Wagner Nicky: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wagner Nicky: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 June 2012. Volume:680;Page:2965. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NICKY WAGNER (National—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 I rise to support the Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill. I have been visiting Deans Bush in Riccarton all my life. I know that it is officially called Riccarton Bush but locally and perhaps fondly it is known as Deans Bush as a mark of respect to the Deans family because of course it was the Deans family who donated that property to the people of Christchurch in 1914. Indeed it was a most generous and appreciated gift. 
Deans Bush is a wonderful stand of kahikatea. It is mixed with totara and matai and it really is an oasis of green very close to our city. It is the last of that kind of bush on the plains. I think those trees are possibly about 600 years old. On the fringe of that bush is the original Deans cottage which was made out of wood cut out of the bush. It was built in 1843 and it is the oldest building standing on the Canterbury Plains. I am very pleased to be able to report that it is undamaged by the recent earthquakes. 
The brothers John and William Deans came from Kirkstyle Riccarton in Scotland and they arrived in New Zealand in the early 1840s. After negotiating with local Maori they settled at Riccarton. They became very successful farmers and traders and over the years they built a very beautiful and very large Victorian-Edwardian home. I say Victorian-Edwardian because it was built over 30 or 40 years. And it still stands there. It stands there very proudly but unfortunately is closed because of damage with the earthquakes. That home is known as Riccarton House and the grounds were purchased by local councils in 1947. The legislation was changed at that time to include it with the bush. 
Of course the Deans were Scottish and good Presbyterians. In recent years Riccarton Bush has become the spiritual home of the Scottish community in the city. There is now a monument to the Deans family there and to the ordinary early Scots settlers and regular Scottish events are held in the grounds. I am sure the Deans would enjoy those pipe band competitions the Scottish dancing the clan parades the haggis eating and particularly the whisky drinking. 
The Deans were well established at Riccarton before the first four ships carrying settlers for the Canterbury Association arrived in our city. They came with a vision for the Canterbury Association to transplant a perfect Anglican society to New Zealand. Local folklore tells us that the location of Hagley Park between the main settlements for the Anglicans and those Presbyterian Deans was perhaps deliberate. It kept them well on the other side of the city at arms length from the new settlement. I am not sure whether that is true but the fact that the city fathers later allocated land for the Catholic community at the other end of town near the gasworks would tend to let us believe that it might be true. 
This bill today is a further amendment of the original Act and is necessary to update and modernise the governance structures to better define the role of the board and to vest the land at 30 Kahu Road to the board. Deans Bush at Riccarton is now an especially lively place since the earthquakes because although the old Deans homestead as I said is still closed with damage it has become even more of a community centre and every weekend farmers’ markets are held in the grounds. Apparently John Deans was an early conservationist because on his deathbed he asked his wife Jane to be sure that Riccarton Bush remained for ever. So this bill which once again amends that original Act brought to the House by the local member of Parliament Gerry Brownlee—thank you Gerry—will keep Riccarton Bush safe for many years to come. So I commend this bill to the House.