ARTHUR'S PASS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21258, 1 September 1934, Page 15

ARTHUR'S PASS

I NOTES ON ITS PLACE j ' NAMES \ i (SJICIAtxr ITIUTTEN JOB THE PRESS.) |liy K. S. ODELLj ? HI. ■ BUMIT or B'LIMIT: This name is attributable to a school teacher who ought to have known better. There were three I headmasters who used to take their pupil teachers to Arthur's Pass for {holidays, and one of them, a teller of tales, was entertaining the party while they were climbing the peak. j "There were once three fishermen j who in their pursuit of the wily trout believed all the fish stories ] told by advertisements, and so beI came equipped with the latest in ' rods, reels, gaffs, bully traps, and spring balances. A. nice stretch of water was found within sight of a little cottage, so they unloaded and i commenced to fish. The day seemed | V ery long indeed. Not even the I ve ry latest infra-red gadfly would | lure the particular fish to those I three rods. When tea-time came I the r/jper-creels remained empty. " "Then a small girl came out from the cottage, dug up a worm, im- ' paled it on a bent nail, and in no time at all landed a three-pounder. "'Well, that's the b limit,' exclaimed those three fishermen. '"That's a nice trout you've caught,' said mother, when the fish " was brought home. "'No. mother, it's the b limit!'" In May, 1934, on the motion of Professor Wall, the National Park Board recommended to the Geographic Board that the name should be changed to Mount Laing after Mr H. M. Laing, the well-known botanist of Christchurch. It was held that the jiame of "Blimit" was objectionable. The Geographic Board did not accede to this request, the reason given being that it was averse to changing a name which had been widely accepted by people who Juiow the National Park. When the pupil teachers were looking at the mountains they had climbed from another place the following day, one of them identified it as the B'limit. The story and its association became generally known in the locality, and so the name persisted. At that time the gable end of the spur was meant by the name, but because there was a much higher peak a little way further back, there soon was confusion, both points being known as the Blimit. In a conference of mountaineers with the Lands and Survey Department when the name of old pioneers were put forward to identify peaks on that range, it was thought that the name Blimit should have preference and be attached to the higher peak. The front peak on the gableend now bears the name Cassidy. BRETT'S STREAM: This stream runs into the Bealey river on the east side. The origin of the name has not yet been ascertained, but it is possible that a roadman of that name had a hut near there. Many of the small creeks near the West Coast road have been named in this way. BRIDAL VEIL FALL: The stream which enters the Bealey from the east side just below the White bridge is distinguished by the Bridal Veil Fall, which can be seen from the road. From the first leap the water falls on to a rock which spreads the water into a dome whence it now fails in folds, shimmering like an extremely beautiful wedding veil. A fall on the Otira side has often been called the Bridal Veil in error. The real name for this fall is Reid's Fall.

THE BIRCHES: A spot on the road over Arthur's Pass near Jack's Hut, where the track to the Bealey glacier leaves the road, has been called the Birches since early coaching days, on account of the mountain beeches (or birches as they are called), which stand on either side of the road. Beech Avenue is an alternative name which has come into use more recently. BIRCH NOOK: The name was given (by Mr T. N. Brodrick about 1880) to a trig station established at the edge of the bush facing the river flat at a little distance above the Bealey Hotel. A shepherd's hut there was. until ♦■he Carrington Hut was built, the furthest shelter up the Waimakariri. It was demolished in 1926 by a falling tree, but has since been rebuilt. BLACK RANGE: The range of mountains which forms the southern boundary of the National Park has borne the name of Black Range since earliest days. Von Haast mentions it in 1867, and he indeed may have named it; for he mentions many names casually when he was in fact applying them for the first time. The name Black Range, Black Hills, etc., is fairly common to the greywacks hills of Canterbury. The range stretches from the low peak of Mount Greenlaw eastward, ending at the saddle, whose name has come near to bemg forgotten, that is, Sale's Pass. MT. BOWERS: This is one of the highest peaks on the Polar Range, which forms the eastern boundary of the National Park. The name is due to members of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club, who took the names °f members of Scott's ill-fated expedition and gave them to four unnamed peaks in the locality. The first ascent of the peak was made by Evan Wilson and A. Anderson, members of the club, on December 13, 1930. BRANDY PINCH CREEK: When Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson first traversed the Bealey river he named this stream, which feeds the Bridal Veil, Brandy Pinch Creek, out beyond appearing in his original field notes the name has not persisted. A possible reason at once springs to the imagination, but Sir Arthur assured us that he had no "quor with him, though he does not remember the reason for the name. Campbell pass: This pass was originally known as ■Browning Pass; but it is not to be c 'onfused with Browning Pass at the head of the Wilberforce. Mr E. °obson in his report of the passes at the head of the Waimakariri gives extracts from his journal. On March ? 8 » 1865, he says that Messrs Brownand Cahill went up the Waimak- ?, rir i to examine the source of the White river. On March 25 Mr downing brought him a sketch

plan of the head of the Waimakariri with sketches of the junction with the White, and of a pass which he had found. Mr Dobsoh then sent a party of men to cut a survey line over Arthur's Pass, but they missed their way and arrived at the new pass, which Mr Dobson then called Browning Pass. _ Shortly afterwards Mr Browning, in company with Messrs Harman and Griffiths, discovered the pass at the head of the Wilberforce, and mis also was called Browning Pass. Two passes close together could not for long continue to bear the same name, and so it was that the Waimakariri pass became known as Campbell Pass. This name derived, probably, from the Campbells, who took up Craigieburn in 1867; they may have crossed the pass in search for sheep country. On a map of the Geological Survey, the name Cascade Saddle appears in reference to the same place. The pass has also gone under the name of Armstrong Pass, which is the way it was referred to by Mr C. Douglas, probably because it was adjacent to Mount Carrington, then known as Armstrong. Mr Douglas says that in the early days of the gold rush sheep were driven over this pass, too, and thence down the Taipo and Taramakau to the diggings. When the Divide passes were being examined in 1080 for the route of the Midland Railway, a plan was prepared of Campbell Pass, envisaging a railway up the Taipo with a tunnel through Mount Carrington to the Waimakariri. The pass is 4052 feet high and lies between Mount Campbell and Carrington Peak. MT. CAMPBELL: This mountain was probably named with the pass. It forms the southern rampart of Campbell Pass and its other flank drops down to Harman Pass. The mountain is not of great height, being only 5965 ft; but from it one of the most splendid panoramas in the park can be gained. There is an uninterrupted view up the White river and the glaciers at its head with Mount Murchison, 7873 ft, towering in the background, then Mount Harper, and on its other side the Waimakariri below its junction with the White. The upper reach of the Waimakariri is revealed, too, as it comes from the unnamed triplet of glaciers on Mount Rolleston and over the great falls called the Waimakariri Falls for want of any other name. The peak was first climbed by the party which reconnoitred the Taipo route for the Midland Railway in 1880. CANDY'S HUT: Until recently a familiar landmark on the road over Arthur's Pass was the hut at the foot of the zigzag. Tom Candy, a roadman, occupied it for many years, and so it was known as Candy's Hut. He left the district in 1921. The Arthur's Pass earthquake in 1929 sent a large boulder crashing down, which demolished it. CAMPING FLAT: The flat where Arthur's Pass township now stands has from the very earliest times been known as Camping Flat, being referred to in this way by Edward Dobson in 1865, and by others frequently later. Miners and others travelling to and from the West Coast used to canip there, and later, in the 'eighties, Christchurch carriers who used to organise camping tours found it a good place to pitch camp. These carriers used to arrange for parties to visit the district. The ladies used to be carried in the carts and the men rode on their bicycles and each night a camp would be made. CAMP CORNER:

At the junction of the White and the Waimakariri on the south side, where the Carrington Hut now stands, was a favourite camping site, and the name Camp Corner was very easily attached to it. It is most conveniently situated for excursions up the White and the Waimakariri, and all the peaks there to be climbed. CAMP SPUR: Behind this camping site there rises a spur which continues to the summit of Mount Harper. It provides a practicable route to the top of this mountain. It has become known as Camp Spur. Mr J. W. Mitchell, of the Mountaineering Club, first referred to it in this way. MOUNT CASSIDY: This is one of the peaks on the east side of the Bealey, which have been named after early identities of the district. It is a peak at the gable end of the spur from the Blimit, and overlooks Arthur's Pass. This is the peak which was for long called the Blimit (q.v.). In 1863 Mr Cassidy took four horses over the Taramakau Saddle and started a coach venture from Greymouth to Hokitika, using the beach for a road. This venture ended in disaster, the coach being washed out to sea near the mouth of the Taramakau; but Cassidy made other efforts until in 1874 he secured the contract for carrying the Canterbury-West Coast mail. From then until 1923, when the tunnel opened, the firm of Cassidy, and a series of partners, drove coaches on the West Coast road. Cassidy himself died in 1921. CARRINGTON MEMORIAL HUT: At the junction of the White and Waimakariri rivers and on the south side stands the Carrington Memorial Hut. The need for a hut at this site was suggested as early as 1900 by Dr. Cockayne, and other visitors to the locality, notably Mr A. P. Harper in 1912, emphasised the value of a hut here. The place is a strategic base for mountaineers who wish to conquer the peaks at the head of the Waimakariri, and for trampers on the "Three Pass Trip" (see Harman Pass) it makes a convenient resting place. Action to have the hut built was first taken by the Christchurch Tramping Club (now the Canterbury Mountaineering and Tramping Club), when they offered in 1925 to provide the labour if the Government would provide the materials. The Tourist Department made a grant of £SO, and accordingly in May, 1926, Mr G. N. Carrington and a party of students began packing materials from the Bealey river to Camp Corner. Unfortunately much of the material was left cached at various places in the bush, and the plan of the caches was lost when Carrington was drowned in the river he had loved. In February, 1927, a party of Tramping Club members went up to Camp Corner, carefully examining the bush all the way up, and, aided by a rough sketch by one of Carrington's helpers, succeeded in locating ail the cached material. In succeeding months all of this and more was got up to the hut site and the hut erected. The brunt of the work of transporting the material and erecting the hut was borne by Mr C. E. Fenwick and Mr Stan. Graham, and at Christmas, 1928, the hut had its "official housewarming." • The name "Carrington Memorial Hut" was first suggested by Dr. C. Hilgendorf in 1926. before the hut was built, and the was adoplsd by members of the Tramping Club.