Title: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]

Author: Cyclopedia Company Limited

Publication details: The Cyclopedia Company, Limited, 1908, Christchurch

Part of: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

Wellington Provincial District.

The provincial district of Wellington is bounded towards the north by the Auckland district; towards the east by the Hawke's Bay district, to the sea; thence by the sea to the Patea river on the West Coast; and thence bounded towards the west by the Taranaki district. The area contained within these limits is about 6,810,958 acres. It lies between the parallels of 39 degrees and 41 degrees 30 minutes south latitude; its greatest length north and south is about 180 miles, and its mean width east and west about sixty miles. The province is divided into two well-defined parts by a mountain range, which forms part of the backbone of the North Island. At its northern end this range—there known by the name of Ruahine, and averaging a height of about 4,000 feet — divides Wellington from Hawke's Bay; but after passing the point where it is intersected by the Manawatu river, the range takes the name of Tararua for many miles, until, at forty miles from the termination on the shores of Cook Strait, it divides into two main ranges, known respectively under the general names of Rimutaka and Tararua, both ranges averaging from 2,500 feet to 3,500 feet in height, the highest point being 5,154 feet. Parallel to the main range, and divided from it by the Wairarapa plain and the undulating country to the north, is a series of ranges at a few miles inland

Muir and MacKinlay, Photo.
Lambton Quay, from corner of Grey Street, Wellington.

page 582 from the East Coast, known as the Puketoi, Taipo, Maungaraki, and Haurangi ranges. Lying on the northern border of the district are the Kaimanawa ranges, for the most part open and grass-covered, rising to a mean height of about 4,500 feet. Westward from these, and divided from them by a deep, broad valley, in which flow the Waikato and Wangaehu rivers, is the volcanic chain of mountains containing Ruapehu, 9,008 feet, and Ngauruhoe, an active volcano, 7,515 feet high. The long sweeping curve of Cook Strait, forming the south-western limit of the district, is bordered, from the Patea river to within thirty miles of Wellington, by a comparatively level and undulating country, now nearly all under cultivation, having an average width of about fifteen miles. This is one of the finest parts of the Dominion, and is celebrated for its stock-raising capabilities. It was originally in a great measure open, though the southern part, where the plain is narrowed in between the sea and the Tararua range, has a good deal of forest on it, now fast disappearing under the axe of the settler.

Inland of this coastal plain, at varying distances from the sea, the country gradually rises to a mean height of about 1,500 feet to 1,800 feet, and becomes a good deal broken in character. It was originally forest-ciad almost throughout. It is much cut up by rivers and streams flowing from the interior to the sea, of which the principal, commencing from the north, are the Waitotara, the Wanganui, the Wangaehu, the Rangitikei, the Oroua, the Pohangina, and the Manawatu, the last of which, after leaving the gorge in the Ruahine ranges, runs through level land to its mouth in Cook Strait. This broken country is everywhere composed of papa, or marly formation, which takes grass excellently, and promises to be a large sheep-carrying district.

Muir and MacKinlay, photo.
Custom House Quay, from corner of Brandon Street, Wellington.

At about fifteen miles south of the volcanic peaks of Ruapehu mountain, the papa country terminates in a fairly well-marked escarpment, giving place to a more level and undulating country formed of volcanic matter, the greater portion of which is forest-clad, though on the southeast, east, and west sides of that mountain there are open grassy plains suited to pastoral pursuits.

To the eastward of the main range formed by the Rimutaka and Tararua ranges is the great depression known at its southern end as the Wairarapa plain, which gradually rises northwards from the lake of that name into wooded, somewhat broken country, at a distance of some forty-five miles from the sea. Thence the country falls again slightly to the Upper Manawatu river, the depression in this part being marked by the extensive flats in the neighbourhood of Pahiatua, and by the shallow valleys of the Mangahao, Mangatainoko, and Tiraumea rivers and their branches. For thirty miles from the sea this valley is mostly open, with patches of forest here and there, but becomes more plentifully wooded at the base of the Rimutaka and Tararua ranges. The quality of the soil varies from light and stony on the Wairarapa plains to rich papa country as the northern end is approached. The southern part of this country is watered by the Ruamahanga river and its tributaries. Generally the district is a pastoral one, though agriculture is also pursued successfully. The neighbourhood of the Puketoi ranges is in many places composed of limestone, and promises to become a very rich pastoral district, which should support a considerable population. In the forks formed by the Tararua and Rimutaka ranges the Hutt river takes its rise, and runs in a southerly direction through an undulating or level country, and finally falls into the harbour at Wellington. The valley contains fine land, which is held, chiefly, in small holdings.

About 3,000,000 acres of the land in the district is forest-clad: Waimarino, 750,000 acres; 300,000 acres drained by the Turakina, Mangamahu and Wangaehu; 230,000 acres on the west side of the Wanganui river; 100,000 acres in the Pohangina valley; 175,000 acres on the eastern slopes of the Tararuas; 50,000 acres to the east of the Puketoi range; and then there are the forests near the Wairarapa lake and Lake Taupo, not to mention smaller areas of bush land.

Wellington has at least four extensive areas worthy of being termed plains: the Wairarapa plain, which contains about 200,000 acres, much page 583 of which is good agricultural land; the country which extends from Paikakariki to Marton, covering about 500,000 acres; and the Murimotu and Waimarino plains, both over 2000 feet above sea-level, one to the south and the other to the northwest of Mount Ruapehu. The Waimarino plain is covered by one of the largest forests in New Zealand—quite 750,000 acres—and its totara, maire, matai, rimu, and other pines will yield untold wealth, after the completion of the Wellington-Auckland railway, which is likely to be finished about the end of the year 1908.

Of Wellington's rivers, the most noteworthy are the Wanganui, Manawatu, Rangitikei, Hautapu, Waitotara, Wangaehu, Turakina, Heretaunga (vulgarised into the Hutt), Ruamahanga, Pahaoa, Aohanga, and Akitio.

The only really large lake in the district is the Wairarapa, near the south end of the Wairarapa valley, between the Haurangi and Rimutaka ranges.

As to harbours and ports, Wellington is not so well supplied in this respect as some other parts of the colony; but what is lost in number is made up in a great measure by the excellence of the chief haven —Port Nicholson—which, from the position it occupies, at the meeting-point, as it were, of the coastal traffic of both Islands, and from its sheltered position and depth of water, may be considered one of the most convenient harbours in the world. The Wanganui river, which has been considerably improved by artificial means, is the second port in the district, and has a considerable trade with coastal steamers. The Patea and Manawatu rivers are also used by coastal steamers, whilst several other inlets along the shore afford shelter and stopping places, according to the direction of the wind. The extension of railways along both coasts has, in a large measure, done away with the inconveniences arising from lack of harbours.

Some of the finest original scenery in the provincial district has been quite destroyed or much disfigured by the bush-felling indispensable to the progress of settlement, or the construction of railways. This applies especially to the Forty-mile bush and the Manawatu Gorge. Still, much remains of the country's original loveliness, and the wise laws

Muir and MacKinlay, photo.
Queen's Wharf.

page 584 which have been enacted for the conservation of scenery are a guarantee that much will remain for many ages. One of the richest of the existing assets in this consists in the romantic drive through the Awarua bush, between Ohingaiti and Moawhango, “From this road, as it winds round the spurs, most charming glimpses are obtained of the Rangitikei river and the blue hills beyond, and at other points the traveller looks up deep ravines where the graceful fern-tree stands out in bright relief agaiust the dark green of the native bush. Another road from Pipiriki, on the Wangauui river, to the Murimotu plain, traverses one of the most magnificent forests in the North Island. Here the bushman's axe has felled only the timber standing on the road-line, and the track runs beneath the shade of the largest and stateliest maire and rimu known. Beautiful as these drives are, the scenery on the Wanganuui river is still more lovely. A few miles below Taurmarunui the river enters a series of gorges, shut in by high precipitous cliffs. Sometimes the canoe glides slowly through quiet reaches, sometimes shoots rapids which make the traveller hold his breath till they are passed, and then again traverses places where the water is ever in turmoil, boiling and eddying in whirlpools, taxing the energies of the most skilful steersman, and testing the nerve of the most courageous tourist. These experiences, with the views obtained of the banks, densely wooded even where the papa rock rises almost straight from the water's edge, make the eighty miles journey from Taumarunui to Pipiriki an event not easily effaced from the memory. Between Pipiriki and Wanganui excellent steamers are now running, so that the beauties of the lower part of the river may be seen by all without trouble or discomfort. In summer time a launch goes as far as Taumarunui.”

It may be said that no part of New Zealand has developed more in recent years than the provincial district of Wellington. Latterly there has been greater progress in the North Island than in the Middle Island, and in the North Island Wellington has advanced more than any other of its sister provinces, though Auckland has kept close up to it. Of the essential fact there are many proofs. When a new country or any still partially undeveloped portion of a new country is in a specially progressive period of its history, the males of the population will as a rule be found to exceed the females in number. This is due to conditions inseparable from an early stage of colonisation, or from a period of exceptional industrial activity in a yet unsettled, or only partially settled, district. When nature has been adapted to man's purposes, and a place has been brought to an average level of industrial productiveness and civilisation, any inequality there may be in the numbers of the sexes generally shows a considerable majority on the side of the women. Indeed, the excess of bachelors over spinsters in a colony, or in any part of a colony, may safely be taken as a proof of the industrial stage it has reached or is passing through; and this test, applied to Wellington, shows that its colonising energy must, latterly, have been greater than that of any other part of New Zealand. Of this there is proof in the following table, which shows the excess of bachelors over spinsters in seven out of nine provincial districts at three successive quinquennial periods. The figures are:

It may be of some interest to note that at the same periods Canterbury and Otago had more spinsters than bachelors, in the following proportions:

But there are other facts which illustrate the very exceptional relative progress which has recently been made by Wellington. The province is, in the main, pastoral, though it has other rich industrial resources, such as general agriculture, dairying, flax and timber. As a pastoral district, it is generally classed in conjunction with Taranaki, and vice versa. This, indeed, is invariably done in connection with the Dominion's sheep returns, and in this classification, the bulk of the sheep country belongs to Wellington However, the Wellington-West Coast sheep district—that is, Wellington and Taranaki—does not hold the first place as a sheep area in New Zealand. Both the Canterbury-Kaikoura and the Napier-Gisborne districts are ahead of it in this connection; but in both these pastoral provinces the country has from the first been more adaptable to the practical purposes of settlement than Wellington. This may be said also of Otago; but latterly Wellington has surpassed every other district in the Dominion in the great industry of breeding sheep for wool, and for the frozen meat trade.

The facts are thus in controvertibly set forth in plain figures:

Here we see that to the total increase in the flocks of the whole Dominion for the year 1906–7, Wellington contributes more than four-sevenths. Nor is this rate of page 585 progress likely to be arrested for many a day, for the province's extensive areas of agricultural land are certain to be more completely utilised year by year, and it is sure to be many years before the last limit line is reached in this connection. The trade in frozen meat is a steadily increasing trade, and until New Zealand sheep-owners are producing all that their land will yield, there will be industrial progress in the Dominion. The frozen meat trade was begun in 1881, and since 1886 the Dominion's flock-owners have increased from 9,149 to 18,423, and, naturally enough, the average number of sheep in a flock has decreased from 1,659 to 1,038. During the same period the total number of sheep in the Dominion has increased from 12,190,215 to 20,816,799 though in the meantime many millions of carcases have been consumed in the Dominion, large numbers of sheep and lambs have been exported alive, and 51,500,000 sheep and lambs have been exported in a frozen state. As Wellington has lately been taking a leading share in this great industry, and as she presents ample scope for still further developments, it is obvious that her people possess, even in this one industry, “the potentiality of becoming rich beyond the dreams of avarice.”

But of course there are other sources of wealth, though the pastoral industry is the most important, as compared with a little over 100,000 acres under crop, there are (approximately) 3,000,000 acres in sown grasses; and, in addition to the sheep already enumerated, there are about 400,000 head of horned cattle, 56,000 horses, and 46,000 pigs. Both the soil and the climate are well adapted for dairying, and creameries and butter factories are increasing year by year. In April, 1906, the butter and cheese factories in operation numbered fifty-one, and the value of their output in 1905 was £616,773. Then, the five meat freezing works in operation in April, 1906, had turned out produce to the value of £1,275,803 in 1905, and had paid wages amounting to £90,667, In April, 1906, the province had forty-one flaxmills, and the value of their output in 1905 was £189,000, and the wages paid was £91,000; while the persons employed-numbered 1,039. Of saw-mills and sash and door factories the province had ninety-eight in April, 1906; and these establishments employed 1,611 persons, who received wages amounting to £183,821. An approximately accurate summary of the other industries carried on in the provincial district of Wellington would have to include ham and bacon curing establishments, 3; fish-curing works, 3; grain-mills, 8; bread and confectionery works, including baking and biscuit manufactories, 192; breweries, 25; aerated-water factories, 35; condiment factories, 10; soap and candle works, 10; cooperages, 6; gasworks, 11; brick, tile, and pottery works, 31; plumbing and tinware factories, 99; iron and brass foundries, 55; printing offices, 71; basket and perambulator factories, 7; coachbuilding and painting works, 230; cycle factories, 66; saddlery and harness factories, 73; tanning and fellmongering establishments, 29; sail and oilskin factories, 9; furniture and cabinetmaking, 99; tailoring establishments, 182; dressmaking and millinery, 233; shirt-making, 11; boot and shoe factories, 91.

Muir and MacKinlay, photo.
Willis Street, from junction of Lambton Quay and Custom House Quay.

Other similar facts and figures might be adduced in this connection, but those which have been given will supply a fairly adequate idea of the resources and the industrial activities of the 179,868 persons who (approximately) constitute the population of the provincial district of Wellington. and though, humanly, the future history of the district may “hold in it darkness and sorrow,” it must, not less, hold also sunshine and joy. It cannot be otherwise, with its fine climate, healthy and mild yet invigorating, and with the large amount of stimulating and wealth-yielding pioneer work that has yet to be done in the province. Of its seven million acres of land, about three million acres are yet under bush. It has, indeed, been well said by a competent authority that “the Wellington land district contains within its borders a greater quantity of good land than any other in the North Island, very little, except the mountain-tops, being unfitted for use, while some of it is very superior quality, suited for the growth of the productions of every temperate climate. As much of it is still forest-clad, settlers must look forward to having to make their farms by felling and burning the bush before page 586 grass can be sown, and, as it takes from ten to fifteen years before the plough can be used in bush land, grazing, for which the climate and soil is admirably adapted, will be the principal industry for some time to come. It is generally calculated that the cost of felling and burning ordinary bush varies from 25s. to 35s. an acre. To this must be added about 20s. for seed and fencing. It is no uncommon thing for a return to be received at from twelve to eighteen months after felling. The usual practice is to put sheep on to the new lands soon after the grass has obtained a good hold. The process of improving the lands by the gradual logging up and burning of the fallen tree-trunks is a long one, but it pays in the end, for in this way fine pasture-lands are obtained on the hills, and agricultural lands on the flats.”

There are eighteen postal districts in the Dominion, and though the Wellington district is not the most populous of these, its inhabitants are, apparently, the most prudential, to judge by the business of the post office savings banks. The total number of deposits made in the whole Dominion during 1906 was 593,764, covering a value of £7,907,154; to which Wellington contributed 147,407 deposits, and £1,650,385 in value. Then, of Wellington's share in the trade of the whole Dominion, an excellent idea is obtained from the customs and other revenue collected at the various ports by the Customs Department. For the year that ended on the 31st of March, 1907, the figures were:

In this comparison Auckland makes a good second, but nevertheless Wellington keeps her pride of place with comfort.

One fact—and not a satisfactory one either—must not be overlooked in connection with the provincial district: this is the number of its towns, and the relatively large number of persons who live in them. The population of the city of Wellington and its suburbs amounts to 63,807; and sixteen boroughs and towns throughout the province have amongst them a population of 46,160 persons; namely, Palmerston North, 10,250; Wanganui, 8,200; Petone, 5,900; Masterton, 5,000; Lower Hutt, 3,400; Feilding, 2,975; Car terton, 1,400; Pahiatua, 1,380; Foxton, 1,330; Marton, 1,275; Levin, 1,265; Greytown, 1,130; Eketahuna, 700; Featherston, 670; Hunterville, 645; and Martinborough, 640. Thus, of a total population of 179,868 for the province, 109,927 souls lead a town life, with only 70,000 in the rural districts. It will be well when this proportion is reversed, and no doubt it will be changed by degrees, as the closer settlement of the land progresses under enlightened conditions. But definite and well-maintained action is needed in this connection, for though the position of the Dominion as a whole is unsatisfactory in this matter, Wellington's is less satisfactory than that of the Dominion as a whole; for while the rural population for the whole Dominion (464,304) is 40,000 in excess of its urban population (424,072), Wellington's urban population exceeds its rural population by 70,000 souls. To reverse this state of things the intelligence of the province is bound to apply itself, and the measure of its success will be the measure of the districts' increased prosperity.

It is, however, an old but perpetually new truth, that man does not live by bread alone; weights and measures, customs duties andbank balances, flocks and herds, or fields and factories are not the only tests of a country's happiness or of its place in the scale of humanity and civilisation. Sir William Jones rightly asks, and nobly answers, the vital question that presents itself in this connection:

“What constitutes a state?
Not high-raised battlement or laboured mound,
Thick wall, or moated gate;
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad-armed ports,
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
Not starred and spangled courts,
Where low-born baseness wafts perfume to pride:

Muir and MacKinlay, photo.
Manners Street, from Junction of Cuba Street, Wellington.

No—men, high-minded men,
With powers as far above dull brutes endued,
In forest, brake, or den,
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude;
Men, who their duties know,
Bat know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain;
Prevent the long-aimed blow,
And crush the tyrant, while they rend the chain;
These constitute a state;
And sovereign Law, that with collected will
O'er thrones and globes elate,
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.”

And towards the attainment of this high human, social and political ideal, Wellington works not unworthily in conjunction with the rest of the Dominion, by means of colleges and schools, churches and public libraries. The province has two education districts, one named Wellington, and the other Wanganui. The capital has a university college, as well as a technical school, a school of art, and high schools for boys and girls; and Wanganui has a collegiate school for boys, and a girl's college; then between them the two education districts have about 350 primary public schools, which are attended by about 30,000 children. As to churches, here is a table which sets out the numerical facts concerning Wellington by itself and in comparison with the other divisions of the Dominion:

Notwithstanding its industrial energy, and other strenuous material activities, Wellington, as a province, does not neglect the cultivation of a taste for the beautiful in its people. Of this, ample and interesting evidence is found in the number of the public domains, which are to be met with here and there throughout the province. These often are in the loveliest localities—localities favoured by Nature, as Nature, goddess-like, has from time immemorial favoured New Zealand with immortal grace and beauty and grandeur. and to these qualities in those of the public domains which possess them man has, not unsuccessfully, added the little touches that humanise without destroying Nature's own primary characteristics. Of the four large provinces of New Zealand, Wellington has the largest area in public domains; namely, 36,971 acres in forty-five domains; Canterbury, thirty-five domains containing

Muir and MacKinlay, photo.
Cuba. Street, from Royal Oak Corner, at Junction with Manners Street.

page 588 30,544 acres; Auckland ninety-five, with 17,162 acres; while Otago has the same number of domains as Wellington—forty-five, which, however, have an aggregate area of only 4,922 acres.

Thus these things stand at present, and they show a material advance upon the things recorded in the first volume of the Cyclopedia of New Zealand ten years ago. But of men, then the best known in Wellington and throughout New Zealand, a different tale has to be told. The greatest of them all, Sir George Grey (page 31, volume 1), the father of New Zealand's political Liberalism, and the first effective introducer of the idealistic social spirit into the Dominion's polities—died in London on the 20th of September, 1898; and Sir Julius Vogel (page 60, vol. 1)— hardly less notable on the materialistic side of public affairs, died, also in London, on March 13th, 1899. Of other men of note who have since passed away, Sir Francis Dillon Bell (page 112, vol. 1) died on July 15th, 1898; Sir Edward Stafford (page 58, vol. 1) on February 14th, 1901; Sir John McKenzie (page 46, vol. 1) on the 6th of August, 1901; Hon. W. Rolleston (page 79, vol. 1) February 8, 1903; Sir George Whitimore (page 78, vol. 1), March 16th, 1903; Hon. W. C. Walker (page 1493, vol. 1) January 5th, 1904; Sir Alfred Cadman (page 45, vol. 1) who had become Speaker of the Legislative Council, died on March 23rd, 1905; the Right Honourable Richard John Seddon (page 40, vol. 1) who had been Premier from the 1st of May, 1893, died on the 10th of June, 1906; and Sir John Hall (page 63, vol. 1) on the 25th of June, 1907.

It may be observed that Sir Robert Stout (page 64, vol 1) became Chief Justice of New Zealand on the 22nd of June, 1899; and that the Earl of Glasgow was succeeded in the Governorship of the Dominion, by the Earl of Ranfurly on the 10th of August, 1897, and that Lord Plunket succeeded Lord Ranfurly on the 20th of June, 1904. The Hon. W. P. Reeves (page 43, vol. 1) who was appointed the Dominion's Agent-General in London, on January 10th, 1906, became its first High Commissioner in London on June 14th, 1905.

On the death of Mr. Seddon—Sir Joseph Ward (page 47, vol. 1) being then absent in England—the Hon. W. Hall-Jones (page 1493, vol. 1) became Premier, and held office till the 6th of August, 1906, when Sir Joseph Ward formed a new Ministry, which is still in power, and is composed of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, Prime Minister, Colonial Treasurer, Post master-General, Commissioner of Electric Telegraphs, Minister of Defence, and Minister of Industries and Commerce; the Hon. William Hall-Jones, Minister for Railways and Minister for Public Works; the Hon. James Carroll, Native Minister and Minister of Stamp Duties; the Hon. James McGowan, Minister of Justice, Minister of Mines, and Minister of Immigration; the Hon. John George Findlay, M.L.C., Attorney-General and Colonial Secretary; the Hon. John Andrew Millar, Minister of Trade and Customs, Minister of Labour, and Minister of Marine; the Hon. Robert McNab, Minister of Lands and Minister for Agriculture; and the Hon. George Fowlds, Minister of Education and Minister of Public Health.

The Hon. C. C. Bowen (page 74, vol. 1) is Speaker of the Legislative Council, and the Hon. A. B. Guinness (page 105, vol. 1) Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The present members for Wellington in the Legislative Council are the Hon. W. E. Collins, Hon. J. G. Findlay, Hon. H. Gilmer, Hon. J. E. Jenkinson, Hon. C. J. Johnston, Hon. R. A. Loughnan, Hon. C. M. Luke, Hon. T. K. Macdonald, and Hon. John Rigg.

In the House of Representatives Mr. J. G. W. Aitken represents Wellington East; W. H. P. Barber, Newtown; W. H. Field, Otaki; F. M. B. Fisher, Wellington Central; A. W. Hogg, Masterton; J. M. Hornsby, Wairarapa; C. H. Izard, Wellington North; F. Y. Lethbridge, Oroua; A. E. Remington, Rangitikei; R. B. Ross, Pahiatua; J. Stevens, Manawatu; T. M. Wilford, Hutt; and W. T. Wood, Palmerston.

On the 12th of June, 1907, in the House of Representatives, Sir Joseph Ward, the Premier, moved— “that this House respectfully requests that His Majesty the King may be graciously pleased to take such steps as he may consider neccessary in order that the designation of New Zealand be changed from the “Colony of New Zealand;” to the “Dominion of New Zealand;” and that a respectful address he presented to His Excellency the Governor requesting him to transmit this resolution for submission to His Majesty.” Fifty members voted for, and fifteen against this motion, which was, therefore, carried; and a similar resolution was affirmed in the Legislative Council on the 16th of the same month. New Zealand was proclaimed a Dominion on September 20th, 1907, and ceased to be a colony, which had first become its designation on the 3rd of May, 1841.

More might be said, but need not be said, as to the state of Wellington in the year 1907, considered by itself or in comparison with the other provincial districts of New Zealand. What has here been written is founded absolutely on facts, and the facts show that the province of Wellington, like the rest of the Dominion, is in a state of sound prosperity and wholesome progressiveness—so much so that, from the higher foregrounds of the present time, one may, without being a prophet, discern through far-stretching vistas of futurity, still more golden days, and eras of maturer greatness, for the people of this happy land.