# The Story of Christchurch, New Zealand/Chapter 3

Chapter III.
1849–1850.
Preparation for Arrival of Settlers.
Choice of site for Capital—Origin of names of Christchurch and Avon—Mr. Edward Jollie’s survey work—Planning Christchurch—Naming the streets—Canterbury Association’s Charter—Arrival of Mr. Godley, and his first impressions-Work stopped for want of funds——Difficulties in London—Small area of land only applied for—Surrender of its Charter by New Zealand Company—Society of Canterbury Colonists—“Canterbury Papers”—Riccarton.
Captain Thomas arrived at Port Cooper in July, 1849. His first proposal was to establish Christchurch, the capital city, at the head of the harbour on the flat ground beyond Governor’s Bay. Port Lyttelton was to be farther up the harbour than it is at present, near the Maori Settlement of Raupaki. The present site of Christchurch was to be occupied by a subordinate town, to be named Stratford. All this is shown in a map prepared at the time, in which the harbour of Lyttelton is named “Port Victoria,” and a road marked connecting the proposed sites of Christchurch and Stratford via Dyer’s Pass. But after a more deliberate survey, it was recognised that the town on the Avon, commanding the trade of the Canterbury Plains, wags likely to become the principal ​centre of population, and it was finally decided to make it the capital of the province.
There has been some controversy respecting the origin of the choice of “Christchurch” as the name of the capital city of Canterbury. The accidental coincidence that Christchurch in Hampshire is also situated on a river Avon seems to have started a theory that the New Zealand Christchurch was named after this city. Archdeacon Harper, writing on Christmas Day, 1856, immediately after landing, endorsed this theory. He wrote:— “Through the site of the town, the river Avon, so called from the river at Christchurch, in Hampshire, winds its picturesque course.” But there can be no doubt that the combination of the two names in Canterbury was quite fortuitous. Captain Thomas, as we have seen, at first proposed to place Christchurch at the head of Port Lyttelton, where there was no river. He proposed to place a subordinate town on the Avon (already named), where Christchurch now stands, and to call it Stratford—the association obviously being with quite a different Avon, Shakespeare’s Warwickshire stream. The Canterbury Avon was named by the brothers Deans, after the Lanarkshire stream which formed the boundary of their grandfather's estate in Ayrshire. There seems to be ample evidence on this point, the most conclusive being a letter written by Mr. John Deans to his father (January 20, 1849), In which he said, “Captain Thomas has fixed on this place as the site of the Canterbury settlement... The river up which we now bring our supplies is to be called the Avon at our request, and our place Riccarton.”
Neither does there appear to be any sound reason for assuming that Christchurch was named after the Hampshire city. It might, indeed, be more plausibly suggested that the capital of the Province of Canterbury was called after the patron Saint of Canterbury Cathedral, which was consecrated in A.D. 597 by ​S. Augustine, under the name of Christ Church. But the circumstantial evidence in favour of its being called after Christ Church, Oxford, is very strong. The foundation of the Canterbury Association was largely a Christ Church, Oxford, movement. Mr. Godley was a Christ Church man, and naturally drew round him many of his old College friends. Moreover, the plan of the Canterbury Association included a Cathedral and a College in the centre of the capital city, the two to be closely associated in one enclosure (Cathedral Square), evidently modelled on the same lines as Christ Church, Oxford. “The House,” as Christ Church is commonly called, besides being numerically the largest College in Oxford, is unique in possessing a cathedral within its gates, the smallest in England, founded in the eighth century by Saint Frideswide. The college was founded by Cardinal Wolsey, and in 1546, Henry VIII. established the composite foundation under which the church of Saint Frideswide became both the Cathedral of the diocese and the College Chapel. Taken together, these points seem to afford strong presumptive evidence of the Oxford sponsorship.
Shortly after his arrival at Port Cooper, Captain Thomas sent for Mr. Edward Jollie to join him. The two men had met in Otago in 1846, where they had been engaged in surveying fer the Otago Association. They had met again in Nelson in November, 1848, when it was arranged that as soon as a site for the new settlement had been selected, Mr. Jollie should join the survey party. He came out originally as a cadet to the New Zealand Company in 1841, and had had varied colonial experience, including survey work and sheep farming, the latter in conjunction with his brother in Nelson. The following notes of his early work in Canterbury are mainly based on an account contributed by Mr. Jollie to the Jubilee number of the Christchurch “Weekly Press” (December 15, 1900).
​He arrived in Lyttelton on August 12, 1849, and three days later set to work on the survey of that town. On the completion of this task, he started, in October, 1849, to prepare a similar survey for the proposed town of Sumner. There is an old map still extant at the Land Office, Christchurch, prepared by him in November, 1849, and signed by Captain Thomas, on which are recorded the names proposed to be given to the streets of that town, but Sumner was afterwards abandoned, and the land thrown open for rural selection.
At the end of the year, Mr. Jollie was sent to the plains to survey the capital city, Christchurch. He took the place of another surveyor, a Mr. Scroggs, who was resigning from the service of the Association to return to England. “I lived in Scroggs’ grass house at ‘The Bricks,’ and the six men who were with me, in a weatherboard hut close by. The day was, of course, spent in work, and in the evening I had eel-fishing, pig-hunting, or quail-shooting in the neighbourhood. Quails were plentiful, and I shot many on what is now the site of Christchurch. My nearest neighbours were Cass, who had a house at Riccarton Bush, and the two Deanses, who had sheep and cattle, and a good house and garden at Riccarton. There were, in fact, no other people on the plains.”
“The Bricks” was a landing place on the south bank of the Avon, at a point close to the present Barbadoes Street bridge, opposite the Star and Garter Hotel. When the Deans brothers were establishing the first permanent settlement upon the plains, as described later, they conveyed their goods up the Avon in a whaleboat. A cargo of bricks was brought as far as possible by that means, but had to be unloaded when shallow water was reached. The spot chosen for the landing became known as “The Bricks,” Afterwards a small wooden wharf was constructed there, and was used by the pioneer settlers when they were transporting ​their belongings from the ships in Lyttelton to their homes in the new settlement.
Mr. Jollie’s plan of Christchurch was then prepared, and approved by Captain Thomas, “except as to one or two parts in which I had indulged in a little ornamentation, such as crescents. These were pronounced ‘ginger-bread,’ and I was not sorry to give them up for something more practical; but Thomas made one change which I have always regretted. I had proposed that several of the streets, instead of being one chain wide, should be wide enough to admit of their being planted with trees. Thomas would not agree to this, but afterwards, when the work was nearly finished, he gave his leave to widen one or two of the principal streets, if it could be done without materially delaying the completion of the survey, but it was then impossible to do it.” If Mr. Jollie’s plan had been sanctioned, Christchurch would have had several fine boulevards, and we should have been spared the congestion of traffic at the Bank of New Zealand Corner.
Then came the naming of the streets, and Mr. Jollie’s narrative presents a quaint picture of the baptismal ceremony. The plan was to use the names of the various dioceses of the Church of England. “Thomas, with his gold spectacles on, and a ‘Peerage’ in his hand, read out a name that he fancied, and if he thought it sounded well, and I also thought so, it was written on the map. The Lyttelton map was the first that was finished, and the first dealt with. Sumner followed. The result was that these two towns had used up most of the tip-top English titles, and for Christchurch, which came last, there was scarcely anything left but Ireland and the colonies.” The names used in Lyttelton were those of Canterbury (for the principal street), Norwich, Exeter, London, Oxford, Ripon, St. Davids, Winchester and Dublin. At Sumner (called after the Primate of England, the President of the Canterbury Association), ​the name of “York” was given to the water frontage running from the Cave Rock to the Baths; the other names were those of Ely, Carlisle, Rochester, Bristol, Wells and Newcastle.
It is regrettable that greater discrimination was not used in the choice of names for the streets of the capital city. It is difficult, for instance, to understand how the main thoroughfare, that on which the Cathedral afterwards faced, came to be named Colombo Street, while such a name as “Chichester” was overlooked. Old Welsh “Llandaff,” and, if no other dioceses were available, the ancient deaneries of Westminster and Windsor might well have taken precedence over Barbadoes, Madras or Montreal. It must, however, be admitted that in Oxford and Cambridge Terraces, the opposing banks of the river, were well named, and Cranmer and Latimer Squares are quite in keeping with the ecclesiastical character of the settlement. The boundaries of the city, as then laid out, were Salisbury, St. Asaph, Barbadoes and Antigua Streets, on north, south, east and west, respectively, and beyond these came public reserves, which were afterwards sold, extending to the old Town Belts (now known as Bealey, Fitzgerald and Moorhouse Avenues). On the west, lay the main public reserve, our present Hagley Park and Domain Gardens, a splendid heritage and abiding memorial to the foresight of the founders of the city. Hagley Park was called after Lord Lyttelton’s seat near Strowbridge, and similarly on the Sumner plan, a “Killegar Park,” named after Mr. Godley’s birthplace, is shown.
No diagonal streets were provided on Mr. Jollie’s plan, and it was not until after the contract had been let for the construction of the Ferry Road that the necessity of a connecting thoroughfare with the North Road was recognised. Hence it is that Victoria and High Streets are non-conformist to the Episcopalian nomenclature.
​One more point deserves notice. In the original plan, the whole of Cathedral Square was set aside as one block for ecclesiastical and educational purposes, the idea being to form a Cathedral and College in the same enclosure in the centre of the city. It was, however, considered that the obstruction to city traffic offered by so large a block would be an inconvenience, and provision was afterwards made for streets crossing the Square. The plan was completed on March 18, 1850, and a copy sent to the Association in London.
On November 18, 1849, the Charter of Incorporation was obtained (Canterbury Papers, p. 57), and on December 1 an agreement was entered into between the New Zealand Company and the Canterbury Association. Under this agreement, 2,500,000 acres (instead of the 1,000,000 acres originally contemplated) were to be reserved for the Association for ten years.
The value of the land which the Association undertook to sell within six months was reduced to £100,000, and provision was made for the repayment of the advance for preliminary expenses out of the General Purpose Fund. In other respects, the lines of the “Plan of the Association for forming the Settlement of Canterbury” were followed.
Meanwhile Mr. Godley had been busy organising in London during the whole of 1848, though not then contemplating the part he actually played in the leadership of the settlement. His bent was, in fact, a political career, and had health permitted, he would probably have entered the House of Commons. But in 1849, his health showed signs of giving way, and on January 9, he wrote that he had been ordered by his doctor to the Isle of Wight. Later on in September, he had been warned that he would have to leave England for the winter, and Mr. Wakefield, with whom he had been staying, suggested New Zealand. It was about this time that Mr. Godley became deeply
Lyttelton in 1850.
Plate 2.
His first impressions of Lyttelton were expressed in a letter to his friend, Mr. Adderley, dated April 22. “On rounding the Bluff aforesaid again I was perfectly astounded at what I saw. One might have supposed that the country had been colonised for years, so settled and busy was the look of its port. In the first place there is what the Yankees would call a ‘splendid’ jetty, from thence a wide, beaten-looking road heads up the hill, and turns off through a deep cutting to the eastward. On each side of the road there are houses scattered, to the number of about twenty-five, including two ‘hotels,’ and a custom-house! (in the shape of a weather-boarded hut certainly, but still a custom-house). In a square railed off close to the jetty are four excellent houses, intended for emigrants’ barracks, with a cook-house in the centre. Next to the square comes a small house, which Thomas inhabits himself, and which is destined for an agent’s office; behind this, divided from it by a plot of ground intended for a warden, stands a stately edifice, which was introduced in due form to us as ‘our house.” ... The (Sumner) road is a tremendous piece of work on the harbour side, great part of it being carried through solid rock, which can only be removed by blasting... The line, to my unprofessional eye, seems very well engineered, being nowhere steeper than one in twenty.”
But Mr. Godley was bitterly disappointed to find that the £20,000 credit had been overspent by nearly £4,000, and accused Captain Thomas of extravagance in too ​much building, and in employing an architect while the road to the plains was still incomplete. He fully recognised Captain Thomas’s good qualities, a “rough, vigorous, determined” man, capable of dealing with the classes of labour available, and his letter continued:—
“However, Thomas has so evidently done his best, has spared himself so little, and has evinced so much zeal, that I thought it would be cruel, as well as useless, to find fault with him, except in the mildest form for his errors in judgment.” Referring to Thomas’s new plan of surveying, he said: “It is very cheap, not more, he assures me, than five farthings an acre for the whole district, and very accurate and satisfactory. The colonial surveyors who began by disapproving have all read their recantation; and Captain Stokes, of the ‘Acheron,’ a most competent judge, has told me that he ‘has seen nothing south of the Line’ to equal the maps Thomas has shown him. He has triangulated about 700,000 acres, and promises that by July the maps of at least 300,000 acres of the best agricultural land will have been completed in detail.”
In justice to Captain Thomas, it should be remembered that he was placed in a difficult position. At the time his credit of £20,000 was established, it was expected that the site of the settlement would be in the Wairarapa, where there would have been no Sumner Road or jetty to cost money. His choice of a site was undoubtedly wise, but involved expenditure beyond that contemplated. There were no telegrams then, and it would have taken at least eight months to obtain a remittance. His choice lay between stopping preparations for the settlers, who might arrive at any time, or accepting the advance offered ​by the agent of the New Zealand Company. He chose the latter, and who shall blame him?
The work represented by his expenditure, according to his report to Mr. Godley, dated May 15, 1850, included the trigonometrical survey of 6/700,000 acres, the topographical survey of about 300,000 acres, the formation of a portion of the road to Sumner, the building of a jetty 150 feet long, of emigration barracks, boathouse, boatshed, agent’s house, Association’s offices, and the store at Sumner. Considering the difficulties of obtaining labour—carpenters were brought from Tasmania, and Maoris as labourers from Wellington—Captain Thomas must surely be held to have shown good value for the money he had spent.
Pending the receipt of remittances from England, Mr. Godley decided to suspend further operations, and, having nothing to require his supervision, continued in the “Lady Nugent,” sailing two days later for Wellington, where he judged he could be of more use by getting into touch with Mr. Fox, the principal agent of the New Zealand Company, and other prominent men in the colony.
While matters in the colony are thus brought to a standstill, let us see how the affairs of the Association are advancing in London.
The agreement with the New Zealand Company contained a stipulation that at least £100,000 worth of land should be sold within the first six months, otherwise the contract would be void. When, therefore, in January, 1850, the Canterbury Association began to offer its land, a Clause (No. 28) was inserted in the conditions of sale which ran as follows:—“In case, through any unforeseen circumstances, it should be determined on or before the 30th April, 1850, that the enterprise of the Association should not proceed, all deposits and purchase money previously paid will be returned in full.” This clause, though necessary for the protection of the Association, ​gave offence to the Committee of Management of the intending colonists, who protested against “the general uncertainty of your going on with your undertaking.”
Lord Lyttelton and others again came to the assistance of the Association by giving their personal guarantee to make good any deficiency in the event of the land sales failing to reach the agreed minimum. This arrangement was accepted by the New Zealand Company, and on April 16 the objectionable clause (No. 28) was withdrawn, and the time for receipt of applications extended to June 30.
But when the tenders were opened on July 1 it was found that only 8650 acres had been applied for. To add to the troubles of the Association, four days later, on July 5, the New Zealand Company closed its career, and surrendered its charter to the Government, invalidating thereby the agreement had made with the Association. The emergency was met mainly by the exertions of Mr. Henry Sewell, M.P., the Deputy-Chairman of the Association, who, in spite of the late period of the session, succeded in August in passing through Parliament an Act (Victoria 13 and 14 C. 70) granting the Association from the Crown similar privileges to those it had enjoyed under the New Zealand Company’s agreement.
In spite of the discouragement caused by the small quantity of land applied for, the officers of the Association decided to persevere. On August 30, additional land, to the amount of 4,500 acres was applied for and sold, and the arrangements for the embarkation of the “pilgrims” continued. The Committee of Management of intending colonists has been referred to, and as this body, under a different name, continued its existence in the colony, and took an active part in public affairs during the early years of the settlement, it should be noticed here. The policy of the Association was to do all in its power to promote sympathy and good-fellowship amongst its little band of pioneer settlers. With ​this object, the Association provided a set of rooms in the “Adelphi,” known as the Colonists’ Rooms, as a common meeting-place for the future pilgrims. A recollection of these rooms no doubt lingered long in the memory of many as the scene of first acquaintanceships, to ripen afterwards into life-long friendship. In these rooms, on April 25, 1849 (Canterbury Papers, p. 142), the Society of Canterbury Colonists was formed, and rules adopted, Mr. W. Guise Brittan being Chairman of the meeting. The Association had its own organ, the “Canterbury Papers,” which preserved a record of the proceedings of the Society. We can there read how on July 4, 1850, a Constitution, drafted by Mr. J. E. FitzGerald, afterwards first Superintendent of Canterbury, was unanimously adopted. This constitution was somewhat exclusive; only land purchasers could be enrolled as members, and only those land purchasers who were to sail in the first four ships or had previously sailed. A Council was to be elected to conduct the affairs of the Society until the departure for New Zealand, and then to adjourn to meet again in Canterbury as soon as two-thirds of its members had arrived there. The last clause of the constitution ran as follows—“The new Council shall be entrusted with the conduct of all negotiations on the part of the colonists with the Association and with the Government.” Mr. FitzGerald’s object in framing a constitution was evidently to provide the Canterbury settlers with the nearest approach possible to representative government. This was particularly desirable on account of a minute of the Committee of the Canterbury Association (see Canterbury Papers, p. 108) dated May 24, 1850. In this minute, while the Association confidently anticipated the fulfilment of the promise of the Government to constitute a separate province and grant local government, it recognised that an interval must elapse before this could take place, and during that interval the Committee proposed that all communications ​between the settlers and the Association should be made through Mr. Godley, the Chief Agent of the Association, acting with the Bishop of the settlement, It was clear then, that the provision of a representative committee to speak on behalf of the colonists was very desirable.
The following were the names of the members of the first Committee, many of whom were afterwards well known in Canterbury:—
W. G. Brittan (Chairman), Lieut.-Col. Campbell, James Edward FitzGerald, George Lee, Charles Maunsell, Henry Phillips, John Watts Russell, Henry Sewell, Henry John Tancred, James Townsend, Felix Wakefield, E. R. Ward. Of these, Mr. Lee was unable to sail in one of the first ships, and Mr. Sewell found that his duties as Vice-Chairman of the Association would engross the whole of his time. Their places on the Committee were taken by Mr. Thomas Cholmondeley and Henry Savage, M.D.
About a month after the election of this Committee, the embarkation took place. The “Randolph,” “Charlotte Jane,” “Sir George Seymour,” and “Cressy,” lay close together in the East India Dock, Blackwall, and on July 30 a public breakfast was given on board the “Randolph” to the departing colonists. On Sunday, September 1, a special service was held at S. Paul’s Cathedral, the sermon being preached by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the President of the Association. The “Randolph,” the “Charlotte Jane” and the “Cressy” sailed from Plymouth on September 7, and the “Sir George Seymour” on the following day.
Before recording the arrival of the Colonists at Lyttelton, the story of the only settlement then existing on the Canterbury Plains should be told.
Sample of poster issued in London calling attention to the sailing of the Canterbury Association's vessels.
Plate 3.
​on April 7, 1840, at Otahoa, near the outlet of Lake Forsyth, and brought two assistants. Mr. Heriot’s object was to grow wheat for the Sydney firm, and the land he selected for the purpose was situated at Potoringamutu (a Maori name meaning the place of an echo), afterwards named Riccarton by the Deans brothers. The journey from Otahoa was accomplished in a bullock waggon, along the beach to Taumutu, and thence through the present site of Southbridge. Soon afterwards Messrs. Abercrombie and Co. failed, and Mr. Heriot returned to Sydney, but one of his assistants, Mr. Malcolm McKinnon, remained behind and attempted to continue the settlement single-handed. The task proved too heavy for him, and in March, 1841, he gave it up and removed ta Akaroa.
It was in 1843 that the Deans brothers took up the land at Riccarton, which has ever since remained in the occupation of their family. William, the elder brother, came to Wellington in the “Aurora” in 1840, and was followed by John, who landed in Nelson from the “Thomas Harrison,” October 25, 1842. Each of the brothers had purchased “scrip” from the New Zealand Company in London, to be exchanged for grants of land in the colony. Like many other colonists, the Deans were dissatisfied with the choice of land offered them. Most of the country round Wellington was then covered with heavy bush, and there was also the danger arising from the rival land claims made by different tribes of Maoris. Mr. William Deans had visited the Port Cooper Plains with Captain Danniell in 1841, as mentioned in an earlier chapter, and had been impressed by the great possibilities for successful settlement which so large a tract of open country afforded. He therefore persuaded his brother to join with him in forming a settlement at Potoringamutu. The Port Cooper Plains were not at that time open for land selection, and the brothers had to take their chance of being able, later on, to secure ​a title to the land on which they were about to settle; but they had the support of the Government, which instructed Mr. Robinson, the Magistrate at Akaroa, to facilitate their settlement.
Mr. William Deans sailed from Wellington on February 11, 1843, in Mr. Sinclair’s 30-ton schooner, and reached Port Levy ten days later. He brought with him two assistants, Messrs. Gebbie and Manson, and their families. From Port Levy the journey was continued in a whale-boat as far as “The Bricks,” and then by canoe to a large pool at the gully west of the present Hospital. Here the party disembarked and completed the Journey to Potoringamutu on foot.
Mr. William Deans had brought with him the framework of a house, but the nails had been left behind, and their place had to be taken by wooden pegs. The substitution did not affect the stability of the building, for it remained standing till 1890. The name of Riccarton was given to the settlement after the home of the Deans family in Ayrshire. Mr. John Deans joined his brother at Riccarton in the following June, arriving from Sydney where he had gone to buy stock. He brought with him a number of valuable animals, and succeeded in landing them all safely.
It was some years before a title could be obtained for the land, but in 1848 Colonel Wakefield sent Mr. Alfred Wills to inspect the property. The following quotation from his report, dated September 21, 1848, will serve to indicate its tenor:—“It may be proper that I should mention that Messrs. Deans have expended a considerable sum in improving their station; an excellent house has been built, also kitchen and several out-buildings, a ​sheep paddock of more than 500 acres is fenced in and trenched (the tortuous course of two small streams rendering it only necessary to fence one side), and there is a considerable piece of land under the plough. The house, farm buildings, bridge over the little river, etc., have all been substantially erected, and the station generally has all the appearance of a well managed farm, none of the makeshifts usually seen in squatters’ locations being visible.”
There can he no doubt that Mr. Willis’s report had weight with the agent of the New Zealand Company, and that he wished to encourage such enterprising settlement, but the control of the Port Cooper Plains passed about this time into the hands of the Canterbury Association, and in 1849 Captain Thomas, the agent of that Association caused a survey to be made and a map drawn on which a block of 400 acres at Riccarton was shown as the first estate reserved on the Canterbury Plains. The map was dated August 22, 1849, and signed by Captain Thomas as agent for the Canterbury Association.
For more than seventy years the Riccarton Bush remained the property of the Deans family, and very early in that period became the only surviving piece of native bush in the Canterbury Plains—a landmark for miles round. It was carefully preserved by the family, who surrounded it with a shelter belt of English trees, which are now as tall as the native timber, and when some years ago, the old Riccarton homestead had to be rebuilt, the new house was panelled with oak grown on the estate. The preservation of standing bush on such valuable land as that at Riccarton involved a very great pecuniary sacrifice, but it is also on the higher ground of sentiment and old association that Canterbury owes a debt of gratitude to the Deans family.
It only remains to add that in 1914, the Riccarton Bush, comprising nearly sixteen acres, was presented by the Deans family, a free gift to the Mayor of ​Christchurch as the representative of the people of Canterbury, and an Act was passed by the General Assembly vesting the property in a Board of Trustees, on which it was provided that the family should be represented.
All accounts agree in grateful acknowledgment of the kindness and hospitality extended to early settlers by the brothers Deans at a time when such help was greatly needed.
Mr. William Deans was drowned at sea, near Wellington, on July 23, 1851. Mr. John Deans went Home in 1852, married, and returned with his wife, by the “Minerva,” arriving on February 2, 1853. He died on June 23 of the same year, leaving one son, the late Mr. John Deans, of Riccarton.
Mrs. John Deans (senr.) wrote some memoirs of early Riccarton, from which some of the above story has been taken.