NAPIER CARNIVAL OPENED.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 65, 16 March 1908, Page 6

NAPIER CARNIVAL OPENED.

rioV>'X CROWDED WITH VISITORS. 2; Q?x_Tc-iegi-.T£|r.—Press Association.) ~ "- - XAPiEßrrtis day. -'• Xapier inaugurated i«.« ten days" i.ir Iblvol to-day under condition.- of a pro S-.ismg nature. The town was i-rmijui •wivU-visiiws 4roiu.-iaE.ajid near, even &£cl~4i!l& bo. i-rdir.cTiouj-e- being crowded gllS. waflft, tbaugE.2b.illy, Al Sie>nMitk gaily decked will ■F:' -1 " 7- "*■■ " , " '-V , ■ the Hoi ernmeni ....,, j. hi.liday tecliixf y. ~: r. ; >•, .-.. ";ie""Olricial opeuinj ■ Parade rniunda vme delivered b> ; .. ■ ■> .- ■ . ilinister tor Lab '. Vigor Hrown) .■iiiti-. Minsoqupiitly a Imge Maori 2£>:!ionstrntio;i wusjieii! on the re.cixalji , ! giound, ;u:J a -bo\vliiig tournament. «i ivhTili fifteen rinks aro engaged, was com-Bienvt-n. -The inticr will run thi-ee days. SSid "ill Tir :'uili).)\ui Jiy pair- inatche?. Biues fill tho" iii'l ■tn-Tnorrriw and \\ e.i-lU'-diiy. Jjie tmnU i-baiuiiitmsiliipe l..mrilliment will lie played on Thursday and Erida\. On !-'ritl<iy there will also be the OX&CXSg&St&^MSi ii grand n:otor gyiiik ! iiimi. Tin" NV-u Z.M.'.md Aiuuttnr Association will hold c'.iampioiisnips und iiandicap events at \\ est.-horo arday there' will bo an athletic and c;>cli;ig Tiie Xew Zealand Amateur Kowing Association regatta takes place on_M.onda.V. iiurch 2:5. and on T;:c.*day. Marrii 24. iliere will be a mop.-t-'r ■.■hool fete and .-ports. On the next day a grand .".■'nary tnnrnaraent will he held o:i t!vv-,-]wr Park racecourse. An itueri'.-ting ceremony took place in liv Cathedral yesterday, when tup old Km.;lion .-nlours were given into the e-ucred kfPping of the church. There was a monster turn-out of Volunteers, a-ad thr- public and the..ceremony was most Lnpre^sivc. XAPIER, PAST AXD PRESENT. j ii'ty years ago there " no province of Uawke'a Bay. The area nun- ihe scene of .-o many fccKia] mid- induetrial activities .was if— region- o4- swamp, forest and grazing ground administered from Wellington. Native troubles abounded, littwke'a Lay will not have- completed its 111tielll year a» a provinet till the olst of Ocviber next. Thirty years ago the value of t.ic borougli for rating purposes was in round fijrures i .S.OOO. 'i'o-clay raves are. collected from properties who.-c letting VaTne-s~?ear!r-thr--Total- of rerifeser.ting a t-apital y.tlue of fully two niJilions sterling. years ago Xapier v.as not piedresque. Wijaj: ir now;-tailed Por!, Ahuriri, and was then styled the Spit, ■•was a wilderness of desolation, tho main feature- of.which were shingle wastes and latroons. The town consisted' of hills dia the' tn_e.. _?ide. then beginning to be taiilt upon, and on the other ride, of two Stl-eichQs of shingle running nearly north and south, and roughly- parallel with each other. Between the shingle hanks ■\ras a foul and fetid lagoon. Beyond tho rrjper bank "was another and larger laggn, r, trßt;off-from what is known as the hrrier harbour by the road from ,Xapier to Tarailalc. Vi'hat is now Xapier. is, in fact, apart from the hills, a "manufactured article.'" The town had to be 'fepade'" in -ijhe_most-literal- sense of that •wyrd. Tie— e-a-tPr Jagoon has also .becu peclanned.' aiid ■wTipreTormefTy SfcHTOliers could sail is how fertile land, from two ■to tlffee feet Tiighei - in level than any other portion of the flats. .-i^tpiej—now i≤ ll', picturesque town. Something of this is due to advantages d site,- the .sw.eep of the bay and the expanse" 'of "the" ' confined by its sEbres being Nature's gifts to Xapier. But it is astonishing how much the natEfral prospect has been enhanced by what ruan has. done. The sweep of the bay d 32 not"StVrke r one; so forcibly when a ttJJrpn-lVet road fringed with a few hltmble cottages was the coign of vantage from which the bay was viewed. Tho esplanade, wide and clean, and bordered ■with Norfolk Island pines, does by its ntere psi?ten.cc. emphasise and accentuate, evpn if it does not add to. the beauty of- the. -outlook. With reference to the. breakwater, ihe first block of the structure was laid on January 2~i. ISS7. and cj December :>lst last, the length finished work was 2.674 feet. \Vhen CftEapleted isie area of the. harbour provSed will be'hbout 320 acres, with n d?fith for more than half that area of 2 feel a tTow"■Wα i et'"?p"iinpfttdT'.- ""A tpepnt contract let to the Perro-Conerete Company .provides for extensions to the. Crlasgow" wharf, s"o that in about 18 moßths (SceajTlinpTs , will be able to berth tharc. In IPOI the capital value of the, Kapier Harbotir Board rating district wa- assessed at six and a-half millions. It ;is now. twelve millions. The Xapier of to-day is a .J>r.ight clean town with handsome re>iden<-PK--on- j th-e. hills, np-to-dat.e. business piemises, and with a natural asset hi the shape of a climate almost without an equal in rhe wide norld for mildness-and salubrity-.- - At the mppting of the Harbour Board ir."""corrirriiltee err Friday 'last., a discussion took plac.p regarding the erection of a wJiaxLitt; O'Xeill's Point, and a decision was arrived at to recomnipnd the Board trt efrt-f ohq; providing the.t the petitioners pay one-half the cost, thp Board to do the requisite dredging. Exception has been taken to the tone of the discussion at that meeting, as it was calculated tn give the idea that tlie wharf wps only for the residents in the. vicinity of O'Xeill's Point. v wl>ereas the rr<:i:-f7) that it is wanted so ,, urgently at thr- present time is ft loea-1 eompc.r.v intend to lay down a tramway, to -open up a. large area--of country in the vicinity of LakP lakapuna. A large proportion of Hie capital of this cmnjnny has been sub-f-.-rined by residents of Tafcapuna, and the work to be undertaken involves the expenditure of at least £50,000, the idea; being to run a circular railway right round the laJce and thus open up an RnVnens.7" area of country. Tα additirn : , '_. r ' this, the line will hrinp within rasyT roach of the people of Auckland r>ri" of tVe bnst pleasiixe rcsorts'in Xew Zealaiwl. Another result which is t:iin-.fo follow upon ihe work of this CGmpanv is the opening up for residence on EEat .side of the harbour .if land lutherlo considered too fur away for the ayrajrc' citizen to live upon. ' With a whag at OX.ills Point, new ferry the Sake, iC will bo possible for many to KB OTW them in tha future. From | -,^"" s '""" »• of far more public Ittiy. merely accoiumodatlnc the ie-1-tCTlls in the immediate vicinity of thatjplace, and it is felt that soma of tjrg. remarks made, at the committee disclosed a disposition on the part of membcrs._to belittle a very imjertant public entgrgHse,; --