Birth and Progress of Waimate Town and District

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXX, Issue 20153, 6 July 1935, Page 21

Birth and Progress of Waimate Town and District

Last Section of First Prize Essay in Institutes.

Early Faith in Waimate When the Studholmes took up the Waimate swamp, people thought; they were foolish. It cost more to drain and clear than it was afterwards sold fore. The swamp started below Willowbridge and ran right to Makikihi, hundreds of acres being covered with niggerheads and rushes. On the waters of the creeks and lagoons, there were thousands of pukeko and ducks. It was considered that about two hours was sufficient for two guns to fill a buggy with from seventy to a hundred birds.

The Bush and the cultivated swamp lands, were a great asset to the early settlers. The flax was much in demand by makers of ship’s cordage in Sydney, while the swamps provided game for the pot. Waitematamata, as the natives called it, was famed for its abundance of eels, which were a delicious morsel to the Maoris and to the early settlers themselves. Eels were the only fresh water fish to be found in swamp or river. The Bush was a hunting ground in which could be found native pigeons and kakas and the weka or Maori hen, now so rare. With the advance of cultivation, they went their way, and it is with regret we think of the disappearance of the native game that supplied the early settlers with abundant provender. With the draining of the marshy lands, the eels disappeared, and now, in those parts, stand prosperous farms.

Bird Life Destroyed Tussock and bush fires, and poisoned grain destroyed pigeons, kakas and wekas, even as they destroyed the once abundant native quail. In their place, Acclimatisation Societies have provided other birds for the sportsman, but that does not atone for the disappearance of the native birds.

'Gone are the forest birds, arboreal things

Eaters of honey, honey-sweet of song, The tui and the bell-bird, he who sings That brief rich music, we would fain prolong.” Gone the wood-pigeon’s sudden whirr of wings The ranting robin, all unused to wrong Wild, harmless, hamadryad creatures, They lived with their bush, and died and passed away.”

The following amusing anecdote is told in connection with the poisoned grain. A settler called at the Waimate Council Chambers to interview the engineer. He was out, but the clerk, a man of few words was there. As the settler absent-mindedly chewed some of the sample grain that was lying on the counter, the following conversation took place: “The engineer is out?” “Yes.” “When will he be in?” “Can’t say.” “I’ll wait a bit in case he returns.”

For a few moments the settler went on chewing the grain till he noticed the gaze of the clerk fixed upon him and asked if anything was wrong. “Well,” said the clerk slowly, “I was just waiting to see if the complaints were true that the poisoned grain is a uailure this year.”

Rapid Progress In the same year that Michael Studholme brought hares to New Zealand, that was in 1860, Waimate became an “Educational District,” and the first schoolroom was built two years later. It was a small building, 50 feet by 20 feet, but was considered too large for the requirements of the district. In 1876, additions were made to the wooden building near the Salvation Army Barracks of to-day, in Queen Street. A further change was made in 1881, when the present brick building was completed. It was called the Waimate District High School, because it had three classes beyond the sixth stndard, and it continued as such for the next forty-seven years. On February 1, 1929, the new High School was opened, so that now the primary and secondary schools are quite separate. The Waimate School has given the Dominion many noted people among whom might be mentioned Mr T. B. Strong, M.A., B.Sc., Director of Education; Professor Douglas Copland, M.A., M.Sc., of Melbourne University: Mr Alexander Park, A. F.1.A.N.Z., C.M.G., comptroller of the treasury; Mr Alex. McTaggart, Professor of Agrimony, McGill University, Canada; Mr George Park, B. F.R.E.S., director'of the Seddon Memorial College, Auckland; Mr Chas. Foweraker, M.A., lecturer in Botany, and assistant to Professor of Biology, Canterbury College, and many others, while the district has supplied Sir W. J. Steward, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Hon. John Bitchener, a Minister of the Crown, and men of note in ail branches of Dominion activity. The year after the formation of the Educational District the first church was opened in the town. It was St. Paul’s Wesleyan Church, a small building in Queen Street, opened at a cost of £llO. Until they had churches of their own, both Presbyterians and Anglicans used it. In 1877, a larger building was erected alongside, the smaller one being used as a Sunday school.

The foundation stone of the Anglican Church of St. Augustine was laid on August 28, 1872. It was built on a site given for the purpose by Mr Michael Studholme. Ten years later

RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF MUNICIPALITY AND COUNTY

the competition organised by the South Written by A. G. Kane and entitled

the building was extended, and the Sunday school was built. Both the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic Churches were opened in 1877. The Salvation Army commenced in 1885, and as their meeting place was destroyed by fire, they built their barracks in 1901.

The first postmaster was Mr J. Manchester, his appointment dating from 1864, and he carried on that office in conjunction with his store-keeping business for six years. Within the next twenty years, roadways were well under way, rivers were being bridged, public buildings such as the hospital and the public library, were provided, and in five years more, Waimate was served by a railway and declared a borough. The town draws its water supply from a catchment area from the head of the Waimate Creek, the system be-

ing installed in 1907. In 1912 underground drainage was introduced. Gas lighting superseded kerosene lamps about 1906, but the streets are now well illuminated by electricity. Waimate is well endowed with park lands. Victoria Park of seventeen and a half acres, is used as a cricket, football, tennis, cycling and sports ground generally, and is situated at the west side of the town. Of late years, wonderful improvements have been made, and there are few parks of its kind and size to compare with it. Knottiest? Park, covering an area of 83 acres, at the south end of the town, is a government reserve. Its avenues, clumps of trees, shrubberies :y.d open

Canterbury Federation of Women’s “Waimate."

spaces, make it a place of great beauty highly prized as a pleasure resort. Nearly three hundred acres of bushclad land are included in a water reserve at Kelcy’s Bush, and the Bush is a very favoured spot for picnics.

Of Waimate’s Public Memorials mention must be made. The female marble figure "Zealandia,” in Victoria Terrace Triangle is the South African War Memorial. The clock and bells in the Post Office tower, were erected to commemorate the coronation of King George V. On the north comer of Seddon Square, stands a marble figure of Dr. Margaret Cruickshank, the first woman doctor to practise in New Zealand. The Band Rotunda commemorates the reign of Edward VII., the “Peacemaker,” while the Great War Memorial consists of a stone arch at the eastern corner of Victoria Park. On its marble facings are written the names of those who made the supreme sacrifice.

County Development Waimate County was originally included in the larger Road District, which embraced all the country outside the town of Timaru from the Waitaki to the Opihi. When Waitangi was subdivided, Mr John Studholme, was elected as chairman of the District Road Board. He was also first South Canterbury representative in the Provincial Council. In 1876, the Waimate County was created, Mr J. Bruce being elected first chairman. He was one of the principal operators in the timber trade in the Waimate Bush, and was afterwards well known in flour-milling circles in Timaru. Mr Bruce owned the first steam-traction plant in South Canterbury, advertising a “roadsteamer” to run between Timaru and Waimate in 1874. He it was who introduced roller flour-milling machinery into New Zealand. In recent years, small fruit culture has been carried on extensively and Waimate is the main source of supply for the South Island for strawberries and raspberries. The first attempt to grow strawberries was made by Mr E. Childs on half-an-acre about 1883. The first to start growing raspberries was Mr Z. Cousins about 1896. The grub attacked the canes, and as the expense of picking was also considerable, the industry for some time fell away. Within its area of 1343 square miles, Waimate has some of the best agricultural land in the Dominion, and the district is noted for its crops and herds. It is the fourth county in New Zealand for length of metalled roads, and third for length of bridges. With close on 20,000 acres under cultivation the roads are necessary for the transport of the large yields, while the wool of more than half-a-million sheep is sent along the routes used also by the seventeen thousand cattle and the seven thousand horses, of this fertile area. Eight thousand people populate this county, and another 2400 find homes in the Waimate Borough. Let us remember the first wheel marks cut into the soil of the Waimate County were made by the bullock-dray of the first settler, years ago. It was fitting that on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the arrival at Waimate of Mr Michael Studholme, a memorial should be unveiled in memory of the first settler and chief Hum Hum. An illuminated address was presented to Mr Edgar Channan Studholme, and to a descendant of Hum Huru. The eightieth anniversary has since been celebrated, and a monument erected at the entrance of the Gorge Road. No more eloquent tribute could be paid to the pioneers of South Canterbury than to point to the visible and enduring evidence of the crowning edifice succeeding generations have reared upon the foundations of the early settlers so well and truly laid: “If ye seek their monument look around: “And yet, amidst our 'pride, ’tis meet to

think Of those fine souls whose span, alas, has run. Who, in our minds, the Past with Present link, Yet cannot view the good that they have done. So in respect now let us pause a space, And homage pay to those who’ve gone before, Who’ve fought—and passed —ire Life’s eventful race, But now who rest in Peace Jor evermore."

Captain Guy Rayment, who has translated a book called ‘Japan Must Fight Britain,’ has been Fleet Education Officer in the Mediterranean command since 1927. He was one of the first naval officers to be made a Japanese interpreter.

Mr Arthur Morrison, novelist, like Mark Twain, has found the report of his death grossly exaggerated. He writes to the ‘Observer” (London). The question whether or not one knows when one is dead is one fitter for the speculations of the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle than for any X can offer. But when I read, in your current issue, that “Arthur Morrison, Conan Doyle, and Edgar Wallace are dead,” I am tempted to render as a meek contribution to the problem my positive assurance that as regards my own case, I was, and am, wholly unaware of the incident. ¥