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Volume 6 No 5
2002
Cover: Construction of Rocks Road at The Basin about 1894. Tyree Studio Collection, Nelson Provincial Museum, 179915/3.
It gives me great pleasure to introduce the 2002 Journal of the Nelson Historical Society. Our policy is to publish articles of original research and personal memories and reminiscences from our own members, and also from non-members. Any topic of Top of the South' interest is very welcome. It is a credit to our contributors that this is a larger journal than our previous ones. Please continue to send us your articles.
Five of the articles in this issue refer to Nelson city. I am especially pleased to mention the contribution from Anna Parker from Nelson College for Girls. She is the first winner of the Jeff Newport Memorial Prize for her research about the Theatre Royal. Three authors introduce us to noteworthy people from this area who truly need to be remembered in print. It is gratifying to see the article about Paynes Ford, as it is quite a while since we published anything about Golden Bay.
Our Patron, John Savage, is remembered in his obituary by Athol Blair. We shall miss John. His remarkable memory of Nelson life and times has often enlivened our meetings. Thank you to all our contributors. We appreciate your work and hope that others will be inspired to follow. Many thanks to our Editor, Dawn Smith, and also to computer-operator, Noelene Ford. I hope you, the readers, will enjoy our latest offering.
Published by Nelson Historical Society (Inc) PO Box 461 Nelson
Edited by Dawn Smith. Formatted by Noelene Ford. Printed by Copyart, Richmond.
ISSN 1173-9711. Copyright: Permission to reprint any part of the Journal should be sought from the Committee of the Nelson Historical Society and the source of any such reprint should be acknowledged. We are grateful to the Nelson Provincial Museum and contributors for making photographs available.
Following a visit to Nelson exactly 25 years ago this July, I wrote to the then Nelson Evening Mail expressing my enthusiasm for the seawall between Tahunanui and Nelson as an excellent example of seaside civil engineering. At that time I knew virtually nothing about its origins, except that it was said to have been built by prisoners. Together with an illustrated article about its history prepared by Mail staff, the newspaper published my letter, which I had ended by saying that, in my opinion, the wall was undoubtedly of a quality which warranted recognition as a significant historic structure. But to no effect. I am now reiterating that long-held opinion, on this occasion reinforced with evidence to support and strengthen it.
'In 1891…the City Council, the County Council and the Richmond Borough Council set up a Road Round the Rocks Committee and the work was begun'.
'When the idea of the Rocks Road was mooted Francis Richmond agreed to give some land along the front of the Cliffs so that the road could be made. The Road Committee built its wall along the rocks and then filled in the roadway with material dug from the Cliffs'.
CB Brereton.
'Any fool can make a straight road, it takes a good man to put the curves in'. Sam Jickell, when asked why there were so many curves in his 1885 design for the roadway and seawall.
In the mid 1870s Nelson City Councillor Thomas Harley proposed what he called 'a half-tide roadway' around the rocky shoreline between Nelson Haven and Tahunanui. It was not until the early 1880s that Nelson City and Waimea County obtained Government subsidy approval for a roadway.
Born in Stockton on Tees, Samuel Jickell Amice was 29 when he completed his 1885 design for the proposed road and seawall. Educated and trained in Europe, he was appointed Nelson City Engineer after only a few years in New Zealand and following a period of private practice here. His other works for the Council included the replacement Saltwater Bridge, the City Abattoirs and a fulsome report on the question of the city's water supply.
Jickell, the founder and first President of the Institute of Local Government Engineers, became City Surveyor in 1891 and resigned in 1901, becoming Petone Borough Engineer, and then held the same position in Palmerston North from 1904 to 1919. He was responsible for a large number of projects in that region, most noticeably the many reinforced concrete improvements to roadway structures and bridges through the Manawatu Gorge.
Six years after his first Rocks Road proposals, at which time there was still only a precarious, occasionally wave-swept walkway along the coast between the town and the beach, cost-sharing arrangements between Nelson City, Waimea County, Richmond Borough, and the Government were finalised. Nelson Mayor, Francis Trask, later a Member of Parliament, is said to have been much involved in advancing the project.
Although Sam Jickell had indicated the cost would be about £8,000 in 1891, the task, not surprisingly given its high seas and tall cliffs constraints, proved more difficult and expensive than expected and the final cost was almost £12,000.
After a Nelson City ratepayers' poll returning 38 against and 863 in favour of the project, the special-purpose committee set about arranging for work to begin on site in early 1892. No tenders were received when the Waimea County Council advertised for the supply of stone blocks and, though they were said to be more expensive, it was reluctantly agreed to build the seawall with blocks of concrete.
More than one account of the building of the wall has it that granite blocks were used in its construction and Geoffrey Toynbee Be, Mnzie, who was City Engineer when later alterations were carried out, indicated to me that granite may have been used. Inspection of parts of the wall at the foot of Richardson Street and near the much later Connolly Quay, however, where some of the original blockwork can still be seen, reveals surfaces of concrete and not granite.
This evidence is confirmed in a construction photograph from the Tyree Collection taken in 1894, which clearly shows large, rectangular, rebated, precast concrete blockwork both in the wall and in stacks nearby. Interestingly, however, a number of smaller, square, smooth-faced blocks can be seen lying on the ground near the wall, and these could well be of granite.
Cecil Nash, later known as a pioneer of the Nelson tobacco industry, but in the late 1890s a Nelson City Council employee, is said to have been the maker of the concrete blocks, which were cast near Albion Wharf and taken to the site by sea.
Waimea County Council was responsible to the Committee for work up to its boundary at Magazine Point, so named for the cache of explosives kept in a cave there. Numerous anecdotes refer to the convict labour used by the City Council to build the eastern section of the wall. According to CB Brereton 'each morning…a party of 20 left the gaol in Shelbourne Street and marched…to Rocks Road…they wore ringed jerseys of black and yellow and were known to the boys as Sam Jickell's football team'. He goes on to tell several stories about the prisoners involved in the work.
In this regard, Geoffrey Toynbee recalls his impression that the eastern, more sheltered and thus more vertical part of the wall was prisoner-built in granite. It was of better quality construction than was the case with the more exposed and thus more sloping western section. This recollection is supported by the 60 metre length of early seawall still visible between the old city powerhouse and the sea rescue launching ramp on Wakefield Quay. Built with granite blocks in regular courses, it appears to be a remnant of the easternmost end of the 19th century construction which resorted to concrete blocks further west.
Raising funds to meet rising costs brought about by construction difficulties meant progress was slow, with the prisoners being criticised for being the slowest. It was a time of great economic hardship in the region. By 1895, however, though much filling was still to be done where the new wall had been built well out from the cliff face, a rough, narrow roadway was available to those who were prepared to use it at their own risk.
That the hazards were real, both from wave action and rockfalls, is well illustrated by the provision of looped ropes and lifebuoys along the seawall and by the use of convict labour. Later on, explosives were used to reduce the overhang of the cliffs along part of the road. The whole length had been surfaced with gravel by late 1897. In the same year repairs were carried out to damaged areas along the Waimea County section of the wall face, where sea action was already proving to be more severe than was the case in the lee of Haulashore Island further east.
The handsome and substantial stanchions and chains along the top of the western section of the wall, money for which was donated by pioneer Nelson settler John Tinline and his English friend James Tytler, were in place by early 1898, a full year before the road was officially opened for use.
At the Basin Reserve, in a ceremony complete with a triumphal arch at the boundary between the City and County territories, bright flowers, flags and music by the Garrison Band, Prime Minister Richard Seddon formally opened the roadway on 3 February 1899. The official party, which included the Mayors of Nelson and Richmond, members of the Nelson City, Waimea County and Richmond Borough Councils, and Mr Jickell, were all seated on a platform behind what was known as the Record Reign Fountain. This, presumably, was a now lost 1887 memorial to Victoria's 50 years as queen.
Just a week later the occupants of a passing trap were severely shaken when a large rock fell on it while on their way from Richmond to the port. Sam Jickell was immediately instructed to have loose rock removed from the cliff faces above the new roadway. The signposted hazard warning to those using the road was clearly no idle one.
Responsibility for the newly-built road and seawall was taken over by the Government in 1903 under the provisions of the Public Works Act. In 1913, following several vehicle accidents along the outer edge of the still unfenced section, the 1898 post and chain protection was extended along Wakefield Quay through a bequest to the City for the purpose from Thomas Cawthron.
In late 2001, because of its relationship to the problems being experienced at the eastern end of Tahunanui Beach, I found myself looking again at the seawall, this time much more closely than I had in 1977. Consultants to the NCC had referred, in their 2001 report on the state of the beach, to 'the concrete, close to vertical face, seawall retaining Rocks Road' and had continued by saying that 'Waves incident on the wall reflect off it with negligible energy loss'.
Standing on the beach looking eastwards to the wall, it was clear to me that it had been specifically designed to absorb wave action, and this prompted me to look into how it came to be built that way. In doing so I came to appreciate the way its newer western section had been deliberately arranged to absorb wave action and, by this means, greatly reduce the storm wave effects. These, I learnt, had on occasions made the original roadway near impassable when high tide and high onshore wind conditions coincided.
Given its obvious sophistication and knowing something of the complexity of the design task – it is by no means a plain straightforward seawall – I would not have been surprised to discover that experienced, international civil engineering consultants had been involved. My initial enquires led me to two previous City Engineers, Mac Crampton and Geoffrey Toynbee, both of whom confirmed that what could now be seen was, in fact, a combination of 19th and 20th century construction. The later work had been designed and supervised by Nelson City Council staff during the period when Charles Kidson was City Engineer.
In September 1958 the City Engineer advised his Council that, with Government financial assistance obtained largely through the advocacy of Nelson MP Stan Whitehead, improvements to the Sam Jickell-designed roadway and seawall were to be carried out in three stages. By then, work on the first stage, from Tahunanui Beach to Magazine Point, was already nearing completion.
The second stage was to be from Richardson Street to the Anchor Foundry and the third would be the formation of a 40ft dual carriageway from Port Nelson to Anzac Park. The planned overall project completion date was 1962. The last stage was eventually completed in late 1964, to the delight of the local Automobile Association, which described it as 'an excellent entrance to the city…as fine as any in New Zealand'.
This staged work programme explains the present three-part appearance of the face of the seawall. The primary purpose of the alterations was to raise and widen the roadway in order to provide greater protection from the sea for those using Rocks Road. The considerable length of wall left unaltered between the first and second stages lay within the zone sheltered from heavy seas by Haulashore Island and by the rocky shore in front of it, and thus did not need such alteration.
This means that the near-vertical face of the central third of the Rocks Road seawall reveals the original 19th century construction. The raking, ribbed and facetted western third was built against the face of the old wall in 1958/1959. The raking eastern third, much like the western section, but with more substantial ribs and no facets, was also built against the face of the old wall and was scheduled for completion in late 1962.
The need for a taller and more durable seawall arose not only because of the overtopping which occurred in adverse weather, but also because of the effects of sea action on the old one. This was washing away the jointing material in its concrete block construction and seriously eroding the fill under the roadway behind it. The still-visible part of the old wall face was given a sprayed-on plaster coating in order to protect it, but it is of concern to note that this plaster has been damaged in places.
The solution conceived by City Council engineering staff, led by Geoffrey Toynbee, in the late 1950s consisted of a new, relatively light-weight wall founded on the underlying rock base. It was designed to lie at an angle, braced against the face of the earlier one and supported in places by the sloping rock outcrops left exposed at the foot of the existing wall. This technique also enabled the engineers to accommodate a bulge in the old wall caused by an earlier slump in the cliff face behind it.
The profile and structural details of the western and eastern sections of the new wall differed along their length. These differences depended on the state of the adjoining existing wall, its proximity to Tahuna Beach and the fetch, or degree to which parts of the wall were exposed to distant sources of wave action. At the eastern end of the wall the latter was considerably less, because of the protection provided by the Boulder Bank and Haulashore Island. Another influence on the design was the existence of natural rock outcrops in front of the wall in some places.
The arrangement arrived at in order to absorb wave action consisted of a reinforced concrete wall with an outer raking face at about 450 degree slope, a facetted vertical central section and an outward-projecting top profile at roadway level. The purpose of the outer slope was to reduce the initial wave forces, while that of the facetted section was to deflect downward the waves which rose above the sloping face. The purpose of the top section, built considerably higher than the old wall to reduce overtopping onto the new higher roadway, was to turn back those waves which reached it.
In addition to the effect of the new wall's profile on seas which arrive more or less at right angles to it, the prominent projecting concrete ribs, which stiffen its relatively thin concrete surfaces, also serve to modify wave action in its vicinity. They do this by deflecting outward those waves which meet it obliquely instead of straight-on. The deflection effect also assists in reducing the wave energy which eventually reaches the beach. This is because the most frequent wind direction produces waves which strike the wall from an angle directed towards the beach at its western end and thus travel westward along it.
This was the intention of its designers who, in addition to thoroughly understanding its function as a road-edge structure, were also well aware of the sea-state relationship between the seawall and the adjoining beach. A further indication of their recognition of this relationship shows in the purpose of the additional length of unribbed, unfacetted, plain seawall profile. This was built westward, beyond the water's edge and deep into the dunes, to provide for what they knew would be the sand's inevitable advance and recession as natural forces acted on it over the years.
On the landward side there were two significant design factors. The first was the distance from the new wall to the near edge of the reconstructed roadway proper. In places, the presence and width of the new footpath meant the road traffic loads on the wall were more distant, and thus less severe, than elsewhere. The second factor was the need to provide for
To my surprise, given the numerous examples elsewhere of seawalls with upper sections continued a metre or so above the level of the adjoining roadway in order to protect passing vehicles and pedestrians from stormy seas, the structure of the new Rocks Road wall was not extended above footpath level. This decision, perhaps made as a cost-saving measure, was to have a profound effect on the appearance of the wall from seaward, from the beach, and when passing by on foot or in a vehicle.
Each of these thoughtfully arranged, sequential wall profiles employed by the engineers are, on their own, not unusual in seawall design, and one or another of them can be seen elsewhere in New Zealand. The Wellington Harbour region has examples of each one, for instance in Oriental Bay, Lyall Bay and Kio Bay. The Rocks Road combination of all four – sloping face, facetted vertical section, projecting top, and vertically ribbed surfaces – is rare indeed however, and I have not seen it anywhere else on our coasts.
Two further qualities make the Rocks Road seawall of special significance in aesthetic terms. One is the considerable visual variety achieved in these interacting, sea-deflecting shapes as they meet the differing circumstances occurring along the outer face of the sinuous curves of Sam Jickell's original wall. The other is the sturdy post and chain fence which, strung out along its top, contributes an impression of filigreed curvature to the complex forms already present in the sinuous concrete wall itself.
Many handsome seawalls go largely unnoticed by passers-by on the roadways and footpaths they support and protect, usually because the wall is continued up above road level, thus blocking views of its outer faces. Here, however, as a result of this local design decision, the whole of the ribbed, raking, winding, seaward surfaces of the Rocks Road wall is clearly visible between and over the posts and chains to all who travel to and from the city.
Later still, in about 1975 it seems, apparently because the height of the old central section was found to be inadequate in heavy sea conditions, a length of the outside edge of the adjoining roadway surface was raised, though the adjoining footpath was left at its existing level. At this time also, a plaster protective coating was applied to the face of the 19th century wall to prevent further erosion of the blockwork joints.
In my 1977 article, impressed by its appearance but largely ignorant of its origins, I described this seawall as 'a priceless visual asset to Nelson' and went on to say 'I have not seen any quite like it. Its ribbed raking massive elegance is combined with considerable variety in its curvature, cast iron and chain balustrades, steps, and plain vertical profile at rock outcrops…all providing an object lesson in nautical engineering'.
To my delight, at the end of the 1970s refurbishment work was carried out on the posts and chains, some by then almost 80 years old and showing considerable deterioration. Later still, in the early 1980s, further repair and protection work was carried out on the old wall face where it was still exposed to the action of the sea.
The more I have found out about the wall's origins, design, development and purposes, the more convinced I have become that, as I also said in 1977, 'It is a truly great wall, as grand as any seawall in New Zealand. It is as important to Nelson as any six historic buildings'. I must confess I have two ulterior motives in contributing this article for publication in the Society's Journal.
The first, and more immediate, is to make the qualities and significance of the whole of the Rocks Road seawall, both early and late, much more widely known. This is in order to prevent it being disfigured in an attempt to change the wave regime and beach profile at the eastern end of Tahunanui Beach. The second motive will ultimately be more effective in preserving its forms and effectiveness as a road-protecting structure. It is to set in train the process by which the whole wall, in both its 19th and 20th century vintages, including the short granite section now isolated on Wakefield Quay, becomes recognised as a heritage structure in both the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and City Council lists.
Despite my urgings in 1977, the Rocks Road seawall still has no heritage recognition, though its post and chain fence has an NZHPT Classification I and an NCC Group A ranking.
The bush-covered limestone outcrops at Paynes Ford Scenic Reserve are familiar to all who drive on State Highway 60 to Takaka, and the Reserve is a popular place for picnicking and rock-climbing. The crags overlook the Takaka River at its confluence with the Waingaro.
Why Paynes Ford? It remained a ford until 1895, when the first bridge was opened. The family associated with the area was Paine, but the misspelling of the name crept in from about 1891. There was, however, an earlier name linked with the ford, that of Dixon. It was still referred to as Dixon's ford, or Dixon's crossing, until at least 1889. Ezra Brook Dixon and his wife Laura remained in the Takaka Valley only thirteen years, but in that time made a significant contribution to the embryo settlement. Their experiences illustrate the hardships and difficulties faced by many pioneers.
EB Dixon was born in Leeds in 1837 but spent most of his formative years in London. All that is known of his education is that it was a classical one and included mathematics and science. He studied for a short time at London University until his health failed and he was advised to live in a warmer climate.
He arrived in Nelson in 1862 as a young man of 26 on the Edward Thornhill and sailed almost immediately for Waitapu. Early in 1863 he became an assistant to Thomas Brunner for several months during Brunner's survey of the Howard and Lakes area.
1
Dixon's bride-to-be, Laura Yeo of London, arrived later that year on the Owen Glendower and, after their marriage in Auckland, they returned to the Takaka Valley. Eric and Frederick Sparrow, sons of pioneer settlers George and Harriet Sparrow, met the couple at
Waitapu with a bullock dray and took them to their two-roomed cottage. It was remembered by their daughter, Anne, from childhood as 'near a pretty river and on the lower slope of bush-covered hills and cliffs'. The property bought by Dixon included all or most of the present Paynes Ford Scenic Reserve, and the cottage probably stood on the slope above today's bridge.
In September 1863 Dixon bought a total of 120 acres (49 hectares) from Thomas Windle with the help of a £250 mortgage loan from Alfred Fell of Nelson. The purchase comprised part 2 (54 acres or 22 ha) and 3 (36 acres or 15 ha) of Section 30, on the east bank of the Takaka River, and part of Section 122 (30 acres or 12 ha) on the west bank. Two years later he purchased a further 141 acres (57 ha), part of neighbouring Section 110 on the east bank, as a Crown Grant. All were in square 11 of the Waitapu Survey District under the early survey system. For several years a friend, Arthur John Bromiley, was associated with Dixon at Takaka but it is not clear in what capacity.
Apart from the limestone outcrops the land was fertile river flat, swampy in places and subject to flooding near the rivers. It was in dense standing bush, of trees such as matai, rimu and kahikatea, most of them, as described by J Halket Millar, 'about 100 feet (30m) high, with trunks in proportion'.
2
The first European settlement in the Takaka Valley was near the coast but lawyer and explorer, WTL Travers, reported in 1857 that 'enterprising and hardworking settlers have already penetrated the recesses of its forests and he predicted that the valley's fertility and valuable timber would see it speedily occupied.
3
Those early settlers of today's East and West Takaka (at that time known as Upper Takaka) would have included the Sparrow, Handcock and Barnett families but little impression had been made on the bush when the Dixons arrived in 1863. Halket Millar remembered it, a few years later, as 'a grand sight from the surrounding hills, with tiny clearings dotted here and there, each with a small shack in the middle of it'. Muddy tracks were the only means of access to neighbouring farms, the stores at the Junction (Takaka township), or the port at Waitapu, where everything arrived from Nelson.
Millar relates how the young John F Rose arrived from Upper Moutere looking for timber to mill and found an excellent site beside the Takaka River. 'He looked about for the owners of the land and found a man named Dixon. He was a gold digger for preference and was not making any other use of the land. Asked if he would sell sufficient of his holding to give space for a mill and a stack of timber, Dixon was agreeable and sold the freehold of the site for £50'.
4
It has not been possible to verify when Bartlett and Rose established the West Road sawmill, but it was probably in the late 1860s or early 1870s. They were clearly well established by 1875, when they were referred to in a newspaper account of a drowning.
5
The mill was not on the Dixon site first selected by Rose, but near the present Roman Catholic cemetery. Dixon held a water right and, like some of the other settlers, may have fossicked in the Anatoki and other rivers, but it is unlikely that he was ever a serious miner.
It was essentially subsistence farming at first, as bush was cleared and seeds broadcast amongst the stumps and fallen timber. Settlers hunted the numerous kaka and kereru, grew their own fruit and vegetables and some wheat, which was ground at Lewis Bros' mill. Poultry were kept, those who had a few cows milked them by hand and churned butter which, with the eggs, could be sold or bartered at the store when there was a surplus. By 1867 Dixon and Bromiley had a small flock of several hundred sheep and there were at least nine other flocks in the valley at the time.
6
Several farmers ran cattle, but getting them to market was a problem.
Dixon was probably unsuited physically and temperamentally to the heavy manual work of developing a bush farm. He had had little initial capital and faced mortgage payments and mounting debts to Page's store and the Road Board. With a rapidly growing family of small children – eight born in ten years – to support, he gave up farming for teaching in 1874.
Their religious faith was very important to the early settlers. The Protestants of East and West Takaka at first met for worship in the home of Mr and Mrs Henry Lewis. Ezra Brook Dixon was probably one of the initiators when a site was cleared, timber sawn and money raised for a church in 1867.
7
He was certainly one of the original three trustees, together with George James Sparrow and William Lawrence Handcock.
8
The church was built in 1868, as far as can be determined, about the same time as the Roman Catholic church in West Takaka, said to be the first in the district.
9
The East Takaka church is still in use today, essentially in its original form.
Dixon was at various times a committee member of the Takaka Library and was also auditor for the library and the Takaka and Motupipi Road Board. He had a very good tenor voice and had sung in the great 1859 Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace, London, so was much in demand at the district's socials and concerts. Typically, he was one of the enthusiasts who cleared a paddock on the West Road of its logs and stumps to make a cricket pitch in 1866. Mr Fred Sparrow remembered him as the team's first captain.
10
Unbridged rivers were a constant hazard in the early days of settlement, with drowning becoming known as 'the New Zealand death'. The Nelson Provincial Council voted £25 to provide a ferry at Thomas Windle's, above the confluence of the Takaka and Waingaro Rivers, in 1861, but nothing seems to have come of it.
11
Dixon's neighbour, James Kealy, whose property also fronted the Waingaro, made his canoe available, but drowned in 1864 when it overturned in the Takaka River. Dixon and Bromiley then found themselves acting as unofficial ferrymen and later that year requested that official ferries be established at both crossings, for which they would be paid a fee.
12
It was possibly the drowning of 'a much respected settler', Mrs Kealy, the widow of James, in November 1866 which finally brought action, especially as two daughters were left orphaned. She had been crossing the Waingaro on horseback and it was concluded that she had been thrown and stunned when she fell on boulders. The river was feared for its swiftness and the rocky nature of its bed and was described by the Nelson Examiner as 'extremely rapid and dangerous to cross at this place'.
13
John Blackett, the Provincial Engineer, was asked to 'examine a line of road which would avoid the crossing of the dangerous ford on the Waingaro River, by diverging from the West Takaka road just above that river, through Messrs Dixon and Bromley's (sic) land, crossing the Takaka at an excellent shallow, permanent ford'.
14
Blackett commented that it would 'render travelling in the district much more certain and safe during freshes than by the present road'. The line was gazetted on 21 November 1867. In his annual report, dated 13 April 1868, Blackett said that landowners had given their permission for the new road and the crossing was 'an excellent and unchanging ford, and saves the travellers the danger of crossing the dreaded Waingaro'.
15
As sawmilling expanded, the primitive roads were soon cut up and made impassable by the horsedrawn junkers, or log haulers, and wagonloads of timber. A tramway began operating in 1882 between Waitapu Wharf and East Takaka, primarily to carry timber to the wharf. Its embankments can still be seen at Paynes Ford, where there was also a siding to load timber from across the river. The little 'coffee pot' locomotive travelled at scarcely more than walking pace on the 2ft 6in (76 cm) narrow gauge line. Often the butt of jokes, the tramway was of great service to farmers and pedestrians and was fondly remembered for its annual conveyance of school picnic goers at the expense of sawmiller, Thomas Baigent.
The tramway suffered with the decline of sawmilling, and its end was hastened by a disastrous flood in 1904 which left bridges unsafe and washed out much of the line, or blocked it with debris. Newport gives an account of the establishment and operation of the tramway and records that it ceased operating in 1905.
16
Drownings continued to occur at the Takaka River crossing and the need for a bridge was frequently urged, but it was not until 1894 that a wooden bridge was built at Paynes Ford; it was opened in 1895, with appropriate liquid refreshments. The present concrete bridge is a short distance downstream, but abutments of the earlier one remain, and the line of the original road west of the river is still marked by several venerable poplar trees.
The Dixon family was under constant financial pressure. Laura Dixon's appointment as mistress of Long Plain School in 1874 must have brought some relief, even at the low salary of £60. She rode off daily across the river to teach, a baby and a three year old child with her on the horse, leaving the oldest child in charge at home. Her successor, Miss Jemima Burt, drowned making the same river crossing.
EB Dixon was appointed shortly after to the Lower Takaka (now Takaka) school, at that time one of the poorest of the Province's schools. There was an immediate improvement in attendance and results. In 1875 he moved on to the larger and better paid school at Collingwood. The School Inspector, WC Hodgson, found that under Dixon 'the children were being thoroughly well taught and a complete reformation had already been effected in the formerly very lax discipline of the school'.
17
Laura Dixon also taught at Collingwood for the second half of 1875.
The promised house proved to be uninhabitable and the school little better, forcing him to live at the Commercial Hotel for some weeks. His wife and family remained for the time at Takaka. Dixon had found his vocation for teaching and, later that year, applied for the post of head teacher of the new Hokitika School with the recommendation of Inspector Hodgson who said "I do not think we have a better man in our service".
18
Ezra Brook Dixon became headmaster of the Hokitika State School in 1876 and gave it a sound reputation for academic standards and discipline. In 1890 he was appointed Inspector and Secretary to the Westland Board of Education, succeeding another former Nelson man, John Smith. Dixon died at Hokitika less then six months later, aged only 53.
Dixon had sold the 30 acres of section 122 west of the Takaka River to Nathanial Paine in 1868. In 1874, when he was about to go teaching, two other sections were advertised and Paine bought part 3 of Section 30. Paine died in 1881 and two years later, when his widow was intending to visit England, she advertised her property to let. The advertisement in The Colonist of 30 November 1883 described it as a small farm of about 30 acres of 'rich Pasture Land, on the West side of the Takaka River, with Dwelling house. Outbuildings, Half Acre Orchard in full bearing. Cellar, Well, etc'. In addition, there were 30–40 acres across the river, mostly cleared, fenced and in grass.
A son, Herbert (Bartie) Paine, is described as a well-known character who kept a few sheep, but who spent most of his time working a little coal-mine on his (and, with two trolleys on a pulley, the loaded one discharging into a truck on the tramway.
19
Bartie Paine died in 1938.
The other section advertised by Dixon in 1874 was part 1 of Section 110, 'partly bush and partly cleared', 141 acres at £141. It was eventually bought by Robert Bartlett in 1883 under a mortgagee sale.
It was not until 1886 that the last block of land, part 2 of Section 30, was advertised for sale. The advertisement in The Colonist of 2 September 1886 described Mr Dixon's property as 'containing 54 acres, on which have recently been discovered most interesting Caves. The section abounds in fossiliferous limestone, and brown coal 2 ft thick, thus affording a splendid opening for the burning of lime'. Reference was also made to the steam tramway running through the property.
Henry Abbott, who was variously a store owner, butcher, owner of The Junction Hotel and sawmiller, and who described himself as a farmer, bought the section, which was transferred to him in 1888. He wasted no time in building a home that was the admiration of all. A report from The Colonist's Golden Bay correspondent on 25 October 1888 said that he 'had spared no expense in taking advantage of the great natural beauties of the spot selected', and spoke also of the 'marvellous stalactite caves'.
An account of the caves in The Colonist of 17 July 1889 names the house as Abbotsford. A landscape by Charles Blomfield in 1891 shows the house with its verandah on the north-facing hillside, backed by tall native trees and with lawns and gardens sloping down in front.
20
Abbott, who was credited with having liberated possums at Abbotsford, died in 1896 and the house is said to have burnt down in 1929.
21
Sawmilling was the main industry of the Takaka Valley in the first half century of European settlement, with farmers following the millers as land was cleared. Development was slow, handicapped by remoteness from Nelson, poor roads and by the large areas of land held by absentee owners. EB Dixon was not successful as a farmer and moved on, but most of the early settlers persevered, barely making a living. Hops became a cash crop from the early 1870s, with a report in The Colonist of 6 April 1875 listing seven growers whose gardens were described as 'wonderfully productive'. This is some years earlier than is usually given. Within a decade those with suitable soils were beginning to live in more comfortable circumstances, although most farms remained in a rough state until the Advances to Settlers Act of 1894. The establishment of a butter and a bacon factory in the same year heralded a better and more stable future for dairying. The stumps and blackberry were finally cleared and today's farms began to take shape.
'Friends, hail and welcome, triumph and delight At your fair presence, fill our hearts tonight With this pretty building, nobly graced With beauty, form, intelligence and taste, To cheer the city's still increasing throng With music, scene, and character and song…'
These lines began the Prologue read by Mr Neville Thornton at the opening night for the Theatre Royal on 18 July 1878. Since its opening, the theatre has been in continued use, bringing pleasure, enrichment and satisfaction to generations of Nelsonians. Today, over one hundred and twenty years later, it is still in regular use and provides an important link to Nelson's past.
The opening of the Theatre Royal was greeted enthusiastically by the Nelson community. As The Colonist of 20 July 1878 reported 'Lovers of drama, and who would not be ranked amongst that class?, must have been delighted to see so enthusiastic an audience as that which assembled at the new theatre on its opening night'. In a city of just six thousand people, almost one thousand filled the theatre designed 'for 800 on wooden beams and a dirt floor'.
1
The seating arrangements in the new theatre were described in The Colonist of 16 May 1878. The report observed, as was desirable, that illbehaved boys or men could not hide themselves in a gallery, where they would not be subject to inspection, for the purpose of annoying the more decent members of the community.
The opening performance was for the benefit of the Theatre Building Fund. It celebrated the work of a company, chiefly composed of members from the Nelson Lodges of Oddfellows, who had erected the theatre to provide a suitable place for touring theatrical companies and to serve as a meeting place for their group.
The Theatre Royal's initial success continued throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. It was in frequent use, with a great variety of entertainment being staged. By 1880 the Nelson Amateur Dramatic 2
Such was the popularity of entertainment at the theatre that a special train from Foxhill to Nelson became a feature of many productions staged in the following years.
The beginning of the twentieth century saw the profitability of the Theatre drop, however, and it was sold to Harry Saunders in 1904 as a consequence. To suit the increasing sophistication of the community, Saunders carried out major alterations. The hard forms that had till then comprised the seating were replaced with tip up seats. The upstairs seating was replaced with ornate seats purchased second hand from a theatre in London. The mud floor was covered and a projection box was installed to satisfy the increasing demand for moving pictures.
A wide variety of entertainment continued during Saunders' ownership, from hypnotists to acrobats, tragedies to comedies, charity concerts to dancers. Even occasional wrestling and boxing bouts were staged. Touring companies were frequent and popular visitors 'giving entertainment with a breadth and living power that only the stage can give'.
Sadly, however, the coming of the pictures killed the professional and amateur stage. They were something so new, so revolutionary, that people flocked to them. Pictures of the Zulu war were among the early releases, and lucky seat numbers were offered to attract attention. Initially, the City Council's road roller, which was parked in a pit between the theatre and the adjacent lodge building, was used to supply power for the picture plant.
3
The outbreak of World War One in 1914 saw another change in the use of the theatre, when the flickering black-and-white pictures were halted as the declaration of war was put across the screen.
4
Stage entertainment became 'escapist' and many cheerful musicals were produced. The Theatre Royal rapidly became the heart of patriotic war meetings and fund raising events, with the auditorium seating being removed for a two week Patriotic Carnival in 1914. Anything that was fund raising for the patriotic cause, from women offering jewellery to auction for the relief of Belgium in 1915, to raffles and charity performances, prevailed over the pictures.
Following the end of the war the Theatre Royal continued to screen pictures until 1936. By this time it had become run down and was seldom used. The Majestic and State Theatres had been built and opinion was that even the Regent Theatre screened films better.
5
The Depression also brought about a decline in shows. The Nelson Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society, which had previously aimed to perform an opera and a comedy annually, went into recess as a result of the cost of staging shows, and economics also severely reduced the number of touring companies.
The talent that was lying dormant could not be kept down indefinitely, however. It sought expression and a vigorous youth, the Nelson Repertory Club, arose from the ashes.
6
The Club made extensive use of the Theatre Royal and, after becoming an incorporated society, purchased it in 1944. Although there was little money around following the Depression, the Repertory Society 'dug deep', before the opportunity was lost for all time.
7
The previous owner, Noel Jones, had advised his intent to sell the historic seats and convert the Theatre into a joinery factory.
No other venue would suit the Society as well as the Theatre Royal did, and it was compelled to consider the purchase of the building. Members took out debentures and, after they had been paid off, an upgrade of the building began. The stage was widened through the removal of the inner pillars and the auditorium was repainted from a ladder strung in a trapezelike fashion, with guy lines to the wall.
8
Following World War Two the Theatre Royal once again saw patriotic forms of entertainment. A seven-night revue, Hello Victory, was staged in 1946 in aid of the Returned Services Association (RSA) building fund. The concert section of the RSA, the Tin Hat Club, staged their annual reviews at the Theatre Royal, and these became a major feature of the year.
The 1960s saw another decline in theatre audiences. Television began to take hold of households, reducing the number of people attending the theatre. Fewer touring companies were visiting Nelson, although only one production in the decade lost money. The building was becoming increasingly run down by this time. The flood of August 1970 further added to this problem, with inadequate drainage leaving the orchestra 'with a barefoot conductor in rolled up trousers and its members' chairs in six inches of water'.
9
In 1978 the Theatre Royal Centenary was celebrated, with a large fund raising appeal being launched to inspire the Nelson community to take part in restoring the historic theatre. A general upgrade of the foyer and auditorium was undertaken, and the theatre was repainted in its original colours. A jubilee revue, The Show of the Century, was staged by the Nelson Repertory Theatre to celebrate the Theatre Royal's rich and exciting past.
No further major refurbishment has been seen, and it is in desperate need of an upgrade. The building is still largely in its original form, with much of the structure and features dating back to 1878. Despite problems with ownership over the years, the Nelson Repertory Society is now pledged to an all-out effort to make the old theatre a sustainable asset. It has contracted an architectural company to produce a conservation plan.
The high cultural and historic value of the Theatre Royal is also recognised by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Builders must now initial and date any work undertaken. The elaborate decorative work and architecture of the auditorium creates an enchanting atmosphere and the stage, which has seen such variety of entertainment over the years, continues to inspire many.
The Theatre Royal is a valuable asset to the Nelson community, providing an important link to the past, and is reputed to be the oldest wooden theatre in the Southern Hemisphere on its original site.
10
It is one of the few live performance venues from the nineteenth century to 'survive the pressure of development, change of use and ravages of time, fire and natural disaster'. For more than one hundred and twenty years the Theatre Royal has provided Nelson with entertainment and reflects a 'huge investment of human effort'.
11
This unique theatre has touched generations of Nelsonians and, as world-renowned actor Robert Morley proclaimed on visiting it, the Theatre Royal is 'a little gem that should be preserved'.
12
Robert Shallcrass was born in Banstead, Surrey, England, on 29 October 1819. He was apprenticed as a printer at the age of twelve. In 1851 he went to America, then returned to England and later travelled to the goldfields of Victoria, Australia.
Shallcrass then emigrated to New Zealand, sailing on the
Spray
from Melbourne, and arrived in Nelson on Sunday 29 June 1856. He was then 36 years of age.
He worked as a printer for the Nelson Examiner and took up half an acre of land in Brougham Street, part of town acre 600, which he purchased from HC Daniell on 16 November 1857. Shallcrass built Merton Cottage and, before it was completed, he met Miss Annabella Williamson Jeffrey. Annabella had emigrated with her family from Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland at the age of 24, arriving on the Cresswell on 6 October 1856.
Robert and Annabella were married on 4 July 1857 by the Rev TD Nicholson and resided in Merton Cottage. They had eight children, seven sons and a daughter, with two small sons dying in 1861 during a diphtheria epidemic. They were buried in Fairfield Cemetery and Robert planted five elms around the grave to represent his five living sons.
Robert Shallcrass was appointed Sergeant-Major in charge of the Nelson Provincial Police Force in 1861. His part in apprehending and bringing the four villains who committed the Maungatapu murders to justice in 1866 earned him high praise. Shallcrass prompted one of the suspects, Joseph Sullivan, to turn Queen's Evidence against his accomplices, on condition that he was not hanged. This confession and the subsequent finding of the bodies enabled the case to be proved, and three of the murderers were hanged in the Nelson Gaol on 5 November 1866.
Shallcrass was promoted to the rank of Inspector on a salary of £260 per year. Early in 1870 Sub-Inspector NW Franklyn, the officer controlling the Nelson Southwest Goldfield Police, resigned and Shallcrass was appointed Chief Inspector of the Provincial Police. This appointment added greatly to his workload, as he was expected to control police officers stationed in remote goldfield locations.
In 1874 the Nelson Provincial Council instructed Shallcrass to also assume control of Nelson Gaol and reside on the premises. Central government decreed that the two positions were incompatible and he then resigned his police appointment on 10 May 1875 to superintend the Nelson Gaol.
A dramatic incident occurred on 28 July 1883. Shallcrass and his wife, who resided in accommodation upstairs in the gaol, were awoken by a scream and gunshot early in the morning Coming downstairs, he was confronted in the gaol corridor by John Davidson, a prisoner convicted of killing Dennis Quinlan at Lyell. Davidson held two revolvers which he had obtained from the warders' room.
Regarded as a model prisoner, Davidson had been appointed cook. He had been roused and let out of his cell by Warder Samuel Adams at 5.50am to light the fires and prepare breakfast. Using one of the kitchen knives he had stabbed Adams to death. Shallcrass, unaware of the murder as the body was out of sight, assumed Adams had been locked in a cell. Warder White joined Shallcrass, and Annabella also witnessed the drama. Shallcrass, showing great coolness and courage, parleyed with Davidson for 50 minutes. He suggested that, since escape was impossible, Davidson should shoot himself rather than someone else! Davidson adopted the suggestion and took his own life.
Robert Shallcrass resigned as Gaoler in 1883 and retired into private life. His service was described as 'untarnished, honest and faithful'. The couple returned to live at Merton Cottage which had been let during his term as Gaoler. He died there at the age of 68 on Sunday 27 May 1888 after a five month illness. Interment took place in the family grave at Fairfield on 29 May 1888.
Annabella visited Scotland after Robert's death and then continued to reside at Merton Cottage with her sons after her return in 1889. She died on 31 March 1893 at the age of 61 and was buried in the family grave at Fairfield.
Communities commonly face the need to provide emergency housing for those in need of shelter, and lacking the means to provide it for themselves.
Shelter for the expected immigrants was a major concern of Captain Arthur Wakefield when the Preliminary Expedition arrived on 1 November 1841 to establish the settlement of Nelson. Prefabricated barracks had been brought as cargo and on 9 November 1841 he set six men to work setting them up. The first was erected at the landing place at the foot of Richardson Street, and on 12 November Wakefield recorded that the work was not proceeding as quickly as he could wish, with many parts of the framing not fitted.
On 15 November Wakefield sent part of one barracks around to the town site to form the camp for the Company surveyors on what became Church Hill. Three of the carpenters were sent to the surveyors' camp to continue with the building work and further sets of barracks were transported there.
Wakefield took charge of the remainder of the building work on the hill on 3 January 1842, intending to house the expected immigrants there. The first of the immigrant ships, the Fifeshire, arrived on 1 February and most of the free passengers were housed in the barracks by the next day. On 8 February Wakefield wrote to his brother, William, that nearly all of those from the Fifeshire were out of the barracks and, with the room left and three tents, they would be able to accommodate those from the Mary Ann pretty well.
1
The barracks on Church Hill continued to house arriving immigrants until late in 1842, when a replacement was built off Hardy Street, opposite the present site of St John's Methodist church.
It was generally agreed that the hilltop was the ideal site for a church and Bishop Selwyn began negotiating for use of the immigration barracks as a temporary church, during his visit in August/September 1842. JW Barnicoat recorded on 8 September 1842 that the Bishop was in treaty for the barracks, which were to be brought together with a smaller building to form a temporary church, with an arched opening made between them.
The Barn, as it was popularly known, accommodated about 180 worshippers and the first service was held in it on 22 January 1843.
2
The state of the building was causing concern by 1849 and a meeting was held in April of that year 'for the purpose of taking measures to erect a Church in Nelson, as the temporary building hitherto used is fast becoming unserviceable'. Tenders for the supply of timber were called in September 1849 and the new church was opened by Bishop Selwyn on 14 December 1851.
3
On 17 April 1852 the Nelson Total Abstinence Society wrote to Mathew Richmond, the Superintendent of Nelson, 'respecting a building in Trafalgar Square lately occupied as a place of worship by the Episcopalians of this town and now we understand at the disposal of the Government'. The Society was anxious to secure a suitable building in which to hold meetings for the advocacy of their principles and had purchased a site in Bridge Street.
Fund raising for a new building was difficult for its members, who were mostly working men. The former church was standing unoccupied and, if it could be obtained, the Society would immediately remove it to its section where, with additions and improvements, it would be 'an ornament to the town'. The letter further offered to make the hall available for public meetings, as there was no suitable building available for that purpose. Richmond forwarded the request to the Colonial Secretary's Office and the reply came on 31 May regretting that the Governor, under the circumstances of the case, did not feel authorised to comply with the request made by the Society.
4
The old building continued to be used for other purposes. The first concert by the Philharmonic Society, held there on 26 January 1853, was well received by the audience of 250 people and the review noted that the rooms were very tastefully decorated. WM Stanton recorded that the former chancel was used as the orchestra's platform and that Mr and Mrs Augarde were the feature of the entertainments.
5
A sketch by Frederick Mackie, who visited Nelson between March and May of 1853, shows the old building behind the new church. Alfred Fell and Company advertised that they had received instructions to sell the building in Trafalgar Square formerly used as the Episcopal Church by auction on 16 June 1853. The advertisement noted that the building was of English construction and had a slated roof. CY Fell recorded that his father bought The Barn at auction and carried it to Haulashore Island where it served for years as a coal shed.
6
Tenders for the replacement barracks in Hardy Street were called in September 1842 and specified the building of 24 mud houses 12 ft by 12 ft, a baggage warehouse 25 ft by 16 ft and a cooking house 12 ft by 12 ft. Built of pise (rammed earth), the whitewashed building formed three sides of a square. A plan of the town by F Moline shows the barracks straddling Harley Street, with the rear wall parallel to St John Street. Alexander Macshane, the Immigration Agent, appointed Mrs Pearman to the position of nurse and caretaker at the barracks on 23 December 1842.
7
Sarah Ann Fowler, who arrived on the Indus on 5 February 1843, wrote of staying in 'the Barracks just finished built round three sides of a square with a large cook house in the middle. We were allowed to stay here until we looked about for suitable land'.
8
The Reverend John Aldred, the Wesleyan minister, advertised in the Nelson Examiner of 4 March 1843 that he would hold divine service in the emigration storeroom, Hardy Street, every Sunday at 11am and 6pm until further notice.
There was drama at the barracks in January 1844 when, as the Nelson Examiner reported: 'A man named Pearman, whose wife is nurse at the Company's depot, compelled her, by repeated ill usage, to request the Immigration Agent, on Sunday last, that he might not be allowed any longer to remain with her. When desired to leave the premises, he seized a knife and threatened the life of any person who attempted to remove him.
'Subsequently, a warrant was procured, but having a loaded gun, he barricaded the door and swore he would shoot the first person that entered. On Monday, two of the constables entered the adjoining rooms and, as the partition that divides them does not reach the roof, they were able to threaten him with himself being fired on if he attempted to point his gun at another constable who was about to assail the door. Finding further resistance useless, he then surrendered. He has since been brought up before the Police Magistrate and was remanded until Monday next'.
The Magistrate sentenced Pearman to three months imprisonment on the charge of assaulting the Immigration Agent and committed him to trial on the charge of threatening to shoot the constables. He was found guilty and sentenced to twelve months imprisonment.
9
The New Zealand Company's office was moved to the barracks in November 1844 and the Land Office reopened there in February 1851.
10
A report to Mathew Richmond in March 1851 on the buildings being taken over from the New Zealand Company described the barracks as being in bad repair.
The mud walls had lost their plastering, the walls themselves were weak and tottering in some parts and the shingles on the roof were in a state of decay. The report estimated that putting the building in a state of repair would require the outlay of about £100, and that the building and the acre on which it stood would be worth about £250.
11
The Nelson Provincial Government came into being in 1853 and its offices were housed in the barracks.
A select committee on immigration in 1855 asked those giving evidence whether they considered the accommodation in the barracks sufficient for the reception of immigrants who might be expected under a system of assisted passage. WTL Travers thought that, if reports current as to the number of immigrants of the working class likely to arrive in the province proved correct, the present accommodation would be decidedly insufficient. Expenditure on additions and repairs to the immigration barracks was recorded in the same year.
12
In a scathing attack on the state of public buildings in the town on 27 January 1858 the Nelson Examiner stated: 'Next we come to the old Immigration Barracks, to which some additions were made about two years ago. Here all the Government offices are located; the Superintendent, Provincial Secretary, Chief Surveyor, Land Commissioner, Treasurer and all their subordinates are congregated together. And then we have a sort of Auxiliary Hospital and Lunatic Asylum, and Refuge for the Destitute and Immigrants' Barracks, with a mixture of old shoes, soapsuds, rank grass, linen hung out to dry and dilapidated buildings and sheds and enclosures in the foreground.
'Here under one roof are congregated together, with a most touching regard to the maxims of republican equality, the classes furthest apart and most widely separated in our community: those who have risen to its head, those who have failed to rise and are at the other end of the social scale, those who by their position show they have more wit than the generality and those who have evidently lost what little they once had.
'The newly arrived immigrant must be puzzled to distinguish between the Superintendent who takes possession of the room on his left as being the best berth in Nelson and the neighbour on his right who takes one exactly similar because he has nowhere else to lay his head. He might be excused for believing at first that it would matter very little whether he drew a blank or a prize in the lottery of colonial life since here, as at the close of life, all of whatsoever degree had met together, collected under the same narrow roof, and each had the same little number of square feet allotted for his accommodation and rest'.
In the following year a start was made on providing more suitable accommodation for the government offices. The Colonist of 30 August 1859 reported the laying of the foundation stone for the new Provincial Government Building in Bridge Street. At the conclusion of ceremonies the procession reformed and proceeded to Barrack Square, where Dr Hochstetter laid the foundation stone for the new Nelson Institute at the corner of Hardy and Harley Streets. The Provincial Government Building opened in 1860.
A government notice in the Nelson Examiner in August 1859 had advised that the tender of Hugh Young and Son for £89/10/- and 10/- had been accepted for building a new kitchen at the Depot. Part of the old building continued to be used to house those referred to as the destitute poor and some who were afflicted with mental illness. Care for the latter group was somewhat haphazard at the time, as illustrated by a case referred to in the
A Mrs Avery had died in the Depot a few months previously after being left there in a neglected state, instead of being sent to the building used exclusively for the accommodation of 'lunatics'. The committee reported that the temporary asylum did not afford adequate accommodation and should be enlarged, with the hope that central government would soon provide a general asylum. The committee also concluded that the treatment of the destitute sick, who were provided with rations and lodged in the Depot, was most unsatisfactory, as there was no responsible person to see that the inmates received proper attention.
13
In May 1860 large numbers of women and children began arriving in Nelson, seeking refuge from the land wars in Taranaki. At first they were housed in the Oddfellows Hall and other spare accommodation. The Provincial Government then made money available to build housing for them on government reserve land opposite the hospital in Waimea Road. Local carpenters offered free labour, tenders were called for the supply of timber and The Colonist paid tribute to the 'horny hand and warm heart of the British mechanic'.
14
The Nelson Examiner gave a description of the work on 22 September 1860. There were six detached buildings, four of which contained ten to twelve bedrooms and a common sitting room. The fifth had a kitchen, dining hall and wash-house, while the sixth was smaller and divided into two rooms to be used as a temporary hospital. The buildings were in two rows, one behind the other, facing Waimea Road.
15
A set of rules and regulations, to be observed by those living in the Taranaki Buildings, was drawn up and related to matters such as food preparation, meal times, housekeeping and lights out. An Overseer was appointed who was responsible for procuring food and water, cooking and maintaining order and cleanliness. The Overseer was responsible to William Gray, the agent for the Taranaki Government, who dispensed government aid to the refugees.
16
David Monro noted in his diary for 8 December 1860 that he had gone to inspect 'little Taranaki' and, although the people there grumbled very much, the place looked clean and nice, the provisions were good and the children appeared healthy.
A testimonial to William Gray published in The Colonist of 30 April 1861 stated that the prospect of peace rendered it likely that the undersigned refugees would soon be returning to Taranaki. On 10 May 1861 it was reported that, under certain restrictions, some of the refugees had been allowed to return to New Plymouth. In July 1864 the New Zealand government gave notification that payments for return passage to New Plymouth would cease on 1 October of that year.
17
The Taranaki Provincial Council expressed its thanks to the government and inhabitants of Nelson for the hospitality and great kindness shown to the Taranaki refugees in a letter from its Superintendent of 9 August 1864. The Taranaki Buildings were now available for other housing needs. On 31 March 1863 The Colonist reported having heard that they were to be converted into an asylum for the insane. The report on the asylum in 1864 stated that the female patients had been removed to the Taranaki Buildings, one block of which had been fitted up for their reception. Another block was being altered for the males and would be available shortly.
The 1864 report on the Depot stated that its inmates, through age and infirmity, were unable to assist in keeping it in a clean and orderly state and it was not in a satisfactory condition. It was hoped that they would shortly be removed to the Taranaki Buildings and be placed under proper supervision.
18
The Nelson Examiner of 29 April 1865 reported that the inmates of the old Depot were to be transferred and that the two lines of huts, so long an eyesore to that part of town, were to be demolished. The move was confirmed by an official report in May 1865, which stated that the poor who required to be permanently supported by public funds were being removed to the Taranaki Buildings. It was hoped that the arrangements there would secure pure air, amusement and comfort to the aged and infirm and place some wholesome restraint upon those who might show a necessity for it.
The move had been rendered desirable by the dangerous and dilapidated state of the old Depot occupied by those unable to procure a home of their own. The injury which the undrained and uncleanly hovels had inflicted on the health of the town and the danger of fire, which the carelessness of the inmates had more than once rendered very apparent, had ended.
The yard in which the Depot had stood was to be enclosed and used for storing the large amount of material that was being imported for the Nelson waterworks.
19
The new police station on the southeast corner of Harley 20
Accommodation may have improved with the move to the Taranaki Buildings, but management problems continued. The Hospital Attendant, James Barton, reported in 1866 on the want of better discipline among the inmates. He suggested the appointment of a suitable person was needed to prevent a repetition of scenes of great disorder and immorality.
21
Another problem was that hospital patients with chronic illnesses who were also destitute were now sent there. A letter from Investigator in The Colonist of 17 December 1867 complained that these patients were left to their own devices and the Inspector of Police was not the most fitting person to attend to their wants. The Hospital Committee was no longer responsible for them, rations were unsuitable and cooking utensils were scarce.
Inmates in the asylum blocks were supplied with green vegetables from land dug up by male patients. The front garden was also kept tidy by patients, which gave the place a more pleasing appearance and it seemed less like a prison. Leaks in the roof of the female block, however, caused much inconvenience and discomfort to the inmates whose bedrooms were affected.
22
By 1869 the section for the destitute was being used mainly as a convalescent hospital, as the main hospital over the road could not accommodate them. The Medical Officer, William Kemp, recommended that repairs be made to the dilapidated buildings as they leaked in wet weather. He also found the diet scale unsatisfactory. A new matron had been in charge since February and had performed her duties in a most satisfactory manner.
A committee appointed to consider Dr Kemp's reports recommended a more liberal dietary scale for the inmates of the Taranaki Buildings; the addition of butter and vegetables was thought very desirable. Work was also in hand to build six new cells for male asylum inmates.
23
By 1872 patients with chronic illnesses were being kept in the hospital and the return of inmates of the poor department of the Taranaki Buildings for 1874 shows just ten residents, seven men and three women. There were 43 patients in the asylum however, and despite some extensions conditions were appalling.
24
A report by Dr Paley on asylums in New Zealand, and the prospect of further immigration led to the building of a mental hospital and an immigration barracks by central government in 1874.
25
The mental hospital was built on land behind the Taranaki Buildings and was first used to house immigrants from the Adamant which arrived in August 1874, before the new barracks had been completed.
26
The immigration barracks were built on the site of the old hospital at the northwest corner of Wairnea and Examiner Streets. The Colonist reported its completion on 19 November 1874 with a capacity of 300 persons. It was substantially built, well ventilated and, in the reporter's opinion, altogether superior to similar places in other Provinces.
The use of the new mental hospital to house immigrants caused an initial delay in transferring patients there from the Taranaki Buildings, but the move continued to be deferred. In his report to the House of Representatives in July 1875, David Rough, the newly appointed Inspector of Lunatic Asylums, expressed his regret that the new asylum had not been made available before the winter. The only work remaining to be done was the building of some cells and the fencing of the front grounds.
27
The Nelson Evening Mail was very critical of mismanagement in the public works department on 17 January 1876, as the new asylum was still not completed. Inmates were still confined in what the newspaper characterised as 'that wretched piggery'. The patients finally moved in later in 1876.
The charitable aid from central government, on which the destitute occupants of the Taranaki Buildings were dependent, was cut off on 1 July 1878. The Nelson Evening Mail reported that the matron, Mrs Eliza Carter, was providing for the poor creatures, who had been left to starve by a paternal government, from her own pocket. Mrs Carter telegraphed Wellington and received the reply that expenditure could continue until permanent arrangements were made.
28
On 3 August 1880 The Colonist commented that the Taranaki Buildings should be burnt for firewood. The attendants who occupied the old asylum should have new cottages built for them and the aged and infirm should be moved to the Immigration Depot, which was unlikely to house immigrants again. It stood unoccupied while the infirm were compelled to live in old dilapidated buildings which were unsuitable even for those of a robust constitution.
Nearly six years were to pass before anything was done. The Colonist reported on 8 May 1886 that the Charitable Aid Board had completed arrangements for the transfer of the destitute poor from the Taranaki Buildings to the Immigration Depot. The report commented that the old people must appreciate the change in the cold weather and that the best thing to be done with the old buildings would be to apply a match to them.
The Immigration Depot became the Old People's Home and continued to fill that purpose until 1909, when the Alexandra Home opened at the corner of Waimea Road and Tukuka Street. The old building was destroyed by fire under the supervision of the Fire Brigade on 7 August 1909. The fire was watched by a large crowd and by five o'clock nothing was left of the vermin infested building but burning embers. The Alexandra Home burned down in 1916 and reopened in Richmond.
29
A private housing venture for the poor came about through a provision in the will of Adeline Renwick, wife of Dr Thomas Renwick, who died on 11 May 1870. She left a bequest of £2000 to purchase a piece of land and build cottages for occupation by sick and indigent persons of either sex and of any denomination for no rent. The trustees were Sir David Monro and John Sharp.
Half an acre at the corner of Examiner and Wellington Streets was purchased in 1882 and a terrace of six brick cottages, referred to as alms houses, was built the following year. Administration of the Trust was handed over to the Public Trustee in 1888. By the 1950s the balance of the fund was inadequate to maintain the cottages and the Supreme Court authorised the varying of the terms of the will, allowing for a rental to be charged. Renovations begun on 1 August 1955 included the addition of a verandah, improvements in plumbing and the building of detached wash houses. The Renwick Cottages were demolished in December 1973 and replaced by new pensioner flats.
30
From 1924, when our family moved to Nelson, we lived in Grove Street near the Maitai River. Most of the neighbourhood children learned to swim in the river as the Municipal Baths had not yet been built. There were many swimming holes, the more popular ones being 'Collie', under the Collingwood Street Bridge, 'Loggie', near the Municipal Baths, The Girls' Swimming Hole', just upstream from the Nile Street Bridge and, further upstream, 'Black Hole' and 'Dennys Hole'. On summer week-ends and during school holidays it was quite usual for hundreds of people, young and old, to cool off and frolic in their favourite swimming holes. The Nelson Evening Mail at times reported crowds of 200 or more at Dennys Hole, where the City Council provided dressing sheds, but strangely no toilets.
The river was relatively unpolluted, without the amount of slime on stones so evident in parts today. The three main primary schools – Central, Auckland Point and Hampden Street – competed in annual inter-school swimming sports, held at the Girls' Swimming Hole. The pupils changed into swimming togs behind a handy tree or bush, girls on one side of the river, boys on the other, and I don't remember anyone ever losing clothes. Very few boys wore socks and shoes, or indeed any footwear in the summer, so there was little to look after.
All races were swum going down stream with the current. I swam my first race as a standard one pupil against the only other competitor, a boy from another school named David McKenzie.
When the Municipal Baths opened in 1926 the inter-school sports were transferred there. I attended the official opening ceremony, and all present were invited by the mayor to have a free swim. As I came out of the dressing shed, a young fellow ran past me and took a dive into the water. Unfortunately he dived into the paddling pool and had to receive first aid. He was lucky not to have been more seriously injured and a pipe safety railing was put up later.
The river still continued to have a lot of appeal, and retained much of its former popularity. There were a number of punts along the river, some well built but others made of odds and ends. The latter often leaked badly, requiring frequent caulking. For this we used pitch that hung down like stalactites from the Collingwood Street Bridge. As we did the caulking we used to chew pieces of pitch, just like chewing gum, until our jaws ached. Although it lacked flavour, it made our teeth nice and white.
One year the Monopoli boys, who lived a few doors away from us, arrived at the river with a big punt that could hold four people. It was twice the size of other punts. After a successful launching and typical horse-play trying to splash and half drown each other, it was suggested we have a tomato war. The Monopoli family grew tomatoes and must have had a surplus that year, as we all trooped off to the tomato garden where, apparently with parental approval, we loaded up with soft ripe tomatoes. We took them back and put them in the punts to use as missiles. A long and hard fought battle followed and soon the river was red with blood ripe tomatoes. It was a day to remember.
Spud Monday was observed each year as a special holiday on the first Monday of August. We understood that it was to commemorate the plight of the first settlers who became so near to starvation they dug up their seed potatoes, already planted, to use as food. The eyes of the potatoes were replanted to provide the next crop.
Spud Monday was a unique Nelson holiday which lasted until about World War 2. All shops, businesses and schools closed for the day. It became a tradition for hundreds of people to walk the Dun Mountain Track on Spud Monday, and while many only went as far as Third House, while the hardier ones trudged on to the top of the Dun. Parts of the old wooden railway track, held together with long, handmade nails, were still quite well preserved, as were the many beautifully made dry stone walls that lined the track in places. Nelsonians lost a distinctive part of their history with the passing of Spud Monday.
Nelson's Anniversary Day, 1st February, and now celebrated on the Monday closest to that date, has always been a public holiday for the Province. In the 1920s and early '30s, before there were many cars about, most people walked, cycled, went by horse or used the few buses if they needed to travel. There was a train which daily ran as far as Glenhope, but
Hundreds of children and adults gathered at the Nelson Railway Station for their big outing in the country. It was Sunday School Picnic Day. In great excitement and anticipation children, and parents struggling with picnic hampers, boarded the special big train, with its two steam engines smoking and wheezing. These were the centre of interest for the boys in particular, although I presume they were as awesome to the girls as well.
All the passenger carriages available were pressed into service, as were a long string of raspberry trucks which had temporary seating placed in them – planks placed on wooden boxes. The trucks had wooden sides about a metre high, and an overall frame with a tarpaulin tied over the top. They normally used to carry the tons of raspberries and green peas grown in such places as Tadmor and Tapawera to Kirkpatrick's jam and canning factory in Nelson.
Most of the children, accompanied by a few supervising adults, preferred to travel in the trucks, as they provided an unimpeded view of the country side as the train travelled along at its mostly sedate pace. People lined St Vincent Street, many standing on their front verandahs, waving as the train moved slowly along towards Bishopdale Hill where the engines struggled really hard. We chanted "I think I can, I think I can", followed by "I thought I could, I thought I could" when the top was reached.
The various church denominations had their favourite picnic areas that they used each year. The Methodists went to Snowden's Bush at Brightwater, the Anglicans to Wakefield Domain or Baigent's Bush and the Presbyterians to the Wai-iti Domain. Other denominations may also have taken the train that day, but I'm hazy on that.
The train stopped for convenience right next to the Wai-iti Domain and not at the station. Everything was unloaded on to the ground and carried into the domain with all giving a helping hand. The first thing we boys did on reaching our picnic area was to run along the river bed looking for blackberries. The ripest ones were the lowest ones, near the warm stones.
Soon everyone gathered in one big group for the mid-day meal of the mountains of delicious sandwiches made fresh at the domain by the mothers. The meal always began with grace, sung rather solemnly by the older people: "Be present at our table Lord…" to the tune of Tallis's Canon.
After a brief period of respite following lunch, the children's running races began. These included sack races, where children stood in large chaff sacks with toes wedged into the corners, heads sticking out over the top, as they tried to run or bounce along towards the tape. There were many falls and spills along the way, accompanied by much laughter. The three- legged and wheel-barrow races followed and then mothers and fathers had a run, much to the amusement of the children.
There was always a game of cricket for the men and boys and two or three games of rounders that anyone could join. Games like drop the handkerchief, oranges and lemons, and gathering nuts in May helped keep the younger ones amused.
It was always a wonderful day in the country for everyone. As cars became more common, a trip into the country became less of a big adventure. The train journey picnics became fewer and finally disappeared, but if that quaint old steam train still ran I feel sure it could be just as popular again.
Edward Hart, born 17 February 1851, was the son of Abraham and Lucy Hart who had arrived in Nelson on the Lord Auckland in 1842. The family built a raupo hut where the Queen's Gardens are now, which they shared with Abraham's brother Richard, who had travelled out with them. The families lived at either end, separated by a sacking wall.
After being allotted their country acres, the families moved to Richmond, and farmed their land. Some of Richard's descendants still live in the area.
When Edward left school he was apprenticed to a blacksmith at Brightwater. In 1867 his parents moved to Koromiko, in Marlborough, where his elder brothers had established themselves. Edward later joined his family, partnering his brothers in various activities such as contracting, running a woodyard, and establishing a brewery.
He married Margaret Moore in 1878 and they moved to Nydia Bay in Pelorus Sound when he bought a farm there in 1883.
By this time their sons were school age and, with her limited schooling, Maggie taught them as best she could from the books that they had brought with them. When they outgrew their reading books she reluctantly brought down the Family Bible. When telling us about it in later life she said: "I managed all right for a start, until I got to the begats. You know, where Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Esau, and so on, but I didn't pronounce begat properly. I said 'beggat'. Father came in and he laughed, so I shut the book, and said 'Right, that's the finish. I will go where the boys can go to school, and you can do what you like".
Edward was disheartened with farming as he was struggling with a severe outbreak of scab amongst his sheep. Being a sympathetic man who could see his wife's difficulties he sold out to the Goulds, who were already established as farmers at Nydia Bay. He brought his family to Okaramio in the Kaituna Valley.
Edward bought an established blacksmith business from Tom Maxted and began plying his trade in 1889. He bought 20 acres of land on which the blacksmith shop stood and built a family home which is now lived in by a great-grandson. He built a new smithy in the late 1890s and planted a chestnut sapling outside the door to shade it.
As Longfellow wrote: 'Neath the spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands', and today it is registered as an historic tree.
Edward was a good tradesman who made and repaired all manner of farm tools and machinery. He shod wagon horses, mill horses, farm horses, hacks, and gig horses, as well as Newmans' coach horses, used on the Nelson-Blenheim run.
He had known Tom and Harry Newman, founders of the coach line, as young men, having gone to school with them. When they began their service in 1889, they built their stables and groom's house near to Edward's smithy, and he shod all the coach horses that were changed at Okaramio. He also travelled to Canvastown and shod the horses that were left at Newmans' stables there. The first entry for Newman Bros in Edward's ledger on 12 February 1889 records '1 set of 4 new shoes, 6 shillings', and the last, on 29 June 1912, is for '2 new shoes, 3 shillings'.
Edward worked as a blacksmith with the help of his sons until his son Gilbert took over the business in the early days of World War I. The blacksmith shop is almost derelict now, having been empty and forgotten these last 50 years. The highway that once took a wide sweep past the door now by-passes it, and few folk would ever notice it, or know that it was once a busy hub of the district.
In February 1860 Nelsonians, concerned that the Land Wars in Taranaki might spill over into Nelson, formed a Volunteer Rifle Corps. Soon there were nine companies in the Nelson-Motueka area, but military reorganisation in 1862 reduced these to five, each comprised of about 30 men.
The Nelson Companies drilled on land in Nile Street West and on a government reserve in Hardy Street, near Albion Square. More formal parades were held at the Botanical Reserve in Milton Street.
The need for a permanent military headquarters soon became obvious, and in 1871 a drill shed was built on government land opposite the Police Station in Harley Street. The shed was opened on Saturday 2 September at 3 pm 'with seats for the ladies'.
The building, which was also referred to as the Nelson Gymnasium, was 80 feet long, 35 feet wide and was funded by £140 subscribed by the Nelson Rifle Volunteers and £100 from the Nelson Provincial Government. A further £50 was found for boxing gloves, Indian clubs, horizontal and parallel bars, a trapeze, rings and ropes, vertical poles, a vaulting horse, single sticks and other equipment.
The gym was open on Wednesday and Saturday from 3 to 5 pm and until 9 pm in the evening. Members of the Volunteer Corps had free use of the equipment and honorary members, elected by ballot, had access for five shillings a month, or seven shillings and sixpence per quarter. Even before the opening date over 40 boys from Nelson College had joined.
The new drill shed was converted into an impromptu ballroom following the Prince of Wales birthday holiday sports, despite its earth floor, which remained in that condition until it was asphalted in the mid-1930s.
Another occupant was the Salvation Army, which held its first services in the Temperance Hall on the north east corner of Collingwood and Bridge Streets on 3 February 1884. With a burgeoning congregation, the hall soon became too small and the congregation moved to the Drill Shed on 16 April 1884. This must have upset other denominations as, two weeks
In July 1875 The Nelson Examiner recorded that the government had awarded a grant of £500 to enlarge the drill shed, build the cutter Aurora for the newly raised Nelson Naval Brigade and to provide a boatshed at Wakefield Quay. The boatshed was sited next to what is now The Boatshed restaurant on the Nelson side. Sold into private ownership in 1905, it was destroyed by a storm in 1957.
Tenders were called for a new drill shed on the same site in 1905, with that of £847/12/8 from Mr JA Stringer being accepted. It was less than the £902/19/- tendered by Scott's Estate. John Alfred Stringer was at that time a Pay and Quartermaster Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion Nelson Mounted Rifles. In later life he was a Nelson City Councillor.
During the reconstruction of the building the local Volunteers drilled on the Government Reserve, where the Monro Building now stands. With electric lighting added, the area was still in use by the Territorials in the late 1930s.
The new drill shed was opened on Wednesday 5 November 1905. The Nelson Evening Mail recorded that 'alterations and additions were made to the old drill shed' costing close to £1000. They comprised staff quarters of two storeys and an enlargement to the drilling shed, which was now ten feet six inches longer and five feet wider than the old shed. It now measured 90 feet by 59 feet 6 inches. The entrance from Harley Street was by a double door eight feet high and twelve feet wide, which has been replaced by a roller door. The building had 13 external windows and six large skylights, the latter partly funded by the Nelson Poultry Association. The building was declared open by John Graham, MHR for Nelson, and Colonel Wolfe, the Officer Commanding, Nelson District, who spoke in the absence of Lt Colonel Albert Pitt, the Minister of Defence. Colonel Wolfe noted that there were 19,000 Volunteers in the colony and 2000 in the Nelson Army District, which covered Nelson, Marlborough and Westland.
He singled out the Nelson Garrison Band for praise. That day the band paraded a new set of silver-plated instruments which it had purchased for £235. The newspaper reported that in the evening a large crowd attended a Promenade Concert presented by the Garrison Band and the Non-Coms Club in the drill shed.
A photograph from about this time shows the band, under the conductorship of Julius Lemmer, grouped outside the new drill shed. Its
The doors at the St John Street end of the building were installed to enable H Battery New Zealand Field Artillery's artillery pieces to enter the building. From the start the doors were unsuitable, as St John Street was too narrow for the guns to be manoeuvred into the shed.
H Battery later had its own barracks in Fitzherbert Street, now Washington Terrace. These were built in 1912 by the Nelson firm of Chamberlain and Stannard Ltd at a cost of between £2000 and £3000. The two-storied building was sheathed with corrugated iron and comprised stables for 20 horses, a gun and wagon shed, forage and ammunition stores, men's quarters and offices. The permanent staff at this time comprised one sergeant, one bombardier, two gunners and six drivers.
In November 1912 the Nelson Evening Mail reported a battery parade in the Stoke vicinity. On parade were Captain Grace, the commanding officer, two guns, two ammunition wagons and 36 horses. At that time the unit was equipped with 15 pounder guns which, early in 1913, were replaced by new 18 pounders. The unit was later disbanded and its abandoned barracks were destroyed by fire in the late 1930s.
It is not known when the Drill Shed became known as the Drill Hall, but it was certainly by the 1930s when, because there was no other large hall in the city, it was used for Flower Shows, Poultry Exhibitions, Cage Bird Shows and Dog and Cat Shows.
Towards the end of the Second World War, the army established its main base in Rutherford Street and the Drill Hall became less important. In 1963 the Sea Cadet Unit, TS Talisman, moved from Dr WDS Johnston's old home in Hardy Street to the Drill Hall, which they still occupy.
The administration end of the building was damaged by arson on 9 January 1998. With help from the public of Nelson, the Royal New Zealand Navy, the Navy League and the Cadet Unit, the hall was repaired and the administration wing restored as a single story building.
The New Zealand Company surveyors divided the land in the town of Nelson into numbered one acre sections. The cottage at 19 Shelbourne Street is on Town Acre 485, which lies between Shelbourne and Collingwood Streets. It is bounded on the north by Acre 488 and on the south by Acre 484, beyond which is the Hallowell Cemetery. In addition to the cemetery reserve on the original plan, there were reserve areas for a gaol, and the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches. These adjoined Acre 484 to the west. The Nelson Gaol was built in 1850 and occupied the site until 1901.
Town Acre 485 was granted to George Stansfield, who was probably an absentee owner, on 1 June, 1854. He sold it to George Coward, who is listed in various records as a printer, on 8 December 1854. According to the rate records of the Nelson Board of Works, Coward built a five roomed wooden cottage on the acre during 1856.
A cottage can be seen on the acre in a photograph from around 1859 taken from a hill at the western end of Halifax Street. It is on the southwest corner of the acre, near the Shelbourne Street boundary, facing north. The roof ridge runs east-west and there are verandas on the western, and northern sides. Another, taken about 1860 from above the eastern end of Bridge Street, shows a lean-to addition on the south side. The southern end of the veranda to the east has also been enclosed.
An inspection of the present cottage reveals that the floor of a one-roomed cottage was separately constructed, and a room added later to the south. Likewise, the enclosed veranda room was a separate addition on an outside wall which originally had weather boards on it. A doorway was cut through, which still provides access between the front and back parts of the cottage. The enclosed veranda addition is the site of the present bathroom. The front room fireplace, which corresponds with the position of the original chimney, has a very simply constructed surround and mantelpiece which may be original.
George Coward owned the entire acre, and its sole cottage, until 1867. He was listed in rate records as the occupier until 1860, when it was let to Thomas Sullivan, whose occupancy ended with his death in 1865 at the age of 67. He was buried in Hallowell Cemetery, on the hill above the cottage. Sullivan and his wife had arrived in Nelson on the Martha Ridgway on 7 April 1842, and he had been very active in the Institute of Oddfellows Lodge.
James Watkins, a bank manager, purchased Town Acre 485 on 31 August 1867, apparently in a business arrangement with HE and O Curtis of Curtis Brothers, merchants. The cottage was occupied at the time, but the occupant's name is not recorded, and it is recorded as unoccupied from 1868 to 1874. William Wylie, a lithographer, is listed in Shelbourne Street from 1873 to 1877 and he must have been living in the cottage as it was the only dwelling there.
Watkins and Curtis remortgaged the property with Charles Bigg-Wither in January 1877 and Watkins conveyed his share to HE Curtis in June of that year. According to the rate records for 1878, acre 485 had been subdivided into several sections. There were four on Collingwood Street, two owned by Curtis Brothers, one by William Bethwaite, a builder, and one by William Brent, an undertaker. Curtis Brothers still owned all the Shelbourne Street side, with the cottage let to George Garrett, a gas fitter.
Garrett is still listed there in the Post Office Directory of 1890/91, but the 1892/93 listing shows Edwin Hardy Barker, whose wife and daughter bought 19 Shelbourne Street in 1896. Unfortunately, the rate records from 1879 to 1910 are lost, which makes it difficult to accurately determine the occupancy of the cottage during that period.
It has not been possible to determine when the cottage was remodelled to its present form. When it was originally altered, the walls of the first two rooms were extended upwards, gable ends were added on the north and south ends and the roof ridge was converted to north-south, with a full lean-to added across the back on the eastern side. There were verandas around all sides.
It conformed to a very common cottage plan of the period, with a walkthrough parlour, a bedroom to the front and a kitchen behind the parlour with a shared, double chimney between. There was another bedroom in the remainder of the lean-to and a sleeping loft upstairs. A former
On 1 September 1896 Oswald Curtis sold 19 Shelbourne Street to Sarah Barker, wife of Edwin Hardy Barker, clerk, and Mary Emma Barker, her daughter. It may have been around this time that the cottage was again remodelled, as it lost its view to the north when the large, two-story house was built at number 17.
There is a long-standing story that 19 Shelbourne Street was once a gaoler's cottage, but plans of the gaol in 1865 show that there were four bedrooms for staff within it, and all known occupants of the cottage had other occupations. While it is possible that a gaoler was a tenant in 1866/67, or perhaps in 1891, it seems likely the cottage has been confused with the one nearby, in the corner of the Gaol Reserve.
Edwin Barker died at his residence, Shelbourne Street, on 25 July 1902 at the age of 70. The Certificate of Title, created under the Land Transfer Act of 1924 and dated 24 December 1926, shows Sarah Barker and Mary Emma Barker of Nelson as owners of 19 Shelbourne Street. Sarah Barker had died on 29 March 1912. Mary Emma, the sixth child of Edwin and Sarah Barker, had been born in Wellington in 1865 and died on 30 October 1958. Ownership had remained with the Barker family for 62 years.
Title was transmitted to the Public Trustee on 9 December 1958, and then transferred to Evelyn Ward of Wellington, Spinster, on 3 June 1959.
On 3 November 1972 it was transmitted to Richard Rainey and Richard Siddells, solicitors of Nelson, as executors, and then transferred to Francine Hunia of Nelson, school teacher, and then to Nellie Charlton of Nelson, widow, on 19 December 1972.
The title was transmitted to Camilla Bull of Wellington as executrix on 19 September 1977 and immediately transferred to Mavis Raywell Overton of Nelson, catering assistant. Mavis (Betty) Overton sold the property on 16 July 1999 and title was transferred to Andrew Robert Ewan and Karen Miles, who then sold it to Deborah Margaret Knapp and Michael Bryan Murphy on 8 February, 2001.
Born Nelson 30 September 1912. Died Nelson 18 August 2002
John Savage, our honoured Patron, a Nelson man with a Nelson name was rightfully proud of his Nelson heritage.
Among the region's many notable attributes, John knew it as being special for its history, and it was his ability and willingness to share his love for this that made him so appropriate and valued as our Patron. He achieved this despite failing eyesight and other health problems which, sadly for the Society, reduced his time in the role to just three years.
John's encyclopaedic mind gave us many an insight into history here, especially relating to his early years. A few follow here:
Dead from diabetes before John turned four, his father yet left an indelible memory by showing him troops marching from drill hall to wharf, on their way to the War.
A year later, living in Collingwood Street with his widowed mother, John would race to the window at the rare sound of a passing car.
At age six he was home from Brook Street School with the dreaded 1918 influenza when, from the same window, he witnessed a funeral procession taking victims to Wakapuaka Cemetery. Led on foot by undertaker Alf Shone, all wore the most sombre black, and black too were the horses' harness and the carriages.
At the school John knew Maurie Alborough who, now in his 90th year, may be the Society's oldest member.
John was nine before his first car ride. It was in a Maxwell with big brass headlamps, the pride of his uncle. John and his mother had travelled by sea in the Kohi to visit Uncle, who had driven from his Ngatimoti farm to Motueka Wharf to collect them.
At age 17 he was in 'Gunner' Johnson's physics class at Nelson College observing an experiment when, at the moment when all were told to 'watch carefully and see the ammeter tick over', the whole wooden laboratory tried to fall over instead. John made safe ground, but on all fours, for he found it impossible to stand in the 7.8 force of the Murchison earthquake.
With adulthood approaching John was tested for a car licence by officious and feared 'Parky' Parkinson, the City Council's first and unforgettable traffic officer. Parky directed John in Mrs Savage's Baby Austin 7 to take them up Collingwood Street in heavy gravel and on up the steep and slippery slope toward the Grampians track. Then came the trauma of backing down and around the corner into Brougham Street John passed his test.
A natural teacher, John gave most of his working life-time to that profession starting, when uncertificated, at tiny isolated Whangarae School in Croisilles Harbour. It was closed for his first week by a tangi.
Teachers' College and other schools followed, interrupted by war service in Italy until he returned in 1946. For a refresher, he opted for a chance to see the new art syllabus being taught by a specialist by name of Cynthia Hudson. Soon after, as Mrs Savage, Cynthia went on to share with him life, career, and interests such as Nelson Historical Society, which they joined in the late fifties.
It was in the fifties that John taught a now senior member of the Society at Nelson Intermediate School John was well into a lesson when "Oooooh" cried a voice. "What a funny cloud Mr Savage!" John looked out and, without pausing, seized the ideal 'teachable moment' that every teacher dreams of. Thus the first sight of jet aeroplane vapour trails brought scientific enlightenment to many, and is remembered by at least one to this day.
As a committee member for the Society from 1969 to 1994 he was 'always there,' a dependable, willing, contributor. An oral man, not so much given to writing, he could personalise his talks well, and some members recall when he gave a one hour talk on Nelson, which became two, with audience interest unabated.
Two regular visitors to the Savage home – on the exact location of Arthur Wakefield's house overlooking the first harbour entrance – were our longtime members, Ian and Molly Simpson, also highly knowledgeable about Nelson Long and happy were the discussions they had.
When the Society sought a sesquicentennial project, it was John who suggested publication of biographies of the many interesting and achieving Nelsonians who had been researched for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, but had not been included.
And so was born Nelson Notables by Max Lash and 14 others, a worthy result indeed. Inspiration for the name is also attributed to John.
Another worthy cause suggested by John is the Jeff Newport Memorial Prize. This aims at encouraging original historical research by secondary school students and is now in its second year, it has been established in memory of our first Patron, Jeff Newport, whose own formal schooling ended at Standard 6 (Form II). Jeff made great efforts to research, record and publish local history and to support the Nelson Historical Society.
John and Cynthia have given much appreciated financial support towards the setting up of the prize, which was dear to John's heart and reflected their abiding interest in the Historical Society, and their identification with its aims.
The Society paid tribute to John at his funeral and expressed our members' sympathy to Cynthia and the family.
John, our old friend and mentor has gone, and will be missed, but he and what he has done for the Society will not be forgotten.
Those who heard Charlie speak will never forget him. He was a kaumatua of the Ngati Awa people and a born story-teller. In the two years before he died he spoke to over 20 groups around Nelson including the Nelson Historical Society, recounting his life as a whaler.
Whaling brought hard men to our shores in the 1800s, many of whom met and later married Maori women and raised families throughout New Zealand. Charlie's great grandfather, James 'Worser' Heberley was one of these early whalers, arriving in New Zealand first in 1826 on board the Caroline. Four years later he joined Captain John Guard in setting up the first shore-based whaling station in New Zealand at Te Awaiti. This was two bays down Tory Channel from Okukari, the farm Charlie bought in 1945.
Charlie left the family home in Oyster Bay, Tory Channel, in 1926 and was sent to Wellington, where he spent the next seven years receiving his education, first at Hutt Valley Primary, then Miramar Primary and, from 1931–1933, at Wellington Technical. He played rugby for the Miramar Rugby Club and represented Wellington Technical at cricket.
On his return from school Charlie worked with his father on the farm. In 1939 he married Ruby and they lived at Oyster Bay. Charlie's whaling career began in 1941, when he was asked to work at the whaling station, and he soon became an acknowledged leader. When a gunner died after the gun on the bow of the whale-chaser exploded, Charlie found himself behind the dead whaler's gun the next day.
Charlie and Ruby, with their three children, Donna, Jocelyn and Joe, moved to Okukari in 1945, the same land Charlie's ancestors had lived on after driving out other tribes in the Marlborough Sounds.
As a gunner, Charlie was the best. He shot over 1000 whales in his years behind the gun. "It was a job" he'd reply to those who criticised. In the years before he died, however, Charlie became an ardent conservationist, blasting those countries which persisted in unbridled whaling, under the guise of 'research'.
When Charlie was asked to manage a whaling station on Great Barrier Island in 1959 he jumped at the chance, leaving the farm in the hands of a manager and heading north with Ruby and Joe. They stayed there until the decline in whale stocks due to foreign nations whaling in the Antarctic forced its closure. The family returned to the farm and, with son Joe now married to Auckland girl Heather Mcauley, began a successful fishing operation in Cook Strait.
Charlie and Ruby retired to Nelson in 1979, but he never cut himself off from the only way of life he'd ever known. He made all the fishing gear for son Joe and his two grandsons, young Joe and James. He went down to help when sheep work needed to be done, and only a month before he died was helping build new gratings in the woolshed.
When Ruby died in February 2000, as the result of a car accident, Charlie's spirit died too. Ruby had been his only love and a beacon in a life full of danger and suspense. On 30 June 2000 Charlie died in Nelson Hospital.
His daughter-in-law, Heather Heberley, has written his story, linking the past and the present. The whaling stories are not woven in bright colours, but are written gently for readers to enjoy. They are stark, often cruel stories of a savage occupation not followed now by any New Zealander, but they are a true and significant part of our history.
Last of the Whalers: Charlie Heberley's Story was published in August 2002 and is available from all good bookshops.