# The Story of Christchurch, New Zealand/Chapter 11

Chapter XI.
The First Superintendency of Mr. W. S. Moorhouse.
1857-1863.
Election of Superintendent Moorhouse—“The Amended Regulations”—Public Hospital—Canterbury Chamber of Commerce—Return of Mr. FitzGerald from England, and publication of the “Press”—Lyttelton Tunnel—Mr. Julius Haast (afterwards Sir Julius)—Mr. Edward Dobson—Christchurch Municipal Council—Artesian water supply—Resignation of Mr. Moorhouse.
After the departure of Mr. FitzGerald there was an interval of some months before the election of his successor, and during that period Mr. Charles Bowen acted as Deputy-Superintendent. The elections took place in November, when Mr. William Sefton Moorhouse was elected to the Superintendency, defeating Mr. Joseph Brittan by a substantial majority. The new Provincial Council, consisting of twenty-six members, met on January 19, 1858, with Mr. Ollivier at the head of the Government, in place of Mr. Packer, who had resigned.
That session (January 19 to February 24), was chiefly remarkable for the passage of the “Amended Regulations,” relating to the waste lands of the Province. The subject had frequently occupied the time of the Provincial Council since 1855, when the first set ​of Regulations was disallowed by the Governor, and amended to meet his views. On April 15. 1856, another set of Regulations had been published in the “Gazette,” offering rural lands at 40/- per acre. An application book was kept, and priority given in accordance with the order of the names appearing therein. It was at that time that certain historical races were ridden by settlers competing for priority of claim to particular blocks of land; notably one described by Mr. Samuel Butler, in which he himself took part. He and his neighbour had a dispute about the boundary line of their respective runs. The point at issue was the possession of a small piece of land on which stood a building and other improvements. Each man knew that if he could reach the land office before his rival, he could buy the freehold at £2 per acre, and so without spoken challenge, the race began. It was a long-distance competition, a hundred miles across country, with rivers to swim. The contestants passed and re-passed each other, but Mr. Butler, who had secured a remount on the road, won the race.
Then came fresh complications: some of the early settlers had pre-emptive rights at £3 per acre. Was it fair, it was asked, that these men, the pioneers of Canterbury, if they wished to exercise their pre-emption, should still have to pay £3, when others were paying only £2 per acre? But there was some doubt whether the dissolution of the Canterbury Association had not extinguished these pre-emptive rights altogether. A compromise was made, the pre-emptive rights were confirmed, and the price reduced to £2; but a proviso was inserted that if another applicant desired to purchase the freehold, the owner of the pre-emptive right had either to exercise his pre-emption promptly or abandon it. The squatters, anxious to preserve their pre-emption rights over large blocks of land, discovered a flaw in these regulations: they need not purchase the whole ​of their grazing area—it was quite sufficient to purchase twenty acres, and that stayed proceedings, and the whole machinery, application, notice and the rest, had to be started again, taking some months, and even then the squatter had only to buy another twenty acres, to ensure a further respite.
The “Amended Regulations” were intended to put a stop to this practice, but the squatters were in a majority in the Provincial Council, and so amended the “Amended Regulations” as to make themselves fairly safe. It was this debate which was described in “The Song of the Squatters,” by Mr. Crosbie Ward, in the “Canterbury Rhymes.”
It is only fair to the squatters to say that there was some reason for protecting homesteads and valuable improvements from being taken by land selectors, since no compensation was provided,
The next meeting of the Provincial Council, September 29, 1859, was held for the first time in its own premises on the site which had been originally reserved for a Public Hospital.
On the banks of the Avon, 1916.
On the left are the Hospital Grounds, taken from the Public Domain.
Plate 16.
​passed the Hospital and Charitable Aid Ordinance, vesting the Hospital in the Superintendent, and giving rating powers for its maintenance.
It was about this time that an important institution, the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, began its career in Lyttelton, on August 19, 1859, under the title of Lyttelton Chamber of Commerce. (The name was afterwards changed on the removal of the Chamber to Christchurch in 1863).
Mr. Isaac Thomas Cookson, of the firm of Cookson, Bowler and Co., was the first President, and the list of his successors included the names of many of the most successful business men of Christchurch. The subsequent history of the institution has been so inseparably associated with the commercial history of the city and province that a separate record is hardly required. The Chamber of Commerce, in after years, took a prominent part in every movement to promote the commercial welfare of the district. Its headquarters were moved, in 1886, from Tattersall’s Buildings in Cashel Street, to its present chamber in the Australian Mutual Provident Buildings, Cathedral Square.
Mr. FitzGerald returned from England in April, 1860. While acting as Emigration Agent for Canterbury in London, his journalistic instincts had found scope in the re-establishment of the “Canterbury Papers” (New Series), in 1859. In his official capacity as Emigration Agent he had carried out the instructions of the Provincial Government, but on arrival in Canterbury, free from the shackles of his official position, he was at liberty to give expression to his personal opinions, and declared himself an opponent of the Lyttelton Tunnel, and was supported by many others whose opinions were entitled to carry weight. Shortly after his arrival, therefore, he entered into a crusade, with his customary vigour, against the Tunnel, and against Superintendent Moorhouse, who was its energetic promoter. He sought a ​seat in the Provincial Council, from which to voice his opposition, and was returned for Akaroa on May 16. As an old journalist, he realised the necessity of newspaper support, and finding that the “Lyttelton Times,” of which he had been the first editor, was enthusiastic in its advocacy of the Tunnel, he set himself to establish a rival newspaper, and the appearance of the “Press,” on May 25, 1860, was due to his enterprise. The first number of the new journal contained a long leading article opposing the proposed Tunnel, accompanied by the threat “we shall return to this matter probably again and again.”
In a former chapter it has been stated that in the early provincial days, there were no party politics as we know them. Possibly it is not too much to suggest that the old order changed with the advent of the “Press.” Party politics, in any case, were bound to come sooner or later, and it was manifestly desirable that each side should be adequately represented in journalism. The “Press” has since enjoyed a long and honourable career, and is to-day one of the foremost papers in New Zealand.
The election of Mr. Moorhouse, as Superintendent, on November 4, 1857, had not turned on any particular policy measure, and the Lyttelton Tunnel, with which his name subsequently became so closely associated, was not referred to in the addresses of either of the candidates. It was later on that the demand for railway communication between Christchurch and its port became insistent, fanned by a series of articles in the “Lyttelton Times.” The Superintendent placed him self at the head of the movement, and never rested till he had carried it to a triumphant conclusion. The project was first seriously mooted in the Provincial Council in November, 1858, when a committee, under the chairman ship of Mr. E. Dobson, Provincial Engineer, was set up to collect local information, and this was followed by ​the appointment of three Commissioners in London “for the construction of railways in Canterbury.” The Commissioners were Mr. J. E. FitzGerald, at that time Emigration Officer for the Province, Mr. James J. Cummins, of the Union Bank of Australia (the only Bank then operating in Canterbury), and Mr. H. Selfe Selfe, who possessed valuable Parliamentary experience. Mr. FitzGerald had taken to London with him a model of the range of hills between Christchurch and Lyttelton, and his local knowledge was invaluable in the promotion of the work. Associated with the Commission was Mr. W. B. Bray, C.E., a former member of the Provincial Council, whose professional experience and local knowledge were placed unreservedly at the disposal of his colleagues.
Mr. FitzGerald was, from the outset, opposed to the Tunnel, his preference being for the route via Sumner and Evans’ Pass, over which he had driven his tandem, and he urged a high level railway, with steep gradients and a comparatively short tunnel, instancing some of the railway engineering then being carried out in America as proof of the practicability of his scheme. But the choice of route was for decision by an expert, and, in due course, the three Commissioners submitted their proposals to the greatest living authority on railway engineering, Mr. Robert Stephenson. Mr. Stephenson, possibly on account of ill-health (he died the following October, and was buried at Westminster Abbey), passed them on to his cousin, Mr. George Robert Stephenson, an engineer of almost equal eminence. The London Commissioners had also to report on the finance of the undertaking, and at first favoured borrowing only £70,000 in London, there being authority in existence for a loan to this amount, and paying for the remainder of the undertaking out of the Provincial revenues, or, if need be, by a mortgage on the undertaking itself. Mr. Stephenson’s report, dated London, August 10, 1859, ​was laid before the Provincial Council in October, 1859. It dealt exhaustively with three different routes. The high level Sumner route viâ Evans’ Pass was condemned out of hand on account of its steep grades and sharp curves. The Gollan Bay route was also condemned, and the line of the present Tunnel recommended. Mr. Stephenson’s estimate of the cost was £250,000, at which he thought it would be possible to obtain an English contractor of repute to undertake the work. The Commissioners were so favourably impressed with Mr. Stephenson’s report that they took the responsibility of asking him to find a contractor, and this he did, Messrs. Smith, Knight and Co. offering to construct the Tunnel for £235,000.
The Provincial Council had voted a sum of £4,000 for preliminary expenses, and the Commissioners entered into a provisional agreement in September, 1859, with Messrs. Smith, Knight and Co., under which this firm sent out their agent, Mr. Baynes, and an engineering staff to make a preliminary investigation, and undertook that if they found the conditions were as represented, they would sign a definite contract. The Provincial Council was only committed to the payment of a fixed sum of £3,000 for preliminary expenses, and was not bound to proceed with the work if it proved impossible to pass the necessary legislation.
The two Bills, the Railway Bill and the Loan Bill for £70,000, were introduced and passed in December, 1859, not without serious opposition. The Railway Bill came up for consideration on December 15, the eve of the ninth anniversary of the Province, and Mr. J. Hall moved that its second reading should be taken that day six months, but this attempt to kill the measure was defeated. Public opinion was undoubtedly at the back of the undertaking, but many people thought the responsibility of carrying out so gigantic an undertaking too great for a community of only about 10,000 persons. It must be ​remembered that in 1860 a tunnel one mile and three-quarters in length was almost a world’s record. (The Mont Cenis Tunnel had been started tin 1857, but was not finished till some years later.) There was also the uncertainty of what might be met with in cutting through the wall of an ancient crater of large dimensions. Mr. FitzGerald’s opposition has already been noted, and Mr. Godley, in a private letter, published in the newspapers, counselled caution. Nor did the passage of the two Bills end the matter. They had to be reserved for the Governor’s assent, and this was later refused on the ground that the Provincial Council was trenching on the privileges of the General Assembly. On the Governor’s refusal becoming known, the Superintendent called the Provincial Council together, and carried a resolution asking the General Assembly to authorise the Railway and loan, This time authority was sought to borrow £300,000 instead of £70,000. A public meeting was called at the Town Hall by Mr. T. W. Maude, as Sheriff, and, in spite of the opposition of Mr. Joseph Brittan, it endorsed the railway policy of the Government. Fortified by this support, the Superintendent went to Auckland, where Parliament was sitting, and returned in triumph with authority enabling the Provincial Council to pass the Loan Bill for £300,000, which it did in July, 1860.
Meanwhile, in January, 1860, Mr. Baynes had arrived in Lyttelton and started work at the Lyttelton end of the Tunnel. The start at the Heathcote end was deferred for some months, waiting for plant to arrive from England. But now a fresh difficulty arose. Mr. Baynes had been in Auckland assisting the Superintendent in the passage of the Bills, but soon after his return he threw up the contract on account of meeting some very hard stone, and in November. 1860, it was finally can celled.
Mr. Julius Haast (afterwards Sir Julius von Haast) arrived at Lyttelton about the same time from Nelson, ​where he had carried out a comprehensive geological survey of the country. He had already established a high reputation among scientists and practical men, and the Provincial Government secured his services to report on the probable extent of the hard rock which had led to the abandonment of the first contract. His report, read to the Council on December 20, was favourable, predicting that a good deal of the distance to be driven would be through comparatively easy country, and that it would prove possible to complete the Tunnel sooner and at less cost than had been originally anticipated.
Mr. Baynes and his engineer, Mr. McCandlish, were publicly entertained by the Superintendent on November 30, 1860, prior to their departure for England, and acknowledgment was made of the assistance they had given in passing the Railway Bill and initiating the work.
The Superintendent then proposed that the Provincial Engineer, Mr. Edward Dobson, should continue the work at both ends of the Tunnel, and that later on, when more information had been obtained, a contract should be let for the central portion. This proposal, when submitted to the Provincial Council on December 11, 1860, was carried only by the casting vote of the chairman, and the Superintendent, being disinclined to act on so narrow a majority, invited the Council to join him in praying the Governor for a dissolution. A few days later, on January 4, 1861, the matter was patched up, and the Superintendent was authorised to find a new contractor, and to negotiate the loan, the two propositions to be interdependent.
Shortly afterwards, Mr. Moorhouse left for Melbourne in search of a contractor. In his absence, he lost his seat in the House of Representatives, being beaten by Mr. A. E. White (for Akaroa) on February 13, 1861, but he was subsequently returned for Heathcote. At Melbourne, about April 16, 1861, he entered into a ​provisional contract with Messrs. Holmes and Co. (Mr. George Holmes and Mr. E. Richardson), He also made arrangements with the Union Bank there to float a loan of £300,000 at the rate of £50,000 per annum, and on his return to Lyttelton, on April 28, 1861, accompanied by Mr. George Holmes, he met with a great reception from the Canterbury public, as it was recognised that the undertaking had been placed on a sound and promising footing.
On Bay 16, 1861, the provisional contract and loan arrangements were confirmed by the Provincial Council. The contract sum was £240,500, slightly more than that arranged with Messrs. Smith, Knight and Co., but it included other work outside the Tunnel, and was considered more favourable to the Province. Mr. E. Richardson followed his partner to Lyttelton, and took charge of the work, and on July 17, 1861, the first sod was turned by Mr. W. S. Moorhouse, and the event was celebrated by a banquet, under the chairmanship of Mr. Richardson.
Looking back, one cannot help being amazed at the intrepidity shown by so small a community in undertaking so gigantic a task. One must remember, however, that those were the prosperous days of Canterbury. The land sales, for instance, during the first half of 1862, amounted to £131,655 10s. The finances of the Province were in so flourishing a condition that the Provincial Council (January 10, 1862) decided to purchase and cancel the first year’s instalment of the railway Loan, £50,000, thus making the payment out of revenue.
It may be added that Messrs. Holmes and Co. successfully carried out their contract, and on May 24, 1867, the Tunnel was pierced by breaking into a drill hole, and five days later, May 29, a practical opening was made, through which some of the miners and Superintendent Moorhouse passed. The first trial trip of an engine through the Tunnel was made on November 18, ​1867, and the line was opened for passenger traffic on December 9, 1867.
Something should be said about the work of Mr. Edward Dobson. In a paper he contributed in 1870 to the Institution of Civil Engineers, describing the Public Works of Canterbury, Mr. Dobson supplied a complete set of drawings and documents relating to the Tunnel. The professional ability shown in these papers was recognised by the Council of the Institution by the award to Mr. Dobson of the Telford Medal and the Telford Premium. Mr. Dobson was Provincial Engineer of Canterbury from 1854 to 1862, and in addition to the work of the Lyttelton Tunnel he engineered the road to the West Coast goldfields, but after the abolition of the provinces, his work in Canterbury came to an end, and for some years he followed his profession in Australia. Returning to Christchurch, he afterwards held the position of lecturer on civil engineering at Canterbury College. He died in April, 1908, at the advanced age of 91.
After his successful conduct of the Lyttelton Tunnel campaign, there could be no other candidate for the Superintendency, and on August 30, 1861, Mr. Moorhouse was returned unopposed.
The new Provincial Council met on October 23. During the session, a Provincial Council Extension Ordinance was passed, increasing the number of members from twenty-six to thirty-five, thereby necessitating a new election for Superintendent and members of Provincial Council, and in the following year, March 31. 1862, Mr. Moorhouse was returned unopposed for his third term of office.
In December, 1860, the Provincial Council had passed the Municipal Council Ordinance, enabling any town which desired ta do so, to establish local government. Lyttelton was the first town to take advantage of the privilege, and the election there of a Municipal Council ​of nine members was held on February 4, 1862. Mr. W. Donald, R.M., who was returned at the head of the poll, became the first chairman of the Lyttelton Borough Council. Christchurch was not far behind. This town had been gazetted a municipal district on February 1, 1862, and the election of members of the Council took place on February 28, and resulted in the return of nine members in the order given:—J. Hall, R.M., J, Anderson, G. Miles, W. Wilson, W. D. Barnard, E. Reece, J. Barrett, H. E. Alport and G. Gould. At the first meeting, March 3, Mr. Hall was elected chairman.
The agitation which led to the granting of local government to the city of Christchurch had been started by Mr. John Ollivier, who laud presented a petition to the Superintendent from the householders of Christchurch. The receipt of the petition was acknowledged by the Provincial Secretary in a letter, dated December 21, 1861, of sufficient importance to be quoted in full. It ran as follows:—
“”Sir,—I am directed by His Honour the Superintendent to acknowledge receipt of a petition from the householders of Christchurch, praying that the district of Christchurch may be proclaimed a municipal district.
“The petition will be gazetted at once, and the petitioners may rely upon the Government laying before the Council a claim for a considerable grant of money from the Provincial chest, which the Government recognise as due to the town from the sale of Town Reserves to meet a liability of the whole Province.
“The Government will also be prepared to recommend an endowment of waste lands as a permanent estate for the city so soon as legal doubts, which have been mooted, as to the powers of the Superintendent to reserve, shall have been removed.
“I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant.
“(Signed) Thos. W. Maude, Provincial Secretary.
"To J. Olivier, Esq., M.P.C.”
​The important point was the frank admission by the Superintendent of the moral liability of the Province to compensate the city for the sale of its reserves.
It was at first intended that the Government, as soon as it had obtained the necessary power, should reserve 10,000 acres of rural land as an endowment to the city, and also set apart reserves on both sides of the river. Prior to the Provincial Council session of November, 1862, certain proposed country reserves were selected by the Town Board of Christchurch, and provisionally reserved by the Superintendent, but the grant of rural lands was opposed in the Provincial Council, on the ground that such reserves would block settlement, and The money grant would be more practical. The result was that only Town Reserves were at first granted, and a cash subsidy of ₤3,000 was paid about April, 1862, and other monetary grants were made in later years. A list of the city reserves will be found in the Appendix, with notes on the special objects to which they were to be devoted.
In November, 1862, the Provincial Council passed the Christchurch City Council Ordinance, granting the city its own constitution. The first meeting of the City Council under this ordinance took place on March 23, 1863, when Hon. John Hall, R.M., was re-elected, as chairman.
The most pressing matters with which the Town Board, as it was at first styled, had to deal, were water supply, drainage and lighting.
Christchurch Club, 1862.
(The other Building is the Occidental Hotel).
(See p. 226 for present-day view.)
Plate 17.
Oxford Terrace, about 1862.
* Land Office, on site of present City Council Chambers.
* Provincial Council Buildings.
Plate 18.
​Town Board obtained a boring plant, and arranged to let it out on easy terms to the public, so as to encourage well-sinking in the city. The Board also sought professional advice about the probable extent of the water table, and Dr. Haast, in his report (July 19, 1863), took Mount Herbert as the centre of the volcanic area of Banks Peninsula, and estimated the average slope therefrom which would gradually decrease as the distance from the centre increased. From these premises, he estimated that at the Market Place, Christchurch, the volcanic rock and lava would be about 500 feet below the surface, which would leave ample room for a good artesian supply before that depth was reached.
The first artesian well in Christchurch was at the corner of Tuam Street and Ferry Road, and on the petition of certain citizens, the Town Board in March, 1864, marked the spot by building the concrete tank which still stands there.
Mr. W. B. Bray was appointed by the Town Board to lay out plans for surface drainage. The general plan adopted (June, 1862) was to keep the level of the streets below that of the adjoining sections, so that the surplus artesian water and the surface drainage could be run down the side channels—a marked feature in the city of to-day. Another feature of the city owes its origin ta the first session of the Town Board. On August 18, 1862, a by-law was passed allowing verandahs to be placed over footpaths in the city. Lighting was a serious matter, and, at a meeting, July 6, Mr. Wilson, a member of the Town Board, was responsible for an ambitious suggestion to light the city with twenty lamps. By the following October, kerosene lamps had been introduced, and the City Surveyor was already hinting that a Gas Company would pay good dividends. The hint was taken, and on May 5, 1863, the Christchurch Gas Company was formed. It was then anticipated that the Company would be able to supply gas at 20/- per 1,000 ​feet. The Gas Company started its active operations by lighting its first street lamp on December 24, 1864.
On November 24, 1862, the Town Board adapted a design for its corporate Seal, the same which is in use to-day. The Seal was engraved in Dunedin, and formally adopted on April 8, 1863.
Amongst other early records is that of the licensing (July, 1863) of the first cab-stand in Christchurch to a Mr. Dunn.
In May, 1868, the city of Christchurch was gazetted a Borough, under the Municipal Corporation Act, 1867, (which gave power to borrow against rating powers), and on June 10, 1868, Mr. William Wilson was elected first Mayor of Christchurch.
Mr. Moorhouse’s third term of office was very short—elected in March, 1862, he resigned in January, 1863. He had only retained office in order to see the railway affairs into smooth water, and that accomplished, felt at liberty to divest himself of responsibility and attend to his private business.