NZ's first lighthouse, Pencarrow, lit for the first time

The lighthouse on Pencarrow Head, near Wellington Harbour, was lit for the first time amid great celebration. The New Zealand Spectator and Cook’s Strait Guardian predicted that New Year’s Day 1859 would be ‘not soon forgotten by the settlers of Wellington’.

After years of inadequate solutions, Wellington finally had a permanent lighthouse – a New Zealand first.

During the day many settlers visited their new lighthouse on the SS Wonga Wonga. The 10 a.m. excursion carried about 65 people. The afternoon excursion, which left at 4 p.m., was much more crowded and some had to be turned away. But while the early birds had more room to dance to the Hanoverian Band, those who went in the afternoon were in for a treat.

When the Wonga Wonga anchored off Pencarrow about 7 p.m. nearly 40 people, including officials, went ashore and walked up to the lighthouse. They were shown the workings of the light by Edward Wright, the engineer who had supervised its construction. A few days later the Spectator reported that:

All those who have seen the [b]uilding speak of it in the highest terms as a most creditable piece of workmanship and reflecting great credit upon Mr Wright and others concerned in its construction.

As dusk drew near the light was lit for the first time by Wellington’s provincial superintendent, Isaac Featherston. This was fitting, as he had forged ahead with construction of the lighthouse in the face of opposition from the central government. When it was lit, those on the Wonga Wonga were concerned at the ‘apparent inefficiency’ of the light. But on the return voyage, ‘disappointment soon gave way to [a] feeling of pleasure’ as the light came into view ‘in all its brilliancy’.