SURVEYOR' OFFICE IN CATHEDRAL GROUND

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17835, 1 May 1926, Page 23 (Supplement)

SURVEYOR' OFFICE IN CATHEDRAL GROUND

MR C. ADNAM MOUNTFORT’S EARLY RECOLLECTIONS.

Mr C. Adnam Mountfort writes from Feilding as follows in continuation of some casual reminiscences which he recently forwarded to the “ Star.”

I duly received the “Star" of April 17 in which Mr Green makes further reference to the) windmill. It is not •worth discussing the matter further, as he did not arrive in the countrr until 1859. I enclose a - letter from mv sister regarding the windmill, which do not publish, as it is not worth while prolonging the dispute. My people always stated they sold the mill to the people who erected it near Windmill Road, and the road was named after it. It does not appear that Mr Green had any special knowledge about the mill beyond what he picked up in 1559 or later. To show what absflrd mistakes people make about things, take the I photograph showing the Cathedral walls m 1870. In 1871 or 1872 an agitation was got up to sell the Cathedral site, and ,a large counter-agitation was got up to prevent it being sold. This petition, signed by large numbers of church people all over the district, carried the day, and prevented its bq- I mg sold. My uncle rented the office that was I built for the Cathedral architect. It » stood -on one corner of the Cathedral grounds. It was a threerroomed cot- ! tage with front, and back door. We used one ot the rooms as our office to make our survey plans. You stepped out of the back door and in a few’ yards you were on the Cathedral foundation. (Mr Mountfort has prepared a sketch showing that the office stood a little north of the present Godlev statue site.) My uncle used this office for over ten years, I believe, but had to leave it when the Cathedral was. finished. lie rented it when we arrived in 1868, and was there when I left in 1874. I think he occupied it some years before 1868. In those days the survey chains, made in one hundred separate links, used to stretch, and had to be altered. I remember stretching one on the Cathedral foundation, and making a fine cut on the foundation at each end of the chain as a standard for future reference. To show what strange mistakes people make about dates, in the New Zealand Surveyor (journal), March, 1924, is the. following:—“ Mr Pavitt was surveying in Canterbury and Poverty Bay from the years 1875 to 1880, in which year he joined the British North Borneo service, a well-known New Zealand suryeybr, the late Mr Nat Lane, at that time being acting-Commissioner of Lands of that State.” The date 1880 is absolutely incorrect. I had a • Government at the Motu in 1881, and as my brother was down with fever, I got A. E. Pavitt to assist me. I Went to Taranaki in February, 1882, and while there I received a letter from Pavitt, who was in Gisborne at the time, he being then only’ an assistant surveyor. It must have been at least 1883 before he arrived in Borneo. I remember Hobbs had printed on one of his windows “ By special appointment to his Excellency the Governor.” I also remember the Shades Hotel, which seemed to consist of a cellar. You went down a flight of steps from the footpath into it. There was a counter, and all the barrels ranged round behind it. When a new law came into use it had to be closed, as they had no accommodation for boarders as they had only a bar.