FIFTY YEARS' PROGRESS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 32, 8 February 1915, Page 23

FIFTY YEARS' PROGRESS

SELECTING THE CAPITAL OF NEW ZEALAND « SUPREMA A SITU " In recalling " Recollections of The Post and the Past," Sir Robert Stout writes interestingly on the altered conditions at the present day as compared with those of fifty years ago. " The amenities of life," says the writer, " have entirely changed; even the mode of travelling ha 3 been revolutionised. The roads then were tracks. A very observant traveller in the early days was struck on landing in New Zealand by the fact that both Europeans and Maoris generally walked in single file. He coulcf not understand such a procedure, until it was explained to him that in the North Island, as the roads were tracks through the bush, there was no room for walking two abreast, in comparing the products, the population, and the accumulations of wealth year by year since 1840, it will be seen that there has been a continual increase of prosperity and of development in all directions. THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. " In 1861 a great impetus was given to New Zealand by the discovery of gold in the Tuapeka district of Otago. Gabriel's Gully attracted thousandß of people to southern New Zealand. _It caused not only a steady Btream of immigration, but ifc also helped to bring into prominence the name of New Zealand in Europe and America. Thousands of Australians crossed the Tasman Sea ; many settlers came from Europe, and even America gave us her quota of emigrants. Both 1862 and 1863 witnessed a steady increase of population. The census taken in, December, 1864, showed that we had in the colony, without counting the aboriginal inhabitants, 172,158 people. Of these, 106,580 were males and 65,678 females. Many young men had come, not to settle but to earn their fortune and then depart. The earlier emigrants were settlers, 3tirred with the enthusiasm that they were to be pioneers of a new nation, and that New Zealand was to be for over their earthly home. We may note the contrast in the relative number of the sexes in 1864 and in December, 1913. hi 1913 the population, excluding Maoris, was 1,054,662,' of these 569,109 were male 3 and 515,583 were females. To make the comparison, a centesimal one, we had in 1865 about 61 per cent, males and 39 per cent, females, whilst in 1913 about 52 per cent, were males and 48 per cent, females. In Dunedin in 1864 old people were few. The peoplo were young, vigorous, buoyant, filled with dreams of the glorious future, and full of the joy of life. The world was young, and pessimism was unknown. Everyone said and felt that the country was going ahead by leaps and bounds. THE "PIPPINS AND CHEESE HAD COME." " The Australian colonies had had strenuous times iv the early forties, and even in New Zealand at that period the outlook wa3 not too bright, but after the ' diggings ' all seemed fair and shining. The prices of commodities were high, and land had risen in value. The people acted as if they felt as an early settler had predicted : that ' Pippins and cheese had come.' This hopefulness was exemplified in Dunedin in 1864 by the promotion of a New Zealand Exhibition, which _ was to open in 1865, with exhibits which had been promised from jvariou* countries abroad; even India was to send a noted exhibit. A site five acres in extent, with four street frontages — namely, King, Cumberland, i Frederick, and Hanover streets — had been selected. A large brick building was ia course of erection, and, under the able guidance of Dr. (afterwards Sir James) Hector, aided by Dr. Eccles and other scientists, the exhibition was to be not a mere shcny-place, but useful from a scientific point of view. The record of that exhibition in some respectfl has not been excelled by any exhibition that has since been held in New Zealand. The public men of the North helped in every way possible to make it a success, and water-colour sketches from Fox, Bell. J. C. Richmond, and^ others were contributed to its miniature art gallery. "This progress in the South reacted on the North, and stirred many places to more active life. A new population had come to New Zealand, though the Parliament was not speedy in giving the newcomers Parliamentary representation. Pome, whose vision of the future was limited, thought it was unnecessary to do so, ag they expected that the goldseekers would have departed from New Zealan-1 in eighteen months. They did not understand that even gold miners might become settlers and become attached to t!i" soil. "The capital of New Zealand being in the far North, access to it was difliculfc by the mass of the population. The steamers plying on the coast were few, small, and not particularly well suited for passenger traffic. The voyage fiom Otago to Auckland wus rarely accomplished under a week. Was the capital always to be on tho shores of the Waitemata Harbour? was the question that was put more than once amongst tho Otago politicians. Perhaps the fact that many Auckland representatives opposed any increase of Southern representation made this question of the site of a capital of great importance. Motions were made in the House of Representatives for a change of site, but these failed. Mr. Domett (our great poet), who was a member from the Nelson district, was, however, successful in getting the House of Representatives to approve of the appointment of an impartial commission of Australian public mea to select a site on Cook Strait for the capital of New Zealand. _In 1864 they recommended that Wellington should be chosen, and this led to the shifting of tho seat of Government from Auckland to the shores of Port Nicholson. • It was asked what was to be the effect, so far as Wellington was concerned, of this new move. Very few believed that Auckland would bo affected. How could ' windy Wellington,' it was asked by some journalibts, ever displace the New Zealand Corinth, so pleasantly situated on the shores of Waitemata, with its beautiful islands in the distance? Wellington was sneered at as a mere fishing village, and its future was discounted. There were somo of the leading colonists, howe\er, that had a more accurate conception of the capacities of Wellington. Sir William Fitzherbert told his fellow-settlers that Wellington was the ' corner section ' of New Zealand, and it was perhaps from this utterance that its motto, ' Suprema a situ ' was derived.

" We see by the census return that there is one pig more in Wellington than in Auckland. In the former province the number of pigs is 13.073, while in the latter there are only 13.072. We are not informed whether the pig which constitutes this excess in favour of Wellington is a porker or brood sow, but we are sorry to see that Auckland allows Wellington to go ahead of her, even to the amount of a sticking \ng. We strongly suspect that there is some chicanery of tho Weld Ministry at the bottom of this, for it could never have happened by fair means. Wo know how unscrupulous that Ministry is, and wo believe it would not have the lf>ast scruple to ' go the whole hog' in favour of Wellington." — A paragraph from the New Zealancler (Auckland), leprintecl in the Evaauuj Post, lOtk June, 1865.