The main block of the present Hospital was erected in 1875-76. Mr. P. Herepath was the architect and Mr. John Taylor the contractor. The contract price was £19,249. The next notable addition to the Hospital was made in 1898, when the Costley wards were erected, at a cost of £5600. The chief operating theatre, attached to the Costley block, was built in 1905, and cost £2753. Subsequently a surgical wing was added to the Costley block. The Princess Mary Hospital for Children was erected in 1917. The furniture of the Children’s Hospital was provided by the Auckland Vaudeville Employees’ Association as a war memorial, the association collecting a sum of £3152 for the purpose. The typhoid wards, erected as a temporary building in 1887 to cope with the severe typhoid outbreak which occurred in that year, and the Nurses’ Home are the other principal buildings of the Hospital.
The Costley Home, One Tree Hill, which was erected from funds bequeathed by the late E. Costley, was opened by the Governor, the Earl of Onslow, on April 23rd, 1890, and cost £8650 to erect. The infirmary, adjoining the home, which cost £5000, was opened on December 9th, 1907. An addition to the latter building, which was made in 1916, cost about £6300. The home is administered by the Hospital Board.
During the war the Hospital had to meet heavy demands made by the return of sick and wounded soldiers. One of the Exhibition buildings, which had been kept intact, was formed into an annexe, while a house in Domett Avenue, Epsom, and the residence of the late A. R. D. Watson at North Head, were utilised as convalescent homes. The Point Chevalier Hospital was also used for military purposes in 1915.
Auckland, 1852, from Britomart Barracks
Showing Commercial Bay, Lower Queen Street, and new Queen Street Wharf, Wyndham Street, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Smale’s Point. (The steamboat in the foreground is the Governor Wynyard)
P. J. Hogan, delt.
Another institution which came into being during the first decade of the city’s history was the Auckland Mechanics’ Institute and Library, which was opened on 30th September, 1842. In addition to a hall, which for many years was the only place for meetings the town possessed, there was a library, a reading room and official’s residence. In this humble building practically all the important meetings of the town were held, and in it many of the city’s institutions and societies were born. The building was situated in Chancery Street.
The first ship propelled by steam to arrive in Auckland was H.M.S. Driver. She steamed into the Waitemata on January 20th, 1846, the vessel being in charge of Commander C. O. Hayes. Her tonnage was 1058, and her horse-power 280. She mounted four large guns, and carried a complement, including marines, of 175. The first merchant steamer to visit Auckland was the Juno, from Sydney, which reached the Waitemata on July 7th, 1847.
The earliest fire of importance recorded in Auckland was that which destroyed Government House in June, 1848. The building was constructed of wood, which was brought out in sections from England, and in appearance resembled an ordinary cottage. Fortunately, a sketch by Baron de Thierry survives, and is preserved in the Auckland Old Colonists’ Museum. The destroyed building occupied a site within the grounds of the present Government House property.