OLD CHRISTCHURCH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17462, 13 February 1925, Page 10

OLD CHRISTCHURCH.

STORIES OF THE EARLY DAYS OF CITY AND PROVINCE. ■NEW “ STAR ” SERIES OF REMINISCENCES.

(By

JOHANNES C. ANDERSEN.

A series of articles on “ Old Christchurch ” has been written for the “ Star ” by Mr Johannes C. Andersen. Librarian of the Turnbull Library at Wellington, and the well-known authority on Maori folk-lore and songs, who has also delved deeply into the early history of Canterbury. Mr Andersen has written of Christchurch in a reminiscent strain, but he has gathered much of historical value, which should be of even greater interest than the fascinating “ Scraps of Old History ” at present running in Saturday’s “ Star.”

CHAPTER VIL. (Continued.) Architects and artists have naturally been attracted, and there must he scores of sketches in existence testifying to the beauty of the building. Mr J. (1. Collins, of Christchurch, made a good series of sketches which were published by the “Canterbury Times” of May 29, 1907. These may give a little excuse for a few remarks about th© buildings. On© is a sketch of the wooden tower at tho Durham Street entrance, which, with its projecting window and hanging stairway for the special stair, looks very .attractive. The door is studded with big square-headed nails. The artist has omitted the bell handle and the letter-slot on the right hand side of the door^—an unimportant omission, as neither were ever used since my joining, the staff there. The

room behind the window to- the left of the floor is the one where 1 speyt. many years, and from the room at the top of the tower I sorted out several tons of aid documents, the accumulation of thirty years or more. Just inside the door on the right was the porter’s room, but no porter occupied it after the l abolition of the provinces in 1876. The second sketch shows part of the building to th© left (north) of the first. 14 shows the stone safe. There Was a safe on each floor, in which, the earlv. maps and field-books were kept. At the back of the stone toyer l which held the clock lifts above the roof, showing its crown-finish ant 1 . flagstaff. The ridge of the roof is finished with a fleur-de-lis ornament. To the left of -the safe on the ground floor was the public map room ; that of the receiver of land revenue was to the right o,f it. The .third sketch gives a full view . .of"., -what . was Bellamy’s in Provincial days. but became became the caretaker’s quarters in more degenerate days. The ivy a.t th© doorway continued along a waist-high stone wall curving in a quarter-circle to steps leading to a lower level, for th© buildings were on a slight rise, and the quadrangle on which this picture faces was on the high level. It was once the scene of a semi-official snow-ball fight in which I took part. The first. caretaker I remember, she was there in 1887, was Mrs Potten, who a few years later, in her declining years, was assisted by two lively granddaughters. 1 was only young then, sixteen or seventeen. I used to hear a little of the “old identities” as Thatcher the comic singer, christened them, from Mrs Potten, who was one of them herself. I remember one afternoon 1 paid a call she told me she had seen her friend Cabbage Wilson that morning. “ How are you to-day ? she asked him. “Oh. j’m not feeling too well, today. Mrs Potten ; T could only take thirty glasses of port this morning.” He. may have said thirteen, but slfe certainly made it thirty. The kitchen was on the lower floor, opening to a courtyard below the ivy ; Bellamy’s itself was on the ground floor beyond, the big room above on

the upper floor being the reading and smoking room. A deep balcony openj ed out to the river, but this was saere- | ligiously abolished in later years, I a new outside wall being built so as ■ to include, the balcony in the offices .j into which the big room was subi div ided, —the offices of the Official As--i signee. The fourth sketch shows the part of the old Council Chamber that faced j north on the quadrangle. It was lit I by two dormer windows on the north side! and by a fine- bay window on the south. The cloister runs along just inside the open door, lit . by. the small j windows along the side?.- - The fifth sketch shoves the part of ) the building facing east on the quadrangle. the door on the right being opposite the Durham Street entrance

under the tower. The stone Council Chamber joins on the left side of this portion. The sixth sketch shows the start, of the stairs at th© north end of the long cloister, a photograph of which appeared on page 48. Tt will he noted how fine the woodwork is. The seventh shows the bay window on the south side' of the old Council Chamber ; the woodwork under its ceiling is especially beautifully worked. This window looks out on a high terrace that- slopes abruptly to the path that runs almost parallel to the river, at the gate end of which appeared the notice “ No thoroughfare’’ of which T. have spoken. The eighth shows a beautiful oriel window that opens from the caretaker’s sitting-room and overlooks the river,—an ideal outlook, if somewhat confined.

The ninth shows a door opening to the corridor leading to Bellamy’s. This door was never used in my time; it .was not necessary sine© the disuse of another on th© same terrace leading from the stone Council Chamber. The tenth shows the door leading into the caretaker’s premises. Tt opens to a small landing, from which one stair leads down to the kitchen, the other up to the living rooms. Tt is carried on a pair of beautifully worked iron hinges. There are other fine examples of hinges in various parts of the buildings, also of iron-bound wooden locks.

The eleventh shows the outer door ! and the inner glassed swing-doors at the exit facing the river on the smith side of Bellamy’s. Tn still later days Bellamy’s was used as a Police Court; it opens from the corridor to the right just inside this door. Tn the Canterburv Times it is said that this door was known as “ The Traitor’s Gate.” T have never heard it so called; it may have been a name given after the sittings of the Police Court started here, but certainlv was never generally used. The twelfth shows a number of windows of varying design, and these and the general avoidance of monotony in the midst of uniformity show, as Mr Collins said, the great fertility of the architectural mind that designed this bulking. CHAPTER VIIT. As will be seen from the photograph of the finished wooden building, the present stone Bellamy’s was not part or it ; that was added when the stone Council Chamber was built, and the two portions, wood and stone, have been most harmoniously fitted together. A fine door leads from the lobby of the stone Council Chamber to the terrace facing the river. To the right of the door is the old wooden Council Chamber, with its fine bow window. This door was never used, except perhaps once a year, or even less often, when the Jockey Club by some means used to get th© use of the Provincial Buildings for their annual ball. On such occasions a passageway was built across Armagh Street from the Art Gallery, where the dancing went on, to the Armagh Street entrance of the Provincial Buildings, and the long corridors were decorated with tree ferns and pbt plants .and other greenery, and a walk made between dance room and supper room —the latter being the stone Council Chamber. This made a lovely promenade, but I always resented the way in which nails and tacks were driven everywhere into the fine woodwork—this applying es]>ecialIv to the old Council. Chamber, which was converted into a ladies’ dressingroom. the excellent woodwork of ceiling and balconies being largely hidden with liberty muslin and other tempo rary a cjor n men ts. The disused door, which led to this digression, was sometimes opened, and from the supper room the couples might come out to a cool boudpir, fitted up it (side a. marque© on tlfe grassy terrace. In old times when this door was opened it was to give passage to th© sage councillors aud wily politicians wdio guided or misguided early Canterbury, leaving it, at the time of abolition, one of the richest of the provinces; so that when th© general government took over the provinces and shouldered their debts, all that Canterbury made them liable for was £7O. Tt was a paradox ; sho charged more for her land, yet sold more at the higher price; and after spending huge amounts on buildings, bridges, railways, tunnel, and surveys, she was in debt only to the extent of £7O. Speaking of the tunnel and of the old Council Chamber reminds me that it was in that very chamber the question was decided ns to whether the tunnel should or should not be made. There is a gallery at either end of th© room ; a public gallery on the west* a reporters’ gallery on the east ; the former is difficult of access, the latter is impossible of access. T was told that it was one mistake made by the architects ; they provided the gallery, but no means for the report-

ers to get to it, sa that when the council was to meet they reached it by means of a ladder. Th© public gallery was made difficult of access when the new chamber was added ; and 1 have no doubt the reporters’ gallery had. a sufficiently convenient access arid exit before the new portion was added later on. The one who probably invented the story forgot or did not know of th© alteration—or ,if he did not forget or did know, made the story for its own sake. T have heard that while the Government was debating the question, a determined opponent to the tunnel was in the public gallery, listening to the politicians. He himself was a politician, hut out of office. So powerfully was he moved to dissent from the arguments, advanced below that he could not hold his peace, and interrupted in a deep voice, “ A damned lie.” “Silence!” cried the crier. Th© politicians talked on—an impotent opponent must be allowed vent to his feelings; he had no vote on the question. The bay window, on the south side was used as a sort of committee room ; when some of the leaders had something to consult on, they retired to the window and drew the heavy curtains across, screening themselves from the sitting members. This may seem like playing at politics and government, and. in .a. way it was play to these early pioneers. There were but twelve members in the first'.Provincial Council of 1853, but in 1854 tlie number was doubled, so that whilst “The Guardian” office might suit the former, the latter needed roomier premises, which they found at the Lyttelton Hotel. The number . increased in 1857 to twenty-six, in 1861 to thirty-five, in 1866 to forty-four, including five from the West Coast, then part of Canterbury, and from 186/, when Westland was separated from Canterbury. thirty-nine, until the abolition of th© provinces in 1876. I have seen some manuscript . notes by on© E. J. Burke, and among other things he says:—“Some of the new' generation would no doubt like to hear the imperative, domineering manner of Mr Moorhouse. and the volubility and rich round voice of Mr John Ollivier. his . staunch henchman, the clear, persistent, argumentative voice of Mr Hall, and the ironical wealth. of Mr Fitzgerald ; the loud. Scotch-accented, sounding voice of Mr Wm Thomson, pulling his Dundrearies with singing laugh, and the pleasant, gentlemanly style .of Mr T. S. Duncan, of handsome presence and bright, expressive ©ye; the sarcastic biting manner of Mr Jos Britten, of great power as a speaker, and the self-sufficient, accentuated speech of Air Chas Bowen, once Speaker; the assertive voice of Mr Robert- Heaton Rhodes as he spoke on matters he -thoroughly understood, and the few words of business style of Mr John Thomas Cbokson. Later in the sixties the buildings resounded with the voices of the Montgomervs, the Turnbulls, the Williamses, the Maskells, and others. But amongst the early ones must not be forgotten that grand old character Sir Cracroft, bringing his masterful Indian training into parliamentary life, two things thoroughly antagonistic. “Til the corridors full of Land Office business might be seen energetic and pushing Air R. H. Rhodes, and plausible, voluble Mr Wm Wilson, all intent upon getting their names in in ample time upon the books for a spotted selection; Mr William Mbit©, the bridge builder, snuff box in hand, and hope-I-don’t-intrude manner, keenly after business, but to the eye quite unhurried. Mr W. J. W. Hamilton, the Land Office Revenue Receiver, with his tall, lioJldw-looking body, and clean-shaven, shrewd, somewhat cynical manner; Air Crosbie Ward, with pleasant, genial smile, enjoying things in general as good fun ; little Keele, the chief clerk. Air Soulsbv, the band Office official, Mr Bain-

bridge, Air A'igors, and a host more; Mr T. W. AT.eade and the clerkly staff; Mr Guise Brittan, with ponderous head and black hair, stout isb, and short; Air Thomas Cass, of few words, and a rather one-sided walk ; Mr Hewlin gs, the surveyor, bronzed and strong ; Mr Cyrus Davie, tall, and of unpretentious look; Air G. A. E. Ross, of a peculiar round bald-headed visage ; Air Quinn, the colour of a half caste, and rather stern stand-off It is perhaps difficult to say anything of these early men that has not been said before, but there may be something. Moor-House, in the 1857 campaign for superintendent, was known as the working man’s friend, a name possibly given because* of the way in which he courted the society of working men as well as men in other ranks of life. He was not above asking one for a pipe of tobacco, or for a match, and gave as much as Lie got. He wa s a clean politician, and with all his chances it is said ne never made a shilling out of his public life. His long-headedness is well known ; he was almost alone in his faith in the railway scheme he so energetically carried through for Canterbury. He well deserved the statue erected to his lidnour in the Museum Gardens; the approach to it. through fine ornamental gates. shadowed by English trees, is one of the beautiful things in Christchurch.

John Ollivier was a fluent speaker, always in demand at entertainments either for speaking or reading. When he was mad© Speaker, his friends said it was to stop liis speaking. He was a great source of inspiration, for the Canterbury “ Punch ” during the short life of that publication, and he enjoyed the jokes at his expense as much as anyone else; and as A. Cox says in his recollections, “ rather than not be tickled at all, he would periodically have offered himself to be politically punched.” John Hall said that “no man could come near him for extracting money out of his fellow .settlers—an accomplishment that made him at once their hone and their dread ; and that no cause in Canterbury, either public or private, had ever asked in vain for the aid of his ready voice

or strong hand to help it through i difficulties-” This was spoken at presentation to Ollivier in 1881; an he said, wlien replying: “ I have bee told that I am a regular old impost* and a nuisance. I believe that I an I admit that I have imposed upon yoi if exciting your generosity is impos tion.” It is said that people would rathe go to hear him speak than go to public entertainment; and on on occasion lie happened to be in Sout

Canterbury at election time. R. Turnbull had been nominated for the Seadown electorate ; and Ollivier being present, an elector proposed him as -i candidate, another immediately seconding the proposal, “ for the sake of getting a speech from that gentlein those days ; there was no secret ballot, nominations had not to he sent in in writing so many days before-- a great deal of tedious form was avoided, and no irritating regulations, but only a few simple ones, had to he complied with. Turnbull made a. good speech, and Ollivier followed with ;t characteristically humorous address. He was Provincial Auditor at the time and holding this office he wa s of course ineligible; but whether the electors were aware of this fact or not, 't troubled neither them nor him. and they enjoyed the speech of tlii s popular orator. (To be continued on Friday next.) DATES CLEARED UP. TO THE KDITOR Sir,—About that. photograph of Cathedral Square which Mr. Johannes Andersen dates 1859, and Mr Lovell - Smith 1860. The following extract from the books of the late B. W. Mountfort may throw additional light upon it: ‘ Matson .and Torlesse.” ‘‘August 15, 1864—Contract signed this day for offices. Cathedral Square.” So far Mr Loveli-Smith is correct. He goes on to say, “it was built and occupied by Mr Henry Torlesse,” etc It was Mr Charles Obi ns Tor I esse, a surveyor, who built and occupied it, and took into partnership Mr Henry Matson. Mr Henry Toidesse was a clergyman (“ Bygone Days,” by Frances IT. Torlesse, privately published). Miss Torlesse says that was the first stone building erected in Christchurch, but there is a certain amount of . doubt about this. My auhoritv again is Mr Mounfort. There are ejitries in his books in reference to a house for Mr O. A. Calvert. The first date is 1861. and later are 180 l and 1865. This was a stone house and stood in Oxford Terrace near its intersection with Kilmore Street. Mr

Calvert was the Registrar of tin Supreme Court—l think the first-. Here is another interesting piece o information which 1 have conic upon “Government Buildings, Christ church. —-Account for expenses in curred in laying the foundation stone January 6, 18.38.” I am, etc.. C. HASTINGS BRIDGE. Christchurch. February 10, 1925.