A City of Queenly Beauty

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 2, 24 March 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

A City of Queenly Beauty

city is like a gawky boy who, having lost his childish charm, never looks distinguished again until he is matured, or, maybe, not until the passage of the years have made him venerable. First of all, a pioneering people decide to build their homes in some Place generally for its combination of uti.ity ana beauty, ard as the years go by the intaut c has the charm of youth about it. T 1 beauty of the surroundings, unmarred > the handiwork of man, stands out n contrast. Eighty-seven years is a long span *° r life of a man, but a short one for a city. and those men who hoisted the flag a J- with mart on September 18, 1840, would g he marvelling eyes if they could see to y city that they then declared the capital of the Colony.

From the roof and Norman tower ° f ™ SUN buildings, which stand out bbasteb wh te against a murky background of commarc and industrial piles, it is possible to obtain an unrivalled view of Auckland Cit> environs.

Gazing towards North Shore the eye *® first the grey and silver of the Waite mat a Harbour extending in one great sw aap - h Chelsea out to the more remote waters . Gulf. Sleeping in that harbour now their romantic- days gone by, are the blac . hulks which were once brave ships UP° P Seven Seas. The nobler ships or the new veneration lie out there too. but they Work to do. and the gigantic cranes lift nom them, as they come to the wharves, earg . have brought from the ports of the ‘ Insolent ferry boats bustle importantly from the settlements across the harbour, and email pleasure craft lie in pleasant anchorage at Freeman's Bay. Out beyond Shelly Beach and Chelsea are tree fringed hills, and when the eye sweeps round to Devonport and ' Puna the trees become a more definite pari of the picture as the hills come closer. Be the trees and the water the crowded settlement basks in the sunshine. Out beyond those hills are the islands of Hauraki Gulf that sleep

in the sunshine, or are lost in the mist on dull days. First is Tiri-Tiri, near which is the tomb of ships; then beyond that, Kawau, the gem of the Gulf. Out in the north-east, dreaming in a blue haze, lies Rangitoto, changeless, immovable, still keeping a watchful eye on the city he has seen grow from a yesterday, of mud-flats, forests, and fern gullies. Shifting the gaze inland the eye strikes the waterfrort built by man to serve the interests of commerce and Industry.

At the harbour end of the city rises up a huge jumble of buildings, erected with no thought of symmetry, and coloured now in many shades of grey. Rusted roofs, red roofs and green, they all assault the eye, and yet there is rough beauty in the scene. The belch ing smoke-stacks of factories smudge the skyline, and their black attrition marks the buildings in the neighbourhood. Suddenly there comes refreshment and ease for the watcher when the heavy masonrv gives way to the glad green of Albert Park an« the verdure of exotic Th*ck bush spreads out to the Domain, and upstanding above the other trees are the Norfolk pines, regular like Christmas trees. On most of the city eminences these trees are etched against the sky-line.

The red and white Hospital buildings, standing in their own ample piece of ground, are part-hidden by the round white tower of the Art Gallery and Public Library. Then, rising like a noble ridge, the houses run oqt crowning Khyber Pass to the slopes of Mount Eden, the “trig" of which stands almost in line with the turret of THE SUN building. A huddled mass of masonry crowds the entrance that Karaugahape Road makes to the city, and aloof from it all. the relic of earlier days, stands the Old Mill with two wings outstretched, as if in protest against these nezter things. Close at hand, and far away, workmen are busy adding more buildings to the city s bulk Auckland is growing fast, and her citizens, yet a pioneering people, have reason to be proud of the first eightv-seven years Enterprise gave her birth, and enterprise will make her grow. lAN DONNELLY.