The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]
General
General.
The City of Wellington occupies the shores of the western arm of Port Nicholson, admittedly the best harbour in New Zealand—the best, but very far from the prettiest. In the quality of beauty, Auckland harbour is vastly superior, being, in fact, unapproached by any in the Australasian Colonies, save that of Sydney. Still, notwithstanding the forbidding frown of its dark circlet of almost bare hills, the harbour of the Capital is justly an object of complacent pride. On a fine, clear day in winter—a blessing not very uncommon even in breezy Wellington—the visitor is moved to no mean measure of praise. At the narrow but perfectly safe entrance, the lighthouse and the signal-station show the only signs of civilisation. For aught else that can be seen, Wellington might still be the wild waste of a hundred years ago. Even the pilot-station needs to be pointed out as it is passed, and here a moderately keen eye can discover the first sign of cultivation. The passage through which the harbour is entered is less than a mile in width, and about two miles long; and at the innermost point stand the frowning forts—” our sure defence.” The harbour itself is about eight miles from east to west, by a varying width of three to four miles, the area being about twenty thousand acres. There is good anchorage throughout, the depth of water varying from six to fourteen fathoms.
Safely past the forts, the stranger seeks his vessel's bridge, or some point of vantage, and finds a great deal to attract his attention, and call forth exclamations of admiration and surprise. Straight ahead is Petone, where the first settlers laid out (but soon abandoned) the town of Britannia in 1840; on the right is the pretty Hutt Valley, bounded by the snow-clad mountains of the Rimutake Range, and on the left the Capital is in full view. The forests of masts and funnels at the wharves, with the tall hydraulic cranes — some standing like sentinels, others ooiselessly and swiftly elevating huge loads of merchandise—give to the place an appearance of prosperity not to be seen elsewhere in New Zealand: for Wellington, having the only central position of great importance in the Colony, is the main transhipping port—a fact which is daily becoming more widely known and more fully recognised.
The stranger, on landing, soon discovers that no very commendable foresight was displayed in the laying out of Wellington. The streets are straight and rectilineal where the natural configuration of the land first settled upon would admit of that arrangement; but they are much too narrow, the majority of them being only about fifty feet wide. Fortunately, the blocks in Te Aro are large enough to admit of chain-wide streets being run through them. In some places this has been done with admirable effect. The good example should be followed without unnecessary delay. Wellington might be made one of the prettiest of New Zealand towns, but to accomplish that desirable end, very great alteration would be needed. In many parts these alterations are in progress, Of late years very much better taste has been displayed in the architecture of houses, churches, schools, and in fact all kinds of buildings, The use of bricks or other rigid materials is not only encouraged, but enforced in some parts of the city.