EARLY DAYS OF CANTERBURY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 301, 19 December 1931, Page 26 (Supplement)

EARLY DAYS OF CANTERBURY.

The Naming of the Spurs and Runs in the Ashley Back-Country. (Bv JOHANNES C. ANDERSEN.) (2) FROM 1862 to 1865 the Loburn run was held by the Cunningham family. The Okuku River, near the Ashley, had many islands with yellow kowhai trees dotted over them. The islands were well supplied with drift trees of good quality, and some very nice cattle X brand. The burning of the tussock and bush allowed the rain to sluice the hillsides; the islands were destroyed with all their trees, and the riverbed became the waste of shingle it now is.

The Kowai River suffered in the same way; it has had islands with beautiful clumps of yellow kowhai. The mis-spelling “ Kowai ” has persisted'; and it is curious that the name of the flower and tree, kowhai, was in Canterbury long spelt “ goai ” —and I am not sure that it is not still pronounced so here and there. The forks of the Kowai River had bush, chiefly pine, which was pit-sawn and owned by Mr Leith. The timber was carted to Leithfield for the building of that township. O’Halloran camped in the Kowai in 1864. He says that he understood Mrs O’Connell, of Mount Grey Station, had ascended to the Mount “ Douglas Downs ” (named after George Douglas, of Broomfield Station, selected in 1852; he also managed the Mount Grey Station). Mrs O’Connell was the wife of Major E. M. O’Connell; he bought Mount Grey in 1852, and died about 1855, his wife carrying on till her death in 1870. A Pleasant Meeting. While these notes were being written out I was one day stopped in Wellington by a young lady, who said to me: “ Where did you find out so much about-my father?” “ Before I can answer that,” I said, "who was 3’Our father?” “ Mr Russell. You wrote about him in the * Star.’ ” This was a pleasant meeting. I had never met any of the Russell family—and never thought he could have had so young a daughter. But she explained that her mother was much younger than her father and was still living. Then while conversing she mentioned an uncle, Major O’Connell, of Mount Grey. “ Wait a bit,” said I. " Did he die before his wife?” “ Yes,” said she. “ And did she carry on the run afterwards?” “ Yes,” said she. “ Then what was the Mount “ Douglas Downs” that she climbed?” She did not know. 44 Who was Mrs O’Connell?” I asked. 44 She was my father’s sister.” Here was a linking up! Russell told me something of O’Halloran—poor old O’Halloran. O'Halloran told me something of Major O’Connell, and now from Mrs O’Connell’s niece I learned that Russell and Mrs O’Connell were brother and sister. 44 Major O'Connell had only one (daughter,” went on Miss Russell. “ She married Robert Hume Campbell, who was master of hounds in Christchurch.” 44 Wait a bit,” said I. 44 Was she one bf the fine-looking women of Christchurch in her time?” 44 1 have heard so,” .said she. 44 I have her portrait,” said I, 44 and always when looking at it I wondered who she was.” All this added information came from mv reminiscences appearing in the “ Star.” May there be more linking up of this kind before I finish. But now to return to my old friend O’Halloran. Wild Pigs and Pigeons. There were plenty of wild pigs on Mount Grey and thereabouts. Tom Tom Maude and Bill Collins, sawyers in the Leith bush, lived on wild pork " chiefly Mr O’Halloran said chiefly; I am pretty sure he meant pigeons, too, as well as pigs; it is strange how many people will dine on those handsome birds without caring to say so. No doubt there were plenty. One day, after much heavy rain, O’Halloran’s dog went after some families of pigs, and got punished. In going to his rescue through the dense growth O’Halloran came on a waterhole—a lagoon, dark and surrounded with reeds, manuka and other native growth. Few would even credit its existence; none knew of it—even the sawyers across the gtrfly. Exploring was not among their amusements. Later on, fires, and the Ashley Road Board forming the Loburn-Kow T ai

Road, made the lagoon accessible. Mr Beattie, of Black, Beattie and Co., in his country wanderings, came on it, and he got official permission to call it Lake Janet, after his wife, her penname being Janet, or Aunt Janet. O’Halloran saw Mr Beattie going with bulbs to plant on the borders of the lake. Horseshoe Cliff. Horseshoe Cliff is a remarkable cliff eating its way back into the fen-shaped downs at the head of the Makerikeri River, and its lower nooks well grown with yellow kowhai trees, 44 among which scores of pigeons lolled lazily all day, and so silly as to remain without moving until several shots were fired, and then some would remain within a chain of the firing.” The O’Connells, mentioned above, were important at Mount Grey in those days; Travenza, Patrick, Howard and Hudson families came to Loburn and settled on the rolling downs, calling their corner Raithevy; Free and Philpott families came there; and Travenza, who was a Cornishman, collected for a Wesleyan chapel, which gave its name to Chapel Road. Bill Allen, and the Yorkshiremen Judson and Turner, gave the name to Allen’s Spur, up which, on the banks of the Makerikeri, they settled. Misses O’Connor, Murray, Captain Bayly, Grant, M’Hugh, Crowe. Noheltv, Quigl}’-, Joyce, Higgins, Brady, Casserley and Tracy brothers represent the Irish contingent west of the Makerikeri, while Doyle. Hardy and Carboy were on the east side. The Banks, Brocks and Waller families came and settled on the east of Makerikeri, while Fletcher, Shaw. Dixon and Locke (Fred and Jim) were well known, and Cone, near Ashley Bank, the old name of Ashley. Barker and Duncan were well-known settlers fronting the Ashley Flat, and Armstrong and Walker nearer the Makerikeri by the Road Board office. Lived on Pancakes. On Wharfdale, Broom Creek, draining the Ashley Flat, was so called from the native broom; Duck Creek from the innumerable ducks —teal, paradise and grey—to be found along its waters. 44 Pancake ” is a well-known spur, and was so called by Edward Nohelty, the first to work there to get slabs in its bush to erect Block Hill hut. Nohelty lived chiefly on pancakes during the work. Lee’s 5000 acres was called after the brothers; and Mount Ladbrooke was named by O’Halloran after Jacob Ladbrook, a well-known early settler. A settler named Lilburn took up country between the forks of the Ashley in the gorge prior to 1862, the Lilburn run being named after him. O’Halloran never saw him, but his pewter plates were known for years. Smith’s Track w r as named after a pushing Yorkshireman, Smith, employed by the Provincial Council to cut a track over Puketeraki to Lochinvar. This track was hardly ever used, better tracks being found in other directions. Kingsdown was named by Mannering, who held it about 1868, but was caught by the big snow in his first year, and retired. It is now part of Snowdale. Moody’s Run, up the Townsend River, was named after Harr} r Moody, who took it up, stocked it, and sold to Captain Millton.

I saw O’Halloran only a few times, and there was much to be learned from him that -will now never be learned. A little information was got from Russell, and the story of scab is no doubt true as the country suffered a good deal from that disease and other disadvantages, more than one being compelled to retire from the

contest. O’Halloran, when I knew him, was a small, spare man, with grizzled beard, with a slow gait, as if his years in the open had stiffened him, and a slow speech, as if that had been stiffened, too.