HISTORICAL DATA.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19137, 21 October 1927, Page 3

HISTORICAL DATA.

row from Eakaia tip to wh&t-was subsequently known, as tfae-Spreadeagle, as a guide to travellers, and a portion of the.present road is '• still* known, as Thompson's track. Through the .then marshy bit: of country on which ; has since arisen.the pretty suburban town of Tinwald, as well as away towards Winslow, small strips of white • calico were fastened here and there to the manuka bushes to serve as a guide to travellers on that route. The bottom of the river in the "early days" was soft and treacherous, and it. required the careful guidance of an expert fordsman to assist the early pilgrims in avoiding the dangers incident to a constantly, . shifting, ford in the chief obstacle • to safe travelling' 'over . the . forty-mile stretch.from the Eakaia to the. Earigitata. . A Lonely Life. For the.first twelve months Mr and Mrs Turton lived a pretty solitary life on the banks of the river. Male passengers and callers were few, while, the female pilgrims only totalled up to some half dozen for the whole year. There were but few women habited on the uncultivated plains, and for several years Mrs Turton rarely had the insolation of exchanging greetings with any of her own sex. One day Mrs Joseph Hunt walked into the house unheralded.. Mrs Turton received her as an angel i sent from Heaven, and the two sympathised with each other's lonely lot and dreary surroundings. Mr and Mrs Hunt, who settled at Ashburton.in 1864, finally became the happy owners and occupiers of a highly cultivated farm, a most picturesque and delightful habitation, a 6pot admired by all who had the pleasure of paying a visit, to 'Hunt's Farm." At the time Mr Turton took up his residence on the banks, of the river there was not a tree to be seen anywhere on the Ashburton plains. Those who first took up the sheep runs were too busy to .find time to devote to tree planting. The land was unfe'need, and- the attention the sheep: required left no time, or inclination, for a'ny kind of work that was not absolutely necessary.. In 18F3 Mr Turton had a four-year-old son. That son had a fourinch spade, and with his little wooden

implement he one day assisted his father to plant, a few poplars and bluegum trees at the back of the accommodation hous*. Thc-y t-wk root, and were the first trees *■{ any description planted in tho Ashburt' -i Conuty. Thcsj grew and flourUhc-1 for a quaver of a century, -\vh.in they lao to fcive placo to a roadw-iy, which now forms tho north-.m approach to tho traffic bridge. Growth of the Town. | From 1858 to 1564 little or no change took place in the appearance of Ashburton or its surroundings, and the events of the week were the arrivals of the coaches from Christchurch and from Tiniaru. Scarcely anything had been done in the shape of cultivation on any of the scheep stations, and only absolutely necessary buildings were erected, for labour was scarce, while every bit j of timber had to be brought a distance | of'nearly thirty miles from Alford I Forest in bullock drays, across the open ! plain and unbridged rivers. Mr Hugh Monagau was one of the first to start business on the banks of th-> Ashburton as a blacksmith. There was no "spread- ! ing chestnut tree" and no "village," but Monagan pished his tent ono nig l i, under .the lee of a gorse bush near the Accommodation House. He had a portable forge, and h«a been carrying on the business : of an itinerant blacksmith; going from station to station and farm to farm, doinrr nrtr! -jobs of smith's work. One of the next.local industries was started in 1864 by Mr Ben Ede, who erected a brick kiln in a field near the present structure known as Digby's bridge. Ben had no straw, but he n.anaged to make bricks, and found a ready i;sale for all he could manufacture with his crude appliances. . Railway Opened. The most important eveni in the early history -of Ashburton was +K <? opening up of railway communication, gradually from Christchurch to.the Selwyn, from-; the Selwyn to the. Eakaia, and on the 24th of August, 1874, from thie Eakaia to Ashburton. From this time on the progress of the town and the whole district was assured. Visitors were attracted to the town and district, and thoso with vision foresaw..its great potentialities, the value of the soil,-and its great.productivenesa for all branches of farming. Settlers Organise. ■ In 1858 the population of Ashburton was just about one dozen souls, and even up to 1864 the whole district wasi but sparsely populated. Settlement, however, had taken place to some little extent on various portions of the tussock covered and swind-swept plains, and settlers, too, of the right- sort, had begun, to be attracted .to -the Ashburton district. The first public meeting of. settlers was held- at' Turtbn 's Accommodation House on .February 2nd, 1864, the-'mer'irig haying been convened for 'the purpose of'.forming a locaj body. The only persons who put in an appearance were.Messrs W..S. Peter, C. Percy Cox, W. C. Walker, Thomas Moor'-' ;iuae, Alexander Lean,, and ' Captain McLean. Without any ceremony, without argument, and with little talk,.thefollowing were nominated and duly, elected members of the "Ashburton Eoad. Board," the boundaries being from the Eakaia to the Rangitata rivers, and from the hills to the sea:— Messrs Benjamin Moorhouse, C. Percy Cox,- Bobert Park,- Edward Chapman, j and Alexander L«an. » For a number of years ths Board met at the residence of Mr Anthony Thompson, situated. about twelve miles from the Ashburton Accommodation House, in the direction of Methven. For a considerable number of years, too, the Ashburton Eoad Board was the only local body for the whole of the present county. The Board "eceived. from the Canterbury Provincial Government 25 per cent. - of-the-Land Fund, or money received from the sale of Government lands, and as'this'freq"ently amounted to' large sums, all of which had.to.be. spent within the one .financial year; the-. members of the Board wero placed in" the embarrassing and delightfully unique position of haying more monfey than they knew what to do with. There was no such thing as a bank overdraft, the incubus of "antecedent liability" had not even been dreamed or thoughtof, and the chairman of the Board could always meet the bank, with a beaming smile of welcome and independence. Accounts amounting to £1500., £2OOO, £2500, and so on, were passed without question at the monthly meetings of the Board, and. fresh works were authorised, such as road formation, the draining of creeks, etc. .'The County Council. Later .the County Council came into being in. 1577, and the record of progress is continued right up to the present day: -. Of all the Council ; s activities that of the supply of water was recognised as of the most paramount importance, I so the engineer was allowed to proceed ! with the work after the adoptior. of kis compressive scheme, which converted' a wide and thirsty plain into a land through which flowed clear streams ofwater through every farm, and practically through every paddock, thereby .adding enormously to the value of the land, and enabling the land owners vastly to increase their flocks and herds, as no matter how dry a season may have been, or how parched up the "forage in the paddocks might have been, stock could always sla l their thirst at will, instead of having to be driven' to the nearest creek or other water-course, then gorging themselves and again feeling thirsty by-the time they were driven back to their feeding grounds.

GROWTH OF THE DISTRICT. MR' E. J. PAUL'S ACCOUNT. Mr- E. J. Paul, known in the county for very many years for his interest in public affairs, and for his representation of ' the Christcburch Press in the district, has prepared the historical data for a jubilee booklet published by the County Council in celebration of the county's fiftieth birthday. In his research Mr Paul has. pre-, sented a .story of the growth of the county that will have an interest not' confined to those who live in Ashburton'a vicinity. He has compiled a book that is redolent with anecdote and historical data of intense interest to all New Zealanders who are grateful and. appreciative—and who are not?—of the early pioneers' struggle to transform Maoriland into a prosperous Dominion, The First Settler. In 1858 Mr William Turton and his wife came to Ashburton, bringing with, them a three months' old female child., Mr Turton was the first white man, and Mrs Turton the first white woman, who planted a habitation within the present boundaries of the borough, and they may fairly claim to be the actual founders of Ashburton. Mr Turton obtained a Jease from the Canterbury Provincial Government of 300 acres of land, as a ferry reserve, near the site of the present railway and traffic bridges. He built a house and stables. A little later jon the Provincial Government opened ; a telegraph station, and placed Mr 1 Doherty. in charge. A license was granted to the house, conditionally on accommodation being provid d for travellers, and that the licensee, or one of the em-p]c«-un<;. tvas always on the spot to pilot wayfarers -across the river. A single plough furrow, made by Mr Dobson, one of the. Government surveyors, was the only indication of a road from the Eakaia to the Hinds. Mr Anthony Thompson also ploughed a single fur-