HISTORIC TWENTY ACRES

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22215, 7 March 1942, Page 4

HISTORIC TWENTY ACRES

Geraldine Link With Samuel Butler Mundane Recollection In Land Title “This area of land in C/T 408 85 is freehold property, with no encumbrances. the owner being Samuel Butler, of Forest Creek, runholder.” In this mundane manner, in an official document about the title of land on which rates have been paid in error, is recalled the fact, of which South Canterbury can well be proud, that during last century. Samuel Butler, one of the outstanding men of letters associated with New Zealand, and with early exploration in NewZealand, was a resident of the Geraldine County. It was at a meeting of the Geraldine County Council on Monday that a letter dealing with the land recalled its owner. Samuel Butler died in 1902, and most people of South Canterbury have forgotten that he was the author of "Erewhon” and that a former resident of their district is famous in literary history as “the first of the moderns.” The land concerned is at Forest Creek, at the head of the Rangitata Goree, and for years it has been just another piece of land on which sheep have wandered from neighbouring properties. This land has been taken over by a bank which, in making investigations about the titles, again brought to light the fact that it is property with a definite place in the history of the settlement of Canterbury. Samuel Butler’s social satires in the latter half of the nineteenth century were his main claim to world-wide fame, and as a result of his revolutionary ideas he became known as the first of the moderns. His theories were ahead of his time, but many of them are now accepted and proved correct. He was the Son of an archdeacon and is believed to have had a difference of opinion with his family, that being partially the reason he left England for New Zealand in the fifties, remaining here until about 1865. Probably the greatest tribute to Butler’s original and brilliant thought was paid by Bernard Shaw who said: “Samuel Butler is the only man I have ever quoted.” River Exploration In New Zealand Butler is best remembered for his exploration of the headwaters of rivers in Canterbury at a time when the settlement was in its infancy, and when little was known of the possibility of grazing sheep in high country. Butler combined exploration with a study of the grazing propensities of the land, that, in fact, being the principal object of his trips through the hills. He investigated the headwaters of the Waimakariri. the Rakaia and the Rangitata. He was the discoverer of the Whltcombe Pass and the first chapters of "Erewhon” are based on his discoveries in the headwaters of the Rangitata. His association with the Canterbury district is preserved in the name of Butler's Creek, which flows into Forest Creek, Butler Saddle at the head of Butler’s Creek, and another Butler Saddle which runs from the head of the Rangitata to the head of the Rakaia. He named the Two-Thumb Range, Ben McLeod mountain and the station Mesopotamia, which means between two rivers. His descriptions of the early Canterbury landscape have yet to be surpassed. On all his trips he carried notebooks, the foundation of these vivid descriptions, but unfortunately these have been lost. After his explorations in search of country for the grazing of sheep, he eventually decided to take up a station in the Rangitata Gorge. By this time he had learnt the difficulties of grazing sheep in snow country, and, in order to test the suitability of the land in the Rangitata district, he built a hut at Forest Creek and spent the winter there. Later he took over Mesopotamia Station, but he was not the first owner of that land. He bought it from a Mr Owen a year after he took over the Forest Creek block. He acquired various areas in the district while he was at Mesopotamia.

Man of Many Gifts Painter, composer and author. Samuel Butler is probably the most gifted man to be associated in a practical manner with New Zealand's early history. A self-portrait is now in the Christchurch Art Gallery, and a collection of his writings, presented by him. is in the Christchurch Public Library. After his return to Europe. Butler maintained his association with New Zealand in correspondence with Sir Julius von Haast. the explorer. Mr J. E. Fitzgerald. Superintendent of Canterbury. Judge Alpers. Messrs W. S. Moorhouse and M. C. Veale. The property at Forest Creek, which, in the course of dull routine business, came before the Geraldine County Council, is full of history as far as South Canterbury and New Zealand are concerned, and is a place of interest to connoisseurs of literature. This small dark man, whose ideas in the 1860's startled the world of thought, with his Imagination, outlook and literary skill, and who provides one of the richest historic associations for the South Canterbury district, is mentioned statistically as the last legal owned of block C/T 408/85, being freehold property, with no encumbrances. It has no encumbrances but it should be treasured by all residents of Canterbury.