CENTENARY OF CANTERBURY PROVINCIAL COUNCIL BUILDINGS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28660, 9 August 1958, Page 10

CENTENARY OF CANTERBURY PROVINCIAL COUNCIL BUILDINGS

NOBLE ARCHITECTURAL ACHIEVEMENT

Canterbury Pioneers Had Vision And Courage [Specially written for “The Press" by J. L. HEWLAND.I It was in 1858 that the wooden portion of the Provincial Council Buildings was in the process of being constructed at the corner of Armagh street and Durham street, on the site originally reserved for the Christchurch Public Hospital. Today, a hundred years later, the clearing of the site on the opposite corner has once again given the citizens of Christchurch a full view of these splendid buildings, a view reminiscent of that shown in the photograph taken by Dr. A. C. Barker in 1861, in which the buildings appear to have been erected in tire middle of an open paddock. The buildings were planned to provide suitable chambers for the Canterbury Provincial Council, the elected body which governed Canterbury affairs between the winding up of the Canterbury Association in 1853 and the abolition of the Provincial Councils throughout New Zealand as from October 31,1876.

Canterbury’s first Provincial Council had 12 members elected by 318 voters in the three-year-old community. Vaters had to have a small property qualification—a £5O freehold or a £lO leasehold—but any adult male householder occupying a tenement of the annual, value of £lO in a town or £5 outside the town was entitled to be on the roll. The young community grew rapidly, however, and in 1854 the number in the Provincial Council was increased to 24, and in 1857 to 26. In March, 1857, the population of Canterbury was 6230; of Christchurch, 953, and of Lyttelton, 770 (it was at this date that the population of Christchurch exceeded that of Lyttelton for the first time). At this stage it was finally realised that small and temporary meeting places were inadequate and unsatisfactory, and the decision was made to erect a building suitable for the administration of the province and worthy of the future city of Christchurch. •

The 12 members of the original Provincial Council had first met in a small building which- had been the office of the first newspaper published in Christchurch—a short-lived paper called the “Guardian and Canterbury Advertiser,” published between June 3 and September 16, 1852. H. F. Wigram, in “The Story of Christchurch,” says this was in Chester street, near the river; and Johannes C. Andersen, in “Old Christchurch,” says it was at the corner of Chester street and Colombo street, opposite where the Oxford Hotel now stands. Tenders Called During 1856 the council’ moved to a building in Oxford terrace—a house owned by Mr W. G. Brittan —behind the hotel then known as the Lyttelton Hotel, and now the well-known Clarendon Hotel. Two attempts at providing a suitable permanent building came to nothing, but finally in August. 1857, tenders were called for a more pretentious building than had at first been contemplated Mountfort and Luck were the architects and the cost was to be not more than £13,500. The design was thought to be extravagant by those who did not know that it was intended to be carried out in parts as the funds of the province permitted, so that a coherent whole would eventually result. The foundation stone of the first part of these wooden buildings was laid on January 6, 1858, the function affording an excuse for quite a celebration. A procession left St. Michael’s Church after a service there, and the Superintendent (William Sefton Moorhouse) was met at the site by the architects and conducted by them to the stone with its Latin inscription. The Christchurch Brass Band supplied music, for which service it received a gratuity of £5; a gun was specially transported from Lyttelton via Sumner for the occasion and it fired a salute, the inclusive cost of this being £3 ss. The total cost of laying the foundation stone was £73 9s Frederick'Jenkins built both north and south wooden portions, completing them in 1861 at a total cost of £13.715 19s 2d, just £215 19s 2d more than the original amount allocated four years previously “Town Hall” During 1858, while the council waited for its own rooms to be completed and watched them being built, it met in the original wooden Christchurch “Town Hall.’’ This hall was built by a private company in 1857 in High street, where McKenzie’s store now stands. The name “Town Hall” was, however, scarcely warranted as, except for a subsidy of £3OO, the cost of the building was provided by shareholders. The Provincial Government had the use of a front room and the privilege of the first claim to the use of the hall in return for its subsidy. This first wooden “Town Hall” was replaced by a stone one in 1862-63. but was sold in 1873 to W. Strange and Company. Ltd., for a total of £7300. Since that time. Christchurch has been without even a nominal Town Hall.

The period of the early sixties was a prosperous one for Canterbury. Land was selling rapidly; the Otago gold rushes after 1861 meant a good market near by for Canterbury’s agricultural produce; and then a few years later came the rushes to the West Coast fields. The population of Canterbury continued to increase: in December. 1861. Canterbury had 16.040 and Christchurch had 3205. The wooden Council Chamber completed two years earlier became in its turn too small for the administration of the province, and the prosperity of the province seemed to justify the building of a larger chamber to hold the increased number of members of the Provincial Council, which had grown to 35 in 1861.

This time they built in stone. This magnificent Gothic building, masterpiece of the provincial architect, B. W. Mountfort, was Ureadv for use in 1865 and at last

the Provincial Council had a permanent home worthy of the province and its capital city. Here it held its sessions till in 1876 the central government took over all its assets on the abolition of the province. The complete buildings, wooden and stone, were administered by the Public Works Department till 1927. after which a special Provincial Buildings Board was set up, consisting of the Minister of Lands and Canterbury and Westland members of Parliament, who administer the entire block in trust for the people of Canterbury and Westland. The Main Features The south end of the block of wooden buildings was built first; this is the part in Durham street immediately north of the stone Chamber. It is a plain building of the middle pointed style with square-headed mullioned windowsThe sky-line of the roof is broken by the varied arrangement of the gables, by the dormer windows of the upper floor, and by the en 4 trance being raised an additional storey to form a small tower. The whole construction is of wood on a stone foundation. The chief points of attraction inside are the Council Chamber, which is formed with a lofty, open traceried roof and lined with native wood in panels; and the corridor, which runs round the interior of the building. This was originally paved with wood blocks, but these were replaced by the irregularlyshaped stone slabs now there. As they proved very slippery at times, their surfaces were picked with holes to give some sort of grip. The north end of the wooden block, which was built in 1860, reflects more -prosperous years in the more ornate style, with greater height given to the offices. The windows are all foliated, and square bay windows two storeys high are constructed all ' round the north and west fronts. The North Front The north front on Armagh street consists ?f a stone tower constructed in red stone with white bands and dressings, and wings right and left terminated by wooden pavilions. The corridor is continued from the southern part all round the northern, the longest view down it being 200 feet. The tops of the brick chimneys were finished off in red stone. The northern and southern portions are divided by a stone gable with two dormers; this stone portion was a safe in two storeys in which were kept the original survey plans and field books of the settlement. The original plan of the group of offices was departed from as the work went on. Some portions were altered, some left out. and some added. One instance of this is the clock Tower, which was made to order in England from a design prepared by Messrs Mountfort and Luck, at a cost of £lOOO. and which should have borne its timepiece beside The old wooden Council Chamber at the south end; but the clock was never added and the tower provided for it was pulled down to make way for the stone Chamber. Johannes Andersen says the clock was finally placed in the stone tower on Armagh street, but without the filigree iron work that was originally supposed to house it. After lying for many years among the rubbish in the old council yard, where Scott’s monument now is. it was erected by means of public subscriptions at the junction of High street and Manchester street on the occasion of the jubilee of Queen Victoria, but was later transferred to its present site where Montreal and Victoria streets meet. Strength And Solidity The view along Durham street has included the exterior of the beautiful Gothic stone Chamoer since 1865. the loveliest example of this style of architecture to be seen in the Dominion. The impression is one of strength and solidity. The mighty buttresses jutting out from the depth of the exterior wall give a full six feet of solid .stone, tapering upwards to hold the vaulted roof. This crowning addition almost eclipses its neighbouring wooden building that was being constructed in 1858: but now that we can again see the whole block in one magnificent view, we must surely reflect on the circumstances of its building. It was planned when the whole Canterbury province had few more than 6000 people; when Christchurch itself had fewer than 1000: and the glorious stone ChamI ber that is the .pride of our city (in the absence of a Town Hall) ! was erected during a period that saw the laying of the foundation | stone of the Cathedral and the I planning of the Lyttelton rail tuh>nel, when Canterbury had just' lover 30.000 people, Christchurch 6400, and Lyttelton 2400.

It is to be hoped that the view now reopened will be a challenge Jo the present 180,000 people of metropolitan Christchurch to open the second century of the city’s administration by building a Town Hall that will mark a worthy reyival of the genius and vising pf those who built a century ago: