AUCKLAND 50 YEARS AGO

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 110, 11 May 1926, Page 8

AUCKLAND 50 YEARS AGO

MR. WESTBROOK LOOKS BACK.

DAYS OF THE SAILING SHIPS. SAILOR LAD AND THE FIRE BRIGADE. Many people will remember the apprentices who used to come out in the old sailing ships that traded between the Old Country and New Zealand before the advent of steam. Bright cheery lads, with the brass buttons and their jaunty caps with the company badge neatly done in gold and colours in. front —no wonder they were the envy of every schoolboy who used to hang round the wharf. Nowadays the old fashioned and rather likeable passion of every healthy boy to run away to sea seems to have gone quite out of fashion. The modern youth seems to fancy something easier and softer, which is perhaps rather a P'ty-

At the present time there is in Auckland a sedate, elderly gentleman in whom it is rather hard to trace the daredevil sailor apprentice who once made off with the uniform and helmet of ■Superintendent Hughes, and got rolled in the mud for his pains. This is Mr. G. E. L. Westbrook, the well-known resident of Apia, Samoa, now on his way back after a world trip. He first saw Auckland nearly fifty years ago when he was one of these rakish looking young sons of the sea. He arrived on the Famenoth. a noted barque, nearly fifty years ago. but he did not return by her. as he liked the country and "skipped it." Talking to a "Star" reporter this morning he said it was astonishing to loo'a round and note the difference between the Auckland lie knew as a lad and the Auckland of to-day. "When I first step_pd ashore here." he observed, "the Waitemata and the Thames Hotels at the corner of Customs Street and yuecn Street were just at the head of Queen Street, most of Karangahape Road was fields, and the railway station used to stand close to what was then called the Railway wharf. In those days thera were very few steamers coming to New Zealand, the trade being done in sailing vessels, fine ships and liarques which belonged to the New Zealand Shipping Company, the Shaw, Savill Company, and other lines. These craft ranged from 600 tons to 1000 tons, ami they wort- well-equipped for bringing out immigrants to this country. When the Famenoth lay at Auckland I remember among others in port the famous Otaki, the Sam Mendel, the Columbus and the C : ty of Auckland, this last mentiore.l be'nc credited with being the fastest fa'ler then in the New Zeal.ml run. There were in addition to this fine array several other eh'ps, the names of which I have forgotten.

"I was fortunate in meeting some very nice people in the Auckland of that time, and they used to give us apprentices a very good time. A man who was well known among the shipping people was Mr. Samuel Rout (nicknamed by the sailors "Holy Joe") who was doin<* really good work among the men. He WRB particularly good to us lads, introducing us to some very kind families who were connected with the Baptist Chapel, then situated in Wellesley Street, the pastor's name being Webb. I remember that Captain Auld, of the Famenoth, wanted us boys to go to the Scottish Chapel, but we rebelled and went with the people to whom Mr. Rout introduced us.

"A funny incident happened one Sunday. We were just coming out of church and the firebell rang. Old Aueklanders will remember this bell was rigged on a high tower in Albert Street, and its booming could be heard all over the town. Several of the young fellows I was with dashed off as fast as they could to the fire station, and naturally I followed them to see the fun. Each of my friends grabbed a helmet and a coat and joined in with the brigade. I naturally thought I would be as brave as the rest of them, and was soon in the only coat and helmet I could see.

"But I had not much time to think what a. comical figure I must be cutting, as the helmet was snatched off my head, I was knocked down, and rolled out of the coat, the tails of which were so long that I had been dragging them through the mud and slush —it had been raining. 1 was bundled out in the middle of the road, and wondered what I had done to get such a keel-hauling. It turned out that my friends were really volunteer members of the brigade, and the coat and helmet T had dashed off with belonged to Superintendent Hughes, whom old Aueklanders will remember as the burly bead of the brigade—a hefty man with a voice that could be heard blocks away. But it took a lot to damp us in those days, and we had a good laugh over my fire fighting escapade." ,

Mr. Westbrook went down to the Islands Boon after he left the Famenoth, and has been there practically ever since, so naturally he recalls the fine fleet of Auckland-built schooners which used to carry on the extensive trade done between Auckland and the various Pacific islands. Auckland practicaliv rontrolled the trade in those days. Mr. Wcstbropk recalls that the schooner Mazeppa, in charge of "Darky" Garroway. running between Fiji and Auckland, used to "keep to a time-table almost like a mail boat." Auckland firms then well known in the Island trade were Owen and Graham, and Henderson and Macfarlane. Mr. Westbrook says that at about the time he speaks of Sir Julius Vogel, the Premier of Ne\V Zealand, advocated that New Zealand should annex certain groups in the Pacific. "Had that been done," said Mr. Westbrook, "New Zealand would not to-day be bewailing her lost Island trade, and the would now have been controlling the Gilbert Islands, the Tokelau group, the Marshall Islands, and probably some of the Carolinee."