PILGRIM DAYS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14327, 18 October 1910, Page 7

PILGRIM DAYS.

i)LD PROVINCIAL BUILDING. THE MEN IT HARBOURED. (By Pioneer.) (All Rights Reserved.) Demolish the old provincial buildings ! Remove the old land mark I Why the very ground would revolt. All old provincials, all the descendants of the Pilgrims should stand firm as u stone wall against any attempt to tamper with. them. They remaki a visible memento of the doings of iho early days. All those said to be worm eaten and out of date corridors ami passages, rooms, gables and towers, with the wooden block tloors, are haunted by the memories of men whose names old provincials honour, however unknown and uurevered by new people, and whose naiutxi should never be forgotten, or anything connected with them be allowed to be wiped out by the hands of modern vandals What matter if the architect designed rooms not high enough to stand erect in.- 1 Even it' he built a tower and forgot a staircase? Those are mere trifles and incidentals. The thinsr vas sufficient for the time, but no •.oubt would not now be allowed to cumber the ground. Something more grand is needed. What even if the stone tower destined for the clock — clock—now in High, street .vas found not capable of bearing its weight, and that thus it went to" rest tor many years, amongst odds and snds, in a, work yard. What matter? The point is this. V, e can get quantities of new stuff in gorgeous designs and at great cost, but where can be 'ot, such an old relic, a. Pilgrim pile, uut eight or nine rears after the four tups landed their people? iIEN OF THE PAST. The old wooden portion against which •he set is made, served the" business of the province for some years, and was the harbour and working place of the grand old men, the Fitzgeralds am! Moorehouses, Hall, Bowen, Crosbie Ward, the eider, Wilson, Brittan. Duncan, Harman, Rolleston, Rhodes, Montgomery, and the rest, and there the early politicians fought their aghls and debated their measures. In departments Cass carried on his survevs. snd Dobson engineered, Sir C. C Bowen, tended the cash, and Marshman audited, W. G. Brittan. ihe "Ider. Hamilton. Davie, attended to land business. Sir Julius Von Haast worked out his museum ideas. and William Thomson roared with stentorian lungs: Dr Back, neat, polite, polished, with wondrous black eve-

brows and always in neatest black ami shiny top hat. once postmaster in a 12 by 1U place in Market Square ami later on Sheriff. Of outsiders, that is non-officials, Mr William Wilson, Christchurcu's • c-'tisen was a constant frequenter ini'tUt upon land buying, -Mr William White of the bridges, was often around, snuff bos in hand and scenting contracts, Mr E. G. Wright, the energetic road maker, Mr Robert Heaton Rhodes. the first, who knew every map in the land office, the dominating Nabob, with resonant voice and lion-like stride —such were some of the men, who have paced those old corridor blocks. Who now remembers little T. E. Keele. the chief clerk when Mr Ollivier was secretary, or Maude, or Turner, or Soiilsby. Keade and the young fellows who ran in and out. through that old corridor? General Whish, in his den, on guard: the general, who, with his queer legs and grulf voice, clad in immaculate black swallow tail aud white tie, wand in hand, sat at the door of the Parliamentary Chamber and acted tlio Sergeant at Arms? THE "BANQUET HALL IHCSKKTjCD-'' In imagination one thinks the gliosis of all those early men in the dead hours of the night, haunt and parade those pas-sages, meet and confer upon the altered state of things compared with the happy days when they in the life talked and chaffed and laughed as if the delightful times would never end; as to those who now pose and prate: And they ask each oilier "Has our ideal been realised? Was it for this we crossed the seas, to find our Work ending in wranglings alid strikes, in hatred between employer and employee? To find power in the hands of people who study and cultivate ••hatred and all uncharitableuess," restricting liberty and dictating and narrowing affairs of lifer ••How lightly they footed the floor hand ill hand, aud waltzed to the strains of Ben Button s band." Where ir>w are the gay young the ok boys and charming dames and young liO-i.il.!". who hobnobbed i.iul .ianc-d m d suppered with the Duke of Edinburgh, f -a- i - Beresford, Lord I\V-> ry Hon. E'Jiytt Yorke and the i-st cf the jovial lot with Sir George Bowen in charge, aud the Nabob assisting? Where is the sensational * Mermaid. ' wii.ii hair falling to her waist- and such gweet •-trilbies," who caused consteniaton in the camp of the dames, for those naughty Ih>vs would flock to her and throw themselves at her feet, neglecting them the while? The old oorridor and passages could tell stories. THE ARCHITECT. The architects, probably it should be the architect, was Mr B. Mountford, short, big headed, somewhat uncouth, looking like a cross between a queer sort of a minister aud a Bohemian artist, but very clever. It was he who designed those old woixlen buildings that some would so lightly destroy, and also the beautiful stone Provincial Hall. Mr Isaac Lusk, liis partner,

luii], it was said, been a builder sad went into business afterwards with the late -Mr Charles Clark, as ail auctioneer, in premises oil lii.s own block, cornel- 01 Colombo aud Gloucester streets. Jj'or .Mr Lusk hud made u very good investment in a city block aiid became an absentee laudlo:d. It must have been about ISoS—this from memory—that the foundation stone was laid. Hitherto business had boon carried on in a building about which tiie Hon. Crosbie .Ward rhymed —that was the straggling ouc christened the Clarendonby George Oram who kept it, in remembrance of old London days; but, beiore that known as tilt' "Lyttelton," landlordod by the g.-uial old Irishman Roland Davis. who later on was an inspector of something on the turbulent West Coast. Now. iliac oid rambling hostelry and its bars and passages could tell many a tale oi' proceedings tunny aud serious, tragedy and comedy, ami auecctlotes of interest. There Johnny Hall, the Yankee comedian, lien Jones, later of Sydney. John Dunn, Pollock, and the rest of them. Hiss Jennie Nye. Dollv Green and others, made gay the passing hours. Isut one is running away iro:n the old story. 11l I'- .FOUNDATION CKRIvMONY. 1 he laying of the stone was au eventful day. I'rocession and iiags Hying, and au old ship gun. winch re<ted upon the southern bank ot the Avon, at Gloucester street (and did duty as a regulator of noon rime on Saturdays, in tiie absence of a town clock, being lired by .Mr Dallard, of the "Golden fleece,'' the true originator of the voluutjers in Christ church), was iirrd at intervals. During that day certain amount of 'vtuif" was partaken of, and. lu the evening, and in the dead 01 the night, the jovial boys of the period awoke quiet folk from their slumbers and insisted upon them taking a draught from the bottle. No refusals taken under dire penalties. Oh. it was dreadfully shocking. And, what Mr Taylor would have suffered 1 Mr Frederick Jenkins was the contractor for that wooden portion. He had a triangular section upon what ! "was then called the Ferry road, now Lower High street, upon which lie built a sawmill, but probably was before the time, for lie ipft. Sites seem to be hard to find for a Town Hail. It may be a mistake, but was not a fine block with three frontages, fcxej-tly in irontt ol : the buildings, bought by iho hir-sooinL£ .Governing men of the early days, in view of the needs of later times? And was not that valuable site quickly sold by those who i£ o t into power later on. * Thev prated about leaseholds. and sold freeholds. Now, iliey must buy, and dearly pay. Some hare thought. and perhaps ihoy were that the Drovince.~ should never have been done away or at all event? the province of Canterbury. It stood as ft were by itself as a .settlement, came into, existence full fledged, had a hisfcorv of its °. u " n * interesting associating with the old Home, held a prond rwsit:p]i in th~old colony, and had a Parliament of us own and an administration in nood working order. All this it was'"decreed must go. It has gone Ts itcertain that things have been better than they would have been? At all events, keep the old relic in remembrance of the past.