Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]

Rivers And Harbours

Rivers And Harbours.

The rivers of Canterbury may be classified as snow rivers and rain rivers. The snow rivers are mostly glacier fed, and from their origin are liable to severe floods in the “nor-west” season. Running through the great alluvial plain which they have formed, they constantly shift their channels along the “line of least resistance,” and thus gradually form enormous river-beds, in some cases over a mile in width. Through this huge channel there filters in summer a narrow stream of water, which, at a few hours' notice, may swell into a raging torrent and fill the bed from bank to bank. These are the rivers which in the early days made death by drowning the most probable of all fates for those whose path in life led them across the plains. Forty years ago it was written of the Rakaia: “This stream has all the disadvantages and none of the usefulness of an ordinary river; too rapid for navigation, frequently too deep and dangerous to be forded; constantly shifting the beds of its numerous streams.”.. “The immense extent of shingle, extending in some places to nearly two miles in width, the multitude of streams rushing rather than flowing down a network of the deeper channels, the stunted bushes which fringe the opposite bank in the distance, and crown the sandhills of some of the islands in the middle, exaggerate instead of breaking the sterile monotony of the scene.” And this picture might stand, almost without alteration, for any of the great rivers that intersect the plains, from the Hurunui to the “roaring Rangitata.”

The Waiau-ua, 100 miles in length; the Hurunui, eighty-five miles (the old northern boundary of the province); the Waimakariri, ninety miles; the Rakaia, eighty-five miles; the Ashburton, sixty-four miles; the Rangitata, seventy-four miles; the Waitaki (the southern boundary) with its main tributaries, 140 miles, are the chief snow rivers. Of all these, only the Waimakariri can be regarded as navigable for any distance. This river flows into Pegasus Bay within ten miles of the Heathcote Estuary; and for many years after the founding of the province, the shipping trade centred at Kaiapoi, five miles from the month. The completion of the Lyttelton Tunnel, and the continuation of the railway line through Kaiapoi to the northern district largely discounted the mercantile importance of the town; but in spite of the bar at the mouth of the river, there is still some river-borne traffic to remind early settlers of the departed fleet.

The Waimakariri is notorious for its floods and its eccentric change of channel. A long history could be written of the desperate efforts that have been made to cope with this unruly river, and to keep its flooded stream within bounds. The level plain extending from the stream on every side, has afforded unusual facilities for a river of this character, and in 1868 the “Great Flood” extended even to Christchurch, and endangered the security of much of the outlying portions of the city. Now extensive embankments check the river's turbulent course, and it has to be content with pouring its stream alternately along different channels and sweeping away unguarded sections of the public road along its banks. The story of the Waimakariri may be repeated in different forms for most of the larger rivers already mentioned.

The smaller streams—the Ashley, flowing through the fertile district of North Canterbury; the Selwyn, running into Lake Ellesmere; the Opihi, entering the sea north of Timaru—are rain-fed rivers, page 11 for the most part shallow, and interesting chiefly as trout streams. But no notice of Canterbury rivers would be complete without reference to the Avon, which flows through and around the city of Christchurch. In its few miles of course from Upper Riccarton to the sea, it presents many varied aspects of picturesque scenery; and its winding curves, fringed with rich grass and shaded by drooping willows above the deep pools where the great trout lie, preserve the City of the Plains from all danger of barrenness or monotony.

The harbours of Canterbury may be said to be limited to Banks' Peninsula. The Waimakariri, with the Port of Kaiapoi, has had a long commercial history. When the district was first settled, in 1851–1856, the deepest water in the river was at the present site of the woollen mill, near the junction with the Cam. There schooners of seventy and eighty tons loaded and unloaded,
Rakaia Gorge.

Rakaia Gorge.

and did a thriving trade with Lyttelton and along the coast. From that time till 1872, when the northern railway reached Kaiapoi, a large fleet of steamers, ketches, and schooners plied busily up and down the river. Three steamers and eleven coasters in one week was no unusual record. The Rifleman, which Te Kooti seized at the Chathams, often came up the stream to Kaiapoi, and the Waipara, not long since wrecked on the West Coast, was specially brought out from England by Captain Borthwick for the Kaiapoi and Saltwater Creek Steam Navigation Company. Many names of note in Canterbury history are to be found in the roll of this company's directors—F. A. Weld, Captain Reader, J. D. Lance, and D. Cameron among others; and the energy they expended was well repaid. In 1867–8 500,000 feet of timber came up the stream from Akaroa and the North Island, and 5000 bales of wool and 200,000 bushels of wheat and oats went out. In 1870 the total value of exports was stated at about £147,000. In spite of the railway many farmers still find it cheaper to send their grain from Kaiapoi to Lyttelton down the river. Few pages of early colonial history are more interesting than the records of this vanished river trade.

Apart from this, the natural harbours of Canterbury lie between the volcanic ridges of Banks' Peninsula. Lyttelton Harbour—the Port Cooper of the Pilgrim Fathers—is, of course, preeminent in importance. The harbour runs west and south-west for about ten miles, but the port lies on the northern shore about five miles from Godley Head. The anchorage is protected from the ocean swell and from the prevailin north-east winds by a projecting headland. But to accommodate in safety the large fleet of vessels that trade to the port, art has supplemented the resources page 12 of nature. Two breakwaters, 2010 feet and 1400 feet in length, enclose a well-dredged space of about 107 acres, where ships drawing up to twenty-five feet can lie along shore.

Lake Forsyth.

Lake Forsyth.

The minor harbours of Port Levy and Pigeon Bay are picturesque, and are locally important; but Akaroa Harbour, on the south side of the Peninsula, is one of the finest harbours in the colony. For eleven miles of this deep and wellsheltered sheet, inlets run up among the green hills of the Peninsula. Seventy years ago it was well known to Australian whalers, and on its shore was planted the flag which first confirmed the authority of Great Britain over the Middle Island.

The unbroken sandy curve of the Ninety Mile Beach does not afford much promise of good anchorage. But at Timaru, where the hills begin to descend towards the shore, an artificial harbour has been created. Nearly £200,000 has been spent on the construction of a mole and breakwater enclosing a basin of fifty acres, within which even ocean going steamers may lie protected from the tremendous eastern swell. Timaru is the outlet for the fertile districts of Geraldine and Waimate, and ranks next to Lyttelton in mercantile importance among Canterbury harbours.