IN OLD ALBUM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13485, 11 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

IN OLD ALBUM.

r " BY A.D.B.

WYNYARD PIER.

1 There was not much attention paid to ar--7 rangement by the owner of this little book. Here are one, two, three family portraits 3 following madam's. But, yes! this is in--1 teresting. "The Wynyard Pier. : ' Oh, middle-aged Aucklanders, with 1 crow's feet, and grey hairs, and twinges 6 in the shoulder and the knee, come and 6 look at this faint little daub ! ' It is all very well to talk of railway wharves, of ferro-concrete additions, of 5 miles and miles of the longest quay in the t colonies What associations have -they. What record? There are- those in our city t would give them all, and the sheds lining ' them thrown in, for the little pier, which 3 they, frilled and gored, flanneled or uui--1 formed, so often promenaded— the little e pier that saw so much history, and wel--1 corned so many " illustriouses," and. sped 1 them on their way again. Lasses and lads of forty years ago! have you never a memento of that old friend of 8 your courting days, never a shaving hidI den away with faded ribbons and flowers, r yellow letters, and such-like stored-up 6 treasures? It-was far kinder to you, John and Patrick and Duncan, that sunny little ' pier, than reams of your own composition ! II Do you imagine she ever beamed at the appearance of your longest = letter by " she," I do not necessarily refer to Mrs. j John or either of the others— she did T at the sight of the dancing little boat, and 3 you in 'your youth and flannels that day 3 you left the pier steps to sail away to s Tamaki, to Rangitoto, to Elysium? Do I you suppose 'he ever thrilled over your most impassioned utterances, as she did ; at the touch of your hand, as you lifted e her back to earth again in > the moonlight ? j , Talk of concerts, too! Do you remem- , ber the music that floated up from the 1 harbour, the singing of the men-of-war s and the strains of their bands, the S choruses of the yachtsmen—Christy minstrels were the rage then-—the echoes over " the water of the Parnell chimes? I Cargoes, commerce, and the carriers con- .- fined themselves almost exclusively to the: r wharf, whence," too, the: home-going regi- j [j ments embarked when they were.recalled, j _ But Leisure and Fashion still dallied about J the little pier even in its old age. Plea--11 sure parties, .crews from the visiting longa boats, officers of the same,; admirals, and a such-like loiterers always preferred the Wynyard Pier to her -.heavy sister of f Queen-street. . ■./> ' t , The two bays had their yachting parties, too. How many gay boatloads left the V stonewall of St. George's Bay, and how II much merriment floated back from the bell muslined and beflanneled groups, who r clambered up and down the clay tracks that led to the sunniest, the most charming little bay in the harbour! What a ' lot of room those muslins took in the boat! s How incomprehensible were the paniers ! s Surely that was the name, though now as » the . word is written, it connects itself in 3 my consciousness with ■ donkeys, whereas *• it should only suggest gaily-dressed ladies of fashion armed for conquest. " The pier and the distant bays, the cliffs • beyond Mechanics' Boy, and all the gar- > dens of Parnell Rise,'notably one belong--1 ing to a well-known medico of that time, j were at their gayest on Regatta Days. £ Many of us remember the last appearance of the war canoes in '69, 'or perhaps later. 3 It was, a memorable sightgaily-decked - sailing ships, big and little, merry little • yachts, the war canoes with their'crews, a mass of colour ; the sparkling: little har- • bour at its' very best Hie summer sun- • shine ! And - into the ' all' .this 1 gaiety and brightness, like a great smudge.. suddenly lumbered out of the channel that i remarkable tub, the huge Nevada, that . with her sister, the Nebraska, shared the [ distinction of being the very ugliest steamI boat that' ever rounded the North Head ! 1 Perhaps of all the sights that crowds ; gathered on the pier, and those other van- > tage points of the harbour, have looked i out upon, the most lovely was the view of . the Lady Jocelyn, with her delicate lines arid spreading canvas, dipping up the harbour like a great white swan. But this ' Was much • later than the 'sixties—so late; indeed, that the little Wynyard. Pier, . around whose photographed presentment 1 all those confused memories have gathered, was sinking into disuse. _ Decrepitude had come to it when the railway began to blot the harbour. ' In the palmiest days of the pier, Parnell people, when the tide was high, came to . town by • way of the beaches. In Mechanics' Bay there were some slippery places where the timber mill now stands, and nearer town, Fort-street was the highwater mark of a particularly unpleasant beach.. ' Fishermen with : nets drying in the sun haunted all the beaches,- but' on the sands, under what is now the retreat of warehousemen, all the rubbish of the trade was strewn, old corks,' bits of frayed rope, dead crabs, rotten pieces of - netting; and I have an impression of orange peelings, old fish, and such-like unpleasant morsels that could not always be catalogued as abandoned bait. Young Auckland of the Wynyard Pier days, in place of the ever-popular banana, ate peaches by the kitful, pipis from the sand, and oysters from the rocks. Oysters were gathered by means of a hammer and chisel "straight from the shell." The gatherers scrambled about without any attempt to disguise their business right on the confines of the town ; but the police of those days had other things ;to think of than Fishery Preservation Acts. From the substantial houses of Hobsonstreet, then a favourite residential quarter, leading business men, Customs officials, and the rest of us sought the nearest bay for our. morning swim. Freeman's Bay was popular with the lads, though it always had a certain amount of Bohemianism about . it, which left it neglected of fashion. Far-away Shelly Beach was a remote solitude less frequented than the distant bays round Remuera; for in those days Ponsonby was not, and the west was but a clay waste. In its old age the pier had a thrilling experience. Do many folks remember the great storm of the early 'seventies, that swept the harbour and the channel, that drove the shipping helter. skelter before it, that sent a North Shore steamer tearing through the wharf and strewed all the beaches with wreckage? The papers 1 called it a black squall. It .sprang up < without any warning in a couple of hours. It did a lot of damage, and filled the papers with reading matter ; in that re- 1 spect_ recalling another maritime calamity promised, but was not forthcoming, which ' made much "copy" in the late 'sixties. : That was the tidal wave which was to ' flood our city streets and drive the popu- 1 lation on to the hills. It was claimed 1 that building on the high ground would ' be a feature of the year; but this fore- ! cast did not come true. Neither were the tides of that season phenomenal. But 1 the wave, which swept the Tasnian Sea, c had its effect on our mails, which were, ' in some cases, delayed for months. That J by the Sydney boat was some six weeks ; late. 1

But- this has floated us ' far from our little landing-place. The photograph is very faint, but look at it again. The sentimental little pier that spent so, many hours silent in the moonlight that conversation had necessarily to be hushed to suit its humour; i the busy little pier tha+ bent under the weight of the luggage of the earlier immigrants ; the dignified little pier echoing back tramp, tramp ' the march of the stirring times. And whichever the phase that appeals to each one . of us separately, the hearts of all old Aucklanders. will warm to its memorythe Wynyard Pier, and round which so many associations cling of what was stately, charming,' and picturesque in Auckland's history. -- ~