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Bay Harbour: January 25, 2023

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<strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News Wednesday <strong>January</strong> <strong>25</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />

10<br />

TREASURES FROM THE PAST<br />

Royal Navy comes to town<br />

THE BRITISH Royal Navy<br />

was key to the founding of<br />

the empire’s Australasian<br />

colonies – from Cook’s 1769<br />

circumnavigation of ‘Nieuw<br />

Zeeland’ to Captain Philip’s<br />

1788 founding of the Sydney<br />

Cove penal colony and Captain<br />

Hobson’s 1840 declaration of<br />

British sovereignty over New<br />

Zealand.<br />

From the start, the Royal Navy<br />

(RN) was the sole guarantor of<br />

naval security in Australasian<br />

waters, conducted extensive<br />

hydrographic surveys, and<br />

also served as the colonies’ law<br />

enforcement across a wide area<br />

of the South Pacific.<br />

RN commanders, being<br />

subordinate only to the British<br />

Admiralty, were the equals of<br />

colonial governors.<br />

For the colonial settlers, the<br />

RN was also a strong and visible<br />

connection to the motherland,<br />

an ‘imperial presence’, especially<br />

as the crews of RN ships were<br />

generally born in Britain, where<br />

the RN naval academies were<br />

located.<br />

In 1859, the empire’s Pacific<br />

presence was strengthened even<br />

further with the establishment<br />

of the RN Australia Station<br />

at Sydney <strong>Harbour</strong>’s Farm<br />

Cove, often referred to as the<br />

‘Australasia Station’ by New<br />

Zealand writers of the day.<br />

The station was assigned<br />

RN warships to form the<br />

Australasian Squadron<br />

responsible for securing the<br />

Crown’s colonial interests in the<br />

South Pacific theatre, from the<br />

equator to the Antarctic.<br />

Half a century later, in 1910,<br />

the Admiralty decided to<br />

disband the station and hand<br />

it over to the newly-formed<br />

Australian Commonwealth’s<br />

Royal Australian Navy.<br />

Vice-Admiral Sir George<br />

Fowler King-Hall, then 60 and<br />

nearing retirement, was chosen<br />

to be the last RN commander in<br />

chief of the Australasia Station.<br />

As C-in-C, the Vice-Admiral<br />

represented British imperial<br />

naval power and was second<br />

in authority only to the King’s<br />

viceroy, the governor-general.<br />

VIP: Officers from HMS Powerful, led by Vice-Admiral<br />

Sir George King-Hall, followed by his Flag-Captain<br />

(later Admiral) Edward F. Bruen, and accompanied by<br />

<strong>Harbour</strong>master A.H. Thorpe in Lyttelton Port on December<br />

5, 1911. PHOTO: TE ŪAKA THE LYTTELTON MUSEUM<br />

REF. 14985.179 / HTTPS://WWW.TEUAKA.ORG.NZ/ONLINE-<br />

COLLECTION/1135973<br />

Known as an affable chap,<br />

King-Hall was quite well<br />

received by crew and colonials<br />

alike, although his Presbyterian<br />

teetotalism did cause some<br />

consternation.<br />

In November 1911, he set<br />

sail in the flagship of the<br />

Australasian Squadron, HMS<br />

Powerful, to review the Crown’s<br />

naval facilities across the<br />

Australian and New Zealand<br />

dominions.<br />

After arriving in Auckland<br />

on November 20, 1911, HMS<br />

Powerful made for Wellington<br />

on the 28th and on to Ōhinehou<br />

Lyttelton by December 5.<br />

Launched in 1895, she was<br />

a first-class protected cruiser<br />

of 14,100 gross tons, driven by<br />

<strong>25</strong>,000 horse-power coal-fired<br />

steam engines, and sporting 18<br />

guns.<br />

HEAT PUMP<br />

SALE NOW ON!<br />

Reportedly the largest cruiser<br />

ever launched at the time, this<br />

1911 cruise to Lyttelton was to<br />

be her last port of call in New<br />

Zealand before returning to the<br />

UK as a RN training ship.<br />

On anchoring in Whakaraupō<br />

Lyttelton <strong>Harbour</strong>, about<br />

10.30am, Christchurch Mayor<br />

Mr J.J. Dougall, with the Mayor<br />

of Lyttelton Mr M.J. Miller and<br />

officials of the Lyttelton <strong>Harbour</strong><br />

Board, went aboard to formally<br />

welcome his excellency. At<br />

2pm the C-in-C arrived on the<br />

Lyttelton wharf, accompanied<br />

by his Flag Captain (later<br />

Admiral) Edward F. Bruen and<br />

officers, being greeted by the<br />

<strong>Harbour</strong>master, Captain A.H.<br />

Thorpe. The Vice-Admiral was in<br />

his finest dress uniform as he was<br />

on his way to meet with the New<br />

Zealand Governor Lord Islington<br />

BASE: The Lyttelton Seamen’s Institute c. 1964, later the<br />

Lyttelton Museum 1980-2010. PHOTO: TE ŪAKA THE<br />

LYTTELTON MUSEUM REF. 13170.1 / HTTPS://WWW.TEUAKA.<br />

ORG.NZ/ONLINE-COLLECTION/1133881<br />

and Christchurch dignitaries<br />

at the Rhodes’ residence ‘Te<br />

Koraha’ in Merivale.<br />

However, while in port<br />

King-Hall took time out to tour<br />

Captain Scott’s British Antarctic<br />

Expedition ship Terra Nova<br />

that was taking on supplies for<br />

the 1912 return journey, and<br />

was welcomed on board by RN<br />

Lieutenant Harry Pennell.<br />

It had also been hoped that<br />

the C-in-C, as Director of the<br />

British and Foreign Sailors<br />

Society, would be present for<br />

the laying of the foundation<br />

stone for the Lyttelton Seamen’s<br />

Institute at 2 Gladstone Quay<br />

on December 11. Unfortunately,<br />

after two days of formalities,<br />

duty called and Vice-Admiral<br />

King-Hall left Lyttelton on HMS<br />

Powerful bound for Sydney,<br />

late on December 6, 1911. He<br />

did, however, pen a letter of<br />

congratulation that was read out<br />

at the ceremony officiated by<br />

Lord Islington himself.<br />

Some eight decades later, this<br />

same Seamen’s Institute would<br />

become the Lyttelton Museum.<br />

Vice-Admiral King-Hall was<br />

promoted to Admiral in 1912,<br />

and with the hand-over of the<br />

command of the Australasia<br />

Station to the RAN Rear Admiral<br />

Patey on October 13, 1913, he<br />

returned to the UK.<br />

After an audience with the<br />

King at Buckingham Palace,<br />

Admiral Sir George King-Hall<br />

retired with honours and a<br />

healthy pension.<br />

Back in the Dominions, the<br />

New Zealand Naval Defence<br />

Act 1913 had created the<br />

New Zealand Naval Forces<br />

as a Division of the British<br />

Royal Navy initially under the<br />

command of its China Station<br />

and covering the SW Pacific.<br />

It was not until October<br />

1, 1941, with the creation of<br />

the Royal New Zealand Navy<br />

(RNZN), that New Zealand<br />

finally, albeit reluctantly, cut its<br />

old colonial ties with the British<br />

Royal Navy. Prime Minister<br />

Peter Fraser, while accepting<br />

the change in command,<br />

commented that “now was not<br />

the time to break away from the<br />

old country.”<br />

•The photo caption in last<br />

week’s Treasures from the Past<br />

incorrectly identified the current<br />

site of the well on Oxford St.<br />

The photo was of the design<br />

referencing the brick barrel drain<br />

that runs beneath Albion Square.<br />

<strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News apologises<br />

for the error.<br />

Plus up<br />

to $<strong>25</strong>0<br />

cashback<br />

2022<br />

Heat Pumps

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