HISTORICAL TIMBER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 54, 5 March 1927, Page 11

HISTORICAL TIMBER

HARBOUR BOARD'S PRESENTATION CASKET

HOW IT CAME FROM FOXTON

An interesting relic of early Wellington is embodied in the casket'containing the Wellington Harbour Board's illuminated address to Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York, The wood of whicl. the casket is made -was recently "retired" after serving for over sixty years in one of the original piles of th*. Queen's Wharf. The man probably most intimately acquainted with the early history of the piles is Mr..W, J. Staff, of Lower Hutt.

As a youth in his "teens, Mr. Staff told a-"Post" representative, he was at Foxton in the late 'fifties with his stepfather, a builder and shipwright, when a. brig arrived to take on" board the piles which thov had. elped to cut and shape for Wellington's first deepwater wharf—the nucleus of the present Queen's Wharf. , Foxton at that time was extremely isolated, as the only connection with Wellington, other than by water, was along the beach to Paekakariki! and thence by road. The land on, which the totara trees grew was in the hands of the Maoris, but no trouble was experienced with the Natives, although', in the vicinity a renegado white was training a thousand tattooed warriors to carry out his expressed intention of driving the handful ofj'Europeans into the sea. It was intended that the brig should i proceed up the Oroua -River to pick up the piles, which were lying on the banks of the stream, but it was found that there was not sufficient water for the boat' to sail more than a mile upstream, while a further'difficulty arose when it was discovered that with her cargo aboard, she would not bo able to cross the bar at the mouth of the river. "Consequently it was necessary for the piles to be made into rafts and floated out to the vessel, into which they liad then to bo hoisted. The work was further complicated- when tne • heavy seas caused many of the piles to break loose and drift out to sea. One can imagine that if.would be no easy matter for the crew, with their comparatively primitive hoisting apparatus, to lift' into the boat the heavy wharf piles. However, the piles, were at length, safely transported.'to their dcstintaion, where the first was driven on Ist April, 1802. The durability of the wood was revealed when, in 3924, tho timbers wore removed and found to be still in perfect condition. '■'.•-; •Another interesting point in connection with these piles is that within a year or two of the-completion of the wharf K"ew Zealand was honoured by its first Royal visit. In 1869, the Duke of Edinburgh, second son of tho late Queen Victoria, arrived in Wellington in command of H.M.S. Galater,. The difference between New Zealand then and now can be likened to the difference between H.M.S. Galatea and H.M.&.. Renown.