OLD MILL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 174, 24 July 1936, Page 5

OLD MILL.

NOT FOR SALE

MR. PARTINGTON'S STAND.

"MONEY WIIiL NOT BUY IT."

Unless the Auckland Metropolitan Fire Board can take it under some such legislative authority as the Public Works Act. neither the old mill site nor any of the property surrounding it will be available for the building of a new central fire station as long as its present owner, Mr. J. Partington, is alive.

"If they put a million pounds cash down on that doorstep, their money would not buy a foot of this sHe." declared Mr. Partington this morning, wagging a finger towards the doorway of the old mill. "Never since I inherited it have I ever sold a foot of this land, and I never shall. It is not a matter of money with me, it is a matter of sentiment, and I shall fight to the last ditch for the old mill."

Aucklanclere have a share in Mr. Partington's passionate feeling for the historic old Symonds Street landmark; only in him it is stronger, and, even then, perhaps not so very much stronger, for the mill has been at once the pride and the livelihood of his family for 90 years. When Mr. Partington's father came to New Zealand he brought with him the money for the. building of a mill; Sir George Grey himself signed the deeds which made him owner of the site in Symonds Street, then on the outskirts of the infant settlement, which he selected as suitable.

Born in Miller's Cottage. In" the miller's cottage, still standing, Mr. Partington was born. As a baby he played round the mill and, no doubt, pestered his father with questions like "What makes those things go round, daddy?" As a youth he learned his father's tradt and as an elderly nian nn\v he still follows it. During tli f ..■■

he had to flglit hard for the protection of his beloved mill. From time to time he lias bought up neighbouring properties, often at stiff prices, 60 that they could not be covered with high buildings that would block the wind. He now owns most of the block as far as City Road, and is determined to retain it. Actually the windmill is not now necessary to his business, as he has electric machinery installed and he uses this the greater part of the time. Whenever the wind is in the right quarter and strong enough, however, he loves to set its sails a-turning. Formerly it had four, but one was snapped oil in a gale some years ago and he removed the opposite one in order to restore the balance. Neither from England nor from America has he been able to obtain knot-free pitch pine spars for the centre ribs of hew sails, so that two are probably all that the old mill will ever have for the future. With only the two sails, however, it provides a valuable auxiliary to the power plant. Artistic Associations. Next to Mr. Partington, those who probably love the old mill best are the artists, who find in New Zealand plenty of natural beauty but little »of man's work that could by any stretch of the imagination be called picturesque. Now that Nelson Street wharf is pulled down and its fleet of fishing boats scattered, only the ruins of St. Thomas' Church can vie with the old mill in popularity as a subject for sketchbooks.