COMING UP THE GULF.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 101, 29 April 1913, Page 5

COMING UP THE GULF.

AN IMPRESSIVE SPECTACLE. WELCOME FROM THE WATER. I FLOCK OF SMALL CRAFT. HARBOUR FRONT LINED WITH PEOPLE. I The waters of the Hauraki Gulf have borne many kings' ships, bu never before such a formidable craft as this great grey monster that ploughed its welcome way in this morning. First came Cook's bluff-bowed, high-pooped Endeavour, feeling her way round Cape_Colville down as far as the Thames, and anchoring behind Waihekc. The -juesting craft of the great explorer was followed by other and less quaint ships that flew the St. George's Cross. Then came the picturesque craft which reached the acme of nautical beauty in boats like those of the Flying Squadron of the time of the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh—black shapely hulls with flowing lines, topped by a pyramid of billowing canvas, snowy white. "People ■who remember it say that the sight of the squadron booming up the gulf and converging on the narrow entrance to Rangitoto Channel was one of the most impressive that have ever been seen on this splendid stretch of inland sea. Then came the half steam and half Bail period, with its queen craft, in which lofty spars still predominated. Like timid swinmers and the corks, they feared to throw away their canvas and trust entirely to the cranks and rods down in the engineroom. Ships of the Diamond class—one of the most graceful examples of the transition phase—ships of the Nelson type, and so on, gradually ehed more and more of the fceauty of the old-time sailer, and assumed the uncompromising rigidity and arbitrary lines imposed by the use of steel. This morning the Hauraki opened its arms to welcome the heir of all tlie ages, the lineal descendant through more than a century of the various types that have floated on its tide. AUTUMN CALM. The morning broke with a fog over the Gulf, the typical ushering in of one of Auckland's beautiful autumn days— halcyon days of sun-bathed tide *and cloud-flecked sky. As the day wore on towards noon the mist rolled away under the influence of the sun, and from a point like the signal station at Mt. Victoria the whole magnificent panorama of the Tamaki Isthmus was spread out, clearcut as a cameo. There was a faint southerly, hardly enough to ruffle the surface of the Waitemata, and its influence did not reach beyond the Rangitoto channel. Thence to Tiri Tjri and the Little Barrier just discernible through the slight sea-haze the waters of the Gulf lay undisturbed and asleep, with here and there a catspaw like a whisp of cloud in a blue sky. Brown's Island lay like an emerald in a setting of silver. Black Rangitoto, with a blacker shadow cast across his flanks by n huge cumulus cloud, loomed up from the motionless waters like a j sentinel guarding the portals. The distant ranges towards Coromandel and Waitakere joined the sky in 'the faintest of faint blues. A CONTRAST. In such a scene of perfect autumn calm and tranquillity the battleship New Zealand, the last word in modern warfare — type of the great navy that makes possible the existence of such a distant outpost as the colony that gave her her name—slid silently into the Gulf from the South, and steamed slowly up towards the harbour. 1 Just before noon a smudge of smoke over the sloping shoulder of Rangitoto suggested that the long-expected visitor had arrived, and soon afterwards her j slender top-masts, with their maze of ' wireless gear, showed up. Gradually her ponderous hull emerged, and every moment her outlines grew clearer as she emerged from the misty itormon. Slowly the monster crept along—even a.t the distance of several miles she looked a leviathan —and steamed westward until in a line with Whangaparaoa Passage and Mount Victoria. Then, steering in a graceful sweeping curve, she straightened up for the entrance to -the Rangitoto channel, making much the same course a-s the American Fleet of battleships on their -memorable visit of five years ago. Aloft the spidery wire-strung masts suggested tlip atteiinae of some enormous insect. Below, her enormous body and grinning guns suggested a bulldog. Tt was mind and matter, brains and muscle pourtrayed in cold steel. ■WELCOMED AT THE POSTAL!?. •By the time the monster had reached the Bea<rnn thi» Cfcinnel was dotted with .-plnUrrnii: launches ami other craft TW Tanin-l.a ventured further afloat". Slid w-clenmc:! the visitdhs several milee outside the reef. The Peregrine wae also well 10 the fore with her gree-tim Aβ the aliip »wunj round the Btaeon tad expand *«r- •β-w flu*, hfctej,

pod nwßte, her trie of smoke-belching funnels, xnd ber low-lying fo-c'ale and quarter-deck receding before her'great 12-inch guns, you reaiieed what a strange craft "the British battleship «. Sihgubut singularly bueimsislike, and "the very embodiment of latent 'power. From each track and the stern floated the white Eneign, and it . wae comforting "to know that little ~Sew Zealand had endeavoured something tovrsrrde keeping , the old flag flying. When -the battleship had reached raidchannel the cluster of launches dotted here and there with a yacht or two, that looked like a flock of eea birds that had eettled on the water, began to stir and fluttered round Hie steel giant. The Amokura was aluo in the attendant fleet that round l the North Head was waiting, and the battleship steamed to an. anchorage like a great bird attended by "a covey of chickens. Bunting flew from every mast of the following fleet, the men of the battleship were drawn up on deck,, starboard and port, .her band struck up a lively air, the crowds in launch, yacht, ferry and steamer cheered, and so the New Zealand dropped anchor in the watera of the Waitemata. The southerly breeze which had been so faint in the forenoon came up stronger by the lame .the ship showed round the North Head, and as she went up the harbour dt was blowing freshly, just enough to enable the. yachts to manoeuvre, and give the finishing touch to a very gay'and animated picture. The harbour seemed full of small craft, and the shores of the harbour were lined ■with people. Every hill and rising ground from Mount Eden to Emily Place was dotted with men, women and children. The ends of the wharves, and the steamers in port were black with folk anxious to get a glimpse of the visitor as she steamed up the harbour and dropped her e*normous anchor just opposite Queen Street, the ponderous cable rumbling through the hawse pipe with a rattle that could be heard at Devonport.