Manners Street, Wellington - Ward Reception Parade, 1895

Joseph Ward, New Zealand's Colonial Treasurer in Seddon's Liberal Government of the 1890s, was dispatched to London to raise loan funds to finance land reform involving the closer settlement of farm land. The first loan of 1.5 million pounds floated in early 1895 at three percent interest was oversubscribed to the tune of 5.9 million pounds.

Upon his return to Wellington, Ward was honoured for raising so much money so cheaply by what was called the "Ward Reception" on 10 July 1895.

The idea of a reception generated public controversy for its alleged political partisanship in the months preceding Ward's return.

The Evening Post, no friend of the Seddon government, rather snippily reported the Ward Reception in Wellington and its correspondents to the letters to the editor pointed out that the funds expended on the reception and procession would be better spent providing aid to the poor and unemployed.

After noting that government offices were closed for the day and most warehouse and retail stores were closed at noon, the Evening Post reported in its edition that evening the SS Hinemoa carrying the Wards berthed at noon alongside Jervois Quay.

Sir Walter Buller for the Ward Reception Committee welcomed Ward who in turn replied expressing his gratitude. The Evening Post allowed that "a few cheers were then given".

"Ward Reception" car, Wellington, Ca 1890s. Tyree Bros., photo. Alexander Turnbull Library.

Photo is probably of what the Evening Post reports as a "floral display on a lorry, with a motto in white letters on a red ground - "A Hearty Welcome Home" ", a banner to that effect showing in the photo. It is likely taken on Jervois Quay as a tank locomotive can be seen in front of the shed on right near the bandstand or gazebo.

View of Manners Street, south from Perrett's Corner, Ca 1890s.
Tyree Bros., photo. Alexander Turnbull Library

View of Ward's Reception, Manners Street, Wellington, south from Perrett's corner, Ca 1890s.
Tyree Bros., photo. Alexander Turnbull Library.

Following Ward's reply, a procession of carriages was formed accompanied by the Garrison and Jupp bands, a floral float, fire engines, and members of the Tailors and Bakers Unions bearing their banners. The Evening Post observed that "in the streets were many spectators, but little enthusiasm was shown."

The procession, "not so long as had been expected," according to the Post, proceeded up Cuba Street to Manners Street, turned right, proceeded to Willis Street thence Lambton and Thorndon Quays to the Thorndon Esplanade where Seddon and the Wards each planted a pohutukawa tree as part of the reception and Arbor day.

Old Identities Hotel - Perrett's Corner - Manners Street, Wellington

Old Identities (Albert) Hotel, on the corner of Boulcott and Willis Streets, Wellington
photo: Tyree Brothers, circa 1900. Alexander Turnbull Library

The Old Identities (Albert) Hotel, technically neither on Perrett's corner nor Manners Street but on the the southwest corner of Willis and Boulcott streets facing Perrett's. It was on the site later occupied by the Hotel St George from the early 1930s.

John Plimmer built the hotel in 1879, dedicating it to "the old identities" of the city and colony.

A sculptured head of an old identity sits above each window, looking down on those passing through Perrett's corner. On the skyline to the left, on the hotel roof, can be seen a statue of Edward Gibbon Wakefield instrumental in the establishment of the New Zealand Company that organised the European settlement of Wellington and other cities in New Zealand in the 1850s.

The Old Identities hotel was demolished in 1929 to make way for the new Hotel St George. Some of the sculptured heads of the old identities are today held by Te Papa, the national museum.

Manners Street, Wellington - 1880

Intersection of Willis, Manners and Boulcott Streets, Wellington, showing the Old Identities Hotel and the house/surgery of Doctor Harding, Alexander Turnbull Library

The recently completed 1878 surgery and home of Dr Robert Harding stands on what is to later become known as Perrett's Corner at the intersection of Manners, Willis, and Boulcott streets, Wellington. Harding's building would be converted into a pharmacy by the early 1900s.

Street lights have arrived in Wellington, presumably fueled by gas, and one occupies the near left corner. No tram tracks as yet, the tram's arrival is still a decade or more away.

What lies behind the photographer? A view from a hundred metres or so behind the first photographer up Boulcott Street looking back down to Perrett's corner and Manners Street.

Boulcott Street, Wellington, [1880?], Alexander Turnbull Library

St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church is in the right near foreground while the building with the central tower in the centre of the photo is what will become the YWCA building.

Waitangi Day 6 February 2009

The official New Zealand flag

Introduced in 1869, adopted as the official flag in 1902. British blue ensign with a stylised Southern Cross representing Aotearoa-New Zealand's place in the Southern Pacific. Modern New Zealanders with few if any ties to Britain other than lingering sentimental ones for a few should surely throw away the Union Jack in the top left corner or completely redesign the flag.

Tino rangatiratanga flag

A 1990 competition for a new flag design for New Zealand failed to generate entries with Maori themes or identity. Maori then started their own flag competition and the result was the Tino rangatiratanga flag which for some within Maoridom has come to represent the aspirations for greater Maori sovereignty in contemporary New Zealand.

Black represents Te Korekore the realm of Potential Being, the long darkness from whence the world emerged. White represents Te Ao Marama the realm of and light. It is the physical world, which symbolises purity, harmony and enlightment.

Red represents Te Whei Ao, the realm of Coming into being. It symbolises female, active, flashing, south, yelling, forests, gestation and spirals. Red is Papatuanuku, Earth Mother, the sustainer of all living things. Red is the colour of earth from which the first humans was made.

The Koru, curling frond shape, represents the unfolding of new life, that everything is reborn and continues. It represents renewal and hope for the future.

Flag of the Confederation of Chiefs of the United Tribes of New Zealand
Shaw Savill Line postcard depicting the United Tribes Ensign, [19--],
Alexander Turnbull Library

The flag of the Confederation of Chiefs of the United Tribes of New Zealand, first raised in 1834 and gazetted in the New South Wales Gazette on 19 August 1835 as the flag of The United Tribes of New Zealand or Te Wakaminenga o¯ nga¯ Hapu o¯ Nu Tireni. It was New Zealand's official flag until the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 replaced it with the British Union Jack. Some within Maoridom want this flag to represent Maori aspirations today rather than the Tino rangatiratanga flag.

Whichever flag you wish to fly this Waitangi Day, celebrate New Zealand - Aotearoa and commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840, the foundation document for contemporary New Zealand.

May tangata whenua (first peoples) and pakeha continue to improve their lot and better understand one another in the year ahead.

As the late John A Lee once remarked: "New Zealand is an easy place to love."

Manners Street, Wellington - 1870s

Manners Street, Wellington, [ca 1870]
Alexander Turnbull Library

Perrett's corner as it was later to be known, circa 1870. The Duke of Edinburgh hotel stands on the northeast corner of the Willis, Manners, Boulcott street intersection.

The wooden house on "Perrett's corner" opposite the Duke to the right appears to be the predecessor to the building built for Dr. Harding in 1878 on that spot to serve both as his surgery and home. Horse & cab teams appear to be posed for this picture.

The old Wesleyan Church lies in the middle background down Manners Street while the Bank hotel lies in between the Duke and Wesleyan.

No doubt Wesleyan parishioners did their share to entreat patrons of the Duke and Banks hotels to abandon their ways and join the congregation as the temperance movement gained strength against the growing problems associated with alcoholism in the colony during the 1870s through to the early 1900s.

Manners Street, Wellington - 1840s

Brees, Samuel Charles] 1810-1865 :Catholic chapel, Wellington [Between 1842 and 1845] [Engraved by H Melville from an original by S C Brees. 1847. Alexander Turnbull Library.

The intersection of Manners, Willis, and Boulcott streets in Wellington has been an important, busy place for generations and one that Wellingtonians have a certain fondness for.

This is the first of a series of posts on that intersection from the early days of colonial settlement down to the present which after 1914 became known as "Perrett’s Corner" for the two chemists, Edwin and Claude Perrett, who ran a pharmacy on the south-east corner. The business closed in 1964.

But the place had a history well before 1914. The 1847 view pictured above shows Samuel Charles Brees' depiction of the crossroads in the new European settlement that were to form into the Manners-Willis-Boulcott intersection. A religious procession heads down Willis street going north from the chapel, the later site of St Mary of the Angels on Boulcott Street. The road in front of it (Boulcott) heads up to the Terrace.

The building at left with barrels in front of it is the approximate site of what was to become Perrett's Corner.

RMA Resource Management Act Reform

The National government has announced plans to streamline the Resource Management Act to achieve efficiency gains in the resource consent process.

Minister for the Environment, Nick Smith, identified key elements of the reform package as:

• Removing frivolous, vexatious and anti-competitive objections
• Streamlining processes for projects of national significance
• Creating an Environmental Protection Authority
• Improving plan development and plan change processes
• Improving resource consent processes
• Streamlining decision making
• Improving workability and compliance
• Improving national instruments

The Government has backed off its election promise to remove references to the Treaty of Waitangi in the legislation because of opposition by the Maori Party - which is in a confidence and supply agreement with National - as well as claiming such removal was no longer needed because of existing case law and improved practices.

An Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) will be created to achieve national environmental goals. The government will use this agency to get around the appeals process to the Environment Court for proposals of "national significance".

An EPA board of inquiry will be the vehicle for fast-tracking these nationally significant projects so that board decisions are made within a 9 month time frame. The effect for major projects will be that the EPA board process will re-centralise decision-making, effectively removing local authority decision-making over such projects and subjecting decisions to more political interference at the level of national government.

As emphasized in earlier posts on the RMA, the late Robert Muldoon, Prime Minister of the National government in the last 1970s-early 1980s, can be heard cackling from the grave that his late 1970s fast track proposal to bulldoze through projects despite environmental issues is about to come to fruition.

While some environmental organisations such as the Environmental Defence Society (EDS), concede the need to improve the speed of the appeals process, they point to the narrowing of appeals to points of law as a mischaracterisation of the role of the Environment Court as a judicial tribunal rather than its true function as an expert tribunal.

More fundamentally, environmental groups such as the EDS and Greenpeace are concerned that the proposed RMA changes, yet to be enacted, effectively strengthen the hand of large developers and undermine public participation and environmental sustainability. With the RMA's fundamental principle of a "balancing test" that is readily interpreted to weigh more heavily in favour of commercial over environmental interests it is hard not to be persuaded that the revised RMA will result in a backsliding in New Zealand's efforts to move towards environmental sustainability.