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Volume 1 No. 4October 1984
ISSN 0111-8773
The photograph on the cover is of a "chair" crossing the Buller near Lyell. A Tyree photograph probably about 1890. (Alexander Turnbull Library).
Published by Nelson Historical Society Incorporated
C/- P.O. Box 2069
Stoke, Nelson, N.Z.
Copyright: Portions of the Journal should not be reprinted without the permission of the Committee of the Nelson Historical Society and should be acknowledged to them.
Printed by R. W. Stiles & Co. Ltd, Nelson
This issue of the journal continues the co-operation between the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies in ensuring that the history of the northern part of the South Island is recorded. As in previous issues a number of topics are discussed and all the articles should prove of interest.
Readers, and in particular authors, will have been extremely disappointed at the number of errors that appeared in the last issue and the publishers regret and apologise for these. However most were beyond the control of the editorial committee but in an attempt to prevent a similar recurrence a new publishing procedure has been instituted. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing how successful this will be until the journal is printed.
In conclusion I express my appreciation to your editor, Mrs Margaret Brown and her editorial committee. I also acknowledge the support given to the journal by the members of both societies and in particular the authors with their valuable contributions. I would remind everyone that it is time to start planning for next issue.
Costs and measurements are given in historical articles in the form in use at the time. Approximate equivalents: At the time of conversion one pound equalled two dollars. For distance measurements: 1 inch = 2.5 centimetres, 1 foot = 30cm, 1 mile = 1.6 kilometres.
This run was taken up by C. B. Wither of Waimea East about 1848, but was not numbered on the sketch map of 1849, so may not have been issued with a licence until later that year. By 1854 it was numbered 14 and was about 15,000 acres. During the next few years C. B. Wither purchased from various owners five or six of the surveyed sections (Budge's survey) between the run and Alabama Road, making his holding about 16,000 acres. He also free-holded as much as he could of the original run.
The original run had a long stretch of land between the Branch Stream and the Taylor River from Vinegar Point westwards to the Blairich Stream and the Tyntesfield Run boundary which could be described as a pan handle.
Toward the end of 1861 his neighbours Messrs Eyes and Empson bought about 2,000 acres extending from the Branch Stream Junction and Vinegar Point westward, effectively cutting off C. B. Wither's access to land further westward. The only thing Wither could do was lease this block of land to the occupier of the neighbouring run, either Tyntesfield or Blairich, until there was a change of ownership at Meadowbank. C. B. Wither was then able to sell his part of the panhandle to the new owner, Dr Ralph Richardson, in 1867. In the same year Wither sold his interest in the remainder of the run to Henry Redwood the elder of Waimea West, this gave Redwood the control of all the hill country from the Taylor River to the Vernon Bluffs though he may have been leasing it or running stock on shares prior to this.
Tradition has it that Wither's first manager at his run was John Maxwell who lived at the "Blue Gums". Maxwell had been a servant of Dr Monro at Waimea West and had married Catherine Maher in 1845 at St Michael's Anglican Church, Waimea West. Maxwell Road, Maxwell Stream and Maxwell Pass are named after him.
Henry Redwood died in 1873 and his trustees carried on the run until early 1884 when Thomas Redwood, his third son, took over 7,010 acres of the western part of the run and Charles, the fourth son, took over a smaller area of 4,445 acres to add to his holding of flat land around the Riverlands area. Neither of these two sons were sound businessmen. Thomas had to sell to Thomas Carter of Hillersden in 1891 while Charles' interest in the Riverlands Run was taken over by the Bank of New South Wales who had gained control of all the mortgages on the property. The bank conveyed the Riverlands Run to Robert John Bell of Riverlands and his brother James Bell of Hillersden in 1900.
This run does not appear to have had any particular name, but was taken up by Edwin Hare Dashwood in 1848 and a depasturage licence was granted the following year — No. 20, by the New Zealand Land Company in Nelson. When the fourteen year licences were issued in 1854 by the Commissioner of Crown Lands at Nelson, this run became No. 15.
The boundaries of the run were: eastwards by the Flaxie Stream from near the Vernon Lagoons to its source, then through Redwood Pass to a stream on the other side called Boundary Stream and down that stream to surveyed sections. (Wakefield Downs Survey District — Budge's), southward by surveyed sections to Stafford Creek, to its source, to Maxwell Pass, over this and down Seventeen Valley Stream to surveyed sections (Opawa District — Budge's), northward by surveyed sections to Flaxie Stream. This took in about 14,000 acres at first, but soon others started buying up parts of it from the Crown. Dashwood, himself, soon seemed to lose interest in running the property and let others run stock on it for shares of wool and natural increase.
Dashwood was Crown granted a homestead section near the Flaxie Stream and also a section on the Stafford Creek for an outstation in 1853 and 1854. Others started buying up parts of the run from 1854 onwards. John Poynter, solicitor of Nelson, later magistrate of that city, bought several sections out of the run from the Crown in 1854 and 1855 and soon after conveyed them to Douglas Brown of England and Alexander Taylor, M.D., of Pau in France. Brown and Taylor also bought land out of the Dashwood Run in a gridiron pattern and when they sold their holdings to trustees of Henry Redwood they had 6,576 acres.
William Atkinson, who had established himself on a small section at Burtergill, bought 1736 acres adjoining, out of Dashwood Run on the Awatere side. Dr Ralph Richardson, M.D., of Nelson, started buying land on the northern side of Dashwood run in 1854 and 1855, as well as some land already surveyed for closer settlement by Budge and had, by 1859, about 1500 acres in this area, perhaps half of it out of Dashwood run.
That same year (1859) Redwood leased the freehold land owned by Brown and Taylor on similar terms with a right of purchase after 19 years. Included in the lease and sale of Dashwood's run to Redwood was a flock of 2,400 sheep, presumably there was also a flock of sheep in the lease and sale from Brown and Taylor.
In 1853 Dashwood married Roberta Henrietta Abercromby who, by a certain contract of marriage dated 14th October, 1853, received a share in this property. This is mentioned in a lease with right of purchase for 8,000 pounds after the expiry of a nineteen year lease commencing 1st February, 1859, between the above couple and Henry Redwood the Elder of Waimea West.
For further history of this run see article on Run No. 16, The Bluffs.
This run was next to the sea on the hills south of Vernon Lagoons and was taken up by William Budge, surveyor, in 1848, it was also No. 16 on the list of runs in 1849 and was about 5,500 acres
William Budge (1816–1870) came to New Zealand as an assistant surveyor on the Will Watch arriving in 1841 and was employed by the New Zealand Company for several years. Toward the end of 1846 he supervised the cutting of a line through ten miles of the "Big Bush" into the Wairau Valley at Tophouse. With sub-contractors Joseph Ward, Cyrus Goulter, and Nathaniel Edwards, Budge took a contract to survey the Wairau and lower Awatere Valley flat land into rural sections of 150 acres at sixpence an acre. They commenced in 1847.
Budge lived for a time on Budge's Island until the big earthquake of 1855 caused him to abandon it because of land subsidence and flooding from Vernon Lagoons.
Henry Redwood the Elder of Waimea West sent a flock of sheep through to the Wairau in 1848 under the care of his third son, Thomas, and grazed them on "The Bluffs" and on unoccupied sections in the Wakefield Downs District of the Awatere. Redwood was able to buy up many of the surveyed sections in the Ugbrooke area a few years later, mostly from the Crown and some from absentee owners. In 1857 he was able to purchase Budge's land and interest in this run along with the transfer of the licence for 370 pounds for 740 acres of freehold land. He then set to and bought the freehold of the rest of the run over the next few years.
It was not known where Tom Redwood established his headquarters as supervisor of the run; one likely place is at the junction of the road to the Castles and the through road from Redwood Pass to the Awatere River and beyond; Redwoods later had a training stable here. Another likely place is where the present Vernon homestead is — Thomas Redwood lived there in the 1860s. The enlarged area of The Bluffs, Dashwood's Run and the Ugbrooke area was named Vernon by the Redwoods. There is some controversy over the origin of the name which has has not yet been resolved.
After the death of Henry Redwood in 1873 his trustees carried on the Vernon run. They concluded the purchase of the interest of Edwin Hare Dashwood and his wife, also the interest of Douglas Brown and Taylor (by then Sir Alexander) in the Dashwood run area.
In 1882 Redwood's trustees sold the Vernon run of 1860 acres to the Hon. William Joseph Hugh Clifford who was a son of Lord Lewis Henry Hugh Clifford, Baron Clifford of Chudleigh who lived at 'Ugbrooke Park' in the County of Devon, England. The Hon. Wm. Clifford had grand ideas of a large mansion at Ugbrooke, but as he did not consolidate his financial position he soon got into difficulties. When the house was only half finished he was borrowing from his father and friends as he had exhausted the commercial sources of money. By the end of 1887 Lord Clifford had had enough of bailing his son out of financial difficulties, so in 1888 he asked George Clifford, the eldest son of Sir Charles Clifford of 'Stoneyhurst', to take over the administration of Vernon run. The Hon. Wm. Clifford then went to live in Tasmania.
George Clifford, who succeeded to the Baronetcy of Stoneyhurst in 1893, endeavoured to get the run onto a better footing. He tried cutting it into smaller units but without much success — only two were sold, one of which came back on his hands about three years later. In 1897 the whole estate was sold to another relative, Henry Dunstan Vavasour, with the exception of 459 acres sold to George McLeod Gunn in 1891, but which Vavasour bought back in 1900. Though he paid not much more than half what Wm. Clifford had paid fifteen years earlier, it was still a struggle to finance the undertaking, but when parts of the run were sold off over the next 25 to 30 years he managed to complete the large brick house started by Wm. Clifford.
Vavasour came to New Zealand in 1871 to learn farming; after a short period at Flaxmore he then moved to the North Island for experience in cattle farming. On his return to Flaxbourne several years later he took over the day to day farm management from Herbert Westmacott under the supervision of Walter Lovelace Clifford. In 1887 Vavasour married Bertha Redwood, eldest daughter of Thomas P. Redwood of Burleigh, they had twelve children.
There is further information about Ugbrooke and the Vavasours in 'The Awatere' by A. L. Kennington (1978) and also in 'The Awatere Valley, Today and Yesterday' published by the Awatere Valley Branch of the Women's Division of Federated Farmers (1966).
(Note: Prior to 1859 Eyes and Empson had been leasing Dashwood's run and flock of sheep on terms by which they guaranteed an annual rental of 47% of natural increase together with two pounds of wool for each sheep.)
This run was taken up by Charles Clifford and Frederick Aloysius Weld in 1847. It is historically important as the first really large sheep run to be successfully established in New Zealand. It was Run No. 8 on the 1849 list of runs in Marlborough. Its northern boundary was from the sea along the surveyed sections in the Blind River area for about three miles, then for a short distance along the Blind River to its junction with the Tetley Brook and westwards along the latter stream to its source in the Haldon Hills; then over a ridge and down a small stream on the other side to the Flaxbourne River, the junction of which is opposite Dog Hill. Then up the Flaxbourne River for about a mile, then up a stream on the south side of the river and then across the upper catchment of the Needle stream, over a ridge to a stream running south to the Waima (or Ure) River. This stream used to be called Boundary stream but is more recently called the Dunsandel stream. From there the boundary followed the Waima or Ure River to the sea. Eastwards was the sea coast.
So much has been written about the life and times of Clifford and Weld that the story need not be detailed here. As with most of the early sheep runs the holding
In the early years a shepherd was in charge of a flock on various parts of the run. By day they grazed and at night he took them to a fold. These folds were in strategic sites on several parts of Flaxbourne, usually in a low easy saddle in the hills and were constructed of sod ditch and bank with a small sod hut nearby for the shepherd to live in and keep an eye on the flock in case there was an attack by wild dogs which were very troublesome for several years. When fencing did become available Flaxbourne, like many other runs in the Awatere, bought iron standards with holes in them. When these were driven into the ground every 8 or 9 feet they supported the wires. Posts were at much wider intervals.
A story about a bullock wagon load of iron standards and wire relates that, on the way from the Wairau to Flaxbourne, they took a short cut across Lake Grassmere on what appeared to be a dry lake bed. When nearly across they struck a soft spot. There was no hope of getting out with the weight of iron standards and wire so, with night coming on fast and a drizzle of rain, the driver threw off the wire and standards and managed to get the wagon out. He intended to come back the following day and pick up his load. Unfortunately it rained for several days and filled the lake bed and it was months, perhaps years, before it was dry enough to take any sort of vehicle onto it. The salt in the lake ruined all the wire and standards so that they were never recovered.
Many people were employed on the run as it increased its stock-carrying capacity. There were run managers, head shepherds, shepherds, bullock drivers, fencers, cooks, dog catchers, later, after rabbits became a nuisance, large gangs of rabbiters, packman, storekeeper, teamsters and, at shearing time, perhaps another 50 or 60 to run the shed and muster the sheep, etc. Some of the managers were James Laing, George Lovegrove, Herbert Westmacott, Henry Dunstan Vavasour, Walter Lovelace Clifford, Everard A. Wild. Others who served Flaxbourne well were John S. Workman, Tom Caverhill, 'Taff' Assal, Tachall, J. Moran. Tachall's Creek is named after a shepherd who had a hut near the sheep and cattle yards on the "Hummocks", Gulch Road.
In 1854 Flaxbourne lost 3,680 acres in between Lake Grassmere and the surveyed sections near Blind River; it was sold to Alfred Fell who took up Blind River Run in September, 1854 (Run No. 49). Another small area of about 50 acres in the lower Tetley Brook area was conveyed to William Atkinson of Sedgemere in 1871. A further area of about 400 acres was sold to the Crown to go with the Starborough Settlement of 1899. This was between the present Highway 1 and Caseys Road and is at present farmed by Ian Conway.
After negotiating to buy Flaxbourne for closer settlement the Crown compulsorily acquired 45,600 acres for over 181,000 pounds. Four Clifford brothers who, by then, were the main owners of Flaxbourne (Sir Frederick Weld having died in 1891 and Sir Charles Clifford in 1893), exercised their legal right to retain 10,511 acres in what was known as the Cape Block, but which they subsequently sold by public auction in 11 parcels in 1911 and 1912.
The interests in the estate of Sir Frederick Weld were looked after in New Zealand by Sir Christopher Bowen, 'gentleman', and Henry Hamilton Loughnan, solicitor, both of Christchurch.
At the sale of the land of the Cape Campbell bloc in 1912 by Clifford Bros, at public auction, the homestead block of what by then was known as "New Flaxbourne" of 3,072 acres was purchased by the manager of "New Flaxbourne", Everard Aloysius Weld, a son of Sir Frederick Weld.
About 1851 this run was applied for nominally by Alphonso Clifford, a younger brother of Charles Cliiford of Clifford and Weld of Flaxbourne and Stoneyhurst and became almost immediately part of Flaxbourne Run.
This run lay between the Waima (Ure) River in the north and the Kekerengu Stream in the south and was bordered on the east by the sea while the western boundary was somewhat vague. By about the turn of the century there was 9,565 acres of freehold and 12,500 acres of leasehold land in the Woodside Run, In 1901 Clifford and Weld Estate sold the freehold to Charles Frank Murray of Rotherham and his brother-in-law, Alfred Rittson Thomas. Murray took the northern portion, 6,236 acres, which extended up the Waimea River and Rittson Thomas and easier portion to the south of 3,329 acres which he named Tirohanga; Murray called his property Wharenui. The 12,500 acres in the remainder of the Woodside Run was offered for lease by the Crown in 1902 and Murray and Rittson-Thomas secured it on mutual terms for three years. In 1905 the Crown offered two blocks off it for lease; the Benmore Run (4,740 acres) received over 250 applications; Freeborn Parsons was the lucky winner of the ballot while for the Napoleon Run Arthur Wiffen was the winner out of 275 applicants. In 1911 another parcel of land from the old Woodside run, including some land from Whernside Run, was offered for lease by ballot and Roderick Alexander Kennedy, shepherd of Kaikoura, was successful and called the property Wairewa.
The first mention of an employee from Flaxbourne taking up residence is in the late winter or early spring of 1851 when John Stanton Workman moved with his family to the Flags — a small stream near the present Wharanui homestead. Here he was to keep a boat, supply Flaxbourne with fencing and firewood, look after the rams and assist any travellers passing that way.
Another item of interest about Woodside run is a circle of old gum trees between the present Ngaionui homestead and the north side of the Waima (Ure) River. At one time this circle contained holding yards and a hut for use when stock had been mustered off Woodside and crossed the river Waima or Ure.
At one time there was a plentiful supply of flax ( Phormium tenax) growing in parts of Woodside, as in other parts of Marlborough, in damp hollows and along creeks and flaxmills operated in three or four places. Water from the Flags or else the Woodside streams operated a mill at Wharanui while other mills were in Schwass's Gully and at Te Rapa.
A description by the Lands and Survey Department of 1905 of Napoleon ad Ben More says: "Some mixed bush, manuka, matapo, broadleaf and some matai and kowhai on the slopes of Woodside stream; limestone country, good soil, over half the land good tussock country."
As soon as a rural community was established small stores appeared to cater for the daily needs of the settlers — food and farm necessities would be stocked, household goods, some clothing, a few luxuries such as sweets, trimmings, perhaps even wine and spirits. This happened in the area we now know as Wakefield. The first old photograph shows Smith's Store on the site of the present Wakefield Hotel.
Thomas James Smith arrived on the Whitby, his wife, Grace, with their only child, Robert, on the Lloyds in 1842. They came to Wakefield about 1846, James to take over the school while Grace ran a small general store. In 1752 James offered to handle the mail for Waimea South, thus establishing Wakefield's first Post Office. Louis Drager bought them out in 1868. He built an accommodation house at the rear and the store became the local sweet shop. It was demolished about 1887 when Harleys took over the hotel.
Other small stores in the area at that time were those of Mr Wilkinson on the site of the first school, later moved to 88 Valley; Mrs Price, W. F. Maiben; J. Fowler and David Clarke, the two last named just across the Jemmy Lee Bridge.
Around 1865 three stores were established which were to remain for many years though not on their original sites.
William Painton, at the top of Pitfure Road, had his home and store in the one building, as was often the custom in that era. A general store also sold wine and spirits which led to strife with some of the local people. Painton was a keen cricketer who gave the use of his paddock for the game. In April 1874 a letter appeared in the Colonist saying that it was simply untrue that the amount of drunkenness on and about his premises was a public scandal, unless it alluded to a day when some festival was held in his paddock. The local publican had been heard boasting that they took as much as forty pounds on a day when cricket was held in his paddock. As the cricketers had moved further down the road he trusted that his premises would no longer be a public scandal.
In May 1883 he moved his whole building by traction engine, down to the site of the present Plunket Rooms. This building was later used by Hodgsons and, later still became a boot store and a bicycle shop. The living part was where the two Misses Bird, Kate and Ada, lived for many years.
The third Painton Store, a little further along the street has been restored as a small museum, called Painton House.
John Hodgson arrived in Wakefield in the 1850s, but it is not until 1865 that we find him on section 89, on the corner of what is today Days Lane, as a bootmaker. He had begun to stock a few grocery items such as flour, sugar, tobacco and matches, when, sadly, he died suddenly leaving his widow, Ann Hodgson, and two small sons, Ernest and Herbert.
Ann leased the store, first to W. Paterson and then to Mr Langtord. Later she took it over herself. When Ernest finished his education, he joined her in the business and it became A. Hodgson & Son, a name that became very well known in the province.
Ann died in September 1899, and the following year Ernest moved the business into Wakefield township, taking over the old Painton shop; then in May 1905, on the opposite side of the street, he opened his new building. Meanwhile his brother Herbert opened a similar shop in Murchison. It was a two storied building; groceries, produce and hardware were on the ground floor and drapery on the floor above. Later there were branch stores at Belgrove and Motupiko and a store cart that served the outlying valleys. His brother, Herbert had opened a store in Murchison about the time the new Wakefield store was built.
Ernest died in October 1935, but the business did not go out of the family until 1968 when Mrs G. Lawson, trading under the l.G.A. banner took over, naming it Hodgsons 1968 Ltd.
E. Hooper & Son established the third store in 1865, just north of the village. Today a pile of gravel marks the site. When the railway crossed the road in this area it placed Mr Hooper's store on the wrong side of the tracks. It was 1883 before Edwin moved his business to the main street – on the corner near the Pigeon Valley Bridge. Here he traded, in friendly rivalry with his neighbours for many years. He also ran a store cart to the neighbouring valleys. Hooper's first store, on the wrong side of the railway tracks was run as a store for a short time after Mr Hooper moved by one of Rev. Bowden's sons, but after this it lay vacant for many years until Mr Telenius bought it to use as a storage shed when he moved to Wakefield.
Traders of those early days were lucky, they lived in an era of big sawmills, railway camps and gold rushes. Edwin Hooper died in July 1891, his son James took over the business and he was later succeeded by his son, Cecil. About 1946 the business was sold to Mr A. Wood and about 12 years later to the partnership of A. Housler & W. S. Laird. The mid 1960s brought the final move of what was still called Hoopers Store to the site of what is today Baigents butcher shop, the old building was demolished about 1975.
In January 1972 Mr Charles Forward took over both Hoopers and Hodgsons businesses, but used only Hodgson's premises. In 1981 Mr Watson began trading as Wakefield Super Discounter. It is still the same building, it is still run by friendly folk, but, apart from the memories of older folk, only the headstones in St Johns Churchyard commemorate the names of Hodgson and Hooper in Wakefield today.
I had a delightful time browsing through the books of Hodgson's Store for 1879–1888 period. As one could expect candles, kerosene and bootlaces were on most lists, also Irish Moss, Stedman's and Washbourn's powders, magnesium and rhubarb and castor oil at a shilling a bottle. Indeed, Edward Baigent purchased a bottle of the last named on Christmas Day!
I was intrigued to note that I could guess when the customer got married, had children, had a cold and so on. For example, David C. bought a rush hat, two and a half pounds of shot, a box of caps, an ulster and some tobacco; while William H. purchased two shirts, a box of collars and a necktie. I guessed they were both going hunting though for different game.
Monday mornings seemed to be busy with big sales of painkiller. From the Painton Store books, 1895–1898: it was obvious that people were now buying more of the goods that made life a wee bit more comfortable. There was more butter sold, more currants and lots of bars of Monkey brand soap. Mr G. bought malt and hops – that is all he bought – but he was a regular customer. Shoes at five shillings cost less than a forty pound bag of sugar at eight shillings and nine pence. I felt a bit nostalgic for the good old days when Mr B. had just one pair of bootlaces delivered and charged to his account!
My interest in the story of the two maoris known to many early local settlers as Tommy the Maori and Teapot began just before Christmas sometime in the 1950's when I was farming at the head of Garden Valley in the Wairoa Gorge. It so happened that in those days the late Mr L. E. H. Baigent used to call on us each year to collect a few geese for Christmas dinner. It was a glorious summer morning on this occasion and as he was a keen and knowledgable historian it wasn't long before we got around to discussing local history.
When he mentioned that Garden Valley was once known as Teapot Valley and named after a maori of that name, who with his friend Tommy, had lived at the back of our farm the conversation took a more interesting and serious turn, first to be discussed while seated on the garden wall and later with a cup of tea around the kitchen table.
Over the intervening years further information has come to hand which has helped to throw a little more light on the lives of these two maoris and the F. V. Knapp papers held by the Nelson Provincial Museum have been a valuable source of information.
The story begins about the year 1828 when Tommy and Teapot lived in the Ngaitara Pa of Waimea where life went on as usual and in reasonable harmony with other maoris in the region where they were said to be less hostile towards one another than their North Island neighbours. However, dramatic changes were about to take place as at this time the well known and feared chief Te Rauparaha was making plans for an attack on the Tasman Bay maoris.
A few years earlier the South Island maoris had attacked his stronghold on Kapati Island and had caused him a few anxious moments before being driven off. They retreated southwards knowing full well that Te Rauparaha would not let the matter rest there. Several years passed before the attack came and when it did it was savage, devastating and far more deadly than they could have imagined.
Te Rauparaha despatched a war party under the command of several chiefs, the best known was probably Te Puoho, who was a clever tactician. These warriors were well trained and most were armed with muskets. The defenders had mostly conventional weapons suited to hand to hand fighting and had no hope of repelling their enemies. The war party swept through the sounds and into Tasman Bay by way of the French Pass carrying everything before it.
Many were to die and very few were to escape on that fateful day when Te Puoho guided his war canoes into the mouth of the Waimea River and without warning attacked the Pa. Little is known about the ensuing battle but the inhabitants soon found themselves in a hopeless situation and their only hope was to try and escape the musket fire.
Tommy and Teapot, who would probably have been about twenty years of age, were most certainly of this opinion and with youth on their side they made a desperate bid for freedom by heading for the safety of the Wairoa Gorge.
We are left wondering if they passed by way of the Pohare Pa near Brightwater (believed to be named after a chief) or was it already too late to warn the inhabitants. The "Examiner" of 9 April 1842 mentions how T. J. Thompson was surveying in this locality and after having burnt off some fern he discovered the remains of this Pa which he said reminded him of an old Roman camp. It is interesting to note the spelling Weiti and Weimea (sic) Rivers at the junction of which this Pa was situated.
There are many and varied reports of escapers from the Waimea Pa being pursued into the back country and it is fairly certain that the sound of musket fire was not far away as Tommy and Teapot made their hasty retreat. It is generally believed they headed directly up the river into the Wairoa Gorge as this route would afford them the best cover if they were being pursued. Having reached this
An alternative route known to early settlers as the "Old Maori Track," once passed along the foothills and gradually climbed around the face of the high ridge away to the east of the Spring Grove Cemetery. This was across the property owned by the late Mr F. D. Higgins who told this story to the writer about thirty years ago. He said the track made the top of the hill about the south east corner of his farm where the main ridge dividing Garden Valley from The Plain falls away abruptly and is very noticeably lower. From this point southwards along the ridge it is level walking to the head of the valley where the "Old Track" swung eastward and gave fairly easy access to nearby Jacks Valley, and to the south down an easy slope to Pig Valley and the Wairoa River. Whichever of the two routes the two maoris took they would be able to reach this locality.
In pre European times parts of this area around Garden Valley were in heavy bush and even as late as a hundred years ago there were large totara and matai logs lying in high fern. The late Mr Ben Eves of Bridge Valley remembered it when it was in this condition and told how the early pioneers believed the forest had been burnt off by the maoris many years before Nelson was settled. It is not uncommon today when cultivating these hills to find dry areas of soil where "old man" totara trees once grew.
Tommy and Teapot spent fifteen or more years in these valleys of the Wairoa Gorge and it was not until the early 1840's when William Budge and several others were surveying the land to the south east of Wakefield that they discovered them in a camp on the edge of the bush to the south of Pig Valley. At first nothing would convince them that it was safe to return to the Waimeas and the thought of returning to their old home near the estuary of the river made them very nervous. It was clear that their experiences at the hands of Te Rauparaha's warriors were not easily forgotten. However, after further reasurances they did come out and were able to find work with the settlers who came to know them as Tommy the Maori and Teapot. They both had a reputation for being good trustworthy workers and were well liked by those who knew them.
According to F. V. Knapp (see plan) Tommy lived in a whare built among the manuka trees situated on a small terrace on the south bank of Badman's Creek now known as Teapot Valley stream Waimea West. The spot would be southwest of the present Teapot Valley Christian Camp (1984) which is located at the junction of the Waimea West and Teapot Valley roads. Perhaps Tommy's friend lived here with him, and, is it just co-incidence that this area carries his name?
It is of interest to note that this was once known as Dron's Corner (not to be confused with the old Eves Valley corner also known by the same name) the family having owned the land on both sides of the Waimea West Road while the farm to the south belonged to Samuel Badman 1856–61 and then John Palmer, farmer and innkeeper of Waimea West who passed it on to other members of his family when he died in 1898.
Knapp goes on to say that Tommy worked for James and John Kerr on the farm opposite St Michael's Church and later went to the Lake Station with John. He is also mentioned in Saxton's Diary 20 September 1849 when he was with a party shooting rabbits on the "Large Island" i.e. Rabbit Island. "Tommy the Maori" was recorded as "catering for Mr Carkeek." They had a successful day, most of them going home with rabbits, mussels and oysters from Oyster Island. Although Tommy is said to be buried in the Waimea West Public Cemetery there is no record of the event in the burial records.
This is mentioned in Harry H. Moffat's book Adventures by Sea and Land. Moffat called at Station Creek near Lake Rotoiti in the early 1860's and states that he had a very enjoyable evening with "the proprietor and a native, Teapot by name." Maori people believe this name to be a corrupt form of the name T1POU which means the one who likes the largest share or, the greedy one. There is another story which tells how he was very fond of a cup of tea and that if anyone lit a fire to boil up he was sure to be on hand by the time the tea was made. This, it is said, earned him the name Teapot and the name was given to the valley in the Wairoa Gorge near where he had lived for many years.
It is not likely that it will ever be established exactly where Tommy and Teapot lived while in hiding and it is almost certain they would move around from place to place making use of the old camps of their dead friends and relatives. There was a fine stand of native trees in the area where Budge found them in Pig Valley. This was later known as Budges Bush, and was milled by Mrs Charles Fawcett about the turn of the century.
Some people believe they lived on a small sheltered flat at the head of Jack's Valley. Certainly there was evidence of maori habitation there. There was argillite chips and stones which had been carried up from the Wairoa River over a mile away. An earlier owner found a skull on the surface of the ground while Mr W. Murcott found four adzes and several pounders as well as burnt stones that appeared to have been used in cooking fires.
The name Garden Gully was used on some Geological Survey maps in 1878 but was not used officially. There was once a hop garden in the valley which was owned by Mr William Hastelow about 1863 and this is how the name probably originated.
It was called Teapot Valley until in May 1939 Mr H. Murcott who then lived at the top end of the valley wrote to the Waimea County Council asking for the name to be changed to Garden Gully. In September the Lands and Survey Department gave their approval saying that the old name had not been used on maps or deeds so that the way was clear for the proposed change. It was to be called Garden Valley and in due course the sign post at the end of the road was changed and so this reminder of the past has gone.
Note: The photograph of Tommy had the words "Freeman's Maori" written down the side of the negative. Did he work for Freeman who had a share in the contract to build the bridge over the Wairoa at Brightwater 1863?
References: F. V. Knapp Papers — Nelson Provincial Museum. Saxton's Diaries — The Nelson Provincial Museum (2 Sept. 1849). Harry Moffat — Adventures by Land and Sea. Peart "Old Tasman Bay."
Len Morley, as he was known to his friends, was one of those men whose exceptional talents were generally concealed from all but those of close acquaintance. He was an amateur astronomer who was recognised by the scientific world in a manner few amateurs have ever been.
Morley was born in Wellington, New Zealand, his father was a commercial traveller, his mother a Dane. His grandfather had come to Nelson on one of the first ships in 1842 and became a bridge builder, many of his works still standing.
He attended Nelson Central School where he was influenced at an early age by that famous teacher F. G. Gibbs, headmaster at the time, whose remarkable ability to explain complicated scientific theory in a manner easily understood by young students was legendary.
Following his years at Nelson Central he proceeded to Nelson College for five years of study followed by a period at Victoria University to study law. He joined a law firm in Nelson with only two subjects to finish when World War I broke out and typically of many young men at the time he resigned his position to enlist, serving for the duration in the Army Area Office.
His interest in astronomy, on which he soon became an authority, was kindled by his association with F. G. Gibbs and by 1909 he was assisting Gibbs at the Atkinson Observatory which was then situated in Alton Street near to Gibbs' home. In 1910 he began his first astronomical log book with his observations of Halleys Comet. Observation commenced on April 20, 1910, and his night by night comet watching is described in detail with delightful paragraphs telling of the wonderful sight the comet made. He illustrated the comet's shape with precise pencil sketches noting such things as the growth of the tail night by night, mentioning in one place
By 1914 Len Morley was assisting Mr John Evershed of Kodaikanal Observatory, India, in selecting and site testing possible sites for a proposed Cawthron Solar Observatory which was to have been established in response to a request from the authorities of Yale University Observatory. Together with F. G. Gibbs, Morley and Evershed, along with Mr Arthur Atkinson, camped from the 15th to the 29th January, 1914, at several sites in the hills behind the Brook and Maitai Valleys. Using a number of small telescopes they took simultaneous observations at different locations making notes of conditions of "seeing" and comparing their information at base camp each evening. This work was arduous entailing as it did carrying heavy equipment through rough bushclad hills, felling trees away for clear observing sites and changing sites each day.
In 1913 he entered an essay in the Cawthron Competition appropriately titled "The Advantages to be Derived from the Establishment of a Solar Physics Observatory in Nelson". This was a scholarly work of some 6000 words carefully researched and eminently readable. Not only were the scientific advantages carefully outlined but also the gain in tourism and wider knowledge of the city were stressed. His essay won the award and was published in the Nelson evening Mail of Friday, September 26, 1913.
When the Atkinson Observatory was moved to a new site at the top of the Bishopdale Hills near the end of what is now Princes Drive it was sledged from Alton Street to its new home. This was done at the personal expense of F. G. Gibbs and his assistant in its removal was Len Morley, this was in 1923 September. From this time on until 1954 when he retired F. G. Gibbs was the honorary curator of the observatory, his assistant of course was Len Morley. When Gibbs retired due to ill health Morley became curator and continued in that position until shortly before his death. His notice in the "Local & General" column of the Evening Mail became part of the Nelson scene with its beginning "if the sky is clear," etc. His remarks in the log book night after night make interesting reading, typical are these entries for 1953. April 4: Public Night attendance 40. Good. April 5: All Saints Bible Class 22. No comment. July 15: Girls College party, number attending 19. Conduct, indifferent. September 1: Over 70 Public, too many for adequate attention.
Each year he reported to the Board of Trustees at the Cawthron Institute, reports which are the models of brevity and clarity.
During the 1939–45 war he and Gibbs kept the observatory going with frequent public nights. Whilst Nelson airport was in use as a General Reconnisance Base many airmen were trained in star recognition and navigation by both curators.
Len Morley was the last surviving member of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand founded in 1920. He was president in 1956–57, vice-president 1958–59, council member 1960–67, and was awarded the Society's prestigous Murray Geddes prize in 1963. In 1964 he was made a Fellow, a distinction limited to only 10 members at any one time. He wrote countless reports and papers on astronomy and other scientific subjects, his first in 1918 on Variable Stars.
In September 1956 Morley called a meeting of persons interested in astronomy to consider the formation of a society in Nelson. Sixteen enthusiasts attended with Morley being appointed president, a position he held for many years alternating with his being on the committee. The Astronomical Society functioned until 1960 when it became a Section of The Royal Society. Len Morley held office right up to the time of his death and was in demand as a speaker delivering talks on many subjects at least 25 times. For years, at his own expense, he prepared and distributed monthly copies of planet notes. He regularly explained planetary and constellation positions at meetings using a celestial sphere he had imported and donated to the Section. His love of knowledge was evidenced by the vast library of books, bulletins, journals and star charts at his home at 28 Alfred Street. Called Nga Roihi the name was simply Maori for Roses, being so named in honour of his sister who, before a long illness, was much interested in roses. His interests were wide including archaeology, membership in Toc H, Royal Forest & Bird, the Polynesian Society, Philatetic, N.Z. Founders, Royal Society and many others. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge, outstanding mathematical skill and would share these with any one who cared to listen or ask for advice.
He was a familiar sight around Nelson in his open tourer. Like himself the car was unique being one of only a few thousand made by Dodge Brothers in the U.S.A. It was a 1928 Dodge Victory Sports Phaeton now owned by a local vintage enthusiast. He would drive right up to the observatory while lesser mortals left their car at the gate and walked, dodging sheep and cattle on the way.
In later years he became hard of hearing and his habit of sitting near the front row and asking the speaker, no matter who, to "speak up" was both entertaining and disconcerting.
E. G. L. Morley's two great loves were Freemasonry and astronomy, both these having at least one thing in common. The search for Truth. He was a scientist of no mean repute. From practical experience and an active brain he became an authority in his particular field. He was well known not only in New Zealand but overseas. He was once offered a post in an overseas observatory but in typical
He gave time and money in interesting two generations of Nelsonians in astronomy. He sought truth without regard for reward or prestige.
He will be remembered with affection by Nelsonians who had the privilege of knowing him. His passing 11 years ago left a gap which to this day has not been filled.
Many trampers now follow well beaten tracks round the coastal areas of the Abel Tasman Natoional Park and enjoy the wonderful scenery which is opened up for them.
From earliest days of settlement shipping was the means of communication with the outside world and those people who settled round the coast must have lived very isolated lives. From quite an early stage of development there were suggestions that a road should be built round the coast from Takaka to Marahau. William Gibbs, a well-known personality in Golden Bay, had settled at Totaranui in 1857 and he believed that road communication round the coast was a practicable move. As a member of the Nelson Provincial Council he had some influence and he certainly believed that it would be impossible to make a good road over the Takaka Hill. About 1870 or earlier Gibbs had opened up a track from his home at Totaranui to Motupipi and this was regarded as public access.
In 1873 a better road line over Takaka Hill was explored and laid off with money provided by the Nelson Provincial Council. However this did not prevent suggestions being made at various times over the years that a road should be built by the coastal route. It was seen as being a logical development. Tracks from Motupipi to places beyond Awaroa were in use. Maori landowners, as well as settlers who moved in, offered no objections to the tracks being used through their land. These tracks extended well round the coast but we have no accurate information about them. Some of the landowners stated that they had used tracks beyond Awaroa from 1863 onwards. It was regarded as public access for the few settlers and the workers employed at the Tonga Bay Granite Company's works.
Perhaps the first attempt to develop a vehicle road was the construction of a road over the hill from Pohara to Wainui. This was laid off in 1900 but the work dragged on for years and it was 1909 before it had been widened into a road. Meanwhile tracks had been greatly improved between there and Awaroa. At the time there was still agitation to get a road right round the coast and in 1910 the Takaka County Council resolved to write to the Chief Surveyor asking if his department would survey a line of road to Marahau as the Council was not in the position to undertake the work. In reply the Assistant Under Secretary of the Public Works Department stated that he had the honour to inform the Council that, by the direction of the Minister of Public Works, since the road would give access to a large area of Crown Land when it is extended, it had been decided that the department would take the necessary steps to legalise it.
In 1913 some road work was being undertaken but another problem arose as some landowners were objecting to people using the track through their properties. (It was stated that the track had been in use since 1863). One settler was threatening the prosecution of trespassers. The result was a petition from people concerned asking the Government for the provision of a public road. The Commissioner of Crown Lands replied that a report would be obtained upon the circumstances of the track from Awaroa to Tonga with a view to the opening up of a proper road.
Further monies were spent during 1915 and 1916 in improving access as far as Awaroa but one landowner at Awaroa and Tonga objected to a public road being made through her properties. In 1918 this owner agreed to sell the necessary land provided that adequate compensation was offered. No deal was made and the Council decided that steps would be taken to acquire the land under the Public Works Act 1908 when it was required for a road. In the following year, June 1919, the Council, when asked for access, replied that it intended to take the land for a road when funds were available.
The simple fact remains that the road plan was not proceeded with and later developments do not come within the scope of this article.
Thursday, 13December 1917, and a small launch moved out to intercept a large sailing vessel off Mercury Island near Auckland; but those on the launch considered her not big enough for their get-away. Then a slightly larger vessel appeared astern of the first. To those on the launch this was just what the doctor ordered. The crew of the first ship, the timber scow Rangi, watched the launch approach the second scow. Rangi's master, Captain Jack Francis and his crew, saw the launch stop the second scow which those on the launch boarded; the first man to board carried a rifle, hand grenade and a flag made from four bags. Jack Francis made port fast despite his cargo of logs on deck and reported to the search authorities the capture at sea of the second scow. They were later told that they had seen Count Felix von Luckner who was master of the Auxiliary Sailing Raider, Sea Adler. Von Luckner had been imprisoned on Motoihi Island in the Hauraki Gulf. His escape from the island with nine others in the prison governor's launch, the Pearl had started a large search in and around Auckland and the Hauraki Gulf. The ship that von Luckner had captured was the Auckland registered timber scow, the Moa. Her master was Captain William Bourke, ex Royal Navy.
Captain Bourke acted as sailing master under Count von Luckner and the first landfall they made was the Kermadec Islands midway between Auckland and Tonga. While on one of the small islands (there are four in all) Count von Luckner and his men raided a food depot set up by the New Zealand Government for shipwrecked persons. As he was heading back to the Moa after claiming the islands for the Kaiser, smoke was seen on the horizon. It was from His Majesty's Cableship, Iris, who was searching for von Luckner and the scow Moa. The launch. Pearl, had sunk not long after leaving the New Zealand coast and in order to make a
Moa's cargo of rimu logs to be jettisoned overboard. As soon as pursuit was evident the scow's anchor was hoisted and away to sea she sailed; but the Iris was faster and soon overhauled the Moa and von Luckner was re-captured, stripped of his weapons and brought back to Auckland. The Moa, slightly damaged, was towed astern. Count von Luckner was sent to Ripon Island in Lyttelton Harbour. At the end of the Great War in November 1918 he returned to Germany.
As for the scow Moa, she continued hauling timber between Tauranga and Auckland until she was lost on the West Coast of the South Island in 1935. She was built in 1907 by G. T. Nicol at Auckland, a two masted fore and aft rigged top sail schooner for the Ford Shipping Line Ltd of Auckland. (Off 127.03/98.5 ton register Number 122925.1 – official). Her dimensions were 94.6 feet by 30.3 feet by 5.6 feet; registered number 14/1907(26/11/07) Port of Auckland. First master was Captain Robert McKinlay. During World War I her master was Captain William Bourke, ex Royal Navy. When she was towed back to Auckland by H.M.CS. Iris the Moa suffered some damage. While still under Wm. Bourke she caught fire at Tauranga on 28 February 1921. Her owners were Leyland O'Brien Timber Co. Ltd of Auckland (1914–1929). On 17 September 1927 she was damaged off Awanui (North Island), Master I. Jensen. These were the only casualties the Moa suffered between 1907 and 1935.
In 1929 the famous timber scow was purchased by Messrs Winstone Ltd, coal merchants of Auckland. The year before alterations were made to the ship now registered No. 3/1928, (4/7/1928) Port of Auckland, 130.50//53.74 tons, 2 engines of 45 b.h.p., Fairbanks Morse, semi-diesel engines oil fired (not pure diesels). Then, on March 29, 1935, tragedy struck the scow Moa when she tried to enter the Big Wanganui River some fifty miles south of Hokitika. Her cargo was sawmill equipment for a new mill to be erected on the West Coast. That fateful day the Big Wanganui was in flood and it was believed with the flood and Moa's shallow draft (5.6 feet) she would easily cross the Big Wanganui's bar. But it was not known that the bar was badly silted up until it was too late to stop her stranding. As she crossed the bar sand, shingle and silt entered the water-circulating pipes and they became clogged, causing the engine to overheat and seize up. As her engines were of no use, the scow was uncontrollable and drifted on the shingle bar where she stayed.
With the aid of people from Hari Hari, a small dairying town up river, all the lighter sawmill equipment was salvaged, but the heavier equipment, still on board, caused the Moa to sink into the shingle bank until only the masts were showing and four of her crew were left standing in the rigging until they could come ashore. Her master was one A. O. T. Stephens who held a Foreign Master's ticket. There was no Marine Court of Inquiry into the loss of the timber scow, the stranding was an accident. The heavy sawmill equipment was later salvaged and sold by auction.
Her sister scow, the Rangi, was wrecked two years later in the Hauraki Gulf, with the loss of four lives. She was the very last of the true Sailing Timber Scows, whereas the Moa was an Auxiliary Timber Scow. Rangi never had a wheelhouse and refused to have her hull polluted with oil and two semi-diesel engines like the Moa. Long before Rangi was wrecked in the Hauraki Gulf in 1937 she was almost lost at Karamea. While the Master was in the bows taking bar soundings and her two crew members were rowing the big scow, a freak wave capsized it drowning the three crew. She later drifted ashore, was recovered and put back into service with a new master and crew from Auckland. She was very lucky not to have become a total loss at Karamea.
Wherever the timber scows of the past are today may they sail somewhere for ever. I salute you all.
If a traveller in New Zealand in the eighteen-fifties had relied upon "A Chart of New Zealand" published by James Wyld on 19th February 1852, that traveller would have found himself in very great difficulties in reaching his destination, for the inaccuracies of the map were so numerous that one wonders how reliable were Wyld's sources of information. The title of the map includes the dedication "To the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies" and an acknowledgement "To the Committee of the Church Missionary Society the Publisher is deeply indebted for the valuable information kindly communicated by them. And also to the New Zealand Land Company for use of their valuable surveys".
The map under review is the third edition published by James Wyld, but Wyld was no novice in the publication of maps of New Zealand, for in 1834 he collaborated with Thomas McDonell in publishing a sheet map of New Zealand a copy of which is now in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and is reproduced as Plate 54 of "Early Charts of New Zealand 1542–1851" by P. B. Maling. McDonell was an ex-naval officer who had engaged extensively in trading in the Western Pacific before taking over the dockyards at Horeke on the Hokianga River in 1830. In 1834 he paid a visit to England and there collaborated with James Wyld who had recently acquired W. Faden and Company's chart publishing business. In previous editions of Wyld's maps his acknowledgement is set out "From Admiralty Surveys of the English Marine, from the Observations of the Officers of the New Zealand Company and from Private Surveys and Sketches".
One of the most remarkable errors in the map is shown in Marlborough where the Awatere River is shown as changing its name to the "Wakefield River" in its lower reaches and then surprisingly joining with the Wairau River to become the "Wairoo or Providence River" discharging its combined water by a common mouth into Cloudy Bay. The name "Wakefield River" was probably derived from Wakefield Downs, for as A. L. Kennington recalled in his book 'The Awatere", that name was given by the early surveyors to all the land in the Awatere as far as the Medway Stream, and later the name was taken for the run of 4000 acres originally granted to A. G. Jenkins and subsequently to Samuel Stephens. To add to the confusion of his nomenclature of river systems in Marlborough, Wyld has shown a much shorter river further to the south also called the Awatere River.
Just north of the settlement of Nelson, at the Glen, Wyld has marked "Skoitche Village" and the origin of this name presents an interesting problem. In "Early Tide to Wakapuaka" P. V. and N. L. Wastney recall that on 16th January 1827 Dumont d'Urville sailed within five kilometres of Mackay's Bluff and that two canoes bearing fine looking Maoris accompanied by slaves put off from the Glen Beach and visited d'Urville's ship. They pointed out their habitation near the Glen which d'Urville wrote down as "Skoi Teai" as near to the pronunciation as he could get. Present day Maori opinion is that the correct name was "Koi-te-Hihi" (the promontory or headland of Hihi). One of d'Urville's officers, P. E. Guilbert prepared a chart of the area and the settlement is shown as "Shoitche Village". This chart is reproduced as Plate 43 of "Early Charts of New Zealand 1542–1851" by P. B. Maling. Bishop Selwyn was puzzled by the name, for in his Letter II of his Journal of the Bishop's Visitation Tour written in Nelson covering the period August 21st to August 29th 1842 he wrote "Nelson, you will have learned, is at the very bottom of Blind or Tasman's Bay, in the northern shore of the Middle Island, at a place marked on Wyld's large map "Skoitche" a name for which i can find no authority."
Another puzzling name on the map is "Maitche Village" shown at the present location of Riwaka. According to J. D. Peart in "Old Tasman Bay" the Maori name for the locality of the old Riwaka school was "Matakohe", and on Guilbert's chart the name is shown as "Maitehe Village".
A touch of history was introduced by Wyld, for at the end of Farewell Spit, to which he gives the name "Entry Bank" he has added the note "Victoria lost on this bank 1840". According to Ingram and Wheatly in "Shipwrecks, New Zealand Disasters" the name of the barque was Vittoria, and she was wrecked on Farewell Spit on 9th February 1840. Robert McNabb gives a full account of the disaster in his "Old Whaling Days".
Although many of the names on Wyld's map have disappeared or have been replaced by names in present day use, many more have survived even though Wyld's spelling of Maori names has been corrected to conform with modern Maori spelling. Two names of interest that have succumbed are Lake Arthur and Howick which were explored and named by Heaphy and Spooner. These lakes have now reverted to their Maori names of Rotoiti and Rotoroa.
The map, although inaccurate in many respects merits close study, for Wyld's series of maps of New Zealand rank in importance with the maps of Arrowsmith, Rapkin and others which provided the basis for subsequent exploration and mapping by later cartographers.
The family historian is familiar with the difficulties associated with collating information about those early European settlers of New Zealand who derived from what, in those days, was known as "the lower orders".
When in mid-1981 I pondered the puzzle of Edward and Mary Laney, my great- great-grandparents who arrived as assisted immigrants aboard the Olympus in 1842, there seemed to be little chance of finding out any details of their day to day lives in the infant settlement. There were no personal diaries, no letters, no photographs and the three remaining relatives who might conceivably have received from their elders a few ancedotes about Edward and Mary were too incapable by age to be able to retrieve specific details from memories stored in their minds.
About this time I was in Dunedin for a week or two and wished to see the great Hocken Library of which I had heard so much. While there I decided I would look over their files of the Nelson Examiner. This way I could at least read something of the background of the Nelson of which Edward and Mary were a part. The Hocken files of the Examiner were very incomplete, but I settled down that first day in that marvellous reading room with its views over Dunedin, and prepared to at least enjoy the "feel" of Nelson as it emanated from those pages of 139 years ago. On day two, irresistably drawn to that fascinating reading room, I presented my request slip at the desk and a library assistant brought from the depths of the holding room another volume of bound copies of the Nelson Examiner. Gently I turned the fragile pages, reading the columns devoted to events in Britain and Europe. Despite many gaps in the collection, these early files unfolded with hypnotic fascination a history that held my close attention.
Presently I came to the issue of 22 May 1847. Gleaming out of the front page as if activated by flashing neon lights, was the following advertisement:
"
Notice: All persons who areIndebtedto E. Laney, Baker, are requested to settle theirAccountson or before the 15th June to avoid being put to trouble and expense." Nelson, May 20th.
This advertisement was repeated on Saturday, May 29th, 1847.
So, Edward had set up in business and on his own account. Encouraged by this success I returned to the library each week day for the remainder of my Dunedin visit. Patiently, the library staff brought up successive volumes of newspapers. By the end of my visit I had read through all copies of the Examiner held at Hocken, but I no longer dallied over articles of historical interest, the field was sternly narrowed to the theme of my research.
Despite the limitations imposed by the incomplete Examiner files I was able to build up a reasonably complete picture of Edward Laney, the baker. To this portrait I was able to add some facts gleaned from a hectic two-hour visit to the Nelson Provincial Museum at Isel, Stoke, the following year. My time in Nelson was strictly limited, it was the holiday period, and, although I wrote in advance, I was unable to co-ordinate my visit with the presence of the Librarian. However, the Curator, Mr Steve Bagley, made valiant efforts to assist me between answering telephone calls and speaking with personal callers. At that stage my reasearch experience was minimal so that in many ways, I had little idea of what to look for nor of where best to seek it.
But, to return to Edward Laney. From 1843 until his business was put up for sale in January, 1867, Edward worked at his trade at premises at Section 169 Bridge Street. (Upon which he was a squatter at first as were many early settlers). In the 1862 Board of Works his rating assessment was for one pound twelve shillings and threepence, increasing to three pounds one shilling and eightpence by 1867 so it would appear his circumstances were consolidating. He was now either the tenant or the owner of the property — just which I have been unable to establish. He was also an innovator, willing to try something new.
On Saturday, 12th August 1848 an advertisement, couched in the stilted terms of the day, informed Nelsonians that there was a reduction in the price of bread, and that a new service had commenced for their benefit:
"Reduction in the price of Bread. E. Laney, Bread and Biscuit Baker, Nile Street East and Bridge Street, in returning thanks to the inhabitants of Nelson for the very liberal support he has hither-to received in business, begs to say he has
ReducedthePrice of the Four Pound Loaf to Sixpence Half-Pennyand hopes by strict attention to business to merit continuation of public support.
N.B. A light cart will leave Bridge Street, Nelson every Tuesday morning for Richmond, Waimea Village and Wakefield. Groceries and other goods supplied and produce taken in exchange. Small parcels carefully delivered."
The advertisement was repeated on Saturday, 19 August 1848. From my reasearch I was unable to determine just how long this physically demading service was carried out. I saw no further reference to it.
Edward was involved in another venture about this time, as, in the list of Jurors for 1850 he is described as "Publican of Nile Street", proprietor of the appropriately named Baker's Arms. By the time the 1852 list of Jurors was published, E. Laney was no longer listed as a publican.
An assistant to Edward in his labour was his step-daughter, Ann White, daughter of Mary by a previous marriage, who by 1849 was an active partner in all aspects of the bakery as is shown by the following advertisement in the Examiner of Saturday, 29 December 1849:
"Ann White, Bread and Biscuit Baker, Pastry Cook and Confectioner, Bridge Street, begs to return thanks for the support she has already received since commencing business, and hopes by constant and unremitting attention to merit a continuance of public favours. Wedding and other cakes at short notice. Superior Ginger Beer."
Ann was eight years old when she left England in 1842 so, at fifteen or sixteen years of age, she seems very young to be conducting or helping to conduct such a strenuous enterprise as a nineteenth century bakery business. Ann emerges as a fully fledged business woman. In the census of 1849, Ann is listed as the proprietor of the Bridge Street property, her profession Confectioner. In 1851 she moved to new premises in Bridge Street, still as a baker and confectioner.
Not that the Laneys had undisputed sway in the bakery scene; at least one other firm, Ross & Saunders was also in operation in 1843 and rivalry was keen. By 1848 J. Andrews, Bread and Biscuit Baker had joined the ranks. The pricing of bread was always, in the true spirit of private enterprise, at cut throat level. E. Laney was obliged to insert into the Examiner of Saturday, 26th August 1848, beneath a notice by J. Andrews, Bread and Biscuit Baker, Bridge Street, the brief announcement that his "four pound loaf now sells at Sixpence, the same price as his rival."
The years passed by; Ann married a man named Bartlett and left the business. Mary Laney died at Bridge Street on 1 June 1866 aged fifty-six years. She had borne nine children (at least), six of them being born in New Zealand. At the time of her death her eldest child, Henry White was thirty-four years old, her youngest, Mary Laney was thirteen. Mary, wife of Edward, was laid to rest in the Old Cemetery. Edward continued in business, assisted by his eldest son, William, but by 1867, now aged fifty-nine, Edward put the business on the market. On Tuesday, 22 January 1867, the Examiner carried the notice that Mr E. Laney would supply particulars of the easy terms by which it would be possible to purchase the "Old Established Bakery Business in Bridge Street".
Eight subsequent insertions of this notice followed from 24 January 1867 to Tuesday, March 5, 1867. Pleas for payment of outstanding accounts either to Mr George Harris of Bridge Street or to the trustee of the Estate, Mr Thomas R. Fisher, also made repeated appearances up to Tuesday, 12 March 1867. Careful searching has, to date, failed to establish that any buyer came forward. It would appear that Edward was obliged to shut up shop, with no goodwill to show for twenty-four years of
Where and when did Edward die? It seems likely that he lived out his last days in Marlborough with one or other of his daughters, but this supposition has not been verified. Edward the Baker has been delineated, with luck future research may determine the Man.
Sources: Allan, Ruth, Nelson, A History of Early Settlement. Bartlett, Grev, Whangarei. Bottomly, Laurell, Hamilton. Cole, W. H.: Bird's Eye View. The Early Days of Nelson 1842–48. Nelson Provincial Museum, Stoke. Nelson Examiner Files, Hocken Library.
[The establishment of early accommodation houses is an important and interesting part of every district's history. The following article was written by the late Ralph Denton who was researching several such Marlborough houses until he died suddenly. Kaituna is the area immediately on the Nelson side of the Wairau River after crossing the bridge above Renwick. In earlier times the name was often applied to the whole valley which runs through to Havelock. This accommodation house was on a high bank to the left of the road to Tuamarina just below the turnoff over the Wairau Bridge. The road from Kaituna to Tuamarina is still known only as the Tuamarina Track. It was always an important route, at first used by the Maori people to travel to the rich food gathering areas along the Wairau North Bank, and then by settlers travelling to and from the Wairau District when the river was too high to cross in that area. Kaituna Accommodation house enjoyed a particularly long history beginning sometime before 1861 and continuing until 1957. — Nevil Matthews].
Like many other accommodation houses it had a humble beginning being established to fill a need. A Publicans' Special Licence was issued in 1861 to James Davies (sometimes erroneously spelt Davis) and Arthur Kinsey described as publicans and farmers. It is not clear where they first carried on their new enterprise, whether it was in one of their residences or perhaps in a building erected on the eastern corner of section 7 of Block 1 District of Kaituna, for in 1863 Michael Maher, farmer, who owned the section of land, conveyed a five acre part to James Davies and Arthur Kinsey. The early accommodation house built here was of mud construction. In 1865 Michael Maher conveyed a further eight acres of land across the road to the south of the accommodation house to the publicans which they wished to use for grazing stock (part of section 115 District of Kaituna). In 1867 Arthur Kinsey conveyed his share in the enterprise to James Davies and went to manage the Manuka Island Accommodation House, but was drowned in the Wairau River in October 1868.
An advertisement in the Marlborough Express of 12 November 1870 reads: "Travellers Rest, Kaituna Valley Mouth. Mr J. Dumble has taken out a licence for his accommodation house, situated as above, where travellers may rely on obtaining good refreshment on moderate terms."
James Davies conveyed the two part section to John Dumble on 3 March 1875 for fifty pounds. The latter sold them to John Gibson, farmer, of Kaituna, for 120 pounds on 4 May 1876; which suggests that Dumble may have built or started to build a new two storey timber house to cater for an increase of travellers who wanted to stay overnight.
In 1880 John M. Dixon was the licensee of the inn and about 1882, Samuel Green came to take over the running of the house for John Gibson. In 1890 Sam Green's widow, Mary Jane Green, was able to purchase the 13 acres of land and the accommodation house from a member of the Gibson family and ran the accommodation house for many years. It was known far and wide as "Greens" and had a very good reputation for service to the travelling public. In 1931 Mrs Green transferred a half share in the property to her son, Ernest Green.
After Mrs Green's death in 1948 her share was divided equally between her son and her daughter, Mable, a spinster, who continued to run the house, but there were fewer travellers and they had to rely mainly on local trade. After the death of Ernest Green in 1953, Mable then inherited the whole property. With the house becoming very old and the trade quite small the Licensing Authority considered revoking the licence, but decided to let it run on until the departure of Miss Green. She died in 1957.
How did Nelson City Council come to buy Tahunanui Beach? The main reason, I suggest, was the great rise in popularity of the beach after the opening of the Rocks Road in the nineties of last century.
It is true that the beach had attracted swimmers and sunbathers for many years prior to this. The earliest mention I have found is in an entry in Monro's Diary for December 1860. "After luncheon, Dally and Aleck and I rode over the Port Hills to the beach and then along to the mouth of Martin's Creek where we bathed." At this time Jenkins Creek flowed across the flat land of the golf links and the aerodrome and emptied into the sea by Monaco (Martin's land). H. P. Kidson, in his book, "A Nelson Boyhood", tells how he and his brothers often climbed the Port Hills from Toitoi Valley and swam and lay in the sun by the waters of Tasman Bay. His was not an exceptional case as many of the older residents could testify. It was a common thing to climb up from the town and scramble down the Port Hills either at a spot near Magazine Point, where Day's Track emerges, or further along past the slips and muddy ponds of Moana and then picnic on the beach.
But the opening of the Rocks Road in the eighteen-nineties, and we must remember that the road was passable(?) for traffic as early as 1895, brought the beach within reach of most of the citizens of Nelson. By 1899, after the formal opening of the road by the Premier, the Right Honourable Richard Seddon, the road was well established and although dangerous at times, and fairly narrow, it was used by the public generally. The Colonist, in its article on the Anniversary Day holiday in February 1899, said, "The Sands were visited by a large number and a visit to the spot at such a time must make it clear to the dullest that the people here have a heritage that must be conserved so that the fullest advantage can be taken of the resort."
It is obvious from this that the people of Nelson considered the beach was theirs to use although, in fact, it was still part of Green's land and some friction must have ensued. From what I have heard from the accounts of early visitors to the beach, the Greens were, at first, quite agreeable and even supplied the water for the odd picnickers. But I can quite understand their dismay at the later inrush of picnickers who swarmed over their land, probably leaving gates open and dropping litter in the shape of papers and broken bottles.
At this point the Nelson City Council felt that some solution to the problem must be found. As early as February 1899, the Works Committee recommended that the Waimea County Council be approached, with reference to the formation of a road along the edge of the beach in front of the Green property. They proposed that the Green Estate be given an unused road that ran through their property from the bottom of Tamaki Street, in exchange. This recommendation and urgings to the Council through letters, swayed the Council and it was decided that the City Surveyor inspect the road and report to the next meeting of the Council. Councillor Baigent said he thought it desirable that action should be taken at once to get the exchange of roads, thus securing a road in continuation of the Rocks Road and to cut off Mr Green's property from the sea! He proposed that a sub-committee which was meeting the Waimea County Council, should be empowered to bring this matter up also. One or two of the councillors were a little dubious of this attempt to force the Greens' hands.
By September 1899 the question had been settled for a map in the Lands & Survey Office shows a survey carried out by Mr Browning, in which the new road had been placed and the old road to be closed was also shown. But the City Council apparently were not satisfied with this and went further until the Executors of the Green Estate offered to sell them the whole of Tahunanui Beach.
By May 13th, 1899, the Colonist was able to print:
P.L.A.N. 5534
Showing road to be exchanged.
Suburban South, Waimea Survey District.
"The Sands"
To be purchased by the City for 300 pounds."At the City Council meeting, last night, the Mayor, on behalf of Councillors Baigent, Piper and himself, the Sub-committee appointed, reported they had interviewed Mr George Green, one of the late Mr Green's executors, on the ground, and that gentleman had offered to sell to the Council for 500 pounds the land on the seaward side of a line from the Rocks Road to the black log at the far end of the sands and the Executors would also exchange for the right of a road running in the centre of the paddocks near the end on the Rocks Road, a road leading from the Rocks Road to the sandhills, this road passing to the left of the Beacon. Mr Green estimated that the area would be acquired by the Council under these conditions would be 66 acres, and the acceptance of the offer would secure all the foreshore rights as well.
"Subsequently, the Mayor met all the executors of the Estate and they agreed to accept 300 pounds which would remain at interest at 5 per cent.
"The matter was fully discussed and it was unanimously resolved to accept this offer. The Mayor and Councillors Baigent, Piper and C. Harley were appointed a Sub-committee to carry out the transaction."
I could find no reference to this purchase in the Council's Jubilee Handbook, but came across one in notes made by Karl Akers, one of Edward Green's grandsons. He gave the actual minute of the City Council, apparently copied from the Council's Minutes.
Minute–12th May, 1899.The Mayor reported the result of an interview between the Executors of the Estate of E. Green and himself:–
Proposed by Cr Harley, seconded by Cr Rout: "That the Council enter into a proper agreement with the Executors of the Estate of E. Green for the purchase of the sandhills and the foreshore offered by them for a sum of 300 pounds and that the Committee appointed to interview Mr Green's executors, viz. the Mayor, and Councillors Baigent and Piper, with the addition of Cr Harley, be appointed to carry the resolution into effect."
Discussion ensued. Question put. Carried.
F. Trask, Mayor.
I then made further investigations to confirm the Council's purchase of Tahunanui Beach by inspecting the relevant deeds and transfers in the Lands & Survey Office records. I found three documents on the subject which rather puzzled me at first, but gradually I realised that they were, first an Agreement to Purchase and Sell the Land, dated 1899, the actual Transfer of the Title to the Land, which was dated 1909, and also a Declaration of Trust Deed, 1910.
The Agreement for Sale and Purchase of the land was signed at the end of 1899 and registered at the Lands & Survey Office by April 7th, 1900. The map included in the documents, showed the land purchased arranged in two schedules – the First Schedule included the land to High Water Mark as shown in the Crown Grant of the 1850's, while the Second Schedule showed the land that had accrued by gradual accretion in the fifty years following. Apparently, under the law, if you owned land to High Water Mark, any land that built up by accretion gradually, and actually abutted on your land, belonged to you. In this way the Green's Estate — The Sands — was increased by approximately 150 acres, mostly sandhills and mudflats, but worth thousands of pounds to Nelson today. The price was to be 300 pounds.
The Conditions of Sale were laid down in the Deed. There was nothing unusual about them.
The Sands Reserve as Purchased by City Council
The sum of 300 pounds was to be paid by 4th June, 1904, and interest was to be paid half-yearly, starting with a first payment on 24th December, 1899. The amount of interest was 5 pounds per annum. The Council was to have legal possession of the land from 24th June, 1899. The buyers had the right to pay the purchase price earlier, if they wished, provided that due notice was given. Other provisions were that the Council was to be responsible for the payment of rates and taxes on the land, there was to be no grazing of stock on the land and any stock there could be impounded; the Council was to be responsible for the good condition of all fences except the main boundary fence between Green's land and the Council's property.
On the map, the new road was shown, our present Beach Road, which was to be constructed and was to run just in front of the Pilot Beacon, while another road running at right angles from the beach to the Main Road at the bottom of Tamaki Street, was to be closed. This paper road ran along the northern boundary of Section Twelve and was never formed.
The signatories to the Agreement to Sell were Bernhardt Henry Moller and Helen Baigent for the Council and James B. Green, Arthur Ernest Green, George Green, James Smith, who was Mrs Green's brother, and Percy B. Adams.
Whether the price was actually paid by the time stipulated, I am unable to say, but the next document, the Transfer of Title, was not registered until 1909. So the Council, and the people of Nelson, possibly used the land for ten years before they had completely paid for it.
Perhaps the Council and suceeding Councils were too poor to pay for it. In 1899, the Council's finances were certainly in a poor way — the Mayor's honorarium was abolished and the Chief Surveyor's salary was cut by 50 pounds. Councillor Harley proposed that rates be raised by 3 pence in the pound but the Council hurriedly rejected this.
They were already paying for the Rocks Road by a special penny rate and found it hard to meet all their commitments. The loan for the new abattoirs building at Tahuna was 7,500 pounds at 4%, the Rocks Road loan of 1892 was 4,000 pounds at 5% and other expenditure was needed for a water supply, drainage, and sewerage to combat the epidemics that were raging in the town.
But by 1909 the price had been paid and the Deed of Transfer to the City Council was signed. The price was now 305 pounds 12 shillings and 6 pence. The Executors of the Green Estate also signed the document but under slightly different circumstances — James Smith had died in 1903 and Percy B. Adams was out of the country. Charles Harley signed in his place. George Green was still at the Sands but part of the land had been sold and the other two sons had shifted to the North Island - James Burn Green signed as sheep farmer, Napier, and Arthur Green, as sheep farmer, Masterton.
In January 1910 a Declaration by Deed was made by the Mayor, J. Piper, and the Town Clerk, G. A. Edmonds. It was a long document, but its main provision was a Declaration of Trust by the Council, Mayor and citizens of Nelson, that the lands hereditaments comprised in the within written deed of conveyance, were purchased by the Council to provide for the health, amusement, and instruction of the inhabitants of Nelson and to be used for pleasure gardens or for any other purpose of enjoyment or recreation and so on.
In the interval of time between the signing of the two documents — the 1899 Agreement to Sell and the 1909 acquisition of the Title deeds, the Nelson Harbour Board had been established and had been endowed with the foreshore along Tahuna Beach. They naturally wanted all they were entitled to and there was considerable argument about who owned what and great consulting of legal opinion, but a letter in the Council Records from Pitt & Moore, dated a late as 1922, said that the Harbour Board could not claim more than the boundary from time to time of the sea and such boundary could easily move seaward with each recession of the sea from the land. I don't know how the argument finished but it appears that the Council still owns the land it bought from the Greens.
It seems that the Council made a good bargain and it would be hard to estimate the value of the area today and it effects on the people of Nelson.
Since the year 1240 the Chaytor family have owned the village of Croft, near Darlington in Yorkshire. During the 1860s, John Clervaux Chaytor was living there on part of the Clevaux estate. His eldest son, also John Clervaux, had been born in London, within the sound of Bow bells, on 28 July 1836, where Mrs Chaytor had gone to be with her parents for the important occasion.
Young John was well schooled and after finishing at Sedburgh he left to join the army. At this time the Crimean war was raging and what better thing for a young man to do than join the famous Forfar and Kincardine Artillery.
By the time he was 24, John had gained the rank of captain of his regiment, but with the end of the Indian Mutiny and a settlement with Russia in the Crimea, England turned pacifist and the Forfar and Kincardine was disbanded. Young John, now without a job, needed something stimulating for his years ahead.
He knew the Tetley family who lived at Oaskew House, not far from Clevaux in Yorkshire and he had also had contact with George Lovegrove who had lived at Maidenhead on Thames. It was 1860 and both George Lovegrove and John Dresser Tetley were now farming in New Zealand.
Lovegrove managed Flaxbourne for Frederick Weld who had taken up a large portion of Marlborough's east coast in 1847 and Tetley was settled on Madcaps at the mouth of the Kekerengu River. This he had obtained from Frederick Trolove but it was originally part of Weld's southern boundary.
John Chaytor decided to emigrate to this new exciting country and his younger brother Edward was happy to go with him. They set sail from England in the brig Thames City and landed in Wellington in November 1860.
It took the brothers little time to get to Kekerengu where J. D. Tetley soon had them cutting tracks inland through the bush and over hills such as the boys had never dreamed existed. This was wild unbroken country and for the next two years their life was nothing but hard work; but this land provided the challenges they needed and they found great pleasure in the wild life they were forced to lead.
On 6 March 1861 John wrote home to Croft from their camp at Bullock Creek. "We came up here after shearing for the purpose of cutting a track up to the top of the hills. It is 10 yards wide and will cost 40 pounds a mile and I expect it will take us three or four months. Our tent is on a little flat in the bed of a small stream".
Both boys were prolific letter writers. Edward wrote home on 4 March from the same tent at Bullock Creek. "For want of anything else to say I will tell you what we have in our larder … I will begin with a bag of flour weighing about a hundredweight, a shoulder of mutton, thirteen pigeons, three kakas, some fat onions, etc.… I rather like the work we are at; there is something jolly about the merry ring of the axe, you can imagine yourself carving your road to fame and fortune, and all that sort of moonshine. There was a Morepork kicking up a row near the tent a few minutes ago. I went out and shut him up with a tune on his own fiddle. I am beginning to be a dab at bird calling, inviting the kakas down to be shot and getting up a concert of wood-hens at the shortest notice. The bush we are cutting through now is about 40ft high".
The brothers soon became well known and respected for their ability to live and work hard in this difficult back country. By late 1862 they had made arrangements to lease a large part of the land on the north bank of the Clarence where that huge river swings back to the south in behind the Chalk Range about 12 kilometres back from Kekerengu. They engaged several men to help them and during the early months of 1863 they built a mudhouse near the headwaters of the Ouse River which runs into the Clarence.
As children in England they had known the ruined site of Coverham Abbey which had been built in the thirteenth century and was once inhabited by Augustinian canons. So they gave the name Coverham to their new home. No doubt Tetley
John Chaytor was soon more often referred to as Jack and Edward was known as Ted. Before long they had the full confidence of Tetley and by the end of 1863 they were managing the whole of Kekerengu station for him. During that year they burnt almost all of that country and much more as well. Their descriptions of the enormous fires, which they lit everywhere they went, are pretty mind boggling today. Edward's diary gives us a little detail:—
1863 January 4th, Sunday: On 25th November I lit a fire on one of the Cover Banks (the Cover is a stream running into the Ouse) which spread onto the Chalk Ranges and went into some bush. It burned well for several days and apparently went out, but no such thing. I suppose it must have been smouldering in a dead log for it has brisked up again and I can see the smoke of it rising as I sit here. It is more than a month since it was lit and we have had a heavy shower of rain since. Another fire lit a few days after behaved in the same manner and is now burning away furiously in scrub and bush that has never been burned before. The two fires are now I should say over 10 miles apart and at one time they were considerably more. They were lit over a mile apart and have gone over thousands on thousands of acres of ground.
Feb. 5th: It is more than a month since I wrote the last and just such another day, if anything more hot and more smoke about. The fires are still burning and other ones are keeping them company. You must excuse the blackness of the paper for the smuts from the neighbouring fires are falling thick and fast and although I washed my hands before commencing this, the paper is already losing its natural colour.
Feb. 6th: About midnight all hands had to turn out as a heavy fire was turning towards us on the Chalk Range, a strong wind blowing thick smoke and sparks in our direction.
The wholesale burning soon changed the face of the land and allowed free movement of stock over the lush grasses shooting through on the now cleared country.
The brothers were prospering and looking forward to being joined by a third brother, Arthur, who had left England on the Wild Duck in September 1863 and was expected about Christmas. But things were suddenly to take a bad turn.
To ship produce to and from the station, ships would stand off the mouth of the Kekerengu River and surf boats were used to carry goods backwards and forwards. Late in December Edward had been helping load bales of wool and had taken a bad cold as the result of being wet in the surf for long periods. This cold quickly developed into rheumatic fever and he died on Christmas Day 1863, just a week before his 23rd birthday.
Arthur, the third Chaytor brother to farm in Marlborough, joined Jack at Coverham. Like his brothers he soon grew to love the land. Over the next few years Arthur and Jack developed their run and slowly added more and more to it. Jack married Emma Fearon, daughter of a well known retired ship's captain, Edward Fearon, who had taken up property in the Awatere known as Marathon. From then on Jack seemed to revert to John once more and he took Emma with him to live at Coverham. Things were going so well at the station that two more brothers were talked into joining them. Brian and Charles arrived by coach at Kekerengu on 1st April 1869 after landing at Wellington and travelling over to Picton from there.
In 1872 Arthur married and took his wife to Coverham for a short time. But this was no place for women and children. It was 50 miles to the nearest doctor and the track from Kekerengu to Coverham took at least two and a half hours on horseback.
Arrangements were made to let out Coverham in 1873. Arthur settled down near Nelson, Charles secured a property near him and Brian moved to the North Island where some land had been leased for some years by John. John leased from Trolove the station known as the Shades for the next few years but kept looking at the easier country around Blenheim which he now had capital to buy.
He purchased a property in Picton and then bought Marshlands which had been farmed for many years by Samuel Bowler. Chaytor retained the Shades for some years but his main efforts were developing Marshlands. In later life he and his wife grew very proud of the children they had raised and educated mainly at Nelson College. Marshlands stands today still owned by the descendants of John Clervaux Chaytor, but we should not forget the other four brothers who also settled in this country and left their mark as pioneers.
The following article was written by Mr Ken Fairweather. He is a retired engineer who is well known in Blenheim as a member of the firm Fairweather and Sons which was begun by his father in the 1880's. The business is still conducted in the same premises by Ken's two sons.
It was recently announced that the remnants of the "Fire Queen", stored at Brayshaw Park for some years, are now to be rebuilt by a joint effort of the Marlborough Historical Society. Marlborough Vintage Farm Machinery Society, and members of the Blenheim Volunteer Fire Brigade.
A sight to gladden the heart of any boy in my young days was the steam fire engines in Blenheim. These pumping engines were installed in town long before the days of the water supply mains we now enjoy and were a defence against the frequent disastrous fires the town suffered. The handiness of the surrounding rivers made the system feasible and over the years the pumps justified their installation. Main interest was in the "Fire King" installed at the Fire Station situated at what is now the car park across from the Criterion Hotel. In those days the river ran in a deep bed through the park and in front of the R.S.A. Clubhouse, turning sharply through what is now the Marlborough Club premises to join the present stream. A cut took flood flow through the present channel thus making a small island of the area now occupied by the R.S.A. and this had access by a footbridge from Alfred Street. On the island was a large wooden building used as a boarding house and appropriately named "Panama House". It looked quite forlorn in flood conditions.
The Fire King was housed on the steep bank of this river with a large suction pump disappearing into the river and the discharge side of the pump fed a system of mains around the inner area of the town with a large volume of water at high pressure. The "Fire Queen" was a smaller, horse-drawn portable unit, and required for fires in the outer area where the numerous creeks usually supplied plenty of water. Both of these units were installed about 1890. The "King" had a vertical water-tube boiler giving steam at 1801bs per sq. inch to a horizontal engine of twin high pressure cylinders direct coupled to plunger pump cylinders, which fed the mains with water at 80lbs per sq. inch.
The boiler stood about eight feet high and about five feet in diameter and was completely encased in gleaming brass sheet. This, with the numerous bronze fittings, gauges and large copper pressure compensating domes, all devotedly polished to gleaming perfection, made an unforgettable sight. One large jewel.
Three men operated the plant, one firing, one on the throttle and one on the boiler feed water control. The whole aspect of the plant was on fast steaming, and working pressure was available in eight to ten minutes from cold. Naturally this called for small boiler water content and maximum heating surface within the boiler and thus the man on the feed water control had a demanding and responsible job. In fact all the crew had, each job demanding concentration and vigour.
In full steam the plant was an impressive sight in the extreme; more especially so at night.
The "Fire Queen" was drawn by two large white cart horses from Bythells Timber Yard and on an alarm from the big central fire bell they were driven as fast as possible to the station where their harness was yoked to the engine which was being steamed as fast as wooden kindling soaked in kerosene could do it. Then with three or four men aboard the race to the water supply nearerst to the fire commenced; stirring stuff!
In my early years at work in our engineering shop we had occasion to service the two boilers for the Marine Department Inspectors and part of this work included removing dozens of bolts around the boiler skirt and lifting the outer shell to expose the myriads of brass tubes and the boiler crown. Later when 1 had a Steam Certificate I acted as Chief Engineer for the brigade and was nominally in charge of the two plants, suceeding the late Mr W. Carr in the role. In fact though, I was very much the junior of that crew of veterans, which included Ted Norgrove and Dick Dermody, who had run the things for years. And very pleased I was to leave it that way and do as I was told.
After some years the plant was phased out as modern fire fighting appliances began to handle the work so efficiently.
The last time the "King" was steamed for a fire would probably be for the spectacular blaze at Lucas Bros Garage in Alfred Street. That would be about 1939, but on that occasion the pumps were not called on.
I have read that years ago it was the custom in Scotland for a prayer to be said as the old-timer crossed a bridge: "God bless the bridge and the man who made it." It is a sentiment that could well be echoed by those who cross treacherous rivers in the northern part of the South Island. It was many years after the first settlers arrived before bridges became common and various methods of crossing the swift and treacherous rivers were used. We recount the experiences of some of these settlers and explorers.
In the earliest days the only mode of travel was on foot and rivers had to be forded. This led to many drownings and to one of the earliest tragedies in the Nelson Settlement. William Curling Young, the company agent, with his friend Titchener, had been inspecting sections in Waimea West on behalf of absentee clients and attempted to cross the Wairoa River. Titchener, in a letter to the Nelson Examiner explains what happened: I was in front, in the middle of the stream I was carried off my feet but managed to struggle to the bank – the same bank from which we started. The deceased was caught in the same current and carried down stream." Amid wide-spread mourning he was buried in the Haven Cemetery on 17 August 1842.
Charles Heaphy, who with Brunner and Fox and the Maori guide Kehu, made the first journey from the Howard into the Buller area, gives us a vivid account of crossing that river just below its junction with the Mangles, a crossing which could easily have ended the career of Mr Fox.
"The 'big river' was now to be crossed; from the wooded terrace above, it appeared but a couple of feet deep, and its fording seemed easily practicable, but from the beach the appearance of the large body of water which rushed down became more formidable, and each instinctively hesitated before advancing into the stream. For about thirty yards from either side of the shore the water glides smoothly along with a current one might undoubtedly bear up against; but in the centre it rushed with impetuosity in a deep hollow wave to its greater velocity below the ford, where it became a race crested with a high and broken ripple.
"The native looked at the river, made one of his comical grimaces, and entered the stream, the depth of which now became apparent, and ere he reached the centre of the river the water was up to his waist. One or two of the party now ran to the side of the river, in order to be able to afford assistance should he be carried down; but with once or twice staggering when exposed to the greatest pressure, and a spring downward with the current as he reached the further bank, he reached the opposite side in safety, not forgetting to evince his contempt for the river and his exultation in having crossed, in a series of grotesque gesticulations and vehement abuse of the river and all its tributaries.
"Mr Fox now followed into the stream, and attained its centre without much difficulty, but the pole he used bent under him while bearing against the heaviest rush, and it was a matter of critical uncertainty as to whether he would attain the bank which he was approaching; a few steps more and he would be past the worst of the current, when he appeared for an instant to totter, and the next moment was swept down the race entangled with his load. Fortunately the river was deep or the consequences would have been fatal (had it been shallow he could have been knocked senseless on the boulders). Recovering a swimming position, he swam to the further shore, and was in a short time, across which, however were not the remaining two of the party, whose spirits were not at all elevated by the fortune of those who had gone before them. Mr Brunner determined to follow down the river to a better ford, where the water became more expanded upon the plain, and I swam over above the ford where the current was less rapid." – Early Travellers in N.Z. Edited Nancy M. Taylor.
Mr Explorer Douglas, who spent long years in South Westland exploring for the Lands & Survey Department, wrote in a diary of one of his trips, some observations on the crossing of dangerous rivers: "On the subject of fording how few people really know what precautions to take. I am not speaking of those Dunderheads who take the head of a straight rapid, or cross a certain place simply because that happened to be the ford when they were there a few years ago. Such people are past being spoken to. But take the men who do know a little, just watch them going into a river, they never look to see where the current they are going to cross runs to – where they would land if a tumble took place, and every man Jack of them partly unhitches his swag with the full intention of chucking it away if a tumble does take place. Why the fools, unless they are carrying stones or ironmongery, an ordinary swag will float for two or three minutes and is as good as a small raft and if a man will only throw it off, but keep the straps in his hand, it gives a splendid purchase to enable you to gain your feet, if, as is more than probable, footing is there to be gained.
Today my swag would certainly have sunk, as I had a rifle, axe and a lot of rocks and very little else. But I had two good Billys, and I rolled them empty in the centre of the swag, with their lids tightened on with a strip of greased calico, and I am sure the swag would have kept me above water for half an hour. A bundle of flax sticks broken ito small pieces and jammed into a bag will float a man easily, but the art in safe fording is always to select a place with the current running into a bank. You are out and clawing up on the shore almost before you are aware that you have been washed off your feet."
– from Mr Explorer Douglas edited by John Pascoe.
The early surveyors and explorers learnt a great deal from the Maoris especially when it came to the crossing of rivers. Gerhard Mueller gives perhaps the best description of the use of a pole: He was surveying in the West Coast area. "It was a bad river and having some among the party who could not swim a stroke, I got a pole of about 15 feet length, put Kerei at the top to break the current the four men next, then myself and Bob to the end of the pole. This, Kerei told me, is the Mauri way of crossing rapid streams and I thought I could not do better than adopt the same plan. In rapid rivers it is an advantage to have a load to keep you down and prevent your legs from giving way. Certainly without the pole we would not have got across at all. It is a splendid institution and worth knowing to anyone travelling in New Zealand.
In using the pole certain things must have attention paid to them – to keep the pole breast high; to walk with short steps; and to keep exactly in line with the current. The effect of the latter is that top man on the pole –Kerei in this instance – gets the full strength of the current, the water parts, and the men below him get the benefit of that, walk in shallower water, and are consequently better able to keep him abreast the stream. So, in crossing one of these rivers, Kerei (who was always at the top of the pole) would get wet up to the shoulders, whilst others far towards the end, as Bob, would scarcely get wet to the thighs. Bob, being a strong man, was always at that end, ready to get hold of anyone who might lose footing. Such, however, was fortunately never required, as we crossed all the rivers without the slightest accident."
– from "My Dear Bannie" by Gerhard Mueller p.55.
It was not long before the trails became horse tracks, the bush was cut back and travellers could ride and loads be carried by pack horses. Many horses developed an uncanny skill in crossing rivers, but it was still dangerous. Harry Louis Moffat, in his reminiscences speaks of "the melancholy task of looking for the body of a close relative (his brother) in the Matakitaki River." The horse had crossed safely, but slipped when climbing out on a steep and muddy track.
Christopher Holloway, visiting New Zealand in 1874 to assess its farming potential, describes his experience. He had a tiring day in the saddle riding from Murchison to Kerr's Lake Station via the Mangles, Lake Rotoroa and the Porika Track. At last they reached the Howard River, where his guide admitted that he really did not know where the ford was. However he blithly said, "Give the Doctor (the horse) his head and I will follow you over." Holloway was not too happy about it but they crossed safely. It had rained all day and he was glad indeed when they saw the lights of Lake Station where they were hospitably received. (Typescript Alexander Turnbull Library.)
About the same time, a little later in the year 1874, a lady, who had lately arrived from England rode from Foxhill to the Maruia with George Moonlight and his packhorse team. They came down the Buller, to the Owen and on to the Long Ford. The Buller was in flood and it was too high to cross, so they had to return to the Accommodation House at the Owen. After three days they returned to the ford and Moonlight decided to drive his pack team over, if they crossed safely he could also. The team managed to cross though the current took them half a mile down the river. "It was a most peculiar sensation when the horse's feet left the ground and it commenced to swim," wrote the lady. (Quoted by Ella Matthews in "Yesterdays in Golden Buller" 1957).
One of the saddest stories was of the drowning of the Hon. Constantine Dillon. The Nelson Examiner, 23 April, 1853, records that he was drowned on the previous Saturday. N. G. Morse, a man named Pasley and Dillon's young son were in the party who attempted to cross the Wairau opposite Manuka Island. As his son was riding a small pony, Dillon put him on his horse and said he would lead the pony across. Although Morse objected and offered to bring his horse back, Dillon was determined to cross on foot, he would hold on to Pasley's stirrup. As they crossed the horse became fidgetty and both men rolled over the edge of the nearby falls into deep water. Pasley managed to reach the horse and, holding on to him, to gain the bank. It was thought that Dillon was kicked by the horse and stunned. His body was found two days later and there was general mourning throughout the colony.
Near the mouth of a wide river it was advisable to cross by raft or canoe. Here again the Maoris were the experts. Heaphy wrote the diary of the trip made by himself, Brunner, the faithful Kehu and another Maori down the West Coast from West Wanganui to Kawatiri and Aruara (the mouth of the Buller and Arahura). They set out from Nelson on March 17, 1846, and from West Wanganui on the 27th. By April 20th they were at the mouth of the Karamea River. The diary continues:
"21st (April 1846): Heavy rain; the river much flooded. Constructed a raft of flax stalks of korari, in length about 22 feet and in breadth about 4 feet 6 inches. A raft of this kind is now seldom seen. I will therefore give a description of its construction.
"A sufficient quantity of the dry flower-stalk of the flax being collected, which is not done without considerable labour, it is lashed tightly into bundles, each about 10 inches in diameter and 20 to 24 feet long. Two of these bundles are then placed side by side and are equivalent to the garboard strakes or planking next to the keel in a boat. They are left with square butts aft and, the natural bend of the stalk being taken advantage of, the bundle is formed convex in its length towards the water; the top or slender part of the stalk is placed forward, and the pointed end of the bundle becomes the head or cutwater of the craft. Two other bundles similar to the first are now lashed outside and slightly above them, and the four form the bottom. Projecting gunwales are now formed of two additional bundles, which are placed over the sightly outward of the last; the inner hollow is filled with the refuse stalk, with a pole placed lengthwise to give it strength, the vessel
"Our raft, or moki – could be carried by the four of us. With our weight upon it of some 700 pounds it floated with its upper surface about an inch above the water. It was sufficiently strong to rise over a considerable swell without working loose and might be paddled at the rate of about two miles an hour.
"22nd: About noon the state of the river permitted our crossing, and, carrying the raft down the bank, we soon had it launched, and paddled away briskly for the opposite shore. The flax stalk is, however, of an absorbent nature, and before we had far passed the middle of the stream we found, by the decreasing buoyancy of the craft, that it was necessary to throw overboard the dog. This being done and not lightening her sufficiently, I followed into the water and swam the remainder of the distance; we all accomplished the passage of this large river safely and with the provisions and clothes dry and in good order."
– "Early Travellers in New Zealand", Edited by Nancy M. Taylor.
When Brunner and four natives set out on the mammoth journey of 1846–8 along the Buller River and on to Paringa, he used a more primitive form of raft to cross the flooded Buller River. They had difficulty in finding material for a raft but constructed a small one.
Feb. 18th 1847: "Placed our kits of provisions on raft, and again crossed the river, and proceeded onwards. Fine day. In order to cross the river we had to resort to a new method. The fresh prevented us from fording, and we could not find enough timber for a raft to carry us, and the river runs too rapidly to admit of rafts re-crossing, so we made a small one on which we placed all our clothes, etc. The two fastest swimmers attached a small flax line to the raft, and commenced swimming across; the remaining three swam behind, pushing the raft forward with one hand. For this method you must choose a reach of at least a mile long to cross the Buller when swollen."
– Early Travellers in New Zealand", Edited by Nancy M. Taylor.
There were times when crossing by moki or by canoe was not so fortunate. It was quite usual in the early days for a hotel proprietor to be required to ferry passengers across a river as part of a condition of his licence. This incident recorded by Charles L. Money occurred in the early sixties.
"My mate and I had arrived one afternoon on the south bank of the Buller and hoisted an old pair of trousers on the Maori flagstaff, as a signal for the canoe to come over for us from the township. It was during the vernal equinox and there was a high spring tide. There had been a vast amount of rain falling for some days so that the river was higher than I had yet seen it. A perfect hurricane was blowing in from the sea, bringing the tide, which was already near its full, far up from the swollen waters of the river. While we were waiting we heard a 'coing' to our left, in the direction from which we had originally come from the Grey River, and presently a number of men appeared coming towards us in twos and threes; one with no trousers, another with only a shirt and trousers and all more or less deficient as to wardrobe. They proved to be the passengers and crew of the 'Gypsy', a small vessel that had for some time been running between Nelson and the Buller River, and which had just been wrecked a few miles to the south. They soon joined us, and as we all stood waiting on the beach we saw Mr Skete and others launching from the opposite shore the little canoe in which Rowley and I had so often worked. It was a small boat, so that with those already in it there was scarcely room safely for more than two or three, but so anxious were those shipwrecked men to get to the township, that five got into the canoe besides taking some of the baggage they had brought with them. Rowley and I stayed behind with the rest and watched the voyage of the canoe. A heavy sea was running – when half way over, a bigger wave than usual broke into the canoe, but she righted again
– Knocking About in New Zealand" – Charles L. Money.
The chair or cage was used extensively, and was not uncommon even forty years ago. Mr Explorer Douglas describes it thus: "… a wire rope along which an iron cage runs backwards and forwards. The trip is decidely interesting, especially to strangers to such primitive appliances. Getting into the cage requires some skill, as it has a nasty habit of starting off when only half the passenger is aboard. Once in he sits down on a sort of gridiron suggestive of roast missionary, and lets go the hook and away he sails along the rope. At this part of the journey a stranger generally breaks out in pleasing smiles but the inhabitant knows better. The gridiron gets slower and finally stops about halfway. Then comes trouble, the wheels refuse to revolve, the ropes cut the hands while hauling on it and the traveller wonders where he would be if the hauling rope broke and left him hanging like a guy over the middle of the river. I have crossed on these wire cages scores of times and with all sorts of people, and in no single instance did the men who put them up – and all government officials in general escape without vigorous expressions being hurled at their names and memories. However primitive those bridges are they are decidedly useful."
– Mr Explorer Douglas", edited by John Pascoe.
The experience of a young boy stayed with him all his life: he went with his father to collect the mail bags, a distance of three miles and across the flooded Buller River. In fine weather they forded the river in the trap but "if it was in flood we used to go further up the river and cross it in a 'chair'. This was a box on wheels, running on wire rope stretched from bank to bank and made fast to a tree or posts sunk into the ground. You pulled yourself back and forth by hauling ropes running through blocks. I remember one time Father putting me in this box, sitting me on top of the mail bags, the river roaring beneath me, pitch dark and raining hard. Father was pulling tightly on the rope from the bank; when the chair was halfway across the wind caused the rope to get tangled. Those few minutes that I spent there, the chair not moving until the ropes became clear again, seemed a lifetime, and the fright I got was stamped on my memory for years. When I had carried the bag of mail to the Post Office and got back with the other, and was safely across the river to the old dog-cart and Father, I was a happy boy indeed."
– From an Unfinished Journal" by George McNee.
"Before bridges were able to be built over large rivers the ferry punt, working on wire ropes, was the chief means of crossing for horse and vehicle and foot travellers. Some of these punts were large enough to take a coach and four horses, or a small mob of stock, up to about twenty head. They consisted of boat-shaped flat pontoons on floats and a deck of planking, with a strong rail on each side, and a gate or a rope stretched across at each end. The punt was carried on strong wire rope made fast to two stout posts driven into the ground on each side of the river. The sharp-ended pontoons were set at an angle to the current by means of levers, and the force of the stream against these floats carried the punt smoothly across. It was prevented from floating downstream by the wire rope on the upstream side, which held it securely while allowing it to travel along easily. The river crossed, it was berthed at a plank landing alongside the bank; then the floats were trimmed again in the opposite direction for the return passage.
"One man was sufficient to attend to the punt and collect the fee, which covered the cost of maintaining the ferry. Rivers which were too deep to ford made the punt a necessity on the main routes before bridges were built. The location was important; the punts could not be fixed where the river was very swift; the place was usually where it began to slacken down, as at the place where the Buller River emerged from the gorge on the swampy plain a few miles above Westport."
– Settlers and Pioneers by James Cowan.
Punts were extensively used throughout the northern part of the South Island, the larger ones being those used by coaches travelling to Westport. Many hair-raising tales are told of the coaching days. "A tragedy was miraculously averted at the Nine Mile punt on 10th May 1908 when eleven members of the Howard Verdum Theatrical Company which had played in Westport the previous evening, were proceeding to Greymouth in Newman Brothers' coach. Besides the company and the driver of the coach, Mr Norman Pahl, the puntsman, C. Grooby and J. Askew were also on the punt. The river was in high flood and the passengers stood on the punt which was three-quarters of the way across when the anchor post on the north bank broke away, with the result that one end of the punt dipped into the raging waters. The end gate broke and the terrified horses plunged over. Mr Pahl leaping from his seat as the coach disappeared. Then the post on the other bank gave way, the punt being carried three miles down the river until it grounded at Snag Fall and drifted into shallower water where the passengers, after great difficulty, jumped off and managed to scramble ashore. The punt continued a wild career down the river."
– Yesterdays in Golden Buller" by Ella Matthews.
Despite mishaps and near tragedies punts served a very useful purpose until traffic bridges were built. The reply to a deputation asking for a bridge over the Buller at Lyell was: "The Prime Minister said, 'Costly works of this kind could not possibly be undertaken at present. Where ferries are operating satisfactorily the need for bridges does not present itself."
– From the Lyell Times 7.2.1885).
We tend to think of modern bridges with at least two lanes and on an angle that can be negotiated at eighty kilometres an hour. The first ones were very different. One of the most primitive ones is described by J. H. Lyons: "As a youth I was shown a cliff at least eighty feet high at a place called Maruia, and was told that some adventurous spirits swam the Buller River and from the bush plaited two cables of the karewa or, as we call it the supplejack vine. These they attached at intervals so that one hung a few feet above the other, and on this precarious bridge crossed with their swags, using one as a foothold and leaning across the top one, for several hundred feet, stepping sideways and rising to the incline of the cliffs. But gold was there and they paid for their provisions in unminted gold."
— from Faring South" by J. H. Lyons.
Early bridges were very simply constructed: a tree was felled close to the stream to be crossed and its trunk became the bridge. The photograph shows one of the log bridges, the photographer and the date are unknown, it was probably taken before 1890. The caption on the original reads: "Through the narrow rocky opening in the widest part only 12 feet across, the whole of the Matakitaki River at this point passes surging and bubbling during fair weather, but in floodtime the rocks are submerged and the rough log bridge here represented is swept away and another has to be substituted by the adventurous miners ere they can cross to the opposite bank." At least one tragedy took place here. The river was rising, it was late and the anxious wife sent her son with a lantern to guide his father over the bridge. While he was crossing the bridge was swept away and he was lost in the flood.
Many of the first bridges built were known as "horse bridges". They were along the pack tracks and were used by riders and pack teams but were not wide enough for wheeled traffic; such was the first bridge at the outlet of Lake Rotoroa, built in 1866. All sorts of bridges preceded the modern ones, the bridge with no sides — and a narrow one at that, the ones with loose timbers that made a clatter as one crossed, as one man remarked, "Mother doesn't like these bridges that laugh at you," the ones that were built at an awkward angle to take advantage of a shorter crossing. Are we thankful as we speed along our modern highways for the bridges of today?
Ralph Thomas Denton, farmer, researcher, historian. Died 21 May 1984.
Born in Canvastown, raised in the Nelson back country, farming in the Awatere Valley for 40 years and being a bachelor all his life, it seemed unlikely that Ralph Denton would become one of this district's top historians. When he retired from his farm 15 years ago, he moved to Blenheim and soon joined the Marlborough Historical Society. Before long he showed his ability as a researcher. His life had been farming and now his love became the sorting of the history of farming and the early settlement of Marlborough. He was most conscious of the need to record accurately and he soon developed as an author. His published accounts of most of the district's early stock runs are a valuable contribution to the future.
Over the past 10 years, Ralph involved himself continually with the Marlborough Vintage Farm Machinery Society. He spent a large part of most days in their well equipped workshop at Brayshaw Museum Park, restoring tractors, wagons, engines or anything else which took his eye.
He involved himself with all aspects of history, seldom missing a meeting, and working at his hobby till the day of his death. — N.M.
1851 saw the building of the first church on Church Hill. The site had been the headquarters of the New Zealand Company, and a fort after the Wairau Affray; but had been earmarked for the Anglican Church and Bishop Selwyn hoped for a Cathedral. He referred to the tent in which he held his first service in Nelson in 1842 as a "Cathedral tent". Later services were held in any building available on the Hill. Everyone looked forward to a handsome church on this central site. In June 1850 the foundation stone was laid. The citizens of Nelson wanted a town clock in the tower and a subscription list was started. When the Governor, Sir George Grey, visited Nelson in November 1851 he was asked if he would give a donation. He replied that he would give them the clock on condition that it belonged to the citizens of Nelson and not just to the Church. This was recognised as Archdeacon Ault, in his Nelson Narrative quotes that it is recorded in February 1860, that "churchwardens were to permit access to the church tower at all proper times for the care and repair of the town clock, and in case of its being desired by the owners, to allow of its removal, all expenses and repairs to the Tower in consequence being defrayed by the owners."
It appears to have remained in position until the Tower was declared unsafe and finally dismantled in October 1916. A photograph taken at that time shows the clock still there. Possibly it had come to the end of its useful life. In any case the clock on the Post Office would then be in place. — M.C.B.
We are grateful for permission to print this extract from the late Mr Lightband's typescript of the history of his family in New Zealand.
The voyage of the "Lady Grey" was undoubtedly the most remarkable and adventurous of the three that we are concerned with. Unlike the other two voyages on a standard "large" emigrant ship, this was a wholly private venture, set up by three determined families — Brent. Lock and Curtis — who left Prince Edward Island on the 26 November 1854 and reached Nelson on the 26 July 1855, a voyage which lasted 242 days in all.
Unfortunately, the vessel's Log has not been found but we have a graphic and, it seems, a reliable account of the voyage by Mr W. Lock, son of the pioneer, which was published by the "Examiner". This reads as follows:—
"It appears that the owners, or at least two of them, Messrs Brent and Lock, who both had families and were desirous of emigrating to Nelson, New Zealand, either built or purchased the vessel
Lady Grey,which according to an entry in the Nelson Customs, was a schooner of 60 tons register. Mr Brent was a fine man who I understand was a master builder, and had a wife and family. The latter I do not know the number of, but I well remember two sons and one daughter and this daughter was later married to Mr Lightband who lived at Brightwater."My parents had no less than four children when they arrived here. Mr Curtis and a young man named George Hooper also came by the vessel. Since looking up some old papers. I have formed the opinion that the owners did not build the vessel but purchased her. The whole party had a good reputation for honesty and probity, and probably for piety as they were all good Methodists or Wesleyans at that time.
"The crew at the time of sailing comprised a captain, a mate and three seamen. The others on board were the owners, Messrs Brent, Lock and Curtis and a young man named George Hooper. The vessel left Prince Edward Island for Boston with a cargo of timber, and there secured provisions for the long voyage. She then returned to P.E.I. where she remained for three weeks, sailing on the 26 November 1854 for New Zealand. On the third night out a terrific storm was experienced, but the vessel escaped with little damage. She called at San Jago Island and remained there for one week, took on fresh water and continued the voyage without calling at any other port until reaching King George Sound (South Australia). She remained there for about 14 days, replenished the fresh water supply, and took in about 3000 kangaroo skins, and twelve passengers, and sailed for Adelaide, and reached there in 14 days from King George's Sound.
"At this port they discharged both the captain and the mate, and two sailors were ill nearly the whole voyage and the owners had to do sailors' duty. They stayed in Adelaide about a month, and took in general cargo for Portland Bay, and made the passage in three days which was regarded as very quick time. They remained there about 14 days, discharged cargo, and sailed for New Zealand. It took 20 days to reach Nelson where the vessel arrived on the 26 July 1855. When the vessel was quite close to the port the pilot, Captain Cross, came out to bring her in. The vessel had so much way on that her captain could not slacken speed with safety, and sailed right into the old harbour entrance. Captain Cross calling out to keep clear of the rock. A Captain Saunders was in command of the boat and brought her from Australia, The
Lady Greywas leased or chartered to a firm and traded for a time in New Zealand. She was run heavily into debt and was ultimately sold to the French Government to carry mails to New Caledonia. The late pilot Low informed the writer that he remembered theLady Greywell, and that she was a fine built little vessel.
More recently, I have been able to obtain an extract from the Ship Register of ships built and registered in Prince Edward Island from 1853 to 1855 which both confirms and amends some of the information supplied by the late Mr Lock. This reads:—
Dated 7 August 1854.
"Lady Grey",64 tons; Matthew Walker, Master; built at St Mary's Bay in Prince Edward Island in 1854 by the certificate of William Hicken and John Hicken, the builders, dated 7 August 1854. Specifications: one deck; two masts; her length from the inner part of the main stern to the forepart of the stern aloft is 61 feet 5 tenths; her breadth in midship is 16 feet 3 tenths; her depth in hold at midship is 8 feet 7 tenths; she is a schooner.Owners: William Brent, 34 shares; Gershorn Curtis, 15 shares; John Lock, 15 shares. All of Charlottetown.
Recorded by Custom House, Prince Edward Island, 20 March 1857, that registration transferred to Wellington, New Zealand.
There appears to be a typographical error in the transcript from the P.E.I. archivist, as the length would be measured from the "stem" to the stern. It is a great pity that no other records of this epic voyage exist, as the above information, while full enough, is only indicative of the nature of the passage, and leaves much to the imagination as to the life on board, especially with the young children, and to the many problems they must have encountered.
The Nelson Examiner in its issue of Wednesday, 25 July 1855, notes the arrival in the Shipping Intelligence column as "22, schooner Lady Grey, 65, Saunders, from Adelaide. Passengers: Mrs Brent and four children, Mrs Curtis and four children". The voyage was sufficiently intriguing to encourage a further comment on the same page: "The schooner Lady Grey, which arrived here on Sunday, is from Prince Edward's Island, in British America, and has brought three families numbering, we believe, 21 souls, to settle in this colony. This is the first direct immigration we are acquainted with from British America to New Zealand, and we hope the expectations of the enterprising immigrants in coming here, will be fully realised. The vessel was purchased from the stocks for the voyage by the parties who were wishing to come here, and having reached her destination, she is now to be sold. The Lady Grey has called at Adelaide and Portland Bay, and this has necessarily lengthened her passage".
The four children of Mrs Brent would have included Rebecca, aged 16; Elizabeth Ann aged 13, and Isaac aged 3. Stephen was then about 20, and may not have been included as a "child", so that the fourth could have been Mary Brent. The baptismal records from P.E.I. show that a "Martha Brent" was born at Charlottetown on 8 October 1843. This name does not re-appear in the family records in New Zealand, but it is quite possible that Martha became Mary by family usage. I have yet to ascertain the precise facts about Mary's birthday and place of birth to confirm this.
The arrival of Rebecca, of course, resulted in her romance with William Lightband. He would have been about 21 when she arrived in Nelson, and just about four years later they were married, an event which gave rise to the New Zealand generations of the Lightband family.