More Info →Boy Poses on Cannon in The Square

This photograph looks from The Square onto the corner of Church Street West and All Saints Church, which was built in 1914-1915. The Grand Hotel, seen here on the left side of the photograph, was built in 1906. This gun was installed in 1909 and removed during the 1940s. Cannons were purchased by the Government in 1879 and installed at Fort Ngahauranga overlooking Port Nicholson, Wellington Harbour. They never fired a shot in anger and were obsolete by 1900. Two of these cannons were acquired by the Palmerston North Borough Council in 1909 for display in the Square. By 1939, the Council decided the cannons had outlived their usefulness and sold them to a scrap dealer. See Research File A175/72/2 in the Ian Matheson City Archives, City Library for more information.