CAPITALS TO ORDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19454, 9 October 1926, Page 2 (Supplement)

CAPITALS TO ORDER.

THE HISTORY OF CANBERRA. OTHER FAMOUS CITIES. " HERE SHALL BE A TOWN." STORY OF ST. PETERSBURG. A new milestone in Australian history will be reached in May next year when the Duke and Duchess of York are to visit the Commonwealth to perform the ceremony of the official opening of th« Federal capital at Canberra. , Cnnberra is a capital "made to order." After the visit of the and Queen, then Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, to open Australia's first Federal Parliament in 1901, the Commonwealth authorities commenced their search for a capital that would be worthy of Australia's new dignity. Finally, the Canberra site was selected and transferred from the State of New South Wales to the Commonwealth Government. Altogether, an area of some 912 square miles was acquired in this way to serve as the Federal capital territory. That was in 1910, but naturally there was much to do before the seat of the Commonwealth Government could be

established at Canberra. Then the war intervened, and development was practically suspended until 1920. Within the last year or two, however, the building of the new city has boon pushed forward vigorously, and the official opening has been fixed for May 9, 1927. The idea of thus making a capital out of the wilderness is not new. There is no lack of precedents for the action of the Australian Government. Washington, the capital of the United States of America, came into being in the same way. When the independence •of the former American colonies was recognised it was agreed to build an entirely new city to be the capital of the new Republic, A site on the borders of Maryland and Virginia was selected in 1790 and was separated from these States and set up as a territory directly dependent on Congress. In i 793 the foundation stone of the Capitol was laid, and in 1800 the United States Government moved to its new home. To-day Washington is one of the world's finest and most beautiful cities. Ottawa may also be said to have been made to order. This city, which was originally known as Bytown, was of little importance until it was selected by Queen Victoria as the capital of the Dominion on its foundation in 1867. There are two outstanding examples of capitals made to

order in Europe—St. Petersburg, the wonder city of the Russia of tho Tsars, and Constantinople. When Peter the Great first, formed the idea of building a city on tho banks of the Neva ho was engagqd in a war with Sweden, and Swedish prisoners were employed to carry out tho work. The place was a marsh—tho very name Neva means mud—and wolves were the only inhabitants of the neighbouring forests. It was a strange place to build a city, but Peter was impatient of difficulties. He started tho work himself. Snatching a halbert from a soldier, he cut two strips of turf and laid them crosswise with the words, "Here shall be a town." Then, dropping tho halhert, ho seized a spade and began the first embankment. After that the work went on, though the men employed oit tho task had no proper tools and tho neighbourhood was so unhealthy that they died in thousands. Constantinople, which has known so many strange turns of fortune, was originally built by the Emperor Constantine. He \vas tired of Romo and determined to raise a new capital on tho site of tho ancient, though comparatively unimportant, Byzantium. • So Canberra, mushroom town though it is to-day, has a history which links it in points of similarity with some of tho most important and historic cities both of tho Old World and tho New.