MAKERS OF CANTERBURY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20026, 6 September 1930, Page 13

MAKERS OF CANTERBURY.

PIONEERS OF THE PROVINCE. (SJECIILLy WKITTEK JOB THE TRESS.) [By Annalist.] (All Rights Reserved.) XXXI. BICHARD JAMBS STRACHAN HARMAN,. 1826-1902. Like many another Irishman by birth Hannan was educated in the schools of England; but his impulse to come to New Zealand came from a fellowIrishman of the same class, John Robert Godley. Richard James Strachan Harman was born at Dublin on April 14th, "826, the son of Richard Harman of that city. He went for his education to Rugby School in tho days of Dr. Arnold, and amongst his schoolfellows were Freeman, the historian, Sir Richard Temple and Dr. Liddell. He learned to play good cricket, and figured in the earliest cricket in Canterbury a few years later, Hannan qualified as a civil engineer, serving his articles with George and Sir John Rennie in London. Not long after he had passed he became fired with the zeal of Godley in the Canterbury scheme, and eventually sailed with the first expedition in the Sir George Seymour. When the settlers, a few days after arriving in Lyttelton, organised themselves into the Society of Land Purchasers, Harman was elected to tho Council and became the executive officer. In this capacity he had to present to the agent of the Canterbury Association the recommendations of the Society with regard to roads and other public works in the days before there was any constituted organ of local government. In 1851 Harman started in business for himself as a land and estate agent, acting also as agent fof a number of the purchasers of land in Canterbury who had not come out to the colony. In 1862 he was joined by E. C. J. Stevens. Early in 1853, in partnership with Cyrus Davie, one of the early surveyors, Harman took up a run between the Selwyn river and Lake Ellesmere. Some years later they made several thousand acres freehold and held it until tho end of the seventies. In 1854 Harman, Bray, Cridland, Jollie and Dobson wero appointed a Commission to report on tho best means of communication between Chrlstchurch and Its port. Their investigations resulted in a recommendation in favour of an open road by way of Sumner with a tunnel through Evans Pbbs. Later in that year Harman was assisting Bray in the survey for the tunnel, and then he went OH a visit to England, during which he did important work for the Province. Incidentally, ho acted as omigration agent,'and was instrumental in sending out many good people to assist in the development of the province. In 1855 he married Emma, daughter of Dr. de Renzy, of Dublin, and they came out to Canterbury in 185G in tho Egmont, their fellow-pas-songcrs including Bishop and Mrs Harper and their family.

In 1857 Harms n entered the Provincial Council as member for Hoathcote, which he represented (with one re-election) until the beginning of 1860. From June, 1857, to January, 1858, he was a member of tho Executive. The Council in 1858 appointed him to a Commission to decide upon the best lines for the road and railway communications of the province. In the early part of 1860 he was elected to represent Akaroa a'nd continued as its men»b«.r until March, 1862. He was about this time a member of the Waste Lands Board, and he also did a good deal of work surveying for the Provincial Government on Banks Peninsula. This was n particularly arduous duty For the first month he was required to attend at the meetings of the Land Board twice a -jveek, and this entailed leaving camp at Duvaucheiles at midnight, walking through the bush to Purau, boating across to Lyttelton and then walking to Christchurch. Eight times in the month Harman covered this long journey to and fro. In May. 1865, he joined the provincial expedition organised to discover a route across the mountains to the West Coast, where an active mining population had just settled. After crossing the Canterbury Plains on foot and swimming the Rakaia, AshburtOn, and Rangitata rivers they discovered Browning's Pass. In 1867 Harman was again nominated for the Provincial Council at the Mandeville election, but retired in favour of a local man, and never again aspired to the Council. In 1867 he was a member of the Financial Reform Association formed to bring economy into the affairs of the province. In 1871, during the absence of Rolleston at the General Assembly, he acted as Deputy-Superintendent. In the less pretentious sphere of local government Harman was a member of the South Waimakariri Board of Conservators, of which he was for many jjears chairman from its first meeting in 1869. He was for long on the Domain Board (of which he was chairman from 1874 to 1881), and did great work personally towards the beautifying of the city, notably in planting Rolleston avenue and the other avenues surrounding Hagley Park, and in presenting the garden of rhododen drons opposite St. Michael's Church. He was a strong churchman, and was for 25 years a churchwarden and for 37 years a church officer of St. Michael's. Indeed, his death was the result of an accident he met with while inspecting the building of additions to the new church. He was a member of the Diocesan Synod from Its formation, and was one of the first members of the Cathedral Chapter, which declined to permit him to resign. For many years also he waß a Governor of Christ's College. Ab a volunteer Harman was elected a lieutenant when No. 2 Company was formed in 1864, He succeeded Colonel Packe as captain, and held that rank until the corps was disbanded. In 1885, during the Russian war scare, he co-operated with Colonel de Eenzi Brett in the formation of the Honorary Reserve Corps, in which he became a captain; and he so infused the corps with his own love of shooting that it became a very fine body of marksmen. Harman took part in the formation of the Canterbury Rifle Association, and represented it for many years on the Board of the New Zealand Association. It only remains to mention his interest in games. As a cricketer ho was one of the leaders in the Province, and for many years was a supporter of the United Club, of which he was president. He was president of the Canterbury Rowing Club from its foundation, and presented it with two boats and a challenge cup. He was president, too, of the Christchurch Football Club, and at the age of 50 took part in a match. Harman died on November 26th, 1902, leaving a widow and a family of five sons and 'seven daughters, of whom the following are still alive: Mesdames Robert Maxwell, Earnest R. Anderson, George E. Way and George Harris and Miss Dora Harman, all of Christchurch; Mrs Frank Mayne (Napier), Messrs De Renay, William and Harold Harman, of Christchurch, and Mr Victor Harman (Palmerotoa North).