MIRAMAR AS ISLAND

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 130, 4 June 1928, Page 8

MIRAMAR AS ISLAND

THE CRAWFORD DRAINAGE 'A recent article in the "Evening' Post" touching on Miramar ' drainage (in the 'forties and also to-day) has touched memories of some of the old place-names of -Watt's Peninsula and its early history*. In the .early days Mr. James Watt landed some cattle on the peninsula, but, according to the evidence now available, he had little connection with it thereafter; and although tho "Handbook" of 1848 calls it Watt's Peninsula, no mention is made of. any farming by Mr. Watt, but only of cattle farms owned by Mr. J. C. Crawford and Mr. ]«\ Molesworth, which, even before the publication of the "Handbook,"' had both become Mr. Crawford's property. . It thus hap-pened-.that, after the lapse of some years, the name Watt's Peninsula had begun to be supplanted by the name of Miramar. / A NAME FROM THE ADRIATIC. . Concerning the origin of Miramar, the following statement has been drawn up on notes supplied by. Mr. H. D. Crawford: . "Major M'Barnet and his wife (relations of the Crawford family) arrived in Now Zealand in 1868, and were taken out to Watt's Peninsula, as it was then called, to choose a site for a house in which they were to live. Among other places, they were taken to a spur which was evide.ntly finally chosen as the site for the house, and Mrs. M'Barnet named tho site 'Miramar,' as meaning 'Behold the Sea.'! The view from the site comprised Evans Bay and. part of the harbour -and the south side of the ocean. The reason for so naming it was that she had known 'Miramar,' a shooting castle, builfby the great Maximilian on a littlo peninsula just north of Trieste, which he named 'Miramar.' In those days tho surrounding property was known as 'Watt's Peninsula/ and only the site of the ( house was 'Miramar, \ but by effluxion of time the whole' of tho property came to be known as ' Miramar.' " . What is known as the - Miramar \¥harf was built by Messrs. A..and C. Crawford some time in 1900 for the purpose of ferry traffic. The wharf passed.to the Seatoun Eoad Board (under license 'from the Wellington Harbour Board), then to the Miramar Borough Council (successors of the Seatoun Eoad Board), and was taken over from tho Miramar Borough Council by the Harbour Board from Ist August, 1906. ORIGIN OF "BTJRNHAM WATER." Burnham Wharf, recently * built - at Miramar, was named, after Burnham Water (To Eoto-hura, meaning The Bed | Lake) and this perpetuates the name of the Miramar lagoon which (as mentioned in the recent article in the "Evening Post") was drained by Mr. J. C. Crawford in 1847. It seems that Burnham Water'was named in 1840 by j Colonel William Wakefleld after tie homo of .his father, Edward Wakefield, in the Old Country; Burnham being probably the birthplace of Colonel William Wakefield. In 1855, as a result ofthe big earthquake, the level of the tunnel, in common with that of the neighbouring" shoreline, was 'raised between 4 feet 6 inches and 5 feet, and the bed of the tunnel was afterwards lowered by Mr. Crawford for the purpose of getting better drainage. Later on, to further improve the drainage, Messrs. Crawford/lowered it again, "so that the high tido would go through the tunnel and- enable better fall." ' Another jetty in tho peninsula, the Karaka Bay wharf, was so called after Karaka J3ay (which took its name from the "uru karaka," or grove of karaka trees fringing the shore). It was built by the Seatoun Board Board under tho Wellington Harbour Board's , license dated Ist April, 1901. The wharf,was taken over by the Harbour Board from | the Miramar Borough Council, as successors to tho Eoad Board, as from Ist August, 1906. ,' . The Seatoun wharf went through a similar process; being built. by the Eoad Board under license dated Ist April, 1901, and passing from tho Miramav Council to the Wellington Harbour -Board as from Ist August, 1906. Seatoun is named after a place in Forfarshire, called Easter Seatoun, that belonged to the. Crawford family. LIFTED FROM THE SEA. With regard'to evidence of uplift of Miramar in recent times, Mr. Elsdon Best mentions'.(in "The Land of .Tara," published in 1919) that removal of sand by wind,' after the destruction of scrub, exposed a - bed of mussel shells apparently occupying their original position.' "These shells had certainly never been opened'by man, and did not represent a midden of neolithic man. They must have been; protected by the sand covering for . a long time. Eecent excavations along Bridge street exposed ample proof that the hili over which Tirangi road passes was in itself at one time an. islet. In the lagoon that formerly existed along Bridge strpet a marine form of mussel was found living under altered conditions. When the sea extended over the Miramar flat, Motu-kairangi consisted of a, ridge of horseshoe form." Motu-kai-rangi is tho name by which Miramar was known to the Maoris (according to Wairarapa Native tradition) when the hills of Miramar formed an island.' . In "Notes on Miramar Peninsula," in "Transactions of the .New Zealand Institute," Mr.. J. C. Crawford remarked of the ""iataitai isthmus (the isthmus between Lyall and Evans Bays) and of the Miramar flat: — "That the whole of this flat was, at a late geological period, covered by the sea, is very evident, probably at a time when th© sea stood at about 15 feet above the present level,, as evidenced by water-worn, caves, the borings of Pholadoe, etc." Referring to the valley,, or Miramar flat, he wrote: "the appearance of the gravel bars shows that the sea ran in upon a shallow surface, as at Napier, and, after filling the interior area, ran out again at low tide probably leaving the bar dry. . . . The •stratification of the fiat, as far as can be observed, is a basis of gravel, next a stratum of sand and gravel contain-, ing marine shells. ... On or within this stratum, pumice sand. is found in considerable quantity, and also remains of the moa. The shells and pumice may be said to.be at the height of 5 or 6. feet above high water mark. Above this, over several hundred acres, are considerable accumulations of vegetable remains, consisting of peat several feet in thickness, containing roots, stems, aud branches of trees."