Page:Guide to Wellington & district with a complete map of the city - Walter K. Bishop.pdf/13



Among the many trials, clangers and vicissitudes which attended the decidedly rough path of the very earliest pioneers of the province, it is gratifying to bear witness to the indomitable pluck and peserverance of those fathers of the colony, who no privation or danger could daunt. So long as 1843 and undeterred by surrounding difficulties some histronic souls thirsting for dramatic fame and desirious of affording their fellow exiles some amusement other than felling bush and kindred duties devolving on early settlement, built a theatre at the rear of the old Ship Inn in Manners Street, which many will recollect was situate nearly opposite the present Arcade. The structure, although not a very pretentious one, was decdiedly neat interiorly. It was well seated, and a commodious gallery or "dress circle" occupied the end of the building opposite the stage. The theatre was carried on for some years by Mr. J. H. Marriott, who is still a and hearty resident of Wellington, and Mr. and Mrs. Minifie, both of whom have passed away. The theatre, if we are correctly informed, was subsequently removed to a site adjoining the old Aurora Tavern in Willis Street, which occupied the spot on which the Melbourne Hotel is built.

To Mr. J. H. Marriott belongs the credit of being the first individual to introduce gas as a lighting medium in the southern hemisphere, as it was not until the first decade of the second half of the present century was well advanced that either Sydney or Melbourne was lighted by gas. The first building so illuminated here was the Aurora Theatre in 1845, the gas being extracted from oil which was presented to Mr. Marriott by the whalers who at that time frequented Port Nicholson. The gas is stated to be equal in quality and brilliancy to the article supplied by the Wellington Gas Go. (Limited), which however is not acceding much.