Newspaper Article – Carnival celebrated Napier’s rebirth

Carnival celebrated Napier’s re-birth

By Mary Hollywood

Eight miles of kerbing and channelling constructed, 9278 cubic yards of road material quarried and laid, 25 1/2 miles of sewer laid and tested and 586 building permits approved and issued.

A recent works committee meeting for the Napier City Council? No, a record of achievement marked by a special edition of The Daily Telegraph almost 50 years ago.

The date was January 21, 1933, just two short years after Napier was devastated by earthquake and fire and the special edition marked a week-long carnival to celebrate the huge rebuilding programme which had begun almost as soon as the last earth tremor died away on February 3, 1931.

The carnival celebrated the re-birth of the city billed as “The Newest City in New Zealand” and “The Nice of the South Pacific”. It drew attention to the rehabilitation since the fateful day when “The main streets and byways were riven by earthquake and swept by fire”.

The carnival was attended by the Governor General and his wife, Lord and Lady Bledisloe, and during their stay they opened many new and rebuilt facilities, including the Napier Hospital and France House (now Beck House) at Eskdale.

The city was a scene of great activity during those two first years of reconstruction.

The Carnival Week special described it thus:

“Grinding, concrete mixers, scrap shovels, ringing hammers, pattering trowels, creaking mortar elevators, coughing power engines and blaring motor horns resounded throughout the working day.

“ . . . As gangs of men worked on the surface of the streets and others repaired the troughs of debris and broken masonry, lorries and vans found space to park and unload packing cases containing wares to stock each new shop as it was opened or re-opened.”

The week’s festivities, nearly 50 years ago, were aimed at allowing the citizens of Napier to “indulge in a little proud retrospect”, to review the gigantic task of rehabilitation” and to reflect upon the patient effort of the individual, the splendid co-operation and the community enterprise and endeavour which has made the rebirth possible”. According to the records, all had been achieved at a cost of “one million sterling”.

From the editorial comment in the special edition, it is evident the city’s suburbs were dealt with in isolation.

Special mention was made of the efforts of Port Ahuriri residents to keep pace with the rest of Napier “in the strenuous effort to recover normal conditions”.

These efforts are recorded as costing almost 121,000 pounds, with the reconstruction of woolstores being the major cost.

Building permits issued for construction work at Port Ahuriri bore the names of many companies still found in the Ahuriri commercial and industrial area today.

One of the first reconstruction steps according to the records was taken by the National Tobacco Company.

Others to follow shortly after were Williams and Kettle, Murray Roberts and Co, the Crown and Union Hotels, Vacuum Oil, Piper and Co and the New Zealand Shipping Company.

According to photographs and advertisements in the special edition, the reborn city sported “a new gramophone parlour”, an “ideal hostelry”, a book emporium and a cobbler.

Among names still familiar today were Clausens (Napier) Ltd, Harston’s Radio and Gramophone Store, C.E. Rogers (furnishings) Simmonds (seedsmen and florists), Tres Bon (florists) and the gracious restaurant of Mr Arthur Paxie.

Along with offers of a special Carnival Week brew of “Sunshine Ale” brewed by Napier’s Sunshine Brewery, there were calls on the residents of Napier to sample the wares at McDonald’s Wines.

The winery was offering five year old port at 30 shillings a case and Madeira sherry at 35 shillings a case. A daily delivery service operated to Napier and Hastings for an extra charge of a shilling.

Watching over the celebrations and the reconstruction work and well to the fore during the carnival programme were the city’s mayor, Mr J. Vigor Brown, and the MP for Napier Mr W.E. Barnard.

Also prominent were the Napier Reconstruction Committee with its representatives of the city council, Napier Rotary Club, medical practitioners, the Napier Thirty Thousand Club, the Napier Law Society, the Accountants’ Society, the Chamber of Commerce and the Architects’ Institute.

Other “involved” citizens were the chairman of the Napier Citizens’ Earthquake Control Committee, Mr C.O. Morse and the chairman of the Napier Relief Committee Mr W. Harvey.

The icing on the carnival cake was undoubtedly the fly-in by the “Knight of the Air”, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in his famous aeroplane, the Southern Cross.

Feverish preparations preceded “Smithy’s” visit. The Napier Aero Club took no chances with its runway.

“Numerous holes” on the perimeters of the ground were filled and levelled, and the whole area “subjected to a thorough rolling”.

Runway preparations at the Hawke’s Bay and East Coast Club’s new aerodrome at Bridge Pa were equally thorough, but that club also saw fit to give their four machines “a fresh coat of silver dope in honour of the occasion”.

As well as the visit by “Smithy”, the carnival committee organised a grand parade and procession as the opening attraction.

It proceeded from Marine Parade to McLean Park, where the celebrations were opened by Lord Bledisloe.

The Carnival Queen, Miss Sheila Williams (who died earlier this month at the age of 70), was crowned at the ceremony.

The daughter of Mr and Mrs E. A. Williams, she was considered a “most appropriate” contestant as she was the candidate representing the builders engaged on reconstruction work in the town.

But the record went further to suggest “Miss Williams” victory was rendered all the more appropriate owing to the fact that her father was one of the city’s most prominent architects”.

Band concerts, church parades, athletic meetings, a vice-regal Ball, a military masquerade ball, community sing songs, pram races, boxing contests, a gold tournament, bowls, cycling and a dog ribbon parade were among the other attractions.

The Napier Racing Club held a special carnival meeting on its Greenmeadows racecourse and there was a performance by the Napier Frivolity Minstrels before a big fireworks display staged from McLean Park.

Subsequent issues of The Daily Telegraph reported the unquestioned success of the programme, the beauty and humour of the 100 plus floats in the grand procession and the glitter of the balls and evening functions (along with lengthy descriptions of what the ladies wore).

Such was the interest in the special Carnival Week issue of the Daily Telegraph that despite the fact that several thousand extra copies had been printed, the edition was sold out overnight.

A second edition was run off to meet the demand.

The week’s festivities overshadowed a brutal murder at Papatoetoe, a cyclone which wrecked parts of Sydney and the influenza epidemic which raged unabated in England.

But the “New Napier” supplement was not entirely devoted to the carnival.

There was still room for regular features on the stage and film scene under the heading “Footlight Flashes and Talkie Gossip”, the social events, racing and track reports and the latest from the cricket competition. There was even an article headlined “Scouts discover cure for car sickness!”

Photo caption – BESTALL’S DRAPERY had good reason to join the parade to celebrate the city’s rebirth, theirs was one of the first buildings to be reconstructed in Hastings Street.

The new premises stretching through to Marine Parade, boasted three-tier floor levels and a “dark” room for daytime viewing of evening silks, satins and brocades.