WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Graphic, 20 December 1894, Page 10

WELLINGTON.

THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.

NO impression of Wellington will live longer in the memory than the view of it which is obtained in approaching the city from the sea during the early hours of a clear starlight evening. The twinkling of the electric lamps upon the extensive wharves and along the shores, with the tiers of lights high above them on terraced streets and in the windows of houses, seen in dim outline, perched high above the Bay, is like a scene in fairyland. The daylight view, however, is still a very charming one. The broad, lake-like harbour, enclosed with low, shrub-covered mountains, its bosom dotted with ships from every clime ; the city stretched along the hillside around the water front, rising up the slope in graduated rows, like a stairway of buildings, extending from the hill tops down to the Bay-side, along which, upon a strip o r flat land much of it reclaimed from the sea, are erected many fine business edifices and public buildings. The harbour authorities have made the best of their splendid shipping facilities. Spacious wharves built along the water front bring the leviathan ocean steamers and mercantile warehouses into close proximity. These facilities, with its geographical advantages, are contributing to make Wellington a great mercantile distributing centre as well as the seat of Government. Railways to Napier on the Hast Coast and New Plymouth on the West, carry the produce in wool and meat of a vast area of agricultural and pastoral country for export. Among the buildings in close proximity to the bay, the General Post Office, the Great Departmental Offices the Government Printing Office, Government House in its tree-planted enclosure, and some of the principal warehouses specially attract attention. The Houses of Parliament are not visible from the water front, and are not particularly imposing structures of wood. They convey a much weaker impression ofthe magnitude of the governing machinery of the colony than the huge square structure known, par excellence, as the Government Offices—there are many departments which have their headquarters elsewhere. A climb up the staircases and a ramble through the winding passages of this edifice, which is popularly believed to be ‘ the biggest wooden building in the world,’ gives one a good idea of the extent of the machinery necessary to run the Government of New Zealand. The concentration of a large body of

the higher public officials and the attendant public expenditure has not only been of great advantage commercially to Wellington, but has also conferred many social advantages, for the Civil Service of New Zealand includes many able and cultured men. The tendency to establish the headquarters of large commercial houses here, and the recent removal of the head office ofthe Bank of New Zealand to Wellington, will operate in the same direction . With the Christmas number of the Graphic last year a panorama of Wellington was issued, viewed from about the centre of the city, and giving special prominence to tile business quarters. The picture in this issue is taken

from the Thorndon end, and fairly depicts the handsome residences in which the prosperous citizensof Wellington have established their homes. Many beautiful views are obtained from the hills around Wellington, which amply repay the toilsome climb up their slopes. Spread out beneath the spectators’ feet are the roofs and streets of the city, with its shipping lying at the wharves, and beyond are the silvery waters of the harbour, on whose peaceful bosom merchant ships and war vessels floating the flags of many nations, are safely anchored. To the east is seen the narrow gateway through which the harbour lets itself out to the sea, and beyond the white rows of ocean rollers, breaking in foaming crests on the shore. To the southwards gleam the stormy waters of Cook Strait, which divides the North and South Islands. Beyond this tempestuous channel, if the day is clear, can be defined the dim shore-line of the South Island. Just underneath, the eye ranges over the levelled sites and rising structures of some palatial building elevated like a castle and commanding a fine view over the harbour. Roadways grooved out of the hill-side bear testimony to the activity of the city fathers, and the difficulty of their task in making streets upon such an unpropitious site. The traffic of the city is facilitated by an excellent system of tramways. The theatres, hotels, and commercial buildings are all worthy of a progressive city whose present population of 34,190 is being rapidly added to.