WILLIAM FOX IN WESTLAND

Turnbull Library Record, Volume I, Issue 2, 1 November 1967, Page 10

WILLIAM FOX IN WESTLAND

J. D. P.

The naming of the Fox Glacier

Few premiers have had time or talent to paint during a political walkabout. The Fox paintings of Westland some of which are now held by the Library are all the more interesting because of the hazards of his tour: trial by floods of water; trial by floods of words. Fox’s original exploration of part of the Buller watershed in February 1846 with Thomas Brunner, Charles Heaphy, and the Maori guide Kehu, had exciting incidents. Fox nearly drowned 1 ; his visit in February 1872 was also somewhat aquatic. And the words incidental to that visit amounted to a fluid mass of some weight and bombast. 2

As citizen John Cross of Hokitika expressed it on 5 February ‘He [Fox] comes here as the chief of a Government whose policy has ruined Westland... Mr Fox and his arch-plotter, Mr Vogel, have despoiled us all. In thus asking for Fox to be confronted with the wrongs and the requirements of Westland, citizen Cross was spelling out the word welcome as a synonym for accusation. 3 Other correspondents rushed into print in the manner of boys leaping over a fence when they hear a dogfight in the street. Vulpecula wrote ‘ln common decency then, and in the name of hospitality, let our bore be muzzled this time, and though in all meekness bearing it ourselves, let not our guest be asked to bear our Cross. 4 Publicola, too, was anti-Cross and anti ‘the presentation of flatulent addresses’ and claimed ‘Mr Fox is visiting the West Coast in order to make himself acquainted with its condition and prospects... the less we molest Mr Fox during his visit the better.. .’. 5 Meantime, at Westport on 6 February, a deputation waited on Fox and asked for a dray road to connect the Buller and the Grey. A subeditor invented a new knowledge, that of‘Cross-Ology’ and Vulpecula was again rude about Cross and his verses. 6 Cross, of course was indignant, and, under ‘Cross Purposes’, pointed out that his writings had been approved of by four Colonial Governors. 7 On 9 February Greymouth suffered a flood described as one of its worst ever. 8 And four days later a correspondent Citizen wrote against any deputation ‘hastily got up’. 9

Fox and his party arrived in Greymouth on 13 February: ‘He has abandoned his intended overland trip, as all the roads and bridges are washed away but the Hokitika Borough Council discussed ‘the expediency of arranging for a deputation to wait upon the Premier’. 10 Telegrams from Fox to the Hon William Gisborne, Colonial Secretary, featured trial by flood and the need for a road from the Buller to the Grey. On 23 February, Fox telegraphed: ‘I have made the inland journey from Greymouth visiting Reefs inspected Road lines etc I think the reefs will prove a great fact.... The present population ...

about Reefton estimated at 2,500 increase before winter to 4,000 and ultimately to any amount. The road work is the most important matter.... Weather down the Buller and last night frightful Sea making steady inroads a great part of town perhaps all will go by degrees....’ 11 and again, on the same date: ‘Have carefully inspected roads from Greymouth to Westport utmost importance that the connecting line between the two rivers should be pushed on without delay Famine prices not to say starvation of 3000 to 4000 people may be the consequence if any delay the great thing is to get drays through to Reefton from Buller landing on one side and Ahaura on other Mr Dobsons specifications are ready for much of the work and will very soon be for the wh01e.... I recommend that very much be left to his descretion so that not an hour be lost in pushing on the indespensable work....’ 12

Fox, with his wife and Secretary, was due to arrive in Hokitika on 24 February. 13 The newspaper editorial called for a welcome: ‘Here we have had, for some forty-eight hours, the Prime Minister of New Zealand amongst us, and yet his advent has excited no more attention than if he had been an individual of ordinary importance 0n1y.... Mr Fox betook himself to Government House, and there he has remained undisturbed by grievance mongers, in the quiet enjoyment of a repose which must have proved a welcome change after the trying ordeals he has gone through since he has been on the Coast.’ 14 On 28 Febiuary a deputation did meet the Premier: it consisted of the Mayor of Hokitika, and six councillors, including the redoubtable Cross; the Town Clerk read an address asking for port subsidies, and a railway link between Hokitika and Greymouth. In his reply Fox looked backward to his adventurous youth: ‘lt was a pleasureable reminiscence that he was the first white man to set foot on the Buller some twenty-five years ago. At that date, looking forward, he might have had a dim prescience that at some future period perhaps in a hundred years the country would be inhabitated by an industrial population. But he could never have conceived that in so brief a space of time so much would have been done.’ 15 The following day, the editorial noted that the lesson of the interview was that Fox had told the deputation to look to self-help for a remedy for the difficulties of the Corporation of Hokitika. 16 And on 4 March Fox left for a visit to ‘the southern portion of the County.. .\ 17

The newspaper of 9 March noted that ‘the Premier has no particular object in view, but is making a tour with the view of informing himself by personal observation of the requirements of the various districts through which he passes’. 18 Later it commented that he ‘will probably be detained in consequence of the rising of the streams. .. we can only come to the conclusion that Mr Fox has roused the ire of Neptune, who

raises a commotion when he sees a favourable opportunity of troubling the hon. gentleman’. 19 In the event, and in the words of the newspaper ‘during the whole of the trip fine weather prevailed, and the journey of the Premier to the southern goldfields of Westland was in every respect a complete success ... it has afforded to him pleasures, which only those can enjoy who, like him, take delight in the grand and majestic, as displayed in the scenes of a mountaneous country such as that of the Okarito district’.

The main account, headed THE PREMIER’S VISIT TO THE SOUTH, follows: • o lrmsdA bus sbk tmo The Hon Mr Fox and his private Secretary, Mr Brown, accompanied by the Chief Surveyor of Westland, Mr Mueller, 20 started from Hokitika on Monday, the 4th inst., to visit the southern goldfields. The party having passed that night at Ross, were on the road at daybreak, and although the Wanganui Bluff was very bad and the travelling around it positively dangerous, they managed to reach Okarito the same evening. On Wednesday morning, fresh horses having been obtained, they proceeded to the Five-Mile Beach and were there joined by Mr Tizard, Mr Canavan, 21 and others with whom they proceeded up the Waiho River, to visit the glacier on the right hand or southern branch of the river. The only road available is a natural one the river-bed and as that is generally composed of hard gravel, with a plentiful sprinkling of various-sized boulders, the riding is somewhat tedious, but now and again enlivened by having to ford the river, which in some places was rapid and deep, and, not withstanding the most laborious efforts of the riders to screw up their legs, the cold water frequently moistened most of them; for though the river was low the fords became worse and worse as progress was made up the stream.! Occasionally, one of the packhorses would evince a strong desire to cross the river in a place deep enough to take him afloat, when instant chase would be given visions of wet blankets and rheumatics startling the stolid into activity, whilst the bare possibility of want of tucker quickened even the most active. On the way up the river, the party called at Mr Friend’s station, between the Waiho and the Totara, expecting to be able to avail themselves of his knowledge of the fords, but unfortunately he was absent at another station lower down the river, and so the party were doomed to find and select fords as best they could. Yet, notwithstanding this drawback, they safely reached the camping ground, at the foot of Mount Mueller, by 5 o’clock in the evening, no harm having been sustained through the furious eagerness of one horse to go ahead especially in water or the exceedingly small size of another of the animals. So anxious did one horse appear to approach the glacier, that one would have almost supposed that his

usual food was ice, and that the allowance had been stopped for a day or two.

The scenery was charming. The widening river-bed; and ever winding, ever rushing stream; the changing patches of bush and scrub; the lofty hills, backed by the towering mountains, clothed in their bright snowy garments; and then the glacier, picturesque and beautiful, bathed in the sunshine and clinging to the mountain with icy hand; blood red blossoming rata, contrasting with the dull green bush. On the road up, sketches of the glacier were taken by Mr Fox and by Mr Brown, and on reaching the camping ground, the hon Premier set to work painting with a freshness and vigor that would have led one to suppose that he had only been taking a ‘gentle constitutional’, instead of making a difficult and tedious journey. All hands but the artists turned to and formed the camp. The horses, with the aid of a few strokes of a billhook, were all placed in natural stalls in the scrub of the river bank, and fed; fires were lit, dinner cooked, and tents pitched. A journey up the river is a splendid appetiser and ample justice was therefore done to the provisions provided, and indeed, to anyone in search of an appetite the journey is to be strongly recommended. A few hours passed pleasantly, chatting around the camp-fire, and the party turned in for a good night’s rest so as to make an early start in the morning. The whole party were astir at daybreak on Thursday morning. Ablutions were performed on the river bank, during which the snowy water was generally allowed to possess powerful cooling properties; the astonishment of the

party can be therefore conceived when they observed Mr Fox walk down to the river and take a ‘header’ in a deep hole. The sight was enough to send a shiver through any looker on who had just returned from bathing his face and hands in the ice stream, and we could almost expect to see the remains of the Premier floating downstream in the shape of a big icicle, instead of which he returned to the camp as fresh and as warm and lively as a three year old —just as if he had been in the habit of taking an iced bath every day of his life. Breakfast had, and horses fed and watered, the journey afoot up the river was commenced. The highest point attainable by horses is the forks, and a distance of about two miles has to be travelled afoot to reach the glacier. The first part is over the stones at the side of the river, where the stream has washed away the terrace, and afterwards up an old river bed. The former is not very easy travelling, and on a warm day very fatiguing for one has to spring from boulder to boulder, and at times the way is very much impeded by fallen timber and big rocks, but the late heavy freshets have cut so far into the terrace as to render the travelling far easier than heretofore. In some places the river appears to have risen about thirty feet, and occasionally to have completely covered the summit of its banks. Approaching nearer, ever changing views of the

glacier present themselves; deeper and deeper becomes the bluish green tinge, deepening still more in the depth of fantastic clefts in the icy mass; the tips of its picturesque points, or many steeples, one might say, seem to become shaded in mourning for the passing away of the bright white winter snows. Nearer and nearer grander and grander does the sight become. The very air, as if awed by the glacier, comes down chilled from over it. Gazing at the stupendous mass of ice and the lofty hills around, a man feels himself but an atom, his heart is chilled, and he shrinks involuntarily at the thought of his very nothingness in comparison with the stupendous grandeur of the objects around him.

The effect of the view of the glacier from a short distance was considerably heightened by the rata on the adjoining hills being covered with their bright red flowers, brightly contrasting with the dull green bushes and the delicately tinted glacier and all together bathed in a flood of sunshine. The glacier is about half-a-mile across the point, rising abruptly like a wall, here and there cut into caves, the lower part having at a short distance, much the appearance of grey rock, from the gravel and stone covering it. From a large cave at the southern end flows forth the first of the Waiho, which runs close across the front of the glacier. Upwards for miles lies the solid icy mass, filling up the huge gully between the lofty hills, and finally hidden from sight by a bed of mountains. The ice assumes all manner of fantastic shapes. At the base there is a perfect bridge, bright and clear, but not to be trodden by human foot; higher up there is a huge pinnacle with an eye through which the sunlight seems to stream. These were striking points, but ever new beauties in the view met the wondering eye, and the effect produced on the mind is beyond description. The low altitude of the glacier about 675 feet above the sea level and the luxuriant vegetation and close proximity to the ice a vegetation covering! the hills on both sides of the glacier for a height of from 800 to 1000 feet are the most remarkable features.

Several excellent sketches were taken by Mr Fox, the party lingering wherever some new view was presented for the admiring gaze. At length they started on the return journey, reaching the camp about three o’clock in the afternoon. There they saddled up and travelled down the river as rapidly as possible, and arrived at Mr Friend’s lower station at about six o’clock in the evening. Mr Fox and his secretary, Mr Mueller and Mr Tizard, were hospitably entertained there for the night, the remainder of the party returning to Okarito. While making some sketches of a greenish hue at the glacier, Mr Fox, oblivious of the fact that copper is poison, and that continuous sucking of it from a paintbrush is somewhat dangerous even to an iron constitution, laid himself open to an attack of illness which lasted for two days, but the excitement of the visit to a hitherto unapproached glacier, was sufficiently strong even to

counteract the effects of the poison, for on Saturday afternoon he was quite himself again. On Friday morning the party started for Gillespie’s Beach, where they spent the remainder of the day. Originally it was intended to visit the mouth of Cook’s River only, but some statement respecting the existence of a glacier at one of the sources of the river, having reached Mr Fox, he determined to searchforit. Accordingly,MrM‘Lellanhaving volunteered to accompany the expedition and give the exploring party the benefit of his knowledge of the river, arrangements were made, and a start effected a little before daylight on Saturday morning. The party

proceeded up the river, but found the first and second fords rather deep. The river-bed at the mouth is considerably less in breadth than that of the Waiho, but higher it opens into a far more extensive country, some parts covered with light scrub and grass, appearing to afford an excellent run for cattle. After following the river from its mouth for three or four miles, the party proceeded in a north-easterly direction for about five miles, when they came within view of a grand glacier, falling from the mountains in one solid body, and conveying the idea of a mighty rushing, overwhelming river, suddenly chained and fixed by frost. When first presented to the view, the scene was most grand and singular. Journeying towards the glacier, the way becomes rougher and rougher, and at last lies among boulders and soft sandy mullock, difficult for horses; then the terrace runs so close to the river as to render the passage impassable for the animals. As far up the river as it was possible to take

horses they were camped, and the remainder of the distance about two miles had to be travelled afoot. This proved no easy task, as the narrow space between the terrace and the river was occupied by large boulders, and the river was at times blocked with big stones, and, in places by fallen timber. However, by perseverance, the glacier was reached, but to obtain a good view of it, crossing the river to the south side was necessary, and that at first sight seemed impossible. Soon, however, the discovery was made that close up to the base of the glacier the river ran in several streams. Crossing some of these, and crawling over large boulders, and sometimes over the lower part of the glacier, the party succeeded in reaching the south side in safety, when Mr Fox took

some sketches of the magnificent scenery before him. The debris continually falling down from the glacier is very considerable and the whole of the lower part appears, from a short distance, as if composed of grey stone. On the southern side of the point stands a lofty wooded hill, from which a fine view of the stupendous mass of ice can be had, but there was not sufficient time to examine it from that spot. The appearance of the glacier, when closely approached, is not so picturesque as the Waiho glacier, but is, perhaps, more nobly grand in its simplicity. Its height is 770 feet, and therefore, nearly 100 feet higher than the Waiho glacier.

The water does not seem to flow out of it as from the Waiho glacier but bubbles up in its front, where there is a remarkable fountain throwing out a great body of water, boiling up some feet in height. The effect of the whole view, like that of the Waiho glacier, is much heightened by the bright red of the rata flowers. As the party proposed to return to Gillespie’s Beach the same day, but little time could be spared at the glacier, and, having christened it the ‘Fox Glacier’, the return was commenced soon after 2 pm. While climbing across the morain on the return journey, at one place, after Mr M’Lellan had got safely over, Mr Fox following after him had a dangerous slip on the ice, but by the

timely assistance of Mr M’Lcllan and Mr Mueller, he succeeded in crossing the place in safety. The rest of the party had to take a different track, for a single slip might have started tons of stone both above and below, and escaping the dangers thereby caused, would have been difficult indeed. Travelling homeward several stoppages were made and excellent views obtained of the glacier and Mount Cook range in their majestic grandeur. The river having risen considerably since the morning, the fording was effected with considerable difficulty. At the last two fords more especially, the horse Mr Fox was riding was nearly carried off its legs. The last ford was reached at dark, and though known to be too deep it was taken in preference to trying a fresh one. Crossing the lagoon, and the beach reached, the tide was found to be too far in for passing the bluff without great risk of a thorough wetting, but making a rapid rush round the rocks, the party got to Gillespie’s receiving only a few splashes of spray. The return journey’s end was reached at about 8 o’clock in the evening, everyone being highly pleased with the excursion...’. 22

Heinrich von Haast in the life of his father 23 was bitter that the glacier his father had named ‘Prince Alfred’ was renamed by Fox’s party. This was ironic seeing that von Haast Senior had renamed more features than any other sub-alpine traveller. To give both von Haasts justice it must be emphasised that neither of them claim discovery; von Haast Junior states ‘lt seems clear, therefore, that Haast never visited the Fox Glacier, but only saw it from the mouth of the Weheka.’ 24

Who then first visited the Fox Glacier? It is likely that Charles Douglas was the first to make a recorded visit. His Cook River MSS in the Turnbull Library, quoted on page 23 of Mr Explorer Douglas; (ed. Pascoe, Wellington, 1957) make it clear his first visit was in 1868. It is more likely that unrecorded visits were made by unknown prospectors earlier in the sixties. They were in the Balfour Glacier country in 1866 and would not have neglected the Fox, so much more spectacular and more accessible. It is appropriate that the credit for an important discovery can fairly go to an unknown explorer. When on 11 November 1847 Thomas Brunner and Kehu forded the

Cook river on a raft they did not travel inland. The Fox Glacier feeds the Fox river tributary of the Cook river, but was beyond the ken of Brunner.

Following the tour, a letter was headed Some Small News by ‘Finningati’: ‘Dear Joe’ thus: ‘I have discovered a great secret, and that is the no less wonderful one that the Prime Minister of New Zealand is here... I went to the Police Camp and there I learned that a ‘fox’ had been caught at last. But he is here on the 51y.... It is rumoured that next time the Premier comes this way he will visit the people of Westland.... The Premier has been down Okarito way drawing Mount Cook, but where he is going to draw it to, is not known yet.. .’ 26

On 20 March Fox was at the Kanieri, and the following day at Stafford. On 22 March he delivered a lecture in the Town Flail for the benefit of the Hokitika Academy; his subject ‘Travels in the East’ 26 was through Egypt to Jerusalem. The following evening he lectured about the ‘Liquor Traffic’ and his plea for ‘Total Abstinence’ has this result: The applause was prolonged for a very considerable time’. 27 The final relevant newspaper report was that ‘The Hon W. Fox, his secretary, and Mrs Fox were passengers by the coach to Christchurch yesterday morning’. 28 Fox had survived his trials by words and water; his audiences had survived his words and his plea for temperance. This visit may not have caused any ripple in New Zealand political history or converted West Coasters to an aversion to talk or beer, or a combination of both, but Fox the artist had bequeathed to posterity some paintings of merit and some topographical puzzlement. John Pascoe

The Library is indebted to Miss M. V. Mueller of Auckland for permission to reproduce the painting of the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. The Wilkie Loan Collection of Fox paintings at the Alexander Turnbull Library is of great interest to students of Westland. After the death of Lady Fox, Sir William was tended by his god-daughter, Annie Campbell. She was the mother of J. C. Wilkie, and inherited most of the Fox paintings. Mr Wilkie has lent this collection to the Library. In the Westland and Nelson Provincial context they are dated 1872 and include: WL 66 ‘On Inangahua River Christy’s Landing’: two pack-horses, 3 barrels, a case of food and a man with his load.

WL 70 ‘Fr Joseph Glacier from Five Mile. 20 miles’: miners at work in the goldfields, a wheel, a flume, and good view of the glacier. WL 71 Unnamed. The glacier could be the Fox and the mountains could be Douglas Peak and Mount Haast. WL 72 ‘Mount Cook and Francis Joseph Glacier’. [Actually the Fox Glacier; see note at foot]. WL 73 ‘View from Mt Mueller looking towards Mt Cook’. Mount Cook is surely hidden in this view. , ■ ,;,,, j 4 v v

WL 74 ’Mt Cook from Hokitika’. Yes; no dispute. The foreground is evocative of the period and shows an anchor, the river, a sailing boat, and an upturned boat. Mt Tasman is to the right of Mt Cook. WL 75 ‘Cobden Coal Mine. Grey River’: a lovely scene but the river is blue not grey. u * * : WL 77 ‘Otira Gorge looking down’. A pleasant rather sentimental painting with a purple haze spreading to the basins under Mount Barron; patches of rata. WL 81 ‘Kanieri; Hokitika River etc.’ Cows low in the foreground, the Clarke Pass from the Kokatahi to the Griffiths (Wilberforce) is clear to the right. WL 82 ’Mt Cook. Lake Mahinapua, Hokitika’. Canoe in foreground. Definitely not Mount Cook; more likely to be a peak of the Hokitika-

Whitcombe watershed.

REFERENCES 1 Early Travellers in New Zealand, ed. by Nancy M. Taylor (Oxford, 1959), pp. 200-1 for Heaphy’s account. 2 The files of the West Coast Times and Observer (Hokitika) are the main source of this paper. They are cited as WCT. 3 WCT, 5 February 1872. 4 WCT, 6 February 1872. 5 WCT, 6 February 1872. 6 WCT, 7 February 1872. 7 WCT, 7 February 1872. 8 WCT, 12 February 1872. 9 WCT, 13 February 1872. 10 WCT, 14 February 1872. 11 I. A. 34/18 (National Archives). The population of Reefton varied from 1361 in 1874, to 1544 in 1911 and 1783 in 1956. It was 1730 on 1966 Census figures. 12 I. A. 34/18 (National Archives). Irregular punctuation in these telegrams has needed the insertion of a few dashes to make them readily intelligible. Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson (1841-1934) discoverer of Arthur’s Pass; in 1872 he was Chief Surveyor for Nelson Province. 13 WCT, 24 February 1872. 14 WCT, 26 February 1872. is WCT, 28 February 1872. 17 WCT, 29 February 1872. 17 WCT, 4 March 1872. 18 WCT, 9 March 1872. 19 WCT, 11 March 1872. 20 Gerhard Mueller (1835-1918) Chief Surveyor for Westland in 1872. 21 I have not been able to identify these settlers. One or two obvious misspellings have been corrected in transcription. 22 WCT, 15 March 1872. 23 Von Haast, H. F. Life and Times of Sir Julius von Haast (Wellington, 1948). 24 op. cit. p 1020. 25 WCT, 16 March 1872. 26 WCT, 23 March 1872. 27 WCT, 25 and 26 March 1872. 28 WCT, 27 March 1872.