WELLINGTON CITY STREET NAMES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1740, 5 July 1905, Page 17

WELLINGTON CITY STREET NAMES

WHERE THEY COME FROM. HISTORY ON TELEGRAPH POLEiS. THE ORIGINAL SURVEY. I * In the cold print on the steel plates that bear the street names of Wellington the younger generation can see no glimpse of the early history of the set--tlemenb. Even to the great bulk of the .. older generation the names are mere names—commercial des gni ions—and the personality of the brilliant actors of the forties never occurs to them. fcso far, no systematic attempt has ever been made to account for the naming of

our thoroughfares, and each" year, as the memory of the old identities becomes fainter and the streets are multiplied, the 7 task of tracing the nomenclature becomes more and more difficult.

In grappling with this task a “Mail” reporter has been confronted again and again with two apparently equally probable explanations of the name of one street. A gam and again he has had to discard the one that shows inconsistency, and in several cases be has been compelled to leave the names,. for (the present, 'without explanation. There may be inaccuracies in the articles which follow. If so, it is hoped they may be of such a nature that persons now living may be able to correct -them. CHOOSING THE TOWN SITE. The first settlers who landed on Petone beach and formed tjie town of Britannia were fortunately warned at an early moment of the leading disadvantages of the site chosen. The temporary location was on the banks of the Hutt river (named after Mr Wiliam Hutt, acting-chairman of the company), aibout a mile from the sea, and when the Aurora and Oriental, in January, 1340, landed their passengers on Petone beach, they at once proceeded to erect tents and houses. The township of Britannia was laid out, stretching across the valley from hill to hill, and raupo

whares were erected for the accommodation of the sellers. At the beginning of the year 1840 Petone was all bustle. By the end of the year it was deserted. The disadvantages of the low flat beach became very apparent in southerly gales, and to point the argument a flood in the Hutt river opportunely submerged the township, while the surveyors were still at work, to a depth of several feet. Colonel Wakefield was >till averse to changing the situation of the town, but on the arrival of Dr Evans, who held the post of Umpire of the colony under the company, he was compelled to give way. Accordingly, the survey of Petone was abandoned, and the settlers, with all

their belongings, crossed the water to Thorndon. Mr T. W. McKenzie, the first settler to sieeo on the site of the new town, is still alive. The name Nicholson had been given to the port many years before by the captain of a trader, who wished to perpetuate the memory of his friend the

harbourmaster at Sydney, Captain Ni-

cholson. Somes Island was named after Mr; Joseph Somes, who was DeputyGovernor, under the Earl of Durham, of the New Zealand Land Company, formed in 1839. This is the organisation, afterwards called simply “The New Zealand Company,” which defied the official antagonism in England that had killed previous companies, and, subscribing a capital of £400,000, set out independently to purchase land, despatch emigrants, and colonise the country. The western end of Port Nicholson was called “Lambton Harbour,” after the Earl of Durham, whose family name was-Lambton, and naturally enough, when the activities of the pioneers were removed from Petone to Lambton harbour, the street which was formed along the foreshore was called Lambton quay. Thorndon had been so called after Thorndon Hall, Brentwood, the seat of Lord Petre, a director of the company, and the foreshore in that direction was called Thorndon quay. SURVEYING THE CITY.

The company's surveyors, Captain William Mein Smith, R.A., and Messrs W. Carrington, R. Stokes, and R. Park, immediately set to work to lay out the lines for a city on the narrow strip of flat land fronting the harbour and the hills adjacent. Mr T. W. McKenzie states that the company had sold 100,000 acres of land. Tenths had to be reserved for the Maoris, and as each purchaser of 100 acres of rural land was entitled to one town acre, it was necessary to lay off a city of 1100 acres. To do this was a work of considerable difficulty, and the narrowness of the streets then laid down is only one evidence of pressure of necessity upon limited resources. It must not be believed, however, that Wellington was laid out without regard to its future. Mr J. B. Harcourt has in his possession a copy of the original map of the city, which was laid before the House of Commons in 1841. It shows

the whole of Wellington from the extremity of Thorndon quay on the north to Duppa and Lavaud streets on the' south, and -there is a symmetry about the streets that is apt to 1 be lost sight of in . the popular modern condemnation. Accompanying the map is a copy of the first register of the company, showing the results of the ballot for land® that took place at Barrett’s Hotel in July and August, 1840. It was many years before all the land then allotted was built upon, and became part of the town, for almost all of the larger streets in Wellington of to-day appear with their names in the original map. The name of Wellington was given—“we hasten to g ve if,” the company’s report says, “in honour of the Iron Duke, who at the time of the settlement was a leading, but not altogether a popular, figure in the politics of the Mother Country.” Naturally enough, many of the names given at that rHte and later to streets* and features of # the city are connected wi + h incidents of the great general’s life. There are Waterloo quay, Salamanca road, Talavera terrace, San Sebastian road, and many others.

THE FORESHORE AND BAYS. Wilb's street, running south from Clay Point, now “ Stewart Dawson’s corner,” was named after Mr Arthur Wilis, of London, a director of the company, whose firm was represented by Mr George Hunter, one of the first merchants to start in business in Wellington. Manners street was named, Mr McKenzie says, after Lord Manners, Speaker of the House of Commons (afterwards Lord Manners-Sut-ton) and not, as is often said, after a Colonel Manners. To his knowledge there was never any Colonel Manners in New Zealand. Courtenay place, which ran past the Te Aro pa into the flit which now bears the native name, was named after Viscount Courtenay, son of the Earl of Devon, and a director of the company. Proceeding round the foreshore, we find Majoribanks street, named after another director, Mr Stewart Marjoribanks, whose name was misspelt (the first “r ” being omitted) in the earlier reports of tlie company. The error was corrected later, but to-day the street name is often wrongly spelt. Roxburgh street was so called after the ship Duke of Roxburgh, the sixth of the company, despatched from Plymouth in October, 1889, w’th 167 emigrants. She arrived on February 7th, 1840, having lost her captain (Thompson) overboard at Stephen Island .two days previously. Mr George Duppa was the first European to live beyond the present destructor site. * He erected round the bay a house that had been brought out in parts, and, appropriately enough, called the locality Oriental Bay, after the ship in which lie arrived. But the public eallea it “ Dunpa’s ” for many years afterwards. Point Jerningham was called by a family name of the Wakefields, and the bay beyond was called Evans Bay, after Dr G. S. Evans, barrister-at-law, who was the first umpire of the settlement, and on whom the adminstration devolved almost solely when Colonel Wakefield went away to Canada. THE DOCK IN THE AIR. The hill behind Oriental Bay, called by the Maoris Tangi te Keo. was named by the settlers Mount Albert, after the Prince Consort, but late in the sixties the name was changed to Mount Victoria, in honour of the Queen. Along ’’ts foot,' from the present destructor site a swamp extended inland, widening out about half a mile to the southward into a kCgoon, and extending beyond that to where the hospital now is. Cattle were frequently bogged in the swamp, and the surveyors, in laying off the town, had to take poles with them to jump from one tussock to another. There seemed to be no hope of doing •'anything with the swamp, and it was decided to make a dock of the lagoon or basin (now the Basin Reserve), and to cut a canal down to the sea. This accounts for the presence of Dock street so .far inland. On each side of the canal reserve a street was laid out, Kent terrace and Cambridge terrace respectively. They - were so named after the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, and the Duke of Cambridge, uncle of the Queen, who died a year or two ago. Sussex square was named after another of George lll.’s family, the Duke of Sussex, .whose chief connection with the settlement lay in extending the patronage of his presence when four of the emigrant ships sailed from Plymouth.

Bv-and-bye an unforeseen event occurred. The great earthquake of 1855 raised the coast line in the vicinity of Wellington several feet. The movement transformed the Basin Reserve into dry land, and gave a fall for drainage. Shortly afterwards the vegetable matter in the swamp made a road for itself and floated down into the bay—a moving bog —leaving the present Cambridge terrace reserve, and incidentally the dock scheme, high and dry. On the slopes of Mount Victoria there appeared in the original map Brougham street, named after the emigrant ship Brougham. This vessel was chartered by the company from Mr Somes, and was largely used here in

the interests of the settlers. Amongst other things, she made a voyage to the Pacific Coast of America, and brought back a cargo of flour at a time when the settlers were on shortened rations. Austin street was named after an Englishman connected with the company, and Ellice and Buckle streets after Russell Ellice and John W. Buckle, both directors. The latter was a promoter of the first company of 1825.

-11. THE FIRST STREETS. TE ARO AND MOUNT COOK. Of the streets on the Te Aro fiat, Tory was called after the vessel winch brought out Colonel Wakefield and the party that purchased the original land from the natives. The Cuba b •ought out the surveyors, and Taranaki street was named after the company’s settlement at New Plymouth, for which the surveying party left Wellington in August, 1840. Dixon street was so named hv Captain Smith after a friend in London, possib’y the John Dixrn who figured amongst the promoters, of the first company. Ghuznee street was so called in memory of the storming of the Afghan stronghold by the British in 1839. In pursuance of an inscrutable and perplexing practice three names were given to the next street. Viscount. Ingestre, a son of the Earl of Shrewsbury, was a director of the company. The name should be pronounced, so Mr E. W. Seaton states, as if spelt Injestree, the accent being on the first syllable. Alderman John Pirie,afterwards knighted, was another director. Vivian is stated to have been the name of one of the company’s agents; but, considering that many of the earliest ships came from Falmouth, and that Devonians and Cornishmen predominated amongst the promoters and the early emigrants, it is reasonable to suppose that the name commemorates the Baron Vivian, who at the time represented Truro and East Cornwall in the House of Commons, and took part in raising a New Zealand emigrant fund. Mr John Abel Smith and Sir Stanley Webb, also of the first court of directors, are commemorated in street names. South of Te Aro flat we find Nairn street, running up the hill from the top of Willis street, named after Aiderman Alexander Nairue, but always wrongly spelt. Thompson street is named after the late J. S. M. Thompson, formerly a partner in Thompson, Shannon and Co. Hopper street is called after Mr E. B. Hopper, who arrived by the Oriental, and was head of the firm of Hopper, Petre and Molesworth. He was drowned in the Hutt river, being thrown overboard from a boat while looking for snags. Banks terrace and Tasman street were both given to a single street in pursuance of a peculiar policy not infrequently followed. They are the names of the explorers Sir Joseph Banks and Abel Tasman, and Mount Cook is named after the English navigator. OLD NEWTOWN. When' Mr Moedie went out into the country towards Kilbirnie and built a hotel for the convenience of settlers, he 3xpected a new town to grow up about it, and consequently called it the “Newtown” Hotel. The streets had been laid out in- the original survey, and the town did grow to what it is now. ' The main approach, now one of the finest streets in New Zealand, was called Adelaide road, after a ship which brought 170 emigrants from London. Parallel on the west is Hansen street, named after Mr Richard D. Hanson, Crown Solicitor, who arrived in the Cuba,. He was a man of great ability and learning, and visited the Chatham Islands in 1840 in connection with the company’s claim to land there. At a later period Mr Hanson left for South Australia, where he became Chief Justice, and received a knighthood. To the west of Adelaide road also are Britomart and Stanley streets, named after the British man-of-war, and her captain, that took possession of the South Island at Akaroa in 1840, forestalling the French by a few hours. “Leraud street,” which runs at rightangles to Adelaide road, bears on the original map the name of Lavaud, the popular French officer who commanded the frigate L’Aube, which arrived at Akaroa too late. The reason for the alteration cannot be traced. Duppa street, the southern extremity of the city, as originally surveyed, was named after Mr George Duppa, J.P., who has already been mentioned in connection with Oriental Bay. East of Adelaide road the original streets are Herald street, named aber the warship that brought the first Governor, Captain Hobson, to New Zealand; Waripori, after the great fighting chief of the Ngatiawa, at the Hutt; Rintoul, after the editor of the London “Spectator,” a friend of the company; Revans, after Samuel Revans, first secretary of the settlement, who arrived by the Adelaide; R.’ddiford, after Daniel Riddiford, emigration agent, who was a son-in-law of Dr Evans, and afterwards became a large sheepfarmer; Stokes, after R. Stokes, one of the surveyors: Me.n, after Captain William Mein Smith, R.A., chief surveyor; Constable, after a London merchant, who was a friend of Mr

Revans; Daniel 1 afeer Captain Daniell, who arrived by the Adelaide, and was a prominent figure in the early days; Coromandel, after one of the eauiest slnps; and Owen street, after Professor Owen, the celebrated scientist, to whom at an early dace moa bones were sent from New Zea.and. He it was who fi sc drew attenciun to the disappearance of that bird within historic _ times-, and in- 1855 he propounded his theory of natural rejection relating to their extinction. LAMBICIT AND TERRACE. Returning to Lambton and Thorndon wa;ds, we find the name Wordsworth was given to the beginning of the Pol hill Gully road by Colonel Wakefield and Captain Smith, in honour of the p ;et whose life had not yet come to a close. Aro was a local Maori name, in ail pre-babkity attached to the stream which trickled down from the gu.iy, and entered the sea near the Te Aro pa, at the foot of Taranaki street. Epuni is after Te Puni, the paramount clnef of the Ngatiawa, at Petone, and the staunch friend of the Europeans. Y\ oolcombe street was named after Mr Woolcombe, secretary of the New Plymouth -Company that colonisd Taranaki, chiefly from Devon. Boulcott street was named after John Ellerker Bouicott, a London- merchant, and director of the company, whose two sons were very popular in the settlement. One died early, and the other had a farm at the Hutt, called in the iater minta y days BoulcQtt’s Camp. The Terrace was a name that naturally applied to the thoroughfare along the edge of the hill. Aurora terrace and Bolton street are both named ‘after ships of 1840. Woodward street is in memory of Jonas Woodward, who was for many yea ,- s connected with the firm of Bethune and Hunter, and was afterwards A ssistant-'Treasurer under the Provincial Government, and a- minister of religion. Close to Woodward street was Wi Tako’s pa, Kumutoto, containing about sixty natives. A stream of that name flawed down the depression at the back of the club. Though "ome distance away, the street running from the Terrace Congregational Church to the Government Buiid’ngs was caked Kumutoto street. This name remained until late in the sixties. When Governor Bowen arrived, he asked that as the Maori name had an unpleasant signification it should he changed. Accordingly, the old name disappeared, and ‘*Bowen” took its place. The o agin of the naru o. o v -. n .-y street is shrouded in mystery. Qld identities are of opinion that it is no + called after the capital of the Mother Country, but that the name should ready he spelt “Sidney,” and that it is after some prominent person of the period. This clue indicates Sir Philip C. S’dney, who was created Baron De L’lsle and Dudley, and whose sister married Colonel Wakefield. THORNDON AND TINAKORI. Parliament street was named because it ran along behind the Parliamentary grounds; Glenbervie road was named after the early ship Glenbervie; Hill street, after" Mr Henry St. Hill, the Resident Magistrate, who arrived in the Adelaide j. Molesworth street after Sir William Molesworth, a director of the company, whose son, Mr F. A. Molesworth, was one of . the first settlers, and a principal of the firm of Hopper, Petre, and Molesworth; Mul-g'-ave street was named after the eldest son of the Colonial Secretary, the Marquis of Nonnanby, he himself being at a later date Governor of New Zealand. Mr Michael Murphy, after whom Murphy street was named, arrived from Sydney in 1840, and acted as Magistrate for some time. Pipitea street marks the site of the Pipitea pa, which contained ' over a hundred Maoris. The name is evidently connected with the pipi beds in the harbour, which formed the hunting-ground of the Port Nioholson Maoris. The chiefs of this pa were Moturoa (after whom a neighbouring street is named), Wairarapa, and Porutu. Davis street recalls a Maori of that name who lived at Pipitea pa. He dressed as a European, spoke a little Eirghsh, and generally acted as an interpreter. Brook street, off Murphy street, is said te be named after the notorious interpreter Brook, whose tongue was cut out by the Ngatitoa after the Wairau massacre; Turnbull street, after the late Mr Walter Turnbull, a member of the Provincial Council; and Halswell street, like Point Halswell, after Mr E. S. Halswell, F.R.S., Judge of the County Court, and Commissioner for the management of native reserves, who arrived in 1840. James May, of the brewing firm of May Brothers, gave the name to the street connecting Tinakori road and Molesworth street; Fitzherbert terrace was called after Sir W. A. Fitzherbert; Featherston terrace and Featherston street after the first Superintendent, Dr I. E. Featherston; and Hobson ctreet after Governor Hobson. Tinakori is a native local name meaning literally “a writhing body” ; but the signification is buried in Maori lore. Mr Grant, whose name is .borne by the road at the foot of Wadestown hill. at one time an overseer of rc*ici.?.. Ccbtleville terrace was a private street laid ouo by a M’’ Cottle, who owned the land; ParK street was called after the surveyor, R. Park; Geo ge street, after an engineer, J. R. .George, at one time sec-

retary of the Patent Slip Company, -who in 1865 commenced the first iron extension of the Queen’s Wharf; Goring street, after Colonel Forster Goring, who was secretary to the Executive in the sixties; and Saunders lane after Mr Joseph Saunders, the contractor.

Regard:ag the statement that the name of Mount Victoria was changed in the sixties, Mi* T. W. McKenzie states that it was the signal-station that was then changed. . It used to he on Mount Albert, a prominence above Newtown Park, but in the sixties it» was removed to the higher Mount Victoria, where it now is.