FIFTY YEARS' SERVICE FOR THE COUNCIL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 46, 17 November 1917, Page 8

FIFTY YEARS' SERVICE FOR THE COUNCIL

MR.. JAMES AMES'S REMINISCENCES

MILESTONES OF CIVIC

.HISTORY

Although Mr. James Ames completed the fiftieth year of his connection with the municipality of Wellington on Thursday, it must not be understoodMhat he has spent tho whole of his working life ■ with the corporation. He was in Wellington in the 'CO's, when, having a good training in country life, he was offered the charge of a cattle station at Waitahuna, in Southland, by tho owner, Mr. .Tames Smith. After being there for over ' a year he came north again, and took up some road-making'contracts in Marl- \: borough. Whilst he was there the famous Gabriel's Gully gold rush took place, , and as soon as he cleared up his contracts he followed tho rest of Now Zealand to the little gully, which had been pretty well turned over by the time lie got there. Ho'bought into a sluicing ;. claim there, but it proved to be of little practical value. Then came Hartley and ■ Riley's find of the 801b. nugget, on the Molyneaux.'and, following tho gold trail, he went to the new field, and was working .there for. six months without sighting a grain of the precious m'etal. From • there he naturally gravitated to the Hog- • ben (Mount Ida) field (which took him five days to rench from the Molyneaux), and six months' later he participated in the Taieri rush, with/small fortune. One of our First Postmen. Mr. Ames then returned to Wellington. Being at tho end of his resources,' he then took a billet as. a letter-carrier for the Post Office, he and the late Mr. Eli ■ Buck, being, the two first Icttep-carrieis . in. Wellington.. The 6taff then consistedof Mr. Hoggard (postmaster), Mr. Robert Curtain (chief clerk), Mr. Edmund Cook (clerk), two letter-carriers, and a mes--1 ' senger. After he had been in the Postal employ for eighteen months, it was deV."eided to put the carriers into uniform, and- having some ideas opposed to that notion he resigned Tather than don the ' Postal livery. A little later (in 1876) the ; Town Board of Works advertised for a clerk and and out of fifty 1 applicants he was appointed to the posthe still has the letter confirming that appointment, signed by the chairman of ■ the board (the late Mr. James Drans-, field)—and took up his new duties on' November 15 of that rear. The board s 1 staff then consisted of Mr. John Rigg i (clerk), Mr. J. Ames , (clerk and rate- ; collector), Mr. N. Marchant (engineer, on half-time), and a messenger. Some three vears later tho Town Clerk retired, and Mr. Ames became Acting-Town • Clerk, rate-collector, and messenger (the latter official having been dismissed in a fit of'ill-considered economy). A little ■ later Mr. J. B. Hay ward was appointed Town Clerk, and on his leaving to take .np a Government billet Mr. William Hester was' appointed Town Clerk.. In 1876 the Rating Act, the Municipal Corporations Act, and, tho Local Elections 'Act' became law, and under their • pro- - visions v Mr. Ames became City Valuer and Chiof Returning Officer, positions ; that he has occunied with singular credit 'lip till tho present time. Mr. Hester ' was succeeded as Town Clerk by Mr. C. C. Graham, and after him Mr. T. F. : a Martin (who still practises the law in Wellington) was appointed Town Clerk and City Solicitor. His successor was the late Mr. J. E.I Page, and, on the '■' latter being appointed treasurer the pre- : sent Town Clerk (Mr. Jno. R. Palmer) took office.

Comparative Values. Without going into figures very closely, Mr! Ames inforraod a Dominion reporter, yesterday that.he, could not give exact comparative figures as to the value" of Wellington city, when he joined , the municipal service and to-day, owing' to the system of valuing having'changed from time to time, and to make it more difficult the area of the city had been increased on several occasions, notably •when the city took in the Melroso'borough and later Wadestown and Northland. The ■ system of rating in the J 7o'e was on tne 'annual value, and a record shows the ' value of Wellington in 1878 as ,£270,000. The present value (on the unimproved , system) is The annual value of the city to-day would bo 6 per cent. v~of. the amount of the unimproved value, ■ which gives' some idea of the groat growth of the city.

Big Chances Missed. .■ Mr. Ames relates in an interesting manner the gTeat opportunities which have been missed hy the Wellington- City Council from' time to time in_not taking advantage of tho presented to pnrcliaso blocks of land which to-day are of great value. In 1874 the w.hole of the isthmus between the. head waters, of Evans Bay and Lyall Bayover 200 acres—was offered to tho city for. the sum of .6200 by the Provincial Government—land probably worth over v 225,000 to-day. 'Mr. Borlase said he could not.see of what value to the city "a lot of sand hills" could be. It would probably surprise that estimable gentleman could he see the iiso that has since been made of thase sand-hills. Oniy ft few years ago, tho city had to pav Messrs. Crawford ■ somcthins like : .£3OOO to run the main city sewer through land that could have been bought for a son?. One'wise nct'was-the purchase in Mr. Dransfield's time of the whole of the reclaimed land between Grev Street an,d Warinsr Taylor Street for between ,£40.000 nnd .£50,000. About tho same time the Provincial Government offered to : sell to f'e city the new reclaimed land between Waring' Taylor Street north to Davis Rtreet (embodying the whole of the land now, occupied bv the Courts, Government Buildings, railway buildings, and the Lambton_ Station and yards) for the amount it cost tn reclaim. Mr. Dransfield and the council favoured the purchase which was urged by tlio Provincial Government (composed then of gentlemen interested in Wellington), and - a decision favourable to the purchase-was made. It only needed .confirmation to consummate the big deal, but the slip that sometimes comes between the cup and the lip occurred. This was a mayoral election, in -which the late Mr. W. Softon Moorhousc defeated Mr. Drausfield by two votes When the question of confirmation came before the council Mr. Moorhouse asked tho council to hold back, as he was a jriember of the Provincial Government and would use his best endeavour to get the' Government to donato the block to the city. Before that could be dono, however, the Provincial Government eame to an end, and when Sir George Grey, as the first Premier of the National Government, was consulted about • the block that far-seeing statesman emphatically opposed tho proposal, and said that it -was to bo retained by tho Goveernment. To judge of its value even in those dayspa portion of tho land—the six small blocks between Waring Taylor Street and Whitraoro Street (intersected by Stout, Ballance, and Magiiyiity Streets) was sold at auction by, Mr. R. CT. Duncan on February 4, 1879, and -realised the sum of ,£99,iii. Had Mr. Dransfield been elected, Mr. Ames is confident that the city •would have been enriched by the great block of land between Lambton and Thorndbn Quays (on the west) and iWaterloo Quay (on the cast). The loss of the Miramnr estate is now ftn old story, but that was not tho fault of thei then Mayor (Hon. J. G. W. lAitken) or the council, as many people • Tho whole peninsula, save flio ■Defence R-eserves, was offered to tho city by the Crawfords for .£75.000, and Mr. 'Aitken went over the land with Mr, Ames, and anproved tho purchase, but Parliament (in Mr. Scrldon's regime) threw out the Empowering Bill, and that preat natural adjunct to n -fast-growing citv and port was lost to Wellington. . Mr. Ames' has received felicitation" from all quarters on Hip allniuinent of his jubilee of service with the city.