Magdalen Valley Myth

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31500, 14 October 1967, Page 5

Magdalen Valley Myth

(Specially written for “The

Press” by

ROBYN JENKIN)

A paragraph in “The Press” last week said that the Nelson regional committee of Historic Places Trust was to be advised of an old monastery which was in the hills near Murchison. The Westland regional committee was told that the monastery had supplied early quartz miners with cheese and.wine. Mr O. H. Jackson said he had spoken to deerstalkers who had seen the remains of the monastery.

. So the old legend comes to the fore once again. About six years ago 1 heard an odd tale. First, it was of a French colony in the Magdalen Valley, off the Lewis Pass Road. They were supposed to have started a cheese factory in the early days, which supplied cheese and wine to the miners on the coast. Then came the story of a French convent. Later still it was a monastery. Why, I was told, there were even the remains of cypress groves, grape vines and crumbling monastery walls, and later still someone claimed to have dug up French wine bottles!. French Aristocrats

But what of the facts? If the colony existed during the

gold mining days, the investigations would be centred around the year 1865, and the first suggestion of anything French in the area was the arrival of two French aristocrats in i860,' Gerard Gustavus Ducarel, Count de la Pasture, and his brother Henri Philip Ducarel de la Pasture. The count and his brother took over two stations, St. Helens and Glynn Wye, both well known Amuri stations, and in 1866, the Count transferred St. Helens to his brother Henri, while he him? self continued to develop Glynn Wye. By 1867 Henri, who spent most of his time in England, had transferred the lease to F. W. De la Main. The Count himself lived in Christchurch with his Countess, though he took numerous trips north to supervise the running of - his estate.

Occasionally the Countess accompanied him, one such 1 trip being marked by the ' upsetting of the Count’s buggy with the Countess inside and the subsequent naming of Countess Creek. A Justice of the Peace, and a member of the Amuri Road Board, the Count took an active interest in all local matters and sat on the committee which proposed the separation of Amuri from the Nelson province. At no time did he or his brother lease any part of the Magdalen Valley. The Magdalen Valley was granted under licence in 1862 to George Edwards, then after passing through several hands was taken over by R. M. Stewart and T. R. Fisher in 1866. In 1868 Stewart bought out his partner and it is assumed he gave his station the name of St. Andrews, be? fore it passed to Malthus in 1869' and then to Fanselow. It was finally aquired by Thomas Holmes in 1871, Who gave his station the name of Magdalen Valley, thus providing the name applied to the valley today. But in all the lease-holders there is no suggestion of a French name and only sheep wandered the hills. So what of the cheese factory, the French colony, and the monastery? My own views are these. It

depends how many people are needed to make a colony. In the vicinity, besides the two de la Pasture brothers there were two other Ffench names associated with them. First, in 1867 Henri de la Padutre leased St. Helens to De la Main and in the early 70s a William Du Moulin managed the area known as the Hanmer Plains for Count de la Pasture.

Legend has a habit of increasing the numbers over the years and it is feasible that the four French names could have been the seed from which the idea of a colony sprang. At first I could not think how the idea of a cheese industry could have come about. The idea of trading with the gold miners on the coast was easier to account for as the Magdalen, along With other neighbouring valleys, was very close to the new markets on the coast. In 1865, the main route to the diggings lay across the Harper Pass but the Nelson Government also, cut a track which would connect he valleys . of • the Waiau, the Doubtful and the Ahaura with the Hurunui plains. Popular Route The stock route lay by Lake Sumner, over the Hurunui Saddle, then along the Teramakau and: Arahura valleys to reach the Hokitika market. After 1865, the track followed the Doubtful'River, over the saddle and then the Ahaura to Greymouth. This latter track became very popular and laying close to the Magdalen Valley would naturally have

been used to convey produce from the valley. The convent and monastery idea sprang, I would imagine, from the association of the four French men with the name Magdalen. As I mentioned, the name Magdalen was not given to the valley until 1871, only seven years before the de la Pasture brothers, who never leased the valley anyway, left the Aumri district for good. The clumps of trees and few ruins are known to be the ruins of the old St Andrews homestead, but, in spite of this, amongst deerstalkers and mountaineers the old legend still persists.

But getting back to the cheese. My article appeared in “The Press” six years ago, and the following week it was followed by a most interesting article by C. Malthus. His parents had moved to the Magdalen Valley in 1869 and he remembered that they spoke of Count de la Pasture as their nearest neighbour. But, better still, the writer remembered that his mother took advantage, of her husband’s annual trips to Greymouth to send off her surplus supplies of butter and cheese which she had made herself. As C. Malthus remarked, “Could his mother have been the sole proprietor of the cheese factory?” It would be so much, more romantic to assume that monastery bells did peel out over the, mountains in behind Murchison or the Lewis Pass but I think the story will just have to be relegated to the realms of fable and legend.