IN DAYS OF OLD.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 116, 18 May 1910, Page 8

IN DAYS OF OLD.

BY BARRETT'S. HANDS ACROSS A GAP. MR. T. M'KENZIE AND A MODERN INCIDENT. Years pass, and the present father of Wellington, Mr. T. W. M'Kenzie, loses some of his grip of the decades that have gone. His memory is a wonderful dwell-ing-place of names end scenes forgotten of to-day's generation, and now, when half a century and more separates him from the vistas of the lon<?-vanishe<l past he reproduces them with amazing freshness. He brings a remote ves'erday into to day with a vividness which compels wonder. Yesterday there was a collapse of a building at the back of Barrett's Hotel. That incident touches a past of which Mr. M'Eenzie is a veiv interesting exponent. It is neon onihe 18th May, 1910, but when he speaks the electric cars vanish, and the soldiers file with fixed bayonets past Clay i'oint (now Stewart Dawson's Corner.). BRICKS TO JEWELLE'.RY In the forties and fifties Clay Point was in the teeth of the wind, and the wind loved to bite. The wild northerly howled around that bleak promontory by the che2rless fei. Sometimes it was totally impossible for ladies to work a passage round that forbidding headland ; it was the day of crinolines. The- first notable use of the land lying from the Dawson Corner towards Plimmer's Steps was by a Mr. Millar. He had a brickfield there, and made some playthings for the great earth quafto of '55T The bricks were .ill right; the "cement" was the culprit. The bricks were stuck together with moist clay or a mixture of clay and hand, and they gaily parted company at the jovial earthquake's command. A NOTABLE "SLUMP." In time, the brick works, which were in a very exposed position, had to shift, but before they departed they had done some valuable clearing work along the front of the hills. The present site of Barrett's Hotel was secured by the Oddfellows, and arrangements were well advanced for the erection of a wooden building. Then came the 'great Californian gold rush, prior to the earthquake. The fever of the gold quest spread through Wellington, and there was a stampede. It looked as if Port Nicholson was to be tot-ally deserted. The Pacific was dotted with vessels carrying excited fortune-hunters to California, and Wellington, proportionately, was very well represented in the rush. The timber for the OddfellowHall was ready for shipment in the North, but the authorities feared that California might clean .out Wellington's brotherhood. Hence the timber was sold to Mr. Revans (after whom Revansstreet was named). He had high hopes and brave. He saw that wood changed to gold. He chartered the barque Thames and ran that timber to California. He carried coals to Newcastle wood to a lumber country. His pocket suffered sadly. Other hopeful Wellingtonians were also cha-grined. One sent a cargo of potatoes and cheese. At the end of the voyage it cost him a few pounds to get the goods decently interred. They were decayed. JOHN. PLIMMER'S OPPORTUNITY. John Plinuner (Mr. M'Kenzie's predecessor as Wellington's father) had confidence- in Wellington. He did not believe that all the people would bolt, and he certainly did not believe that the land would depart. He bought in, and was happy. He secured a good strip, reaching from Plimmer's Steps towards Dawson's corner. In his quaint way. too, he bought a stranded ship, on the site of the pre-vent Bank of New Zealand. The lower part of this vessel was used as a bonded store, and the j upper part was fitted up for offices. ' Barrett's Hotel cams after the earthquake of '55. The original "Barrett's" was on the site of the present Hotel Cecil (opposite the Government Printing Office), and it was rudely treated by the earthquake. The licensee, Mr. Suisted, got permission to transfer his license to new territory, and arrangements were made with Mr. Plimmer for a building on the ground now occupied by the present hotel. TnE ORIGINAL BARRETT'S. The original Barrett's Hotel of Wei- j lingkm was first set up in London, but was taken down before any beer, ehort or long, passed across the bar. In fact, there was no bar in the structure. It was designed to be a private dwellingplace in Wellington for Dr. Evans (doctor of laws) — commemorated in Evans Bay — a hignly-e6teemed colleague of Colonel Wakefield, and subsequently hi 3 successor in ruling the new settlement. The building consisted of pasily adjuf-t-aWe numbered pieces, which were" experimentally and succtfcsfully put together in » the London Docks prior to shipment to Wellington. 'DICKY" BARRETT. Mr. Barrett's front name may have been Richard, but he was> always known as "Dicky" Barrett. He was a .whaler, and lie made money out- of the "whales. He had an opportunity to buy the pieces of house which Dr. Evans brought out, and he put- them up near the corner of Charlotte-street and Lambton-quay. He named the institution Barrett's Hotel, but did not become a publican himself. He let the hotel to a licensee. This same "Dicky" Barrett has a gun named after him in the New Plymouth Domain. Ho wa& up in that district at a time when the Waikato Maorib surged down to slay the Ngatiawas. But the invaders had to reckon with a man and a gim— Barrett and a big pounder. His sympathies were with the Ngatiawas, and he knew how to use the gun. "He peppered the Waikatos," said Mr. M'Kenzie. Flowers smile in a wonderful garden near that grim, grinning gun to-day. Men began sixty years ago to hew at the hill at the back of Barrett's Hotel. Mr. John Plimmer's sons assisted after the brick field had been abandoned. "They did a double improvement. They hacked away at the hilly background of the Plimmer estate on the west side of the Suay, and used the spoil to drive back ie sea by -'Noah's Ark" (the stranded ship). Mr. John Plimmer negotiated with, the owners of the old Mechanics' Institute for land to either make or enlarge the right-of-way known as Plim-mer's-steps, by Barrett's Hotel. Considerable interest is being taken in the Windsor billiard saloon in Willisstreet, which is to be opened this evening under the management of Mr. W. Lavery, formerly of Christchurch. It contains no fewer than eleven of Alcock's tables, with the latest and most up-to-date description of accessories., while the- lighting is really excellent, and there is plenty of "elbow room" between , the tables. The room is warmed by means of 'electric radiators, and the seating accommodation is ample and comfortable. A reading-room will be provided, and a system of coupons is to be inaugurated under which regular customers will be able to acquire a first-class cue. Laat night the saloon was visited by largo crowds of people.