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Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 11 June 1924, Page 7 (Supplement)

Patiti Point.—Patiti Point, the area of land between the sea and railway, from Otipua lagoon to the creek flowing through the Park, was set aside at the survey of Timaru as a “Military Reserve.” It therefore included the present Caledonian Grounds. It was expected that some day a fort would be constructed on the point, which overlooks the' sea and the roadstead. In those days there were no guns able to shoot and hit from beyond the horizon. The point was used for military purposes to some

extent. Two or three heavy iron smooth-bore 18-pounder cannon were placed there for the Volunteer Artillery, formed in 1866, to practise on, a powder magazine was built (it is still there), and an elaborate set of rifle targets was constructed later. The latter were given up and the range shifted to Scarborough on the ground that the nearer range was unsafe to the public. In 1575 the Government built a village of 22 sod huts on the northern slope of Patiti to accommodate immigrants, of whom nearly 2000 arrived in South Canterbury in that year. As most of the newcomers sent there came out in the ship Peeress, the village was was called Peeress town, and twenty-three families were housed there. The occupants took no trouble to provide drainage, the village became insanitary, typhoid fever became prevalent, the people were ordered to leave, and in 3 883 the cottages were razed and the site levelled and sown with grass. Concrete huts were built on the beach at the Point in 1913, to house an automatic fog-signal to warn shipping in thick weather. It was not used many times, but these were enough to prove that it was too expensive for the Harbour Board to maintain, and the complicated machinery was removed. When the sand began to fend off the sea from the shore of Caroline Bay so that the town garbage could no longer bo shot over the cliff near Whales Crook, the sea face of Patiti Point became" the town rubbish-tip, and to this date it has grown into an unsightly heap of waste, many chains in length.