HISTORIC TOTARA PILES

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 14 March 1927, Page 4

HISTORIC TOTARA PILES

A PRESENTATION CASKE1 STORY OF, SIXTY YEAK& AGOs An interqsfffig'relic 01 •: :;i ly WeK liugton i^* jembo'died in tb«* caskef containing ithe Well* ' >;r Harbousi B 0 ard's^illumin at e d ax.xiress, whiclr was prekented to Ihe Duke aC(f' Duches^'Jof Yroriv. The fotarja! oi whfc^ the* caske; is made jvag iW Yxently -'retircd" after servfng fo^ ovei] 60 years in one of tbq prigioa! piles of the Queen's iWIiarl!_fet Wel* lington. The xnan probably. most timately acquainted [witli the earM history of the piles .|s VY/. Jd StafF, of Lower! ^ As a youth in* his 'teens, Mr Sta®| stated in an interview he was ajE Foxton in the late 'fifties with hi® stepfather, a builder and shiM wright, when a brig arrived to takra on board the piles which they ha® helped to cut and shape fcr WeM lington's first deep-water wharf-^ the nucleus of the present Queen's Wharf. Foxton at that time was ex»i tremely isolated, as the only coHS nection with Wellington, other thali by water, was along the beach tC Paekakariki, and thence by road. - It was intended that ihe bri®' should proceed up the Orona RiveEf. to pick up the piles, whicxi wer^j lying on the banks of the .-IreamV but it 'was found that there wa^ not sufficient water for the hoat tcf sail more than a mile upstream? where a further difficulty aros$ when it was discovered that witK her cargo aboard she would not be able to cross the bar at the nxoutli of the river. Gonsequently it was necessary for the piles to be xnadei into rafts and floated out to theS vessel, into which they had then tb be hoisted. )\ The work was further complicaf-f ed when the heavy seas caused' many of the piles to break loose and drift out to sea. Jt was rio easy ^matter for the crew, with theiri comparatively primitive lioisting apparatus, to lift into the hoat the heavy ..wharf piles. However,- the^ piles were at length.safely transported to their destination, wherfii the first was di'iven on April !'»• 1862. The durability of the wood was revealed when, in 1924. thei timbers were removed and found td be still in perfect condition. 1 Another interesiing point in cohnection with these piles . is thai? within a y.ear or two of the com~i pletion of the wharf New Zealand was honour ed by its first RoyaD visit. In 1869, the fhilce of Edin-' burgh, secon'd _son of the late Queeri Victoria, visited the colony in command of H.M.S, Galatea. The rlif ference between New Zealand theti and now can be.likened to the dif-' ference between H.M.S. Galatea and H.M.S. Renown. .