92-YEAR ASSOCIATION ENDS

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31502, 17 October 1967, Page 1

92-YEAR ASSOCIATION ENDS

A family association that went back to 1875 in one of Canterbury’s oldest grocery stores ended on Friday with with the retirement of Mr H. L. Kissel who, with his partner, Mr S. Sonne, recently sold Kissel’s store, Templeton, to Mr and Mrs A. F. Pollett, of Wellington.

Today’s store, a modern supermarket, is the third on the site on the Main South Road since the original shop was opened in 1860 by a Mr Maddison. Mr G. P. Kissel, grandfather of Mr H. L. Kissel, arrived at Lyttelton as a child with his parents in the Cressey, one of the First Four Ships. He had a store at the Bealey when it was an important coaching stop and

was there whet a gang of bushrangers held up the township. In 1875, Mr Kissel bought the Templeton store. The shop had an “off licence” to sell liquor, and when this right was removed, Mr Kis-

sei built the hotel next to the shop, and transferred his liquor licence. Until well after the turn of the century, the store was the typical country general provider, with a bakery and a coal business, as well as an agency for farm implements.

The store had what is thought to have been the first petrol pump on the Main South Road. Mr G. P. Kissel’s son, Mr H. P. Kissel, ran the business until 1930, when the grandson, Mr H. L. Kissel took over, and subsequently went into partnership with Mr Sonne, whose father, Mr L. Sonne, had worked in the store for many years. “People still buy the same groceries and what the advertisements tell them to buy, but the biggest change I have noticed in my time is the trend to self-service and group buying,” said Mr Kissel yesterday.

By a coincidence, he said • Mr Pollett the new owner, was born in Christchurch, and it turned out that their grandfathers were cousins.