TIMARU DECLARED A CITY

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25647, 9 November 1948, Page 4

TIMARU DECLARED A CITY

Ceremony To Be Held On Caroline Bay TOWN FOUNDED IN 1859 From Our Own Reporter TIMARU, November 8. Timaru was proclaimed a city on Friday, according to a telegram the Mayor (Mr A. E. S. Hanan) received to-day from the Department of Internal Affairs. The telegram intimated that the change of status would be contained in a Gazette notice on Thursday, and would become effective from that date. The announcement is the outcome of consistent claims by the mayor in recent months that the town has reached the population of 20,000 required for city status. Next Tuesday afternoon a ceremony will be held at Caroline Bay. the scene of the arrival of the first Maoris, and later Europeans, in South Canterbury. Speakers will include the Mayor, the chairman of the Canterbury Education Board (Mr A. E. Lawrence). representatives of some local organisations, and a pioneer resident (Mr J. W. Holdgate). A feature of the ceremony will be the playing by local bands of the march “Timaru,” composed by Mr A. Pettit, of Dunedin, and presented to the town by the Mayor. It is also proposed that school children should sing the words composed for this march. Proceedings will be .filmed by the National Film Unit, which will arrive

in Timaru at 4he week-end to take shots of the city. As part of the celebrations the Mayor will plant a totara tree in the Botanical Gardens. It is appropriate that Timaru should be proclaimed a city this year as it is 80 years since it was proclaimed a borough, and Mr S. Hewlings subsequently elected Mayor. Whaling Station in 1836 The first European establishment at Timaru was a. shore whaling station set up for the Weller Brothers, of Sydney, by Joseph Price in 1836. Sixteen years later William Barnard, Robert Heaton and George Rhodes took up runs known as “The Levels.” which marked the opening up of the rich hinterland of South Canterbury. An area for a future town was the only reservation in this block. In 1856 the Rhodes Brothers bought 126 acres to the north of the Government reservation for Timaru for £6O. Mr E. S Lough, destined to be tne first town clerk, laid an area off for subdivision. The southern boundary of this area is now North street. The Government area was laid out independently The real beginning of the town was not until 1859. when the “Strathallan” arrived with immigrants. Development °f the harbour from an open roadstead presenting a considerable danger to shipping, as shown by early wrecks, to a port which is one of the best of its type, has been closely linked with Timaru’s progress. These works have not only facilitated reclamation, but have created the broad expanse of sand known as Caroline Bay, which has made Timaru one of sorts ea^and s leading holiday re-