RANGIORA ‘RISEN’

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32540, 25 February 1971, Page 15

RANGIORA ‘RISEN’

Tree found 6ft down

The level of land in the southern part of the Rangiora borough appears to have risen by about 6ft since the Rangiora Bush there was cut out, a little more than a century ago. This is evident from excavations being made in Percival Street, originally a “corduroy” road of logs laid laterally and which is now being reconstructed as the town’s main southern outlet. The sawn stump of a large tree, believed to be a matai, has been found 6ft below the ground surface during the excavations.

Several feet in diameter, the stump could not be budged from the pug in which is has lain, probably since the bush was felled during the late 1850’s; reconstruction has gone on around the stump. Apart from a suggestion that the tree might have been sawn off below the surface, there have been several suggestions put forward on how the land level could have risen 6ft above the top of the stump. One of the popular theories is that this is the result of silt deposits in 1868, following probably the worst flood known in North Canterbury, when all low country between the Waimakariri and Ashley rivers was covered in a sheet of water.