ROUND ABOUT WELLINGTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 3860, 6 March 1928, Page 34

ROUND ABOUT WELLINGTON.

By

Pencarrow.

(Special for the Otago Witness.) March 1.

The end of legal summer time! One suspects that the clerk of the weather is Mr T. K. Sidey’s confidential friend, for just at the moment when the clocks are being altered we are recovering from a storm which was suspiciously like the first break of winter.

There are beautiful autumn days ahead, but we are agreed that ihe fine weather lasted just too long. The wearied community was showing signs of wear and tear, and the gardens badly needed rain, though the roses still left blooming could have done without the hail.

So could the old and ailing, whose weak spots have been searched out. The schools, too, newly assembled after wonderful summer holidays, are suffering from colds. Indeed, mild influenza is prevalent—perhaps a sign that Providence remembers the doctors and their needs and that many of the profession have just had an expensive trip to Hamilton and the conference. It is an ill wind that blows no good.

Here the main topic of conversation is the Citizens’ War Memorial, the first stone of which was to have been laid on Anzac Day.

The general public is behind Mr Hurst Seager, the expert town planner and architect, who by invitation gave advice concerning the site on which it should be placed. This advice was rejected by the Citizens’ War Memorial Committee, which clung to the original idea, and persisted in the intention of placing our memorial on the triangular space below Parliamentary grounds. However, some members of that committee are now reconciled to the newer idea, and Mr J. P. Firth, chairman, formerly headmaster of Wellington College, who was as keen as anyone else on the Parliamentary site, and valued it, too, because the late Prime Minister, Mr Massey, had approved it, now publicly declares that he is persuaded that the south end of the avenue formed by the altered and widened terraces —Cambridge and Kent—is infinitely the superior site. The committee has met, and has decided to appoint an advisory committee of experts to go into the comparative merits of the three suggested sites—that near the Parliamentary Buildings, and those jit the southern and northern ends of the wide avenue which is the high road from Courtenay place out to South Wellington. Mr Firth worked unceasingly to secure the Parliamentary site and to ensure that the memorial shall be not unworthy of the brave men of- our own city who fell in the Great War, but because he, too, is great, he renounces without repining. He offered his resignation, which the committee decline! to accept, but instead expressed the hope that Mr Firth would be associated with the committee until the work was done. So there, at present, the matter stands, bu it is confidently anticipated that the committee will be advised to accept Mr Hurst Seager’s advice, and place what we believe will be one of New Zealand’s most beautiful memorials —our silent tribute—just outside the Basin Reserve, in sight of the playing field of Wellington College, and at the end of an avenue which can be made so beautiful as to be famous in itself. * * *

In the centre of Wellington, and very close to this avenue, there is a hill called Mount Cook, on which once upon, a time a hideous brick gaol was built. This gaol is now Defence headquarters, but some day it will be pulled down, for the Government has given Mount Cook for memorial purposes. There in the sunshine will be placed some day the national memorial—the Hall of Memories, the National Art Gallery and Museum combined, and the campanile from which will ring out the bells of the memorial carillon.

Unfortunately, like many other places as well as Topsy, Wellington “just grew ” for a long time without the assistance of expert town planners. But all this is changing. We progress, and with age we hope to grow more beautiful. Our natural surroundings are incomparable. One, writing from a famous beauty spot on the Riviera, says: “It is very beautiful and very wonderful, and I appreciate it all; but I have never yet seen a view which appeals to me more than some we get near Wellington on clear days—in winter and in summer.”

Possession being nine-tenths of the law, the Railways Departs ent has taken it. A small space on the Hutt road is now enclosed to protect the workmen who are digging the hole into which the muchdiscussed pier or pillar will bo placed for the purpose of supporting the overhead bridge on which the new line to Tawa Flat will be laid. Motorists still object, though there is room for two-way traffic on-each side of the pier. I once knew an obstinate old lady who had enjoyed an uninterrupted view from her window for many years; but the town grew, and the adjacent section was bought by a- man who desired to build his home on it. There was some doubt about the boundary line, and the services of a sur-

veyor were called in. This unfortnnatq had a very difficult time, for the old lady forgot her part, and on five separata occasions threw the surveyor’s peg at him, with abuse. Because she was old, she was allowed her own way, and to thiq day her descendants possess four valuable inches which never should have been hers. But the motorists say they cannot throw piers at the head of the Railways Department, so there is nothing left but graceful submission. * * * The line out from the city is along the harbour front, and the overland bridge will bo very close to the spot where our floating dock is soon to be constructed. That dock will hold large ships—how large I am unable to say at the moment, for I never was good at figures, but I think it will hold ships of 14,000 tons—more or less. This reminds me of a very dear old friend who, in describing a stranded whale, said it was 300 yards long. “ Yards? ” we asked incredulously. “ Yards or feet,” sho replied, “ but what does it matter? It was enormous.”