OLD PLANS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1359, 9 February 1912, Page 6

OLD PLANS.

WELLINGTON'S CALLOW DAYS. STREETS THAT NHVKK WRKII.

[By Stlvics.l

In an old, old office, not a league from any-point in Wellington City, whose. murky walls tire covoied by paper of a pattern which might have adorned the walls of Pecksiiill's architectural academy, and where the 'light of day had come reluctantly and departed readily these fitly years, (lie writer chanced upon ii treasure, rich and rare. .In the same manner that a man will spend half his waking hours in delving among old luniks, attending book sales, ami peering through the windows of second-hand bunk-heps, and others may spend timo and money iu the search for old china, so do a fewpeople find a certain fascination in eld auction plans—[il-aics of country lands subdivided for the first time into great farms or station properties; plans of big farms reduced to smaller areas in compliance with the demand for closer settlement; plans of small farms cut up into suburban allotments; suburban allotment., into desirable town sections; and (own sections into valuable building blocks. It is tho history of settlement in little that these old yellow dust-besmirched plans record—they are the abstract and brief chronicles of progress in population in a new land, that within tho memory of tiie living was a bush-covered waste, peopled oulj by a lew Maoris. The plans under notice embraced the whole of Wellington Province, and sonic incursions into the South Island. Not a few of them aro auctioneers' plans of cities that were to be—that aro not; of blocks of land in cities cut np in such a way that no one would recognise the locality now; plans of lands that were never sold; others which sold readily, and yielded in the course of timo fortunes to their purchasers. "Plan of the Gibson Estate, Manners Street, Wellington, to be sold by public auction by W. Finemore at the Oddfellows' Hall on Wednesdav, September 2(i, 1877." This was the first notice that caught tho eye as the dusty sheets wero turned over. It was an estate which practically embraced tho whole of ono side of Manners Street (the south side), extending from tho Wesloyan Church (which stood on a site opposite the present Opera House) and was subsequently burned down, right along to "the corner block at the intersection of Willis and Manners Streets—then occupied, it is understood, by the late Dr. Harding, a medico beloved by all iu old Wellington. From tho Wesleyan Church, which looms big on the plan, coming west, the occupants of tho properties occupied for sale are shown as follow on the plan:—llelver (monumental mason), still there; Pelford, Huxley (tailor), S. Scott (pastrycook), Thomas, Brittain (chemist), still (here. Then on the other side of Herbert Street: Jvingswell (where Geo. Fowlds's big stora now stands), Ueid, Love (plumber), Murray, Smith, Walker, Martin's (paporhanger), Demnsoy and Cooper (seedsman). It is recorded that the sale of these eleven sections (for whom Benjamin Smith and Co. were agents) was a very good one indeed—quite satisfactory to the seller, who was the owner of one of tho New Zealand Land Co.'s original town acres. Each of the sections had a more or less substantial building erected thereon, yet it is on record that Mr. Huxley only paid .EllaO cash for his lot, building and all. There would lie considerable bidding above that figure now were tho same block offered for sale. Still-born Streets. The' Government of those days did not seem to have a very definite notion what to do with that strip of laud reclaimed from the sea beach at Lower Lauibton and Tliorndon Quays, if their own salo plans be faithful records oldie, intentions of those in authority in IS7-I. One sale plan published that year deals with the reclaimed land from a point near Waring Taylor Street north to tho vicinity of Pipilea Toint. It was then to he divided into blocks ranging from one to two acres in area, and divided by streets set at right angles to tho Quay. They even went so far as to name (ho streets, which the public of today will have no little difficulty in recognising. Commencing from the first street to tho north of Waring Taylor Street, one reads on the plan tho following street names—lSorkiso Street, Clifford Street, Weld Street, Buckley Street, Poarce Street, Dorset Street, Jackson Street, and Watt Street. Waterloo "Street" ran north and soufli on'the seaward side of these blocks and beyond that street is marked as "railway reserve." Evidently nothing was done on tho basis of that plan, for in another one executed four years later (in 1878) by -Mr. E. V. Briscoe it is shown that the Government of the day had retained almost the whole, of tho land skirting Lambton Quay as far south as the Charlotte Street intersection, but northward of that along Tliorndon Quay (where the railway now runs) was being offered to the public in "suitable building blocks," but instead of the street names of tho 1871 plan-being retained it is found that the land had been divided (at right angles (o Thorndon Quay) by Fisher Street, Allen Street, Diver Street, Logan Street, Greenfield Street, Macdonald Street, and Moss Street —none of which ever came into existence for the Government, once more changing its mind, as Governments will do, retained the whole lot as a railway reserve, and to-day the land is a tace-work of rails leading into (ho Lauiblo!? Station. "To be sold by public auction at tho oilico of the Provincial Treasury, April If, ISSS." There is no flourish about this plan—it is free from flic flowery hand of the land salesman and auctioneer. It is just a plain, office-drawn plan free from any embellishments, yet one of the most interesting in tho collection as it deals with the disposal of some of the first land reclaimed in Wellington—tho strip on the eastern side of Willis Street, from a point about Chew's Lane, almost down to the Hunter Street intersection in Customhouse Quay. The sections aro .'lOlt. (frontage to Willis Street) by lallf't. in depth. Midway dawn what is now Chew's Lane, tho plan shows Swinburne's Wharf projecting into the harbour, and twenty or thirty yards away, in Willis Street (on the site of the present Palace Hotel), stands Swinburne's Hotel. Swinburne was evidently a shrewd man of business. Another interesting feature in this: dim-lined old plan is the fact (hat it shows an outline of the hull of the barque Inconstant, better known to early settlers as "Noah's, or Pliinmer's Ark'," which is depicted as lying comfortably in the ground, partly on the section ' occupied by the head office of (he Bank of Now Zealand, and in part by the National Mutual Life Association's building. In a line with "Noah's Ark," "Pliinmer's Wharf" projects into the harbour in a north-easterly direction—quite- against the principle of wharf-building (iu direction) since adopted by the Harbour Board, which has studied the set of prcvaili'ii" winds. These sections have turned out well for their purchasers and iheir heirs, and are now some of the most valuable blocks in Wellington—in New Zealand perhaps. This old file of plans, which includes early plans of Gisborne, Palinc-rslon North, Carnarvon, Itavelock, Pi-tout-. Unit, Carterton, and a hundred other places, is frequently referred to to settle arguments', decide wagers, and even to elucidate a legal difference. Valuable— thev are, indeed!