MOUNT COOK

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 125, 29 May 1928, Page 10

MOUNT COOK

THE PRISON' BUILDING t PLANS, OF THE 'SEVENTHS A LITTLE HISTORY i. . Considering the number of years that Wellington people have had the Mount Cook gaol before them, it is remarkable how little is generally known of that great pile of brickwork, when it was built, and why, what was it used for, and particularly-* why it was built p with its twin towers, obviously decorative towers—perhaps "garnishiugs" will do—facing south, away from the city. And that is as it should be: the building is a gaol building, and the less the general public knows of gaols . (first-hand) the better for the public. Mount Cook was there long .before a gaol was built, a more imposing hill than now by about forty, feet, for the top has been cut down and cut down year after year in brick-making, to be piled up again in the gaol building, but that, is going ahead too fast. Mount Cook lias always been an im- k portant site, either in fact, or, lately, in great possibilities, and in the early : days of Wellington it. was a mightily important place to the immigrant who arrived after a drearily long sea voyage at a town which, because it was still small , and very struggling,' had not much to offer. Upon the hill the '• old Provincial Government' erected immigration barracks, and through .them passed probably most 'of those who gave Wellington and the country up the Hutt Valley and the real outbacks over the hills—a pleasant hour's car .run now—their real start. There is a . story in those old barracks if one could know where to find old files and re- ' cords. LET'S BUILD A GAOL! As the town grew and the need for • temporary accommodation for newcomers became less urgent, the Government : sought for a use for the site,' which was . recognised as too valuable to be left to casual purposes. Many possibilities were in. the hill, and in the 'seventies the one possibility that has since been most regretted was suggested, and seized on, and a start was made. The ideal place for a prison, a gaol, on a hill, . handy to everywhere, in the very centre of Now Zealand! Let's build a good one! No serious steps were taken until after the disbanding of the Provincial . and the establishment of ; the General Government, but then a beginning was made with the erection ■ of a side gaol, on the western slope of the hill, with workshops and so on, so that the prisoners might be.quartered on the spot while; carrying out ■ building operations. This small side gaol could not accommodate all the men required for a job of the magnitude planned for Mount Cook, and so Wellington was treated daily to the sight of a prison gang, some prisoners wearing chains and shackles, and all the glaring broad arrow, marching to Mount Cook from The Terrace prison and back again at night. It was at this time that the brow of the hill commenced to be lowered; bricks was the word, hundreds of thousands of them. A great kiln was built of the bricks from ' ■ a baby kiln on the hill, and it was more bricks, more bricks and more bricks. Many thousands "also were kilned to fill city orders—there are many buildings in Wellington built of bricks branded with the broad arrow—but the main kilning was for the gaol to be, for this was to be '.'some gaol," "the biggest gaol in tlfe English language," : a central prison for the whole colony. Millions, not thousands, of bricks were needed. . ■ • ONE WING OUT OF EIGHT. . The gaol building as it stands today, as the Alexandra Barracks, is only part of the gaol at planned. It figured on the plans as but one of the smaller of eight wings. This, is the apparent aberration of the architects in placing the ornamental towers ' farthest from the .city satisfactorily,, explained. It was to be the south wing, which was to join a great cen-'. tral, dome-capped circular tower, from which would radiate three additional wings, one to the south-east, one to the south-west, and one to'the north. Two longer wings, running east and west, and forming the bar of a "T" to the northern wing, were to complete the gaol buildings, at any rate for as long as that accommodation met requirements. In that huge eight-wing-ed building were to be housed every -department of the prison" works and the offices of administration for the colony. The idea of a central gaol for New would not be entertained for a moment nowadays, but then ideas we're different. The gaol then was a gaol, bricks, bars, and indoor industries, oakum picking, bootniaking, mat making—and bricks, of course; the prison farm or the tree planting camp was not then considered feasibie, though quarrying and stone-working— and more- brackmlaldng—were high in the list of gaol industries. It is said that over four million bricks went into the building of thesouth wing and the unfinished foundations of the- east and west wings,' enough for many'buildings, but those were days of plenty—of time. In-, eluded in the plans for the great eightwinger gaol was provision for a flight of one hundred steps* up to the main. entrance, and the grounds and terraces wore to be laid out in shrubberies and garden plots. At least that plan will be carried but, and probably .also there' will be laid down a broad flight of steps leading to the terrace above, crowned by the city's most splendid' block of buildings—the National Memorial, the Museum and Art Gallery, and the Carillon tower. The gaol building must go.1 ' ■