FIRST SURVEY.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18626, 26 February 1926, Page 4

FIRST SURVEY.

MAKING THE, MAP.

MR BOBBIN'S EXPEDITION.

NAMING "OF ARTHUR'S PASS,

Among the arrivals in Lyttelton by 'the ship Creesy in 1850, was a very highly qualified civil engineer, Edward Dobson. He was a married man, 34 years of age, having entered into the bonds of matrimony at the early age of 23. Blessed with the habit of industry, and dissatisfied with the paucity of opportunities presenting themselves to him in England, he decided to emigrate to New Zealand, where he proved himself one of tbe most useful of the pioneers. From 1854 to 186S he was Provincial Engineer for Canterbury. He was the engineer of the Lyttelton tunnel, surely ;the most ambitious engineering project ever attempted by a newly-founded colonial settlement. Mr Thomas Cass, at this time Chief Surveyor, decided to arrange for surveys for the western portion of the province, lying between the Grey river and the southern boundary, this being quite unknown country. The district was divided into two portions, the northern section extending from the Grey river to Abut Head, and the second portion from Abut Head to the southern boundary of the province. The coastline was to be surveyed, and all the nvers traversed as far into the mountains as possible; the features of the intervening country to be sketched as accurately aa possible under the conditions of a reconnaissance survey. Mr A. Dudley Dobson, a son of the Provincial Engineer (and later City Surveyor and Engineer for the City of Christehnrch), was, allocated the northern block, and the contract was let to him in June, 1863. He took out a j survey party from Nelson, chartering a small schooner, which sailed from Nelson on August Bth. After a very stormy passage of a little over a mouth, the schooner was wrecked trying to enter the Grey river on September 13th, and was piled up among the driftwood north of the entrance. As soon as the tide went down, the stores and cargo were salvaged, and safely placed in the scrub,'* with the help of the Maoris, and the schooner was abandoned. Earliest White Men. At this time a small store had been erected by the Government on the south side of the Grey river, in charge of Mr Townsend, who had with him a cook and a carpenter, in order to afford relief to anyone who had made his way over to that part of the Coast, and the road party that was cutting a track by the Teremakau Saddle. Gold was being obtained in the Buller district, and occasionally prospectors went south down the Coast or into the Grev Valley, via the Tnangahua. They frequently arrived at the Grey river almost starving, and_ hoping to obtain food from the Maoris.

Under the charge of Mr Charleton Rowitt, a party was engaged in cutting ] a foot track over the Teremakau Saddle, and down the Teremakau. A rough ] blazed line had been cut as far as Lake j Brumier, and the party was engaged in cutting lines round the lake, intending to continue the track down the Arnold river to the Grey river. The first news that Mr Dobson heard when he got ashore was that Mr Howitt's party (with the exception of one man) had all been drowned by the canoe in which they had gono celing sinking in Lake Bruixccr. All further trace of them had been lost. The survivor made a raft, and, after searching the lake for his mates for some days, made his way down to the coast, and thence onwards to the Buller. Mr Dobson at once commenced surveying the beach to the Teremakau, and then up that river to the Hopoakoa, engaging for this purpose some of the Maoris from the pa at Greymouth. his own party of white men having been set to work cutting survey lines through the bush up the Grey river to the Arnold On his return from the Teremakau, Mr Dobson discovered that another fatal accident had happened during his absence. Mr Town send and the carpenter had been drowned while attempting to cross tko bar in a whaleboat, leaving only the cook in charge of the store, he now being the only white man left in Greymouth. This second accident so upset Mr Dobson's men that they all asked to be paid off, and on being paid they went up bv the coast to t.lw» Buller. sufficient provisions beinar supplied to them for that journey by Mr Dobson. Assisted ny Maoris. The latter now set to work to train a party of Maoris in survey work, and in a fortnight's time he had completed the traverse of the beach to Abut Head, a distance of 72 miles. He then returned to the Grey, and surveyed up the Grey and the Arnold rivers to Lake Brunner and from thence up the Teremakau and down the Hurunui to Lake Sumner, bringing a party of Maoris with him.as far as the Kaiapoi pa, and arranging with them to have a canoe in readiness at the Otira to take the swags dou-n the river on his return In view of the labour and loss of iim<s "involved in ewagging stores on men's back* down tho beach for the survey of the other ritsra oa its Coast, Mr

Dobson decided to attempt to take horses through the range. At the request of Mr Cass, the Chief Surveyor, in March, 1864, he went up into the Upper Waimakariri country to see if it were possible to find a pass leading out of the head waters of the Waimakariri into the West Coast country, which was suitable for making a road through. Up to that time, the Hurunui-Teromakau route was the only one which had been used by the Maoris from olden times, and by this route all the greenstone which was used by the Natives all over New Zealand, was brought from the Arahura river, which was the locality in which the best greenstone (tangiwai) was found. It was obtained in the river-bed, having been washed out of the terraces by the little creeks which had cut through the numerous terraces on the banks of the river. Into the Otira aorge. After examining the Upper Waimakariri county, Mr Dobson decided that a stream, which he named the Bealey, gave the best hope of an available pass. Accordingly, in company with his brother, Air Edward Dobson, he rode up that valley to the beginning of the bush, and, leaving the horses, went up into the open fiat on the saddle and camped, Erom this camp he ascended the mountains on either side, so as to obtain a good view of the country, but bad weather coming on, he returned to Air Goldney's station at the Cass. As soon as the weather cleared, be started out in company with his brother Edward, and Air Goldney and one of Mr Goldney's men, and again went on to the saddle and down into the Otira Gorge. He experienced very great difficulty in traversing the gorge, on account of the numerous cliffs and the thick bush.

He saw at. once that it would bo hopeless to attempt to get horses through without a, great deal of expensive road-making, although it would bo an excellent line for a road, and a much more direct route from Canterbury to Westland than that by the Teremakau Saddle, which was the road always taken by the Aiaoris in going to the West Coast for greenstone. On his return to Christchurch, Air A, J>. Dobson handed a sketch of the pass and the surrounding country to the Chief Surveyor. At that tima it was not known whether the stream on the west side of the saddle was a tributary of the Teremakau or of the Arahura, but its identity was ascertained as soon as Mr Dobson re-crossed the Hurunui Saddle and surveyed, the tributary streams following into ..the Teremakau, a trip which he accomplished' shortly afterwards. He got his horses over the saddle and down into the Teremakau riverbed t "thout damage, and swam them down through the lower gorge to the beach, these heThg the first horses that reached the coast A Gold Rush. Shortly after this, payable gold was found in tho neighbourhood of the Grey, and a considerable rush to the West Coast set in, by boat, and over the Teremakau Saddle. The Provincial Government of £antertmry, being anxious to construct a road as soon as possible, instructed o late Air Edward Dobsou, sen., the Provincial Engineer, to examine the various known passes, and to report upon the one which he considered the most suitable for use as a road to the West Coast. The late Mr George Dobson was sent out to examine all the passes at the head waters of the Waimakariri, and the information thus obtained, together with that previously gathered by the Provincial Engineer, formed the subect of a volumin. us report, accompanied by numerous plans and sketches, . which was presented to the Provincial Council in May, 1860.

In Mr George I>obson's report on the Waimakariri passes, he stated to the Provincial Engineer that 4rthui- f Pass was the only suitable one through which to make a roa"d oat of the Waimakariri basin. This was not with a view to naming the pa»j Arthur'*. Fuss, but simply to discriminate it from others.

The name thus incidentally survives to this day, and \\b?n '.t was decided to investigate Aw onotion of th& best route to make the railway to the West Coast, this one was telected in preference to any other, doubtless for the same reason which ind.r-oil the Provincial Engineer to adopt )t a's the main road to the West Coast.

51r Arthur Dobson finished his contractjn due course, to the entire satisfaction of Mr Cass, Chief Su -vev ■ r, from whom he received a letter, complimenting him upon the success he had achieved in the face of difficult and dangerous conditions.