A Trip Through Rangiora In Pre-Borough Days.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18085, 19 February 1927, Page 20

A Trip Through Rangiora In Pre-Borough Days.

(By C.IJ.) The first meeting of the Rangiora Borough Council was held on June 24. 1878, consequently in less than eighteen months hence the jubilee of the borough will be celebrated. No doubt the later generations of the inhabitants' of the town will be curious to know what the chief business portion of the place was like fifty years ago. That curiosity 1 will endeavour to satisfy with the accompanying illustrations reproduced from photographs taken shortly before the town was created a borough, and some descriptive matter. The illustration of llight Street, looking east from flood Street, presents a great contrast to the present-day view from the same point. The Red Lion Hotel seen in the distance on the right, and three buildings on the left hardly distinguishable in the picture, are the only places now standing out of those in existence fifty years ago. The first edifice on the right is that of Mr John Johnston's blacksmith's shop and engineering works. Mr Johnston, after working for about four years in Anderson's foundry and engineer’s shop in Christchurch, commenced business on his own account in Rangiora in 1863. His first, smithy was on the opposite, side of the road, where Mr K. B. P. Brown’s shop now stands. The smaller gabled portion of the building in the illustration was his first workshop in his new stand which he occupied about the year 1865; and the larger building was erected several years iater to provide accommodation for his expanding business. The telegraph pole on the corner, it may be noted, carried the one and only wire between Rangiora and Christchurch. On the opposite

corner with the Drain Road, now Victoria Street, bc.twecn, stood a building erected in the early sixties for Mr T. Thompson, who did business in it as a general storekeeper. It was here. I vividly recollect, that most of us kiddies of the day invested our pennies in sweets. One of Mr Thompson’s assistants for a time was Mr Robert Ahernc, well known in after years amongst the Christchurch journalists. It did not take us long to appreciate the fact that Bob was a good-hearted fellow, and that our pennies had a much greater spending value with him than with his employer, therefore we often patiently watched for the exit of the latter from the shop Before we ventured in to do business. Some time after Mr Thompson’s death, the place became the first agency of the Colonial Bank, with Mr John Fulton in charge, and Mr Duncan Macfarlane. afterwards owner of Lyndon station, as his ledger-keeper. Eventually the bank people demolished the building and erected the prewas used as the agency until the amalgamation of the bank with the Bank of New Zealand. The Red Lion Hotel, the next place in the street, was the most pretentious building in the town at the time, and the only business place constructed of bricks. The original Lion Hotel, a building of wood, erected about 1855, with an upper storey lighted with numerous dormer windows in the Old English style of architecture, was destroyed by fire during the occupancy of one James Bassingwaite, a man who became of

considerable notoriety in the place. In one of the rooms the Rangiora Masonic Lodge, the predecessor of the present lodge of the craft, held its meetings. and in this connection a good story is told that on one occasion a candidate for admission to the lodge -was awaiting initiation in the kitchen, when the maidservant, a lively girl fond of a joke, remarked to him that she did not know why. but whenever the Masons had a new man to join she was asked to have a good fire burning and to leave the kitchen for a time. The candidate became fidgety, and was evidently very ill at case. Presently. the vision of a red-hot hot branding iron being too much for his nerves, he disappeared through the doorway, and it is almost needless to say there was no initiation ceremony that night. During Bassing>vaite s connection with the hotel, he came into the limelight over an action at law with the Road Board. In the very early days of the settlement, there was a deep gully crossing the road from between the first two buildings on the left-hand side of the picture, and running under Thompson’s shop and right away to what is now the East Belt. At one time there was running water in the bottom of the gully, but

this ceased when the depression became partly tilled up. In storm time, however, it still carried a large quantity* of water. The gully ran through Bassingwaite’s garden at the rear of the hotel, and he, objecting to the stormwater, tilled it up. The Road Board lost no time in sending a gang of men to open up the water-ccurse, but the day after their work was finished it was found that Bassingwaite had put on men during the night to fill it up again. The Road Board, not to be beaten; sent their men to open out the drain once more. Bassingwaite then played his trump card. Gathering up aJI the old hoop-iron, tins, horse-shoes and what not of a solid nature, he had these thoroughly mixed up and tramped in with the earth returned to the drain, with the result that the Road Board men. when they were set to work once more, found the job so difficult that they threw it up. The Road Bpard then took action against Bassingwaite for obstructing the watercourse, but they lost the case on the ground that in opening out the drain the original line of the gully was not followed. To make quite sure that the gully would not be opened in the future, Bassingwaite at once set to work to erect a concrete house over it in what is now Cone Street, and the .place at the present time is occupied by Mr J. Fitzgibbon. Bassingwaite was regarded as a man of considerable means Besides erecting the hotel and the cottage before referred to. he built the wooden house next door, also the large three-storey concrete house adjoining, now occupied by Mr J. Skilling, and the concrete house a short distance down Ivory Street, now belonging to Mrs R. H. Walker. lie was a believer in building for posterity and put. his faith in concrete, a material first adopted at that time in Rangiora. Eventually he ended his career in the place in, a sensational manner by seeking the refuge of the Bankruptcy Court, on the plea that he had been robbed of £2OOO when on a visit to Dunedin. The circumstances surrounding his action were so suspicious of fraud that both he and his wife were arrested. The sensation over the affair was intensified when Mrs Bassingwaite was searched, and ‘sewn

up in her undergarments was found nearly £4OO in notes and gold; and another amount of about £4OO was found hidden in a well at the rear of the house next to the hotel on which Bassingwaite was then living. It my memorv serves me right Bassingwaite rlied in gaol whilst awaiting trial, and his wife was released. One of the acts called in question was making over to an old man who had acted as rouseabout at the hotel, what he had no doubt intended to be temporarily until his bankruptcy was settled up, the concrete house built over the gully. W hen Bassingwaite was arrested the old man was so alarmed that he hanged himself at the house. The ownership of the house for years after remained in doubt, but on a tenant who occupied it rent free at last endeavouring to make it his own. the Public Trustee stepped in and claimed it. At the spot where the railway crosses High Street there was erected in the latter half of the fifties the first general store, which was also used as the post, office. The store was a branch ol* Mr G (' Black s Kaiapoi business, and Mr I B Wilson "■«' tb*- manager and first otlicia 11 v appointed postmaster in the settlement This building had to come down in IS7I to make way for the railway line. Other buildings that have disappeared were Mr \V. Sansom s bakehouse, general store, tailor s shop and dwelling, a blacksmith’s shop and

dwelling built for Mr Melbourne, who died in 1860, and Mr James I lorniblow's wheelwright's shop, which stood on the corner of what is now High Street and the East Town Belt. Mr Ilorniblow was a somewhat noted man, especially in the estimation of the young folk, for his performances on the dulcimer, an instrument of antiquity from which the piano was evolved. For the information of those unfamiliar with the ancient instrument I may describe it as a shallow-box, tii angular in form, over the top of which wires were stretched and tuned to harmonise. Jn performing on it two small hammers are used to tap the wires. Mr Ilorniblow made his own instrument, and was a pastmaster in performing on it. It is almost‘needless to say that his services were in request at the entertainments of the time. The really sweet music he made never failed to win an encore - the children saw to that- in fact, he could probably claim a record in that respect amongst the performers of the early days. I recollect that he sometimes prefaced his opening item at a concert with the announcement, “ Ladies and gentlemen, with auricular .demonstration I will now endeavour to set you all alive.” lie certainly neyer failed in his endeavour, his music invariably having a merry lilt. Mr Ilorniblow had also some fame as a weather prophet. Many .of his predictions were as safe of fulfilment as some of those that occasionally appear over the signature of the Government Meteorologist. For example there came a sky ,of doubtful appearance, and his opinion was sought

as to the prospects of the weather. After making a careful survey of the firmament he would deliver the profound verdict, “ As far as T can judge it may rain and it may not.”

Turning to the left-hand side of the street. The building in the immediate foreground of the illustration was Mr Ed\Vard A. Good’s general store, in which, after his death, his son, Mr E. R. Good, carried on the business of draper only until he replaced the shop with the present block of brick buildings. Mr Edward Good’s first place of business in 1859 was a small shop on the site afterwards occupied by the Junction Hotel, which is the second building in the row with the gable surmounted by a flagstaff. The name best known in connection with the Junction Hotel in the early days was that of Mr John Sinclair, who was the licensee owner for many years. Soon after his death the original building was removed, and replaced by the present fine edifice, which the march of progress demanded in the interests of the travelling public. Mrs Sinclair, it may be noted, is still alive in Rangiora, aged ninety-eight years. In the sixties a livery stable stood next door to the hotel. Here the station hands in for a spree put up their nags, and many a wager was lost and won over tlje trotting or galloping performances of some of the best of the animals. The course for the trials of speed was usually the road between the Junction Hotel and the Woodend Hotel, a distance of exactly four miles. Another pastime much favoured by the station hands and other would-be sports of those days was a duck hunt, a sport that would not be tolerated now, although not more cruel than coursijag hares with greyhounds. In a duck hunt a strong duck was turned out on a pond, the ustial place being a gravel pit. on the road now the East Belt, where there was a good expanse of deep water, and the shepherds’ dogs were then set to catch it, their owners laying wagers on their ability to do so. The duck almost invariably succeeded in exhausting the dogs by continually diving, bobbing up first at one side of the pond and then at the other; the dog-that showed the best form being declared the winner.

The livery stable eventually gave place to a building erected by Mr John Lilly for a general store, which Messrs Hannah and Crothers carried on in partnership for several years. On the partnership being dissolved Mr brothers took over the business and ultimately disposed of it to the North Canterbury Stores Company. The adjoining shop now owned by Mr E. B. P. Brown was also erected bv Mr John Lilly, and for over fifty years has housed a drapery business, passing from one firm to another, Messrs G. L. Beath and Co., of Christchurch, being one of the first if not the original proprietors. In the next building, which was destroyed by fire about eight months ago, the Union Bank opened business in North Canterbury in 1572. Adjoining this was a rough-looking structure mainly built of slabs with their bark sides outwards, in which Mr .1 Keast opened what was probably the! first saddler’s shop in Kangiora. The shop window, I recollect, was protected from damage by passing cattle bv a stout post and rail enclosure. In the next shop, which is still standing. Messrs George and Robertson carried on a bakers and confectioners’ busi<)n what is now the Bank of New Zealand corner my father built his first home early in 1859, and it was here on the night of Good Friday of the following year I first saw the light of

a tallow candle, the house illuminant of the period. A few months later my father disposed of the cottage to Mr (\ Bourke. who for several years used it as a chemist’s shop. He also extracted teeth as a side line with a formidable-looking pair of forceps and a strong arm. Gas and painless dentistry were then undiscovered luxuries, and if one lost his teeth he had to rely on his gums to do duty in their place. Time came when the cottage was removed, and Mr G. Cone afterwards occupied the corner with a butcher's shop, but this, too. was removed to the corner of High and Albert Streets, and on the site the Bank of Xew Zealand was built in IS7B. the agency of the bank having previous to that been in an office at the front of Mr Pen deal's old residence Before the rail wav station was constructed in 1872 the land opposite the Red LiOn Hotel was an open paddock, stretching away northward to the Church of England cemetery, with only one house upon it. that of Mr J. Ponsonbv. It was on the south-end of this paddock the first ploughing match

in North Canterbury was held somewhere in the sixties. On that occasion the best ploughing was done by Mr Jonathan Bell, father of Mr C. W Bell, who had for a team one of the first draught horses brought into North Canterbury, by name Black Robin, and a bullock called Rodney. Unfortunately, owing to Rodney being rather slow on his feet, Mr Bell was disqualified for finishing five minutes after the time limit Those having the man agement of ploughing matches of the present day might with advantage *o« low this good example of adhering strictly to regulations. In the same paddock there was at one time a large camp of bell tc ms for %lhe temporal y accommodation of emigrants, who were, at the period arriving in considerable numbers by every vessel from th# Homeland. In my next article 1 vill have something to say about the street looking in a westerly direction