PUNI CREEK

Southland Times, Issue 18847, 12 June 1920, Page 11

PUNI CREEK

“VENIT SI’MM A DIES ET INELUCTABILE TE.MPUS.” "I learnt to swim in Ruui Creek, said an old resident of Inv< i cargilt at a meeting a few days ago; anil the statement was received with amused interest by his audience. To the present generation of Inverc argillites who know thr shallow, discoloured creek, in dry weather often little more than a trickle of water, the statement would seem humorous, but to the last diminishing band of old identities it would recall memories of the past. It is generally agreed by authorities on the subject that the extensive draining operations carried out in Southland since the early days have made the climate much milder and have reduced the size of many streams. I’ttni ('reek of (he sixties and seventies struggled sluggishly through dense t!ax swamps and bush to the estuary and ended in a lagoon about where No. 1 gardens now llourish. That the stream was once fairly big is proved by the fact that boats used to come up the creek to a small landing place at the hack of where the Bank of New Zealand now stands, while at high tide fishing boats brought in their cargoes. An old resident is the authority for the statement that in the early days material for a railway was brought some distance up the creek in lighters and stacked cm the bank .-loping up towards Tay street. U is recorded I hat at a meeting of (he Otago Provincial Council in ISSJS a motion by a southern member set out inter alia that ••£IOO be spent to remove the bar at Puny Creek" and it was carried. However, with a sudden, disastrous change in the channel at the entrance of the New River. Bluff came into increasing favour as r.he port, of Southland and after much money had been spent in the hope of giving Invercargill a harbour of her own, the whole schenie was dropped.

The now thickly populated “Mat" was then a big swamp extending from Rum Creek towards Appleby and draining into the As the vears passed the Runi Creek was straightened and churned, the "Mat’’ was drained and the thick bush round the town felled before the march of progress. This and drainage system- running parallel to the Runt lessened the flow of water in the creek and its glory departed. The Maoris still hold a traditional belief that before the white man came, the now notch despised creek v. as a large river and some who study physical geography point out the depression that begins between the Fast, and Otcramika roads and extends eastwards a- evidence of it. Th“ following story descriptive of the "Mat" or "Swamp” in the early days was told some years ago by a writer in the Southland Times: "One of the early families of tradespeople was that of Mcßobic. . . . Then" had Men a scare about the ill-eifeets of the open drains, and a paragraph in the Tillies drew attention to the fact that some of these drains were Isrimg polluted by the running into them of the washings end soapsuds from the houses. It was -aid there were microbes in (he drains. Someone had read the paragraph in the presence of a precocious lassie and, in the reading, had given the of the word a long sound, making the won! sound as ‘■Meerubces.” The result of the mispronunciation was a dreadful report, to the effect that "some of the Me Robies had been found in the drains of the Swamp 1"