CHEVIOT PARK PROPOSAL

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24902, 15 June 1946, Page 8

CHEVIOT PARK PROPOSAL

Use of Homestead Site COMMISSIONER’S SUPPn« An assurance that he would rt. 1 mend the vesting of about 25 aJrf 01 ®* the Cheviot Estate, including-J? homestead site, in the McKerrX main Board was given by the missioner of Crown Lands (Mr Preston), when he met member#” the board and representatives of Automobile Association (Cante23B yesterday. An inspection was nSu?!. the area, which, it is sugSJ should be set aside as a reserve motor camping ground. e It has been suggested that the lu Kenzie Domain Board should Government five acres of lana is at present used only for k-JS? The chairman (Mr D. McLaren the board would consider this SJ position at its next meefSMß thanked Mr Preston for his svmS thetic reception of the board’# quest. The principal spokesman for McKenzie Domain Board was the u Hon. G. W. Forbes, who said theiSsS? had a little money which it V;as pared to use in preserving the beftiSi of this historic spot, the site of home of the Hon. William Rob'nsS If the area were vested in the hnaS he would give £5O towards the of putting the reserve in order SS maintaining it. Mr L. W. Broadhead, vice-prgßifW of the Automobile Association irS terbury), agreed with Mr Forbes S the site would make an ideal ing ground. He could assurewt board that the association would all the help it could in develops! the reserve for this purpose. Rehabilitation Block i g The Cheviot homestead block bought by the Government reccnS for rehabilitation and is at uresert being farmed by the Lands and StJ vey Department. Four of the five turned servicemen who will be settlS on the block are now working th??* on wages, but they will take up thX farms as soon as houses can be built for them. The land which it is sue gested should be set aside as a X serve consists of the site of the old homestead, its old garden now much overgrown, and a drive in from ® main north highway through a strfe of beautiful woodland. The old homestead, which had been sold S demolition, was destroyed bv W some years ago. Standing on the concrete steps of the old homestead, Mr Forbes briefly Jgp plained the Domain Board’s reasoia for suggesting that some of the estate should be made a reserve. He said that Cheviot was originally farmed under pastoral licence bv Mr J. < Caverhill, who arrived in 1848. A few years later Mr Robinson came from Australia, probably attracted bv cheap land policy of Sir George Grey, He tendered a cheque for •£30.000 Di payment for 84 000 acres bounded on the north by the Waiau and on the south by the Hurunui. but the Lands Department would not accept the cheque. He went to the bank, cashed his cheque, and returned to dym) £30.000 in money of all denominations including threepenny bits, on the counter. leaving the officials to count it That was how he earned the nicknsai of “Ready Money” Robinson. Mr Robinson sent to Australia for a landscape gardener to lay out the grounds. Acquisition Under Rating Act Mr Robinson died eight years befora the Cheviot estate was cut up, said Mr Forbes. The estate was not acquired by the Government under the Landi for Settlement Act. which had not been passed then (1893). but under the Rating Act. Under this act an owner, if he thought the Government Valuation. on which rates were assessed, was too high, could ask the Government to take the land over at the valuation. There had 'never been -an occasion when the Government had taken on such a big iob. but Sir John McKenzie, the Minister of Lands. saM it would take the land. Sir Francis Beil, a son-in-law and trustee, toll Mr Forbes afterwards: “We nut un a bluff, and the Government called it.’’ Mr Forbes said there would nOTH be another onnortunity of getting* reserve like this one. There was not a more beautiful spot anywhere to North Canterbury, and it. was historic, because there was a farm on it long before the Canterbury Pilgrimß arrived. An asset from the campiti?; point of view was its handiness to Gore Bay. The board did not sußßfst that all the plantations, amountinc to about 200 acres, should be put into tha reserve, but only sufficient to preserve the beauty of the site. Mr Preston said there was about 1.500.000 feet of timber in the plantations. He fully appreciated the historic importance of the area, m agreed that it should be ureserved. His personal view was that the .reserve should be a strip of a few chains wrae along the entrance drive, widening to take in the ooen area of the homestead site and sufficient land to preserve the wooded effect. • Mr Broadhead said he could no> commit his association in any way. but it might assist in tho building n? a log cabin similar to that at Hanmer Springs on the homestead foundatlGEt