Cafe Continental was Sumner’s pride

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32613, 22 May 1971, Page 13

Cafe Continental was Sumner ’s pride

(By

W. J. A. BRITTENDEN)

The Cafe Continental, the pride of Sumner, was destroyed by fire in the early hours of Sunday, June 13, 1909, The belongings of the guests, staff and management were lost. No-one was hurt except Foreman Cuddy, of the Sumner Volunteer Fire Brigade, whose foot was crushed by bricks. The manageress, Mrs M. S. Ridley, suffered shock.

A young man named Hibefl, living in a nearby cottage. was apparently the first to see the glare of flames coming from the skylight near the tower. He aroused the occupants and informed the Police and the Fire Brigade. In spite of a heavy northeast gale (which prevented many Sumner people from hearing the alarm bell) the flames did not spread to the neighbouring houses, or to the nearby trees because of the brick walls of the hotel. However, these walls, falling oatwards, did severe damage to the house on the Scarborough side occupied by a Mr Cowper and Ins family and crushed nearly half the roof to matchwood. Less damage was done to the two-storey building on the Christchurch side, but a fall of bricks on the corner smashed through to the ground floor. Unfortunately the two-inch water pipe from the main either burst or was left turned on. The brigade thus had only a lowpressure supply, so that saving the adjoining houses was all it could do, the fire having spread downward with great rapidity. No city engine No use seems to have been made of the hydrants with which the hotel was equipped and a telephone call to the Christchurch brigade headquarters failed to bring a response even though an unnamed borough councillor was stated to have guaranteed to defray the cost. The failure of the city engine to attend was a subject for terse expressions but the explanation given was that an eight-mile journey with a two-ton engine would have killed the horses, the supply of water (they knew nothing of the broken main) was sufficient for the job, and the gale would beat them anyway since it would take an hour to arrive. One of the papers made much of the fact that the fire occurred on the thirteenth day of the month, that the fire started in room 13 (above the kitchen) and that there were 13 guests in the house. In fact "The Press” named the guests (nine adults and six children) referred to the six maids and two male workers, and correctly described the building as being of four storeys, the other paper preferring, three. Misunderstanding There was an unfortunate but temporary misunderstanding after the fire. An anonymous writer, “Sympathy,” wrote to both morning papers accusing the Sumner people of failing to give aid to the victims of the fire but leaving it to the women of Christchurch to bring food and clothing—as indeed one or two did. In particular two Australian girls, engaged as maids by the hotel, were reported to have been left on the beach in their night attire. . . This charge was strongly refuted and the anonymous writer apologised and explained that he or she had been informed by « normally reliable source. In fact Dr and Mrs Washbourne, Mr and Mrs Hargreaves, Mrs Wrigley, Mrs Hermel, Mr and Mrs Sofjeld of the Cave Rock Hotel, and Mr and Mrs Hatfield of the Marine Hotel had all rallied round to ensure the homeless were well cared for, and the Australian Readers who can identify and date these photographs are invited to write to Mr W. J. A. Brittenden, 130 Rugby Street, Christchurch 1. The house is photograph 208, and the bullock te —'

pair denied that they had been part of the protest or that they were in any way neglected. There were only about 50 people on the beach (or sheltering in the Cave) since many of the inhabitants of Sumner slept through the night unaware of the loss the resort was suffering. As the photograph show's, the 43-bedroom private hotel (the label Crystal Bar under the ground floor windows on the right obviously refers to soda water) was built right on the beach-edge. The little shed on the left was a fruit shop run by C. Phillips, The tea-rooms were on the first floor. Costing £BOOO to build and £2OOO to furnish, the hotel was insured for half that total. It was opened on September 1, 1906. It was financed by the Cafe Continental Company. The hotel’s chief shareholder at the time of the fire was Mr M. S. Ridley, who happened to be in Melbourne. A prime mover in the project was M. J. Burke (son of the Burke of Burke’s Pass and Lansdowne, where he was born in 1862) who had done well on the Waitohi Peaks Station, Wai-r kari (formerly part of the Horsley JJown - Heathstock run) where he had 17,000 acres and 12,000 sheep.

Burke retired to Sumner and it was no doubt then that he became interested in the cafe scheme. Certainly it

was from Porter and Walker’s sawmill .at Karamea, in which Burke also had an interest, that the timber was shipped in the scow Haere for Sumner.

Many years ago I saw a photograph, taken in 1905, of the scow (Mr Walter de Thier tells me it was the Haere) beached in Clifton Bay. The drays of Mr Gibbs, the local carrier, were carting the timber across the beach to the building site opposite the Cave Rock. The Haere was towed into posi-

Hon by the twin-screw steamer, Purau, and then taken up to Burns’s jetty until it was time for her to return to her home port.

I have, unfortunately, been unable to find the detailed description of the proposed building which usually found its way into the news columns when a major building was contemplated. Perhaps some reader knows who the architect was or has an account of the size of the cafe, and the materials incorporated in it