Capital Commerce

In spite of the hyperbole of its founders, it was touch-and-go if Wellington would survive into the 1850s, but 10 years later the settlement was finding its feet. It was now a key trans-shipment port for Wairarapa wool. And was busy developing its rickety jetties into deep-water wharfs.

Optimism increased when a man washed 8 grains of gold from a well behind a chemist shop in Lambton Quay. But Wellington's future did not lie at the bottom of a gold pan; it lay with commerce and trade and better access by rail and sea.

A ton of potatoes cost 5 pounds to cart from Otaki to Wellington. With the advent of the Manawatu railway line, the cost dropped to 5 shillings.

Appointment as the country's capital in the mid 1860s also boosted Wellington and set its economic future as a partnership between government and commercial activity.

Spectrum's Jack Perkins accompanies historian Kynan Gentry to places of commercial significance in Wellington's history.