OLD WELLINGTON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1912, Page 7

OLD WELLINGTON.

AND AN OLD FUND. A FORGETFUL GENERATION. While documents, drawings, plans, and other records of Wellington's early settlement) are being scattered or utterly lost, modern Wellington has a fund for their acquisition. It is a lazy fund. It lie* at ease in the Past Office Savings Bank and grows gradually with the passing of the years. Over twenty years a<*o this money — the surplus from the Wellington Jubilee (fiftieth, anniversary) — was to be like an electric current. It was to spaed hither and thither, gathering much, treasure of the old times. Everybody wished thai fund a brisk and happy mission, and everybody was prepared to applaud the prospective good rafeults. That spirit of enthusiasm was only spirit after all; it has vanished into thin air. In 189(1 th© fund was about £200. This capital was jealously guarded. It was hot/ spoiled by any expenditure on. the things for which it was voted. It has been earning monetary interest while City Councillors have been losing interest in the brave days of old. Thus by efnuxian of time old "Wellington ifi represented by a fund of over £4oO — and no Old Wellington. Nine months ago the apathy and neglect of two decades were revealed in The Post, and the local aujjioiities are still wondering what they should do or not do. CO-OPERATION. Since the existence of ■ this fund in a forgotten resting place was brought under public notice last year, the Government has been roused by th» great gift of the Culler collection of Maori relics. During last session the Government promised to not only work definitely with plans for a fire-proof National Musuem, but to exert iteelf to increase the store of records and memorials of old New Zealand, in which old Wellington is largely involved. Enquiries made by a representative -of The Poet among various people who have some regard for the work of this province.'^ fSundere have brought replies that the city should co-operate with the Government in an effort to have one 1 good, comprehensive collection. Thus the Wellington section in any national building oould be made admirably distinctive, something to thrill people, old and young. It is suggested that a joint committee should be appointed comprising representatives of the Government and' the municipality and two or three private enthusiasts, with knowledge and. energy as valuable helpmates. Such a committtee could obtain, some good advice from Christchurch and Dunedjn, where able and willing workers have done much, to make the present generation pleasantly appreciate the past. BY PROCLAMATION. Many of the things now desired may be scattered far and wide, and it may therefore be advisable to advertise in at least th© four centres. Such a course was taken in South Australia,, as the following advertisement in one of the Adelaide papers shows: — "The Board of Governors of the Public Library, Museum, and Art Gallery of South Australia cordially invitee persons who possess old and rare books, pamphlets,- manuscripts, maps, charts, natural history, specimens, meteorites, aboriginal weapons and remains, paintings, engravings, prints, china, porcelain, etc., to oiler such, articles as, gifts, on loan, or fpr sale, to b» exhibited in the national collections. The greatest care will be taken of ail such articles when lent, and their acquisition would naturally greatly enhance the value and the attractions of the national collections." At'present the Government has a mass of unclassified material, but .there is much for the Government yet to get. A LEADER WANTED." G6od work was done in Christchurch and DuDadin because- leadership was not lacking. Men arose prepared to toil, month after month, for the benefit of their generation- and posterity. They did not seek any reward except the satisfaction of seeing work well done. This comfort has come to them, for those of them who are alive to-day can, look upon monuments to their zeal on behalf of the public. An incident that brings most vividly hdme to our imaginations' the wonders of wireless telegraphy is that reported in connection /with the Maweon expedition (remarked the Sydney Telegraph on the 3rd inst.). That an operator should be able to sit in, one of the leading hotels in Sydney and • hold a. conversation with another operator 1800 milds away, at a' mid-station to the uttermost parts of the earth, is achievement enough, but the prospect that it opens up of instant communication between the civilised world and . a continent which has' been for countless centuries a terra incognita is almost too weirdly astonishing to be easily grasped by the mind, firom Antarctica we shall probably have the intrepid explorers ad viking us one of these" days that they are then about to make their dash for the South Pole, and who knows but that later may not come in the same way the tidings that that last great goal in exploration which the world has to offer has been won? The insouciant; annihilation of distance of which the wrrelesfl 1 operator is capable is graphically shown also by the fashion in which Mr. Farmer at , the Hotel Australia played eavesdropper to the conversation going *on between th« Mawson expedition official at Macquarie Island and the warship Encounter, then on the New Zealand coast. Aladdin's lamp vested in its possessor no power more Wonderful than that which a hearing «ar and a knoMt^edge of the wireless co3e give nowadays' td a man, associated with a Wireless Installation. An excellent report on main roads, policy has been submitted to the Victorian Cabinet by Mr. J. A. Norris, an officer of the Treasury. It is only advisory, but will probably be the basis of legislative action next year. Mr. Norris proposes ihe creation of a Central Board, which will map out the Voads of tljs_ State, deciding which are to be included in the special policy, and which are to be left to purely local control. T]io Central Board will further determine, in aggregate amounts, how much money should be contributed to the roads fund by the State, the municipalities, and private iand owners respectively. There may be some debate as to whether these last contributors should be included at all (remarks the Australasian) unless by the surrender of land, seeing* that their municipal rates will lay sufficient obligation upon them. Beneath the Central Board. Mr. Norris suggests district boftrds,_ to allocate liability within their respective districts. The report is very lucid and very practical, and we may say at pnee that it furnishes quite a workable scheme. An incidental function of the Central Board, namely, that of maintaining enquiry into the policy of road-construction elsewhere in thev/orld, oun;ht to have considerable value. The duty of the Ministry is now to take fchis matter very earnestly in hand, improving Mr. Norm's schemo where it can, but coming to Parliament very early in the next session with a statute to put its scheme into working order. la the recent election campaign, road-con-struction waa bracketed with railway construction as a very important part of Ministerial policy, and no time ought to be lost in fulfilling the, promise of energetic action.