Reporter’s diary

Press, 19 April 1985, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Vintage Sumner RECENT DISCUSSION about bridges and causeways on the tram route to Sumner prompted Mr John Ward, of Christchurch, to hunt out an old photograph showing the Clifton Hill tramway bridge in the right foreground, with the beach curving round more deeply than it does today to the old Sumner Pier and Cave Rock. Signal balls are hoisted on the summit of the rock. The photograph was taken by Sir Joseph Kinsey from his home high on Kinsey Terrace. We thought that it might date from the 1890 s or the turn of the century, judging by the full-length dresses and absence of horseless carriages, but a local historian, Mr W. J. A. Brittenden, by the jig-saw process that historians use, has kindly been able to determine that the photograph was taken between 1911 and 1913, probably about Christmas time. Mr Brittenden tells us that the lifeboat shed on the pier was built in 1903. With the aid of a magnifying glass, he could see arms extending from the telegraph poles for electric trams: electric trams reached Sumner in 1907, the year the bridge was built. There is no sign of the distinctive four-storey Cafe Continental, which stood, huge flag with the letters “CC” waving atop it, on the bare patch of land opposite Cave Rock from 1906 until it was burnt to the ground in 1909. The Taylors Mistake Road on •>

the face at Scarborough, just visible in the picture, was made in 1911, and the first house there, that of one A. D. Paterson, was built in 1913. There is no house at Scarborough in the photograph, therefore it must have been taken between 1911 and 1913. There are swimmers off the beach, so it was probably summer (allowing for the fact that people were hardier in those days). Christmas galas were in vogue at the time, and the presence of a merry-go-round on the foreshore suggests to Mr Brittenden that it may have been about Christmas. All in all, not a bad piece of detective work. Weddings WEDDINGS are a piece of cake for a reader who also happens to be a marriage celebrant. About 28 years ago he made a two-tiered wedding cake and married,

or, rather, was married to, his wife. Three years ago, having become a marriage celebrant in the meantime, he made a two-tiered wedding cake and married his eldest daughter. Last year he made a two-tiered wedding cake and married his youngest daughter. This week-end, he will conduct the marriage of his middle daughter. He has already made the cakes. There must be some sort of record there somewhere. Suitable.. 3 OUR PIECE about Muslims being warned not to stamp on or otherwise defile newspaper pages on which Allah might be mentioned has reminded a reader of the Depression days, when most people had out-houses for toilets and used to cut their newspapers into squares instead of having to buy toilet paper. However, she says that the Catholic weekly

newspaper, “The Tablet,” was usually only used for such things as lining the pantry shelves, and some thought that even this was not acceptable. . . . and unsuitable ON THE SUBJECT of newsprint as toilet paper, a colleague recalls how it was used as such in the little house beside the woodshed at his childhood home in Waimate many years ago. He dreaded days when the only paper left was the very glossy middle section of the Auckland “Weekly News.” It was shiny and sharp, and not at all suited for the purpose. Graven message MR WES McHARG, of Christchurch, collects stones. Last week, while strolling on the south bank of the Rakaia River, a reddish-brown stone about the size of an orange caught his roving eye. He picked it up to find that “kiss me quick” had been inscribed upon it with a hard object, probably another stone. Of the millions of stones in the Rakaia River bed, Mr McHarg had chanced to pick up probably the only one with something written on it. Was it a happy message between young lovers? Or was it a lasting relic of a tragic long-ago romance? Therein lies a tale. — Peter Comer