THE CITY THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22895, 16 December 1939, Page 17

THE CITY THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Christchurch was meant to be at the head of Lyttelton Harbour

[By C. R. STRAUBEL.] explorations ended (he had been across the hills to Deans brothers’ farm at Riccarton, across the plains to Oxford, walked from Port Levy to Akaroa, and back to Lyttelton harbour by way of Little River and across Gebbie’s Pass), hj set about getting the consent of Governor Grey and Bishop Selwyn to his selection of this district as the site of Canterbury settlement. Having obtained their consent early in May, 1849, he reported to the association again on May 15. This time he provided a map showing where the various townships in Canterbury were to be placed. Christchurch, the capital, was marked boldly at the head of the harbour, and the port town, Lyttelton, at Rapaki. Besides these, there were subsidiary rural townships—Stratford, near Deans brothers’ farm at Riccarton, Mandeville. on the site of Kaiapoi. Oxford, by the Harewood forest at the head of the Cust. Lincoln, on the Selwyn, by Lake Ellesmere, Goulburn, up by Windwhistle, and Buccleuch, by Alford Forest. By this time Thomas’s proposals for his capital city were fairly complete, although a full survey had not yet been made. The Government Domain (equivalent to Hagley Park) was to be on the west side of Christchurch, in a small valley with a fine stream. On the east side of the town, at the head of Charteris Bay, was another small valley with a stream, and this was to be the Botanic garden. Reclamation Flans Thomas considered the head of the harbour an excellent site for his capital town. Five hundred acres of flat or gently sloping land were immediately available, and to this another 500 acres could be added by reclaiming the big mud flat. This reclamation could be achieved “by an embankment from the south side of the Government Domain to Gleig’s (Quail) Island.” He did not

j[AGINE Christchurch as a city seated on the gentle slopes of the jjjls round Teddington, at the jd of Lyttelton harbour, with its jj town of Lyttelton at Rapaki, j its main line of railway going the hills at Gebbie’s Pass to £it with the rest of Canterbury. Christchurch had been so placed, stead of on its present site, how ®ld it have developed, and would . citizens have been different in jliook from the citizens of to-day? [Bid the Pilgrims, the anniversary |Those arrival on December 16. fe is celebrated to-day, have Med down to their grandchildren tg of hardships of being bogged Ifte mud-flats at the head of the yjour instead of those everybody Lys about the wearisome trudge Kr the Bridle Path? Has is not merely idle speculas, far Gebbie’s Flat, round Tedi«ton, was actually the site jsen by Captain Joseph Thomas .February, 1849, for the capital |j of Canterbury, “to be called iistchurch.” Thomas arrived in rttelton on December 15, 1848, two ars before the Pilgrims, to begin s explorations of this district, ii’fh he considered the most suitife for the proposed Canterbury element. That exploration occuied him until the end of February, 43, and before he left he had defed that the capital should be at jehead of Lyttelton harbour, and s port town, to be called LvttelB, at Rapaki, the two to be linked riroad through what is now Govsot’s Bay.. Thomas’s first mention of this site r Christchurch was made in a letrwritten to the Canterbury Asso!&m in London on February 28. when he said: “I have found [excellent site for the capital town about 500 acres at the head of the afiour, and a suitable site for the it town.” Then, his preliminary

think the cost of reclamation would be excessive. A road was to be built round the harbour, through Governor’s Bay, “linking Christchurch and Port Lyttelton.’’ A country road was to gp over Gebbie’s Pass to the farming district expected to develop round Lincoln, and another over the hill from Rapaki, down Murray Aynsley’s Spur, and across the flat to Stratford, a distance of seven miles. The first town surveys were to be at Christchurch, Lyttelton, Stratford, and Mandeville. Lincoln was to be delayed until more money was available. Within' two months, however, Thomas had to abandon his proposals for sites of the capital and the port town. Dispatches from the association in London insisted that he must have at least 1000 acres of flat land for the capital, and made it clear that there was not likely to be enough funds for his proposed extensive reclamation of the mud flats—at least, not until the settlement was well established. Accordingly, on July 14, 1849, after he had returned to Lyttelton to begin his surveys, Thomas wrote to the association that he had decided to put Christchurch, the capital, on the plains on the site proposed for Stratford, and not at the head of the harbour. At the same time he had to find a new site for his port town, for: “Mantell (the commissioner selecting native reserves) made the original site at Rapaki a native reserve, and I have placed the port town in Cavendish Bay.” At the same time Thomas decided on a new line of road to link the port town on its new site with Christchurch on the plains. For some reason (probably distance, and the fact that much of it lay in the native reserve), he rejected his former line over the hills behind Rapaki, and chose the Evans Pass route to Sumner.

If Thomas had not had to change his plans, and Christchurch had developed as the capital of Canterbury on the head of the harbour site, it is certain that the city would have been much more like Wellington on its hills than the city we know. As the city spread there would have been some difficulties with steep streets climbing up among suburbs on the hillsides, but those suburbs would have become very attractive as soon as trees were planted. The business and industrial areas would have spread out on the mud flats as reclamation progressed, much as has happened at Auckland, where the present waterfront is many chains to seaward of the old coastline. These mud flats, according to a chart of 1863, were covered for the most part by only two or three feet of water at high tide. The port at Rapaki would soon have been linked by five miles of railway with the capital, and this line could have been, extended to the plains over Gebbie’s Pass with much less trouble than was involved in making the Lyttelton tunnel. The timber needs of the growing town would have been supplied from the forests at Little River, being rafted across Lake Forsyth and Lake Ellesment to a point only a few miles from the town. North Canterbury’s Loss Disadvantages there would have been in plenty. For one thing the city could not have expanded half as easily there as on its present flat site. More important, the development of North Canterbury would probably have been retarded because of the 20 miles and more of extra travelling involved in going round the hills and across Gebbie’s Pass to the head of the harbour. Early development would instead have taken place on the area round Lake Ellesmere, at Lincoln, Leeston. and Southbridge. What mi«ht have happened is that although Christchurch on the harbour was the nominal capital, the rural town Stratford on the Avon would have become the biggest town and chief commercial centre as the years went by. What arguments there would then have been in the sixties, when the Stratford people urged the construction of a tunnel to Lyttelton, and Christchurch stuck fast to the idea of a railway over Gebbie’s Pass! It is probable that Christchurch, being the seat of Government, would have won, and Stratford would ever afterwards have had a grievance. But would that other Christchurch have so developed that it could be called “the most English city in New Zealand”?