Wellington

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 41, 18 October 1923, Page 21

Wellington

HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF NEW ZEALAND'S METROPOLIS. (By Archbishop Redwood.) The physical conditions of the very site of the city have entailed much labor in the making of room for homes and offices and factories—what no other city in the Do* minion has had to face. To carve out homes from the hills, to reclaim much land from the sea—such toil has left little or no time for the "Wellington people to waste on the purely aesthetic, and has indelibly marked their character; It has been said— with a certain measure of truth— Wellington lacks the civic spirit and patriotic pride. . It would be nearer, the truth to say that these qualities are latent and dormant, and only need stimulus to come to life. Such a stimulus was "Wellington Welcome Week." Now the spirit of progress is in "the very Wellington air. Old buildings are coming down, and are replaced by vastly greater and more materially substantial ones. .Former residential areas are making space if or. the advance of industry. Large and imposing factories are in course -of " construction, where wooden hovels .'stood before mouldering in decay. Reclaimed land is rapidly . being covered with warehouses and stores. Buoyant optimism rules instead of stagnant pessimism. Wellington is coming to realise in earnest that it is the capital and natural' centre of the Dominion. Of all the chief- cities of New. Zealand—the four centres—Wellington is pre-eminently the seaport of the Dominion. One may criticise the Latinity of the city's motto "Suprema a situ"; but one must admit the obvious reality of the circumstances . which determined its choice. j; Wellington is indeed supreme,.. (from or by) its site. ■A 1 glance at the map will decide the matter. Look at a map, f first of Zealand,' and then of the world, or at least j of the Pacific Ocean. Wellington is, first of all, situated: almost exactly in the centre of New Zeaalnd, between the North and South Islands, an ideal position for the reception of goods to be exported or distributed. -Has any other harbor in the world greater natural advantages in that' respect? From tho world's shipping point of view, Wei-' lington is the nearest port in Australasia to Panama, the'.] nearest port of call for overseas vessels passing by Panama*. to England, Europe, America, and Canada. Wellington! harbor has an area of about 20,000 acres, with depths vary-f ing from six to fourteen fathoms, and sufficiently extensive}] to enable the whole British Fleet to be safely accommodatedH and to manoeuvre under steam within its limits. The J anchorage is good throughout, and the land-locked harbori provides good and safe shelter. To this magnificent sheetf j of water there is a broad and ample entrance, exceeding;', in its narrowest part 3600 feet, and with a depth of seven* or eight fathoms. The current in the entrance never t exceeds two knots, and the rise and fall of the tide varies f from 2 feet 6 inches to four feet 6 inches. The entrance is exceptionally well lighted by a powerful light at Pencarrow Head, assisted by a less powerful low-level light, and also by leading lights which, when kept in line, guide vessels up the centre of the deepest water at the channel entrance. ' . . ' Port Nicholson ("Poneke" in Maori from the abridged "Port Nick") was named after Captain Nicholson, harbormaster at Sydney, about the year 1826, and Lambton f Harbor, where many wharves and quays now stand, was % so calle'd by Colonel Wakefield, in honor, of the Earl 'of Durham, . Governor of the New Zealand " Company. The name of.. Wellington was given by a resolution of the company on.: May 16, 1840. The first site of the proposed newtown was laid off at Petone, under the name of "Brit- % annia," but the experience of floods over the, then; swampy '- ground soon caused the settlers to shift to the, originally chosen site of Thorndon.- The available land in those days "i consisted of two level areas, Thorndon and Te Aro, ; con- -, nected by a narrow strip of beach at the base of low cliffs which to-day overlook the junction of Lambton Quay and

Willis Street. The-water of the harbor covered' most '- of the site of that part of the city which is the commercial centre : to-day. Wellington's geographical' site gave : it its commercial supremacy, but the industry and enterprise of ; - ; its; citizens gave that site development by reclamation from' the sea. ; ; ; . -'■ ■-■ r 'A '?■&■'.-''■■ ■ '■~~- : .-X /;'-'...': ■':;''- :: • -Before the formation of-the Harbor Board (February 20, 1880)-there were in the 20 years before the Queen's Wharf, as many as'2o private wharves and jetties, at which lighters from the ships cowld unload cargo. The Queen's Wharf was first managed by „ the Wellington Provincial "-Council (before the abolition of the Provinces), and fell under the management of the Wellington Harbor Board in 1880. 1* :' ?, High praise is due to the Harbor Board, its engineers, officers, and personnel generally. It's over forty years of existence have witnessed marvellous developments and alterations. Successive reclamations on a -very large scale; the scores and scores of acres of most valuable land added thereby to a city short of level areas in the beginning; the improvement of the waterfront of the city and the deep-water berthage for miles; the foreseeing and admirable plan realised in these developments not only to-day but to-morrow and far on in the future; the spick and span : aspect of the wharves and their sheds and hydraulic appliances for unloading cargo and supplementing or* replacing the ordinary ship winches: all this naturally impresses the intelligent visitors, who make favorable, comparisons with other ports, on the score of excellent arrangements for landing or shipping cargo, the efficiency of transport, the apparatus, and the general air of orderly "method and system. As a rule waterfronts in seaports are by no means tidy and trim, but-rather slatternly in the extreme; but Wellington's waterfront is a splendid exception; so that from whatever point the visitor takes his -view, Wellington's waterfront stands worthy of the capital city of the Dominion. But the Harbor Board's greatest work, within view of near achievement, is the Greater Thorndon Reclamation, entailing the-construction of a sea-wall enclosing the total area of nearly 70 acres, to be reclaimed chiefly by spoil pumped by the Board's dredge, the Wakarire. This work means much, very much, to Wellington. It means adequate space for the new railway station so often claimed arid so sorely needed; it means for the Harbor Board an area for wharves and sheds of 11£ acres; it means an extensive addition of deep-water berthage; it means in all.a breastwork 2700 feet long; it means numbers of vast stores and warehouses reticulated by railway tracks touching the waterfront; finally, it means almost ideal conditions for the expansion of a great import and export trade, Wellington's exhaustless source of wealth and importance. Wellington is already the leading port of the dominion, as official statistics for 1922 clearly show. '';'■■ The exports for the year are as-follows:

Wellington .........,.;.....: £11,842,144 Auckland -. .' 9,595,225 Lyttelton (port for'Chch,)... 5,034,958 Napier 2,577,431 Dunedin 2,442,453 Invercargill ..:..... . 2,292,770 Timaru , ..........r. 2,285,747

I omit other ports of less.significance. In these statistics each place is rightly credited with the total amount shipped from it. This return shows eloquently Wellington's rightful place as the leading port-of the Dominion. ; ASPECT OF WELLINGTON. First impressions on entering a town often color our whole sojournment The best way by far to enter Welling-ton-is by the seaward. in early morning or after dusk. At night the serried lights of the hilltops seem, ■-,- to link the earthly 7 sphere with the stars—it is a splendid #»l«mination equalled in neither town in New Zealand or Australia, owing to the superior loftiness of the Wellington heights..;. Bathed in the golden; light of % morn, with thesun shining over the waterfront, the sight: of the city with its tall buildings and; its green hills for a background studded ; and crested with the ; homes of, the citizens, or with its cruder features softened at nightfall by the oncoming dusk, pricked by the myriad lights as they fall ■ into view.

Wellington '] looks at ", its best. In more than one.particularit calls to mind, .for one who : has travelled in Italy, the splendid panorama of. : Genoa— "Genova la superba"— -To arrive in Wellington by road or train affects the newcomer very unfavorably.■ .£ You arrive, for instance, .after" a long and wearisome journey ;by the . Trunk Express : from Auckland, in the apology, of a railway station, -and Wellington appears at its worst. Yet some fine buildings already adorn the city. Chief among them is the new Parliament Building, a noble edifice of ; New Zealand granite and white marble, not yet complete 'in.; all its final stateliness and adornment; then St. Mary of the. Angels', the historic Catholic church, built on the site of the first lowly chapel in-Wellington is a fine specimen of art and solidity, built as it is in reinforced concrete and in the Gothic style, the most ornate edifice in the city. r Next the Church of the Sacred Heart on its commanding site of Hill Street. Again, the General Post Office, the Public Trust Building, the Dominion Farmers' Institute, the Town Hall, the new State Fire Office, the University College, St. Patrick's College, a number of fine banks, and not a few ornate private residences. The era of fragile wooden structures has gone, and the period of substantial steel-framed" and reinforced concrete buildings has set in. The aspect of Wellington as now seen will in a few years be wellnigh unrecognisable. Oriental Bay is a beauty spot of Wellingtons It reminded the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Cattaneo, on his first visit to New Zealand, of some spots near Naples, and his admiration of it was enthusiastic. The Redemptorists' Monastery and their pretty church, with its statue of Our Lady Star of the Sea, overlooks the harbor, and commands, at - night especially, r the - finest - panorama of Wellington and its harbor. A beautiful wall and esplanade face the bay, lit up by electric lights in bunches,. and having a music stand, where the city band plays on summer evenings. Another charming feature of Oriental Bay and its neighbor, Clyde 'Bay, is the Boat Harbor. It is a haven with an area of about six acres, and varying in depth from four to over eleven feet. It is enclosed by concrete sea Avails, and so pleasure craft can be safely moored in it and left secure and sheltered from all weathers. For the convenience of owners the Board has provided reinforced concrete boathouses, gear, and stores. It is a pretty sight in summer to see the flotillas issue from this picturesque haven, and dot the main harbor and produce holiday regattas. ■•••; 7; - The beauty of Wellington mainly lies in its combination of hill, dale, and water. The visitor is charmed by the many views of wooded slopes and terraced homes which' crown the perspective of the city. But he must climb the heights and skirt the water's edge, to survey properly the city and its environs from different angles, and so form a fair idea of its picturesque variety. Above all, he should drive in a motor round the seafront of the vast harbor and its many bays. For over thirty miles round the harbor and outside the port along the beach facing Cook Strait and the Ocean, you can take the most.delightful drives; and here is a feature of. Wellington's charms which is shared by no other city the Dominion. The Wellington authorities, in their .wise foresight, have preserved the ownership of the roads round the waterfront everywhere, so as not to allow them to be cut or obstructed by private property of any kind. Posterity will bless them for "this; for it gives to the ... environment f of Wellington a charm possessed by no other city in Australasia. It is Wellington's unique privilege and pride. ■- - / .. -