ONLY ONE STREET

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 49, 21 November 1932, Page 11

ONLY ONE STREET

Early Wellington Days VETERAN’S MEMORIES Mr. Alfred Spackman, Otaki "I can remember Wellington when it had only out street, and that was where Manners Street and Courtenay Place now are. The buildings were all on one side and there was water on the other.” This was one of the many interesting reminiscences told by Mr. Alfred Spackman, of Mill Road, Otaki, when interviewed by “The Dominion” recently. < Mr. Spackman, who is in his eightythird year, was born at Stokes Valley on August 6, 1850. His father, Mr. George Spackman, came to New Zealand from England in the early ’forties and was engaged in the timber business at Sliverstream for many years. Mr. Spackman, with his five brothers, worked at carting the timber from his father’s mill into Wellington. Mr. Spackman spoke of the days when they used to float the logs in the water on the site of the present Lambton station. The timber for the first two tees of the Queen’s Wharf ivas supplied by Mr. Spackman, as also were the poles for the telegraph line from Lyall Bay to Castlepoint. Timber for the railway from Pipltea Point to Petone was also carted by Mr. Spackman, some 12,500 sleepers being ob tained from Otaki.

Speaking of the roads in the early days, Mr. Spackman said: “I have known the time when we could not get from Ngahauranga to Petone. The sea used to come right up to the cliff

and sweep over the road in rough weather. I'have seen as many as 27 wagons held up at Petone for three days. That was in the days when there was' only one house, belonging to a Maori chief, at Petone, and the site of the Petone railway station was a swamp.” Before he was 16 Mr. Spackman was driving a five-horse team. He has vivid memories of carting the largest spar ever taken through the Hutt gorges. It was a 95-foot mainmast for a sailing ship and had been cut out at what was known as the “Maori bank.” It was heart of red pine, which had been trimmed for cartage by two ship’s ’carpenters. Before he came to New Zealand Mr. Spackman’s father bought his land from the New Zealand Company in London, being allotted 25 acres on the present site of the Basin Reserve, which was then a swamp. He sold it at. the price which he paid for it, and later on an earthquake lifted it and it. was drained by a Chinese. It w T as then that Mr. Spackman, sen., moved out. to Siiverstream. The reclamation of the laud on which the Post Office now stands is well remembered by Mr. Spackman, also the time when'Adelaide Road was a swamp. “I can remember when there was no money in Wellington and you were given scrip to go to the merchants for goods until a ship arrived with money from England.” Of late Dlr. Spackman has suffered from poor health and has not done any active work for about 10 years. For 35 years he worked for various farmers.. in Otaki, and is now one of the town’s oldest inhabitants.