NAPIER AND ITS ENVIRONMENTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXX, Issue 8452, 17 May 1906, Page 2

NAPIER AND ITS ENVIRONMENTS.

[notes by a visitor.]

Places, like individuals, have their special features. Invercargill has its elevated water-tank, Dunedin its octagon, Timaru its breakwater, Christchurch its cathedral, Wellington its colossal matchbox, and Napier its esplanade. This esplanade is something to be proud of. It faces a huge open roadstead, walled on one side by the Kidnappers, a long range of precipitous limestone rocks, and on the other by a series of undulating limestone hills, a large extent of which are owned by Mr G. P. Donelly, the well-known pakeba land-owner. Behind the foreshore of wave-washed sand and shingles is the well-formed parade, with its walls of concrete, and paths of asphalt, furnished with resting-places, and ornate with graceful Norfolk Island pines waving their symmetrical branches defiantly against the zephyrs that bear the surf near to their stems. These trees appear to thrive well. They were planted fourteen years ago, and are from twenty to thirty feet in height, and they look strong and vigorous. Some of the leading thoroughfares run up to l Esplanade. Approaching the site of breakwater is Bluff Hill, a huge natural fortress of limestone and sandstone that frowns do.vn menacingly on the well formed drive

below. ' Napier consists chiefly of hills and gullies. Along the level flats are the principal streets overlooked by precipitous cliffs, some of them of clay, but chiefly limestone. Up these cliffs steps and winding roads, to the lofty residences of a race of hill squatters, are numerous. The popular impression is that Napier at no very remote time was simply an island, the swamp extending to the spit, forming part of the ocean and dividing the hiils from the mainland. Cf this there can be but little doubt because, even now, the process of gradual reclamation is undeniable. The foreshore of sand and shingle is widening, and the swamp, disdaining continued submersion, is being transformed into grazing and agricultural paddocks. For these improvements, the breakwater and a few drains may claim some credit, but natural forces seem chiefly responsible.

Os the heights. It is impossible to travel over the country around Napier -the lovely undulating and luxuriously fertile plains of Hawke's without arriving at the conclusion district is admirably adapted for close settlement. In spite of evil piedictions, the farmers of Hatuma are doing wonderfully well. But the pioneers, constructing a temporary paradise from wool and mutton, and preferring siieep and cattle to men and women, have resolutely held the keys and kept the gates locked. Such of them, or their descendants, who reside in Napier, live on the eminences, and the cruel prediction of the laud reformer is that they are about as near Heaven as they are likely to get. Ordinary humanity rusticates mostly on the lower level, or in painted crowo' nests, on ledges of stone, occupying positions that look awe-inspiring and precarious. Many of these residences are overhung by shadowy cliffs, and run the risk of being entombed. But the Napier people are mostly fearless. Last winter, a slip, near, the centre of the town, distributed a dwelling on the road in front, and lifted another off its piles. The slip created a precipice of clay fifty feet deep on the edge of which several family residences, well-occupied by men, women, and children, defy fate and trust in Providence. The earthquake that shook out the live contents of the Government Buildings, in Wellington, two years ago, brought down a fragment of Cliff Hill sufficiently big to block the Marine parade, and stop the traffic on the Breakwater-road for several A lamp-post was smothered, and authority had the audacity to bill the owner of the hill for the damage done to the public property.

THE breakwater. About fourteen years and two or three hundred thousand pounds have been spent on the breakwater, and yet a singular diversion of opinion exists as to the wisdom of the undertaking. Many cling to the conviction that a good harbour should have been dredged out at the Spit, and a' breakwater avoided. But the Harbour Board, in its wisdom, having resolved on a breakwater, has exercised its powers of borrowing and taxation freely. Under the engineering advice of Mr John Goodatl, the first contract was begun in 1887, and finished by the end of ISSS. Up to the present, the thirty ton concrete blocks, laid down as a solid wall, or a higgledy-piggledy apron, can hardly be said to have asserted them selves in a useful direction. About thirty men, two or three cranes, a donkey engine, and a horse or two, are employed. The horse does for a locomotive, hauling the shingle along a tramway, the engine mixes the shingle and cement that are moulded into blocks, and the cranes lift the blocks and deposit them where they can fmht the ebb and flow that often dashes An occasional passenger the " Union " persuasion visits the wharf, but the principal performance of the breakwater, so far, has been to cut off the leg and toes of a worker. Nearly all the shipping is done at the Spit. A fleet of small steamers plies between the Spit and Wairoa, Gisborne and Castlepoint, and the larger vessels carriers of wool, grain and frozen meat —are anchored outside and loaded by means of lighters. A contract for wharfage extension is being carried out by the Pharaoh Company, an Auckland syndicate that substitutes sleel and concrete for timber. Concrete piles are a novelty. Fine gravel and sand are used, with a proportion of onefourth of cement, and in the centre of such square moulded column, are four long bars of steel binding the whole together. These piles are driven with the same facility as if they were of ironbark. Adverse weather and heavy seas, not mentioned in the specifications, are making the contract more advantageous for the Harbour Board than the Pharaoh Company.

MONUMENTAL. Most places of any size have a few monuments outside of the public cemetery. Napier in this respect is not unique. Some of the weatherbeaten and fast decaying seats on the Esplanade bear on oral plates of brass the legend, " Sacred to the Memory of John Sheehan." A grey resembling Cleopatra's Needle, the names of five heroic settlers who forfeited their lives during the Clive floods. On a stone pedestal is a snow white figure which, but for its uniform, might be mistaken for " Patience on a Monument," smiling at grief or the latest edition of Venus de Medici, with a humble-looking lion down below, where a useful water trough should be placed. This commemorates African contingenters who lost their lives in action. A slab let into the concrete of the Breakwater speaks of the Hon. J. D. Ormond, Chairman of the Harbour Board. But the most remarkable monument of all strides on eight legs, furnished with wheel feet across some widely divided rails, on the beach below the Breakwater. This monument is of iron. It resembles a. lofty bridge carrying on its deck a sort of combined crane and donkey engine. It is said to be the property of the Harbour Board and to have cost some hundreds of pounds. It has never been in use, and it resembles nothing in the Heaven above or the earth beneath. No one seems to know for what it was intended. Possibly it is meant to commemorate of the.first training-wall, buty^fP-will require some time yet, as over twenty chains have still to be built, and the monumental

monstrosity in the meantime is rapidly rusting away. the spit.

The impartial visitor cannot help regarding the Spit, or Port Ahuriri, as it is called, the neglected child of Napier. A pretty little suburb, where all the mercantile stores and warehouses are situated, it seems to have treated cruelly, if not spitefully. It is asserted that a fraction of the money already dissipated on the breakwater, each block of which costs £12, expended in dredging Ahuriri Harbour would have made it a useful port for almost every kind of shipping. For in spi'e of the railway station, the Government buildings, the municipal dovecot and the ghastly monuments, the Spit is still the shipping place. Nelson's Freezing Works are there, the wool stores of Williams and Kettle, (he Hawke's Bay Farmers' Co-operativo Association, Murray, Robots and Co., Dalgety and Co, N.Z. Loan and Mercantile, and others are there, together with the offices of .ike N.Z. Shipping Company. All the jPtyslal steamers and vessels use the port, atfd the large steamers have a good anchorage in the Bay, where they are loaded. There are numerous business places and residences, and a larte body of workers are here. A huge expanse of sand banks and shallow water forbids much navigation without dredging, and this is the great drawback to what would otherwise be a most important port. But the Harbour Board evidently prefer dredging the pockets of the town and country settlers to dredging Port Ahuriri. A bridge, half a mile long, connects the main U'airoa road with tho narrow horseshoe island that stretches over the bay. Travelling is very cheap between Napier and this port—a distance of three miles, the return by coach being only six pen? c.

KOAD TUAH-'K". Napier has a celebrity for its streets, paths and roads. The streets are somewhat narrow, but the paths are a fair width. In the town, the prevailing road metal is asphalt ; on the surrounding hills limestone. _ The surface everywhere is as near perfection as possible, and rarely are blinding clouds of dust to be seen. 'Cabs are plentiful ; but

bicycles and motor-cars ire the rage, and

the sound of puffing and blowing at every jfjjkner is almost monotonous. There is a -Wr depot, where a car and driver can be had for 12s per hour, or £0 os per d,:y. Each ear carries four adults, including the driver. People who can afford it prefer cabs, coaches and horseback, because the cars are becoming dirt common, besides which they sometimes ]ib, and then matters become awkward. A few weeks ago, a well-known farmer from the Lower Valky, near Carterton, tried a trip to Napier with his thrifty wife in one of these ca'-s, leaving a tolerably large dairy herd to the tender.mercies of a few youngsters and a patent milking machine. "The car jibbed near the town of Havelock, and refused to budge. With the aid of two Clydesdales and a locomotive, it was dragged fifteen miles to Napier, where it was laid-up under treatment wUh an engineering doctor for a week. No wonder the farmer and his wife, who could have travelled on excursion terms, were too mad to enjoy their enforced holiday.

municipal. In Mr Carroll, twice elected, Napier has a thoroughly energetic Mayor. The Municipal buildings are fairly commodious. Both Town Clerk and Engineer have separate quarters, and the Mayor has a well ordered room to himself, where he can be interviewed and conduct his correspondence. The Council Chamber is not unlike that at «;terton, except that it is larger and the s are decorated with lifesized portraits ol different mayors, the central one beins a line oilpainting of the present occupant of the office. Near at hand is the fire brigade station, equipped with up-to date appliances. Napier is well supplied with water and gas. The water is pumped into a concrete tank on the top of a hill; the gas of good quality is 5s per thousand feet. The town has no public library or reading room. There is a good reading room and library at the Working Men's Club and another library at the Athenaeum, but the museum is declared to be not worth looking at, The public baths consist of two wooden skeletons en the beach with a painted board in front containing the rules and regulations. During the bathing season, the skeletons, dressed in canvas, are in charge of a male and female custodian, both expert swimmers, who see that the bathers are properly dres?ed and decorously undressed. Twelve acres of land among the hills are devoted to public wardens. The walks are asphalted, and so are the steps, which are numerous. There are one or two lawns, and most of the land is under flowers, shrubs and various kinds of trees. The upper part of the gardens is fringed with a series of wire houses, in which are a kangaroo, an emu, several oMMsums, and a collection of ducks, cockjjp;, pheasants and pigeons, whose performances on swinging-bars liven up the cemetery that is planted alongside.

OTHER INSTITUTION'S. Just above the Public Gardens are the Home fur the Aged and the Hospital. The Home consists of the wooden barracks used by the troops half a century ago, and the kauri of which they are built is well preserved. There are about eighty inmates, only half-a-dozen being women It is alleged that there would be more women but the ladies of Napier never, grow old. At thirty they are very slow of growth, and at fortyfive or fifty the age becomes stationary. The windows are small and old-fashioned, but in nearly every case each man or woman has a room,"furnished with bed, table and chair. The rooms are uniformly papered with pictorial clippings. Old age and infirmity are the prevailing afflictions, and several of the inmates are invalids suffering from paralysis, rheumatic and nervous affections. Mr Mayo, a kindly, considerate superintendent, is doing his best with the material at his disposal. He has two kitchens or galleys, and a visit to these places would convince the most sceptical that the dietary arrangements are by no means neglected" A new institution, some distance away, which will cost abcut £11,000, is in process of erection, and, when completed, it is intended to have a bon-fire. w/U Hospital stands next door. On the crown of the hill it enjoys a line situation, commanding an extensive view of the surrounding landscape. There are a series of buildings with a central yard. Among the probationers is a young Maori girl, who appears to be giving a good account of herself. Hapeta Whakamairu is laid-up in a room by himself, suffering from chest complaint. He is anxious to return to Masterton, but is too ill to be moved. Another of the'inmates just turning convalescent is a young man already referred to, as losing one of his legs at the breakwater. He was in charge of the horse, conveying shingle for concrete, when the animal bolted, and he had his right leg cut off below the knee, and lost several toes from his left foot. Two bright little boys were beside him, pleading that he should rely on his crutch and get home. Poor fellow ! A young man, bright and active looking, with a wife and three children his position is a painful one. Asked if he felt any pain, he said, although making a good recovery, he suffered a bit, but the pain was in an imaginary ankle about eighteen inches beyond where the leg -•"amputated. Among tho nurses is Miss flfflS&y, the daughter of a well-knowu Wangaehu settler. The hospital has a resident surgeon (Dr. Wilson) and a staff of honorary and visiting surgeons. Outdoor patients are treated daily at noon.