A Page Of Early History.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18946, 17 December 1929, Page 15 (Supplement)

A Page Of Early History.

Price s Valley — TePuia— Afyaroa Road.

(Written for the “ Star ” by

W. A. TAYLOR .)

As you motor to Akaroa, passing Stony Point, which is situated between the Kaituna Valley and Price’s Valley, you enter country that has played a part in the early history of Canterbury, both to Maori and pakeha. Stony Point, which is situated at the termination of Price’s Range, and on the north-west side of Price’s Valley, and close by the south-east corner of the Kaituna Lagoon (Motumotuao) and adjacent to Lake Ellesmere, was the shipping place for the timber cut at the Little River Sawmills when the lake was low.

Birdling’s Point, on the opposite side of Price’s Valley (East) was the shipping place when the lake was high. Rafted across the lake, the timber eventually found its way to build many of the homes in early Christchurch. In 1874, and the years following on, were the good old days, at least, so say the surviving settlers of the district. Land was purchased at £2 an acre; it is worth many times that today. At the Little River sawmills a log was worth 14s 6d, timber at 7s per 1000 feet, at Leeston the timber was worth 19s 6d per 100 feet. The. price was, no doubt, satisfactory by the time it reached Christchurch. In the “ good old days ” the district had an inn. It was known as Franks’s, later as Wascoe’s and later still as “ Freakwood.” The hotels on the West

Coast Road mostly went up in smoke as the railway passed them by. Strange it may seem, the hotel of this historic district met a similar fate when the railway reached Birdling’s Flat in 1886. The site of the old inn is still discernable by a clump of bluegums alongside a stockyard on the lake side of the present traffic road. The inn was built in the style of the time, two-storeyed, dormer windows and lean-to The rental was £BO a year, and was due to the original Mr Birdling, of Birdling’s Flat. Under the care of Mr Franks the hotel received liberal patronage. It was the authorised stopping place in the coaching days, before the railway came to the Flat. When the river sawyers came in to melt down their cheques after strenuous days of labour of seldom less than ten hours, the inn was quite a merry place. On Sundays, in the bar parlour, the Rev Otway conducted divine service.

Charlie Chapman was the pioneer roadman of the district, and Joe Macfarlane the favourite driver of the coaches of the ’seventies. The fair sex of the district always had a glad eye for the popular coachman. On Stony Point, on what is described on the survey map as R.S. 3296, stood the Maori fort Te Puia, the citadel of Wiakakahi. The ramparts of the old fort were quite discernible in 1902, when the late Mr Roberts, of Oamaru’

Maori scholar, visited Te Puia. In 1929 the hollows of the Maori ovens are alone visible.

At Birdling’s Flat (on the north-east corner of the survey map shown as R.S 35667) stood Tutekawa’s pah, Waikakahi itself. At Waikakahi Tutekawa was killed by the celebrated Nga Tahu warrior Moki, in settlement of Tutekawa having killed, in a tribal quarrel in the North Island, the two wives of a chief named Tuahuriri, in his younger days. On the fall on Waikakahi Moki posted sentries for the night. Neglecting their duties, ,the warriors slept. The son of Tutekawa, from his pah at Taumutu, had his suspicions aroused by the unusual smoke at his father’s pah, and journeyed across the lake, placed his mat on the sleeping Moki, and hastened on to Te Puia, the citadel of Waikakahi. Next day the warrior Moki, his pride broken by being caught asleep by his possible enemy, Te Rangi Tamau. son of Tutekawa, made peace. Peaceful to-day is the district surrounding Te Puia, and in Price’s Valiev motoring picnic parties find a beautiful, restful spot, away from a city’s bustle.