MAKERS OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20335, 16 August 1929, Page 8

MAKERS OF AUCKLAND.

DY F.W.W.

DESIGN OF ALBERT PARK. / * " SOME EARLY STEAMERS. WORK OF THE SANDFLY. SEVERAL NOTABLE CITIZENS

No. XXXII. Fur tho lay-out of Albert Fark Auckland is indebted to Iho design of Mr. lilies Slator, vcrsatilo colonist of 60 vi ays ago, who, when occupying tho post • ■l' head city gardener, won a competition instituted in tho matter by tho municipal I'alhors after they had taken over tho Mio of tho Albert Barracks of Maori War Mr. Slator caino to New Zealand in "JB6O, and in his tirno played many p.ulj in tho community. 110 imported ami set up at Mangero tho first steam 11 inching plant in tho province; ho connected up tho first gas servico in tho city ;ib tlio New Zealandcr newspaper office, Shortland Street; and for his artistic skill ho. was in request in his day for tho preparation of illuminated addresses—for instance, those sent by tho citizens to Kings Edward VII. and George V. on their respective accessions. For eight years ho was draftsman to tho Railway Department in Auckland; and when Farnell was a separato borough ho was one of its councillors. Mr. Slator was a fellow and life honorary member of tho New Zealand Institute of Architects. Another man whoso professional handiwork is perpetually in evidence was Mr. James Baber, architect, surveyor and civil engineer. Mr. Baber was a very early arrival, his timo dating from 1842. Whilu tho names of Colonel Ligar and Mr. Felton Matthews aro those most associated with tho planning of tho infant city, itwas ho who laid out and superintended tho formation of tho roads in what wenthen tho suburbs, but aro now part of Auckland proper, and directed the Maori labour employed upon their construction. Afterwards ho was draftsman in tho department of tho Survoyor-General, Colonel Ligar, then in tho Government offices in Princes Street, arid when provincial institutions came ho continued in tho servico of tho Provincial Government. For homo years ho was iu partnership with Mr. Reader Wood as an architect, and afterwards ho practised on his own account. jj Early Goldfleld Steamers. When tho Waikato railway was constrained as far as Drury, one of the commissioners appointed to settle tho claims to compensation by tho settlers' through whose laud it passed was Mr. Samuel Cochrane. He was an Aucklander fron 1858, and had one of tho principal auctioneering businesses. In tho early 60's ho took an activo interest in the development of tho Coromandel goldfield. Purchasing the Government steamer Sandlly, which was afterwards renamed the Tasmanian Maid—her original name—he ran her to Coromandel for some years. Mr. Cochrane also was ono of tho owners of tho one-time North Shore ferry steamer Waitemata, which was cut in two and lengthened, and then becamo the Enterprise No. 2, which carried the first official prospectors to the Thames, and was thereafter for long vears the steadiest trader to that goldJield; also of the Jane, in tho same trade. Cochrane, in association with Mr. W. Goodall, owned tho Prince Alfred battery at Thames, and he also started wool scouring works at the Whau. He was a member of Auckland's first Harbour Board, and when on a visit to the Old Country in the early 70's ho acted for some time as immigration agent in the North of Ireland to the New Zealand Government. Stranded on a Pacific Island. One of the very early business-places in Queen Street was tho drapery shop of Messrs. S. and J. R, Vailo, which stood at tho corner of Wyndham Street, where the Bank of Australasia now is. They had 1 arrived in 1843, as lads, with their father, Mr. Georgo Vaile, who was an architect. Mr. Samuel Vaile lived to be it, conspicuous man in the city. First he studied under his father, but seeing no prospect in the architectural profession in Auckland at that time, he set out in 1850 upon a voyage intended to end at California, but while he and four fellow-pass-engers were ashore at Pitcairn Island for i lie night their vessel sailed away, leaving l hem stranded. Eight weeks later, Samuel Vaile landed in, Honolulu with a threepenny-piece in 11is pocket, and not a whole suit of clothes. After spending two years in the Sandwich Islands ho returned to Auckland, and tlini it was that he and his brother began business. From 1861 to 1869 Mr. Vaile lived in England as buyer for his firm. While there no became a member of leading scientific societies, and worked among Iho poor to study the poverty problem. Iri 1876 tho partnership of the two brothers was dissolved, and Mr. S. Vailo started the land and estate agency business since carried on by his sons. / Mr. Vaile's Railway Scheme. Publicly, Mr. Vaile gained prominence . in the eyes of the_ Dominion by his persistent advocacy, in petitions to Parliament, of an idea of his own invention, the stage or zone system of railway tariff, which was adopted by Hungary, and also by Russia. In 1886 a Parliamentary committee investigated tho merits of the proposal for ten weeks, with Mr. Vaile in regular attendance, and in tho end recommended that the system should bo given a trial in New Zealand. No Government, however, has been prepared to make the venture, though Mr. Vaile, to tho end of his life, kept on urging the adoption of his hobby. Mr. Vailo was a voluminous writer upon a variety of subjects, including co-opera-tion, finance, general politics and singletax, which ho strenuously opposed. On several occasions he was a candidate for Auckland seats in Parliament, but was defeated by narrow majorities. His admirers throughout New Zealand, with Sir Georgo Grey as their spokesman, presented him in 1893 with a silver salver and tea and coffee servico, and also a fireproof safe in which to keep tho records of his public workThe chief responsibility for maintaining law and order in Auckland in tho provincial days rested upon Mr. James Nnughton, commissioner of police, and after his retirement from this office he was resident magistrate at Onehunga. His epitaph in the Roman Catholic cemetery in Symonds Street records the fact that he was "faithful and just in tho discharge of his public duties, unostentatiously charitable, and meekly pious." Some Other Public Men. It is only a few years since tho figure of Mr. Graves Aickin ceased to be conspicuous in Queen Street, but his citizenship of Auckland went back to 1863. It was under his chairmanship of tho Harbour Board—he had two terms, in 1882 arid 1884—that tho contract for the construction ol Calliope Dock was let, Mr. Aickin was prominont among tho organisers of the public library scheme, and also of tho stalwarts of tho Reform Party in tho citv I'if.ty years ago no man was morn prominent on tho Auckland Stock Exo nngo than Mr. Joseph Newman, who was fo, many years its chairman. Mr nrXT" -r; as „ als ° ve , r y prominently con,ftml 1 U, ° Meth «&t Church. In -V, - 1 , ] }p wa . s a member of the first hTKLn 0 "^ 1 • • t1853 - representing ho southern Division, and again sat in 1668 nC " Raglan from 1863 to Potter 8 Paddock, the name by which Alexandra Park was known when it was the chief football ground of Auckland perpetuated the name of a very earlv colonist. Mr. Wiljiam P„ Uc ?, who'arri™ m New Zealand in 1833. As an outlying falmer, lie owned tho property part of ■which eventually becamo a city nlav ground. J * J (To bo continued daily.); f