Early Wellington

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

Early Wellington

For some years I have had in my possession a very interesting old book entitled “Views of Early Wellington." I do not know its date of publication, but judging by the type of advertisements on the back cover, I believe it to be very old.

Glancing through its pages, I see a group photograph of the Wellington Central Firii Brigade in 1867. In the background stands an ancient horsedrawn lire wagon with the brigade messenger boy perched upon the shafts. The captain of the brigade was the late Mr. Lewis Moss, a prominent man in old-time affairs and who owned a clothiers business on Lambton Quay. Some other members were Mr. Woolcott, Mr. F. Cohen, of Willis Street, and Mr. David Asher. Further on there is an early drawing of the Bank of New Zealand iu 1843. It is a small wooden building, and outside its timbered fence a regiment of English soldiers march back and forth, guarding the wealth of the young colony from lawless Maoris and whalers.

Another interesting old buildiug shown is the "Noah’s Ark,” Mr. Johu Plimmer’s eccentric structure which was built on the stranded hulk of the ship Inconstant. The Bank of New Zealand 'now occupies this site, and when the foundations were being prepared for this building the old "Noah’s Ark” timbers, still sound, were unearthed. There are also scenes of the unreclaimed waterfront, the bush-clad hills reaching down to the sea, the winding, unformed roads, and the swampy expanses of Te Aro, but limited space does not enable me to describe these fully.— -E.M.A. (Wellington).