NEW TOWNS FOR OLD ONES.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12968, 22 November 1907, Page 7

NEW TOWNS FOR OLD ONES.

A CITY IN OVERALLS AND SCAFFOLDS.

AND A NOTABLE RECORD

(FROM OUR SPECIAI BKTORTKK.)

Wellington, now, mor© than ever before, is handsomely vindicating its right to rank as Empire City of the Dominion, and in comparison with Christchurch, on the surface, bears tho same relationship as that poetically affirmed as subsisting between tho ant and th© cricket. If Christchurch is prosperous, Wellington is comprehensively opulent; if Christchurch is busy, Wellington is restlessly hustling; if Christchurch is growing yearly, Wellington is expanding hourly, swellin' wisibly, eating up the waste places remorselessly, wagging the banner of Commerce in tho placid face of Nature; engulfing .suburbs _and slums alike in satiation of a prodigious appetite for mercantile advantages. One of th© most familiar sights Wellington has to offer is an ever-present vision of scaffold poles and hoardings; of piles of bricks and pools of mortar: of carpenters, of labourers, of tearer_«down and builders-up-again. The building boom has long since passeil fw>m the circumstance of notable incident—it has grown to be a settled characteristic ot the community without which life would prove a fraudulent imitation of tolerable existence. ►Spacious premises, not having nvany approached the meridian of ago and apparent usefulness ar© being domo l - ished by tho score to afford root hold for sky-scrapers and other giants of architectural conception. Historical hovels, flinging rusty links of commercial activity far back into the infamy ot tho colony's career, are falling, shoulder to shoulder, >o that tho immutable law may bo fulfilled, and the old order giv© place to the new. And the promise of to-day fore-shadows tho surpassing greatness of the Empire City of to-morrow. All of t'hi-s and more, was born© m upon one. as, fresh from the luxurious wonders of the maiden voyago of tlie Maori, ho sought for complementary satisfaction as touching tho matter-of-fact things of terra firma and the market place. Chinese fruit emporiums brazenly flaunting a wealth of plateglass, cheek by jowl with the humbler s-ioi-s of merely Europeans, jarred unplcasamtlv upon one's patriotic sonsibilities. Th© street calls were strange; tho •newsboys' staccato chorus unfamiliar. A man propelled. « .rattling coster's barrow aglow with dainty colour, wailing ''Roipe strawb nes, slullin er box. 'Er© v'are." Thero a-re fewer bicycles her© tlian in Chxi&ttthurch, and fewer motor cars end cabs; smoother main less dust, -a more vivid atmosphere of grim business and hard facts; fewer well-dressed men. In Christchurch every house has its backyard. In Wellington every backyard has its house. One passed the sacred portals of th© halls of Legislature. Bella wero wrangling and jangling everywhere, but nobody heeded. Tho suggestion of afternoon tea, and « silvery ripple of feminine laughter drifted out from somewhere. The Legislative Council lied droned itself into n. sti'to of reputia.Mo com®, upon somo unimportant local measure, while tli© House of Representatives fat fitfully in Committee upon the Nativo Lands fjettilement Bill. Mediocre speeches wore evolved from the_ exhausted dregs of tho previous night's delxite. Amd not even the bellicose Mr Kaihau contrived to provoke more than an occasional languid interjection. It was-ti thin, threadbare, workgalled House—of oratorical achieve-, I ments, none; of weariness of th© flesh and insupportable monotony of contention, much. With the hurried, steamy coming, nnd leisurely going of dinner, obtruded recollections of iliome and duty. The Maori was to Bail at 8.15. Thousands invading Queen's Wharf bathed mixedIv iv her generously reflected radiance. The welkin was made to ring, and ring again, and yet again, and wbilo the hills were still making merry with the raucous echoes another voyage had l>egun. Everyone settled easily and contentedly into the 'suniptuousness of it all. Elderly ladies, recognising their bounden duty to become exquisitely miserable because at sea, stretched as uncomfortably as could bo contrived upon lounges, and sought uneasy for'getfulness f-hrouded with rugs and cloaks and other garniture common only on ship-boa rd. A self-possessed 'individual surged ostentatiously into the music-room; peered with critical sceptirhm 'among, tho vitals of the grand piano, subsided graciously upon the music-stool, and while a- largo red left hand tortured th© bass, a single arrogant finger of his right rapped out the insistent strains of " 'Neath the Shade of an. Old Apple Tree." The country holiday-maker who mistook tho snowy counterpane of his bunk for tho sheet, savagely vituperated tho company for its parsimony, and slept on top of his bedding with a short quilt, was there; as also wero the fussy elderly gentlemen who occupied the bathrooms for indeterminate periods. In thoso respects the voyage differed not on© whit from thousands of others taken by men and the sons of men all down the ages. As constituting a record passage, however, it was singular. Th© Maori " behaved perfectly in keeping with her enviable reputation, and discharged all till© obligations of her undertaking to tho furthest degree of pgiti'sfaetion of all. From Captain Manning (who had a.ssumed charge of tho vessel for the first time at Wellington; and was elated at tho conduct of his handsome charge) one learned that th© light southerly wind and northward set of the 6©a up the coast had been the only unfavourable factors in a record trip, the duration of which was exhibited by the following times:—B.2B p.m. clear of Wellington whnrf. 8.3-1 p.m. full speed, 8.55 p.m. reduced ..peed. 9 p.m. full speed, 9.3 p.m. Pencarrow light abeam, 10.45 p.m. Cap© Campbell abeam, 5.45 a.m. passed God ley Head.. 6.3 stop. Tim© from head to head 8 hours 51 minutes; time from "full speed" to "stop"' 9 hours 29 minutes; average I speed 18.5 knots. Tli© Maori has thus beaten the Mnheno's (previous record) time of 9 liours 50 minutes by 2l minutes, and H.M.S. Orlando's time of 9 hours 30 minutes from head to head, by 39 minutes. The achievement is ono upon which all concerned are to be congratulated, particularly as tho trip down from Wellington (owing to adverse currents) is never conducive to th© making of fast time. The Maori set out again last night under favourable nuspicef. upon an endeavour to still further reduce th© record.