EARLY LYTTELTON. TRAGEDY OF WHITCOMBE PASS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 335, 30 January 1932, Page 21 (Supplement)

EARLY LYTTELTON.

TRAGEDY OF WHITCOMBE PASS.

nggaggiows of iß6i.

The Houses of the First Settlers. THE BRIDLE TRACK. The following is the fourth instalment of a hitherto unpublished, report by the first Bishop Designate of Canterbury. The document is a report submitted to the Arcnbishop of Canterbury by Dr Jackson on his return to England. The Bishop Designate sailed on the Castle Eden a month after the First Four Ships. Landing at the jetty, let us proceed up the broad street, which runs at right angles to the quay. A band of active contractors are macadamising it. On the right are the emigration barracks; a series of wooden structures, concerning which it is said by all who have visited colonial cities at tneir foundation, that they are far superior +c any that were ever prepared beforehand for the first body of pioneers. The interior of the largest of these buildings has been cleared out the partitions removed, and it is rudely, yet not inconveniently fitted up as a church. It is also used for the Grammar School of the college, and the space at the lower end is temporarily occupied by the Commercial School A little further are the temporary offices of the Union Bank of Australia, and on the opposite side of the road, those of the “Lyttelton Times.” On landing I was met by the clergy m their robes and by all the school dhfldren with their teachers, who came marching two and two. I found our good friend, Mr Brittan, on the jetty. A few minutes later, Mr Godley appeared, the news of the ship’s arrival having quickly travelled through the little town. We were soon comfortably established in his most hospitable residence. Here let me once tor all acknowledge his kindness and that of Mrs Godley. In short, all the colonists received us with warmth and affection, and I look forward to spending the remainder of my days among them with satisfaction and delight. If our little safety is to be split into parties and tom by faction, by unscrupulous ambition and by coarse intrigue, the bad elements which are to produce this miserable state have not yet arrived, and long may the evil day, that is to bring them, be postponed. “ Simple Justice.” The house of the Chief Agent of the Association is a pretty and picturesque Cottage, in a kind of Elizabethan style, with a small lawn in front, sown with English grasses, the bright green of which contrasts well with the browner vegetation of the uncultivated mountains around. At the lower end of this lawn stand the offices of the Association where, in a little lobby Mr Godlev “ sits ” literally “in the gate,” and administers such simple justice as the present state of crime of Lyttelton, requires. This is not very appalling. The cases brought before him arise chiefly out of quarrels between seamen and the captains of ships, and assaults and small robberies committed by “ old hands.” as they are termed. These are chiefly runaway convicts or convicts whose term of imprisonment has expired. These offices of the Association stand in the street already referred to. . A second broad street now opens to view on the right hand and the left. On the right it joins the unfinished road to Sumner and Christchurch. On the left it extends across the valley in which the town stands, and some distance up the hill. The right hand side of this street is the property of Mr Watts Russell. It contains several houses, the most conspicuous being that of the owner.

The Surveyor’s Original Instructions to the Explorers. By JOHANNES C. ANDERSEN. (VI.) ii DAY IT RAINED,” concludes Mr Louper in his AN account of Mr Whitcombe’s death on the disastrous journey over the Alps. “ I drove both horses before me. They went so fast I had great difficulty to keep up with them. Presently the rain changed to snow, but the horses knew the track so well I did not mind it. There was very little of the old snow remaining, and what was then falling could not hinder me much. About three o’clock I came to the hut where the men were to wait for me. They did not recognise me without my old cap, but asked with astonishment where I came from; whether I belonged to Howitt’s party, and if I had seen anything of two men—Mr Whitcombe and Louper.

Is Not Recognised. “ Next day it rained. I drove both horses before me. They went so fast I had great difficulty to keep up with them. Presently the rain changed to snow, but the horses knew the track so well I did not mind it. There was very little of the old snow remaining, and what was then falling could not hinder me much. About three o’clock I came to the hut where the men were to wait for me. They did not recognise me without my old cap, but asked with astonishment where I came from; whether I belonged to Howitt’s party, and if I had seen anything of two men —Mr Whitcombe and Louper. “‘You must be mad,’ I said. ‘Give me some mutton if you have any/ “ 4 Oh ! ’ said George, the youngest, ‘ it is Jacob; now I know him. Where is Mr Whitcombe?’ “ 4 He is dead,’ I answered, and then told them everything 44 It rained all night and next day, but we went as far as Lake Sumner and passed the night in another old hut, and the following day reached Mr Taylor’s station. As soon as he heard of the death of Mr Whitcombe he came to see me, with Mrs Taylor, who brought me some cake, and a good warm drink; he also gave me a blanket and pressed me to stay a few days to rest myself. He immediately despatched one of his men to acquaint Mr Whitcombe’s family with their sad loss before the news could reach town. We started, however, the next morning, and reached Christchurch in five days, without further accident.”

the goldfields). Moreover, its line along the northern boundary of the province was formed too far north for the inhabitants of the middle and southern portions of Canterbury. The Provincial Government therefore sent out several expeditions to the headwaters of the Waimakariri and Rakaia, with instructions to examine them for available passes more to the south, across the central chain. Of course it was known that a pass near the head waters of the main branch of the Rakaia existed, Whitcombe Pass, so named in memory of the late Mr Whitcombe, an eminent engineer* who lost his life by being drowned near the mouth of the Taramakau, after having successfully accomplished the journey from coast to coast, and of which the survivor, Jacob Louper, has given a graphic and ample description. " However, this pass, then known only from this account, appeared to be surroyfnd'ed by so many difficulties' from an engineering point of view, that a further examination was thought useless. Haast’s Pass, on the other hand, at the head of Lake Wanaka, was too far south, and could only be made available for the most southerly portion of the province, and principally for Otago. “Of the expeditions exploring the headwaters of the northern rivers, that of the late George Dobson, C.E., was the most successful, he amongst others discovering Arthur’s Pass, a deep depression in the central chain, leading from the sources of the Bealey, one of the upper tributaries of the Waimakariri, into the Otira, a large branch of the Taramakau. After this important discovery had been reported, the Provincial Government lost no time, and sent up Mr E. Dobson, C.E., formerly Provincial Engineer, and at that time Resident Engineer of the Christchurch and Lyttelton Railway, to examine this and some other passes found about that time, with full authority to place the necessary work at once in the hands of a contractor. Mr Dobson’s Selection.

So was a graphic, if wordy, account of the death of another of the West Coast pioneer explorers. Haa&t’s Account. Writing of the passes over the Alps, Haast in 1866 said, 44 The track cut across the Hurunui Saddle in the year 1862, and improved in the beginning of 1865 under the direction of Messrs Edwin and Walter Blake, had become almost impassible, principally on its western side, from the enormous traffic (occasioned by the opening of

44 Mr Dobson, after inspecting two passes at the head of the northern main branch of the Waimakariri, Harman Pass and the so-called Browning’s Saddle, and another saddle at the head of the Hawdon Stream, selected Arthur’s Pass as affording the most favourable physical conditions for a road between the coasts, and the work was at on&e taken in hand, and pushed on with great energy. The headwaters of the Waimakariri were explored by Messrs Harman, Browning, Cahill, and

lers on foot, and easily practicable for horses and mules. It is confessedly a make-shift, but a most valuable one; fully equal to the old packhorse roads of England and to those mountain pathways, along which the precious burdens of Moorish commerce were borne, when Granada was the capital of a monarchy, and Cordova contained half a million of souls. (To be continued.)

Armstrong; whilst the two first-named gentlemen, together with Mr E. Griffiths, examined the Wilberforce, the northern main branch of the Rakaia, and discovered a pass leading, as the explorers thought, to the sources of the Taipo, a branch of the Taramakau.” In the last, paragraph appear several names afterwards appearing on mountain peaks in these regions, and this paragraph shows the reason for the names being given. The river thought to be the Taipo turned out to be the Arahura, which runs north parallel to the Taipo, at a distance of about three miles, but separated by a mountain range,- and, swinging sharply west, finds an independent outlet in the sea. In April, 1865, Haast was at the Taramakau, and noted that a little town had already sprung up at the mouth of that river, 44 consisting of tents and tent-houses, and active life and commotion prevailed everywhere, as, besides shopkeepers and publicans,

a number of artisans had established themselves here. At the seashore, what a remarkable sight offered itself to the spectator! Towards the south the beach resembled an animated high road —pedestrians, waggons, pack-horses, and riders, forming an animated group. Two large steamers were just passing by bound for Hokitika, while on the distant horizon a whole fleet of ships lay at anchor in the Hokitika roadstead. “ I thought with sadness of poor Whitcombe, who, two years before, after he had crossed the central chain, had stood famishing on the then desolate shore, and longed to be at the Grey River, the only place on the coast, where he could hope to find provisions.” Mad Maori Woman. Haast also ascended the Hokitika River, and from his observations it would seem that the second branch from the north that Whitcombe and Louper had to ascend two miles to cross was the Kokotahi; and the other, with the sluggish deep black stream, was the main branch of the Hokitika itself, whose waters .the wilder Louper River backed up at their junction. There had been other crossings from coast to coast by way of some pass at the head of the Rakaia long, long ago. Before New Zealand was colonised at all, a mad Maori woman, Raureku, had crossed from the West Coast and gone south to Temuka. Here she showed the Maori inhabitants a piece of greenstone, introducing them to that valuable article, and led them back the way she had come to the coast — whence began the raids of the eastern Maori on the western. It is not known if she crossed Whitcombe Pass or a saddle further to the north—possibly

the one that led into the Arahura—for the Arahura was the river of greenstone, the El Dorado of the early Maori. Whitcombe’s Instructions. The following are Whitcombe’s original instructions, dated March 27, 1863, to explore the pass; they are signed by Thomas Cass, then Chief Surveyor of Canterbury:— “ I wish you to proceed with as little delay as possible to examine carefully the country about the western sources of the Ashley and Waimakariri for a pass into the West Coast country. I should recommend you to commence northward and work south towards the head waters of the Rakaia. You may be able to remain out till the middle of May, by which time you will be able to collect material for a 4 report/ illustrated by sketches, etc., sufficient for the Government to lay before the Council at its session in June any scheme that may appear desirable should you be fortunate in finding a pass for opening a road in that direction. You may make your party to three white men and two Maoris at the ordinary rate of wages, with rations in addition, in this case at the rate of 101 bof meat, 101 bof flour, 21b of sugar, slb of tea per man per week. These you had better cart as far as practicable, using your packhorse and a portion of your party in carrying provisions and equipment into the country beyond. You will meet Mr Wilson surveying about the head waters of the Waimakariri; from him you may obtain much reliable information respecting bearings and distances from known points connected with foregone surveys. It will be desirable for you to ascertain as far as possible the approximate heights of the points you may reach, as this will be a material consideration in carrying a road through for any useful purpose.” A Grant to his Widow.

In a report to the Council after the tragic end of the expedition had recome known, Mr Cass wrote: — 44 1 hope the Government will see the propriety of making some provision for Mrs Whitcombe, who with a large family of young childrerL is thus left by a sad fatality almost without immediate means of support. Mr Whitcombe arrived in Canterbury in September, 1858, and for some time followed his profession as an engineer and surveyor, taking occasional contracts from the Government in connection with the Public Works and Survey Depai Iments. He went to New South Wales in December, 1860, and for some time held an appointment in the Road

Engineer’s Department in Queensland. He returned here in March, 1861, having on my recommendation been appointed Road Surveyor in this province. I would also take this opportunity of recomniending Jacob Louper to the favourable consideration of the Government; he has behaved most nobly in this fatal expedition. I shall retain him in the Survey Department as a chainman for the present.” Following this recommendation, the Council made a grant of £IOOO to the widow and family of the late Mr Whitcombe, and a gratuity of £IOO to Louper in consideration of what he had done. (The End.)