some extensions to the cross-heads of the original wharf ; a 5-ton steam crane was to be erected at the outer end of the wharf; rails and turntables were to be laid so as to enable goods to be easily removed from one end of the wharf to the other, while a goods shed and baggage warehouse were to be erected at the outer cross-head. It was estimated that all this would cost some £2,000 to £3,000 more than had been at first contemplated, but it would be worth it all, since ;

Wellington would then possess a wharf which would be unsurpassed by any in the Colony for its convenience, and would command sufficient water to allow the largest ocean steamers to lay at its end.

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The contract for this work was, on 25th January, 1865, let to Messrs. Kennard Brothers, of London, the price being £31,800, and the work was to be completed within two years. The first screw pile was started on sth November, and the last on 20th of the following October.

In February of this year Wellington derived further advancement in its status from being made the political capital of the Colony. This was the result of a report by three Australian Commissioners who had been asked to select the locality in the vicinity of Cook Strait most suitable as the seat of Government. The supreme geographical situation of the harbour, its unrivalled natural capacity, its enormous possibilities of development were necessarily guiding factors in the selection, the wisdom of which is to be found in the complete realisation of the Commissioners’ most sanguine anticipations.

By June, 1867, this, the first extension of Queen’s Wharf, was completed*. The Panama boats were running by this time and steam communication with the other ports of the Colony was being actively carried on by the vessels belonging to the New Zealand Steam Shipping Company, of Wellington; and by several steamers owned by private firms with headquarters at this port.

In addition to their larger contract, the Panama, Australian and New Zealand Royal Mail Company had undertaken to maintain a regular mail service between Australia and New Zealand, and also on the coasts of Australia and New Zealand. For this purpose they employed the Claud Hamilton, Tararua, Otago, and Omeo, in the inter-colonial service ; and on the

* The scheme for this extension was designed in England. The supervising engineer, who came out for the purpose, was Mr. J. R. George, who remained in New Zealand, and subsequently became the Engineer to the Wellington Gas Company. The later extensions to the Queen’s Wharf were many and various and can be traced on the plan printed on page 70.

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CUSTOMHOUSE QUAY IN 1882-3, SHOWING JETTIES AND LANDING STEPS.

QUEEN'S WHARF, ABOUT 1880.

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coast of New Zealand, the Phoebe, Ladybird, Airedale, and the Lord Ashley. Communication with Sydney and Melbourne was also maintained by the Alhambra and Albion, ships belonging to Messrs. McMeckan, Blackwood and Company, of Melbourne, and with the latter port by the Easby, and all these steamers were frequent visitors to the new wharf.

With the disappearance of the Panama Company, due to external causes, the American mail service was taken up by the Australian Steam Navigation Company, who employed the City of Melbourne, and the Wonga Wonga, to run from Sydney to San Francisco, calling at Wellington en route. Their career was short, for the steamers were too small for the long journey across the Pacific. Then followed in 1870, the Californian, New Zealand and Australian Steam Packet Line, whose ships, the Nebraska, Nevada, and Dakota (2,043 tons), were perhaps the most interesting vessels that had visited New Zealand since the days of Tasman and Cook. They were wooden paddle steamers built for service during the American Civil War, their fearful and wonderful “ beam ” engines never ceasing to be a source of astonishment to New Zealanders. Their captains had been in the American Navy, and kept their ships up to man-o-war standard, not the least of their novelties being the firing of guns on their arrival and departure. The three vessels above mentioned travelled between New Zealand and Honolulu, where the mails were picked up by the Moses Taylor, and carried to San Francisco. Like their two predecessors, these ships had not been built for long voyages and they soon gave way under the heavy strain, becoming so unseaworthy that they were withdrawn before their contract had expired.

They were followed by the venture of the Australian and American Steam Ship Company Ltd., who, between 1874 and 1875, contracted to carry mails, bringing to this service from the China seas the McGregor, Mongol, Tartar, Cyphreenes, and Mikado. This service was not satisfactory to the New Zealand

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Port of Weflunotoiv. lU2.D

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Government, and soon ceased*, but it served to demonstrate with all that had gone before that Wellington was rapidly becoming a shipping centre of great importance, a status which was materially increased by the appearance, about this period, of the red funnels of the Union Steam Ship Company. At the same time the sailing vessels and small coastal craft came crowding in, so that it was with a sense of pardonable pride that the Chamber of Commerce published in its report of 1876 :

The increase of trade to this port is fulfilling that which has been long felt; that Wellington is the natural centre of cummunication for both islands.

Thus, large and commodious as the wharf at first seemed to be, it was not long before the Chamber of Commerce, as the mouth-piece of the local merchants, realised that there must be further and immediate extensions. Its Committee was, therefore, again giving “ anxious consideration to the best means of supplying the deficiency.” To this end the representatives of the Chamber had frequent interviews with the members of the City Council. This reference to the City Council implies that an important change had taken place which deeply affected the administration of the harbour. In 1868 we discover signs that the Provincial Council was desirous of shedding its responsibility in connection with the management of the wharf. The Wharf Committee of the Provincial Council, of which Mr. W. B. Rhodes was Chairman, reported in that year that it was advisable that power should be taken to lease the wharf, but it was not until 28th June, 1871, that anything was done by the Council to ease what had become rather an irksome burden. The fact was, the management of a wharf was not the most pleasant thing in the world. There were dissatisfied merchants and disgruntled

* The San Francisco Mail service was carried on from 1876 by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company until 1886, after which the Oceanic Steamship Company, in conjunction with the Union Steamship Company were the contractors until 1906. Since 1909 the service has been regularly maintained by the steamers of the Union Steamship Company.

captains to be dealt with. There were constant complaints about mooring regulations, and about harbour dues ; there was a perennial cry for legislation to deal with runaway sailors ;

It is to be hoped some improvements will be made in the regulations and management of the Wharf, reported the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, so that the convenience of the public and of masters of vessels may be more considered than by the present arrangements. Your Committee think no time should be lost in getting it properly lighted as steamers frequently require to discharge during the night, and goods then have to be conveyed along the wharf for the purpose of being stored in the Queen’s Warehouse, or the Free Store.

These and other fretful comments indicate that their adventure into marine politics had not been an altogether happy one, and in 1868 the Wharf Committee reported that it was advisable the wharf and bond store should be let so soon as some still further improvements, such as widening the approach and building additional sheds for the storage of goods, had been completed. This recommendation was at once given effect to, an Ordinance being passed that Session authorising the Superintendent to lease the wharf for periods not exceeding three years.

Under this arrangement the wharf was leased to Mr. William Tonks, who was in possession when, in 1871, the Provincial Council, though still retaining control of the harbour generally, sold its interest in the wharf to the City Council for the sum of £31,000, an additional £25,000 being paid for reclaimed land taken over with the wharf. Between the years 1871 and 1876, the system of leasing was continued*, but in the latter year the City Fathers took the management into their own hands. The Council diluted its authority by appointing for the purposes of management a special committee, of which the Mayor was

* The next lessees were Messrs. Jackson and Graham (1872-1875), after which Mr. W. V. Jackson held the lease for a year till February 9th, when the Corporation assumed control.

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chairman, at an “ honorarium ” of £lOO per year, the members, not to be behind the Mayor, voting themselves each £lO per month for their services.

The minute book of this committee affords some interesting sidelights upon the daily work and life on the wharf at that time, illustrating the little problems the committee had to face at every meeting.

The wharfinger was, according to two stevedores, in the habit of using “ undue influence ” to secure advantages over them for another stevedore.

A lady had in some way come athwart the committee, and the members were for a time in doubt whether she would “ pay up in obedience to the decision of the Resident Magistrate,” or go to gaol. Fortunately for everyone discretion became the better part of valour, and the lady duly paid up.

The request of certain merchants for further concessions was “ entirely unreasonable.”

Defalcations by a waterman who had received certain moneys from the captain of the schooner Cynthia, and was “ unable to remember ” how they had not been accounted for, had to be investigated. The same waterman was equally unable to remember how the pages of certain account books had disappeared, and so he was suspended pending further enquiry. His ultimate fate is not clear, but it can be easily imagined.

Applications for reductions in charges for ballast had to be refused, but more favourable consideration was given to reductions on grain, flour, and potatoes.

The water police first appear upon the scene when it was resolved to have a constable on the wharf to act under the orders of the wharfinger. The night watchman also was to be sworn in as a special constable.

The practice of smoking in the sheds had become common, and had to be rigorously suppressed.

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A bottle of whisky had been stolen by a prowler from one of these sheds, and the man in charge of the shed was reprimanded, and “ instructed to be careful in the future not to allow strangers in the shed when spirit cases are being examined.”

Increases in the salaries of the staff had to be considered, and a curious system of credits and debits was adopted for each man, “ the balance, if any, to be handed to them at the end of the year provided their conduct has been satisfactory.”

Concessions to the Jewish community had to be considered, and it was resolved that free storage would be granted to their goods during their Sabbath, “ but the same immunity is not to extend to other of their holidays.”

A portmanteau had been lost, and the Committee refused to recognise any liability. The litigious owner took them to Court, and the Court gave him a verdict for £5O, and £5 15s. Od, costs.

A claim for a case of drapery “ accidentally tipped into the sea ” was more amicably settled.

There was insubordination among the staff of the Queen’s Bond, and the authority of the wharfinger as “ the head of all departments,” had to be maintained.

Overcrowding at the end of the wharf “ on the arrival of a steamer ” was one of the administrative difficulties, for the system of toll had not yet been devised.

But the landsmen were not alone in need of discipline, for the clerk was instructed to call the attention of the Harbour Master to the necessity of causing all vessels to stow their flying jib booms when coming into the harbour, “ accidents having already occurred through want of attention to this matter.”

A bibulous member of the staff who had been discovered in the town under the influence of liquor, received his “ final ” warning in 1878. It is a tribute to the long-suffering Harbour authorities, as well as to the libatory capacity of the delinquent, that for forty years he continued to receive “ final ” warnings and survived them all.

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A workman who had injured his foot was to have his pay continued “ on producing satisfactory evidence that he is disabled thereby from doing his work.”

Complaint was made by the Postmaster that mails had been delayed. “In future they are to be the first thing attended to.”

The Chamber of Commerce protested against certain administrative regulations as being calculated to " cripple business,” but it was pointed out that these regulations were designed solely to check bad debts. If the Chamber knew of a better way the Committee was always prepared to learn.

Indeed, whatever may have been said of the general management of the Committee, they appear to have been careful of their finance. Every month showed a handsome profit, and in November, 1877, they had a sum of £lO,OOO to place at interest, while the accounts unpaid and overdue were less than £5, which was “ considered satisfactory.”

At this time further extensions to the wharf were deemed to be necessary, and a contract for widening the main shaft of the wharf was let to Mr. McKirdy. On this occasion ironbark piles were introduced for the first time, the contract price being £22,267.

The first reference to the now popular loan appears in June, 1877, a sum of £19,000 being available in support of the wharf extension account. When this work was finished, as a concession to art, the Manager of the Wellington Gas Company was requested to order “ two handsome gas lamps, to be erected at the entrance to the wharf.”

While the sailing ships were still arriving with immigrants, and leaving with wool, it was their custom to lie out at the anchorage, either before berthing at the wharf, or while they were waiting for a favourable wind to take their departure. The question of communication between these ships and the shore was for a time a problem, which was ultimately solved by

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By Courtesy, A. H. Messenger. HARRY CHALKER. WATERMAN.

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a system of licensed watermen who owned a fleet of boats, and who acted as carriers of goods and passengers on a recognised scale of charges. They were not exactly “ bum-boats ”as that term is understood in other parts of the world, but they met incoming ships, took out the latest news, and brought messages and parcels back. They were in demand by captains passing to and fro, who found it more convenient to employ them than to employ their own crews, and they were employed by crews who preferred to come ashore without their captains. Agents and others who had business to do with the ships found them to be an indispensable service. They operated from a set of steps in front of the Post-Office, and later from steps at the end of Johnston Street, and prominent and still remembered among them, were Dicky Harman, Jack Thomson, Sam Murch, and Harry Chalker. They were, everyone of them, expert boatmen who laughed at winds and scorned the gales, but time was against them. The sailing ships were quickly passing, and with their disappearance the waterman’s occupation was gone. By 1890 these quaint characters, too, had disappeared, and remain now only as a romantic memory.

All this time the Chamber of Commerce was keeping a watchful eye upon the progress of the port, and hoping for an opportunity to give effect to its ideal of management by an independent Board.

In the Session of 1877, a measure dealing with Harbour Boards generally had been introduced into the Legislature, but for some reason allowed to lapse. This opportunity of having its views put into legislative form having passed, the Chamber of Commerce was inclined to think that as far as Wellington was concerned :

Probably the best solution of this question might be found in giving to the Municipal Corporation the powers of a Harbour Board, together with suitable endowments. The City Council are taking steps with this object and it is understood the Government concur with this view.

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At this point the question of harbour reclamation seems to have become inextricably mixed up with harbour control. For this reason the tide of popular opinion seemed to be flowing in the direction of investing the City Council with far greater powers than it then had, and the views expressed in the annual report were endorsed by such speakers at the meeting as referred to them. This trend of opinion may have, in a measure, been due to the known views of at least one member of the Grey Government, for in the previous January a deputation from the Chamber had waited on the Hon. Colonel Whitmore, as Colonial Secretary, requesting that steps be taken to increase the wharf accommodation, and the carrying of the reclamation out to the second tee of the then wharf. The Minister was in a more or less hostile mood, and would commit himself to nothing that the deputation wanted him to commit himself to, until the harbour policy of the Government had been laid down at a full meeting of Cabinet. At the same time he gave his interviewers plainly to understand that on the subject of a Harbour Board he was definitely against them. He was willing enough that the Government should relinquish all control, but he was distinctly against the multiplication of local bodies, and thought the City Council the proper body to control the foreshore, to the advantages of which they had a very fair claim. He was perfectly open to reason on the point, but at that moment his mind was quite made up ;

All I can say at the present time is, that I will advise the Government that the Corporation is the proper body to look after the harbour, and that therefore it is desirous to hand over the present reclamation to the municipality, and to be guided a good deal in its management of the railway terminus, and wharf, by its advice.'

The influence which seems to have momentarily stemmed this flow of the tide in favour of the City Council was the discovery that in Auckland and Dunedin, where Harbour Boards were operating, the port charges were much lower than in Lyttelton and Wellington where no such special administration

50

existed, and at the next meeting of the Chamber of Commerce 3rd July, 1878, the Chairman (Mr. F. A. Krull) expressed the conviction that if a Board had charge at Wellington this anomaly would be removed.

At present, said Mr. Krull, Wellington is at a great disadvantage. For instance pilotage in Auckland is 3d. and 2d. per ton, and in Wellington 6d. and 4d. In Auckland berthage is id. and here it is 2d. to 3d. As the matter is one of great importance, the committee will take it up warmly, and I hope that some good will result.

The advocates of City Council control were, however, by no means idle, and in the Session of 1878, a Wellington Harbour Board Bill was introduced in the House of Representatives, conferring the powers of a Harbour Board on the Wellington Corporation. To this proposal the Chamber gave only a qualified assent. At a special meeting held on 30th August, 1878, the Chairman (Mr. F. A. Krull) explained that the Committee had drafted a letter to the City Council on the subject, urging that although to a great extent there would be community of interest between the City Council and a Harbour Board, yet the functions of the two bodies, and the classes of subjects with which they would have to deal, were so widely different that full justice could hardly be done to both by the same Board, while the amount of labour devolving upon the one Board, acting in both capacities, would be extremely burdensome and inconvenient. Certain interests outside those of the local community also were involved in the jurisdiction of a Harbour Board, and should be represented in its constitution. The Committee’s letter went on to propose that the Wellington Harbour Board should consist of the Mayor, two City Councillors (chosen by the Council), the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, two members nominated by the Government, and one elected by the shipping interests, or seven in all. As endowments would be needed, the Committee suggested that the wharf dues, the harbour dues, and half the proceeds of the

51

Thorndon and Te Aro Reclamations should be set aside for this purpose as appertaining to the Harbour Board, and to be expended solely on the harbour and its appliances.

The Chairman proceeded to remark that the other leading New Zealand ports, Auckland, Lyttelton and Dunedin, all were endowed, and unless some endowment could be secured for a Wellington Harbour Board it would be useless. The other ports were straining every nerve to secure New Zealand trade. Lyttelton was endeavouring to become a free port. If Wellington were left to the City Council, he feared that the ratepayers interests would be allowed to override those of the mercantile community. Wellington was the central port and capital of New Zealand and every effort should be put forth to make it a free port.

The views thus enunciated by the Chairman were heartily endorsed by the Chamber, and on the motion of Mr. Pearce, it was resolved to send the letter to the City Council as embodying the views of the Chamber on the subject of harbour control, the question of finance to be one for further consideration.

Towards these friendly advances the City Council was coldly repellent, and on 20th September forwarded a letter setting out their unanimous decision :

That this Council regrets it cannot endorse the views held by the Chamber of Commerce respecting the formation and endowment of a Harbour Board.

The conservatism of the City Council was roundly condemned by Messrs. Levin and Dransfield, but beyond placing on record its reciprocal regrets, the Chamber appears to have decided upon no immediate course of action. The Bill in the meantime was rendered useless by the fact that the Legislative Council eliminated from it all provision for borrowing. In the following November, a deputation from the Chamber was waiting on the Prime Minister, Sir George Grey, upon matters germane to the waterfront ; when Mr. Krull took the oppor-

52

tunity to remind Sir George how advantageous it would be if all such matters could be managed by a Harbour Board, but the Prime Minister was not yet ready for the innovation.

We next hear that the Chamber is hammering at the City Council for increased wharf accommodation, and that it is again putting out a feeler to the Government as to whether “ in the event of a Harbour Board being constituted for Wellington, the Government would be prepared to favour the endowment of such a Board with the ungranted foreshore of this port and harbour, and such further of the reclaimed land as the Government shall not deem it necessary to sell.”

In support of this diplomatic overture a deputation from the Chamber subsequently waited on the Prime Minister. The interview was a private one, but from a report supplied to the press by the Chamber’s Secretary, we may well suppose that the members came away beaming with radiant hope. Sir George Grey then told them that ;

The subject of the creation of a Harbour Board was one which had occupied his mind, and was a thing he was anxious to see carried out. In fact he had had thoughts of trying to force on the creation of such a Board in order to relieve the Government of its share of the administration of the Harbour. The proposal would have the warm support of the Government, who would do all that they reasonably could to further the attainment of the object. He might add that the Government was favourable to granting a portion of the foreshore as an endowment, but he could not speak with more particularity at that moment.

This was a lead which the Chamber was not slow to follow, and at its meeting on 26th March, 1879, it was resolved on the motion of Captain Williams :

That the Chamber approves the action of the Committee with reference to the formation of a Harbour Board, and urges upon the new Committee to take such action as they may think fit to promote the object in view and to act with the City Council in the matter.

53

The City Council agreed to one of its Committees’ meeting the Chamber jointly to discuss the project, and on 10th April the meeting was held, whereupon it is recorded in the Chamber’s minutes that after Mr. T. Buchanan had explained the views of the Chamber in reference to the formation of a Harbour Board 3

A discussion ensued in which the members of the City Council expressed their willingness to withdraw all opposition to the formation of such a Board, but no definite action was resolved upon.

The Council as a whole was not, however, so amenable, for when on 30th May, 1879, the matter came up for discussion, and a motion in sympathy with the aspirations of the Chamber was moved by Mr. George Fisher, it was defeated on the casting vote of the Mayor, Mr. William Hutchison.

The attitude of the City Council was that although it would offer no active opposition to the formation of a Harbour Board, it would, on the other hand, take no steps to facilitate its consummation.

This then left a clear issue for the Chamber of Commerce. Either it had to do something, or nothing Would be done. Wisely the Chamber decided to shoulder the responsibility alone. At a special committee meeting held on 13th June, 1879, the Chairman, Mr. T. Buchanan, thus stated the position :

The subject has received a great deal of consideration at the hands of the committee and they have come to the conclusion that they will ask the Chamber to authorise them to take the necessary steps to promote a Bill in Parliament for the formation of a Harbour Board for the Port of Wellington. They feel they would be in a much better position if some such body as the Corporation was with them, but they consider the matter of so much importance to the welfare and prosperity of the port and district generally that they urge upon the Chamber and the Government the immediate necessity for taking steps independent of the Corporation. We therefore to-day wish to obtain from the Chamber an expression of opinion on the steps we have taken, and also power to at once take steps for the preparation of a Bill, and the promotion of its passage through Parliament.

59

Two important decisions were reached at this meeting. It was resolved to authorise the Chamber to approach Parliament ; and Mr. Lewis, of the firm of Buller and Lewis, was instructed to prepare a draft of the necessary Bill.

It was also resolved to ask the Prime Minister to receive a deputation in support of the Bill.

Three days later the deputation met Sir George Grey, when again the obvious was emphasised. The need for some immediate action ; the need for more specialised control of the port than could be given by the City Council ; the need for wider representation ; the need for a more vigorous policy in the interests of both the City and the Country districts. These points were stressed by speaker after speaker, but the remarkable feature of the gathering was the display of the statesmanlike gifts of Sir George Grey, the long view he was able to take, and the prophetic language in which he was able to give it expression :

He felt strongly, he said, that Wellington must become a great emporium of progress, and this more speedily than most people thought. Large numbers of people were coming here, and the place would soon become a great commercial depot. It was, therefore, the duty of the Government to build up institutions for the government of a great city such as Wellington would undoubtedly be in a few years. There must be some body responsible for the management of the harbour. Of this he was perfectly confident.

On one point only was the Prime Minister at variance with the deputation.' They had requested that he should take charge of the Bill when before Parliament, but of this he would not hear. The etiquette of Parliament demanded that a member for the district should have charge of the measure, and that honour should go to the senior member for the City, Mr. George Hunter, a gentleman whom he held in high esteem. As for himself, he would give the Bill the most favourable consideration when it came before the House.

55

SIR GEORGE GREY, K.C.B

30

By the end of the month, Mr. Lewis had the draft of the Bill prepared, and after it had been carefully considered and amended it was adopted. Printed copies were to be sent to Members of the Government, to Members of Parliament and to others likely to be interested. Mr. Hunter was invited to take charge of the Bill in the House of Representatives, and Mr. Waterhouse in the Legislative Council.

Mr. Hunter could not see his way to accept the commission of the Chamber, and at their request it was, early in the Session, introduced by Mr. George Elliott Barton, one of the City Members, “ but,” states the minutes of the Chamber, “ owing to what had taken place in political circles it would have to be introduced afresh.”

The particular political happening which thus jeopardised the Bill was the dissolution of Parliament, a general election, and the defeat of the Grey Government. Under the Hall Government matters went more smoothly, with Mr. Levin in charge of the Bill, and on 19th December, 1879, the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce was able to report to the assembled Members that the Wellington Harbour Board Bill had been passed by both branches of the Legislature.

This Act constituted the Board as from the Ist January, 1880. It provided for a body of ten Members, three of whom were appointed by the Governor, one elected by the Chamber of Commerce, the Mayor of Wellington ex officio, two elected by the ratepayers of Wellington, one by the Hutt County Council, one by the County Councils of Wairarapa, and one by the shipping and mercantile interests. Power was given to the Board to acquire wharves, etc., and authority was conferred to borrow up to £lOO,OOO for the purchase of existing harbour works, or the construction of new ones.

The first election was held in February, 1880, and on the

57

20th of that month the first meeting of the newly constituted Board was held in the City Council Chambers, when there were present —

Name Representation

W, H. Levin Appointed by His Excellency the Governor

E. Pearce

W. R. Williams „ ~

W. V. Jackson Elected by the Ratepayers of Wellington.

P. Coffey

H. Rose Elected by the Payers of Harbour Dues and

Ship-Owners. J. E. Nathan Elected by the Chamber of Commerce.

F. A. Krull Elected by the Wairarapa County Councils.

S. Lancaster Elected by the Hutt County Council.

W. Hutchison Mayor of Wellington, ex officic

Mr. Pearce occupied the chair pro tem, but on the unanimous vote of the meeting, Mr. Levin was chosen as the Board’s first Chairman.

Pending the election of its officers, the first minutes were recorded by Mr. Jackson. For the position of permanent Secretary at a salary of £250 per annum, there were 43 applicants, the Board’s choice ultimately falling on Mr. H. M. Lyon*. From this small beginning the clerical staff has grown in fifty years to 58, most of whom receive more salary than did the original Secretary.

Naturally it was some time before the Board could gather any funds into its exchequer, and before this could happen the Returning Officer was clamouring at the door for payment of the election expenses. In its straitened circumstances the Board made successful appeal to the Government, which came to the rescue, after a tussle with the Auditor-General, with a cheque for £2O 19s. 9d., conditionally upon the amount being

*Thc names of the successive Secretaries and Engineers to the Board will be found at the end of this book.

63

WILLIAM HORT LEVIN, ESQ.

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repaid out of the first moneys received by the Board. Thus it may be said the Board’s first loan was one to pay its first election expenses.

Having discharged its most pressing liability, and having organised its office by the appointment of a Secretary, Bankers, Solicitors, the adoption of a seal, and the engaging of two rooms from the New Zealand Shipping Company at the modest rental of £5O per annum, the Board began its administrative career by taking over from the Government the Railway Wharf, built in 1879, and the adjacent breastwork at Waterloo Quay. On Ist October, 1881, as the result of negotiations with the City Council, the Board acquired the Queen’s Wharf, and Bonded Warehouse, the hulk Omega*, and all the existing plant, for which they paid the sum of £64,000, of which £25,000 was to be paid in three months, and the balance of £39,000 on 28th February, 1907. The Board thereupon became the sole administrator of the affairs of the port, undertaking also the duties of wharfinger, a feature unique in connection with Harbour Boards in New Zealand.

Under the Wellington Harbour Board Act, 1879, Amendment Act, 1901, the number of members was increased from 10 to 11. The additional member was elected to represent the Manawatu District as far north as the Rangitikei River, a district which on the constitution of the Board had no direct communication with Wellington, but through the opening of the Manawatu Railway had become a large factor in the trade of the port. Similarly the representation of the Wairarapa was extended, many of the towns which were not in existence when the Board was formed now becoming participants in its fortunes. All this was reflective of the growth and development of the country districts, and by 1910 still further readjustments were required to bring the Board into complete harmony

* On 18th May, 1901, the hulk Omega, long since sold into private service, loaded with kerosene and coal caught fire and was beached at Pipitca Point where she gradually disappeared.

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with its constituents. Again the number of members was increased from 11 to 14. The special representation of the Chamber of Commerce was abolished, as was also that of the City Council, while the members nominated by the Government were reduced from 3to 1. In other ways the franchise was liberalised, so that to-day there is a Board of 14 members, who may be said to be a true reflection of the interests concerned.

In this year of Jubilee the members are as follow

Name Representation

J. G. Flarkness Appointed by His Excellency the Governor General

H. D. Bennett Elected by Electors of Wellington City

C. H. Chapman, M.P.

F. A. Macindoe, Captain ~ ~ „

C. J. B. Norwood ~ ~ ~ ~ „

I. R. Barrer Elected by Electors of Wairarapa Combined Districts.

T. Moss

M. A. Eliott Elected by Electors of Manawatu Combined Districts.

W. L. Fitzherbert

J. W. McEwan ( Chairman) Elected by Electors of Hutt and Suburban Districts.

C. F. Post, Captain ~ .. ~ ~ „

C. McArthur, Captain Elected by Payers of Dues on British Ships,

C. M. Turrell

D. J. McGowan Elected by Payers of Dues other than Dues on Ships.

The wisdom of entrusting the management of a harbour such as Wellington to a specialised Board having no interest to serve except the interest of the port, has been abundantly proved by the results of the past fifty years. As one looks back at the old disorganisation when every merchant built his own wharf, and was more or less a law unto himself ; when one remembers the small unstable boats and the awkward appliances used, and compares these with the ordered scheme of today, the transformation is surely as gratifying as it is surprising. Thirty-

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two miles of water frontage was a great inheritance, but right worthily has the trust been administered by the successive Boards in whose control it has been during the past half century.

Much that has been done is, of course, a reflex of the growth of the Province, and even of the Dominion itself, but few ports have more harmoniously kept step with the march of events than has the Port of Wellington. Statistics are not always illuminating things, but sometimes they, “ hold, as ’twere, the mirror up ” to growth and development, and this is particularly so in the case of Wellington.

It is at least interesting to know that in 1841*, the year when statistics were first available, the total exports from the port were valued at £14,447. To-day they represent more than as many millions. The growth from thousands to millions in less than 90 years is a commercial achievement which ranks with the best trading traditions of the British race. Nor is this wonderful increase accidental or transitory. It is well rooted and permanent, because the foundations of British settlement in New Zealand have been laid both broad and deep. In those far-away days of 1841 the primitive products of an ancient and perishing industry, whale-oil and whale-bone, were our chief outgoings. To-day we are relying on the harvests of the land rather than upon those of the sea, and upon industries that are ever expanding rather than upon those that are inevitably shrinking. Wool, hemp, meat, butter, cheese, have therefore supplanted the foliage of the fisheries as our great primary industries, while the fruit of our orchards, and the honey of our bees, are typical products of our other industries redolent of the soil.

Similarly in 1841, imports valued at £53,626 were sufficient to meet the requirements of an infant settlement. Last year it

* An interesting item in the early exports from Wellington is described as “ Curiosities, —Specimens of Natural History.” These went on for a good many years, and doubtless consisted of native weapons, garments, birds, etc., which went to Museums and other collections.

62

POST OFFICE WATERFRONT, ABOUT 1885

QUEEN'S WHARF AND ENTRANCE, ABOUT 1893

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required imports valued at over £16,500,000 to meet the needs, aspirations, and ambitions of a great modern city flanked by provincial towns and country districts rapidly becoming more and more closely settled. Population, settlement, production are the life’s blood of trade, and each of these have been factors in the rapid development of the Port of Wellington. As early as April, 1840, a few sheep had arrived from New South Wales, and Van Diemen’s Land, among the first importers being Mr. James Watt, from Bathurst, who farmed what was then known as Watt’s Peninsula*. These miniature flocks were soon followed by others from Sydney, Port Phillip and Hobart Town, and as a temporary arrangement were depastured on “ the fern-covered land at the south end of the harbour.”

It was not, however, until 1843 that wool appeared on the schedule of exports, and then it was but a few hundred bags, worth but a few hundred pounds. To-day wool is the largest item of Wellington’s export, counted by its thousands of bales, and valued at over £4,000,000.

In the same way butter, in minor quantities, made a spasmodic appearance in 1842, and 1846, but did not become consistent until 1852, when its value was only some £6OO. To-day we are sending overseas shipment after shipment to a freight value of £2,261,228. Large as this sum may seem, it undoubtedly would have been larger but for the fact that the export of butter is overtopped by its sister industry the export of cheese, the annual output of which from this port is represented by a value of £3,089,030.

* Now known as Miramar Peninsula. This name is derived from Miramare (Mira, behold; Mare, the sea), after the castle on the gulf of Trieste, which once belonged to Maximilian, the unfortunate Emperor of Mexico. From its commanding position it justifies its designation, which means, “Behold the Sea.” The similarity between the European and New Zealand outlooks at once struck Mrs. Mcßarnet, Sister-in-law of Mr. J. C. Crawford, when in 1868 she and her husband, Major Mcßarnet, were taken out to Watt’s Peninsula, then in the occupation of the Crawford family, to select a site for a house. From its wide sea view the chosen spot was at once named by Mrs. Mcßarnet, “ Miramar.” In course of time the name has come to have a wider application, the whole peninsula being now known as Miramar.

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One of New Zealand’s oldest industries is the preparation of flax (phormium tenax) as a marketable commodity. The day was when the green blades were laboriously shell-scraped by native women sitting on the sunny side of their kainga. As they sang their melodious waiatas, or crooned a lullaby to their half-sleeping babes, they slowly added skein to skein. To-day this flax is prepared by machinery and so its export has risen from 5 tons valued at £5B in 1842, to huge cargoes of silken bales valued at £215,309.

Few as these figures are, they are eloquent of a fruitful country, of the progress of interior settlement, and of the application of human industry to the satisfying of human needs —human desires. Analysed more closely they serve to reveal an enormous improvement in our standard of living. In 1841 almost the largest items in our imports were ales, beers, and spirits. Men’s clothing was described as “ slops,” and cotton goods played a large part in women’s attire. There were plenty of rough blankets, and strong boots and shoes, and while flour loomed importantly, such necessaries as tea, coffee, and sugar, were quite eclipsed by rum and wine. Tobacco and cigars were very much in evidence, and even “snuffs” were not to be despised. To-day men’s clothes are, for the most part, locally manufactured, and cotton goods have " gone out ” in feminine fashions, being replaced by fabrics of the highest grade, silk stockings, and fur coats. Spirits of the old fashioned sort still find an important place m our list of imports, but they meet a strong rival in motor spirits, while all else has to bow before the imported motor car, behind which there is, however, a vista of better roads, of more hustle, more leisure, and more money with which to travel.

The trade of the port in this way reflects the prosperity of the people. But it does more than this. It registers the expansion of world commerce, and links up this outpost of the British Empire with every portion of the globe. In 1840 practically every ship that entered Wellington Harbour was a

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CUSTOMHOUSE QUAY, PADDLE STEAMER •'COLLEEN," ABOUT 1889

PIPITEA POINT. ABOUT 1890

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British ship. Today the preponderating number still are, but there are many that are not, and our trade with foreign countries is now considerable. Ships from the Indian Ocean pass ships from the Mexican Gulf ; the Norwegian comes in as the American goes out ; ships with coloured crews lie beside ships with white crews, each with their own merchandise to carry, and each with their own trade routes to follow. Ihus within this harbour are the four corners of the Earth brought together, and in peaceful trade the men of many nations combine for the common good.

In type, too, the ships have changed. The old bluntnosed barque has gone, and the brig with the bilgy hold and the evil-smelling foc’s’le has disappeared. Picturesque though they may have been, they belonged to an older age, and being obsolete had to give way to the smarter liner, and more robust Diesel-driven tanker. The over-crowded immigrant ship taking her 90 days, has succumbed before the more commodious steamer, the flare of whose bow bespeaks speed and a voyage of .33 days. In this way the less efficient have gone down before the more efficient, for the law of the survival of the fittest operates as relentlessly among ships as it does among men.

In this connection a curious reversion to an older form of trade, with the most modern type of ships, is now occurring through the revival of the whaling industry in the Antarctic. Though carried oji far from the Port of Wellington, it has its reflex action here, for great factory ships are making this their point of departure for the Southern Seas. During recent months three such huge ships have arrived within the harbour to refit, and furnish themselves for their active season in the frozen south. These whalers consisted of the Kosmos, with her seven speedy chasers ; the Sir James Clark Ross ; and the C. A. Larsen. Of these the Kosmos was easily the largest and in point of fact is the largest vessel that so far has entered

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the harbour, and is a record for the Dominion. When moored at Pipitea Wharf she was drawing 36 feet of water aft, the deepest draught of any vessel hitherto entering the port.

All this induces another reminiscent comparison. The earliest local comparative statistics of shipping tonnages possessed by the Harbour Board go back to 1882, two years after its inauguration For that year the net registered tonnage of ships entering the port was not more than 344,814 tons. These figures are, however, as the acorn is to the oak, compared with those of most recent compilation. From the returns so far made up, the tonnage of shipping arrivals for this year has increased over last year by more than 100,000 tons, the total being 3,644,487 net tons, which is a record for the port. This tonnage, which does not include that of warships, lighters, fishing vessels, or non-trading craft, is nevertheless over 1,000,000 tons in advance of any other port in New Zealand.

It has been this ever-increasing trade, these ever-changing conditions which have taxed the ingenuity, the foresight, and the resources of the successive Wellington Harbour Boards during the past fifty years. Beginning with two slender wharves, there has never been a year when improvements were not called for, and a willing response made. Old wharves have been repaired, renewed, and in some cases entirely replaced. New wharves have been built, and as pier has been added to pier, the berthage accommodation has spread at intervals from Kaiwharawhara to Evans Bay, or an uninterrupted layout of 2| miles in Lambton Harbour alone. The systematic co-ordi-nation of pier and breastwork which has produced this harmonious result must, in a large measure, be attributed to the designing and organising genius of Mr. William Ferguson, who as the Board’s engineer, was for twenty-four years laying down a foundation of progressive ideas, upon which his successor, Mr. James Marchbanks, has, with unremitting regard to the future, continued to build in the same progressive spirit.

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In the construction of these later wharves decay has been arrested, and the devastations of marine life checked by the substitution of reinforced concrete for timber. Spacious sheds have superseded smaller ones ; noisy steam winches have been supplanted by hydraulic cranes, working as silently as a watch, and above them all towers the 80-ton floating crane —the Hercules of the harbour. As a means of shifting merchandise the use of the old hand truck is dwindling before mechanical tractors and trailers ; goods are stacked in the stores by electric cranes ; wool is “ dumped ” by a crushing pressure before it is sent to the spinning mills of the world ; labour is organised, and above all, confusion and conflict of interests in dealing with inward and outward goods are eliminated by the fact that from its inception, the Board has been its own wharfinger on the wharves, and with its own staff administers justice with even hand to all who use the port. This system of single control of all labour employed in handling cargo from ship’s slings is unique in the organisation of Harbour Boards in New Zealand, but its justification is the cheapness, efficiency, despatch, and general satisfaction it gives.

Here then, is a great natural port, with an annual seaborne trade amounting to 2,172,406 tons. Central in situation, road and railway fed, replete with modern appliances designed by the best of engineering skill; admirably managed, faithfully administered, it is adequately serving the needs of a rapidly expanding community of 130,000 souls. Thus to-day do we enjoy the realisation of Sir George Grey’s prophetic vision of fifty years ago, when he predicted that,

“ More speedily than most people think, Wellington

tvill become a great emporium of progress.”

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OLD QUEEN'S WHARF

Dates of Construction.

1. Original Wharf built in 1862 of Totara. (First pile driven 27th April, 1862.)

2, Extension built in 1865. Ironwork understructure. (Reconstruction sanctioned by Board 27th April, 1909.)

3. Built in 1866 by Provincial Government. (Red Gum Piles.)

4. Portion built in 1878 (Ironbark Piles.)

5. „ „ 1883

6- ~ ~ 1884 (Totara Piles.)

7 - „ „ 1885

8- „ „ 1886

9. .. „ 1889

I°. „ „ 1894

11 1898

12- ~ ~ 1911 (Ironbark Piles.)

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71

List of Chairmen of Wellington Harbour Board, 1880-1920.

1880 William Hort Levin

1881 William Hort Levi:

1882 William Valentine Jackson

1883 Edward Pearce

1884 Edward Pearce

1885 Edward Pearce

1886 Edward Pearce

1887 John Duthie

1888 John Duthie

1889 Henry Rose

1890 Henry Rose

1891 William Booth

1892 John Honeycomb Cock

1892 Edward Pearce

(Oct. 1892-Feb. 1893)

1893 John Jack

1894 John Jack

1895 Thomas John William Gale

1896 Thomas John William Gale

A UvlVt XXIV_/I'lAO J V7lx > T 11.1.1 .1 i»X VJ - XI 1897 Francis Humphris Fraser

1898 Francis Humphris Fraser

iiwu x haauo 11 umrnitn i 1899 John Hutcheson

1900 John Hutcheson (to July

1900 Harold Beauchamp (July to Dec.)

1801 Harold Beauchamp

ISO2 Harold Beauchami

1903 Nicholas Reid

1904 William Cable

1905 William Cable

1906 Thomas Kennedy Macdonald

1907 Thomas Kennedy Macdonald

1908 Thomas Mason Wilford

1909 Thomas Mason Wilford

1910 Robert Fletcher

1911 Robert Fletcher (Feb. 21 to May 3)

1911 Robert Fletcher (From May 3)

1912 Robert Fletcher

1913 Robert Fletcher

1914 Robert Fletcher

1915 Charles Edward Daniell

1916 Charles Edward Daniell

1917 Charles Edward Daniell

1918 Charles Edward Daniell

1919 Joseph George Harkness

1920 Joseph George Harkness

1921 Joseph George Harkness

1922 Joseph George Harkness

1923 George Mitchell

1924 George Mitchell

1925 Maurice Cohen

1926 Maurice Cohen

1927 John George Cobbe

1928 John George Cobbe

1929 John William McEwan

72

Past and Present Members of the Board.

Aitken, J. G. W. (Died Aug. 17, 1921) ... Dec. 1899 to April 1905

Barrer, T. R April 1923 to —

Beauchamp, H June 1895 to Feb. 1908

Bell, F. H. D Dec. 1891 to Dec. 1893

Dec. 1896 to Dec. 1897

Bennett, H. D April 1921 to April 1927

May 1929 to—

Blair, J. R. (Died Nov. 25, 1914) ... ... Dec. 1897 to Dec. 1899

Bolton, F. G Feb. 1908 to April 1911

Booth, W. ( Died Mar. 26, 1903) Feb, 1884 to Feb. 1902

Bradey, F. (Died Aug. 8, 1911) ... ... Feb. 1896 to Feb. 1908

Brandon, A. de B. Dec. 1893 to Dec. 1894

Brown, A. W Dec. 1885 to Dec. 1886

Dec. 1890 to Dec. 1891

Brown, C. W. (Died — ) ... ... ... Feb. 1894 to Feb. 1896

Brown, S. (Died Aug., 1909) ... ... ... Dec. 1886 to Dec. 1888

Jan. 1889 to Feb. 1890

Cable, W. (Died July 8, 1922) Feb. 1898 to Feb. 1906

April 1915 to April 1921

Caselberg, M. (Died June 23. 1922) Feb. 1902 to Dec. 1902

Chapman, C. H April 1919 to April 1921

April 1925 to—

Chew, J. (Died Mar. 6, 1888) ... ... ... Feb, 1886 to Feb. 1888

Cobbe, J. G. ... ... ... ... ... April 1911 to April 1929

Cock, J. H. (Died Nov. 7, 1892) ... ... July 1889 to Nov. 1892

Coffey, P. (Died Dec. 20, 1921) Feb. 1880 to Feb. 1884

Cohen, M. ... ... ... ... ... ... Feb. 1908 to April 1929

Cook, H, (Died Nov. 13, 1925) Feb. 1898 to Feb. 1902

Daniell, C. E. ... ... ... ... ... Feb. 1903 to April 1923

Dransfield, J. (Died Sept. 21, 1906) Feb. 1886 to April 1889

Duthie, J. ( Died Oct. 14, 1915) May 1883 to Dec. 1889

Eliott, M. A May 1929 to—

Fisher, G. (Died Mar. 14, 1905) ... ... Dec. 1881 to Dec. 1896

July 1898 to Jan. 1903

Fitzgerald, J. E. April 1911 to April 1913

Fitzherbert, W. L. May 1929 to—

Fletcher, R. (Died Sept. 4, 1918) Feb. 1906 to Sept. 1918

78

Past and Present Members of the Board. — Continued

Fraser, F. H. (Died Aug. 6, 1911) Nov. 1892 to April 1910

Freeth, P. C April 1911 to April 1913

Gale, T. J. W. (Died June 10, 1903) ... Dec, 1892 to Feb. 1902

George, J. R. (Died June 26, 1889) ... May 1889 to June 1889

Harkness, J. G Feb. 1908 to April 1913

April 1914 to-

Heaton, J. H. (Died Nov. 13, 1903) Feb. 1884 to Feb. 1886

May 1888 to July 1898

Hildreth, W. T. ... ... ... ... ... June 1910 to April 1911

Mar. 1912 to April 1914

Sept. 1915 to April 1917

Dec. 1918 to April 1919

Hindmarsh, A. H. (Died Nov. 13, 1918) ... April 1911 to Nov. 1918

Hislop, T. W. (Died Oct. 2, 1925) April 1905 to April 1909

Hutcheson, J July 1896 to July 1900

Hutchison, W. (Died Dec. 3, 1905) ... ... Feb. 1880 to Dec. 1881

Jack, J. (Died Oct. 29, 1909) Feb. 1890 to Feb, 1898

Jackson, W. V. (Died Feb. 13, 1900) ... Feb. 1880 to April 1883

( Resigned )

Johnston, C. J. (Died June 13, 1918) ... Dec. 1889 to Dec. 1890

Jones, C. W. ... ... ... ... ... Feb. 1908 to April 1917

Krull, F. A. (Died Nov. 28, 1914) Feb. 1880 to Feb. 1884

Kennedy, A. D. ... ... ... ... ... April 1913 to April 1915

Lancaster, S. (Died Get. 29, 1899) ... ... Feb, 1880 to Feb. 1886

Levin, W. H. (Died Sept. 15, 1893) ... ... Feb. 1880 to Aug. 1883

Leuchars, J. ... ... ... ... ... April 1921 to April 1923

Luke, C. M. Dec. 1894 to Dec. 1895

Macdonald, T. K. (Died Oct. 1914), ... ... Feb. 1904 to April 1911

Macindoe, Captain F. A, ... ... ... April 1927 to—

MacEwan, J. B. ... ... ... ... ... April 1921 to April 1923

McArthur, Captain C April 1917 to—

McEwan, J. W Feb. 1908 to—

McFarlane, A. (Died Aug. 24, 1920) ... April 1911 to April 1919

McGowan, D. J April 1923 to —

McLellan, J. (Died Aug. 24, 1920) Feb. 1904 to Feb. 1908

McLeod, A. D April 1919 to April 1921

Mitchell, G. April 1921 to April 1929

Moss, T April 1921 to—

Mothes, R. (Died Dec., 1918) Feb. 1902 to Feb. 1904

Nathan, D. J. ( Died Mar. 20, 1920) Feb. 1902 to Feb. 1906

74

Past and Present Members of the Board.— Continued

Nathan, J, E. (Died May 3, 1912) Feb. 1880 to Feb. 1886

Nathan, H. L April 1913 to April 1917

Newman, A. K., m.d. (Died April 3, 1924) ... April 1909 to April 1910

Norwood, C. J. B Sept. 1918 to—

Pearce, E. (Died Oct. 13, 1922) Feb. 1880 to Mar. 1896

Petherick, J. (Died May 5, 1895) Feb. 1886 to May 1895

Post, Captain C. F April 1923 to—

Reid, N. (Died Dec. 13, 1915) Feb. 1898 to Feb. 1904

Renner, R, C. (Died— ) April 1911 to April 1913

Rose, H. ( Died Oct. 30, 1912) Feb. 1880 to Feb. 1898

Shirtcliffe, G Feb. 1906 to Feb. 1908

... ... ... ... ... 1 CU. I Z/\J\J LU i. CU. 1 JUO Sinclair, R. E. ... ... ... ... ... April 1915 to April 1921

Speedy, D. (Died Dec., 1897) Feb. 1888 to Feb. 1894

Tewsley, H. C. (Died April 6, 1926) ... Tune 1910 to Mar. 1912

* > ... JUHC IJIU LU .Udl . IZf I A Townsend, F. (Died Oct. 5, 1925) Feb. 1904 to Feb. 1908

Trevor, J. (Died May 13, 1915) ... ... April 1911 to April 1915

Turrell, C. M. ... ... ... ... ... April 1919 to —

Wallis, W. ... ... ... ... ... April 1917 to April 1919

Watson, Captain D. J. ( Died Aug. 2, 1920) April 1913 to Aug. 1915

’ J V “"to- 1 Welch, M. W. ... ... ... ... ... April 1917 to April 1925

Wheeler, W. F. {Died Mar. 30, 1896) ... Oct. 1883 to July 1892

Wilford, T. M. ... ... ... ... ... July 1900 to April 1911

Williams, W. R. (Died Mar. 17, 1890) ... Feb. 1880 to May 1888

Wood, W. T Feb. 1902 to Feb. 1908

Wright, R. A. ... ... ... ... ... April 1913 to April 1921

Present and Past Officers.

General Managers.

Marchbanks, J. (also Chief Engineer) ... ... ... ... 1923 -

Secretaries.

Lyon, H. M. (also Treasurer and Accountant) ... Feb. 1880-May 1884

, v ... t. eu. iojo-uay 103-t Ferguson, W. (also Engineer from 1884 and Treasurer from 1885 May 1884-Mar. 1908

Nicholls, H. E Jan. 1908-1924

Barnett, A. G. 1924

75

Past and Present Officers. —Continued

Assistant Secretaries.

Smith, G. F 1890-1898

1900-1906

Smith, T. H 1898-1899

Cachemaille, V. L. (also Treasurer) 1908-1911

Barnett, A. G. { also Treasurer) ... ... ... ... ... 1911-1924

Gibbs, D. J. ( also Treasurer) ... ... ... ... ... 1924

Engineers.

Ferguson, W. (also Secretary from 1884 and Treasurer from 1885) 1884-1908

Cachemaille, E. D 1908-1909

Marchbanks, J. 1909-

Consulting Engineers.

Jones, E. C. ... 1881-1884

Ferguson, W 1908-1913

Office Engineers.

Cachemaille, E. D 1909-

Treasurers.

Lyon, H. M. {also Secretary and Accountant) ... ... ... 1880-1885

Ferguson, W. ( also Secretary and Engineer) ... ... ... 1885-1908

Cachemaille, V. L. ( also Assistant Secretary) ... ... ... 1908-1911

Barnett, A. G, { also Assistant Secretary) ... ... ... 1911-1924

Gibbs, D. J. ( also Assistant Secretary) ... ... ... ... 1924

Accountants and Cashiers.

Kennedy, W. F. ( also Wharfinger) 1881-1884

Xicholls, H. E. 1885-1908

Gamble, J. E 1908-

Wharfingers.

Kennedy, W. F. ( also Accountant) 1881-1884

Prince, W 1885-1905

Claridge, H. G. 1905-1906

Monro, A. V. Hale ( also Traffic Manager ) ... ... ... 1906-

Harbour Masters.

Holliday, Captain John 1881-1898

Johnson, Captain Henry 1898-1915

Dawson, Captain J. E 1915-

76

DIAGRAMS FINANCE AND TRADE

50 Years’ Progress

77

FINANCE AND TRADE.

78

79

85

PLAN OF RECLAMATIONS.

86

82

KEY TO PLAN.

i.. he i () ii° wln K alphabetical list, in which each initial capital letter corresponds to one of the Lnd tadiSSTt « da^.nH o*-1™ 0 *- 1™ ‘ he '''T Serves as a k ' y '° ,ha reclamtetl lanj anu indicates area, date, and reclaiming authority;—

A Reclamation made by New Munster Government, in the year 1852, area Oac. 3rd. 06.5 per.

B Reclamation made by Wellington Provincial Government, 1857-63, area 7ac. 3rd. 34per.

F— Reclamation made by the Order of Oddfellows about 1859.

E Reclamation made by the Order of Foresters in the year 1864.

D Recla “ a *‘°5 pe ™ ad « by Messrs. Joseph & Co. in 1865. The total area of F.E. and I), was

C Reclamation made by Wellington Provincial Government, 1866-67, area 12ac. 3rd. 29per.

G Re 2 dama 2 *“" made by the General Government, for Government Buildings, 1875, area 2ac.

' RK ' a G^vem n mem g Ts76 b> area Ve^c ßt ?rd. ugT* GoyernmCTt and by the General

J Reclamation made by Wellington-Manawatu Railway Co., 1882, area 29ac. Ord. 24per.

L made by General Government (part of Railway Wharf contract), 1882, area

M Reclamation made by Wellington Harbour Board, 1882, area Ird. 21per. (approx.).

H R “c a "M.° n io^? de by VVellingtonMana "atu Railway Co. for General Government, 1884, area

N Reclamation made by Wellington Harbour Board (Hunter Street endowment), 1886, area 3rd. 26per.

° Red a a r™a a,, 22ac m 2 a r d d e Xe^tippfox^ o ' s ' Cor ' 10ration < N ° S - 1 a " d 2. Te Aro reclamation), 1886,

P ReCl i a 7?o , (°a n ppS ad ) e by Wellingt ° n City Corporation (No. 3, Te Aro reclamation), 1889, area

K Recl msd a , ti0 h n r ade by C ? v f m w"!, ,or Te Aro Railway, including area (or site of Store No. 7, made by Government for Wellington Harbour Board, 1893, area lac. Ird. 21per.

Q Reclamation made by Wellington Harbour Board, 1893-1901, area 3ac. Ord. 30per.

R

S-Reclamation made by Wellington Harbour Board, including area for Custom House site reclaimed by Wellington Harbour Board for Government, 1901-1903, area 2ac. 2rd. 17per. ’

T ReC 'sTef °IVI9M, a?ea W lfec ng 3?d. ?Sp r en" r <Te Ar ° reclamation ’ indudin * d °>*

° ReC ™2 a 5925, a?ea SpprST”'' 0 " (widemng Ciyda Q aay aad Oriental Terrace),

V RKla ™ a, “ n ’" ai e by Government in connection with duplication and improvement of the Hun Railway (part only of the total reclamation between Wellington and Petone) 1904 area yac. (_approx.J

W ReC arS a 34ac. M l 'l6per Well ‘ ngton Harbour Board (" aterloo Quay reclamation), 1904-1916,

X R< f*J™ atlon nmtle by Wellington Harbour Board (sites for boat sheds, etc., at Boat Harbour), i ajd, ares ia~. Urd. 4oper. 71

Y— Reclamation made by Government, 1910-1913, area 4ac. 3rd. 16per.

Z Reclamation made by Wellington Harbour Board under agreement between N.Z. Government Sac W 2rd 1 th ' Board ’ now 111 course of being reclaimed, commenced 1924; area

88

Printed for the Publishers, Palmer & Mahood Ltd., Designers & Draughtsmen, by Coulls Somerville Wilkie Ltd., Wellington.