Wellington City, the capital city of New Zealand, is situated at the southern tip of the North Island in the geographical centre of the country. The city spreads over more than 18,000 acres of land and is built on the shores and the surrounding hills of Port Nicholson, an almost landlocked natural harbour of 31 sq. miles, considered to be one of the finest harbours in the world. Port Nicholson, the Maori name for which is Whanganui a Tara, was named in 1826 by Captain Herd, of the First New Zealand Company, in honour of a friend who was the harbourmaster at Port Jackson, Australia. From many vantage points of easy access overlooking the city, including Mount Victoria, Kelburn, Brooklyn, Wadestown, and Khandallah, a wide panorama of splendid views can be obtained, ranging from a foreground of massive buildings and busy wharves to the background of rugged hills studded with suburban homes. Wellington's rocky coastline affords few sandy bathing beaches, but the marine drive from Ohiro Bay to Eastbourne compensates for this lack.
The north-west – south-east trend of the hills has hampered the development of transport links between the city and its northern hinterland. This physical obstacle has resulted in the formation of only one main arterial outlet from the city as far as Ngauranga, where it bifurcates to continue northwards to the Manawatu and north-eastwards to the Hutt Valley and the Wairarapa. The steepness of the surrounding hills has largely determined the physical layout of the city. The commercial and industrial concerns are situated on the few flat areas of the inner business district while the suburbs occupy sites enjoying sunny positions and views of the harbour.
Due to its position astride the Wellington Fault, the city has had many earthquakes, one or two of which have affected the face of the city. The one in 1855 raised much of the coast of the harbour some five feet and aided reclamation work along the Lambton foreshore, where Wellington's commercial district now stands. Another heavy tremor occurred in 1942, when considerable damage was done to buildings in the city and surrounding districts.
Under the influence of the concentrated air flow channelled through Cook Strait, Wellington has a well-deserved reputation for windiness. During the day only 15 per cent of the winds fail to reach 5 miles per hour and, of the remainder, 47 per cent are from N or NW and 29 per cent are from S or SE. Gales, accompanied by gusts up to 60 miles per hour, occur on about 30 days per annum and are most frequent in the spring and summer. Gusts to 90 miles per hour are comparatively rare in the city itself, but much higher speeds have been recorded in adjacent exposed places.
Rainfall measured at Kelburn averages 49 in. per annum. The driest period is from January to March, each month averaging 3 in. Winter is the wettest season, each of the months June to August averaging 5 in. Rain falls on 159 days per annum, and on 97 of these the amount reaches 0.1 in. Once in 20 years a fall of 5.5 in. may occur within 24 hours, and 1.1 in. in one hour. In the last 100 years the longest period without rain was 34 days.
January and February, each with a mean temperature of 61 °F, are the two warmest months, and July (47°F) is the coldest. In January the daily maximum averages 68°F, and the minimum 55°F; in July the corresponding daily range is from 51°F to 42°F. The extreme range is small; 80°F is reached only once in two years, while air temperatures below freezing point (32°F) do not occur at Kelburn, 415 ft above sea level. In more sheltered areas and in the Hutt Valley winter nights are colder and frosts occur on most calm, clear nights between May and September. Rainfall also varies considerably; in Lyall Bay and Miramar it averages 40–50 in. per annum, while the Hutt Valley has 50–55 in. and Wainuiomata about 70 in. Sunshine in summer is 50 per cent of the possible amount; in winter increased cloudiness reduces it to 40 per cent. For the year the average duration is 2,000 hours. Residents on the hills above 500 ft occasionally find themselves in cloud, but fog in the central city area is rare. Hail showers occur on about 12 days per annum, mostly in winter, but hail damage is negligible. Thunder is heard briefly on about five days. The city streets are never seen under snow.
As the seat of Government, Wellington is the location for most head offices of national and international organisations and for agricultural, scientific, and industrial bodies, cultural archives, and records. It is also the home of representatives of foreign governments and other nations of the Commonwealth. In Kelburn overlooking the city are the Dominion Meteorological Office, the Carter Observatory, and Wellington's famous cable car, which runs from the heart of the city to a viewpoint 500 ft above. While Wellington has continued to expand as an administrative and commercial centre, the nature of the city's physical location has restricted industrial growth. The main portion of industry, through lack of suitable sites, has become decentralised to nearby urban areas, such as the Hutt Valley and Tawa-Porirua. During the past three years, in conjunction with the development of Wellington Airport at Rongotai, there has been a concomitant development there of warehouses, stores, and various light industries, such as engineering, electrical appliances, printing, and aircraft repairs and maintenance. Apart from an iron foundry and engineering works at Kaiwharawhara and meat freezing works at Ngauranga, the range of manufacturing in Wellington is limited mainly to consumer goods. The industrial centre of the Wellington conurbation is concentrated in Lower Hutt.
Situated as it is in a central position in the country, the city holds a commanding position for trade and communications. The airport, only four miles south-east from the Chief Post Office, is the hub of internal air services. For the year ended 31 December 1964 the airport statistics were as follows: domestic arrivals, 260,552, and departures, 254,526; overseas arrivals, 25,237, and departures, 25,201; cargo, 1,939,799 lb; and mail, 336,374 lb. An air-freight service to Nelson and Blenheim links the two main islands of the country, while daily air services by TEAL and QANTAS connect the capital with Australia. Road and rail services join the capital with all parts of the North Island, while the barrier of Cook Strait to continuous communication with the South Island is overcome by nightly sailings of the inter-island passenger vessels, Maori, Hinemoa, and Rangatira. In the spring of 1962 the Government-owned road and rail ferry Aramoana (“pathway over the sea”) began plying between Wellington and Picton, the northern terminal of the South Island Main Trunk railway. The Port of Wellington, adjacent to the main streets of the city and providing one of the major bases in the country for handling exports and imports, serves all the ports in New Zealand and shipping centres the world over. For the year ended 31 December 1964 shipping arrivals were 571 overseas vessels (2,457,314 net tons) and 2,022 coastal vessels (2,380,036 net tons). Inward cargo totalled 2,010,556 tons and outward cargo 860,822 tons. The chief commodities exported overseas, in order of importance, are frozen meat, 78,907 tons; wool, 46,950 tons; tallow, 9,734 tons; milk products, 14,888 tons; butter, 13,891 tons; and hides, skins, and pelts, 13,474 tons. Motor spirit and kerosene, 236,372 tons; and motor vehicles and parts, 188,121 tons, are the chief imports from overseas. Specialised coastal cargoes such as coal and cement accounted for 86,054 tons and 100,153 tons respectively of the inward coastal cargo. Major repairs can be effected to all sizes of ships on one of several slipways or on the floating dock, which can accommodate ships up to 16,000 tons.
Apart from numerous secondary schools in and around Wellington, the city's needs for higher education are catered for by the Victoria University of Wellington which was established as Victoria University College by Act of Parliament in 1897 in commemoration of the sixtieth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. In 1961 it became an autonomous university by the Victoria University of Wellington Act of that year. The roll, numbering 155 students in 1899, is now 4,500 students (1965). The University has four faculties: those of arts, science, commerce, and law. It also offers special courses in Social Science and Public Administration. The 22 departments have an academic staff of 220 who teach over 150 classes. The city is well endowed with libraries: the public library with nine branches and a mobile service; those of the University and the General Assembly and various Government Departments; the Alexander Turnbull Library, which specialises in the Pacific countries, New Zealand, and English literature; and the country-wide National Library Service. The New Zealand Ballet Co., Opera Co., and the NZBC Symphony Orchestra, as well as many local drama and musical societies, have their headquarters in the city.
The birth of Wellington was the result of the efforts of Edward Gibbon Wakefield to promote planned colonisation through the auspices of the New Zealand Company. Wakefield had observed the hardships and deplorable results elsewhere of unplanned colonisation and the Wellington colony was the outcome of his planning of a model settlement by a careful selection of suitable emigrants and by provision for the orderly social, economic, and political development of the settlement. As a result, the Wellington venture, though not free from certain hardships, was a vast improvement upon earlier examples of haphazard colonisation and made an important contribution to the extension of British trade and influence overseas. The site was chosen in 1839 by the New Zealand Company's agent, Colonel William Wakefield, because of the excellence of its harbour and the perfect deep-water anchorage near the shore. Although the advance party came in September 1839 in the Tory to negotiate land acquisition from the native population, the main body of immigrants arrived in the Aurora on 22 January 1840. The city's founders set up the colony of Britannia at Pito-one, now Petone, but moved after several months to the more sheltered bay of Lambton Harbour in a southern arm of the port. This site was less subject to flooding and more easily defended against the rather hostile natives. The settlement was later renamed Wellington to perpetuate the “association of the Mother Country with the future of the town” and as a commemoration of the support given by the Duke of Wellington for the principles of Wakefield's colonisation scheme.
The city became a municipality in 1853 and, until 1905, consisted of several wards which shared the responsibility of local development. In 1865 the city became the capital of New Zealand, the seat of government being transferred from Auckland. At certain times the city has been enlarged by the addition of adjoining boroughs, Melrose, Onslow, Miramar, and Karori, and the district of Johnsonville. Since 1905 the city has remained undivided with full municipal status. Today the Wellington City Council exercises jurisdiction over an area of 18,249 acres, a municipality with a capital value of £162 million. This controlling authority comprises a mayor and 15 councillors who are elected every three years. Many of Wellington's services are operated by the city corporation. These include the airport, municipal transport, electricity supply, gas manufacture and supply, drainage and water supply, refuse collection and street cleaning, milk treatment and supply, traffic control, public libraries, and the morgue, cemetery, and crematorium.
Although Wellington is the centre of business and commercial affairs, some large residential areas, part of Greater Wellington, lie 12 miles to the north, one area, the Porirua Basin, being recently developed. It is forecast that the future population of the basin will be 80,000. To cater for its needs, a new town centre is at present being constructed there. It allows for 120 business sites, civic and Government buildings. Population growth within the area has been so rapid that in 1965 Porirua reached city status. From the early 1950s extensive areas of farm lands have been taken over for State housing, not only there but also at Tawa, Linden, and Titahi Bay. Situated on the northern shore of Porirua Harbour is Plimmerton, named after the Plimmer family, well-known early residents of Wellington. In the Ngatitoa Domain are the remains of the Paremata Redoubt, barracks built as a base for military operations against hostile Maoris who were threatening the Hutt Valley. Today the only remaining Maori pa is at Takapuwahia, between Porirua and Titahi Bay. Titahi Bay in the early days was a Maori settlement and a whaling station. The name means “one cabbage tree”, or possibly is a corruption of “te tahi” – “the one”, signifying one of the four forts which Te Rauparaha established in the locality. Tawa (formerly Tawa Flat because of the forest of tawa trees which covered the floor of the valley) was one of the areas subdivided into 100-acre sections by the New Zealand Company in 1841 in accordance with its settlement schemes.
Rapid urban growth in Wellington is fast depriving the city of its historic places. The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, consecrated in June 1866, is among the few buildings of historical and aesthetic significance which have endured. A new Cathedral, however, has in part been constructed to replace it. The Thistle Inn in Mulgrave Street has survived from early colonial days, as has the Plimmer House in Boulcott Street, an interesting example of an early colonial cottage. The Dominion Museum and National Art Gallery are situated on a site in Buckle Street overlooking the city and are part of a striking group of buildings of modern architecture which include the National War Memorial, Carillon Tower (49 bells), and Hall of Memories. Scattered throughout the city are numerous memorials in the form of reserves, fountains, plaques, and civic amenities. Chief among these are the Otari native plant reserve, the Katherine Mansfield memorial and garden, the Lady Norwood Memorial rose garden and begonia house, the Citizens' War Memorial (Cenotaph), and the Bandsmen's War Memorial sound shell in the Botanical Gardens.
POPULATION (urban area): 1951 census, 133,414; 1956 census, 138,297; 1961 census, 150,544.
by Richard Gregory Heerdegen, M.A., L.R.S.M., Junior Lecturer in Geography, Massey University of Manawatu.
The City of the Strait, Mulgan, A. (1939).