CHANGING SKYLINE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 1, 26 September 1939, Page 5

CHANGING SKYLINE

Structures On Wellington Hill-Crests

For over half a century the only structural object which broke the skyline of the hills which surround Wellington city was the harbour board’s flagstaff on Mount Victoria. While the look-out at the flagstaff still performs the duty of signalling the pending arrival of vessels, the use of the station has been rendered less material to the conduct of maritime affairs by the advent of wireless telegraphy, by which means all ships may announce the approximate time of their arrival long before they are sighted. The flagstaff is not now by any means the sole structure silhouetted against the sky. Not far away are the broadcasting building and masts on Mount Victoria, and a service reservoir to provide the water supply of upper Roseneath residents.

The wireless station on the Tinakori range is a prominent feature of the western skyline. ■ Improvement in the equipment has been made recently and new aerial masts now cleave the air along the ridge. These masts are coloured red and black, in bands, to render them more readily’ visible to aviators who might be inclined to skim the home ridges at a low altitude.

The latest structure to cut a new shape into the eastern rim, immediately’to the south of the broadcasting station masts, is the Wellington Centennial Look-out, now practically completed. This is a concrete and stone structure, facing northward, which is to serve as a place where people may observe in some degree of comfort the beauties and extent of the city, harbour and their environs. When it is called the "Wellington” Look-out , it fulfils a double function. The city was named after the famous military leader and statesman, yet up to the present it has done nothing much to perpetuate his memory, save for the naming of a few of the terraced streets after his battles, and a social club by his family name. This occurred to the town clerk, Mr. E. P. Norman, as something lacking. Being an enthusiastic admirer of the Iron Duke, he advocated a halting-place on the hill-top as a memorial to him, and, gaining approval for his idea, he left no stone unturned to make it a success. Some of the stones he turned were secured from the old Waterloo Bridge over the Thames in London, a bridge that was formally declared open by the late Duke of Wellington. These old stones now form the breastwork of the look-out on Mt. Victoria. The lookout will be finished next month, in ample time for the commencement of the Centennial celebrations.