THE BARRACK RESERVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 95, 23 April 1926, Page 9

THE BARRACK RESERVE.

NEARLY LOST TO THE CITY. | "IMPROVEMENT" COMMISSION, j NINETY-NINE YEAR LEASES. In view of the scheme for forming a civic square in the vicinity of Albert , Park, and incidentally resuming some of ■ the leases, it is interesting to recall the early history in connection witb that i area. Originally the land belonged to the < British Government, and around it was erected a stone wall, loopholea ror the defence of the infant town, .in the event of a big attack being made by. tbe Maoris, who, at that time, greatly outnumbered the Europeans. The barrack wall was built by friendly Maoris under the direction of the Royal Engineers, w*ho were astonished at the celerity with which the natives became expert stone cutters. The troops were housed within the barracks, and soldiers on leave had to be : back at a certain hour, when the gates were shut until the following morn- j in"-. There used to be an old pipe drain j in those days which small boys found could be used to crawl through into the barracks when the weather was fine. I About the year 1852 a boy of eight years I of age crawled through the drain one evening, and was surprised at the hustle there was. He crawled back to tell his father, who was an officer. Shortly afterwards an orderly arrived to call the . father, and in the dawn the men took up | a position on the hill near where the j Supreme Court now stands to be ready to j repel a threatened attack by the Maoris, who had arrived in war canoes. Seeing they were expected, the invaders soon i paddled back to their' homes. Many years afterwards ■ that boy, I to an old man, was standing in I Que'en Street, watching piles being driven j to carry the tramway. One pile stopped | at about half the depth tbe previous one ' had been driven. The engineer, who was ! watching the work, remarked: "It must i have struck a stone," "No," said the old j man, "it has reached a stone pier that [ my father erected in the early days 'on j which to land material for the troops." j

At the corner of Victoria Street East ia an old wooden building, now used as a.fruit shop, which goes back to the days .when the barracks were being built. That store was kept by a woman who had been cook" for Governor Hobson. She married a soldier, and the two made a fortune about £40,000 within the next fifty years. - Mr. H. B. Morton in -his book, "Recollections'of Early New Zealand," tells

how Auckland nearly lost the Barrack reserve. After the withdrawal of the British troops, the. Imperial Govern-

ment had no further use for the bar-

racks, and in the year IS7O an advertisement appeared in the Auckland papers calling, on the part of the Home Government, for tenders for purchase of

part of the .property. The writer states - "Sir Donald McLean, Native Minister, intervened, and the land Was J withdrawn from sale. It -was, I believe, soon afterwards conveyed to the New j Zealand Government on condition that it was retained as an open space for the public. A local body was set up, called, as. well as I remember, the City Improvement Commissioners. This body, on the plea that, money was necessary to improve the property soon set to work to lay off streets and building sections. ■ The 'latter, fronting the hew streets, were let on 99 year building leases at a nominal rent. The public quietly acquiesced in the spoliation of their estate, and no doubt the leasees congratulated themselves on their good fortune. I do not remember any other commissioners, tuy impression. being improvements carried out by those that it was reserved for a City Council of a much more recent period to create the beautiful little park we have' today. It is one of. the scandals of the early days that so much' : of it was alienated from the public."