INTERESTING PAGES FROM THE HISTORY OF SUMNER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18946, 17 December 1929, Page 21 (Supplement)

INTERESTING PAGES FROM THE HISTORY OF SUMNER.

FEW PEOPLE OF PRESENT GENERATION KNOW, HOW THE SEASIDE SUBURB GOT M THE NAME IT, NOW. BEARS ,

(Written fonthe ~ Star, ” by

A. Selwyn Bruce).

r There ace probably many people living in Sumner today who have no idea whence it received its name. As a matter of fact and history, Captain Thomas, the Chief Surveyor for the Canterbury Association in London ( who, with his efficient staff embracing Cass, Jollie, Torlesse, Cridland, Boys and several others, performed record tasks in connection with the survey of ; the settlement) named it after Archbishop Sumner, the Primate of England in 1849, who was the president of the Canterbury Association.

As early as 1849, Jollie laid out the township, but this was not carried any further by the association, and the land became rural section 2, with an area of ICO acres, and was selected by Felix Wakefield, an engineer, and a younger brother of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the man responsible for the colonisation of New Zealand.

Felix Wakefield settled in Sumner in ISSI, but made a trip to the Homeland in the following year. Two years later he was back in the colony, this time residing in Nelson, having brought out with him a number of animals and birds, including pheasants, which he liberated in Nelson Province. A Benefactor.

An enthusiastic botanist, he was responsible for the free distribution of seeds and plants in Canterbury, which, in later years, contributed to the shelter enjoyed by the residents on the Canterbury Plains, which received the full blast of the gales continually sweeping down from the ranges northwest and south-west.

After a second journey to England Wakefield returned in 1863 and settled in Sumner with his family, exercising his skill as an engineer in planning harbour accommodation and a water supply.

The general impression in the early days was that Christchurch would be connected with Lyttelton by road via Sumner, and Captain Thomas had already spent a considerable sum on the Lyttelton side of the hills in the development of this idea. The action of Mr Godley on reaching Lyttelton in 1850, in stopping this work, was naturally greatly resented by Wakefield, for, by it, his dreams of opulence as the scheme developed did not materialise, and his opposition to Godley became quite an obsession, he never losing any opportunity of condemning the mismanagement of the settlement by the Canterbury Association. “ Wakefield Town.”

Wakefield called his selection “Wakefield Town”, cutting it up and selling it in 1864, but the original name designated 'by Thomas survived, and the official and recognised name of “Sumner” was finally adopted as covering the whole valley as well as the township. Captain Thomas in a letter to Godley referred to Sumner as “certain to be of importance, and of picturesque beauty”. Wakefield’s vision of Sumner becoming the geographical connecting link between Lyttelton and Christchurch received a set-back when the tunnel scheme was promulgated by Moorhouse, who advocated the abandonment of the highway via Sumner, which had then cost some £IB,OOO, in favour of a direct line by tunnel from Lyttelton to Heathcote Valley. In his opposition to Moorhouse’s scheme Wakefield had the assistance of J. E. Fitz Gerald, the province’s first Superintendent, who was bitterly antagonistic to the tunnel scheme, and, enlisting the support of those who saw eye to eye with him, Fitz Gerald started the “Christchurch Press” in May, 1861, in order that his views and the views of those friends who supported him, might receive the fullest publicity. Wisdom Of Moorhouse. The wisdom and foresight of Moorhouse, and his dogged tenacity of purpose, were fully vindicated in the light of after developments, and Sumner has settled down into what Captain Thomas predicted—a seaside resort of picturesque beauty, unique surely among the many health resorts of the Dominion to-day for its salubrity of climate. Wakefield was not destined to see the results of his labours, as he passed away suddenly on Christmas Eve in 1875. Up to that period, however, Sumner had proved of great value to Christchurch by providing the only direct access by water to the infant town. It is worthy of note that some four thousand tons of merchandise were brought Into Christchurch over the Sumner bar during 1851, and of this quantity only about twenty-five tons had been actually lost. A reference to records of wrecks that have occurred in the vicinity of Cave Rock when crossing the tar reveals a long list of disasters, the only material evidence of which, after all these years, is the Gazelle, which was wrecked in 1867, and the remains of which lie alongside the Beacon Rock, and a small portion of a boat carrying timber from the bays on account of J. Thacker, which lies embedded in the sand on the east side of the Cave Rock. Cave Rock -was designated “Cass Rock” originally, but lost this name by popular consent soon after the cutting up of the township by Wakefield. Wrecks On The Bar.

Between 1854 and 1886 no fewer than twenty-four cutters, schooners and steamers came to grief in negotiating the bar. They were: Emerald Isle, Annie, Julia Ann, Palmer, paddle steamer Alma, Cordelia. Auckland, Rifleman, Ocean Queen, Midge, Ann, Julia, Emerald, Maria, Industry, Traveller’s Bride, Maria Elizabeth, Fawn, Augusta, Hannah, Gazelle, Jupiter, Volunteer, Sarah and Mary. The old Mullogh, familiar for so many years in Lyttelton Harbour, where she has performed valuable service, struck on the south spit of the bar while trying to negotiate the breakers in August, 1865, and, to prevent her becoming a total loss, owing to her striking the rocks, her skipper ran her on to the north spit, from where she sank in deep water while efforts were being made to refloat her. Bought by Holmes and Co., she was recovered from the quicksands and refitted to carry on service for many years The first appointed pilot was W. H. Turner, who commenced his duties in 1864. his only successor being Pilot Day, who filled the position until circumstances rendered it unnecessary to continue the pilot service. The first building erected in Sumner was the Canterbury Association’s storeroom, built by Captain Thomas at the entrance to Sumner, and in 1859 the first hotel was opened on the section adjoining the association’s store. These buildings are shown in one of the old photographs on this page. George Day was the original licensee of the hotel, which he named the Canterbury Arms. The license was taken over in 1862 by L. R. Raddon, and in later years Mrs Schluttr entered into possession, the

hotel being ultimately destroyed bv fire in 1892. The association’s old storeroom was transformed into stables, and during the coaching days between Sumner and Christchurch was the property of Chris Dal wood, the well-known coach and cab owner of the early days. Keen Rivalry.

Dalwood had a formidable rival in Phil Ball, whose Sumner headquarters were in the old stables on Wakefield Avenue behind, the large rock at the Marine Hotel corner. The rivalry between these two knights of the whip was very pronounced—so much so, that on one occasion at least, there was a collision in the neighbourhood of M Cormack’s Bay (known in later years as Monck’s Bay), one of the coaches being capsized. However, the journey on the top of one of these old buses was well worth the hour it occupied and the half-crown it cost, apart from the free entertainment provided by the rival Jehus when they tried to pass each other on the none-too-wide road! The ostler’s bell, which hung outside the door of Phil Ball’s stables,

will be remembered by old-timers, and I regret to record that some sneak thief annexed this interesting link with early days not so very long ago. McCormack's Bay (now called Monck’s Bay) was named from William McCormack, who arrived in the Sir George Seymour, and who met a tragic death by being thrown from his horse and striking his head against a tree. The other McCormack’s Bay, on the City side of the cutting, and called after a brother of William M’Cormack, was originally owned by Moses Cryer’ one of whose daughters died recently at Waterford, on the Rakaia, where her father had, in the ’sixties, bought a run.

Early Buildings. One of the first general stores opened in Sumner was that of Mrs Terry clearly reproduced in one of the old Sumner photographs which accompany these notes. All Saints’ Anglican Church, in Wakefield Avenue was built and consecrated in 1876, and the first marriage solemnised in it was that of Mr Weedons to the third daughter of Edward Dobson, the well-known civil engineer. Wakefield’s attempts to ol>

tain a water supply by means of sinking bricked wells did not prove successful, the rock formation on the Sumner side of the estuary preventing ths water from flowing south of the confluence of the Avon and Heathcote Rivers. The trial well, which stood near the Clifton tram stop, has long since disappeared. Readers will doubtless recall the quaint little hut beyond the church, built against the hillside and occupied for many years by Alf Day, a brother of Pilot Day.

Donkeys were a great source of pleasure to old and young, the earliest lot being owned by Jim Williams, a rather eccentric old fellow of many parts, who previously had been a dealer in Shorthorn <cattle, of- which he was considered an expert judge. Williams was succeeded as donkey owner by Bob Speirs, of Colenso Street, who plied his trade for a number of years, with more or less financial success. “ Beach Glen.”

One of the earliest residences in Sumner was known as “ Beach Glen,” owned and occupied by W. H. Lane, the well-known flour merchant of Cashel Street. Mr Lane’s eldest daughter became the wife of J. J. Thomson, of Opaw.a, in 1877, but died the followi°g year. Beach Glen was purchased from Mr Lane by C. L. Wiggins, and for long years Wiggins’s Boarding School for boys was well known throughout the colony. In later years it became the home of Mr Van Asch, who started the teaching of lip reading to deaf mute children—the foundation of the present Government School for Deaf Mutes, where results are achieved which are almost uncanny to the casual visitor. It is an institution of which we are all justifiably proud. Sumner boasted its first volunteer fire brigade in 1892, its foundation members including Joe Day, Charlie O’Malley, Bill Thomas, Jim Carter and Charlie Molten, with Carpenter as its first superintendant. Carpenter carried on a market and fruit garden in the early days in the vicinity of the site of the present Masonic Lodge, and, in later years, was associated in his business with Vesey Hamilton and Fred Pratt.

Among early Sumner residents may be mentioned the Rev Mr Cotterill, who, when he landed at Sumner with his family and personal belongings, had

a quantity of his household goods washed out to sea by the incoming tide. There was also Slater, the Collector of Cttstoms, and Jones, the painter, and Roper, the auctioneer, and Mrs Rhind, the widow of the bank inspector, and Mrs Fanny Barker, whose daughter married Cyprian Bridge, a relative of the British Admiral of that name. These names will probably suggest to readers many others who were unknown to me, and I am sure that such recollections will revive many happy memories in which this Queen of Seaside health resorts has played its romantic part.