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Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 92, 12 January 1929, Page 28

Apropos the barque Olivebank taking away a goodly portion of New Zealand as ballast, it is interesting to know that a fair-sized chunk of Auckland is foreign soil (says a correspondent of the “Star”). In 1843 the ship Casaline discharged over 600 tons of South African rock into the harbour near to where the Imperial Hotel now stands. The Bengal, from Calcutta, drove the schnapper far down the harbour when she dumped 500 tons of Hooghly mud on to the foreshore in 1845. The barque Ladyburn, from Hankow, emptied her ballast of rich China soil to fill up the mud flats nt the bottom of Queen Street, where the Ligar Canal entered the harbour. The shore end of the old wooden Queen Street wharf was formed with shingle from 110-Uo. in the Philippines, brought here in 1847 by the ship Dawn of Day. The roadway leading to the old market site (now known to the world ns the Civic Square) was made with the ballast of the barque Dovenby. obtained from the beach at Fremantle, West Australia.