says: “Instead of a proper lighthouse being erected a miserable shed with a bow-window in it was constructed, in which was placed an indifferent lamp-light.” In 1853, Carter had occasion to visit Wairarapa, which he did by walking to the old pilot-station by way of Lyall Bay and crossing to Pencarrow in the pilot-boat. He ascended the hill on which the “lighthouse” stood (10). “From here I saw the lighthouse-keeper (Mr. G. W. Bennett) coming up the hill with a load of drift-wood on his back which he had collected on the beach, and looking like another ‘Robinson Crusoe.’ This Government officer or servant had his habitation—I cannot say it was a comfortable one, many would call it a wretched place; but, Lord bless me ! man is an animal that accommodates himself to all sorts of odd things and contrarieties, from the peer in his palace to the savage in his hut. Here was a case in point: Governor Grey lived in Government House, built on a nice green mound; the lighthouse-keeper also lived on top of a hill, and with his wife and three children, and the lighthouse apparatus, were all stowed away in two little rooms each about 10 ft. square and without a fireplace. The interior of this building, a lighthouse and dwelling combined, was accessible to wind and rain on all sides, and in heavy gales it rocked and shook so much as to frighten the keeper and his family out of it, who in that case took refuge in a sort of cave or cabin which he had scooped out of the side of the hill, over which he had fixed a rude thatched roof and in which he had built a rude stone chimney. This cabin was his house of refuge and his cooking-place.” Mr. Carter, in a note, states that Mr. Bennett was drowned some time afterward, he thinks by the upsetting in a storm of the pilot-boat which was about to land him at Pencarrow.

One of the first Committees to be set up by the House of Representatives was one appointed (22nd June, 1854) to report on the lighthouses and beacons required on the coast. It reported on the 8th August, 1854. Pencarrow is mentioned as being only a temporary light of an extremely inferior description, even considered by an authority as being likely to mislead navigators. The Committee recommended that a permanent lighthouse be erected as planned by Mr. Edward Roberts, of the Royal Engineer Staff, then stationed in Wellington, the estimated cost to be £3,400. Captain Drury, of H.M. Surveying Ship “Pandora,” in giving evidence before the Committee, recommended that the light be placed on Point Dorset. The Provincial Council had during its first session appointed (23rd December, 1853) a Harbour-light Committee, which reported (17th February, 1854), in part, as follows:—

“The establishment (Pencarrow) was visited 4th February, 1854, and all things found clean and in order, and very creditable to the person in charge. The situation is considered the best that could be chosen for the first harbour-light, answering at the same time the useful purpose of assisting the navigation of that part of the strait adjacent to the Heads. The apparatus for producing the light is not very powerful, but with some slight modification might be made far more effective.

“The great complaint is that towards morning the light gets so dim and discoloured as to become scarcely visible. This arises, in the first place, from the inferior quality of the oil, by which the lamp gets clogged up before morning and the quantity of light greatly lessened; and, secondly, from the position of the smoke-conductor, which is thereby rendered useless, and the room, being kept constantly full of dense smoke, the windows become completely blackened in a few hours, thereby producing that glimmering red appearance which all have observed a few hours after the lamps have been

lighted. By using a better oil a superior light would be produced and kept up till morning; and by removing the present conductor, which is placed far too low, and making two apertures in the highest part of the ceiling, one at each corner, to act alternatively in case of a change of wind, the smoke would be got rid of, and the same or nearly the same brilliancy kept up till morning which is now seen only in the early part of the night. There is no doubt but that the conflicting testimony respecting the light has arisen from the different appearances presented to individuals in those different hours of the night in which they have had an opportunity of seeing it. The only other alteration the Committee recommend would be to place the present apparatus for producing the light upon a revolver which might be erected and worked in the present building at a small additional expense, thereby giving the light a distinctive character and preventing its being mistaken for a casual fire, without diminishing its force by the intervention of any coloured medium.

“The Committee also recommend that a supply of oil, &c., for the light, equal to one month's consumption, should be always kept on hand, as they are sometimes, under present arrangements, without oil, and, should the weather be tempestuous, might be so for weeks, to the great danger of ships frequenting the harbour.

“The house appears to be strongly built but quite unfinished, being neither wind or water-tight, and, as it is so exposed, something should be done to make it more habitable before the winter.”

In the Wellington and Coast Almanac of 1855 it is stated that at night a light is shown but it is not seen at more than two or three miles. The New Zealand Pilot of 1856 ignores the light.

During the fourth session of the Provincial Council, 1856–57, it was decided to erect a permanent light. The sum of £10,000 was voted for the purpose, being part of a loan to be raised. Previous to the vote being passed the Superintendent wrote to the Colonial Secretary requesting a copy of all correspondence, with the plans and specifications prepared by Mr. Roberts. These contain much interesting information about the proposed lighthouse. On the 26th March, 1857, the Superintendent wrote to Mr. Edward Roberts, who had by then returned to England, forwarding plans and specifications as prepared by him in 1853, asking him, with Mr. James Smith, a Wellington citizen then in England, to obtain and send out the building with all its fitments, light-apparatus, &c., all mechanism to be duplicated. The sum of £3,500 was fixed as a limit to cost. The contractor was to erect the building and fix apparatus, and if the person sent out was a lightkeeper he could be appointed to take charge of the light. The tenders received ranged from £2,435 to £2,823, the successful contractors being Messrs. Cochrane and Co. In opening the fifth session (2nd June, 1857) the Superintendent stated that the General Government had objected to the Provincial Council constructing the lighthouse, as the 19th section of the Constitution Act prohibited any Provincial Council from making any law for the erection and maintenance of lighthouses. The Superintendent questioned the ruling—it only applied to lighthouses on the coast. He reminded the Council that they had maintained a light at Pencarrow for several years. In any case, he had ordered the lighthouse, and he hoped that it would be landed during the course of the next six months.

Though out of chronological order, it may be noted that one of the reasons for the disallowance of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1842, by the Colonial Office was, “by the sixth clause the Corporations are authorized to erect