It is now more than 15 years since Kate Mitchell published an account of the search for a Māori tupuna in the family, who turned out to be Metapere Kawhe, the wife of John O’Brian/O’Brien. Since then, we have been lucky enough to meet many descendants of Metapere and John, particularly members of the extensive families of Rihari and Tiaki O’Brien. We greatly appreciate the family reunions we have been invited to attend at Te Kuiti in the King Country and Mokau in Taranaki, and the warm welcome we have received from the wider O’Brien whanau.

Angas, George French, 1822-1886. [Angas, George French] 1822-1886 :E Rua, E Pari, and E Hoki, women of Ngatitoa tribe, Cook's Straits [London ; McLean 1847]. Ref: B-080-030. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22750156

Sadly, John O’Brien and Metapere Kawhe’s family was split in the wake of the Crown’s forced purchase of thousands of acres of Ngāti Toa land in the Wairau – modern-day Marlborough - in the 1850s. Two of Metapere and John’s children, Rihari and Tiaki, returned to farm in the King Country. They left a brother, Frank or Wheki, who remained to work as a shepherd and farm worker in the Wairau, and a sister, Hana or Fanny, who married and settled in Lower Hutt. A third daughter, Ellen or Erena, was thought to have become a nun on the West Coast and we do not know what became of her.

It is a tribute to Kate’s research work that, 15 years later, we really don’t know much more about either John or Metapere than what was recorded in her 1990 study. Sadly, we have no picture of Metapere, and to gain some idea of what she and her friends might have looked like, we have to look to contemporary painted portraits by an enterprising young British artist, George Angas. In the late 1840s, Angas portrayed Ngāti Toa Māori at Kapiti and Porirua and then journeyed south by waka to the Wairau to paint other Ngāti Toa Māori there.

Metapere’s whakapapa, recorded in the Nelson MLC Minute Book, Vol 1, March 1889

Metapere Kawhe

From historical records and family recollections, we understand that Metapere lived with John in Robin Hood Bay, Port Underwood, for several years in the 1850s, and that she also lived at Wairau Pa beside the lower Wairau River later in the 1850s.

Almost nothing is known about Metapere’s background, although we understand that some of her records had been kept by the oldest son, Frank who, in turn, died in December 1937. Family members believe the records may have been destroyed by one of Frank’s daughters. We believe Metapere came to Te Wai Pounamu and Port Underwood as a young woman with some of her relatives and there seems little doubt that she was of the Ngāti Toa tribe. Entries in the Nelson Māori Land Court minute book for March 1889 record Metapere as being a “Ngati Toa” resident of Wairau Pa in the mid-1850s.¹

We believe that Frank O’Brien was born on November 9 1851 at Robin Hood Bay, Port Underwood. Kate’s study records reported dates taken from a Catholic Church register for the births of the other children from the match, the oldest daughter, Hana/h (also called Fanny), a second daughter, Ellen/Erena, and the brothers Rihari/Richard and Tiaki/Jack. So far as we know, John was the only O’Brien adult resident in Marlborough in the early 1850s. He was listed on the 1853 electoral roll as a shearer, and was one of only 44 voters on the electoral roll. Many of those on the roll were absentee landowners living in the New Zealand Company settlements of Wellington and Nelson. Sadly, we have no information about Metapere Kawhe in the Wairau after the birth of Tiaki and Rihari. We have asked Ngāti Toa kaumatua and kuia with knowledge of tribal whakapapa and members of the Kawhe whanau about Metapere. However, they say they do not know of her.

Robin Hood Bay, Port Underwood. Image supplied by author

John O'Brien (sometimes spelled O'Brian)

John O’Brien was believed to have been born in Ireland about 1808², but it is not known how he came to New Zealand or when he arrived. He was in Cloudy Bay in the 1840s and the story passed down to us by family members was that he found work in Port Underwood as a whaler.³ John O’Brien was said to have had red hair and a fiery temper to match. He was reputed to have sworn a great deal.

Kate Mitchell outside the Robin Hood Bay cottage where Frank is believed to have been born

According to descendants, John O'Brien and Metapere Te Kawhe lived together for a while in a small cottage in Robin Hood Bay, the largest of the bays on the western shore of Port Underwood where, in the early 1840s, there was a Māori settlement and kumara garden. The area was well-known as a source of kai moana, including mussels, kina, and koura (rock lobster).

According to accounts from Frank O’Brien, the family lived in Robin Hood Bay till the mid-1860s, but it may be that John O’Brien and Metapere parted company earlier. John was recorded as living at the Wairau Boulder Bank in the later part of his life, but there is no known information about Metapere being there. There is no record to show that John O’Brien ever married Metapere Kawhe, but they did baptise their children with European names in the Catholic Church while, at a later stage, John also made sure his oldest son married a European woman. This son was Francis (also called Frank/Wheki).

Fox, William (Rt Hon Sir), 1812?-1893. Fox, William 1812-1893 :Ocean Bay [Port Underwood. January 1848?]. Ref: C-013-017. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23216133

Whaling in Port Underwood in the 1840s was partly shore-based, but largely carried out by ships in deeper water. Gales in the exposed harbour were a constant danger and high hills enclosed the bays, making them gloomy, with relatively little sun. Rainfall was heavy. and rewards from the whaling few. These were probably some of the reasons why, after the birth of Francis, John moved from Port Underwood to the Boulder Bank, a small settlement at the mouth of the Wairau River.

Frank O’Brien, older brother of Rihari and Tiaki

John O’Brien was listed on the 1853 electoral roll as living at the Boulder Bank settlement beside the river, a wild and primitive settlement with four or five mud buildings and several hotels selling liquor. These included premises owned by the Wynens, the MacDonalds, and the Budges. The Boulder Bank was regarded as a lawless place of ill repute. The settlement was situated on the north side of the river, actually across the river from the long tongue of the Boulder Bank. Wairau Pa, where Ngati Toa, Ngati Rarua and Rangitane Maori have lived together since the 1840s was further west and about two km upriver.

John's brush with the law

In the later part of his life, John O’Brien continued to live at times at the Boulder Bank settlement. In May 1877, he offered a 10 pound reward for information on “some person or persons having several times broken into my home at the Boulder Bank”.⁴ Eight months later, John was recorded as rescuing three Wellington Greek fishermen, whose boat had foundered on the treacherous Wairau Bar.⁵ One of the men, presumably suffering hypothermia, was covered in warm sand to aid his recovery.

Omaka Cemetery near Blenheim, where John and Frank O’Brien are both buried

In 1880, when John would have been 72-years-old, he was charged with assaulting a man named Batcheldor with an axe, and also with damaging a punt belonging to men named Thomas Callard and John Gibson. The allegation that John had maliciously damaged the punt was dismissed with costs of 17 shillings awarded against the complainant. The assault complaint had been lodged by a fisherman, Charles Batcheldor, who claimed that the top joint of his left thumb had been fractured in an axe attack by John O’Brien. The Irishman denied the charge.

The Wairau River mouth looking west, with the Boulder Bank to the left, the site of the settlement to the right

Batcheldor told the court that he had exchanged words with John, who was armed with an axe and was smashing up a punt. Batcheldor had asked O’Brien to stop breaking up the punt, but the Irishman lost his temper and “made at me with the axe and said he would kill me”. According to Batcheldor, O’Brien had chased him the axe and struck him with it on the thumb.”⁶
“After O'Brien hit me with the axe, I told him he had broken my thumb and he replied 'Yes,' and that he would split my brains open as soon as look at me,” Batcheldor was reported as saying. Under cross-examination, a companion of Batcheldor, named St Clair Liardi, denied that the pair had been smuggling at the time and, to further questions from O'Brien's lawyer denied that they were persecuting the Irishman so they could get rid of him for 2-3 years in order to build up their smuggling operation. John O'Brien was convicted on the charge and fined £2 with costs of £5-5s.

Judy Mitchell, second left, and Ness Beere, second right with Wairau Pa kaumatua and kuia, Kopa Stafford, left, Katie Mason-Moses, Bill Stafford and Barry Mason.

John O’Brien was recorded as continuing to live at the Boulder Bank until 1867, despite having land elsewhere. However, by 1868, he had moved to a rural block in the Wairau West district. In 1871, he sold land in Ngakuta Bay, Port Underwood, which he had been given as a Crown grant, to a man called Charles Watson, for the sum of 22 pounds. John stayed on his Wairau West section until 1890, the last time he was officially recorded as living there. He probably farmed sheep on the property.

John died on May 3 1897 and is buried at Omaka Cemetery, Blenheim, in an unmarked plot. However, despite 15 years of searching, we still do not know anything about Metapere’s later life. Sadly, we do not know when she died, or where she is buried. We would be very pleased to hear from any whanau members who have information, or suggestions about the search for either John or Metapere.

2006

Timothy Millington and George Coward, two Englishmen who came to Marlborough via Australia and Nelson, started the Marlborough Province’s first newspaper in Blenheim, or the Beaver, on 6 January 1860. This was the Marlborough Press and County of Sounds Gazette.

Timothy Millington, the first editor of the Marlborough Press. Picton Historical Society

The following year, when Picton became the capital of the Province and the Provincial Government moved to Picton, the newspaper followed suit and set up an office in upper High Street, on the site now occupied by the Z petrol station. The original building was later replaced by a more modern building.

Millington and Coward’s partnership ended in 1865, and ownership of the paper passed to Alfred Thomas Card (whose memorial is the fated paddling-pool on Picton Foreshore). After him was Richard Hornby – his efforts were described as ‘one of the liveliest specimens of journalism ever issued in Marlborough.’ George W. Nicol and Hans Christian Madsen took over the Press in 1904, and continued to run the paper until 1943. The competing paper, Marlborough Express, began publication in 1866, and made the occasional attack on its rival, which it once described as ‘suffering from a severe bilious attack.’

Marlborough Press building, from an early painting of Picton. Picton Historical Society

On Saturday 6 August 1921, a fire broke out in the Marlborough Press buildings, which were practically destroyed. The shop and residential portion of the building, utilised as offices and storerooms, were totally destroyed, but the machinery departments were saved. Nicol and Madsen continued running the paper until 1943, when Mr S. Davey purchased it; he continued until 1949, when the Marlborough Express purchased the plant.

Unfortunately most copies of the Press were lost in the fire, and many more went to the dump. Mike Taylor, former President of Picton Historical Society, heard at the RSA one evening that, while the old Seymour house was being demolished (on the present Mariners Mall site), the cellar of the old George Hotel was found underneath. In it were bundles of the Marlborough Press, tied up with ribbons, as well as all the Seymour papers and letters. All had been loaded on to a truck and taken to the dump. Mike went up there and broke through the gate with a crowbar, but was able to rescue only a few copies – the rest had been bulldozed into a slurry. Picton Museum has those few copies, some 200 pages of which has been transcribed, and there are a few more in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.

This story was first written by Loreen Brehaut for the Seaport Scene

Ropoama Te One, a rangitira of Te Atiawa, was one of the signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi, and one of the main signatories to the Waitohi Purchase, by the New Zealand Company, in 1850.

After the latter the Maori people resident in Waitohi (Picton) moved to Waikawa, and it was soon after this that typhoid broke out amongst them. Maori oral history tells that Ropoama found a spring of fresh water and encouraged his people to use it, so ending the spread of disease. We do not have a date for this particular epidemic, as there were few written records of the Maori population at the time, and the Marlborough newspapers did not start publication until the 1860s.

Ropoama's well. The plaque. Image supplied by Picton Historical Society

Ropoama himself died in 1868, so we know the typhoid outbreak was before this time. However, an event does not have to be written down to have occurred, and it remained strong in the memories of the kaumatua and was passed down to their children and grandchildren.

In 1978, when there was a strong Maori presence in Picton Historical Society and its President was Meteria (May) Horrey née Tonga Awhikau, the Society decided to mark this unscripted past event with a monument. At that time most people knew from their elders what had occurred, and the Society Minutes of 2 May 1978 record: "After a discussion in Committee it was decided that subject to the approval of the land owner and the Elders of Waikawa the Society would erect a plaque on or near the site of Ropoama’s well in Waikawa where fresh water was discovered and broke the Typhoid epidemic that occurred when the Maoris shifted to Waikawa after the Waitohi purchase." This plaque cost the Society $257 that year, a considerable sum for a small voluntary organisation.

It is believed that the actual site of the spring was on the other side of Waikawa Road from where the plaque was placed. The monument remains as the only solid reminder of the episode.

This story by Loreen Brehaut was first published in Picton in the Seaport Scene.

Excerpts from the Colonist 3 May, 1914: The Pitt Memorial Gates.¹

Pitt Gates Opening Ceremony Nelson Provincial Museum 309897

"The formal opening of the handsome gates erected on the Bridge Street side of the Queen's Gardens to the memory of the late Colonel Pitt, V.D., M.L.C, who died on 18 November 1906,² took place yesterday afternoon [2 May 1914] in the presence of a large, attendance of the public, which included members of the City Council, the Board of College Governors, the Pitt memorial committee, and leading citizens. The territorial forces were also represented, and the College cadets under Lieutenant Saxon, provided a guard of honour. Speeches were made by the Mayor (Mr Lock), Colonel Grace (senior officer in the Nelson military district), and Mr C.J. Harley (president of the Nelson Law Society), after which a wreath was placed upon the gates by Dr L. G. Boor, an old friend of the late Colonel Pitt and they were formally declared open.

The Albert Pitt Memorial gates, which are a handsome adornment to the Gardens, comprise four massive pillars of Aberdeen granite with ornamental iron work, and were designed by Mr J. G. Littlejohn, City Surveyor. Messrs Silvester and Co., Christchurch, were the successful contractors for the erection of the gates, and the ironwork was carried out by Messrs Scott Bros., of Christchurch. The cost of the pillars, foundation, etc., was £334 and the gates, including the painting, £12O.

The inscriptions on the pillars are as follows: — "These gates were erected by the people in recognition of the public service and private work of Albert Pitt, 1842-1906" "The Hon. Albert Pitt, V.D., M.L.C Attorney-General, Lieutenant Colonel of the New Zealand Militia, member of the House of Representatives for the City of Nelson, 1879-1881, Officer commanding Nelson Military district, 1877-1899.

A sum of £560, including a grant of £300 from the Ward Government, was raised by public subscription from all parts of the Dominion.  Before Mr Cawthron generously undertook to provide the church steps, the Pitt Memorial Committee paid £10 for the first plans for these steps.  Major Stiles, who acted as secretary of the committee did splendid work, and the success achieved was largely due to his energy.  Speaking at the function yesterday, the Mayor said that the late Colonel Pitt was an honoured and respected citizen of Nelson for 43 years, and interested himself in all matters connected with the welfare and advancement of the city.  The deceased was loved and respected by the people, and had earned a name for his courtesy, probity and conscientiousness. He took a leading interest in volunteering, and rendered good service to this District and the Dominion generally."

Mr Alfred Pitt Nelson Provincial Museum 35428

Pitt was born in Hobart, Tasmania.  His father, Captain Francis Pitt, was harbourmaster at Hobart.  He was educated in Tasmania, studied law and started his professional career.  In 1864 Pitt migrated to Nelson and set up his own law firm.   He returned briefly to marry Emma Bartlett in Launceston, Tasmania on 25 January 1866.³

"Mr Lock then proceeded to sketch the late Colonel Pitt's career. He was he said, in 1873, captain of the Artillery, and for eleven years commanded the Nelson district.  He commanded 1,200 troops at Parihaka in 1881, and was in command of the New Zealand troops at the Queen's Jubilee in 1887.  In recognition of his great ability and worth he received many distinctions.  Mr Lock then referred to the good services the late Colonel Pitt had rendered as a public man in his capacity as a member of the Provincial Council, the Board of College Governors, as member for Nelson in the House of Representatives from 1879 to 1881, and as a member of the Legislative Council from 1899 until the time of his death.  The late Colonel Pitt, he said, had also been Attorney-General, and had held the portfolio of Minister for Defence, and while Sir Joseph Ward was absent in England, acted as Minister for Railways and Minister in charge or the Government Insurance Department.  The extra work, said Mr Lock, brought on an illness to which the deceased succumbed.  To show the high esteem in which the late Colonel Pitt was held Mr Lock referred to the eulogiums of the Press from one end of the Dominion to the other, and quoted from the tributes paid to the deceased statesman by Sir Joseph Ward and Sir Robert Stout, the Chief Justice.

In conclusion Mr Lock stated that the idea of the memorial originated with Mr Colin Campbell, and much good work in connection with carrying the proposal into effect had been done by Major Stiles, the secretary to the committee.

Colonel Grace, who was the next speaker, said it gave him great pleasure to pay his tribute to the memory of the late Colonel Pitt, whom he had known intimately.  The speaker said he had had the honour of commanding the battery which previously had been commanded by the late Colonel Pitt, and he could testify to the spirit that was imbued in the corps by him, and which still existed when he took command.  The late Colonel Pitt began his military career in Tasmania in 1861 when he joined the Hobart Town Artillery Company and held the rank of Sergeant, and in 1866 when he came to Nelson he took command of the Nelson volunteer Artillery cadets.⁴  Subsequently he commanded the Nelson Artillery company and in 1871 he relinquishes that, and took command of the "H" Battery, into which that artillery company was merged.  He was promoted to the rank of major, and given command of the Nelson district. 

Pitt Gates and Wreath F.N Jones Ken Wright Post Card Collection

The Parihaka campaign was the greatest work in a military sense that the late Colonel Pitt performed.  It had been called a bloodless campaign, but all the more honour to the deceased because it was bloodless.  If the conduct of the campaign had been in the hands of a soldier who was not an expert, there would probably have been a resuscitation of the horrible struggle that took place between the Maoris and the pakehas in the sixties.  Although the campaign was a bloodless one, it was so won, that there had not been trouble since.  Colonel Pitt, who was chosen to conduct the campaign by the Hon Mr Bryce, took with him to Parihaka the Waimea Rifles, Stoke Rifles, City Rifles, Nelson Navals, and "H" Battery from this district, with volunteer companies from other parts of New Zealand.  Some Ianded at Opunake, and some at New Plymouth, and they junctioned at a place some miles from Parihaka.  Colonel Pitt had also under his command a large force of Armed Constabulary.  They advanced on Parihaka. and Colonel Pitt so conducted the operation that the Maoris were paralysed.  Tohu wanted to fight, but Te Whiti did not want to fight, although they were both ready to fight.  If Colonel Pitt had shown a weak point there would have been a fight, but he placed his troops in such a way that when the Maoris woke up one morning they found they could not move hand or foot, that the pah was surrounded.  The Armed Constabulary were behind the pah, the artillery in front, and the troops on the flanks. Colonel Pitt sent in a messenger to ask the Maoris what they were going to do, and an old Maori told him (the speaker) afterwards that they could not fight, as they did not know where to begin.  They could see the cannons in front of the pah, and they surrendered.  Colonel Pitt took their arms, and several prisoners, including Tohu and Te Whiti, who were brought to Nelson and held in custody at an inn a little way the other side of the cemetery.  That, said Colonel Grace, was the end of the Maori trouble.  No doubt some were present who had served under Colonel Pitt, and they would remember the esteem in which he was held.  Subsequently Colonel Pitt commanded the New Zealand contingent present at the celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  He was sure that if Colonel Pitt had lived he would have been pleased to see the defence forces of New Zealand on a sound footing.  In conclusion Colonel Grace asked them to remember that when they looked at the gates, that the deceased was just as true grit, as the pillars.

Mr C.J. Harley, president of the Nelson Law Society, testified to the worthiness of the late Albert Pitt, who he described as a good citizen, a good lawyer, a good soldier, and a good politician.  Perhaps to most of those present he was purely a name, but he had spent practically the whole of his life in Nelson (over forty years) and during that time he had made himself one of the most popular men who had ever lived.  There was no function that he did not attend, he was a man without false pride, and there was no one he was not, pleased to meet.  As a lawyer he came into prominence at the time of the Maungatapu murders in 1866, when he was engaged to defend one of the scoundrels.  His ability as a pleader on that occasion gained him notoriety.  Mr Harley then referred to the Parihaka campaign, and recalled the political struggles of the seventies and eighties, in which the deceased took a prominent part.  The gates, he said, would serve as a lasting monument of as fine a citizen as Nelson ever had."⁵

He was survived by his son and two daughters, his wife having died of a heart attack on 31 August 1899.⁶

While researching the history of Russell Street, for use on a historical interpretation panel for the Nelson City Council, I met Madge Wilson on 3 April 2017, at her home. This story is written from notes and a recording of our conversation, as we sat in the front window seat that overlooks Haven Road and Port Nelson.

Madge Wilson. Janet Bathgate

“I don’t understand new people moving in here and then a few months later complaining to the local authority about the Port noise. It’s a working Port and always has been. They should have paid more attention before purchasing. I bet the real estate agents keep quiet about it.”

Madge was raised with Port noise, being born at No.52 Russell Street in 1924. Her parents, May and John, bought the house in 1918. The house was first built in 1903, and sat prominently against the skyline at the top of the ridge. Madge had one sister and one brother, and when she was 16 a nephew, John, came to live with them and he was like a young brother to her as well.

No.52 Russell Street, built in 1903. The sign on the front of the home reads Haumoana (home beside the sea).

Back then the road up the hill was a rough dirt road. There were cottages clustered together near the bottom of the hill but the upper slopes were farmland. Local boys and girls played together all over the hills. They would roam over to the western side of Queens Road and look down into the back of the large Nelson Foundry building that was located on Wakefield Quay.

In those days Nelson Haven had not been reclaimed for Port and associated industrial use. The estuary came right up to a sea wall on Haven Road.

“We swam at the bottom of the hill, beside the sea wall opposite Franzen’s ship chandlery; there was an open space for small boats and it was good for a swim. At low tide we got in under Franzen’s¹ and would explore the pools for cockabully’s.”

Back then, boats would be seen anchored in the Haven and sometimes moored right up to the wall. A railway line to the Port ran around beside the road. The Wilson children attended Auckland Point School and later the respective Nelson colleges (Nelson College and Nelson College for Girls).

Looking down Russell Street from the veranda of No.52. Note the sections of the lower Russell Street houses extending right up to Queens Road, at left.

“The boys always looked after us when we were little. When we went to tech to do cooking and sewing in standards five and six, we had bikes by then. The boys would always meet us after cooking so they ate what we had made that day.

When I left school I went to work at Louisson's,²  Nelson premier womens’ wear store, and it was during this time that my friends and I were ‘Manpowered’ for the war effort. We went to Stanley Brook, way up the valley, to work in the tobacco. We worked very hard. The first time I went there was with a larger group of girls and the local M.P.’s wife Dorothy Atmore came and cooked for us until a cook could be arranged. The second time it was just with my friend Betty Henderson and we had to pump water and light a fire at night to do our cooking”.

At the end of World War II Madge went to Auckland to train as a nurse. Unfortunately she contracted tuberculosis (TB) and had many weeks in hospital followed by sick leave at home in Nelson. She was absent from training for so long that her nursing friends had moved on in their studies. Madge worked for a time in Nelson at Louissons before joining her friends on an overseas working holiday. They travelled by ship to England through the Suez Canal.

During her overseas adventure, Madge stayed often with her father’s relatives, in London, Cambridge and various European countries and doing office work that she learned quite quickly. One skill never mastered was shorthand, but by keeping the notebook well slanted towards her, Madge created a ‘long-hand, short-hand’ that got her by.

Russell Street from The Haven. No.52 can be seen prominently on the ridgetop skyline, sitting to the right of Russell Street. FN Jones Collection. Nelson Provincial Museum

Upon returning to New Zealand Madge finished her nursing training in Nelson, living at the Nurses Home. In 1965 she went to Wellington to carry out post-graduate maternity training and came back to work at Nelson Hospital.

"The hospital was my life. I worked there until my early sixties. It was a supportive place. Colleagues stood up for you and it was like family. I did theatre work and later social work.

Our father died in 1959 and that’s when I went home to look after our mother. Mother died in 1967 and left this home to my sister and I. I have lived here ever since, on my own. I like being by myself. People ask me if I am lonely but I am never lonely; I’m too busy to be lonely.

There was always a strong community feel here up until WW2. Before then there was the cluster of houses near the bottom and only a few at the top. Then things changed. The arrival of B.B.Jones, the developer and house builder, was quite significant. He built a lot of houses in Russell Street and around the hills. Things became more crowded; more people; more buying and selling. Children from the working class houses at the bottom of the street, when they grew up and married they were quick to move into homes further up the hill.

Most families for a long time had connections with the sea. Many ship’s captains and several harbourmaster’s lived around here. Gilbert Inkster used to be up there on Victoria Heights and at Christmas he played his bagpipes down his street and the neighbours formed a procession.

When the reclamation was being formed the boys would find materials to use for building huts and other uses – boxes, timber, that sort of thing. One day I was coming home and there were John and Ken’s legs under a huge box going up the hill. They couldn’t see where they were going and were stumbling about. Nephew John married one of the Hadfield girls. Their family run the Abel Tasman tourism business now.

This home has been altered slightly over the years. The veranda has been enclosed. That’s the warmest part of the house in winter because the sun is low and gets right inside. As soon as the sun comes up in winter it hits the sunroom and shines in all day long. The trees have grown up in front. Ken and father planted the largest of the two pohutukawa. I was five, so around 1929; it’s a listed heritage tree now.”

2017

With the outbreak of War in 1939, there was an urgent need for all primary produce and to introduce more products for home consumption and export. The Auckland-based Brown Barrett Company established a cannery in Picton to take advantage of the plentiful supply of pilchards in Queen Charlotte Sound and adjacent waters, the same small fish which brought the Perano family to the area many years earlier.

Brown Barretts Cannery in Picton. Marlborough Historical Society Inc.

The cannery was set up in the shed and grounds adjacent to the Holy Trinity Church in Devon Street. The equipment was very basic, an assembly of whatever could be located or made in the country. The cans were produced in Wellington, packed in boxes in which the canned product was eventually shipped from the works, and delivered to Picton by the Tamahine.

Once a canning line is established, the equipment can be used to can many products, and Brown Barretts encouraged farmers in the Wairau Valley to grow vegetables or fruit to supply the cannery, but only tomatoes were available at first. It is not certain when the cannery started; it is unlikely to have been earlier than the beginning of 1942. When there was a fall in the volume of the pilchard catches, other fish were tried, including eels from Lake Ellesmere (marketed as Kai Tuna) and shoal barracouta, sold as deep sea pike. All manner of New Zealand fish, including oysters and paua, were tried, and permission was obtained to trial both salmon and trout.

Fish pie using local cod, potato and various spices was canned but never got past the first ‘tasting.’ About 1946 the sale of frozen crayfish tails to America became wildly successful. Trial runs of canned whale meat for human consumption was made about 1948: a 45-ton humpback whale produced 5 tons of relatively light-coloured meat. At the cannery the meat was processed into suitable pieces for hand filling into cans, which were then topped up with brine producing a corned meat product. An alternative product was created by adding a small amount of onion oil to the can which then sold as corned whale steak and onion.

Brown Barretts Cannery in Picton. Marlborough Historical Society Inc.

The factory was losing up to 10% at the works, but the loss of product was a staggering 40% of the whale meat on inspection at arrival in the UK. The overall loss was catastrophic, but not picked up until the consignment arrived in the UK. By the time the factory commenced the 1950 whale meat run, production losses were well within acceptable limits, but the whale meat market had been lost. In the end the only profitable line was the frozen crayfish tails and that did not warrant retaining the factory, particularly as Nelson Fisheries had established a factory in Picton.

About 1954, the old canning works property was taken over by the J. A. Perano Company who, in conjunction with Crown Chemicals of Sydney, set up a works to produce whale oil products.

2017

Sardines, pilchards, herring – the famous ‘Picton Bloaters’ were variously called all of these names. From earliest settlement there were huge seasonal shoals of them in Queen Charlotte Sound, close to the town, so a thriving industry was established as early as the 1870s.

The Perano nets for catching Picton Bloaters. Picton Historical Society Inc.

Every few years huge numbers of the fish would strand themselves on the Picton shore, to the great disgust of the inhabitants. Local papers reported them as plagues, and they were dealt with by shovelling them on to punts and carting them out for dumping in the outer Sound. This dismayed the agricultural experts who believed they should be harvested as fertiliser.

Apparently when the shoals arrived in winter they were accompanied by huge flocks of gulls and gannets. In 1909 the Marlborough Express reported: “on Thursday last, during a high tide, large numbers of them found their way into the lagoon near the Domain bridge. Messrs Perano and Blake, fishermen, were on the alert, and each obtained a fine haul, so good indeed that several tons of fish were allowed to escape before the nets could be got ashore.”¹

There were a number of businesses working the sardines in Picton. John Heberley (son of the original ‘Worser’ Heberley) was catching and curing them from about 1872. A Mr Turner had a cannery from 1880, as did Norgrove Brothers, who smoked the fish in brine and sent them to Thompson Bros. in Dunedin.

The Norgrove fish curing factory was on the western side of Picton Harbour, and employed three or four boats. About 1885 Agostino Perano moved his family to Picton from Port Chalmers on behalf of Thompsons, and took over their plant, building up an extensive business here. His family netted the sardines from rowboats, mostly within eight km of Picton.

Picton bloaters on the beach. Picton Historical Society Inc.

The prime fish were smoked and sold locally – not gutted, just salted and strung on sticks and hung in the smokehouse. Smaller sardines were packed in wooden kegs and salted down. Later, John McManaway as a young man sometimes helped his brother who caught the fish for Brown Barrett’s cannery in Picton. “Just out in the Sound,” he told me, “and they had a big ring net and just set around the shoal. You’d see them at night time, because the fire in the water would show them up. Just set around this glow, and you’d get a hundred cases a night. This went on for years – beautiful fish. They only could take a hundred cases a night, and you’d shoot around a shoal and there might be two hundred cases in it. So you’d only dip out a hundred cases and let the rest go. They didn’t want to catch too many at once, because they were wasted.”

Are the big herring shoals still coming in? I asked this question at the Picton Department of Conservation office, and was told, ‘no one can remember seeing fish in Picton Harbour for many, many years in the quantities you are talking about.’

2017

Overlooking Picton township, showing the ships Edwin Fox and Maori, Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/2-031025-F.
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The Edwin Fox is a vessel of great cultural and historical value to New Zealand and, more specifically, Nelson. Built in Sulkea in the Ganges region of India in 1853 by shipbuilder Thomas Reeves, it has served as a troop transport, an immigrant ship, and a cargo ship. It now rests in Picton, where it is undergoing restoration work.

For the first few months  of its life, the ship  was an East Indiaman, sailing for the East India Company, but it was soon to be chartered  to the British Government. The Crimean War had broken out in October 1853 and the Edwin Fox’s first mission was to transport 496 troops of the 51^st French Regiment to the Baltic Sea. The Edwin Fox was deployed as a transport vessel by the British between England, the Crimea and Malta until 1855, when was purchased by Duncan Dunbar and refitted to carry civilian passengers and cargo. Her first voyage as a trade ship was made on February 14, 1856 to the Southern Ocean from London, carrying cargo and five passengers, operating not very successfully as a trader. Between 1856 and 1858 the ship was engaged in the slave trade, transporting Chinese coolies to Cuba.

In 1858, she was once again chartered to the British Government, this time transporting convicts from England to Western Australia. Between 1858 and 1872 she made numerous trips between England and the East carrying mixed cargoes, including rice, coffee, cotton, cinnamon and general cargo, and in 1861 and then between 1865 and 1868 she made five voyages carrying troops between England and Bombay. During this time, her ownership changed on several occasions and in 1867 she was converted to a barque - slower than a sailing ship, but requiring fewer crew.  Her last voyage as an Anglo-Indian trader was in 1872, following a particularly disastrous voyage back to England the year before, which culminated in a collision in the Channel.

Ship Edwin Fox at Picton 190-?], Alexander Turnbull Library, Louis John Daroux Collection,  1/1-039355-G.
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In 1873 the Edwin Fox became an immigrant ship. She was chartered to the Shaw Savill & Company to carry immigrants from England to New Zealand as part of the assisted migration scheme started by New Zealand Prime Minister Sir Julius Vogel. She made four voyages between 1873 and 1876, carrying a total of 751 passengers. These voyages weren’t without turmoil.  During the first voyage to Lyttelton, she hit a gale that badly damaged her and the ship’s doctor was killed after being impaled on a metal drifting on to rocks. Her last two voyages to New Zealand, in 1878 to Nelson and in 1880 to Lyttelton, were plagued by similar problems but she delivered all her passengers safely to New Zealand shores.

Edwin Fox fitted out as a freezer Edwin Fox Society
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During the 1880s the steamship was rapidly making the sail ship obsolete. This was not the case, however, for the Edwin Fox. The mutton industry was booming in New Zealand and there was a shortage of refrigerated storage for the mutton before it was exported. The Edwin Fox was refitted in London with refrigeration equipment to store mutton carcasses on board while awaiting transport. She made her last journey between England and New Zealand in June 1885 when she arrived in Dunedin.  She was then towed to Picton on 12 January 1897, where she continued to serve as a refrigerator hold until 1900 when the Picton Freezing Works were built.  When her refrigeration equipment was found to be beyond repair it was removed and she was given to Picton Freezing Works in return for a meat-carrying contract to England.

In 1905 she became a landing platform and coal hulk. In May 1965 Norman Brayshaw founded the Edwin Fox Restoration Society, and purchased the Edwin Fox for one shilling. The Edwin Fox was moved to Shakespeare Bay where she lay unattended for 19 years until being pumped out and refloated; alas with the loss of many artefacts. Various groups made efforts to move the Edwin Fox from Picton to other parts of the country, but the cost was prohibitive.

On December 4 1986, as the Edwin Fox was towed into Picton Harbour; the Inter-Island ferry, the Arahura, came into view. Marlborough maritime law states that all shipping must give way to the ferries, but on this historic occasion, the ferry waited for the Edwin Fox to pass. The ship was moved to a berth in the harbour while a dry dock was built to house her in her final resting place. This was completed in May 1999, and the Edwin Fox was moved into it on 18 May 1999. A roof was installed in 2001 to protect the ship from the elements and extensive chemical treatment undertaken to preserve the wood.

Edwin Fox Maritime Museum Picton. Edwin Fox Society
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The Heritage New Zealand has given the Edwin Fox a category 1 classification in recognition of her huge significance to New Zealand’s maritime history.The Edwin Fox had a magnificent career on the world’s seas, carrying troops, cargo, commodities and immigrants from Europe to New Zealand. Her condition today is testament to the hard work and dedication of the many people who worked tirelessly to restore her and to the quality materials used to build her over 150 years ago.

Troy Stade is a year 11 Nelson College student. This essay won the College Year 11 history prize in 2009, for which Troy received an Edwin Fox Trophy.

Edited with corrections, sourced from Teak & Tide,  2015

Growing Sarau from the German Roots up

The 12,000 mile voyage of the St. Pauli from Hamburg, Germany to Nelson, New Zealand, in 1843 resulted in the eventual establishment of the village of Sarau in the Moutere Valley, led by four Lutheran missionaries. The determination of the German immigrants led to an attempt to call Upper Moutere home; however, limited understanding of New Zealand conditions resulted in its failure. But their determination paid off in their second attempt to establish a community in Moutere. 170 years later, Moutere has retained its German roots due to Sarau's success, with many residents being descendants of the first settlers. The community's success is celebrated to this day, with the Sarau Festival occurring annually and the Hans Eggers family reunion of March 2013. German settlement in Sarau made a big contribution to the boom of the agricultural industry in the Nelson region - settlement which began partly as a chance for people to escape militaristic Germany and begin a new life in New Zealand.

In the 1800s, 20,000 Germans were leaving Germany annually, to escape¹ poverty and oppression, which was causing rural families to abandon their homes. The propaganda generated by the New Zealand Company was directed at Germans, because they were seen as 'persevering, industrious and sober'.²  They were enticed with free passage and the prospect of work and independence. On 12th May, 1839, New Zealand Company representatives from Germany left on the barque Tory from London, sailing to Nelson to buy land, and dividing 80,000 hectares of land into 1000 allotments. The settlement of the St. Pauli passengers was originally planned for the Chatham Islands, but after realising that it was an illegal transaction, New Zealand Company agent, Johann Nicholas Beit, persuaded future settlers to consider Nelson instead. Because of the Germans' reputation, their arrival in Nelson was well received, as the Nelson Examiner reported, "No immigrants are more valuable than the Germans and we hail the announcement of the intended cultivation of the vine with unfeigned pleasure."³ The settlers' hopes of Nelson were high, as 116 German immigrants set out for Nelson on the 380 ton St. Pauli, on 26th December 1842,  after a week's harbouring in the Elbe due to poor weather.

Missonaries' route to Upper Moutere - Drawn by Julie Raharuhi 1993
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The Missionaries
The presence of the four missionaries, led by J.C. Riemenschneider, was well-received. They gave school lessons onboard and ministered five weddings whilst at sea to escape marriage fees. One man, whose presence was not as welcome, was Johann Beit, being the only capitalist onboard the ship amongst middle-class freemen from a range of professions. This was only the start of discontent, with Beit taking it upon himself to halve passengers' rations due to seasickness, persecuting any protestors by clamping them in irons. Missionary Heine described Beit as, "a fat, arrogant man."⁴  On arrival in Nelson on 16th June 1843 Beit refused to employ St. Pauli immigrants, after abdicating his responsibilities as a Company agent and setting himself up as a merchant. 

The 'North German Missionary Society' had purchased a section to start a Lutheran mission for Māori, however the section was in Upper Moutere, further out than expected. This may have been seen as an annoyance but, as there were few Māoris to be found in Nelson, missionaries Wohlers and Trost made the journey to Moutere to survey their section.

On 29th June 1843 Wohlers and Trost were shown around their section by William Dickenson, one of Moutere's first landowners and, a month later, the missionary house was built with the objective of cultivating potatoes to support themselves. At the time Moutere was not favoured as a settlement, due to unsuitable swampland. Local Māori only used Moutere for seasonal food gathering and communication routes, and the only Māori the missionaries came across in Moutere were those they traded with. Wohlers stated how ironic it was that 'instead of preaching to the Maori, they conducted business transactions with them.'⁵

Without a church the missionaries took mass at their section on 10th September 1843. This helped to maintain settlers' morale as they coped with unfavourable conditions, poor soil and floods. Floods were common, destroying crops which already proved difficult to grow. A drought in mid-spring 1844 caused further problems, however the laying of the Lutheran church's foundation on 16th June caused a rebirth of confidence in the settlement. This  was soon overturned, however, with three of the missionaries (besides Heine) leaving Nelson for better opportunities. The flood of October 1844 caused settlers to vacate Moutere, leaving for either Waimea, the North Island or Australia within sixteen months. Heine thought the failure of Moutere was the fault of Beit, due to his refusal of employment and promise that a Moutere settlement was possible.'⁶

St. Paul's Lutheran Church - Present day
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On 1st September 1844, the Skiold docked in Nelson from Hamburg, with 135 German immigrants.  Led by Fedor and Carl Kelling, these agents were described as 'kind and generous benefactors.'⁷ They joined the Ranzau settlement (which is now called Hope). The Bensemanns were among the St. Pauli migrants who had settled in Ranzau, proving to be an asset to the German community. In 1849, Heine exchanged the Lutheran site in Ranzau for two sections in Moutere, entrusting an 80 hectare site to the Bensemanns with seven years to repay him. The next July the Bensemanns moved to Moutere, constructing a house and, in 1853, adding a two-story wing which still stands as the Moutere Inn. An annual £5 bush licence allowed the accommodation of visitors, which provided a stable income for the Bensemanns once the Moutere highway was redirected through the village, which was called Sarau after a northern German village. On 5th January 1859, visitor, Sir Julius Von Haast said of the inn: "Instead of the uncomfortable English bar, we had a cheerful typical German guest room before us...".⁸ The Bensemanns were vital to Sarau's development.  Cordt Bensemann's was on the school committee and second in command to Carl Kelling of the Moutere branch of Nelson Volunteer Corps. His daughter, Anna, married Pastor Heine in 1849 and aided the sick and elderly in Sarau.

The Heines moved to Sarau in 1853 building a fifteen roomed house, the largest serving as a church and classroom. All lessons were taught in German until the 1900s, as all 24 pupils were German. Some of them came from Neudorf and Rosenthal, within walking distance of Sarau.⁹ School was held at the Heine residence until 1856, when a school was built next door - a school which also accommodated English pupils. The Examiner reported on the school on 6th August 1864:  'all children are of German origin...' and later on reporting, "it is very possible to spare helpless children many tears."¹⁰ However, church services continued to be held at Heine's home until 22nd February 1860, when the community met to discuss a church building. On 25th May 1863, this matter was finalised with plans to build a church on thirty acres of land, which the Lutheran Trust Board donated to Sarau in 1853. On 2nd November 1864, the foundations for St. Paul's church were laid and, as a celebration, Sarau paid £25 for a 250 kilogram German church bell, named 'Anna', after Anna Heine. The bell rang every Saturday to mark the end of the working week, and has continued to ring since 1878 to call Lutherans to service.

Moutere Band 1892. -Acknowledgements to Bensemann.org
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After the unification of the German Empire in 1871, the settlement of Sarau received few additional immigrants, but the community continued to prosper, with sawmills and flax-mills providing employment for men and materials for farming. The integration of Sarau with the outside world continued, as reported by the Examiner on 5th January 1859, with the opening of a six mile road between Motueka and Sarau, with a three mile dirt track connecting the unfinished portion.¹¹ Whilst this enabled travel between districts, communication via telephone was not. A correspondent from Sarau wrote a complaint to the Nelson Evening Mail on 12th August 1882 stating that, "a government official came amongst us at Upper Moutere with the intelligence that the government were willing...to place us in communication with the outer world by telephone, provided that the inhabitants erected a suitable office..."¹² As an office had been constructed, they were displeased with the lack of communication. There was also no electricity until 1948.

'In memory of those from the district who made the Supreme Sacrifice 1939-1945 war. Acknowledgments to NZ History Online
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World Wars
World War I had a significant impact on German descendants inhabiting Sarau, with suspicion coming from outside the district, pressuring descendants to declare their patriotism for Britain. Whilst those living in Sarau had been there for thirty years before WWI¹³, and the men fought for New Zealand, they were declared as 'enemy aliens'. This was seen as necessary, for 'better conduct of war' and to control those who presented a 'menace to society.'¹⁴

The Patriotic League assisted with the control of Germans, with a Nelson group making an attempt to have all people of German origin imprisoned. Newspapers received letters from anti-Germans, one stating, "A German is a German if he has any of that blood in his veins, naturalised or unnaturalised."¹⁵ National discrimination resulted in families anglicising their names, and alsothe renaming of Sarau village, which became 'Upper Moutere' in 1917. Furthermore, the abuse led to membership of the Lutheran church dropping, ceasing to rise again until after WWII.  German was also being dropped as the language of service in 1905. Even though Moutere gave a wartime contribution of £1891, 7 shillings and fourpence¹⁶ the district continued to suffer much abuse, causing a dramatic decline in German cultural practices.

Agriculture
The first settlers in Upper Moutere played a significant role in developing agriculture. Tobacco had been grown commercially since 1888, but in 1930-60 the industry thrived with machinery eliminating hand weeding in the 1950s which, whilst reducing wages, increased mechanisation and capitalisation, bringing Moutere into the modern era. During 1914, 55 of the 86 Moutere families¹⁷ were hop growers, however the prohibitionist movement of the era decreased hop manufacturing, which did not pick up again until the 1960s. 

Bensemann Memorial Upper Moutere. Photo by author
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In contrast to a report from the 1800s that Germans were not able to succeed in viticulture, Weingut Seifrieds' vineyard was established in Moutere in 1973, attracted by the gentle northfacing slopes. In 1895, the Australian viticulturist, Romeo Bragato, wrote that 'the oak tees he saw in Moutere were the best outside of Europe, therefore would be suitable for wine casks if New Zealand were to become a winery-based country,'¹⁸ but this advice was not taken up, although now Moutere is renown for the quality of its wine. Nowadays, many descendants of the original settlers are farmers in Moutere, continuing the district's reputation for crops and wine.

Sarau was founded with limited knowledge of the district,  which many blamed on the New Zealand Company's inadequate agent, Beit. But the settlers learned from their mistakes and overcame many difficulties under the leadership of Pastor Heine, accomplishing what previous settlers had not. Throughout both World Wars, Moutere remained faithful to New Zealand, donating more to the wartime fund than any other district nationally, even when suffering abuse from the public. Nowadays, Moutere has a national reputation for its agricultural produce; the fertile slopes are in marked contrast to the swamplands of the 1800s. The German settlers have played a major part in this transformation.

Jade Le Petit, Nelson College for Girls, 2013

"In the month of April, 1864, Nelson was aroused from the most depressed commercial state....to the glittering prospects of a well-paying goldfield...situated in the Province of Marlborough," reported Lucas's Almanac in 1864.¹  At the peak of the gold rush, approximately 6000 gold prospectors were working around Canvastown and 25,000 oz of gold were found in the first year of prospecting.²

Goldmining Companies 1882-1889, transcribed from the New Zealand Gazettes
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In August 1863, the Marlborough Provincial Council offered bonuses for the discovery of gold and coal in the financially struggling province.  In April 1864, John Wilson, Joshua and George Rutland and Hirram Harris, found an encouraging amount of gold at Wilson's Beach beside the Wakamarina River. ³

Looking up the Wakamarina Valley from the Deep Creek area. Marlborough Historical Society - Marlborough Museum Archives Click image to enlarge

Wilson and his party successfully claimed the bonus and are reported to have found 54 oz  (worth £210) in their first few days of prospecting.⁴ Thousands soon flocked to the area from Nelson, the Wairau and goldfields further afield.

Lucas's Almanac⁵ reported the scene on the Maungatapu Track: "As I returned to Nelson yesterday, the 32 miles of road teemed with parties....I saw two young lads, one about 12 years, the other say 10 years old; and at the foot of the hill, I met a man with an umbrella in his hand, and swag at back."

 The Wakamarina was proclaimed a goldfield on 11 June 1864 and the gold rush transformed Havelock into a bustling boomtown in the space of two months.⁶  Tents sprang up at Havelock, Canvastown and settlements up the Wakamarina River.   Publicans and merchants  arrived to assess business prospects and accommodation houses and stores mushroomed.⁷

The All Nations sluicing claim in the Wakamarina, 1900 Shareholders watch the operation in action. Marlborough Historical Society - Marlborough Museum Archives. 2009.067.0013
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The Wakamarina yielded 5000oz of gold in the first four to five weeks.  Gold was steadily recovered from the river claims, mostly using sluice boxes.  However, while miners continued to arrive during the winter, many failed to secure claims, some left disillusioned, and floods drove others away.⁸

On 16 January, 1865, the Havelock Mail reported: "It cannot be concealed that the thousands who visited us in the last eight months have left the province altogether. The people of Havelock are now at their wits end what to do." ⁹

The Wakamarina's easy gold was worked out within a year and the gold rush was soon over. After the rush subsided, mining was increasingly dominated by shareholder companies.  For example, in January 1880, a small local syndicate formed the Wakamarina Hydraulic Sluicing Company which held a lease for 10 acres near Wilson's Beach. However the gold was patchy and the company was sold in August 1881.¹⁰

In the 1890s, dredging mania swept New Zealand.  Although several dredges operated in the Wakamarina River, the returns were generally mediocre.  The most long-lived dredge was the Golden Point Dredge, which was commissioned in July 1901 and worked the river between Muttontown Creek and Quayle Stream. There were some good results from dredging, but returns were variable and the  by 1904, the Golden Point Dredging Company  had lost about £10,000.¹¹

Golden Bar - Walter Fisk's boarding house at the Golden Bar battery in the Wakamarina Goldfield (c.1910), Marlborough Historical Society - Marlborough Museum Archives,  copied 1964 from collection of W.H. Fisk
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From the late 1860s, the search was underway for the quartz reefs from which the alluvial gold had been shed. The Golden Bar at Dead Horse Creek was discovered in 1870, but the reef was not systematically worked until 1910 when a battery was constructed by the Dominion Consolidated Development Company.¹²

Holga Rasmussen and Joe Grigg working on the claim at Cleyne’s Flat on the Pelorus side of the Wakamarina River. There is a tramline behind the race for wheeling out the stones. Marlborough Historical Society - Marlborough Museum Archives

The battery's stampers pulverized the quartz mixed with water into a paste and the gold was extracted using mercury. During World War 1, demand for scheelite  increased the profitability of the mine. The Golden Bar workforce grew from about 12 in 1910, to nearly 100 men five years later, and a small township sprang up near the battery. Over 12 years, nearly 14,000 oz of gold (£55,233) and 440 tonnes of scheelite (£58,458) were extracted.¹³

Nobody knows exactly how much gold came out of the Wakamarina, but records show 44,687 oz were extracted from the alluvial diggings and 17,000 oz  were extracted from the quartz diggings.¹⁴

Some gold mining definitions ¹⁵

• Battery- a crushing device with heavy rods (stamps).
• Flume- a channel usually of wood for conveying water from a stream to a mining site.
• Hydraulic sluicing - using water under considerable pressure to break down gravel, with the gold recovered in cradles and sluice boxes in the tail race.
• Scheelite- calcium tungstate found in quartz, the main source of tungsten used in steel manufacturing.
• Sluice box- a long, inclined trough with ripples in the bottom which trap gold when material is washed through.
• Tailrace- a channel that carries waste water from a claim or mine.

 2009

The crowd of Nelsonians gathered at The Botanics one May day in 1870 had no idea that they were witnessing the birth of a New Zealand tradition, rugby..... 

The 1873 Nelson Rugby Football Club. The Nelson Provincial Museum, Print Collection, 290552
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The first recognised game of rugby played in New Zealand took place on Saturday, May 14, 1870 between a Nelson College side and the Nelson Football Club. A crowd of around 200, including “a fair sprinkling of ladies and a goodly number of the opposite sex,” gathered at The Botanics to watch a new version of football, brought to New Zealand by Charles Monro.¹

The term football was used to cover many versions of a team game in which a ball was kicked. The move into rugby is said to have come when a student of Rugby School in England first picked up the ball and ran with it in 1823.² This crucial difference was adopted first by the school, and then universally, apparently because the school was the first to publish its rules, in 1845.³

Charles John Monro, 1930, [founder of Rugby Union in New Zealand], The Nelson Provincial Museum, Cooper-Sharp Collection, 223693/9
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Charles Monro, son of the then Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament, Sir David Monro, has been termed the “father of New Zealand rugby”.⁴ He played rugby as a student at Christ College, Finchley, England, and introduced the  rules  to the Nelson Football Club in January 1870. He suggested a match be played against Nelson College, whose headmaster, Rev. F.C. Simmons, was himself a former student of Rugby School, as were his two predecessor principals. This led to the historic match four months later.⁵

Each team had 18 players, a number agreed by the captains before the match, made up of 10 forwards, three half-backs, three three-quarters and two fullbacks.⁶ The college team was decked out in tight-fitting shirts and blue caps, while the “town” team sported street clothes, having no particular uniform.⁷

The Colonist of May 17 reported the “football” match, describing attributes of the game that signalled its difference from the traditional versions of football. “Now some player runs with it (the ball, apparently oval) and a general scrimmage ensues: it is all shove, pull, rush and roll about in a confused mass till ‘down’ is cried, and away the ball goes again till perchance it gets in touch or caught.” Later in the report, readers were told “the ball is ‘touched down’ behind the goal.”⁸

The town team won the game two - nil and everyone went home, apparently unaware of the significance of the spectacle: the first game of rugby in New Zealand had just been played.

Nelson College Rugby team 1876, Nelson College
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But, while the 1870 game is the first recognised game of rugby in the country, there are indications in the 1909 Nelson College Register of a rugby-like game being played as early as 1860. At this time the college was in temporary premises in Manuka Street, just four years after its establishment.

Students were taught the new game by two Anglican clergymen in Nelson at the time, Robert Codrington and Henry Turton, both Rugby School old boys. Records of the 1860 match, by a Nelson College old boy using the pen name “Scrum”, refer to “[players] down like ninepins” and “[the ball] over the bar”. This indicates a game like the one played at Rugby at the time. This sport did not become popular until a much later date,⁹ however.

It was much later that the game played in Nelson on 14 May 1870 game was officially recognised as the first organised game of rugby in New Zealand, so making Nelson the birthplace of NZ rugby.

[2008]

Re-enactment of the first game of Rugby, 2011

As part of the Rugby World CupGame On Festival in 2011, a re-enactment of the first game of Rugby was organised by Nelson City Council. The 18 a-side game, played at the Botanics on 20th September, 2011  re-enacted the original match between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Club. The Rugby Club team, captained by Chris Pugh, included 15 current players and 10 retired players; the Nelson College team was their current First XV. The game was played according to the "Rugby Laws"[PDF] for 1870, as introduced by Charles Monro.

Watch the game on Youtube.

Albert Edward Cresswell, 1882-1916, was the fifth of ten children belonging to William Daniel and Elizabeth Fanny (née St. John) Cresswell of Stoke.  Albert’s father was a gardener and worked for the Marsden family at Isel House.  At one time the Cresswell family lived in Isel Lodge, on Main Road Stoke, somewhere near the gates to Isel Park.  Albert, like his father, was a gardener.

Albert Edward Cresswell
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With the outbreak of World War 1, Albert enlisted on 15 December 1914 and became 6/1500 Private Cresswell of the 1^st Canterbury Regiment’s 12^th (Nelson) Company.  His description on enlistment states his height as 5’ 5 ½”, weight 136 lb, chest-measurement 33-37” with dark hair and complexion, and blue eyes.  On 14 February 1915, he sailed from Wellington for Egypt with the NZEF’s 3^rd Reinforcements aboard the Tahiti (HMNZT 18).

Albert disembarked at Suez on 26 March and joined the Canterbury Infantry Battalion in the Dardanelles on 4 May.  Four days later Albert was wounded in action and admitted to the 17^th General Hospital in Alexandria on 12 May.  The gunshot wound to his thigh necessitated just over a month’s stay in hospital.

Albert (left) with his tent mates. On the reverse of a card sent to his brother
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When he was recovering in Egypt, Albert sent a postcard back to his older brother William (who was a veteran of the Boer War).  On the front of the postcard was this photo that he had taken with his tent mates.  Albert is standing on the left.

This is what Albert wrote:

July 4^th 1915
Dear Bro Will
I am putting this in with the album to save envelopes. I had this taken with my tent mates here at the base. There is none of them Nelson boys – two of them are from Christchurch and the other is from Auckland. With best wishes from your old Bro Albert to Bessie & yourself & the kiddies.

By 16 June Albert was sufficiently recovered to be attached to the NZ Advance Base Depot at Mustapha where he remained for just under two months.  On 11 August, aboard the SS Alnwick Castle, he returned to the Dardanelles.  Unfortunately, he was soon sick again.  His condition deteriorated to such an extent that by 19 September he was admitted to the No.1 Canadian Stationary Hospital at Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos.  Some six weeks later, on 28 October, Albert was transferred to London’s King George Hospital.  On recovery, 12 January 1916, Albert was attached to the NZ Base Depot at Hornchurch just outside London, before rejoining the Canterbury Infantry Regiment in Ismailia on 1 March.  Following a short stay in Egypt, Albert next found himself embarking on the Franconia for France on 6 April.

The Cresswell family outside their home - Broadgreen Cottage, 277 Nayland Road, Stoke - c 1893: Gertrude, William, Daniel (father), Reginald, Albert (leaning on a chair), Lilian (seated), Edith and Fanny (mother). Albert’s younger brother, Reginald George (63114), also served in World War 1 from July 1917 to October 1919. Albert’s older brother, William (1159) was a trooper in the Boer War along with another man from Stoke, William Stud Bovey.
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From this point on Albert would have been very much in the front line of action on the Western Front with the 1^st Battalion of the Canterbury Infantry Brigade. 

From chapter VII of The History of the Canterbury Regiment, N.Z.E.F. 1914 – 1919 we learn that:

“Meanwhile the 1^st Brigade had been in Divisional reserve, and the 1^st Canterbury Battalion had on the 14^th (September) moved from Fricourt to bivouacs at Mametz Wood.  During the morning of the 15^th, it provided parties for carrying to the forward dumps: but in the afternoon it moved forward to Carlton Trench, and in the evening still further forward to Worcester, Seaforth, and Rifle trenches, between the two Longueval-High Wood roads, where it was in support of the 2^nd Brigade.  The following morning the battalion was ordered forward to the trenches north-west of Flers preparatory to making an attack on Goose Alley in the afternoon.  On arrival at Flers, however, these orders were cancelled and the battalion relieved the 3^rd Battalion of the 3^rd brigade and the 2^nd Wellington battalion in the trenches north and north-west of Flers.”

This account of the action at Flers then goes on to say:

“The 1^st Canterbury battalion spent the afternoon of the 16^th in digging a trench from the right flank of the Wellingtons to its own right flank in the work known as “Box and Cox”, on the east of the Flers-Ligny Thilloy road.  The battalion remained on front of Flers throughout the 17^th, being shelled during the afternoon and right up to the following dawn.”

Albert’s B.103 Casualty Form simply states that he was killed in action in the 3^rd battle of the Somme at Flers on 17 September 1916, after being wounded the previous day and then returned to duty.

2014

The Fifeshire was one of the first New Zealand Company immigrant ships to arrive in the Nelson region; on its maiden voyage from London it carried 159 immigrants to New Zealand, 17 died in transit from fever on board the ship.¹ The Fifeshire carried many famous Nelson names, such as the Poynter family.

The Fifeshire, wrecked on Fifeshire/Arrow Rock.
http://freepages.genealogy.
rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ourstuff/Fifeshire.htm
Click to enlarge

The Fifeshire was the first of the four New Zealand Company settler ships to arrive in Nelson; Lord Auckland, Mary Ann and The Lloyds, along with the Fifeshire, all left England on the same day.² The day the Fifeshire arrived, through the original entrance to the Nelson harbour, is the day celebrated as Nelson Anniversary Day, the 1 February 1842.³

It arrived in Nelson on the 1st February 1842⁴ and discharged its passengers and cargo before being cleared to leave for China on the 27th February 1842.⁵ Captain F.G Moore oversaw the leaving of port as James Cross the regular pilot, was unwell.  The wind was very light, so the Fifeshire did not reach the entrance till the tide had been ebbing for some time. The Fifeshire had almost passed through the narrow entrance when the wind failed and the tide carried her onto the Arrow Rock. ⁶

The Fifeshire lay right across the Rock, the Fore being dry, and the aft in dead low water. It was a disaster for the new colony.
It rested on two ledges at her fore and main chains ( the broad thick planks projecting horizontally from a ship's side at her mast.)⁷

The Fifeshire could not withstand the strain on her back, and it was badly broken. On Tuesday May 10th 1842 J.W Saxton remarked in his diary "We could see under some rocks near the entrance [To the Haven] The Fifeshire, a vessel which had just been lost there"⁸. J.W Saxton was a famous painter, and came on the ship Clifford to Nelson.

Men scavenged the Fifeshire for materials to establish the new colony. On 12th October 1842, J.W Saxton remarked in his diary "Authorized Mr Fox to buy from a blacksmith an iron bolt from the Fifeshire as an axle."⁹, and on the 30th June 1845 he remarked "saw men at work on the Fifeshire which is said still to contain enough iron to build a brig."¹⁰

The new colony had problems finding raw materials, such as iron with which to make the tools needed for construction, and wagons. Pieces of the Fifeshire were sold piecemeal to the settlers.¹¹ To finally lift the Fifeshire from Arrow rock Mr Poynter, an important member of the Colony, brought floats for 10 pounds apiece.¹²

On the 3rd of September 1846, the Fifeshire was lifted by the tide and the tanks from the Arrow Rock.¹³ It was then broken up on what is now called Haulashore Island and stripped for useful materials. For many years Arrow Rock wore the chains of the Fifeshire and the colonists looked on the rock and remembered the Fifeshire's fate. ¹⁴

Childs chair, made by Samuel Bryan Johnson. Broadgreen House Archives (Chair in Collection)
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The Fifeshire provided a lot of resources for the new colony. Mr Poynter, afterwards a magistrate, was the purchaser and he is said to have done very well out of the venture¹⁵. The early colonists were great recyclers of the materials from the Fifeshire: some timbers being used for firewood¹⁶ others for the use of furniture. Broadgreen House have one such piece of furniture made from the Fifeshire timber.  All the iron was stripped from the Fifeshire and used to make practical things for the colony.

The Fifeshire's mainmast was used to construct the font for the St Thomas's Church in Motueka.

The Fifeshire also provided a point of contention for the new colony. On Friday February 3rd 1846 J.W Saxton remarked in his diary "[Captain Wakefield] said he was not very prudent to put in the wreck of the Fifeshire but it could be taken out in England if they pleased." The above quote is what he wrote about a painting of the Nelson haven in 1846, with the Fifeshire of course, still being stuck on Arrow Rock at the time.¹⁷ Captain Wakefield did not want such a blemish on the settlement, so a decision was made not to paint the Fifeshire in.

In 1958, a painting by M.Cooke titled "Fifeshire Rock and Bay" caused much argument. Many declared the rock's name was "Arrow". ¹⁸ But today, the rock is commonly referred to as Fifeshire Rock. The reason for the two names can be traced back to the arrival of the first immigrant ships to Nelson. The storeship Arrow was the first of the immigrant ships to arrive in Nelson, and the Arrow gave its name to the rock ¹⁹. Today, it is commonly called "Fifeshire Rock".

Andrew Marriott, Nayland College, 2010

Blenheim and the Wairau floodplain have experienced at least one damaging flood every decade since European settlement. In the early days, floods occurred so often and flood control works were so ineffective, that Blenheim was known as the Beaver or Beavertown. ¹

Flooding in the centre of Blenheim, with the Marlborough Express office in the background. Marlborough Historical Society - Marlborough Museum Archives. 998.165.0007
Click to enlarge

The size of Blenheim's floods was virtually impossible to estimate because they were uncontained and widespread.

The main floodwaters which inundated the Wairau Plain came from storms sweeping across the Richmond Ranges and dumping heavy rainfall in the various tributaries (such as the Goulter, Northbank and Waihopai Rivers) of the Wairau River.²

An earthquake in 1848  lowered the bed of the Wairau Lagoons by 1.5 metres which increased tidal movement of water, improved navigability over the Wairau Bar and provided better boat access into the Wairau and Opawa Rivers.³

Trading boats went up the tidal Opawa River and this trading post became the town of Blenheim - at the confluence of  the Taylor, Fairhall, Omaka and Upper Opawa Rivers  and their floodwaters.⁴

The Wairau plain was regularly inundated. Major floods occurred in 1868 and 1923 when an unusual weather pattern caused the Taylor and Wairau Rivers to simultaneously flood.

 In February 1868, rain fell from the South East for 20 hours and then the wind changed to North West and rain fell for another day. "From hill to hill there stretched an unbroken sheet of water, which swept on towards the sea, carrying....dead and drowning sheep, ripened corn sheaves and even the goods and chattels of the waterlogged farmers."⁵  

Market Place in flood [David Burns, saddler, holding broom]. Looking from Market St. N. towards Government Buildings. Marlborough Historical Society - Marlborough Museum Archives. 0000.900.0810
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With the demise of the Marlborough Provincial Council in 1874, several river boards  (including the Spring Creek and Lower Wairau river boards) were established on the floodplain to look after the interests of "their" districts.⁶  However there were many years of quarrelling between the rival river boards, which often carried out work detrimental to the settlers on the opposite sides of the river.⁷

Floods in 1904, 1911 and 1916 were large and damaging  in spite of intensive river works carried out from 1877 to 1902.⁸ Something had to be done. Coping with the flood menace was a huge drain on local body coffers, with £12,000 of flood protection works wiped out in one event.⁹

In 1917, a Government Commission recommended that one authority should be appointed to control the whole of the river and its tributaries.¹⁰ In July 1921, The Wairau River Board was formed and the problem of flood prevention could at last be tackled for the benefit of the whole plain.¹¹

The Wairau River Board (1921 to 1956) began a comprehensive plan for the rivers of the  floodplain. Stop banks were raised and moved back within a widened floodway on the lower Wairau River. Further up river, groynes were constructed to hold the river bank.  The Fairhall river was diverted into the Opawa, and the course of the Taylor River through Blenheim was straightened. Although reduced, flooding still continued. ¹²

With increased government powers and subsidies, the Marlborough Catchment Board took over river control between 1956 and 1989. A new river scheme included the Taylor flood detention dam, the Wairau Diversion, a guide wall at the Wairau River mouth and extensive stop bank upgrading. ¹³ 

Cat stuck on the roof of the Tuamarina Dairy Factory during the 1983 flood. Marlborough Historical Society - Marlborough Museum Archives
Click image to enlarge

Marlborough residents were reminded of the might of the Wairau again in 1983. Heavy rain saw the river rise steadily on Saturday 9 July. The flood rapidly developed and early on Sunday, stop banks overflowed and were breached near Tuamarina causing extensive flooding. Life and property were at risk, with some evacuees helicoptered from the roof of the local cheese factory. The flooding caused stock losses and widespread damage.  The Marlborough Catchment Board learnt a lot from this flood, but maintained there would have been much greater damage if the Wairau Valley Scheme had not existed. ¹⁴

The Marlborough District Council took over river responsibilities in 1992 and set about another major upgrade to the Wairau system, still continuing to this day. 

Story written, 2009, by Joy Stephens and Brin Williman, Rivers & Drainage Engineer Marlborough District, with involvement in Marlborough river works for more than 20 years.

Marlborough's East Coast earthquakes

Marlborough’s East Coast is cross hatched with fault lines so the large earthquakes of 2013 and 2016 should not have been surprising, although it is thought the 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake ruptured a record 21 faults.¹ The region sits on a set of major faults:  the Wairau, Awatere, Clarence and Hope faults; and has recorded a number of significant quakes over time.²

Marlborough Fault system by Mikenorton - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10742220

1848

The first European settlers in the Awatere region had just started to make themselves at home when an estimated magnitude 7.1 earthquake woke them at 1.40am on Monday 16 October, 1848. Thomas Arnold was visiting Frederick Weld at Flaxbourne  and reported being woken up as his bed shook violently from side to side.  “….every plank in the house creaked and rattled, the bottles and glasses in the next room kept up a sort of infernal dance…..When the shock was past, there came a few spasmodic heavings like long-drawn breaths, and then all was still,” he wrote to his mother in England.³

Henry Godfrey Gouland, early settler and magistrate. N. Brayshaw. Marlborough Museum and Archives. From his diary: October 16, 1848 - Awoke at 2.30a.m. by the great earthquake. House thrown off piles.

The earthquake lowered the bed of the Wairau Lagoons by 1.5 metres which increased tidal movement of water and provided better boat access into the Wairau and Opawa Rivers.

There has been some disagreement about whether the quake was a rupture of the Awatere or Wairau Fault,⁴ although modern scientists favour the Awatere Fault.⁵ However we do know that the initial 7.1 shake was felt throughout the Awatere and Wairau Valleys and was followed by a long sequence of aftershocks.

Con Dillon’s new house and dairy in the Waihopai Valley were levelled to the ground and Te Rauparaha, who was sleeping at the Wairau Pa (or near Picton), was thrown from bed and sprained his hip. The whalers of Cloudy Bay were so alarmed, they took their women and children across Cook Strait to Wellington, which was also badly affected by the quake.⁶ Nelson’s resident magistrate, Major Mathew Richmond , noted in November 1848, that ‘a crack quite straight crossed the country for miles'; in some places he had difficulty crossing it with his horse; in another, the crack passed through an old warre [whare] dividing it in two pieces standing four feet apart.⁷

1855

But worse was to come. At 9.17 pm on 23 January, 1855, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake triggered by the Wairarapa Fault struck.⁸ Early Kekerengu  pioneer, Frederick Trolove described shocks continuing through the night until ‘a most awful shock the imagination could conceive forced us once more out of the house in the greatest confusion and alarm’.⁹

Kekerengu pioneer, Frederick Trolove and his sons Peter and Willie. Frederick described the 1855 earthquake in which he lost his first home. Marlborough Museum & Archives

Trolove recorded that 16 houses, all built that summer at Flaxbourne, were either flattened or beyond repair.¹⁰ From the woolshed, he watched the house he had built tottering with every shock. Next morning, he woke to see his ‘neat New Zealand cottage with a garden full of veges ruined beyond repair.”¹¹  It is interesting to note that Trolove descendents still live in the same area and were impacted by the November 2016 earthquake.¹²

Aftershocks continued throughout February, March and April. Alexander Mowat and his family fled their house at Altimarloch in the Awatere Valley. Their house was so badly damaged, that they had to live in a tent while it was repaired.  In the lower Wairau Valley, the Redwood family were living in the woolshed.¹³ The January quake saw the seaward end of the Wairau Valley subside by more than a metre.¹⁴ William Budge and other settlers on flat land in the lower Wairau Valley had to move to higher ground to avoid being flooded.¹⁵

1966

Seddon lies south of the Awatere Fault and is built on silts and coarse gravels overlaying mudstone.¹⁶ On 23 April, 1966, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake centred 35 kilometres from Seddon in the Cook Strait caused damage in the township and minor damage in Blenheim and Wellington.

John Bargh surveys the chaos in his Seddon grocery store after the 6.1 earthquake centred in Cook Strait, 35 kilometres from Seddon on 23 April, 1966. Fairfax NZ.

Practically every chimney in Seddon came down and there was considerable household damage.  At the Cape Campbell lighthouse, a guide roller to the 2.5 ton prism was sheared off, hit the prism and bounced through a window. By the end of April, 41 shocks in the Seddon sequence had been recorded.¹⁷

2013

The Seddon/Flaxbourne area was once again a centre of seismic activity in 2013.  A quake struck on 21 July,  centred about 20km east of Seddon, measuring magnitude 6.5 at a depth of 17kms. It caused minor damage in the region, with more significant impact in Wellington, but was followed by a series of aftershocks.  On 16 August a second quake hit. This is now known as the Lake Grassmere earthquake, and measured 6.6, with an epicentre 10km south east of Seddon.¹⁸

The chimney fell through the ceiling of the Heritage 2 listed Ugbrooke Homestead in the Awatere Valley as a result of the 2013 Lake Grassmere earthquake. Owner Alex Stowasser sits amidst the rubble. The property continues to operate as boutique accommodation. Fairfax NZ

State Highway 1 between Riverlands and north of Kekerengu was closed and businesses and houses in the region were badly damaged.¹⁹  Salt production at Lake Grassmere's saltworks was stopped for four days as they had no water or electricity due to the earthquake.²⁰

The Marlborough District Council instigated its emergency management plan when there were fears that the Haldon dam  in the headwaters of Starborough Creek above Seddon might be breached.²¹

2016

On November 14, 2016 residents in Kaikoura, Marlborough and Wellington were jolted awake just after midnight by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake which, GNS scientists say caused a record 21 faults to rupture.²² Thousands of aftershocks were recorded after the initial twin earthquakes which appeared to start just northeast of Culverden on the Kekerengu Fault, before rupturing the newly discovered Waipapa Bay Fault, the Hundalee Fault, and ending its massive vibration at the western end of the 230km-long Hope Fault, which connects to the South Island's main Alpine Fault.²³

The 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake shook Marlborough, Wellington and Canterbury. Photographed in North Canterbury by University of Canterbury geologist Dr Kate Pedley. Fairfax/ Pedley.

Data, including satellite radar imagery, shows that parts of the South Island moved more than five metres closer to the North Island, and that some parts were raised by up to eight metres. GNS scientist Ian Hamling said the land from Kaikoura to Cape Campbell moved north-west by up to six metres.²⁴

There was extensive damage up and down the East Coast.   Homes and businesses were damaged and destroyed, there were fissures and slips on farms and hillsides, roads cracked and twisted and train tracks buckled and broke.²⁵

Railway line flung across State Highway 1 north of Kaikoura by the 7.8 earthquake 2016. Fairfax NZ

About 110 km of  coastline from Oaro to Lake Grassmere was uplifted. Geonet described the uplift as ‘a phenomenal tectonic event…  causing numerous problems for local residents, fishermen, boat operators and coastal users’.²⁶

The magnitude 7.8 earthquake caused nine major slips north of Kaikoura which was cut off for days until the inland Kaikoura Highway and, eventually SH1 south of the town, were reopened.  It was thought it would take at least a year to clear the highway to the north of the town, with the alternative route between Picton and Christchurch via the Wairau Valley and Lewis Pass seeing a large increase in traffic volume.²⁷

Kaikoura’s Takahanga Marae fed and sheltered hundreds of people stranded by the 7.8 earthquake 2016. Fairfax NZ.

Crayfish was on the menu at the Takahanga marae, which fed 900 people on the first night and hosted tourists and locals alike. Other visitors slept in churches or were welcomed into local homes   Defence Force helicopters flew people out of the town.²⁸  Navy vessels, the HMNZS Wellington and the HMNZS Canterbury arrived the next day to bring in supplies and rescue stranded people.²⁹

To the north, Ward was also badly affected, with farms, homes and a crayfish factory badly damaged.³⁰ Three weeks before the Kaikoura earthquake, a premier of the movie Light between the Oceans, which was filmed around Cape Campbell, was held to kick off a fund raising campaign for the Flaxbourne Heritage Centre .  It will feature exhibits about earlier earthquakes, the large Flaxbourne pastoral station, the Cape Campbell lighthouse and the multi-million dollar fishing industry based in the area.  The building where many historical items were stored was badly damaged and has been red-stickered. A group of locals³¹ still hopes to achieve their dream and build a centre which will tell the stories of this historic region.³²

2017

The separation of Marlborough from Nelson came about when the opinions of two very different groups, small-holders and large pastoral run-holders, were in accord, even though this was for very different reasons.

Marlborough's pastoralists, owners of large tracts of land, did not accept the democratic ideals of the new colony, which were to provide land for all the people.¹ All went well for them while Edward Stafford, an Awatere run-holder, was Nelson's superintendent. But when he resigned to become Premier of New Zealand, the working man's nominee, John Perry Robinson, was nominated to replace him.

The pastoralists were concerned at the growing influence of small farmers and urban radicalism in some of the provincial governments and wanted to safeguard their occupation of the large holdings.²

Nelson to Blenheim Mail Coach early 1900's  - a daily occurence until Renwick Bridge was built in 1913. Marlborough Historical Society Collection Marlborough Museum, 0000.900.0610
Click image to enlarge

Robinson introduced new measures such as raising the assessment of the pastoralist's lands.³  So, they devised a scheme to protect themselves. The New Provinces Act of 1858 separated their estates from Nelson and Robinson's interference. The Act ensured that the sheep farmers secured legal power to make their own assessments of land and to administer taxation to suit themselves.⁴

Meanwhile, the Wairau's small-holders were suffering from a deep sense of injustice. The Nelson Provincial Government had begun a policy of extensive land sales in the Wairau from which they had raised £157,000 ⁵, but the money was spent in Nelson. In 1858, the only public works in the Wairau consisted of the cutting of a steep road over the Taylor Pass at a cost of just a few hundred pounds. ⁶

The Wairau settlers asked the provincial government for roads, bridges and schools but were told : "Well if you want roads and bridges, set up a road board and rate yourselves." This was the last straw and for a few months, Wairau's European settlers were in open rebellion and talked about taking up their rifles to fight for their rights. ⁷

They were in a serious position without roads, bridges or ferries and a large part of the lands in private ownership. Provincial revenue was likely to be small for the necessary public works, but they felt they had no choice.⁸

A petition for separation was drafted in 1858, with all but six settlers signing it. On October 4, 1859, the establishment of the new province of Marlborough, with its capital in Picton until 1866, was gazetted to take effect on 1 November.⁹  It was expected the new district would be named the Province of Wairau, but the name Marlborough was chosen in Auckland.¹⁰

The elections to constitute the newly created Provincial Council were held early in 1860. William Adams was chosen as Marlborough’s first superintendent and Cyrus Goulter was elected to fill the Speaker’s chair. The first Provincial Council members were: William Adams, William Baillie, Cyrus Goulter, John Godfrey, William Henry Eyes, Henry Dodson, James Sinclair, Arthur Seymour, Charles Elliott, Joseph Ward.

Mr. William Adams , first Superintendent of Marlborough Province. Marlborough Historical Society CollectionMarlborough Museum
Click image to enlarge

Seventeen stormy years of provincial government followed with fierce rivalry between Blenheim and Picton to be the seat of local government.  The Council worked hard to develop the province but a lack of revenue was a severe handicap.¹¹

Between 1866 and 1870, Marlborough tried to extricate itself from its financial plight, but land revenue never met expenditure, let alone clearing debt. Central government bailed Marlborough out several times and there were proposals to re-annex Marlborough to Nelson¹² prior to the abolition of the Provinces Act in 1875.

There were many factors in Marlborough's difficult start: the loss of revenue to Nelson, sometimes- inept local governance and large run-holders who controlled the price of land and refused to rate themselves to provide funds for public works.

By 1900, the province had found its feet, with the Marlborough Express commenting: "That the 41 years has been a period of progress, slow at times but always sure."¹³

Provincial Government

Under the original provincial system of Government, New Zealand was a federation of half a dozen isolated and scattered settlements.¹⁴  A lack of easy communication (roads, railways, telegraph) would have made centralised administration difficult. ¹⁵

There was a central parliament with two chambers, located in Auckland, and provincial councils in Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury and Otago. It was felt that each province could deal more efficiently with its own requirements and resources. ¹⁶

Between 1858 and 1873 four new provinces were created - Hawke's Bay, Marlborough, Southland, and Westland. The provincial government system disappeared under the Abolition of the Provinces Act of 1875.¹⁷

2009 

Diarist, runholder, forthright politician

Born in Staffordshire in 1817, Joseph Ward arrived in Nelson in December 1842 with his parents-in-law Henry and Mary Redwood. He had married his cousin Martha, prior to the long voyage¹ which he found intolerable. He came close to blows with the ship’s master- ‘all think me very hot’, he wrote in his diary.²  [View Joseph Ward's family tree - PDF].

Joseph Ward. Marlborough Museum and Archive

Joseph and Martha first settled in Waimea West with her family, where he farmed and took responsibility for the education of the younger Redwood children.³  Joseph and Martha were to have 12 children.⁴

Ward was an assiduous diarist, with the Marlborough Museum and Archives holding transcripts⁵ of his diaries from 1847 to 1890. Between June and August 1844, he recorded day to day activities in Nelson from killing a pig, making an oven door, making pork pies and baking bread. On 7 August 1844, he wrote that Mary (his cousin/sister-in-law) had returned from Nelson with ‘a full view of marriage to the calm, cautious, untalkative Mr Lawyer Greaves. May she be happy.”

Henry Redwood, standing in front of a tree and his daughter Mrs Joseph Ward of Blenheim. Marlborough Museum and Archives

In August 1844 he noted that the New Zealand Company had ended and that he hoped a rumour that Colonel William Wakefield and Frederick Tuckett were killed by Maori in Otago was not true. It turned out not to be the case, but shows the anxiety felt following the murder of Captain Arthur Wakefield at the Wairau Affray a year earlier. Tuckett was also at the Wairau Affray but survived and eventually returned to London.⁵

In the winter and spring of 1847, Ward was employed by New Zealand Company surveyor, William Budge, who had the contract to survey the Wairau sections at sixpence an acre. Ward worked in tandem with his brother-in-law and close friend Cyrus Goulter on most of the Marlborough surveys.⁶

The Omaka River in flood, Blenheim. Taken from the supplement to the Auckland Weekly News 14 July. 1904 p11. Auckland City Libraries.

He is credited with Blenheim’s original name The Beaver. Located at the junction of the Omaka, now known as Taylor, and Opawa Rivers, the area was prone to flooding and when he came across his survey crew perched on their bunks threatened by swirling waters, he said: “They sat like a lot of Beavers in a dam.”⁷

Cyrus Goulter Fellow surveyor and longtime friend

While surveying the Wairau, Ward selected a pastoral run, which he named Brookby, near Hawkesbury which was owned by his good friend, Goulter. The two families were very close.⁸

When a magnitude 8.1 earthquake shock Marlborough in 1855, Father Antoine Garin left his home in Nelson and headed east to inspect the damage and see if he could help. He was accompanied by Ward and a servant and when they arrived at Brookby, they were greeted by a frightened Martha Ward who had endured the tremors alone with her children.⁹

Ward was forthright and somewhat rigid in politics and religion. He was a stern disciplinarian, who avoided contact with non-Catholics, disapproved of novel-reading, and held fast to his religious principles; yet he was cultured and widely read. A moderate conservative in politics, he was a fluent orator with a ready wit.¹⁰

Ward’s local government service spanned 49 years. He was the only member for the Wairau on the Nelson Provincial Council and was a champion of Marlborough’s separation from Nelson, declaring at a public meeting that if necessary ‘we’ll take up our rifles and fight for it!”¹¹ He was a member of the Marlborough Provincial Council from 1860 to 1876¹², a Marlborough deputy superintendent and a member of the Marlborough Roads Board for a continuous 16 years. He was still an active chairman of the board when he died of influenza in 1892.

Father Antoine Garin, circa 1870. Photographer unidentified, Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/4-016333-F http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=22471

He was described as a ‘strident voice in the slanging match that sometimes passed for politics in Marlborough.¹³  “Bold and outspoken, he scorns to fire from behind a bush, but steps at once into the open to give and receive fire.”¹⁴

Ward’s outspoken views saw him vote against the abolition of the Provinces in 1875. Ward wasn’t convinced of the benefits of centralising Government saying: “the working settlers - the men who will really make the money and make New Zealand - would be little better than beasts of burden.¹⁵ After just six months, he resigned from the House of Representatives as he was opposed to the abolition of the provinces.¹⁶ He unsuccessfully stood for the House in 1878 ¹⁷and again in 1884.¹⁸

Ward had his critics. Pro Bono Publico wrote a caustic letter to the Marlborough Express on 9 June 1875 sarcastically describing Ward as a ‘local genius’ and ‘a shallow, pretentious windbag’ who ‘can be very eloquent on the subject of the poor man paying for the rich.”¹⁹

The Marlborough Express of July 19, 1884 must not have been a good read for Mr Ward.  On noting Ward standing for the House of Representatives, the Evening Post newspaper was quoted: “it would be nothing less than a disgrace to the constituency and a misfortune to the Colony if Mr Ward were to be returned. Happily there is not the least fear of it.²⁰  On the same day, in an article entitled ‘Mr Ward is the God of the Day’, the newspaper argued that a statement from the Kaikoura Star that Ward had done more for the Wairau than Henry Dodson was ridiculous. “Why Mr Ward has done absolutely nothing, and all he could do in the future would be to render the constituency the laughing stock of New Zealand.²¹ A letter to the editor on July 19 from Henry Dodson also noted that Ward was ‘somewhat reckless in his public utterances and does not seem to improve with increasing age.” ²²

Joseph Ward died on 12 November 1892 and Martha died less than five months later, ‘grief for her husband having broken her constitution.²³ Joseph and Martha are buried at the Omaka cemetery.²⁴

Note: this Marlborough politician is not Joseph Ward, 17^th Prime Minister of New Zealand. In fact the Marlborough township of Ward was named after the Prime Minister, not the local politician profiled here.

2017

The rise and fall of a colourful and controversial colonist

A cast of hardworking ‘alpha’ men dominated the early days of settlement in the Wairau.  And none was more keen to get to the top than William Henry Eyes.

William Eyes. Cyclopedia of New Zealand, 1906 NZETC

Eyes was born near Liverpool in 1819 and arrived in Sydney in 1839. On 18 July 1844 , Sydney’s Hawkesbury Courier and Agricultural and General Advertiserfeatured this story: "WILLIAM HENRY EYES, indicted for a rape, was found guilty of a common assault on one Rosina Thomas, a girl under ten years of age, and sentenced to be imprisoned for three years in Parramatta Gaol.¹  He was pardoned after one year of the sentence and travelled to New Zealand with his cousin, the Revd C. L. Reay, arriving in Nelson on 9 August 1845.^2"

Eyes was in Marlborough by 1852, when as manager of Richmond Brook, he wrote to Major Richmond: ‘….there is no keeping the Flaxbourne sheep away. During the time that I have had the charge of your flock, I have had to draft Clifford’s sheep eight times…”³ He built a mansion Netherfield (later named Blythfield) in New Renwick Road in the late 1850s.⁴

William Eyes. Alexander Turnbull Library. Wikimedia

By 1861, his daughter’s governess wrote to a cousin about Eyes, that he was handsome and a natty dresser with enormous yellow moustaches; but that he was ‘most bearish in his manners and conversation’. She wrote that he had arrived in New Zealand penniless, but was now one of the wealthiest settlers in the Province. “I cannot make out the number of his acres, but he has just shipped off the wool of 17,000 sheep…he has 12,000 acres freehold and rents several of the neighbouring runs.⁵

Political clash and clamour

A ‘roads and bridges’ candidate, Eyes contested the election for the General Assembly in 1861, beating the popular Frederick Weld  by just four votes. He made capital out of the fact that Weld didn’t live in his constituency, was frequently absent from New Zealand and neglected local needs.⁶ He was to represent the Wairau for 10 years.⁷

Eyes was involved with the Marlborough Provincial Government for nearly its entire turbulent 17 years,⁸ with historian Alistair McIntosh suggesting that his whole career was marked by “extreme self-assertiveness, energy, shrewdness - and often unscrupulous behavior”. McIntosh went so far as to say that prior to Eyes becoming superintendent in November 1865, four administrations had unsuccessfully tried to govern the province and all had ultimately been wrecked by Eyes.⁹

Marlborough’s capital was established at Picton in 1859 where the town had been laid out in 1851. The Provincial Council buildings are on the right of this picture (with the jail in the centre). Picton Maritime and Heritage Museum

At the beginning of the Province’s history, there was fierce rivalry about where the seat of Government should be – Blenheim or Picton. The battle saw the mainly English pastoral landowners supporting Picton as the capital and the mainly Scottish settlers, who were townsmen and small farmers, supporting Blenheim. Eyes was the leader of the Blenheim party.¹⁰  Dr David Monro commented that the name of Picton was like a red rag to a bull for Eyes. It seemed that he and his party would do anything to harass their opponents and bring about the dissolution of Council.¹¹

Eyes was also a thorn in the side of Marlborough’s first superintendent, William Adams and was largely responsible for the 1861 Picton Railway Bill  being killed by the incoming William Fox.¹²  It was said he opposed the railway tooth and nail merely because it had emanated from the Picton party, although he and Arthur Seymour withdrew their opposition to the railway in 1876 when it was clear the Government would bear the cost.¹³

The first Marlborough Provincial Council buildings, Blenheim, operating from 1865 until the provinces were abolished 1 November 1876. That day the building, along with much of the town centre, was destroyed in a fire. Alexander Turnbull Library.

In his first speech as Marlborough’s fifth superintendent, Eyes rebuked the extravagance of his predecessors saying that nearly £12,000 was overspent and announcing a vigorous policy of retrenchment with all public works to cease.¹⁴ Being a man of great executive ability, he instigated the Marlborough Waste Lands Act in 1867, which assured an annual revenue of £3000 for the province.¹⁵

Eyes held his party together by his overpowering will and unceasing energy¹⁶  but his strong personality made him enemies and in 1870 he was voted out of the Provincial Council.¹⁷ Upon finding himself in a minority, his request to the Governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, for the Council to be dissolved was agreed to on the condition that he resign if the election went against him. He lost a second time, but  didn’t go quietly and he and his party devoted their attention to obstructing Council business for four days.¹⁸

Personal strife

Personal scandal again raised its head in 1873. On 13 January, a notice in the Marlborough Express signed by Eyes, claimed that his wife Eleanor had left their home with his children without his consent and that he was no longer responsible for her debts. Another notice dated two days later saw Mrs Eyes claiming he had ordered her out of his house and the children had freely gone with her.¹⁹

The plot thickened when Mrs Eyes filed for divorce in June on the grounds of his adultery. The detailed newspaper account told the story of Eyes conducting an affair with one Charlotte Johnston in Wellington, Picton and finally Blenheim, with Eyes apparently goading his wife by saying that ‘he would soon be walking arm in arm with her (Johnston) through Blenheim.’ The jury found in favour of Mrs Eyes that she had not condoned the affair and that Eyes had committed adultery.²⁰

Page 3 Advertisements Column 4 (1873, January 25) Marlborough Express. Papers Past

Eyes sued a Mr G. Henderson in May of that year for libel, when Henderson published a statement in a resolution put to a public meeting, that a man such as Eyes, who held high colonial and provincial appointments, should not be able to carry on in such a flagrantly immoral way. Eyes claimed that this was  a  ‘false, malicious, scandalous and defamatory libel’.²¹

Life after politics, and death

In July 1873, Eyes resigned from the Executive Council and as Provincial Secretary.²² In October he filed for bankruptcy.²³ The politician who threatened to turn Picton into ‘a deserted village’ throughout his political career ²⁴ contested and lost the Picton seat in 1881.²⁵

We next see Eyes at the end of 1901 when Premier Richard Seddon  visited Marlborough: “Quite a feature of Mr Seddon's meeting on Thursday evening was the presence on the stage of Mr William Henry Eyes, formerly Superintendent of Marlborough, and who at one time or another held nearly every public position in the place. To him is due the gratitude of Blenheim for having the seat of Government shifted back from Picton to Blenheim. Mr Eyes was specially invited to a place on the platform as some recognition of his many services to the district in the past.”²⁶

Eyes died in April 1907 in a Wellington boarding house where he had lived for about 12 months. He was survived by six of his eight children. While noting his achievements, Eyes’ obituary noted that ‘early he showed the political fight that was in him and afterwards made such clash and clamour in the halls of Provincial legislation’.²⁷

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A leading voice in the separation of the Provinces

Eton and Oxford educated barrister, William Adams was a leading voice for the Wairau’s discontented settlers and became the province’s first Superintendent after the province separated from Nelson in 1859.¹

William Adams. Marlborough Renwick Museum & Watson Memorial Archive

William and Martha Adams arrived in Nelson on the barque Eden in 1850. They went to the Wairau and settled on the Redwood Run in the Avondale Valley.² In 1851, Adams sent a man to select a run for him in the Awatere Valley. He may have been put off by the report Stephen Nicholls wrote on his return, as nothing came of it.  Nicholls wrote: “And if anyone offered me a flock of sheep to go and live there, I would not.” He described ravines and precipices and great chasms made by earthquakes which were “both frightful and awful to look at”.³

Adams applied for the Langley Dale run on the north side of the Wairau River in about 1853. Its 6000 hectares was covered in heavy bush fern and scrub, while the long narrow flat near the river was largely swamp occupied by numerous wild cattle and pigs.⁴

Martha Adams. Renwick Museum & Watson Memorial Archive

The original building at Langley Dale (Martha’s maiden name was Langley) was a single room cob dwelling and the Adams family extended it by four large rooms when they arrived in 1857. Additions over subsequent decades show four distinct periods from mid-Victorian to Edwardian architecture. Much of the building remains in its original state.⁵

By the 1850s, the Nelson Provincial Government had begun a programme of land sales in the Wairau raising nearly £160,000 but nearly all of this revenue was spent in Nelson. Justifiably the Wairau settlers felt a deep sense of injustice and Adams led the campaign for reform with great vigour and success.⁶

On 4 July 1857, Adams wrote to the Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle: “ In answer to your remark, that before any portion of the Colony should be erected into an independent Province, there should be some considerable amount of population within it, &c. Now, -sir/if these districts are to wait for separation until their plains are populated by agricultural labourers, and possess a town and port, why then it will never be; for until local inducements are held out — good roads made, a certain transit for our produce to colonial and home markets, punctual and direct postal communication, schools for our children, protection for all, and confidence in the management of the affairs of the districts, every care and possible advantage being given to small agricultural settlers — these districts will never be anything more than merely pastoral ones."⁷

First painting of Langley Dale. 1890-1900. Renwick Museum & Watson Memorial Archive

By September of that year, Adams was in Auckland delivering a petition to the General Assembly seeking Marlborough’s separation from Nelson.⁸

The province of Marlborough was gazetted on 4 October 1859 and in December, Adams travelled with Thomas Gore Browne, the Governor of New Zealand, from Nelson to Langley Dale, where he signed the document separating Marlborough from Nelson. You can read the full account of his visit and Adam’s account of events leading up to the separation of the two provinces here.⁹

View with Langley Dale in background and well-dressed people- possibly members of the Adams family- in boat in foreground c.1890-1920. Renwick Museum & Watson Memorial Archive

On 1 May 1860, Adams was elected the first superintendent of the new province.  He said: “I very reluctantly left (my farming pursuits), but when I saw year after year our district drained of its resources for the benefit of Nelson and its neighbourhood, I joined with others to gain what we now possess – the management of our own affairs.”¹⁰

The year 1861 was full of political interest and intrigue¹¹ with fierce rivalry between Adams and Provincial Council member,William Eyes, combined with bitter local jealousy between Picton and Blenheim.¹²

Langley Dale. c.2010

At the second session of the Provincial Council at the new Council Chambers in Picton, Adams outlined the advantages of a rail connection between Picton and Blenheim and later travelled to Auckland to promote the Picton Railway Bill. However Eyes had links to the new incoming Government of William Fox. He was strongly against Adams and the railway, and the Bill was killed. Adams also became aware that the Fox government was against him holding the two roles of Superintendent and Commissioner of Crown Lands for Marlborough and he resigned from the former role, retaining the more lucrative commissioner role.¹³

“He abandoned a position for which he was eminently suited, possessing a comprehensive grasp of the principles of Government, and a practical mind to apply them to local circumstances, wrote Lindsay Buick in Old Marlborough.¹⁴ However in a later Marlborough history, Alister McIntosh noted that Adams’ resignation adroitly retained the substance of his power as land commissioner while getting rid of a fractious executive: “Adams’ high handed administrative methods had caused much irritation and a split within his executive…”¹⁵

After resigning as Superintendent, Adams was appointed legal adviser to the Provincial Council, but when his political opponents voted for a reduction of his provincial emoluments he resigned the commissionership and moved to Nelson, where he founded the legal firm of Adams and Kingdon.¹⁶

Meanwhile, his son William was doing a very good job improving Langley Dale, clearing and developing the run, draining swamps and planting trees. By 1903 the run was carrying 7,000 sheep and 400 cattle, while a water wheel drove an electric generator and a flax mill.⁴

Adams was the MP for Picton from July 1867 to May 1868.¹⁷  William and Martha retired to live at Langley Dale in 1872. He died there suddenly in 1884 and was buried on the "rock" near the homestead, Martha was buried beside him when she died in 1906.⁴

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Pragmatic and political early Spring Creek settlers

New Zealand provided plenty of opportunities for four of Joseph and Isabella Dodson’s nine children¹ to shine, with Thomas and Joseph settling in Nelson and Henry and George making their homes in the Wairau.

Born in Wiltshire, the brothers all seem to have arrived in New Zealand under their own steam. Thomas arrived in Nelson in 1841 on the Will Watch and Joseph arrived in 1854. Thomas was a member of the Nelson Provincial Council and various other bodies and Joseph became a brewer and Nelson’s first mayor.²

J R Dodson, Mayor: The Nelson Provincial Museum, Tyree Studio Collection: 32005

But this story will deal with younger brothers, George and Henry and their part in the development of the Wairau.

Henry Dodson. NZETC

Henry Dodson

Henry Dodson arrived in Nelson in 1855 via an unsuccessful period at the goldfields in Ballarat, Australia. He joined his brother Joseph and worked at his brewery, before moving to the Wairau in about 1857. He set up a brewery, which is now Marlborough’s oldest commercial building and houses a beer garden.³ He was a member of Marlborough’s first Provincial Council established in 1859 and was one of the ‘Blenheimites’ who wanted the provincial seat of government to be in Blenheim,⁴ not Picton which was Marlborough’s capital until 1865.

“The object of the sheep farmers (large runholders like William Adams) was to draw off the population from Blenheim to Picton so that a few scabby sheep might run on these plains, and the advance of small agriculturalists, be retarded in the vicinity of their runs,” he told a large meeting at Blenheim’s Royal Oak Hotel in Blenheim in 1860.⁵

In fact Henry could have been Blenheim’s first mayor, as he and James Sinclair had an equal number of supporters. A compromise was reached and F.J. Litchfield was Blenheim’s first mayor.⁶ Henry was Blenheim’s second mayor from 1870-71 and again from 1883-84.⁷

Henry became Marlborough member of the House of Representatives in 1881. Historian Lindsay Buick wrote: “His advanced views he had imbibed when amongst the diggers of Ballarat, and although he was not a polished speaker, he had a rude eloquence that often carried conviction where more flowery language might have failed.”  Henry was described as one of the most skilful ‘election engineers’ the Wairau had ever produced and held the Wairau seat until his retirement in 1890.⁸

In 1884 when addressing a meeting of electors at the Marlborough Public Hall, he said that he had been accused of putting members of his family into public positions. He countered this by saying his brother George had been put on the Lands Board without his knowing anything about it, and that the Government had actually objected to another person he had suggested, whom they passed over in favour of his brother, George.⁹

Henry died suddenly in May 1892 of a ‘paralytic stroke’ and his obituary in the Marlborough Express noted that he had worked hard to secure the future prosperity of Marlborough. “It says much for a man that his death should cast a gloom over a whole community, but much more, when it can be said that he leaves no enemy behind, and has left a record, public and private, of which any man may well be proud.”¹⁰

George Dodson. Marlborough Museum & Archive

George Dodson

George Dodson arrived in Nelson in February 1842 on the Fifeshire and was  soon working with the New Zealand Company’s survey staff.  He joined chief surveyor Frederick Tuckett on an expedition down the south coast to find a new settlement to be named New Edinburgh (Dunedin) in 1844.¹¹

He farmed at Spring Grove in the Waimea district prior to relocating to Marlborough. When the Wairau was opened for settlement in 1854, George was the first farmer to settle in the Spring Creek district.¹² Spring Creek was very swampy and in the early days, George was one of many farmers who raised cattle there. However the Australian goldrush created a sudden demand for grain and George ploughed his paddocks and became a grain grower.  He was the first in the area to plough with horses, the first to import a traction engine and an early adopter of a manual reaping machine.¹³

• Spring Creek's original railway station. The Station Master had his office inside and there is a waiting lobby, necessary in the absence of a platform veranda. George had already been in Spring Creek for 20 years when the Blenheim to Picton railway line was opened in 1875. Marlborough Museum & Archive

His interest soon turned to provincial politics, although a report in the Nelson Examiner and NZ Chronicle of 1865 makes one wonder how keen he really was when he stood as Blenheim candidate for the Marlborough Provincial Council in 1856.  A ‘Blenheimite’ like his brother Henry, George was keen for the seat of Government to be based in Blenheim but when quizzed on topics other than the merits of the two rival towns, confessed he had not thought about other issues. In what sounds like a bruising encounter as he fielded questions, he said he was opposed to taxation in any form and had left the old country on that account and would vote with the majority on rates issues.¹⁴

The opening of the Ferry Bridge at Spring Creek, March 1885, with guests on the old Ferry punt. George was chairman of the Spring Creek Road Board from 1875. Marlborough Museum & Archive

George represented Tua Marina on the Marlborough Provincial Council between 1869 and 1874.¹⁵ As chairman of the Spring Creek River Board for 25 years from its inception in 1875, George did much to alleviate devastating flooding in the area.¹⁶ As the settlers burned off scrub on the Wairau Plains, water flowed freely into the rivers and floods were becoming more frequent and disastrous. George is described as being at the ‘head and front of all the river protection work carried out in the district’.¹⁷

As well as being a member of the Spring Creek River Board, George was a member of the Spring Creek Road Board, the Waste Lands Board and a Justice of the Peace for 18 years. He died in 1905.¹⁸

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