Whanganui was, like many towns in New Zealand then, class-ridden. There were the rich, moneyed people and the working people, with a middle-class group in between. Whanganui was full of secrets, matters that were known but never spoken about in certain circles. Probably like today.
The town contained beautiful homes and estates, some of which remain to this day. A vibrant and active provincial centre with a strong art and dramatic community.
This was the time when the Sarjeant Art Gallery was built, a project driven by Mackay, one of several very successful civic projects he oversaw. The gallery was the first part of a newly proposed civic centre, which would include the museum and Alexander Library as well as a large town hall. All came to pass, with the Memorial Hall topping off the scheme in the 1960s.
There was a lot of money in Whanganui back then.
Diamond’s superb painting of that time in words is well worth reading if you are into local history.
You can almost hear the clip-clop of horses’ hooves and the rumbling of the electric tram wheels up the Avenue. You can envisage the row of Hansom cabs lined up down the middle of Ridgway St, then the commercial centre of Whanganui and a very busy thoroughfare.
You can hear the old internal combustion engines of the early cars and trucks parking where the drivers liked in the days before there were so many traffic rules. The noise of steam trains from the nearby railway yards, Hatrick’s steamers on the river and the work on the city wharf - all sounds that now no longer exist in a town streetscape that, in reality, has not changed much since Victorian times.
Your mind’s eye sees men, all with hats, most in suits of varying quality depending on their position in society, and women in long dresses also sporting hats, all moving about the old part of Whanganui, doing business, meeting for morning tea or lunch in the tea rooms, shopping or just promenading, hoping to be seen uptown by others and to meet and chat.
Bicycles were a common form of transport, left leaning against telegraph poles or shop walls while the owners did their business.
You can almost smell the coal smoke, horses, cigarettes and pipes - everyone smoked. The smell of freshly baked bread and other foodstuffs made nearby. The smell of stale beer wafting from the Rutland or, at the other end of Ridgway St, the Albion, hopefully overcome by the smell of lunch being cooked in those establishments.
Mackay had his law office at that time upstairs in the same building where Meteor Printers is located, a two-minute stroll from the courthouse, where Mackay was well-known as a defender of the downtrodden. There are still law offices in that area today.
Whanganui was fortunate to get its beautiful buildings due to the wealth in the region. It is even more fortunate that many of those buildings remain to this day, either in their original state or after having been remodelled at some stage.
The old post office and the Rutland still face each other across the street, both remodelled over the years due to fire and earthquakes. Both are still much-used and loved, one a café/restaurant and the other a shop and office suite with a delightful old English-style pub and restaurant. A long way from the rough and ready origins of the military tavern it was in the 1850s.
I still like to either stand or sit in the Avenue or in Drews Ave and just look at the streetscape, knowing that what I am looking at, people saw, not much differently, in Victorian times. It is somehow comforting to know that, for many years, progress has bypassed our city centre to an extent, to a time where we now appreciate more what we have as a community.
We are lucky to have those developers who also appreciate that the old stuff can be made modern and functional without ruining the old streetscape.
Whanganui has a lot for which to thank people like Charles Mackay - strong-minded, highly intelligent people who drove through some projects we are still benefiting from today.
