EARLY DAYS IN HAREWOOD.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 833, 5 August 1933, Page 28 (Supplement)

EARLY DAYS IN HAREWOOD.

When Bullock Drays Were Driven to Town on Market Days.

SOME OF THE OLD RESIDENTS.

(By

A. J. BELL.)

IT IS the homely incidents that make the past live again in glowing recollection to the old and in the imagination of the young, and in the following neighbourly story of the people who dwelt in the Hare-wood district in the ’sixties there are amusing touches, and many names that will stir the memories of - old colonists.

I was much interested in Mr Selwyn Bruce’s articla in last Saturday’s “ Star ”, and some he mentioned who attended Mr Mayo’s school were well known?.to me. We landed in Lyttelton on July 14, 1863, from Melbourne, by s.s. Gothenburg, under Captain Mackey. I well remember walking over the Bridle Path to Heathcote. We were then taken by* dray to Christchurch. Our boxes were to follow around via Sumner, and we had to take lodgings at a boarding-house in town for a few days. My father rented two rooms in a four-roomed house, in Tuam Street, neat* where the Royal Hotel now stands. The rent was £1 per week, and the rate of wages 6s per day. Wa did not stay there many weeks, as my father got employment driving the team belonging to Mr Jackson, who had the brick yard in Bishop’s Road. But the roads had no names then. Most of them were covered with flax and fairly swampy. The house we lived in was of four rooms, and was imported from America in sections. We occupied two of the rooms, and Mr C. M’Meekan the other two. There were but few living on the Harewood Road, compared to the residents to-day, and of course we all knew one another. I attended a school held in the Methodist Church, kept by a lady—l think her name was Mrs Fleming. Mr Mayo was then keeping his school at Papanui. We smaller boys sometimes came into collision with the Papanui boys, and generally came off second best. Harewood Road Residents. As far as I can remember, the settlers living along Harewood Road and its vicinity from the Methodist Church upwards were: Mr James Sails, William, John and James Reese (better known as Jimmy Reese), Ladbrook, James Jackson, afterward butcher at Papanui, Miller, S. Goodwin, Triggs, E. Hack, W. Stokes, T. Phillis, Rippingale, J. Richards, J. Philpott, W. and J. Bishop, Claridge, Hiam, Highsted, J. Potter, Booker, Morgan, Coster, Stanley and others. These did not all live on the Harewood Road, but not far away. There were also E. and J. Jesson, and Mr H. Nunweek. I believe

one of his sons, Tom Nunweek, still lives not far from the old home. Mr Stokes came out in one of the first four ships, and had a farm near the bridge over the Styx. He had a fairly large family. Mrs John Winter, of Swartnanoa, was one, and is still living, I think. Mr Stokes came from one of the Midland counties in England, Lincolnshire, I believe, and tried to follow the English style of farming. His buildings were fashioned after the Home style, and provision was made foF housing stock in the winter, but it was not carried out. The house consisted of six rooms, a very large kitchen, and suspended from the top floor joists was a large bacon rack, which was never empty. A baker’s oven was in the scullery, and other apartments were after the Home style. Mrs Stokes was his second wife, and she had two sons, John and William Ward. A Timely Lesson. The youngest of Mr Stokes’s family were twin boys, Bob and Harry, exactly alike, about two years older than myself; but, much as I was with them, I was often confused as to names, and often called Harry Bob, and Bob Harry. I spent a good deal of my time at Stokes’s farm, as my mother used to go there dressmaking, and here it was I received my first and very practical lesson that “ honesty is the best policy ”. There was a two-storey storehouse, or kind of granary close to the back of the dwelling-house, and in the upstair room was the apple bin. Mrs Stokes was not over liberal (or we did not think so) with the apples, so Bob, Harry and myself resolved to “ borrow ” a few. The job was to get up to the bin, as the door of the storeroom was opposite the kitchen window. However, there was a poplar tree growing alongside the wall, and a small window in the top storey with a pane broken (how it got broken was a mystery to Mrs Stokes but not to us), so, being the youngest and smallest, I had to climb the tree, unfasten the window and get in. It was -quite easy. The other two stayed below with a sack, and I was busy throwing down the apples when—what oh! The old lady had me by the scruff of the neck, and wielded a most formidable greenhide riding whip to some effect. My yells sent the other two off at high speed, but they stuck to the apples and hid them in a hay stack. Nothing was said at tea time. We went to bed early, and just as we were going off to sleep the riding whip again came into play, and the three of us got an awful thrashing. But we had the satisfaction of eating apples for some days, as the old lady never found them, much as she hunted for them. Too Much Parsnip Wine. Parsnip wine was a very common beverage at that time in this district and Mr Nunweek and Joe Richards were experts at brewing it. Mr Nun week generally had a cask or two in his shed, and a glass always handy; it was “ help yourself.” One Christmas a party of five, led by a wellknown character from near Papanui. went out carol singing. They arrived at Nun week’s about daylight, but whether it was to remind the folks of what happened nearly 1900 years before at Bethlehem, or to air their vocal talents, or to get some wine, I can’t say (the latter I think). Mr Nunweek would not get out of bed. but told them to help themselves to some wine. Some hours later he went into the shed and the five carol singers were all dead to the world near the cask, well wet inside and out, as they forgot to turn off the tap and the wine had run out and they were lying in it. Mr Nunweek was not too pleased about it. Pioneer of Bicycles. I remember the residents going to market on Saturdays in bullock drays and Sydney drays drawn by horses. One resident had a stumpy-tailed bullock and if the driver stayed too long at the Papanui Hotel he would gallop home, and the day’s purchases would be all strewn along the road. Then there was George Phillpott, who made a bicycle, all wood, except the tyres, and who pedalled to Anderson’s foundry from the top of Harewood Road every day. George was apprenticed to Anderson’s as a blacksmith. He undoubtedly was the pioneer of the bicycle. Saturdays we boys often went to the Waimakariri whitebaiting, back of the Seven Mile Peg Hotel. A piece of cheese-cloth, a piece of wire, and a flaxstick comprised our outfit, and we often brought home a milk pail full o c whitebait. After we left the brick yard, we lived in a lean-to nearly opposite to Mr Ladbrook’s, and often saw Mr Ladbrook driving four-in-hand as described byMr Bruce. There was a small school held in the church at the top of Harewood Road, opposite Mr J. Phillpott’s. kept by aMr Thompson. I attended several days when visiting Stokes’s, but was not a regular scholar. I remember Mr Stanley planting his apple orchard. Folks thought it would never pay, but they were wrong, and soon others followed his example. So Mr Stanley could claim to being the pioneer of the apple industry in that locality. Mr Jce Richards was fond of a prac-1 tical joke. He had a “ new chum ” i Irishman mowing hay, and brought out a billy can of parsnip wine. “ Have a glass, Rountree,” he said. Rountree had two, and said he could drink a bucket full; it was so good. J.R. left the billy with him, and shortly afterwards, missing his man, went to look, and he was dead to the world beside his work, with the billy empty'. We stayed at Harewood Road until 1865 and then went to Folly Farm, Springston, owned by the late Mr George Gould, and leased by' Mr William Miles. Nearly' two y r ears we stayed there and then went to Harman’s Station on the Selwyn. and then, in 1868, to Templeton district which was my home until a few years ago.

When one looks back for seventy years, what changes have taken place! Christchurch was then only' a very small place, and Harewood Road quite out in the country'. Springston was “ backblocks,” and Harman’s Station out of the world altogether. I remember the old post office in Victoria Square. I have a book in my possession sent from England received at the old post office. T remember the bluegums in the Square where the farmers put up their drays, horses and bullocks tied to the wheels. Everybody knew everybody. To-day' one could walk through all our streets and perhaps not meet half a dozen one might know. *