WHY IS WELLINGTON.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2198, 23 May 1908, Page 1

WHY IS WELLINGTON.

Edward Gibbon 'Wakefield, in his standard work, “The Art of Colonisation,” explains how Wellington came to receive its name. When the Colonising Society, of which Wakefield was a member, was making its second attempt to obtain the sanction of Parliament to the establishment of the South Australian colony, it exacted a- promise of support from a new Colonial Secretary before he stepped into Downing Street. In spite of . this, the other members of the Ministry were passively hostile, and the Bill, which was now in the House of Lords ,appeared to be doomed. In their extremity the society appealed to the Duke of Wellington, who assiduously examined the scheme and concluded that it should be given a trial, and by his influence helped the Bill over all obstacles. 11l order to mark their gratitude, the society promised to name the metropolis of the new colony after the Duke, an intention which was “shabbily frustrated” by certain persons. “The leaders of the first settlement afterwards planted in New Zealand,” says Wakefield, “were made aware of this circumstance by the person who had applied to the Duke of Wellington in the (South Australian case, and who requested them, as a personal favor in return for much exertion on their behalf, to give the name of Wellington to the spot most likely to become the metropolis of the Britain of the South. Hence Wellington on one side of Cook Strait, Nelson being on the other.