RELIC OF MARSHLAND BUSH

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30769, 5 June 1965, Page 1

RELIC OF MARSHLAND BUSH

This totara stump on the farm of Mr G. R. Fechney, Lower Styx road, Marshland, is a well-preserved relic of the stands of native bush that once lay to the north and west of Christchurch. Big timber was cut in the Papanui bush after the arrival of the white man, but the Riccarton bush is the sole survivor of these stands.

The photograph shows Grant Fechney, son of the owner of the property, beside the stump. The Marshland stump is thought by experts to be several hundred years old, and native to the spot. Its roots are buried in shingle, and efforts made years ago to extract it were unsuccessful. Black pine and totara logs have been dug up in the area.

Mr Fechney's grandfather, 90-year-old Mr J. L. Lang, whose family settled on the land, in 1909, has seen other logs that appeared to be partburnt. “It’s a bit of a mystery,” he said. “The trees could have come down a river in a flood, or have been washed up by the sea, when the coast was much closer than it is today.” The farm' is about three miles from the sea. Maori Axes Over this area, which lies half-way between Marshland road and Spencerville, there is a layer of soil over shingle, and extensive banks suggesitive of old sea-coast or river-

banks, interspersed with boggy patches. According to Mr Lang, Maori greenstone axes were dug from one of these banks, and round cook-ing-stones have been found. Dr. Roger Duff, director of the Canterbury Museum, said the report was the first he had had of Maori artifacts being found in the area, but he would imagine that the Maoris, on their north-south travels, followed a route inland of the sand dunes, and established camping places. Mr L. W. McCaskill, an authority on vegetation, said [the stump was almost cer■tainly a relic of the native 'bush that probably persisted I after the European settleIment of Christchurch. In all

probability it was several I hundred years old. Dr. R. P. Suggate, a Department of Scientific and Industrial Research geologist, said the tree was almost certainly native to the spot, and may originally have grown at ' a lower level, to be pulled up by cultivation. So far as the shingle was concerned, it could have come either from a river or the old sea-beach, he said. The sea level rose rapidly at the end of the last ice age about 4000 years ago, and the coast then was much closer in—to the west side of Lake Ellesmere, to Kaiapoi and towards the centre of Christchurch. Banks Peninsula at that

time was barely connected to the mainland, and the Waimakariri ran into Lake Ellesmere, probably only temporarily or in time of major floods, said Dr. Suggate. Origin of Bogs The river brought down so much material that the seacoast moved out some miles. The Marshland shingle could be either from the river, or the old coast. The coastal sand dunes stopped drainage, and created the bogs and peat belts characteristic of the old coastal strip. Dr. Suggate said there were no grounds for believing that the totara stump dated back to those times. “I doubt if it would be more than a few hundred-years old,” he said.