Many Happy Returns!

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 265, 30 January 1928, Page 1

Many Happy Returns!

AUCKLAND’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS

Achievements of the Past

IP appropriate birthday honours were to be accorded the Auckland Province on this, its 88th anniversary, they would assume the shape of a complete record of the developmental achievements of the comparatively short span of years between 1840 and 1928. Auckland cannot he denied her treasured reflections upon the accomplishments of the past, and these alone are honours enough on the occasion of this celebration.

VONE indeed would withhold their admiration at the commercial and industrial progress that has been made, for the transformation of the Waitemata and its environs from the state of nature to a mould of human design is amazing in the eyes of the outside observer, and distinctly satisfying to those who assisted in its forward march. When Captain William Hobson arrived in Auckland on January 29, 1840, and conceived the idea of transferring the seat of Government from the Bay of Islands to the new settlement, there was little sign of human habitation, and the shoreß were unmarked by the hand of man. | No trading ships rippled the surface of our queenly harbour, and an occasional Maori canoe, belonging to the isolated tribes inhabiting the isthmus, was the only craft in sight. And to-day, the beginning of 1928, what thoughts must pass through the mind of the pioneer If he sits on the end of King’s Wharf, and views in retrospect the development that has been effected since he followed in the wake of Hobson and his band? How pleasant—yet how disturbing—to lapse into reverie of 50 years ago; how concinving to those who can go back even further into the pages of the past and see, not mile upon mile of houses and tall buildings, of church spires and busy streets, but silent hills and gullies covered -with verdant growth, stretching close to the edge of placid and untroubled water. Save him a return to the present mad whirl of human activity and our 200,000 people! MUD FLATS RECLAIMED Difficult though it may be to imagine, it is history that warehouses and offices now stand where once the tide rippled lazily over sleepy mud fiats,

which are now known as Lower Queen Street, Fort Street, Customs Street and Quay Street. It was by the hoisting of a flag at Fort Britomart, a salute of guns from the warships, and a cheer from the little band of pioneers, that the shore of the Wa ; - temata was proclaimed, on September 18, 1840, the site of New Zealand’s first capital. A few days before the deed of purchase was signed—October 15, 1840— Hobson wrote his reasons for selecting Auckland as the capital:

“First by its central position; secondly by the great ’facility for internal communication by the Kaipara and its branches to the northward, and the Manukau and the Waikato to the southward; thirdly from the facility and safety of its port, and the proximity of several smaller ports abounding with the most valuable timber; and finally by the fertility of the soil, which is stated by persons able to appreciate it to be capable of every agricultural purpose.” How well has the wisdom of Hobson been proved as the years unfolded! From the deed of purchase it is learned that about 3,000 acres of land —embracing the area bounded by Cox’s Creek, the waterfront, Hobson’s Bay and Mount Eden —was bought from the Maoris for £SO cash, 50 blan-

CAPTAIN HOBSON kets, a few iron pots and hatchets, and a number of less valuable articles. What would the Dilworth' Building have commanded in those days? Perhaps a plug of tobacco or a yard of calico. The land speculator was busy even in those early days, and in 1841 he was present at the first land sale, competing eagerly for any land that had a clear Government title. About 40 acres were sold at this first sale, and on account of the competition, the prices exceeded all expectations, the average being over £550 an acre. THE FIRST PLAN Splendid as was the work of the pioneers, many mistakes were made in the original plan of the city, and, mainly through the failure of the Government to sell sufficient land for settlement, extensive, subdivision was

effected and narrow lanes constructed between hastily erected houses. The original plan of Auckland, which was prepared by the then Surveyor-Gen-eral, Mr. Felton Mathew, was constructed in concentric circles from a point where Albert Park now stands, and caused a great deal of criticism at the time of preparation. But Auckland is a different city to which was planned. Wellington Street anil "Pyt” Street have changed places, Waterloo Quadrant and Eden Crescent remain solitary remnants of that cob-web of circles, while Jermyn Street, Vandeleur Street, Adelaide Crescent and Trafalgar Circus have passed into the world of forgotten dreams. And -so we have the Auckland of today—our Auckland, with its civilisation and its progress—and be it well for those in this generation not to forget entirely the contribution of the pioneers who looked down the valley of the future and saw the vast city that was to come. On this, her An niversary Day, Auckland Indeed may lay modest claim to a gratifying record of progress.