MAN OF MANY PARTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21529, 16 December 1939, Page 32 (Supplement)

MAN OF MANY PARTS

Captain AVoollcombe j WAS BOTH PILOT AND -MAGISTRATE | One of the earliest settlers in the < area now known as Waimataitai was Captain B. Woollcombe, R.N.. whose association with South Canterbury I began in the middle fifties. WoollI combe Street is named after this very busy pioneer, whose occupations and activities were multifarious including among others those of Resident Magistrate, returning officer, coroner, overseer of Public Works, pilot, subcollector of Customs and beachmaster. I He was the first man to board the ! well-known immigrant ship Strathallan on her arrival, but as he had just left the task of assisting in the building of his house, and was consequently in working clothes the officers and passengers on his first I appearence refused to believe that he I was a responsible officer. For many I years Captain Woollcombe played an important role in public and official affairs and the family is still repre-1 I sented among the citizens of the | borough and have lively recollections i of events in the now far away days. I ! including the Gloat Flood of 1868, and j the great fire which caused considerI able destruction of property in the I main street. In connection with the ! former Miss Woollcombe relates that I when an alarm was received from j Tcmuka. the life boat at Timaru was I requisitioned and rushed to the scene of danger, the key being in the | possession of Captain Woollcombe. i When the rescue party reached the : flooded area quite a number of persons were found to be in dangei, but | happily the measures taken for their i safety proved entirely successful. One ! man was found perched on the roof 10l his house, with ■ Thing waters all I around, but he refused to be com- ' forted; he evidently believed that the ' end of the world had come. He I repeated over and over again: “I shall | be drowned; no one will save me.” i But in the end his scruples were , overcome nd he was rescued. On the I occasion of the great fire the flames reached close to the Bank of New I Zealand, the building being regarded as in peril, and much apprehension was felt for the v. luabl? documents which it contained. The manager was absent, and he was greatly relieved to find that many of the papers had been removed from the building by Captam Woollcombe. who, realising the crisis, had secured access to the building and carried the papers to safety. It is interesting to relate that Archdeacon Harper was a regular visitor to the Woollcombe home at Waimataitai. and that a considerable number of the letters which make such interesting reading in the book in which tft- venerable Archdeacon rei laths incidents in his life, were written in the pleasant surroundings of the I Woollcombe home, many under the awnings in the garden in the shade of the majestic ash trees, and dated “Christmas Day.” Captain Woollcombe was a great lover of trees. One, at least of these majestic trees still remains, and it is worth chronicling that these ashes gave the name to that particular locality.