THE AUCKLAND DOMAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19931, 27 April 1928, Page 14

THE AUCKLAND DOMAIN.

Sir, —During my recent visit to New Zealand, I was very much interested io read an article in the New Zealand Herald of November 25, 1927, referring to the change of New Zealand's capital from Auckland to Wellington, and especially so owing to the complimentary reference to my father, the late Sir Edward W. Stafford, G.C.M.G. I was again much interested in reading an article in the Herald, about a fortnight later, on the Auckland Domain, wherein it was stated that the early history of the reserve was hard to trace. I distinctly remember my father saying, some 35 years back, that he was responsible for its laying out. This was the only reference made by him to it that i remember with the exception that he asked me, on my return to England in 1900, how it was looking. I was, howover. again reminded of the fact in rather a curious way. On my return to New Zealand in that year I came in contact with and employed a foreman carpenter named Thomas Lynch. I was much surprised one day to hear * him state that he had over a hundred letters of my father's fn bis possession. On my expressing my great surprise, he stated that his father had been foreman gardener at the Domain when it was first laid out, and that the letters were instructions sent by my father, who was Premier at the time, with regard to the work to be carried out. I cannot fix the exact date of such work, but am inclined to think that it was about 1864 and 1865. My -father was Premier from 1859 to 1863, from 1865 to 1869, and for a few months in 1872. Berkeley H. Stafford.