CHRISTCHURCH IN 1861.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14052, 25 May 1911, Page 17

CHRISTCHURCH IN 1861.

(By W.G.8.)

I _a_ asked te recall some memories „_ Christchurch fifty years ago. _i the year 1801, I was a schoolboy at "College, but old enough to taJse an intercut in tho prosperity and progress of my adopted homo. Moro than ten years had passed sinco tho Canterbury Pilgrims had begun tho work of building on the tussock and fcfn-covercd plain (interspersed with etches of swamp), a city which should C the capital of tho Canterbury Settlement. The namo originally chosen was Lyttelton, in compliment to Lard Lyttelton, chairman of tho Canterbury" Astsociation, and for tho samo reason tho extensive block of land lying to the west of the city, reserved for a park and public gardens received tho name of Hagley Park, Hagley being the English residence of Lord Lyttelton. It is not evident as to how or why the. name of Christchurch has (superseded that of Lyttelton, but as the Cathedral and College, both bearing the name of Christchurch (not Christ's, as' the College is now called), wero the most important institutions in tho minds of tho fotmdm, and as the site reserved for these buildings occupied a considerablo are?*, in the very heart of tho city, it ■eems probable that the name was thus

larnuired. However that my be, this town of ' r Lyttelton or Christchurch—unlike many other towns both in tho colonies and in the Old World, from London downwards, which have had their beginnings I in _tr_-g£bhg roads or pack tracks fol-

lowing the lines of least resistance— started with a well-thought-out plan • carefully designed by the original founders. Tho area of tho city proper was one milo square, nearly equally divided by tho river Avon, streets at - right angles lying duo north and south or east and west. Tho Church element was observable not only in tho ample reserves for Cathedral, churches, schools

and'vicarage3 in all parts of the town,

1 But even in the naming of the Btreots '-- after the Sees of Anglican . bishops, ' the two squares taking their names from bishops of olden times—Latimor and ■ Cranmer. Even tho ono diagonal street leading to the bush and open country on the north-west and to the Port and

-Keatbcote wharves lying to the south- , east of the town was called theWhateley road after a famous archbishop. - This name has now disappeared fiom our maps, having becomo Victoria street at one end and High street at the.other.

'This somewhat exclusive considera-

tion for tho feelings of Churchy people "ares, continued after tlieir lifetime, as the early maps show a beautifully Situated cemetery of somo twenty-five or-thirty acres in extent lying in a picturesque bend of the Avon, for tho Church of England adherents, but only

».small, insignificant, plot, in an onr-of-tho-way corner, marked "Dissenters' * Cemetery," the Canterbury founders apparently not discriminating when It &&_]» » question of what a regimental sctgeant-major called the "fancy reiigkaifc.V 'Outside tho city proper, • which extended irom Salisbury to St. Asa.mil streets*in ono direction, and Barba_o_ to -Antigua in the other, the town

reserve* extended for another quarter of a mile north, south, and east, the fine open expanso of Hagley Park ' lying to the west. Theso reserves, with the exception of the Park, were cut up into areas suitable for residen-tial-purposes, but havo long since become merged in the City. 1' CHRISTCHURCH MORE THAN

; -.. FIFTY YEARS AGO. ..Christchurch from its earliest beginning grew upon a rectihneal plan, .and in ten years had assumed

wimewhat of the appearance of a town, buildings fronting tho different streets ~ with, some attempt, at regularity, but great scope for individual . - tafit« in tho matter of architecture. .;, Thij .material used was entirely wood, ~s robis being covered with' V.D.L. split TV shingles, A good examplo of the early style of better-class residence may be ,„,iieen in tho house still standing on tho .-' north side of Gloucester street, near '..Rolleston avenue, through tho old . L styagles have been replaced by the '.' more modern galvanised iron. .' -There being amnio room, and land "' btoig cheap, thu houses spread over ■, Wmiderablo spaces; blocks of five acres, bounded by four street*, were even -in ' 1861 still used as gardens or paddocks. > "Wilson's garden," through which Bedford Tow now runs, was famous for its . strawberries in thoso days, school.3? boys, and others being allowed to ~gather and eat, but not -to -, carry any away, for tho admission' price of one shilling. About . 1 this time I Temember that peaches wero ' «> "plentiful that tbev were sold for 3 ?hfllinc a bucket (bring your, own ! pocket) at a garden some little distance I" Wta Cliristchurch. i PRINCIPAL BUSINESS CENTRES.

' -The principal business part of the - tawp in the fifties was the market-place, M;it was then called, now known as <i£toria square. Here was .tho first Peat'Offico ar-d a fire alarm, a general • *«?£, a drapery establishment, and, at "■we corner of Armagh and Colombo ttreets, the Golden Fleece, or, as pronounced by Herr Yon Gartner, the Proprietor, "The Cold and Fleas" Hotel— not an attractive name for an • luT' Weekly market dinners were Mi hero on-Saturdays, for the purP°s» of social gathering and for disSKi Prices of stock and agricultural pwiico, or other matters of public importance. iJOri one occasion, when tho supply of f*P°r was under consideration, it had M 1 ! n CKested that it would be desirV« r. °ktein Chinese servants, and Joa Gartner, amongst others, was S*™ to givo hi s experience of Chinese ""war m Australia. He stated in rorf to a question by the chairman that -f? had employed two Chinamen. And - U_* f ..tboy' satisfoctoTV? was the next <l?e_tion. "Veil," he"said, doubtfully, * _vi U ? ° dem was no S u t and do oder ' ""« bung himselvo.~ ,' . -Var the post office, at the bend of ,J? e .nver at the present Oxford Hotel, 5? , - a camoing place used by tho g la om on their way from Kaiapoi to Jr.Paki. There was good eel fishing at ,*jia &pot, and in the early spring J»no, whitebait hi great shoals camo up i I __A fit? market-place was conveniently Biuated. being on the main road north- \ _**.«- °y wf iich timber—sawn, split, F nrowood—was .brought from Papa[/"w'* The teams used were chiefly buls.,,;* 06 *! as being moro . suitable than

WHAT- THE TOWN WAS LIKE.

SOME MEMORIES OF A PILGRIM

horses for dragging even moderate loads through tho boggy track from the bush to town. One notable "turnout' in the early days consisted of a yellow cow harnessed in the shafts of a farm tip-cart. "Figaro." as she was named by her former Akaroa owner, with a total disregard of sex, did splendid work hauling firewood or carting sundries by day, or when occasion required, conveying the ladies of the family to. concert or ball in the evening.

Another centre of business, and one which gradually eclipsed the "marketplace," was the White Hart corner, commanding the road to the Port and river shipping. There was not so much dry land about this part of the town, and the Ferry road was, if possible, worse than that to Papanui. but enterprising business men, proprietors of their own freehold sections of land, caused the stream of trade and traffic to flow to this particular locality. Hpre at the corner of High and Cashel streets, on the site now occupied by Hallenstein's, was the booking-office of Cobb and Co, tho coach proprietors; on the opposite corner near the White Hart Hotel was a general stero; on tho adjoining section, where tho Bank of Australasia now stands, was a brewery, the output boing, I believe, of somewhat doubtful quality; a little further west the modest beginnings of a drapery establishment, which has since expanded on the samo site into the premises known as Ballantyne's. A blacksmith's forge, and a baker's shop wero also amongst the earliest buildings in this part of Cashel street.

A third portion of tho town, which asserted itself in tho early 'fifties, was Oxford Terrace West. Tlio thoroughfare connecting with the two main road s ? leading to tho country on the south and south-west. Hero was tho church, tho temporary pro-cathedral, also used on weekdayr. as tho public church day school. Close at hand, on one side, was tho building in which Christ's College had its beginnings, and on the other side the public pound was somov/hat incongruously located. Tho Royal Hotel, on its present site facing the river, was the leading hostelry of thoso days, being patronised by the wool kings and other country visitors. The Terrace was considered tho aristocratic part of'; the town, being the locality in which J many private residences were built.

THE OFFICES OF " THE PRESS."

The oflices of "The Press" afford a good example of the growth and architectural development of tho buildings in our city. Tho premises at which the paper was first printed "and published consisted of two email cottages standing near together, on one of the "back blocks" known as Raven's paddock. These cottages wore of different heights and dimensions, and were connected by a nondescript wooden erection forming a primitive and unique structure of the "composite" style of architecture. A great advance was made when tho office, and printing department wero moved to a building in Cashel street, adjoining the residence of the editor. The additions and improvements, first in wood, and afterwards in brick and stone, to these premises, and the final move to the present fine buildings in Cathedral square, are matters of modern history. , ■.'-•■" - ' :'

THE FOUNDER OF "THE PRESS."

My memory of the first editor of "Tho Press," Mr' James Edward FitzGerald, goes back .to the vanishing point of my early childhood.. He was one of tho speakers -at the historic breakfast given on board one of. tho first four ships before leaving England, but of this function the only impression left on my memory is tnat mado by tho band of the Coldstream Guards. Mr FitzGerald's landing at-Lyttelton was quite characteristic. A fellow passenger had taken a position in the bows of the first boat from the Charlotte Jane, preparatory to stepping ashore before anybody else, but just as the boat touched the beach there was a cry of "No, you don't, Mountfort," and FitzGerald, witli a rush, leap-frogged. over the smaller man's head, and so was tho first of tho Canterbury Pilgrims, to touch Canterbury soil. He was inipulsive, and at times impetuous, with, I suppose, corresponding fits of depression. Edward Gibbon Wukefield. in one of his letters to Mir Godley, describes FitzGerald as being "liko tho piston of a steam engine, up and down alternately' —a fair comment on which d-scrip* tion would bo that the piston does better work in this way than if it were always in the same position. Mr Fitzgerald, _ as .an Irishman, dearly enjoyed a fight, and as the editor of the other daily paper (which early in the history -if +ho settlement had moved from Lyttelton to Christehurch) was also an Irishman, smart passages_at arms were of frequent occurrence. Somo words of a little poem by an unknown author, after Tom Hood, occur te mc. "Little Tonans" bewails his sad plight, to -this effect. I only quote from memory: "I remember, I remember, how in the month

of May That dreadful fijrhting- fellow of tho "Presa"

camo into play. J.E.F., the Irish giant.—Suva ns! How his

blows did hurt! When I grinned and looked defiant. Smiled, and rolled _ae> in the dirt!"

Mr FitzGerald used to drive a curious high-seated trap, perched up on immense . red wheels. This conveyance was known as the "Circulating Medium," and was the subject of a joke at the expense of the rival newspaper. "What is the difference," was the 3uestion, "between a circulating meium and a medium circulation?" "None at all," was the prompt answer, "thoy are both needed in the 'Little-tin Times 1* Mr FitzGerald's feat of driving tandem in the "Circulating Medium".over the newly-formed Sumner road to Lyttelton, safely negotiating the famous zig-zag above Gollan's Bay, was told with- bated breath for many a day. Is it not written in the book of tlie "Canterbury Rhymes?"—

' Ihe, Sumner road, tho Sumner road, Which burly Thomas first began, Whero Dobwn all his skill bestowed, Fit_Gerald drove, and Bonage ran."

Ronage, it may be mentioned, was a notorious criminal who escaped from Lyttelton Gaol, and lit out for freedom along the Sumner road.

Mr FitzGerald was a brilliant and witty speaker, and a charming conversationalist, but, as I have said, impulsive, and occasionally he jumped to conclusions without sufficient data; as for instance when speaking at the great public meeting held at Ipswich, in May, 1850, on the plans, progress, and prospects of the Canterbury Settlement, lie said:—"l have been asked, What are you going to do with your corn when it is grown;- where will be your market? The answer to that is that Australia will always afford a market, for though a magnificent country for sheep-feeding purposes, yet Australia can not grow corn to advantage, owing to the crops being subject to blight!" James Edward FitzGerald was a man of many parts, and it may truly be said of him that whether as editor of a newspaper or afterdinner speaker, as architect or musician, Superintendent of the Province, or Sunday-school teacher,, "Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit."