HARBOUR BOARD JUBILEE

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 129, 1 June 1921, Page 8

HARBOUR BOARD JUBILEE

HISTORY OF THE PORT

DURING THE PAST HALF CENTURY

CHANGES ON THE WATERFRONT SINCE 1871

How dry land usurped the place of the Waitemata and '"he city crept seaward. Story of the fifty years that have made Auckland the premier port.

Fifty years ago to-day the Auckland Harbour Board held its first meeting. The tonnage of inward vessels was then just over 88,000 torts a year; last year it was 1,927,851 tons. Six months' income in IS7I amounted to £6,522; in 1920, twelve months yielded £291,194. One long wooden jetty running out from the foot of Queen Street was practically all the berthing accommodation which the young board possessed; to-day Auckland has magnificent ferro-concrete wharves; the port equipment is unequalled in the Dominion, and battleships like H.M.S. Renown can berth with their bows within a biscuit-throw of th<; city's principal thoroughfare.

An old man stood one day not long ago on the rising ground called Emily Place, just above the Fort Street fiour mill, and accosting a passer-by asked bin* if he could point out Smales' Point. The passer-by had never heard of such a place, and thought the ancient had made a mistake in the town, but they got into conversation, and it came out that the old fellow had known Auckland in his youth, but had been away for many years. He remembered Smales' Point (the western point of the bay which was originally Auckland's front door); he remembered Fort Britomart, and a lot of other distinctive land marks of fifty years back, and in the modern town with all these excrescences hacked away and thrown into the sea, he was quite at a loss to trace any resemblance to the town of his boyhood.

The metamorphosis on the waterfront during the first half century of the existence of the Auckland Harbour Board has been remarkable. Ths view from the water in 1921 bears only the slightest resemblance to the view that met the gaze of the seafaring folk who sailed up the harbour fifty years back. Customs Street was the town's "front line," and it was nothing much to boast about. A few old sheds on the seaward side, interspersed with piles of firewood made up the approach to Auckland. The main wha-'f ran out into the middle of the bay (or what the reclaimers had left of the bay) and from the Waitemata corner a few courageous business people had put down their piles and built on what is now lower Queen Street. If the waterfront was not imposing, it was not without its picturesque touches. No waterfront is ever prosaic, and the large fleet of smart schooners and cutters which used to run in the coastal trade fifty years back gave the loungers plenty of incident in the early seventies. And even the early settlers we're not too busy to admire the graceful lines of the tall sailing ships which were our only links with the Old Country. Auckland was a very small place comparatively in those times. Her population numbered only 12,937 as against 81,699 for the city proper to-day, or 157,000 for the Metropolitan area. In IS7I Auckland's population was contained in the city proper and , what were then the "suburbs" of Parnell and Newton. The rest of the Auckland of that day was very rural.

COST OF LIVING. Fifty years ago a man was a capitalist with a few hundred pounds. Just listen to some of the prices which were then current in Auckland and contrast them with the aeroplaning figure of to-day. Half a century ago one could have rented a four-roomed house "in town" (says the old record) at from 6/ to 8/ per week; five-roomed cottages 10/ to 15/; and six rooms from 12/ to 18/. And a working man to-day will pay anything from 22/ a week! Allotments in the suburbs of Auckland were, in the "seventies" selling at from 5/ to 25/ per foot with a depth of 60ft to 100£t. The cost of erecting a substantial four-roomed weatherboard cottage, lined and papered, was about £150. Today there would be very little change out of a cheque for £1,000 for the same sort of building and the chances are, that the modern building would not stand half as long as the old-timer they used to build out of heart of kauri in those days. In the old record from which we quote it says, "Many settlers in the North have raupo houses (or whares) put up for temporary accommodation. These whares may be mado tolerably comfortable and if kept in repair will last for years. The Maoris will put one up for from £3 to £5." To-day where would you find the Maori who could or would put up a whare for £3, and where would you find the "cockie" with enough courage to live in a "raupo hoifse?" If prices were low so were wages. iV/ 116 ! t, m labour °*'3 were paid from 15/ to 20/ a week and found; bootmakers 7/ to 8/ per day; bricklayers L;TtV s ve 7 bH?k "> U / P" 'day, and hodmen drew S/ per day; town C 6 7to r 7/ £1 6/ „ t0 £2 V P-£-«ek; navvies W to 7/ per day.

COUNTRY COMMUNICATION. Nothing gives a more graphic idea of the primitiveness of the times when the Harbour Board was born than the state of the communications. A chronicle of the early seventies, after referring to some of the confiscated land near Cambridge being worth £3 per acre, and town sections £150 (even then the prices had quadrupled in value in four years) goes on to say: "The Waikato district is reached from Auckland by a good metalled road which strikes the river where it bends westward in its course to the sea, about thirty-eight miles from Auckland (near Mercer). ° A railway is being constructed hv the Colonial Government." Referring to The Thames Valley, the account says: "This valley contains some splendid land aot as yet settled upon."

The first train did not run on the Auckland line until 1573, and then it only went as far as Onehunga, if we mistake not. It was not until several years later that Mercer was linked up by the railway. In 1871 communication between Auckland and Cambridge was by coach, three times a week. The fare was 40/, and freight on poods in those days was 85/ per ton. If you look at an old imp you will notice that the Thames Valley is quite innocent of roads, for although the Thames was a "roaring camp"—tons of gold were won in thoso days—everything went by sea. The Ohir.emuri field was still in the hands of the Maoris, who shut it up jealously, and the pakehas with the gold fever worn very much perturbed at the disinclination of the brown man to let the white man with the gold pick into the district. IN THE DAYS OF TE KOOTI. Mention above of the "confiscated land»" reminds one that when the Harbour Board made its debut Te Kooti had just been hunted from Taupo way over to the Patetere (in the vicinity of the present Putaruru), over to Rotorua, and then across to tlio Bay of Plenty. In the fights many native rebels were killed, and scores of prisoners were taken. In IS7I the old scoundrel had been hunted back to the King Country (he always managed to give the pakeha and friendlies the slip), and, as his mana was gone, it was ■ decided to allow him>to remain in that terra incognita, for it wan not until long afterwards that the Upper Waikato was thrown open. If a white man ventured across the aukati (boundary line), which was somewhere about Te Awa rautu, he ran a big risk of getting a very rude reception from the Kingite Maoris. "When the Harbour Board was born the colony was still run -by Provincial Governments, and bitter was the struggle before, in 1576, they were finally abolished and things were managed from the big talking shop in Wellington. Many and varied have been the changes in Auckland since the Harbour Board took over the supervision of the Waitemata. and nothing connected with the city shows greater advancement than the facilities which are provided for shipping and the handling of the growing trade of which Auckland is the centre. For this we have to thank the men who have the time and desire to serve their native town, and to the skilled officials who have served the Board 60 faithfully and with such distinction. .