OUR DISTRICT AND OUR SETTLERS.—No. 16.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 78, 28 February 1884, Page 2

OUR DISTRICT AND OUR SETTLERS.—No. 16.

A TRIP UP THE COAST. [by our special reporter.] The City of Tologa. This grand and elegant city, with its massive structures of granite and marble, is built upon a vast plain, bordered by the sea-coast, and is divided by a beautiful tidal river navigable for many miles inland. The hillsides are dotted with pretty villa residences. The spire of its magnificent cathedral is seen towering high above the peak of the loftiest hill, and when lit up for evening service, the light streaming through its many stained-glass windows, one of which has been placed in it to the memory of that old navigator Captain Cook, who first discovered this city, send their colored streams of light far away on to the distant ocean. The architecture of this grand pile of buildings shows unmistakeable signs that it was erected at a period antecedent to the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. The streets of the city are about three chains in width, with promenades on each side partially paved and partially gravelled, alongside of which are growing luxuriantly trees of beautiful foliage and forming miles of delightful avenues. At short intervals there ere planted orange, apple, pear, peach, and other trees, under the shadow of which there are seats on which ladies and gentlemen rest when taking morning and afternoon promenades, and they are at liberty, according to the city by-laws, to pluck the ripe fruit and eat it, but none is permitted to be carried away under pains of a very heavy penalty. Each citizen is expected to rigidly respect these conditions and report to the authorities any breach of them. The city is laid off into twenty-five main streets, with a full complement of lanes and smaller avenues leading from one main thoroughfare to another. Passing through some of these I saw innumerable local industries being prosecuted, in which a large portion of 500,000 inhabitants found permanent and lucrative employment. The buildings in the main streets are some of them five storeys high, but there are none less than three. This regulation is enforced by the City Council. Such a sight as a tumble-down old building is not to be seen in any of the leading thoroughfares, another regulation of the local-governing authorities being that when a building shows any sign of dilapidation, and the owner fails to put it in proper repair, it is acquired by the City Council at a valution placed upon it by the Chief Surveyor, and then properly repaired and let, the rent becoming Corporation revenue. In the shop-windows are displayed the manufactures of all nations. Some special warehouses teem with the woollen goods made at the factories which stand along the river-bank, a short distance from the city boundary. The woollen-mills are kept going with the produce of the sheep-stations along the coast, the price paid by the proprietors of these mills to the sheep-farmers being from Is. fid. to Is. 9d. per lb., according to quality. There is, therefore, abundant employment arising in and around the city of Tologa for artizans and all sorts of handicraftsmen. Telephone-ic

communication is established throughout the district. The citizens are especially given to indulgence in amusements. The theatre is an imposing structure, after the Corinthian style of architecture, and is capable of accommodating fully 8,000 people. All the stage machinery is worked by steam, and the engine generates the electric light by which the theatre is beautifully illuminated. Religious institutions abound, but the Wesleyan Church has fallen into disuse, and is now used as a gymnasium, in consequence of the Episcopal and Methodist having become united as one body, under the spiritual ministrations of the Rev. Theopholus Broadbrim ; and thus is bridged the vast chasm opened by the late Rev. John Wesley. The Baptists are a very strong body, and worship in a huge tabernacle under the ministrations of the Rev. John Dip’um, a lineal descendant of plain John, whose food ?n olden times was locusts and wild honey. The Presbyterians stand next in numerical strength to the United Saints (the title assumed by the Methodists and Churchmen since their amalgamation), and the pastor’s name is the Rev. Obadiah Knot, greatgrandson of the divine of that name. There are a few Latter Day Saints in the city, the religious tenets as advanced by the late lamented Brigham Young suiting their conviction to a nicety, because, according to the government of that Church, a man is allowed to take unto himself a plurality of wives, and, therefore, the citizens who have wives of English and New Zealand extraction arc equally regarded as good citizens, no one raising a protest because such a system is allowed under special Act of Parliament by the City Council, prior to the present Mayor and Councillors being elected. Some other little religious sects meet together at at stated seasons, but their views arc very narrow on the doctrines of Christianity. There are two immense structures in the city, erected by general public subscription, for the convenience of strangers visiting the city, and, who as a rule, are too poor to pay the hotel charges. At the time of my visit to this great city I was taken by the Chief Commissioner of Police to see the interior of one of these bouses of refuge. It teems with carvings, crude and artistic, with representations of the fall of Adam, the birth of Cain, and so on down to events of less historical import. In the park there is a rotunda, on the balcony of which the brass bands discourse sweet

music, and near to which stands a fountain with its perfumed waters sparkling as they shoot upwards and descend again in the sunlight rays. The Tologa Docks are the finest I have seen since I left Liverpool. They are capable of accommodating steamers of any draught. An average of four 5,000 ton vessels leave the port weekly. This fact alone is sufficient to give some idea of the great commercial importance of this flourishing port. The harbormaster is Commodore Ekirk. Boats propelled by electricity convey passengers across the ferry, the approaches to which have been made of waste pieces of leather and the soles of old boots. I found the education department of the city presided over by a lady 8.A., who ably maintains the dignity of her important position. A very obese lady, of sable complexion, with an immensely prolific head of hair was pointed out to me, as I stood in the portico of the Museum and Art Institution, as the Lady Superioress of the Convent. This pious lady was returning from her morning visit to the Hospital, where she regularly attends and dispenses consolation in the form of delicacies to the sick. The work of imparting religious instruction outside the Convent she leaves to the Brothers. The present Worshipful the Mayor is Sir W. W. Brown, who, unlike a certain London Aiderman, was not disqualified to hold office because he had no wife. There are thirteen Aidermen of the City, namely—Messrs. Reaves, Somerville, Stewart, McFarlane, Swain son, Finlay, Hodges, DeCosta, Trimmer, Liddle, Mullooly, James, and the Mayor. The Court of Aidermen sits weekly. Every private dwellinghouse, places of business, public worship, amusement, and the streets of the City are illumined with the electric light. A Board of Commissioners attend to this department, presided over by the Right Hon. J. Nicholl, one of the most eminent authorities of the present day on electricity applied either as a means of life-giving, life-preserving, lifetaking, boat-propelling, or illumination. The City Clerk and Treasurer is Martin Stagpoole, Esq., for many years in Her Majesty’s service, and who, although being considered an excellent lawyer, and seldom fails to advance a correct opinion upon any point of law, has at his command the services of a very good lieutenant in the person of the City Solicitor, W. F. Hale, Esq., a gentleman thoroughly au fait with the Statutes of New Zealand and questions affecting land tenure. The City Engineer is Mr. McClive, C.E., of the firm of Graham, Kinross, and Co., the Commissioner of Public Works being Mr. R. Craig. Government Buildings, in which are the Post Office, Telegraph Department, also the offices of several other branches of the Civil Service, are situated in close proximity to the Tologa Bay and Sea View Hotel, and are very spacious. The Chief Postmaster is Sir E. Peters, and he has under his command a most efficient staff of officers. The suburban letter-carriers are provided with wings, which they use as dexterously and as naturally as birds. This arrangement greatly facilitates the delivery of letters. The Justice-Hu use and Prison are structures of no mean pretensions, but present quite as sombre appearance as their use indicates. Police officers patrol the streets of the city day and night, attired in an unique uniform quite dissimilar to the manner in which the “ peelers” dress in towns of such little importance as Gisborne. Few brawls disturb the peace of the City of Tologa, so that the life of a policeman there is quite a happy lot. New “ Supreme ” Court buildings have just been erected by an enterprising speculator—an Aiderman of the city—and also special apartments for the bench of judges. Though not a litigious community like Poverty Bay people are credited with being, there are some questions that can only be adjusted at this Supreme Court. The Government of the Colony is too poor to meet the cost of providing the necessary buildings, and the want has therefore been met through the enterprising proprietor of the Ferry Hotel. So peace-abiding are the people, and so conciliatory in their commercial relationships one with another—this in a measure arises from the fact that they never give credit under any circumstances—that unless a solitary lawyer held an appointment under the City Council it would be impossible for him to earn his salt. This is a very healthy state of society, and highly creditable to the morality of the Tologans. The hotels are pictures of neatness and stability. Attached to each is a fire engine and high pressure water supply, so that all danger of perishing should a fire break out in the dead of the night is obviated. The sanitary arrangements of the city are so perfect that there is very little sickness or disease of any kind. Fevers are unknown, and, excepting in one particular instance, no case is on record—and that was the doctor himself got into a state of fever because the people’s health was good, and he could not make a living. Dr. Scott will readily confirm this testimony. Of course, in the event of accidents, which are the principal cases treated at the Hospital, there is a House-Surgeon and Dispenser retained there. There are several banks in the city, but they have no affiliation with any of the banking institutions of this and neighboring colonies. The “pawnbroking business,” so profitable to other banks, is not carried on by the Mutual, the Provident, and City Banks of Tologa. The secret is that the place is teeming with local industries, the export trade is far in excess of imports, and, as a natural sequence, money is plentiful, the industrial classes welldressed and happy, and the employers of labor prosperous. This, my dear readers, was my dream of Tologa township the night before I visited the scene. Such will be Tologa of the future.