THE ORIGINAL SURVEY OF CHRISTCHURCH.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1498, 4 December 1878, Page 3

THE ORIGINAL SURVEY OF CHRISTCHURCH.

The following is the letter from the Chief Surveyor read at the City Council meeting, on Monday evening, and referred to in yesterday’s issue : “ Survey office, “ Christchurch, November 25th, 1878. “ Sxe, —I have the honour to enclose copy of Mr C. W. Adams’ report, notifying the completion of the preliminary re-survey of the Town of Christchurch. As a result, the following facts are clearly established. “ Bach block has been laid out 1111 x 502, instead of 1100 x 500, each section being 101 x 251 links. The streets wore made 100 links or 66 feet wide, and the town reserve is 1805 instead of 1800 links, as shown on the plan of the said town reserves. “ By adopting these as the actual measurements, the original suryey appears to have been very correctly done, and the divergencies in the street lines alluded to in Mr Adams’ report are doubtless owing to persons erecting buildings or fences which encroach on, or recede from, the actual lines of the streets as first laid out. Probably also much is due to the original pegs being lost, and the absence of starting points to which to refer to get the lines re-established. “ I find that the greatest divergencies occur in the streets running north and south near the North town belt, especially Montreal, Colombo, Manchester, and Madras streets. The lines of fencing on the east side of Montreal street, between Salisbury street and the North town bolt encroach on the street line from four to six links, the other side of the street as formed, trespassing to a like extent on the section. In the next street, Colombo, the line of fencing on the west side encroaches on the street about two links, thus, between these two streets on the North town belt the land occupied is in excess of the Crown grants eight links. “The lines of fencing in Manchester and Madras streets are also from six to seven links out of position at the North town belt, although they are nearly in their proper position at Peterborough street. “ Montreal street at the South town belt, is also nearly seven links out of its proper position, and Barbadoes street at Tuam street is out of true Hue from four to five links. “ The streets running east and west show that their original lines have been much better adhered to than those of the streets running north and south, the encroachments on the first-named lines in very few places exceeding from a halt-link to two links, in many parts the building and section lines coinciding. “ In Tuam and St Asaph streets at the Bast town belt the blocks are from two to three links out of place; Kilmore street also is about as much out from Manchester street to the East belt, “ The buildings or lines of fencing for the whole length of the south side of Peterborough street encroach on the street two links, whilst the north side of the said street is nearly in its proper position. “ Salisbury street is also a little out of its true place, and the North town belt ia considerably so, the fences on both sides encroaching in places from three to four links, the belt as fenced being from five to six links too narrow. “ It i 9 very fortunate that the worst encroachments occur in streets which are as yet, as a rule, only fenced, the houses standing back from the street, and in cases where a building does abut on the footpath, such building is of wood. In Hereford, Cashel, Lichfield, Tuam, and Colombo streets, where the principal stone or brick buildings have been erected, very little encroachment has taken place. Here and there a building may be a few inches within or beyond the t r ue 1 building lino. “I shall bo glid if you will instruct the City Surveyor to look at the two plots pro- ■ pared by Mr Adams— one showing the lines

of street running north and south, and the other those running east and west, giving in pencil on an enlarged scale, the present building lines, and in blue what is believed to be the lines on which the town was originally pegged out. If your surveyor agrees with the position of these lines as laid down from data obtained and recorded in Mr Adams’ field books, I think it would be advisable that your Council should pass a resolution to adhere to these lines, formally notifying me of the fact, and I will then insert the stone blocks accordingly. “ I also think that at the next meeting of the General Assembly a short Act should bo passed, providing that sections within the original city of Christchurch, Crown granted, as 100 links by 250 links arc, and shall thereafter be acknowledged to be 101 by 251 links statute measurement, and that the distance between the several streets and the town belts shall be as now determined. “ A short clause should also be added, making it compulsory when existing fences or buildings are being renewed or rebuilt, that the then holders shall replace them, in conformity with the street lines as permanently marked by the stone blocks inserted in accordance with the standard survey. “ I have the honor, &c., “ John H. Bakes, Chief Surveyor. “His Worship the Mayor, Christchurch.” [Copy.] “ Survey Office, “ Christchurch, November 12, 1878. J. H. Baker, Esq., Chief Surveyor, Christchurch. “ Sir, —I have the honor to report that I have completed the preliminary survey of Christchurch, and I find that on the whole the original survey of the city, as executed by Mr E. Jollie in 1850, was well and carefully done. “ The street lines are almost truly at right angles to each other, and I have ranged lines down every north and south street (except Durham street, whore the line of sight is blocked by Lane’s Mill, &c.), from Montreal street to East belt inclusive. “ I have also ranged lines down every east and west street, from the North to the South belts inclusive, except Chester and Worcester streets. “ Chester street crosses Cranmer square, and the line of sight is blocked by willows and other trees, as it crosses the Avon three times. “ The Cathedral prevents a view being obtained down Worcester street. “ I find that in the original survey there has been an allowance of one link in the width and one link in the length of each town section. This allowance, I understand, was for a party wall between each section. “ Thus the blocks which generally contain two rows of eleven sections each, instead of being 1100 are really 1111 x 502. Also in the town reserves cut up by Mr E. Dobson, C.E., in 1856, the width between the original survey and the North, South, and East belt is given on plan as 1800, whereas it actually measured 1805 links.

“ Most of the irregularities I have noticed in the street lines are, I believe, attributable to encroachments, and not to any defect in the original survey. “In measuring the width from building line to building line, I have found it to vary from ninety-seven links to 103 links. “The North belt also appears to have been encroached upon, especially in its western portion, near the crossing of the Papanui road. This belt, as fenced, is five or six links too narrow in a great many places. “ It will also be seen that Montreal street, though fairly straight through the greater part of its length, seems strangely deflected towards the west, both at the North and South belts.

“On the other hand, the north ends of Manchester and Madras streets are deflected towards the east. In the two plans which accompany this report, the distances from centre to centre of streets are on a scale of four chains to an inch. The streets themselves, however, are shown lin. wide and the belts 2in. ; still the scale on which the offsets to the building line have been plotted is not one chain to an inch, but really twenty links to an inch, or sin. to one chain. So a street lin. wide really represents a strip of 10 links wide on each side of the street, placed together for convenience of inspection, and the device I have adopted of using two scales on one plan was necessary in order to make the deviations and encroachments palpable to the eye, in the same manner that the vertical scale on an engineering plan of a rail way, &c, is always exaggerated with regard to the horizontal scale. “ The greatest encroachments I have noticed arc the following:—East side of Montreal street, near South belt, between 4ft. and sft.; ditto, North belt, about 4ft.; west side of Manchester street, near North belt, about 4ft.; west side of Madras street, near North belt, about 4ft, “ The North belt I have referred to before. “ The South belt towards its cast end, has also been encroached on. There are also several minor encroachments, as will be seen by inspection of the two plans forwarded herewith; but as the encroachments and deviations generally occur in the more unfrequented parts of the city, I do not see any obstacle to resurveying the streets in their correct positions according to the original plan. “ I have the honor to be, sir, “ Your most obedient servant, (Signed) “ C, H. Adams, “ Geodesical Surveyor.”