AS OTHERS SEE US.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 24, 27 July 1907, Page 5

AS OTHERS SEE US.

WELLINGTON: A RAPID CITY. BUSY BUT INTERESTING. AN OUTSIDER'S IMPRESSIONS. [By "A Sydney-Sider.] There is a desperately businesslike -Atmosphere abouc Wellington, a certain utilitarian frigidity which must effectually scars away any idle and imaginative soul that happens to drift here." Thap is how I account for the dsplorablo lack of such souls astray in this locality. For myself, it has made me almost afraid to go out' of a morning ; and \yheu at last I do creep out, I contrive to lock^ as businesslike as possible, lest I incur tho reproach of serious citizens, or the frowning stucco-fronted warehouses fal\< on me, as bsing a. vagrant, an idle, arid^ no doubt disorderly person. "At sucli times, I endeavour to console myself with the Slevensonian utterance,- that" "extreme busyness, whether at school, collego, kirk, or markot, is a symptom" of deficient vitality; a:id a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite ancL. a strong ssnse of personal identity.'* Though, somehow, tho statement rings' like false coinage in this workaday cifcy* — alien coinage possibly. This ctern influence is> Telfc vaguely ofr the harbour entrance, and gains in intensity each moment, as tho ship driftanearer the wharvos. The inspection J\y' tlie Health Officer startles one by the as-, toundiug eslerity with which rt is Rot through. He looks at ,i passenger, this Health Officer, askn hir> name, and, dismisses Jim. An awfi.l foreboding settles mi the soul. f-iurcly\ if the folk of Wellington ara all r.r, rapid as that., th&e can be little time bit for mere purposes of living i ii. THE CUT. ; ' ; i _ However, I was not r»o depressed on that morning of arrivrl as not to appr.eeiats tho ljrq? and pic-tnresquc appeaVano? of th- city, swathed as it was in i a mist c.l irviiJcscoat ptzvl. toned'lo- a goldon brown whr>?c Uio fdctory-chim- | neys drifted their inc^ino to the lords of r.weai nud sto-1. And Uireugh tho mist | s,lione tho cunlii.ht, brilliant and colci.~ | \Vel!::i Bto-i B to-i k; all buoy, but the I v.-hsrvee ftio fhci react obviously busy corner of it. Wide r.nd solid and manytuny sre. as befits o- cily go desperately mescantila, wharvrr. ?il cluctored with carts and bales and baggage, crowded with men lumb?iimr h»avy trollies laden wuh iron and spico :ukl everything; that 3 incongruous and marketable. These wharves :<re girt with so much snipping ihat o;ia is inclined to* ihir-tc tnat all tho navies of ths world trade hero; and tho ln:go, inaiunorablo cranes suggest that thr shies come 'because "of special facilities offering in tho way of shifting cargo. Exactly wliy iho wharves should be fo:iced-off with those iormidnbid, though decorative, iron palioadings and gates, I have not yet discovored. Still, they assist in. giving tha city an air of austere activity, or active austsrity, or something. # It is surprising to find so few people in the streets after 0 a.m. Ono learns afterwards that the folk are all immured m thosn tall "warehouses and broad, shops, toiling, despsrately, until, at-12 or maybe 1 o'clock, a lenient cfeskmaster lots them loose for an hour that they may eat. J At that hour, the streets are narrow tideways filled with a surging flow of hungry humanity ; but from 2t05 p m the thoroughfares -are again quiet, save tor the rattling wagons and a few strolling women. You may, indeed, see an occasional man ; but he is always walk.ittg rapidly, with .1 fixed look, in the direction of immediate- business. Ths trarocai-3, however, never cease. All through tho day they shriek hurriedly up and down. High and narrow, they suggest that they have been cauglit and squeezed in the pressure of titna a,nd circumstance ; and I think that tho reason of their whizzing so energetically ompty down the ways is that the C}ty Fathers cause them to do so as an example and a reproof to auch as I. Even the conductors have this obsession of hate — a foolish effeetation of energy ; they are always telling me to "hurry on." I never hurry. • ARCHITECTURAL SIATTERS. " Leisure is essential to well-being, and well-being stimulates a kindly interest in all things. I have but lately made a cursory study of Wellington's architecture, which- 1 find interesiinfr as an example of what can be done with brick and stucco. It alto sets me wondering Srhat will happen when a particularly largesized shake cemes along. A couple- of the larger buildings a?<r, I believe, built of steel and coneiete, but for the allbrick — their existence is precarious; • There is wnrfaie between the residential and tbo business places, it seems. Gradually the shops and offices usurp tho level places, while the houses are being rapidly forced over the lulls It is necessary, and if the residences on tbo hills b» well designed, and the city buildings imposing- (imposition is al( one expect! in a city), the offect will bo splendid. Wellington has wonderful opportunities in those hills. Tho rapid improvement in architecture is shown in thegiadation of the buildings. The big &i^ and seven story buildinjjs thrust themselves up from the midst of the two and three story structures of a* f-2w years ago, while the shabby and' dejected -looking fianie buildings crouch here and theio as if conscious of tho swift approach of t'«mo!ition. Wellington must, becauso of its limited business area, become a city of skyscrapers. Here there is an Art Gallery containing a handful of pictures; some, of them good, but a handful, and in a shabby, dim-lit shanty in a back street ! And open twice v.oe&ly! What a comment on Wellington's atfitude towards Art ! The Technical School dcseives commendation, however. The various, departments, from engineering to millinery, ais thoroughly up-to-date, and show good work. While in tho art department I was surprised at the excellent quality of the decorative aud applied-art work produced. The students of paint aro tho least satisfactory. The beauty of this city is accidental. Artists are "also accidents. The other morning I got some wav out of the maleficent influence of turmoil andtramears, and strolled up Sydney -street. Ii was a slurp, tingling morning, suffi'.sed with a delicate haze. I made observations of the Parliamentary Buildings. Such an atmosphere suits them. They look venerable and benicn. The quaint wooden Gothic • portion ~ seems a. survival of ancknt deliberation and quietude. But, alas ! that stucco Gothic wing is a self-sufficient nobody, a purseproud bourgeois, insolently shouldderiug d decayed and courteous aristocrat oxit of the prospect. When a building suggests all that to one, it can't be commonplace. ABOUT THE PARKS. I continued on to the liptonical Gardens, and found them .boautiful even in winter. They have an ah of natural wUdness, .And if one wearies of partly cultivated plots, one has but to walk a fow yards farther on to be in tho heart of an immemorial pine forest, wfceToip thsre seom to lie a thousand chances of coming upon an enchanted princess or of meeting a witch brewing, her complex eimples. But the only person I »oi was a . gardener. The fences round the-gard«n» are b«d

The 'fence's ground all Wellington's public grounds are mqnstTosities. Newtown Park, for instance (another domain of immemorial pine ""trees and unbroken tqlitude), has dilapidated split-palings or wire round tho most of it ; and the Basin Reserve fence is shocking. I give the City Council the bonefit of the- suggestion thai all these shabby wooden abominations b? pulled down, and a brick coping about eighteen inches' high be built round. Any way, the fence is an idiotic survival of feudal rcssKrainJ;. „ -"THE- BATTLE OP THE CARS. I think that the most gorgeous delight to be experienced in this city by tho stranger is tho Battle of the Cars. 1 am told that this frantic civil (or rather uncivil) war between the citizens, begins daily at 7 a.m. lam i never up at such an unreasonable hour, but, with intense excitement, I have watched the battle raging frantic at 5.5 p.m., and I have observed the slight guerilla- skirmishing carried on at odd thties'Jthrough the • day. Truly desperate onsets t are made between noon and., 2'pliii. ; ,but nothing can compare ,w£th .the! battle, 0f '5.5. .•Tp see,it"atits fiercest, a rainy evening should be ichossn. Any central stopping-pl-ice will do ; but I would advise the corner of Willis and Mannersstreets. At this corner tho spectacle is terrific. A car approaches swiftly. Before it can pull up, wild-eyed men rush in to board it. Clinging ferociously to every foot-and-hand-hold, they surround it with a clamorous fierce assault . The doors are ripped open with shrieks of r definance. r lhe attackers crowd aboard,- gasping, struggling, making* horrific noises. The car is filled to suffocation. Ladies' skirts are wrenched awujj; >jindj ladies' shoes arc trampled underfdb&/.1 '.But! still £urious | men besiege tttb"caJ l ',,hurling thenfselves i upon it with—an energy born of desperation. . Woe to the weakling! Woo to the halt and the .maimed ! Hero is the tragedy of tho struggle for existence- displayed in its elemental brutality. The carnage is unimaginable. Only the strong Survivei Cutlass in hand — But no, I am carried away by the dramatic intensity of this daily episode. It scarcely comes to cutlasses ; but almost. And it is, for all its blood and -tears, an encouraging sight. It gives .one great hopes for the future of a race that can show such indomitable courage and virility. Yes, Wellington is a busy place, where even the ferry-boats cultivate a fussy pretence of baing liners, and the people have hardly time to smile. But it is* interesting.