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October 1981Volume 1 No. 1
(Which is also Volume 4 No 1 of the Nelson Historical Society Journal)
ISSN 0028 - 257X
Cover photograph: Mr and Mrs Frank Smith unveil the Wairau Plaque accompanied by Jeff Newport, President, Nelson Historical Society, Nevil Matthews, President, Marlborough Historical Society, 1976 (Photograph: Marlborough Historical Society).
Published by
Nelson Historical Society Incorporated
Nelson, New Zealand
Copyright: Portions of this Journal should not be printed without the permission of the Committee of the Nelson Historical Society.
Printed by R. W. Stiles & Co. Ltd, Nelson.
With this issue of the Journal we welcome the participation of the Marlborough Historical Society. Instead of Vol. 4 No. 1 of the Nelson Historical Society Journal this becomes Vol. 1 No. 1 of the Journal of the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies. We have always had a great deal of co-operation from Marlborough and welcome a partnership which should add to the value and interest of our Journal.
Since 1955 the Nelson Society has published eighteen Journals varying in size from a modest dozen pages to forty-eight. The main aim has been to preserve in permanent form historical material which would not be published elsewhere, that material to be relevant to the northern part of the South Island. Contributions and suggestions from any part of the region are therefore acceptable.
An upsurge of interest in our past has led to the formation of various societies concerned with historical, museum and geneological matters, we assure them all of our interest and goodwill. May they find joy and satisfaction in their work.
One of our major problems is the rising costs of printing, paper and postage. We are reluctant to publish less frequently or to use a cheaper formal. If we can print and sell more Journals our cost per copy is reduced, so we ask our readers to help us by recommending the Journal.
It was nearly 130 years after the first sheep station was established in the Upper Wairau when, in May 1976 the notable Marlborough historian, the late Frank Smith and his wife unveiled a cairn and plaque to mark permanently the spot where Dr John Henry Cooper and Nathaniel George Morse established the first sheep run in the Wairau. The erection of the plaque had been a long-standing ambition which Mr Smith realised in his later years.
Members of the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies, and regional Committees of the Historic Places Trust, Marlborough Federated Farmers and other organisations helped to swell the crowd. The visitors walked across the paddock to the site of the first home built on the station and inspected the ruins of buildings erected over the years.
Two of the older members of the patty, Jack Tomlinson and John Solomon, had special reason to be interested in the occasion as they had lived in the area and mustered on the various back country runs. It was a happy reunion for them as they recounted many incidents and talked nostalgically of "those good old days."
The plaque on the cairn depicts a merino sheep and carries the wording: Nearby Stood the Home of Dr John Henry Cooper and Nathaniel George Morse who, in November 1846, Brought Over the Tophouse Saddle to this Locality the First Flock of Sheep to the Wairau.
The cairn is located by the highway and is of great interest to people travelling through. The original track passed close by the old home site, but had the cairn been built there very few would have been able to see it.
It has been well recorded that Cooper and Morse set up the first sheep run in the Wairau when they moved about 1,000 sheep to the area near Tophouse late in 1846. What has been recorded about the people themselves? Possibly very little.
We know something of Nathaniel George Morse; records which exist would seem to indicate that he was a man of means. He was a West Country man, born at Exeter in 1822, and was one of the very early settlers to arrive in Nelson. Ruth Allan has stated that Morse, with partners Murray and Rogers, was actively farming in the Lower Moutere area, near Motueka, by 1844. Within a few months they had a flock of 600 sheep besides 30 cattle.
He was in partnership with Dr Cooper in the Upper Wairau undertaking, but his dreams of owning a sheep run did not seem to suffer unduly when the partnership broke up – he simply moved further down the Valley and started again. Morse lived in the Waimea area until he moved to Wanganui in 1873.
There are references to Dr Bedborough which would appear to suggest that he had some interest in the Cooper and Morse undertaking. We know little of Dr Henry Bedborough, "late surgeon to the 16th Lancers", prior to his ownership of the Upton Downs sheep run in the Awatere Valley.
John Henry Cooper was surgeon-superintendent on the emigrant ship Martha Ridgeway which arrived in Nelson on April 7th, 1842. The passengers included H. A. MacDonald who became manager of the Union Bank in Nelson, his mother and his sister Jane, aged nineteen years. Magistrate H. A. Thompson's diary records that on November 8th, 1842 Jane Scott MacDonald was married to John Henry Cooper.
Little information has been available about Dr Cooper but some light has been thrown on him and his family by a perusal of the C. W. Saxton Diary at the Nelson Provincial Museum. It also gives some information about the Wairau undertaking.
In 1846 Cooper and Morse were running sheep in the Motueka area, but they apparently had only the right of pasturage and problems arose at men with capital were able to buy the land and force them out. They had clipped 1800 pounds of wool that season which they sold to a Nelson merchant for one shilling per pound, giving them ninety pounds between them to pay all expenses. Most owners lost by their sheep that year.
As Cooper and Morse were compelled to move their sheep under pressure from the landowners, they decided to drive them to the Upper Wairau valley where unoccupied land was available although there was no guarantee that they would be able lo secure a title to it. A diary entry in November 1846 stated that Mr Cooper and Mr White were about to ride up the Waimea to overtake and accompany Messrs Morse and Bedborough and their sheep on the way to Wairau Valley. Eight men were assisting in driving the sheep.
On his return from the valley, where he had left Messrs Morse and
In 1847 the Government surveyor, C. W. Ligar, arrived in Nelson to inspect the Wairau and lay out a road to it. When Nelson people learned that the Governor (Grey) had bought the Wairau land there was some feeling and it was said that the banker, MacDonald, who had married the widow of Magistrate H. A. Thompson, was enraged at the purchase from the murderers.
In April 1847 Mr Fox, Company Agent, said that most of the new track to the Wairau was a terrace above the river on which a coach might be driven, but several miles would have to be cut out of the Ben Nevis hillside close above the stream, the stream chasm of which was not more than twenty feet wide. (This refers to the track from Kikiwa to Tophouse and the writer has seen other references to the mountain now known as Beeby's Knob as being Ben Nevis.–J. N.).
Dr Cooper sold up most of his goods and let his house in Nelson in the spring of 1847 as he and Mr Morse were going to build a house in the Wairau. The family were to live in the cottage and the men in tents. When Mrs Cooper, with her young family and her mother, set out for their new home they were delayed at McRae's, Wakefield, as they received a message that the house was not ready. From there they reached their destination in three days. Dr Bedborough was accompanying them but returned to Nelson. Later it was said the family were well and comfortable. Unfortunately the packing in of provisions was a problem. The servant left and Mrs Cooper was overworked.
Mrs Cooper had to return to Nelson in February 1848 to be confined and it appears doubtful if the family returned to the Wairau. Dr Cooper was practicing his profession in Nelson during 1849. Mrs MacDonald Senior took ill and wished to return to England, so Cooper said he would sell a hundred sheep to allow her to do so. Little Henry Thompson visited Mrs MacDonald in Nelson before the MacDonald family moved to Australia to take up a bank appointment at Port Phillip in August 1849.
This writer knows little more of Dr Cooper but some diary entries suggest that he was not a well man. Some concern was expressed in September 1847 as it was said that when he went to the Wairau he would be in great need of medical advice, hut someone said that "Old Bedborough would be there."
Captain Cork, skipper of the Comet, brought a message to Nelson in May 1851 to say that Dr Cooper had died about a month before. The diary entry states that he had gone about a hundred miles up country to a village where there had been no doctor and a small salary was guaranteed to him if he would settle there and get what he could besides. The family was with him.
No clue as to the whereabouts of this village has come to light, but it is reasonable to assume that it would be somewhere in the Wairau (Marlborough! area.
Perhaps there are some descendants of Dr Cooper who would be interested in the information that has been unearthed.
Before describing individual runs it is necessary to consider the tenure under which the first settlers held their land and the regulations governing depasturing licences to graze sheep, cattle and horses on the waste lands of the New Zealand Company's Nelson Settlement. It must he remembered that Marlborough was under the New Zealand Company's Charter until the collapse of that Company; it was then taken over by the Governor, Sir George Grey until the Nelson Provincial Government was set up in 1853. It became a separate province in 1859.
The first depasturage licences were dated drom 1st January, 1849, to run until 30th June, 1850, as it was thought the New Zealand Government would be taking over at that date. As the change over was not made by then, fresh licences were issued for the period 1st January, 1850, to 30th June, 1851, so overlapping the earlier licences by six months. Insufficient evidence is available to show how the licences were issued by the Commissioner of Crown Lands between the middle of 1851 and the beginning of 1854 – presumably on a year to year basis. At the beginning of 1854 the number of licences issued from Nelson for the Marlborough area totalled forty-eight and we have a description of the run boundaries and a list of the licensees. These 1854 licences were for a period of fourteen years dated from 1st January, 1854, to the beginning of 1868. Each had a consecutive number and it is these numbers that 1 intend to use for each run. Just how many licences had been issued in 1849 is not clear, but it would appear to be about twenty, a further twelve had been added by the middle of 1850. (A useful source of information on the issuing of depasturage licences is Nelson A History of Early Settlement by Ruth Allan).
The first Crown Grants for sections of land for closer settlement, as well as those for securing homestead sites on sheep runs were made in the autumn of 1851. The Land Regulation Ordinance Act of 1841 made provision for the establishment of Deeds Registry Offices in New Zealand, while in 1842 a Conveyancing Ordinance was passed to make provision for the change of ownership of real property. It appears strange that it was ten years before this became effective. (Those wishing to learn more about this subject could start with An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand ed. A. H. McLintock, 1966 Vol. 2 page 877, "Law of Real").
The taking up of the early runs is shrouded in a certain amount of conjecture. In some parts all one can do is make a calculated estimate to supplement what is in the official records. This accounts for some discrepancies in other writings on the subject. Many people have only brushed over the subject with a few names and places but this is an attempt to bring the history of each run into a better focus.
It is now generally agreed that the first sheep to be driven from the Nelson area to the top of the Wairau, then called Top House, were owned by Nathaniel George Morse and Dr John Henry Cooper who squatted there with
The numbering of the runs used in this and succeeding articles are those used by the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Nelson, in 1854, as they are in a good geographical sequence. Starting from Tophouse the numbering goes down the Wairau Valley to the sea, along the East Coast to Clarence River, then up the right hand side of the Awatere Valley to Barefells and down the left side to Dumgree, followed by runs in the Waihopai Valley from Tyntesfield to Te Arowhenua.
The 1854 licences were first issued in this area for a period of fourteen years. When they expired in 1868 they were, in most cases, replaced with a fourteen year lease giving the occupier a better tenure with less restrictions, though other legislation made it more difficult to freehold the land.
The Raglan run at first extended from the Branch River to the Wairau Gorge on the south-south-east side of the Wairau River and was part of the run number 10 in the 1849 list issued by the New Zealand Company. This was the land occupied by Dr John Henry Cooper and Nathaniel George Morse since 1846. After a year or two the partnership was dissolved with Morse moving down the valley to take up Wantwood (Run No. 3), thus leaving Cooper in full possession.
On a map drawn in 1850 Christie is shown as being in occupation This is thought to be Charles Christie who, with Charles Heaphy, did some exploring in this area just prior to this date.
By 1854, when the fourteen year depasturage licences were issued, Dr Joseph Foord Wilson was the licensee, but by then the licence was for the Raglan Run only and the eastern boundary was the present position not far to the east of the present Raglan Homestead. In the census for 1845 Dr Wilson is shown in two places, (a) in Nile Street as a tenant on Native Reserve sections 521 and 522, and (b) in Hardy Street on section 438. It is thought that he was a surgeon rather than a general practitioner for in the 1849 census he is shown as a surgeon in Tory Street. In 1855 he transferred the licence for the Raglan Run to George William Schroder, an early merchant in Nelson who, in 1858. transferred it to Dr Thomas Renwick and Samuel Robinson who added this to their Birch Hill Run. The runs were united and worked as one undertaking until the Crown took over about the turn of the century. The land was then divided up and released to other settlers under a different tenure.
The land on the opposite side of the Wairau River to Raglan which was taken up by Cooper and Morse and called the Top House run, is not mentioned on the list of Marlborough runs, or as they were known at that time, Wairau runs. Either it was held on the list of Nelson runs or, perhaps the licensee surrendered it to the Crown for in 1856 it was gazetted as a Stock Resting Area under the nominal care of the Superintendent of the Nelson Province.
George Duppa squalled on this land about 1847 and then applied to the New Zealand Company at Nelson for a licence to depasture stock there. This was granted in 1849, but at first the run only took in the land between the Branch and Wye Rivers. A few years later, after persistent demands, he was granted an extension over what is now the Branch run while 1,190 acres of freehold land was granted to him on the north bank of the Wairau River in front of Mt. Patriach, and 1.460 acres along the south bank of the river in front of the Branch run. As well he was granted 5,700 acres of flat and easy hills in front of Birch Hill run.
George Duppa (1819–1888) was a go-getter. Alfred Cox described him as "Full of enterprise and energy; he had few superiors; he was entertaining and instructive, had a good ear for music and could do anything with his hands.' He had a most determined nature, particularly where his pocket was concerned.
When Duppa first arrived in Wellington in 1840 on the Oriental he brought with him land orders which he had purchased before leaving England. These entitled him to eight town sections and eight hundred acres in the Wellington settlement. He also brought with him two thousand pounds and a considerable amount of farm equipment. As there were delays in purchasing land from the Maoris and also in the surveying he moved to the town of Wellington and erected in Oriental Bay a prefabricated house which he had brought with him and began dealing in livestock. Impatient of the delays in the Wellington area he bought cattle in Australia and shipped them to Nelson where he squatted on land at Allington on the east side of the Wairoa Rivet at Brightwater. He prospered and was soon depasturing stock on any unoccupied land he could find. After long and acrimonious negotiations with the New Zealand Company he was granted 200 acres at Allington and, in addition he was granted depasture rights at Birch Hill in 1849. In 1856 he secured a further 8,000 acres there.
After a visit to the Amuri district in the spring of 1852 he applied for a vast area of land stretching from the Cheviot Hills to the Southern Alps. His repeated applications were declined, but at length he was granted a licence for a part of Lowry Peaks country where he founded the huge St. Leonards station.
Duppa did not stay at Birch Hill for long after this but transferred the depasturage licence to George W. Schroder in 1854, selling the freehold land to Samuel Robinson and Dr Thomas Renwick in 1856. (It is thought C. Robinson was their run manager).
As his fortunes grew Duppa became very unscrupulous. During his occupation of Birch Hill and St Leonards Stations he did not hesitate to improve his own position by evading his obligations. He encouraged his sheep to graze on his neighbours' runs, he avoided paying full annual dues to the Commissioner of Crown Lands by transferring 3,000 sheep from Birch Hill to St. Leonards, and tried to defraud his manager, Robert Ross of wages due to him.
In 1862 he sold St Leonards for a very large sum and the following year returned to Kent in England where he purchased his ancestral home from a nephew. Here he had a second career as an English squire at the Manor House, Hollingbourne, Kent. In 1871 he married a society beauty said to be thirty-three years his junior. The wedding glittered with diamond ornaments and jewellery of the most costly description. He also served at High Sheriff of the County and was prepared to act as hangman himself rather than delay an execution.
During the time that Robinson and Renwick were in possession of Birch Hill they extended it by taking in the Raglan run which at that time reached up the east bank of the Wairau River as far as the Gorge. In 1867 they transferred the leasehold and conveyed the freehold land to Alfred Warren of Nelson who, in turn, disposed of it in 1873 to George Williams, surgeon, Nelson, and his brother, Henry Davis Williams, whose address at that time was Leefield, Marlborough. After three years George Williams sold his share to his brother, but with low prices for farm products and the inroads of scab disease and rabbits, Henry Davis Williams was soon in difficulties with the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company who put in its own manager and staff in 1880. Williams had no alternative but to sell his interest to the Company the following year.
About the turn of the century the N. Z. Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. formed a subsiduary company, the New Zealand Land Association Ltd, to administer their many farms and sheep runs and this organisation took over the running of Birch Hill. An agreement was reached whereby the Crown took over some of the freehold area, 1,100 acres on the north-west side of the Wairau River and all the freehold land to the west of the Leatham and Branch Rivers, in exchange for 15,148 acres of freehold land to the south-south-east of their run – 13,988 acres of it being already freehold land. At the same time the title to Birch Hill was brought under the Land Transfer Act and was surveyed into several lots with the idea of closer settlement However, in 1906 the Company sold the run to William Melhuish, who sold lots 3 and 5 of 5,786 acres to Albert Earnest Austin, a Blenheim surveyor, in 1910. The remainder of the run was sold the following year so George Henry Andrew.
G. H. Andrew held the run for many years and, in 1955, he took his son, Harold Gordon Andrew, into partnership and retired a few years later. In 1957 they sold 1500 acres near the confluence of the Wye and Wairau Rivers to James Alister Fowler. In 1960 a further 7090 acres along the Wye River to the south of State Highway 63 was sold to Thomas Bruce Fowler.
One of the stories told of Birch Hill is that about the year 1879 the wife of Henry Davis Williams died and her husband ordered a suitably inscribed marble tombstone to be prepared by a stone mason, but, before it arrived at Birch Hill, he had lost control of the run. Upon its arrival among stores on the wagon it was onloaded near the cookhouse where it lay for several years. When the brick oven was being repaired the builder looked round for something suitably flat to make the floor of the oven. His eye fell on the tombstone and in went the marble slab. There grew to be a local legend that
I wish to thank Dr Eric Pawson and Dr Geoff Rice of Canterbury University for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this article.
(J. D. Overton did research for his thesis for a Master of Arts degree in Geography on the early exploration of Nelson. He has sent us this article based on his research. A copy of the full thesis is in the Provincial Museum Library and may be consulted by interested readers. We are grateful to Mr Overton who is now studying for a doctorate at Cambridge University.)
When calling to mind the early exploration of the Nelson region, thoughts of of heroic actions spring easily to mind. The courageous feats of Thomas Brunner, Charles Heaphy and James Mackay have captured our imaginations and, to a large extent, dominated much of the writing about the exploration of Nelson. However, despite the valuable work that was done by these men in ascertaining the nature of the region's geography, more complete knowledge about the physical landscape of the interior was gradually built up by a virtual myriad of journeys – journeys undertaken by a large number of different explorers, for differing durations and for differing reasons. It was men like Thomas Salisbury, Henry Handyside, J. G. Knyvett, James Burnett, Joseph Ward, Isaac Coates, William Bishop and many, many more, including gold prospectors, farmers, coal miners and government agents, who all helped piece together the topographical jig-saw of the Province of Nelson.
In my own research into the exploration of Nelson J. D. Overton, The Process of Exploration: Nelson 1841–1865 (Unpublished geography M. A. thesis, University of Canterbury, 1978.)
In summarizing the journeys of exploration that took place in Nelson during the period 1841–1865 (from the beginning of European colonisation to a time when most of the region had been topographically explored), it was found that there were distinct "phases" or periods when exploring activity was more intense than others. Furthermore, these phases could be related to economic conditions within the region. Briefly these phases were as follows:
In each of these periods, new areas were explored and more knowledge was gained about the interior. This gradual coverage of the region by explorers, resulting in fewer and fewer areas of unexplored territory, can be described in terms of a developing "map". These "maps" were not always drawn at the time and they can be more accurately thought of as existing as "mental maps" in the minds of contemporaries, summarizing those areas about which some information, however sketchy, had been gained by explorers.
The series of maps below attempt to indicate the pattern of these varied mental maps and show how the gaps of unexplored territory – terrae incognitae – were gradually filled in over the period. They were derived from both actual contemporary maps and details given in explorer's reports. They are not intended to show precise locations of explored areas but rather to demonstrate overall patterns of the spread of geographical knowledge. The southern boundary of the maps is taken arbitrarily as the former Nelson-Canterbury Provincial boundary (from the Hurunui River to the Grey-Arnold Rivers).
In 1841 the coastline of the South Island was relatively well-known to Europeans, although maps and charts were not always accurate. Behind these littoral margins, however, very little was known. Information from the records of maritime explorers, like D'Urville, from sealers and from local Maoris was patched together to form sketchy images of some locations, but the new settlers in Nelson in 1842 were faced with the daunting task of having to explore all the rugged and inhospitable country that comprised the hinterland of the colony. Indeed, the New Zealand Company's Agent in Nelson was well aware of this problem and he employed a large number of surveyor/explorers to find out more about the nature of the region's landscape.
The map for 1844 shows that much had been achieved by early explorers. The Tasman Bay, Golden Bay and Wairau lowlands had been discovered and surveys begun. In addition, attempts were made to link these valuable areas by way of inland communication routes, principally the Tophouse-Wairau route. The search for land was uppermost in the minds of explorers at this time because there was insufficient land in the immediate vicinity of Tasman Bay to meet the needs of the New Zealand Company scheme as it had been hurriedly set up. The only exceptions to this initial pattern of exploring in the northern lowlands and valleys were the uncertain route of William Heaphy to the south (from Canterbury) and the anchorage at the Buller mouth by Thoms, a sealer. In general then, areas closest to the Nelson Settlement were explored first. Accessibility was the main factor controlling where explorers went.
The next period, illustrated by the map for 1848, was a time when a relatively small number of large-scale journeys took place. Heaphy antd Brunner's epic travels ventured great distances from the settlement. What influenced these men to travel such long distances from Nelson and in such a direction? Although one can only guess the motives for Heaphy and Brunner's expeditions (perhaps evidenced by references in their journals to the need for agricultural land) it is likely that they were drawn to the south and west (rather than, say, the south-east) by three factors. Firstly, they were guided by Maoris, notably Brunner's guide Kehu, who had knowledge of the greenstone country of the West Coast and routes to it. Secondly, they were influenced by certain illusions – held by many settlers and developed through the combination of vague Maori reports and fertile imaginations – that there existed a great inland plain to the south-west of Nelson. Finally, the rebuttal to settlement in the east, following the Wairau Affray, led to a shift in ambitions to the west. It seems to have been the mixture of Maori geographical knowledge and European images of mythical plains that drew explorers away from the more accessible and valuable, but unavailable, areas during the period. The above journeys entered many many new areas onto Nelson's "map", even though their paths were confined to relatively narrow coastal and valley courses. Vast tracts remained unexplored.
The map for 1852 demonstrates one of the most marked regional concentrations of exploration. With the opening of the Wairau, the boom in extensive sheep farming and the founding of the Canterbury Settlement, explorers had the firm objectives of the search for good grazing land and inland communications between both Nelson and the Wairau and Canterbury. There was a dramatic shift in emphasis from the west to the east as much of the eastern regions, apart from the main mountain ranges were explored. In contrast, large areas of the west remained unvisited Unlike the previous period when explorers were drawn to the west by their Maori guides and their own imaginations, the shift to the east after 1848 was occasioned by the pragmatic necessities of sheep grazing and sheep droving. The tussock grasslands of the east were a much more likely field for enterprise than the inhospitable, afforested west.
In the following period from 1853 to 1858, exploration was of a more "piecemeal" nature and, unlike previous periods, there was no distinct directional tendency. Some areas, like the upper reaches of the Aorere, Takaka, Wairau and Clarence Rivers were of vital importance in stimulating exploration in country adjoining Tasman and Golden Bays, including some areas that had been topographically explored previously. This scattered pattern added a relatively small amount of new territory to the colonists' geographical knowledge, though, importantly, their knowledge of already explored areas became more detailed with the spread of settlement and mineral prospecting. The overall imbalance of explored east and unexplored west persisted, although the remaining unexplored land was beginning to be fragmented into smaller, less imposing, blocks.
The final and most intensive phase or exploration from 1859 to 1865 virtually completed Nelson's geographical map. A heavy concentration on the West Coast and southern districts was apparenet, indicating a conscious and concerted effort by explorers and government administrators to examine the remaining and most distant areas of terrae incognitae in the region. Explorers were stimulated by gold discoveries, the political separation of the Province of Marlborough, and the need to communicate with the potentially prosperous areas on the West Coast (after the discovery of gold and areas of lowland).
This burst of exploration resulted in an almost complete fragmentation of formerly unexplored territory, especially in the south and west, into isolated pockets. These remaining "blanks" were generally mountainous; their nature and extent having been recognised in the course of observation from nearby travelled areas. Thus, while "unknown" tracts remained, the Provinces of Nelson and Marlborough could be described as almost fully topographically explored by 1865. All its main plains, valleys and ranges had been mapped and its inhabitants had a good appreciation of the nature of the physical environment.
The development of this "map" of Nelson sheds light on certain interesting aspects of the process of exploration. The importance of examining the role of the small-scale explorer has already been mentioned but, in addition, this need to move away from a focus on only the "heroic" characters towards the large number of less eminent, but nonetheless notable, participants, is paralleled by the need to examine Alan Everitt, Ways and Means in Local History, London, 1971.why rather than how all these men withstood the difficulties that exploration involved. The development of early Nelson and the role of exploration in this development needs to be studied as a whole.where they did, it is necessary to study what they and others believed existed in unexplored areas and how their information was obtained. Here, the role of the Maori in Nelson's early history requires much closer attention. Finally, although the development of Nelson's topographical map has been traced above, it is important to note that exploration and the information that was gathered was strongly related to what was being looked for in the first place. Exploration could be botanical and geological as well as geographical and while areas may have been traversed by explorers looking for land or passes, the mineral potential of those areas would have remained undetermined. Thus our "map" of 1865 required further attention before the region could be regarded as "fully explored". The exploration of Nelson, if not solely in a topographical sense, therefore continued beyond 1865 and does so even today.
One of the more interesting features of the Marlborough landscape is the Wairau Boulder Bank which extends from the White Bluffs in the south of Cloudy Bay to the Wairau River mouth, 8½ kilometres to the north west.
After the last period of glaciation (about 14,000 years ago), as the ice melted, the sea level rose and was at its highest about 6,000 years ago. At that time it intruded into the Wairau Plain to a point west of the Riverlands Cob Cottage forming a deep bay, the shore of which was the sandhills which still stretch across the valley in an arc to Tuamarina.
A strongly flowing flood tide known as the Canterbury Current, runs north up the Marlborough coast and this carried into the Wairau Bay the gravels which were washed off the end of the White Bluffs. Eventually these gravels were deposited in a strip stretching right across the bay to Tuamarina. Behind this boulder bank the rivers of the plain dumped their sediments and built up the land until the bay was filled in. North of the Wairau mouth the gravels were pushed continually west forming numerous beach lines to Rarangi while south of the Wairau the boulder bank effectively remained, containing behind it a huge lagoon with swampy edges. It had taken about five thousand years for the boulder bank to form across the Wairau Bay and the land to fill in behind it. During this time numerous floods and earthquakes added their influence to the continually changing landscape.
About one thousand years ago the rivers and the Cloudy Bay coast were probably not much different from what they are today, but if we could see it as it was then we would be astounded at the amount of wildlife frequenting the coast and especially the lagoons. Without doubt it was this huge food resource which attracted the first people to the area at this time. Descended from a few who had landed in New Zealand after a chance one way voyage from Polynesia these people found not only fish and sea birds easy to take but also found moas living along the edge of the bush which at that time covered the plain and the hills. Because these people hunted the moas for food we today call them the Moa Hunters and the remains of their period of occupation at the northern end of the Wairau Boulder Bank is the best known archaeological site in New Zealand.
Pre-European artifacts had been recovered from near the river mouth for some years by local collectors but no real interest was shown in the site until Jim Eyles, as a schoolboy in January 1939, dug up a perforated Moa egg, human bones and some artifacts. This egg was displayed for some time in a Blenheim shop and later purchased by the Dominion (now the National) Museum in Wellington. It was 1942 before Jim discovered another Moa egg associated again with a human burial and artifacts. This roused the interest of Roger Duff of Canterbury Museum, and that year he and Jim excavated five more human skeletons. During 1943 fourteen more burials were located and excavated by Duff and Eyles. In 1945 Jim Eyles discovered eight more burials then only worked spasmodically on the site over the next five years. During 1950 Roger Duff's book, The Moa Hunter Period of Maori Culture, was published and this definative work clearly detailed the importance of the Wairau Moa Hunter site to the pre-history of this country. About this time Jim Eyles was engaged full time by Canterbury Museum, which by then, had a mass of material stored from most of the twenty-nine burials so far excavated. As the excavations had continued over the years, beginning first near the house where Jim lived, at the northern end of the boulder bank and working south, it had become apparent that the site extended over a great distance. Evidence of a rich and extensive southern burial area was obtained during January 1952 when Jim and three volunteers excavated another seven graves.
Up to then the whole course of the excavations can only be described today as a scramble to recover artifacts. Although the methods used – pick, shovel, and even a plough on occasions – would be quite unacceptable by modern workers, some very important information was obtained. This enabled Duff to explain the origins of Moa Hunters but virtually nothing was known of how these people lived at the Wairau boulder bank. He was probably embarrassed at times by such questions to which there should have been some answers after ten years of excavations.
In 1955 Robert Bell of Oklahoma University and Roger Duff excavated an area in a search to determine the type of dwellings the site had contained. Although a complex pattern of postholes was located, with some post butts still in position, no sensible pattern could be interpreted. In the published
During January 1956 Jim Eyles and Michael Trotter of Canterbury Museum, excavated burial 39. This was one of the more interesting to be excavated and was fully reported by Trotter. Five typical moa hunter adzes had been buried with the body along with some wooden artifacts about 1.5m long. About 40cm west of the skull was another adze and nearby the broken pieces of a moa egg. Around the neck of the body was a necklace of twenty-two units of moa bone while buried above the body were a further five adzes which could have been placed there later than the burial. One unexplained feature was the presence of a single finger bone in a good state of preservation in the region of the neck. Neither hand was in this position and both could only be seen as shapeless areas of dust amongst the gravel.
In 1959, Owen Wilkes and others in a Canterbury Museum party extended the area opened by Bell and Duff when they were looking for pestholes. At the same time a party from Victoria University led by H. W.
That was the last excavation carried out on the Wairau Moa Hunter site but further studies have since been made of some of the recovered material. In one of these the remains of 35 bodies from the site were studied, 19 were male and 16 were female. The average age at death was 27.9 years, the youngest being 19 and the oldest 41. This is consistent with other prehistoric populations of similar origins. Both male and female appear to have been broad shouldered, robust and impressively muscled. It appears their diet was adequate and less abraisive than later Maoris although tooth wear certainly shortened their lives. Signs of severe degeneration of the spine at an early age is only one indication that the Wairau Moa Hunters led an extremely active physical life, probably reaching their peak at about 25 years of age. There are no indications of fracture or violence.
It is apparent that at least seven of the excavated burials belong to a somewhat later period as they were folded or trussed rather than laid prone. Many of the latter appear to have been buried face down and any alignment seems by chance rather than intention. It is interesting to note that those burials which were associated with moa eggs seldom had the egg near the head but rather it was near the hands and in one case, at least, it was found near the feet.
The first radiocarbon dates to be obtained for the Polynesian occupation of the South Island were officially released in 1955. They were for the Wairau Bar Moa Hunter site and have often since been misquoted and misinterpreted. A sample of charcoal was taken, divided and sent to two laboratories, one returning 850 + 50 years B.P., the other 935 + 110 years B.P. (B.P. = Before present, i.e. 1950 A.D.).
Roger Duff at first equated these dates with die myths and legends relating to Toi-kai-rakau and the "great fleet". Now we can be quite emphatic about the fallacy of a "great fleet" – not only was there no such "fleet" – it is not even a genuine Maori tradition. At a later date Roger Duff admitted to this, and said. "Maori traditions hang in even greater tatters than before."
Because C14 dates on charcoal similar to that submitted by Duff have proved to be on an average, two or three hundred years earlier than those from other materials, Michael Trotter submitted for dating, samples of bone and shell from the 1959 and 1964 excavations. At the Blenheim Conference of the New Zealand Archaeological Association in 1974 Trotter announced these new dates. Moa bone, 590 + 60 years B.B.; marine shell 680 + 50 years B.P.; and human bone 780 + 80 years B.P. These dates are in keeping with other South Island Moa Hunter sites and may be taken to indicate a period of occupation between six to seven hundred years before present.
Looking back over the 30 years since the publication of Roger Duff's
There is little chance that more field work can be done on the site in the near future. Neither the occupiers of the house near the site nor the Maori people would at present condone any such work. Almost all the site is in private ownership and access to it is discouraged by both the owner and occupier.
More work could still be done on the material so far recovered and re-assessment of the field notes in existence could possibly give new answers to opinions on some questions.
It is hoped that eventually not only the moa hunter site but the whole Wairau boulder bank will become a scientific reserve which can be accurately interpreted, protected and presented for the benefit of future generations.
Mail delivered every day is something we take for granted, but the early settlers who longed for letters from "Home" could expect them only every few months and then they would be from five to seven months old. Moreover, they were only too willing to call at the Post Office when the flag on Britannia Heights announced that a boat was approaching. The first Post Office was open from 10 to 11 a.m. for ordinary business, but if an overseas boat arrived and it was before 4 p.m. the office was opened and recipients could collect their mail. At first there was little mail apart from that brought by "Home" boats, an occassional boat from Wellington, some mail from Sydney, but no overland mails.
In 1841 the New Zealand Company dealt with mail at their tent on what is now Church Hill, but, when emigrants began to arrive, the Governor appointed two officials to the Colony of Nelson – a Customs Officer, Stephen Carkeek and Henry Augustus Thompson who combined the functions of Chief Magistrate, Postmaster, Protector of the Aborigines, etc. He erected a marquee on Church Hill to serve as headquarters for his various departments and as his own private office. Thompson had little to do with the running of the Post Office, his assistant, T. B. Titchener, was assistant Postmaster until he resigned a few months later because he had received no salary. He was followed by W. O. Cautley. The overcrowded tent was found to be inconvenient and, for a short time, postal business is said to have been conducted from Thompson's house which was situated a little further down the hill in what is now Church Lane.
William Stanton, who, as a lad of seventeen, worked for William Curling Young until his untimely death, was clerk and secretary to Thompson whose unusual temper he found amusing rather than annoying. He describes the small house, which, added to and altered still stands. He also tells of the purchase by the Government of what was the original Examiner Office. This was a prefabricated wooden building which had been erected on Church Hill on what was found to be Government land. As the paper was experiencing financial difficulties it was decided to sell the building to the Government and to move to a mud building on what became known as Examiner Street. Stanton helped to move the Courthouse and the Post Office to the wooden building which stood near the site of the Soldiers' Monument. The Post Office section was described as a "shed, ten feet by twelve feet." This move took place before the Wairau Affray as depositions from the survivors were taken in the new Courthouse.
By October 1843 the British Government had decreed that Post Offices be under the control of the Customs Department, so Carkeek became official Postmaster, but the actual work was carried out by clerks, George Fleury and William L. Howard, the latter becoming Postmaster in 1849 when the control of Post Offices became the responsibility of the Colonial Secretary. Howard soon left for an appointment in Canterbury and Benjamin Walmsley was Postmaster from March 1851.
During these changes it seems the Post Office remained on Church Hill. Martha Adams, who arrived in Nelson with her husband and two young sons in 1850, gives an account of mail day in her Journal. On a Sunday in early December 1850, they went to church in a wooden shed on Church Hill (the first church building was opened just one year later). At that time they were staying in a boarding house which looked straight toward the church shed. As they left the service they were delighted to see the flag flying high on a hill as this signified the arrival of a "home" boat. "The Post Office," she writes, "is in a building below the church on the same hill and visible from our dining table, so that all through that meal, we were watching to see when the doors of the office re-opened to give out the letters, and what a joyful sound it was when Acton (her son) ran into the garden with an envelope … calling out, "Mama, Mama! a letter for you from England!' How delightful it was once more to have a letter to read! We had been so long without receiving any, now we all had letters … but by some mistake there were none for Mr Nicholls who sat looking on very disconsolately!"
It was not long before complaints were being made that the premises were too small to handle increased business. There was a direct boat from Sydney that brought mail for other centres to be sent on as soon as possible, while there were some overland mails to be dealt with. In 1855 a move was made to a cottage in Hardy Street. From a map dated 1859 we find that the Post Office was on Acre 172, the next one to the Bank. It was near the corner of Alma Street and was owned by a man named Ross. Older residents remember a Chinese laundry that may have been a later occupant of the same cottage. Despite Walmsley's longing for a "proper" Post Office this cottage served the purpose for some twelve years.
In February 1856 tenders were called for a regular mail every Wednesday and Saturday between the Post Office and Mr Stanton's house in Richmond; Mr Dixon's house, Waimea South (Spring Grove); the Schoolhouse, Wakefield, and Mr John Palmer's house, Waimea West. By March the Examiner was glad to report that arrangements had been completed by which "postal communication will be maintained twice a week between the town of Nelson and the districts of the Waimeas." There was also to be a mail twice a week to Motueka, once a week to Massacre Bay (Golden Bay) and to Waitohi (Picton) and the Wairau. Alas! Six months later the paper reported that the mail, a horse one, to the Wairua had been discontinued as the General Government had either neglected or refused to pay the money voted for the purpose by the House of Representatives — this was infamous, they had voted half the cost. By 1858, when there were a number of small offices receiving mail, Walmsley was made Chief Postmaster for the district and the agitation for a "proper" post office was renewed. The Provincial Government, chronically short of funds, thought it should be the responsibility of the General Government to build it. Matters were finally brought to a head when the Government ruled that if the Provincial Council made no move they would buy land, build a Post Office and charge them for it! This led to the purchase of the only available section, the triangular piece of land in Bridge Street
The next advance in communication was the coming of the telegraph to Nelson in March 1866. At this time the telegraph was a separate department from the Post Office and for the first few years it was housed in a "wretched little shed." The Nelson Evening Mail had timed its first issue to coincide with the first telegraph message due on March 5 but a break in the line between Picton and Nelson delayed the first message till March 19. Papers would now be opened at the first port of call for a ship, often Bluff and important news telegraphed to the papers in the other centres. For the first time in New Zealand news could travel more rapidly than by ship or by a messenger on a fast horse.
Ten years later the Telegraph Office was moved to a "'fine new building" in Trafalgar Street, it occupied the top floor of the wooden building between Hardy Street and the Council Chambers (it was demolished in 1978). By 1881 the Post Office building was in need of alteration and repair and it was decided to move it once again, this time to the same building as the Telegraph
After the turn of the century it again became necessary to find a new site where a "really substantial" Post Office could be erected. Again this was difficult and the choice unpopular. The corner of Trafalgar Street and Haven Road was too far out of town, it was swampy, right away from the business quarter, a miserable site, opposite untidy sections that had been market gardens, a post office there would make Nelson the laughing stock of the colony. Once again it seems that the grumblers had little effect, work went ahead and the handsome building was opened in March 1906 by the Postmaster General, Joseph Ward. A chiming clock was installed in the tower; half its cost, two hundred and ten pounds had been subscribed by residents.
Over the years the town has grown and spread to the north, a new bridge has been built, drainage improved, no longer does the site stand in a wilderness and when in 1970, the building was demolished as an earthquake risk, it was with sadness that citizens saw the landmark go.
The Parish of Spring Grove, as it was known until Ihe nineties when the name became Brightwater, will always be associated with the name of Edmund Hobhouse, first Bishop of Nelson, and his wife Mary. In fact, for a short period in the early sixties. Spring Grove Church and parsonage was the Bishopdale of Nelson Diocese.
When the first Bishop of Nelson arrived in 1859 the episcopal headquarters was set up in the house built by Dr Richardson in the Wood. "You get into Bridge Street and drive along the whole length which brings you not to a bridge – but to where a bridge is wanted – and there your careful driver plunges into a shallow river with a stony bed (the Maitai).… At the corner of a new fence which skirts the road you see imposing gates… and within innumerable roofs and gables, indications of the episcopal abode. Well, into these grand gates you soon find you are not going to drive, but a few yards further on you see a small gate for foot-passengers, overhung with almond trees and vines – there you stop and have to descend … There can be no question now as to where you should go, for a straight footpath leads right up to the house." So Mrs Hobhouse described the first Bishop's house in 1860.
Thomas Bowden, a clergyman who served the Bishop as secretary and schoolmaster at this time, tells us "the property in the Wood which the Bishop rented, was a moderate sized wooden dwelling, mostly upon one floor, but with an upper storey to one portion of it, to which the builder had forgotten to provide a staircase and which could be reached only by a ladder. There was however, quite a number of small mud outbuildings scattered over the grounds which the Bishop utilised for various Diocesan purposes. Thus, one of them was known as the 'Bishop's Study', another as the 'Diocesan Library' and so on. But the largest of them all, a two roomed building, was dignified as 'Mud Hall'." It was here that Mr Bowden, his wife and several children had to live for a time. He continues, "There was another small mud building, a sort of satellite to Mud Hall. It was about twelve feet square and had been used by the Bishop, who loved to turn everything to account, for a 'Sunday School Library', and he had permitted an elderly lady of rather weak intellect to live there and look after the books." When she had to be transferred later to the jail, because as yet there was no Lunatic Asylum, the Bishop decided to use the empty room as a school. "We collected into this little building six or eight lads and one girl, mostly Taranaki refugees, and my days' work was taken up between teaching them and doing clerical work for the Bishop." From this Diocesan Centre the Bishop set forth on marathon journeys, to the goldfields at Aorere in the west, to the Wairau in the east and south to the Canterbury border.
During 1863, in addition to the responsibilities of his Diocese, the Bishop assumed the duties of the parish of Christ Church, but his health and hostility from a number of people opposed to his views, led him to seek solitude in a country atmosphere at Spring Grove.
Soon afler the Bishop came to Nelson, his former curate, the scholarly Dr R. H. Codrington, had offered to work for three years without stipend and wherever the Bishop thought fit. After some months at the Aorere goldfields, he had come to the parsonage at Spring Grove and from there ministered to the three churches of the Waimea: St. John's. Wakefield, St. Michael's, Waimea West and St. Paul's. To this old Oxford friend the Bishop and his wife had come for a change in April 1861. Mary Hobhouse writes: "Two days ago Edmund and I left home to have a little country holiday. It was impossible to take Baby for only one room besides the kitchen has any fireplace in this Eden.
"On Thursday, then, Edmund preceded me on foot. I set forth in a cart (not a dog cart, but a real cart) in which were piled bedstead, mattresses, folding chairs, a washtub full of provisions and innumerable blankets. Leaning luxuriously on this pile 1 jogged on for the space of twelve miles on the only road out of Nelson that boasts of much length.
"Having crossed the river safely, Mr Codrington put spurs to his horse, and on reaching the Parsonage I found him and his Swede (servant) ready with refreshment for man and beast." However, the Parsonage had been without bread for a week and, although Mrs Hobhouse had brought "beef, cheese, rice, tea, sugar, coffee, even spice, plums and suet to show them how to make plum pudding, bread there was not! And when Edmund arrived hungry and we were all to sit down to tea, one and a half scones was all the farinacious food that could be mustered.
"Before this, however, we had furnished our room – a very simple process. It is what people here call an unlined room, in plain terms a shed with nothing to conceal the uprights or rough boards. Edmund and the Swede put up the bedstead, the chairs and table were unfolded, the tub installed as a bath and some nails driven into the wall on which to hang pockets, dressing-gowns, etc … "
Their memories of this holiday must have been pleasant for in November 1863 the Hobhouse family came and established themselves in the Spring Grove Parsonage and here the Bishop remained until his departure for England in 1866. He had hoped to gain relief from his crippling headaches by retiring from the town and by devolving on a secretary "that weight of small secular duties which," he told his Synod, "has always absorbed so undue a proportion of my time and strength."
The parsonage household consisted of the Bishop, his wife, two sons and their nurse, Hill. Mrs Hobhouse's English maid and two local servant girls. Both the children had been born in Nelson. Edmund in 1860, Walter in 1862. During 1864. in the country retreat the Bishop had sought, Mary Hobhouse, in her forty-fifth year, was expecting the birth of their third child. The Bishop took the services at St. Paul's and noted the names. Sunday by Sunday, of the communicants. Miles. Tuckey. Cox, Hodgson and John Smith. Mrs Hobhouse's name always headed the list. At a meeting on 25th August the Bishop declared Spring Grove a parochial district including all the neighbourhood from which the congregation was drawn. John George Miles
Earlier that month, on the third of August, Bishop Hobhouse had summoned a special session of the Diocesan Synod to announce his resignation. "The one cause of my retirement is an affection of the head, provoked by severe over-study at Eton, thirty-four years ago. My medical adviser would have entirely dissuaded my taking this Diocesan charge if he could have foreseen the nature and amount of the duties. He recommended it in the belief that I should be released from the duties of a town cure, and that I should be invigorated by the free life of a Colonial Bishop, in an infant Diocese and a mountain region". He referred to his retirement to the country at Spring Grove in the previous summer and continued, "At the end of eight months of comparative relaxation, I find myself less competent for any duties which require sustained action of mind and wholly unable to meet any excitement or anxiety."
Tragically he was soon compelled to summon all his resources of courage and will to face a cruel blow. On Sunday, 25th September, his wife was in her usual place at the service. It was for the last time. Two weeks later she gave birth to a still-born son, and two days later she herself died. The Examiner announced the news in a black-bordered inset which began, "A gloom has been cast over the town by the death of Mrs Hobhouse, wife of the Bishop of Nelson.
"Mrs Hobhouse was universally beloved and respected in our community. She was humanly speaking, the perfect Christian lady, and leaves behind among a wide circle of sorrowful friends, a precious image that time can never efface."
On the day of the funeral, 15th October, 1864, a large concourse of people from Nelson and the neighbourhood of Spring Grove came to the picturesque little church, "which is situated in close contiguity to the parsonage where the Bishop and his family have resided for some time past. Among the crowd of mourners were His Honour the Superintendent, the parochial clergy and, almost without exception, the representatives of all the leading families in this community, accompanied by a goodly sprinkling of ladies. A large number of the parishioners of Spring Grove were also present, anxious to pay their last tribute of respect to one whose name was synonymous in their minds with charity and kindness of heart."
The little church overflowed for the service and the whole congregation sang Rock of Ages accompanied by the harmonium. Then the coffin was carried in procession, "to the grave which was, we believe, selected by Mrs
The day after, being Sunday, the Bishop took the usual services at St. Paul's, with apparently perfect composure and continued his pastoral duties with admirable fortitude. It must have been a great comfort to have the companionship of his friend, Bishop Palteson of Melanesia, who arrived from Auckland on the following Friday to stay at Spring Grove, where he and Bishop Hobhouse took services together. After he had returned to England, the Bishop arranged for the attractive porch to be added to St. Paul's Church as a memorial to his wife.
Although he had formally resigned, Bishop Hobhouse struggled on for another year and a half, while poor communications led to interminable delays in the appointment and departure from England of his successor, Bishop Andrew Suter, who did not arrive in Nelson until September 1867. During this time Bishop Hobhouse continued to plan and provide for the future and to lay a splendid foundation for his successor to build on. He had already, in 1862. endowed the Diocese with "an Estate lying to the south of the city, about one mile and a half from the church. This estate," he told the Synod, "will furnish a site for the Bishop's house and for the church, which it may fall to the lot of my successors to rear to God's honour and glory, as the Cathedral of an expanded Diocese." It was Bishop Suter who benefitted from the new Bishop's house, built on this estate in 1868, and who added, in the next decade, the theological College and Chapel to make the "Bishopdale" diocesan centre Bishop Hobhouse had dreamed of. Two smaller buildings were completed in rhe Diocese, in his last year the Bishop opened the little church of St. Andrew at Wakapuaka on 27th April, 1865, and in May, at Mararewa in the Molueka Valley, the Church of the Ascension.
In June 1866 the Bishop and his family finally returned to England. On the site where, owing to their father's generosity and foresight, the new Bishopdale would rise, the two small Hobhouse boys planted two oak trees which still flourish on either side of the gates. From England the Bishop continued to support Nelson Diocese by donations of money and prizes for the Bishop's School and Bishopdale College. In spite of the bitter trials he suffered his memory of Nelson must have been mellowed by the deep and genuine sympathy with which the community surrounded him after his wife's death.
One contemporary wrote. "His Lordship is wonderfully supported and bears with calm and patient resignation the heavy trial which has been laid upon him." Another, a woman, with perceptive insight, commented, "He is a sad and lonely man from his shy and reserved habits. His good wife was his right hand … She seems indeed So have been one of the excellent of the earth, ready to every good work. She is universally lamented."
It is very difficult to explain to a modern generation just how convenient the Nelson Railway was and how important it was to the development of the country districts. Transport and communications of all kind have developed at such an extraordinary pace in recent years that it is now hard to realise the conditions of 60 years ago. It is almost impossible to imagine the difficulty of using bullock wagons and pack-horses to carry goods to such places as Sherry River or the Buller Valley, or of taking a week to go to the Wangapeka and back. Doubtless it is impossible for those who now see goods being carried to these places in two hours!
It is easy to say now that the Nelson Railway did not serve any useful purpose, but prior to the general use of motor vehicles it provided the lifeline for the districts it served. When the railway was built to Foxhill in the 1870s there were very few bridges over the rivers which had to be crossed at a ford by the horse teams, and roads were rough gravel strips. Transport is said to be the lifeblood of a community, certainly it must have been to pioneer farmers of a 100 years ago when financial returns were small and it was often a case of enduring and existing. A passenger service which could bring people to Nelson in an hour or even less must have seemed the height of luxury, even if the four-wheeled carriages were not very luxurious!
So far an overall history of the Nelson Railway has not been written, but information is being stored up and, no doubt, an able pen will eventually write a very interesting story. Meanwhile we have to face the fact that to a generation which has always known tar-sealed roads, buses and heavy motor vehicles, the Nelson railway appears a myth from the past. Nevertheless there must be hundreds, if not thousands, of people who can remember that, when attending the Nelson Colleges, they travelled daily on the train to and from the city. Certainly the line was never extended through to the West Coast and Canterbury as originally intended. The construction from Belgrove onward proceeded by fits and starts according to the whims of various political groups, but it was the introduction of motor transport which brought its final ending. It is possible that in its earlier years the Nelson section paid its way, but it appears that from about 1911 onwards the losses grew from year to year. With the growing use of motor vehicles in the 1920s it was realised that short sections of line could not survive, they must be connected to the trunk system, and efforts were made to extend the line from Glenhope to Inangahua. It is not the purpose of this article to consider the rights and wrongs of the closing down of the construction works when the line had been completed to Gowanbridge. The fact of the matter is that the extensions from Glenhope and Kawatiri to Gowanbridge were not taken over by the Railways Department.
When we were children at school about 1920 we would run out to the road fence to see a car go by while the passing of a six-horse wagon called for little comment. Certainly there were very few cars in our country district at
If we consider the year 1925 and make comparisons we find that by then motors were coming into more general use. There were a few private cars and odd motor trucks mainly carting goods to and from the railway stations. Both Newmans and Gibbs' were running service cars from Nelson to Westport. It was an all day trip with morning tea at Korere and lunch at Murchison. None of the roads were tar-sealed and the rough gravel took heavy toll of the high pressure tyres. There were many unbridged streams to cross and floods often caused lengthy delays. There was little through traffic to the city.
This writer remembers that in the early 1920's the main road along the Hope straight was simply a dusty gravel wheel track on each side with a grass strip in between. One of my boyhood recollections was the crossing of the old Brightwater wooden bridge. It was attended by a man with a red flag to see that traffic travelled very slowly. At night the watchman carried a lantern.
From 1925 onwards motor traffic was increasing rapidly. The railway was still very important for both goods and passengers but the changing pattern soon became evident. By 1930 most gravel roads were being regularly graded and improved and most streams were being bridged. Also-by then, there were a few stretches of tar-sealed roadway in the Waimea County, namely Beatson's Road at Wakatu (then the main road) and from Stoke to Champion Road at Richmond.
The employment measures in the late 1920's and early 1930's meant that a great deal of improvement was carried out on the country roads – more especially those over the hills. In 1934 the main highway from Stoke to Belgrove was tar-sealed by a Christchurch contractor who was using a hot-mix process which was a new development at the time.
Until about 1930 there was no decent road to Lake Rotoiti from either Nelson or Blenheim but this construction was one of the employment measures of the late 1920's. In keeping with the times it was all pick and shovel work. My brothers and I trucked the food, equipment, bridge materials, cement, culvert pipes, and most requirements from the Kohatu railway station. In some places between Kikiwa and Tophouse the road was steep and, in general, not far removed from the days when it was the track for bullock drays. Over the years some side cuttings had been put in to avoid the steepest grades down into, and out of, the gorge-like gullies. (One wonders just how the bullocks really managed to haul the drays!)
From Tophouse to Lake Rotoiti the road was still part of the original track following the rocky formations on the west side of Black Valley. One gully commonly referred to as the "Switchback" was simply crossed by going straight down into it and straight up the other side. Unless care was taken motors stalled in attempting the climb. With loaded trucks it was only possible to gain a few yards at a time. (When I told this to a gathering one
When Transport licensing was introduced in the early 1930's the motor traffic had captured a great deal of the trade, but the Railways Department was represented at all hearings of applications for licences. The rail trade was being whittled down but strenuous efforts were made to keep the railway operating.
It finally closed in 1955 and was demolished shortly afterwards.
As the country area became more settled, travel began to increase, whether by foot or horseback, horse and cart or by sea, travellers were ready for refreshments by the time they reached Richmond. Enterprising settlers soon grasped the situation, and by 1848 two establishments were offering lodgings and hospitality in the form of refreshments, in the Main Street as Queen Street was then called.
Situated at the eastern end of Main Street, the Plough Inn was the first hotel seen by travellers from Nelson. It stood where the entrance to W. E. Wilkes' timber yard is today. A small iron plough was mounted on top of the gable overlooking the roadway, proclaiming to all passersby the name bestowed upon it. A skittle alley with a wooden floor was situated behind the building; it was a popular pastime, and the cause of numerous complaints on occasions when games continued till after one o'clock in the mornings. In 1856 it was the venue for the meetings convened to form the first school committee for the Waimea area, when 131 persons were reported to have been present.
Mr William Cleaver was the first landlord, following his death. Mrs Cleaver carried on until 1867. John Ryan 1874, J. R. Dodson 1890, Otto Haase 1893. James Butler 1895, Vernon Mullens 1898. The inn was purchased by Mr Wilkes in 1899 and was used as an office and wallpaper room until demolished after having stood almost 100 years.
Lower down Queen Street today, the Star and Garter Hotel still serves the travelling public and local people under the management of Mr Jack Pretty. The present roughcast building was built to replace the old wooden building which was demolished after being damaged by fire in 1950. The first building was sited off the roadway. A curved carriageway was a distinguishing feature of this hotel, only removed when the establishment was rebuilt, although several structural changes had been made. Mr J. R. Dodson was the owner in 1880 and onwards. Numerous landlords have served loyally over the years. Some who were there before 1900 were: 1860 R. Disher, 1865 R. Malcolm, 1867 T. W. Benfield, 1873 W. Tovey, 1886 J. Harris, 1892 Matthew Green, 1895–1903 J. Schroder, who was relieved by Mr Hurley and son. And so the list goes on spanning 133 years of service since George Snow conferred the name of a well known London Inn on the first hotel in Richmond.
Opposite the Star and Garter, on the corner of Queen and Cambridge Street, the Wheatsheaf was built in 1860. This hotel had a deep ditch in front and was bridged on the Cambridge Street side only. It was the downfall of many unwary travellers. Landlords were: 1860 W. Young, 1861 Charles Gentry, 1865 Mr J. Disher, 1867 Mr Balck. In 1873 it was burned down and not rebuilt.
Just south of Jubilee Park (1981) stood the Red Horse. Built about 1865 with Mr T. Oxley as proprietor, followed by Henry Warren in 1867 William Ball was there in 1875. Cattle sales were held in the yards in 1880, and it was the depot for packages for H. Haycock's Riwaka Passenger service in 1879. A red horse in a perpetual prancing stance was erected high on the facade.
Built in 1867 by George Moonlight, almost opposite the Red Horse, was the White Hart, displaying a white deer with wide spread antlers. Following George Moonlight was Mrs Kite in 1871, J. Hay 1888, Victor Granville 1889, Henry Satherley 1890, Mr Brocklebank 1898. It, too, was razed by fire and rebuilt as a boarding house. Mrs Windlebourne kept that for a number of years. John Sharp was owner in 1887. The Gladstone Park Motor Camp caretaker lives in the third building to be erected on the site.
On the lower corner of Queen Street and Gladstone Road stands the Railway Hotel, second of the two remaining hotels in Richmond today. It was erected in 1886. later than the others, near the Railway Station. The dining room with chairs for seating fifteen people had folding doors making it possible to enlarge the space to almost double. Saleyards erected on land adjacent to the hotel were the venue for stock sales for the Waimea until the late 1940's.
Mr J. A. Harley was the owner. Like the others it had many landlords over the years. Mr F. T. Lipscombe being the first, followed by A. H. Brind, Robert Disher, A. G. Hook, Alfred Mills in 1887, Felix Green 1888, George Moss 1891, Leon Simon 1893, Morgan O'Brien 1896, Thomas Newman 1897, Charles Mitchell 1898. At the present time it is under the management of Doris Mercer, in the original building.
Just on the boundary of Richmond, on the main Road to Appleby, stood the Elephant and Castle, the seventh hotel serving travellers in the area. It, too, was named after an inn in South London. Built in 1866, it stood back from the roadway, surrounded by sycamore and elm trees. The dairy, store room and stables were of cobb. Henry Hubbard was the only proprietor listed. After his death in 1872, his wife soon ended the trading and used it as a private dwelling. A clump of elms on Taylor's property (1981) marks the site.
(In our 1979 Journal we published a letter from Thomas Hewetson written from the Slate River in the Golden Bay area in 1857. In the meantime he has had a trip to England and has now been attracted by the Wakamarina Rush, but as a storekeeper, not a digger.)
The Press, March 9th, 1864: There are now six houses in Havelock township. A few months ago there were only two. Others are in the course of construction.
The following letter gives some firsthand information about the area and conditions at the time when goods were being shipped into Havelock before being taken by canoe up the Pelorus river to the retail stores at Canvastown.
Mr Allen's Store,
Havelock.May 27th, 1864. Dear Joseph, I will drop you a line and endeavour to give you an imperfect account of the present appearance of Havelock which, by the way, is nearly as big as Nelson. I should suppose there is upwards of 150 large tents and weatherboard and corrugated iron buildings – nine-tenths of them grog shantys. Just a stall and a few bottles of spirits while some of them are large merchants' warehouses, nearly as large, and some of them larger than, Mr Hodder's of Richmond. Today we have a strong force of Dunedin police and detectives. We have two banks – one the Union Bank of Australia and the other the Bank of New Zealand. We also have surgical and medical gentlemen and a new Post Office and Custom House, and the Government wharf is at once to be gone on with. Large buildings covered with iron sheets and wall of same material spring up in three or four days, chimney, an iron flue and stove, windows and doors complete. Carpenters' wages are from £1 to 15s per day. Some merchants from Canterbury and Dunedin come here with their own vessels and whole cargo complete. Today a pretty steamer,
The Lady of the Lake, came in and is to remain here as a trader between Picton and Havelock. Today we had an auction sale. Some twenty horses were sold at from £17 to £40. It is not known what will become of the diggings here. I think things, that is provisions, will be very cheap here. Some flour ranges from £1.15s to £2.5s per 100lbs, fresh meat is 1s to 1s 5d the 1b, bread 2s a 41b loaf. As a body they are the most orderly lot of men that I have ever seen together. A little thieving is going on, principally of provisions and grog, but sometimes money. A day or two since a person had £80 stolen from his tent. Mr Allen expressed himself perfectly satisfied with me and trusts me to make purchases as well as sales for him. He comes to see me and to direct me every few days. I have already purchased for Mr Allen to the amount of £295 in three purchases of flour and bacon and sundry other articles. I have effected sales to the amount of about £100. My chief employment is in seeing goodsdischarged from vessels. One day I had four ships discharging for Mr Allen at the same time. I had to keep account of the goods landed and see the same safely stored, employing men to carry the same to the warehouse. I had two good men who received 15s and £1 per day. I have also three boatmen to see to and provide goods for them to take up to the diggings and keep account of what they take. Some days I have to send eight or nine tons of goods up the river. This costs £2 per ton. I have also to pay these men and give bills of lading to them. So you see I am fully employed. Although I keep what we call a wholesale store yet there are so many shops of every description. I do not sell much but keep principally a receiving warehouse. We have two – one a shop and one to store goods. Here are plenty of dining rooms and restaurants with fine names such as the Golden Age, the Shakespeare House, Canterbury Store, and many others. Mr Allen is doing an extensive trade on the diggings. Although I believe I have received for Mr Allen upwards of £1000 worth of goods from different vessels in a week yet this is nothing to what some of the importers are doing. (The rest of the letter was purely personal.)
(Signed) Thomas Hewetson
Many people are intrigued to know how the name of Chinaman Gully came to be associated with a small stream in the Big Bush (between Kikiwa and Tophouse) area. Gold digging is the clue to the name. The first report of gold being found was in the Nelson Evening Mail in November 1868:
"It is rumoured that gold in payable quantities has been discovered near Ben Nevis, in the district of Waimea South, on the way between Quail Valley and the Tophouse, and that eight ounces, its produce, were brought to town yesterday."
A small number of gold diggers worked claims there over the years and prospectors again tried their luck during the depression of the early 1930's. The Chinese worked there in the 1870's selling sufficient gold to keep them in meat and essential stores.
Quoting from a Nelson Evening Mail article written by my friend, Mr J. E. Tomlinson, and printed on April 13th, 1963, we gain the following information:
"Quite a few Chinese worked in the bottom end of the gully and did quite a bit of work there, traces of which can still be seen. Hence the name Chinaman Gully. It was all bush in Chinaman Gully in those days. The Kerrs of Blue Glen used to supply the miners with meat and stores paid for with gold from the creek.
"This gold in the Chinaman Gully was very thin and there were no nuggety pieces which seems to suggest it might have travelled a long way in the glacial period. I owned this property in later years. The first mile of the creek had the bush fallen along its banks and colours of gold could be found in the wash in most of the banks. Back in the bush about five branches had all the creek beds worked to the head, where dams had been built to collect water to wash through the boxes. Old huts and camp sites can still be found well back in the bush. Some occasional apple trees had grown up around them. During the slump period about ten men were working there for a short while. Possibly about 10 ounces of gold was taken out."
"Diggers' Creek, the only other creek to have gold in it worth digging, was on the Motupiko side of the range. It was about two miles further up the valley although the heads of the creeks are not far apart. The gold in Diggers' Creek was nuggety and some nice pieces of several pennyweights were obtained.
"My father, at Tophouse Hotel, used to buy the gold at three pounds ten shillings an ounce and sell it to Louis Kerr, of Nelson."
Red-bricked and derelict, the Redwood Stables stand next to Highway 60, fourteen miles west of Nelson. They are half a mile from the Waimea River bridge, at the base of the coastal foothills. Most motorists speed by with scarcely a glance, and the vibration from each passing truck brings their demise a little nearer.
Henry Redwood, pioneer settler of the district, and widely known as Father of the New Zealand Turf, built his home, Hednesford, about 1849 and fifty yards away his racing stables. A small part of the original house is still there, owned and occupied by Mr and Mrs Paddy O'Connor. In the far distance among the trees can be seen the dormer windows and steep sloping roof of Stafford Place, the second built on the site, original home of the Redwood family.
That part of the L shaped stables parallel to the road is a two-storey brick building, about 165 feet long, with eight stalls for horses, feeding troughs and a corridor for stable hands. The upper floor is storage for grain, fodder and harness, but at the eastern end is a loft in good repair, living quarters for stable boys. The remains of an outside wooden stairway lies rotting in the grass, but inside leading to the loft, is a perpendicular, ship's type ladder, firm and intact. The whole building, with patterned brick arches over windows and doorways is in reasonable repair and still attractive.
The smaller part of the L, with its brick and partly cobbled floor, was once a carriage house, and perhaps part dairy. It is in poor shape now, having suffered in the 1929 earthquake, since when deterioration has been rapid.
The Redwood family (4 boys, 4 girls) were among the original settlers of Waimea West, arriving on the good ship George Fyfe in December 1842. From the "Reminiscences of Early New Zealand" by Francis (Archibald) Redwood. Henry's younger brother, and the Journals of his brother-in-law Joseph Ward, we get a lively picture of pioneering days.
The George Fyfe was anything but a "good ship". Both Joseph and Francis agree with Dr Sam Johnson that being at sea is "like being in prison with the added disadvantage of the chance of being drowned". Writes Joe, "I shall never forget the George Fyfe. Talk of suffering – New Zealand must be a very fine place to make up for this. Martha (his wife) very unwell, has tooth drawn; Betsy unwell, difficulty in breathing; Ann, headache; Uncle (Henry Redwwod, Senior), violent headache. Bad health, bad tempers. All as crabbed as bears with sore tails. The price is very high … Little George (6 months) died. Lucky George! He leaves his friends and finds Heaven, 'Tis a bitter, bitter world. Oh that I was on land again, among dear, dear friends among the green fields, on land again!" Francis, after suffering for several days "a revolution in my vitals" could keep nothing down. The remedy, given to him by an old sailor was "a dram of brandy, soak in it a piece of sea biscuit. That, I think, should stick." It did.
There was a touching description by Francis of the first journey out to the Waimea 50 acre holding. They landed on the river bank, continuing on foot, the three year old Francis being sadly scratched by ferns and prickles, lagging behind the other children. "Wait for me!" the eternal cry of the youngest, which Katherine Mansfield describes so well with Lottie in "Across the Bay". Mrs Redwood was not without complaint, either. Henry, Senior, pointed out a tiny New Zealand daisy, "See what a beggarly country you have brought me to," she cried. "It cannot even grow a decent daisy."
Work began at once. The men dug a well, the first day and erected a 60 foot long tent, divided by wooden partitions. In this tent, one day later, Mrs Dillon gave birth to her first-born, Mrs Redwood assisting. Joseph is laconic about birth. He writes, "Mrs D. Just confined. Boy." Of his own, "Martha very unwell. My Aunt slept with her. Today Martha was confined of little Felix Barnard. Showery." Two years later, "Martha very ill. About 2 a.m. Joseph Augustine Charles made his appearance. Mrs D. had a box of cheese full of maggots." In 1848, "Scabs on my boys' heads, ringworm. Martha uneasy since 12 o'clock last night. I up between 2 and 3 built up fire, thinking Martha's task to be well nigh ended. No such luck. Doctor at my house most of day. At 4 p.m. my 4th son born. Got two loads of dung." The event (birth) was repeated eleven times, 8 sons and 4 daughters. It is recorded in Marlborough that the eight Ward sons all magnificently mounted rode each Sunday to Mass. They were known as the Brookby Cavalry.
There is little mention of horses or stables in the first few years. The rough 14 miles were covered on foot, often taking most of the day. There is mention of oxen in the cart and then a mule and then one horse between two, Henry and Joseph, who presumably rode "Ride and Tie". But surely after the triple family wedding of 1845, there must have been vehicles and riding horses for the ladies. Certainly before the wedding Henry let Elizabeth (Reeves) ride his mare one evening. Presumably she did it well for the wedding took place. Henry and Joseph were undoubtedly witnesses of the first two race meetings in Nelson, 1843 and 1844, and at the 1846 races at Stoke, Henry Redwood Senior was a steward and again in 1848, and Henry Junior was Clerk of the Course.
There is little mention of meat either in these early years, although young Henry had a butcher's shop in Nelson in late 1843, and one of the first jobs mentioned is "cutting poles for a cattle yard". The diary is of catching eels and shooting birds; ducks, pigeons, quail, pukeko and larks. Henry often shot twenty brace of larks for supper, and as many as 20 larks would be killed by the bullock whip as they followed the plough. Henry was a famous shot, and more than once in Sydney won the All Australasian Championship for pigeon shooting. Francis, too, on his way to study in France, impressed a Marist brother who took him shooting in Sydney. "I am a good shot", he writes. "All Redwoods are".
The early years are crammed with the practical details of fanning; the chopping of stakes, planting potatoes, the bulling of heifers, the slaughtering of sheep and pigs, the pupping of bitches, the castrating ("cutting") of male
Hospitality was plentiful, and if meat was short, drink was not. The men (never the ladies mentioned) were never short of whisky, brandy, port and beer, home brewed. There were many convivial visits of friends to Stafford Place and many visits to friends in Nelson and parties as on Anniversary Day, February 1, 1844. After the jollifications, the horse race (Duppa won again), the sack race, Nelson folk dancing on the green, they went to a friend's house. "Could not find liquors," writes Joe, "looked under bed for them. Girls all gone to Marsden. Bolton and I laughed heartily … A jolly crew … all drank wine, 1, brandy and water. Sang several songs and had a glass or two of champagne. Slept at Uncle's."
The routine of farm life was enlivened by such incidents. Francis writes that the Maoris, who loved the novelty of horses (hohios – "big dogs") rode them recklessly up the valley to Motueka, often turning them out all sweating, so that many caught chills and died. One night, a calf was killed and the blood smell set the bulls roaring. The women in the tent feared that the bulls would charge it, and they set off guns to frighten them off. "Such little incidents", writes Francis, "helped to sweeten the sameness of everyday life."
Religion played a major part in the Redwood story. Henry Senior nearly pulled up stakes and went to Tasmania when he found that there were no regular masses celebrated in Nelson. The visit of Bishop Pompallier and Rev. Father O'Reilly from Wellington to Waimea West thrilled Francis. "We venerated him as an angel from Heaven, and from then on an appropriate room in our house became the hallowed place. "Every night there were prayers and Bible readings, Sundays, mass, prayers and all in full dress. When work demanded, there were prayers in the shearing shed or cow byre. From then on, Father O'Reilly visited regularly – once a year! He it was who conducted the triple wedding at Stafford Place in 1845, January 23, when Henry married a widow, Elizabeth Reeves; Mary married a lawyer, whom Joe did not like; Joseph Greaves and Betsy, Edward Bolton. "All good Catholics", says Francis, "and all at their duties". Soon after, Francis heard his call to duty, and sailed to France, was ordained as priest, served in Ireland, then in Wellington, finally becoming Archbishop of all New Zealand.
And so the Redwoods prospered. There were three houses and the stables, probably built in 1850. Henry used to train the horses on Rabbit Island, using the Tick Tock track for timing (most meticulously) and a small shed there. One can think of jockeys on frosty mornings returning from training gallops, blowing on frozen fingers, trooping noisly in to the large Hednesford kitchen for hot cocoa and the warmth of an open range. One can imagine too in the evening, the sleepy talk of tired stable boys in the loft, assessing the chances of Zoe for Marlborough, and what price Ladybird for Dunedin, and I wonder will the old man bring home any new stock from Sydney?
Henry was born in Tixall, Staffordshire. When he arrived in Nelson in 1842, he was twenty and already a man, having owned and raced horses in England. He was a pioneer fanner, a man of many parts, having run a butcher's shop, a flour mill, and he was the first to install a threshing machine and to release a stag and a hind in the hills behind Nelson. But racing was his chief love, and after 1851, he established the first New Zealand stud for breeding thoroughbreds. The brig Spray arrived from Sydney in 1851, bringing him 33 horses, among them Sir Hercules and Glaucus, stallions who each founded a great racing line. Other famous Redwood horses were his favourite, Zoe, Strop, Zingara, Peeress, Lurline, Flora McIvor, Frailty and Ladybird. Henry had two sons, Joseph, who rode as his jockey for seven years, and Thomas. In 1863 he moved to Marlborough, but continued to race his horses in Nelson, Canterbury, Otago and Sydney, building an enviable record, his colours, red and black being well known all over Australasia. He was known abroad, and acknowledged in European racing journals as a pioneer of racing in the Antipodes. He was known in France, and imported stock from there later returning some of the progeny.
As a boss, he was known to be stern with his boys and kind to his horses. There is a story of a lad too frightened of him to confess that the horse in his care had a sore foot. After the race the boy was whipped, the horse pampered. He loved his horses but rarely made money. In Sydney he raced one of his favourites, Strop, successfully, then sold him. Later he was not satisfied with the horse's condition, and brought him back at a loss to give him honourable retirement in Nelson.
Redwood won 2 Wellington Cups. 3 Marlborough Cups, 2 Dunedin Cups, 2 Canterbury Cups and 4 Nelson Cups. His horse Ladybird won the first Interdominion Championship in Dunedin, 1863, defeating the favourite Mormon, from Victoria. Mormon was second to Archer in the first Melbourne Cup, 1861. He was known in all his business dealings for his firmness and in his racing for his integrity. All Redwood horses were ridden to win, and win they did through all of 60 years. Redwood died full of honour in 1907.
The Examiner has a note in 1866, "Mr Redwood's stud is outstanding. No gentleman has a finer lot of brood mares south of the Line, except perhaps Mr Fisher's Maribyrnong Stud in Victoria. He has as valuable a stud as could be found in any British colony."
Restoration of the Redwood Stables would be a fitting memorial to an outstanding pioneer of the district and to the Father of the New Zealand Turf.
It is appropriate that we place on record the important participation in our Nelson Historical Society activities taken by the late Dr C. R. Barnicoat, known affectionately to many people as "Barnie".
He was a grandson of an important public figure of earlier days in Nelson whose memory has been preserved at Nelson College in the name of Barnicoat House.
Following an outstanding career in the scientific field Dr Barnicoat came to Nelson in 1959 when he assumed the directorship of the Cawthron Institute, holding the position until his retirement in 1967.
Among his many interests in Nelson he found time to take an active part in the Nelson Historical Society. He was the editor of the Society Journal for a long period of years and was responsible for the introduction of the high class publication which continues to be produced.
As Society president from 1967 to 1971 he gave able leadership to the organisation. Mrs Barnicoat, who pre-deceased her husband, also took an active interest in Society undertakings.
We honour their memory. – J.N.
With the death of Norman Brayshaw on 27th February, 1981, Marlborough lost a devoted and untiring historian who was responsible for saving more of this province's history than anyone would have thought possible.
Best known for his now rare book. Canvas and Gold, he left his mark on almost every corner of this district's history.
Almost single handed he achieved so much, historic markers and monuments, a large collection of archives and the building of small museums are but a few.
He will be long remembered for his gallant effort to preserve the "Edwin Fox", the last of the East Indiamen now lying derelict in Shakespeare Bay near Picton harbour.
His greatest creation was in his later years, the establishment of Brayshaw Park, and the construction of Beavertown and numerous other buildings which house a huge collection of vintage farm machinery.
His enthusiasm and drive inspired many, who today, are endeavouring to continue with the examples he set for the future preservation of his province's past. – N.M.