FORMER MAYOR

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 246, 14 September 1935, Page 2

FORMER MAYOR

FINDS CHANGED CITY.

OLD DAYS KECALLED.

Formerly Mayor of Palmerston North lor seven years and member of the House of Representatives for six years, Mr AV. T. Wood, who founded many public utilities at this centre and was associated with every progressive movement in the early days, yesterday had his first glimpses of Palmerston North for sixteen years. He found it greatly' changed from the times when he first came here in March . of 1879 to a settlement with a population of some 800 people, but, as he informed a “Standard' 1 representative he still regarded it as home, having been forced for health reasons, to live in the warmer climate of Sydney, where he now resides. Mr Wood is spending six weeks in New Zealand, and-is staying in Wellington with j his son, Mr H. F. Wood, the well-J known singer and racehorse owner. He made a brief round of the business area yesterday, but will later visit Palmerston North again to renew otd acquaintanceships. “Hie improvement and alteration of the business area since 1 knew it is beyond my comprehension,” Mr Wood commented. “I have not been able, in the first glance, really to identify any of the old landmarks. Everything has to the modern and up-to-date. When I first came here there were only three or four shops from where the P.D.C. is now to the Post Office, in front of which stood the railway engine sheds and water tanks. I have been wonderfully impressed with the growth of the residential area.” Mr Wood added that he used to shoot pigeons in the now practically dry creek running from Te Awe Awe Street to Park Road, and there was only' a small road then to the old litzherbert bridge. He intended to inspect the fine new bridge. There were no buildings round the Showgrounds in his early days, said Mr Wood, who is a past president of the A. and P. Association. He remembered the public cemetery being moved from that site to Terrace End. He was May'or when the old Fitzherbert bridge .was Repaired after nearly half of it had been carried away in a big flood, and he officially opened the Awapuni racecourse. It was Mrs Wood, then Mayoress, who raised funds by collections and organising functions for the erection of the Old People’s Home, and both were present at the opening of this institution. During the time he represented Palmerston North in Parliament, said Mr AVood, he prevailed upon the late - Sir Joseph Ward to build the main Post' Office block. The money for the town clock and chimes, which cost about £3oo, was collected by Ml's Wood, and they were christened Kerei Te Panau, after the last chief of the Rangitane tribe, who gave to the Government the original section of land on which the Post Office now stands. A grandson of Mr AVood (and a son of Mrs D. Ashton, Sydney) was admitted into tho Rangitane tribe as the Great AA’hito Chief in return for this compliment, the naming of the clock having been suggested by Mr AVood.

Kill ST PUBLIC HOSPITAL. It is to the voluntary work of Mrs Wood, the Into Airs G. jvl. Snelson and their associates that Palmerston North owes tho establishment of its first Public Hospital. They raised tiie funds to provide the nucleus, Mrs Wood organising tho first children’s fancy dress ball held m New Zealand, the function being an enormous success. Comment was made by Mr Wood that any ■public appeal made then never lacked a generous response. Ail hud the common objective at heart—the advance--merit of the interests of Palmerston Worth, and improvement of its amenities. 'there was not the slightest room in those days for prejudice or jealousy.

Mr Wood was foreman' of the first hook and bucket fire brigade and later captain of the fire police, which ho established. Ho started the first amateur dramatic society at this centre, and later founded the Operatic Society, the performances being given in the old Foresters’ Hall, which was later converted into the Theatre Royal, which was destroyed by fire on the site where the premises of Messrs J. It. McKenzie, Ltd., now stand.

Owner of tbo biggest farrier business in the district when horses were in their heyday, Mr Wood had his blacksmith’s and wheelwright’s shop in the centre of the northern side of Cuba Street, owning the entire frontage from the present National Bank corner to the Cosmopolitan Club. He stated that, working from 5 a.m. daily, his staff shod 80 horses a day. Tlieye were no parking restrictions, and tire horses were hitched to posts and rails outside hotels, the overflow being accommodated on a vacant block of land extending from the back of where the Imperial Hotel now stands. Others were tied in a large yard near stables at the back of the Clarendon Hotel. There was only a narrow road up Ilangitikei Line, with a big ditch on each side, the highway being merely a throw up formation. During his visit to Palmerston North to-day Mr Wood stayed at an hotel occupying the former site of the school attended by his children.