Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Nelson, Marlborough & Westland Provincial Districts]

Spring Grove

Spring Grove.

Spring Grove is on the Waiiti river in the county of Waimea, and is fourteen miles by rail to the south of Nelson. It has a population of about 270, and is the headquarters of the Nelson Fruitgrowers' Association. Hops, fruit, and grain are grown in the district, and dairying is also carried on. There is no hotel in the township, which, however, has a post and telegraph office and a school. The district is noted for its scenery; there are trout in the streams, and deer, hares, and quail throughout the district. Aniseed Valley copper mine, and the Wairoa Gorge, are in the neighbourhood. Spring Grove is the headquarters of the Waimea Rifle Corps, which includes amongst its members some of the crack rifle shots of New Zealand. There are two churches—Methodist and Church of Christ—in the district.

Mr. Gervase Roughton , sometime of Spring Grove, was born in Nottinghamshire. England, in 1828. He came to New Zealand with his parents in the ship “Clifford,” which landed them in Nelson early in 1842. Mr. Roughton first lived on the Nelson beach, where he and his mate pulled ashore the first white man that was drowned in the Nelson harbour. In 1843 he moved with his parents up to Brightwater. Mr. Roughton helped to drive the first flock of sheep to Blenheim, to Birch Hill run. He was there when a man, named Coward, was drowned while crossing the Wairau river—the first event of its kind connected with the colonisation of the district. About two years afterwards he returned to Nelson and bought fifty acres of land in the Waimeas, where he engaged in fruit and hop-growing. In 1855 he married a daughter of Mr. White, who came out to New Zealand in the “Olympus,” and had two sons and one daughter. Mr. Roughton died on the 25th of June, 1904.

The Late Mr. G. Roughton.

The Late Mr. G. Roughton.