Pioneer buildings in pioneer history

Press, 20 August 1983, Page 18

Pioneer buildings in pioneer history

Historic Buildings of New Zealand: South Island. Edited by Frances Porter. Methuen and N.Z. Historic Places Trust, 1983. 255 pp. Index. $39.95.

(Reviewed by tan J. Lochhead) When the New Zealand Historic Places Trust published “Historic Buildings of New Zealand: North Island” in 1979 a companion volume devoted to the South Island was promised. It has taken the Trust a further four years to fulfil that promise, but “Historic Buildings of New Zealand: South Island” has been worth waiting for. The design and layout of the new book are closely modelled on that of its predecessor. Similarly, the editor of both volumes, Frances Porter, has followed the approach established in the earlier volume. The South Island’s surviving nineteenth-century buildings are surveyed in 27 chapters written by a team of 24 authors. Chapter divisions follow geographical lines with the selection of buildings being made mainly by local regional committees of the Historic Places Trust. While individual authors were allowed considerable freedom to follow their own interests, they were encouraged to place buildings within their social context. The book thus makes no claim to be regarded as architectural history. However, as a result of this flexible editorial stance there is little consistency in approach between one chapter and the next and there is a considerable variation in the standard of contributions. To read the book from cover to cover is thus a disconcerting and sometimes rather trying experience. A much better policy is to regard the book as a series of selfcontained essays and to select chapters at random. By following this method there is much pleasure to be gained as the best sections provide informative and entertaining reading. In this respect Canterbury is particularly well served. Stevan Eldred-Grigg continues to pursue the

foibles of the “aristocracy of the plains,” while Jonathan Mane firmly places the achievements of Canterbury’s churchbuilders within the context of nineteenth-century

ecclesiastical architecture. B. W. Mountfort’s Provincial Council Chambers, the finest group of Victorian buildings in the country, are rightly accorded a chapter to themselves in which W. J. A. Brittenden contrasts the ideals embodied in the architecture with the often less than ideal behaviour of the politicians. In the one chapter which crosses regional boundaries, E. J. McCoy surveys the major churches of the engineer-architect F. W. Petre. While Petre’s importance as an innovator in construction techniques and as a designer of Roman Catholic churches cannot be denied, one must have reservations about his ultimate importance as an architect for his buildings seldom translate well from the plan to three-dimensional form. For many the most appealing and probably the least known buildings discussed will be the stone and earth structures of rural Otago. Whether associated with farming, goldmining or early industrial ventures these often primitive buildings have a simplicity and directness which nineteenthcentury New Zealand architects, preoccupied with adapting European styles to local conditions, seldom approached. The Morven Hills woolshed, appropriately illustrated on the front cover, has an austere grandeur which only the finest vernacular architecture can achieve. If it has an English equivalent it is surely the mediaeval tithe barn at Great Coxwell so admired by William Morris. The Morven Hills woolshed is not only eloquent as architecture, it has much to say about the importance of pastoralism in building the South Island economy in the nineteenth century. The flow of wealth from the land to the cities helped build not only cathedrals and mansions, but commercial buildings as well. In 1900

the Christchurch architect Samuel Hurst Seager contrasted the “ephemeral and inartistic character of the majority of our houses” with “the palatial and enduring character of the

contemporary commercial buildings.” The splendour of these buildings is recorded in chapters on Oamaru and Dunedin, but regrettably no mention is made of similar buildings still surviving in Christchurch, even though many of the finest local examples have gone. Nor are the buildings illustrated in this book secure: Dunedin’s fine early warehouse, Edinburgh House, has recently been demolished. Significantly, the most glaring omission from the book is also a commercial building, W. B. Armson’s magnificent Bank of New Zealand in Dunedin. One of the Historic Places Trust’s aims in producing this book is to encourage the preservation of our historic buildings. The wealth of photographs reproduced in “Historic Buildings of New Zealand: South Island” will surely play a major role in achieving this end by stimulating an awareness of both architectural and historical values. The impact of Bruce Foster’s photographs of the Provincial Council Chambers and St Paul’s Papanui, for example, is hard to resist, and will surely induce readers to seek out the real thing. Many other photographs maintain the same high standard. Unfortunately two of the best appear on the dust jacket alone; they deserve a permanent place between the covers as well. The book is marred, however, by a handful of photographs which are either poor in quality or actually out-of-focus. Their inclusion is inexcusable. The Historic Places Trust is nevertheless to be congratulated for making available the most ambitious survey of our colonial buildings yet undertaken. Omissions and errors, seen in the light of this pioneering achievement, are matters of minor concern. The task of rediscovering our architectural heritage has only just begun.