Rangiora Shouldn’t Exist! Part 2 – forming a town

I’ve often wondered about some of the oddities of Rangiora’s Streets. Why does St John the Baptist Church sit on the road? Why doesn’t White Street line up? Why is Alfred Street so narrow? Why does King Street have that weird Kink?

These are all artifacts of the early development of Rangiora. Little quirks of the road layouts that reminds us that Rangiora, the largest town in North Canterbury and the centre of local commerce and government, was never supposed to be here in the first place!

This is part 2 of the story of early Rangiora. Click here for part 1, which outlines the philosophy of Edward Wakefield and how it moulded the European colonisation of NZ, the establishment of the New Zealand Company and the Canterbury Association, and the introduction of the rural section system.

When we left part 1 of this blog, we were looking at early survey plans of the district that showed that Rangiora was originally surveyed as rural sections.

Unlike Christchurch, Kaiapoi, Lyttelton, and Timaru, which were all planned towns designed in England and meticulously laid out on the ground by skilled surveyors, Rangiora was not intended to be a town at all.

On the original survey for Rangiora there are no tidy blocks of quarter acre town sections ready to become housing lots or shops, no grid of perfectly aligned roads, and no reserves set aside for churches and schools. Just rural sections.

And these rural sections were large. The smallest section that could be purchased in Rangiora when it was first surveyed was 20 acres, about the area of 8 rugby fields. Rural section 53A – which Dudley Park is on – was 50 acres. Rural section 86 – which Matawai Park is on – was 100 acres. Rural section 370 – which includes about half of modern-day Southbrook – was also 100 acres.

These rural sections were all supposed to be farmland. Rangiora has no natural resources, no access to a harbour, and was not on the main road. Under Wakefield’s philosophy of colonisation there should never have been a large town here. The town for the district was to be Kaiapoi, and the farmers were expected to take their produce there to market.

While New Zealand had become part of the British Empire with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, European settlement by the New Zealand Company had been focused mostly on Wellington, Nelson, Whanganui, and Dunedin.

Canterbury, outside of Banks Peninsula, had been largely ignored.

This changed in 1848 with the Canterbury Purchase from Ngai Tahu and the establishment of the Canterbury Association by Edward Wakefield and John Robert Godley. Under the leadership of Godley, the Canterbury Association began the establishment of the Canterbury province in earnest.

The first task was surveying the land in preparation for the arrival of the first settlers.

Edward Jollie, a New Zealand Company surveyor from Brampton, England, was charged with laying out Lyttelton and Christchurch. The survey of land north of the Waimakariri River fell to Charles Torlesse and John Cowell Boys – two surveyors who had been trained by the New Zealand Company in Nelson in 1842.

Rangiora, or Rakihora as Torlesse called it, became the base of operations for the surveyors after they became sick of the mosquito infestation at Kaiapoi. A house was built for them in 1849 – this would be the first European house built in Rangiora. The floor plan for this house is recorded in a letter to Torlesse from Joseph Thomas, the chief surveyor, dated 20th September 1849.

From September 1849 to mid-1850 Torlesse and Boys setup a network of trig stations across the region as far north as Amberly and east to Oxford. They also created the first sketch plan of the district, mapping out the rivers, streams, and forests.

Rangiora was a much different place in the 1840s than it is today.

The early survey maps show broken swampy ground covering Lillybrook and southern Southbrook. North of High Street was flat plains covered in flax and grass (this would be tussock, not the green grass we are used to today as this was a European introduction).

A very thick, very wet, and almost impassable swamp existed between Rangiora and Kaiapoi. This swamp extended at least as far as Ohoka and perhaps as far as Swannanoa. The fields around Lineside Road are still prone to flooding in heavy rains today.

And a forest covered most of what is today northern Southbrook and the southern part of Rangiora up to Johns Road. This was known as Rangiora Bush.

We can get an idea of what this forest was like from drawings and descriptions from the period.

In a visit to Rangiora by head of the Canterbury Association John Robert Godley and his family in December 1850 his wife, Charlotte, described the forest as an “almost impenetrable wood, with very fine trees”. In an 1849 letter to Joseph Thomas, Charles Torlesse described the forest as containing kahikatea (NZ white pine), totara, matai (NZ black pine), and kowhai.

Torlesse and Boys would return in 1851 to complete the survey of the district and set out the roads and rural sections.

As Rangiora was meant to be farmland, only the minimum only number of roads were surveyed. These were all set between the rural sections and were intended to be country roads, giving the rural sections (and farms on them) access to the main dray road, which today has become Oxford Road, High Street, and Rangiora Woodend Road.

Talking about the dray road, this was the only way to get in and out of Rangiora.

This was a main road which forked off from the main highway which ran down the coast (today State Highway 1 and Main North Road) and went all the way to Harewood forest (modern day Oxford). It was intended to give all the farming and logging communities in the area access to the main highway so they could bring their produce to market at Kaiapoi – the designated market town for the district.

A very long trip by horse and cart!

Boys had actually surveyed a direct dray road between Rangiora and Kaiapoi which would have given Rangiora far better access to the Kaiapoi markets and to Christchurch. But this road, which includes modern Victoria Street, Percival Street, Southbrook Road, and Lineside Road, ran through the Rangiora Bush and the thick swamp south of Rangiora.

Forming this direct road was deemed far too expensive by the Canterbury Association.

Rangiora Woodend Road by contrast was on dry land making it a cheaper option for the Association, but the trade off was that the road had to run around the north edge of the Tuahiwi Māori reserve. The resulting road was anything but direct – making Rangiora an isolated rural community.

Charles Torlesse purchased the first of the Rangiora rural sections in 1851. Part of Torlesse’s contract with the Canterbury Association was that he would get first pick of the rural sections he surveyed. He chose rural section 86 – a 100-acre section that contained a large portion of the Rangiora bush, bound by what are today Johns Road, Bush Street, Percival Street, and South Belt.

Land purchases in Rangiora didn’t really pick up any steam until 1855. Then most of the rural sections around High Street and Southbrook were purchased by 1860.

The early owners of the rural sections on which Rangiora would eventually be built will be familiar to many Rangiora residents through the street names – Charles Torlesse, Edward Good, John Boys, Edward Pentecost, Westby Percival, J. Hamilton Ward, William Foster, James Townsend, John Luxton, Solomon Stephens, among others. Each had immigrated from Britain with the hope of establishing a better life in the new world.

And through the 1850s Rangiora developed as an isolated, self-sufficient, rural community – exactly as Wakefield’s philosophy of colonisation had intended.

A small rural village had sprung up at Lillybrook with a small mixed Protestant church hall that also functioned as a schoolroom. J. Hamilton Ward began a small brick making operation on his section in 1857 (rural section 53 – where King Street is today) and set up a small flour mill and sawmill. A small band of sawyers arrived in 1855 headed by George Alfred White, who had been the survey sawyer for Torlesse and Boys, attracted by the potential profits in sawing the forest. By the late 1850s two men, DeBourbel and Birch, would set up a steam powered sawmill and flour mill on South Belt – but this was short lived.

These earliest Rangiora settlers had a problem – while they had more land than they could ever have dreamt of owning in Britain, being in the middle of nowhere meant they simply couldn’t find the manpower to work it.

Simply put, no one wanted to live here!

During the 1850s the men were forced into a sort of work share program, working on each other’s farms to get the seasonal work done. And the distance to market meant that there was little profit in farming or sawing anyway – they simply couldn’t compete with the prices of the settlers with direct access to Kaiapoi.

But they were also missing the essentials. A good blacksmith. A Large mill for processing grain. Dedicated places of worship. Postal services.

Finally, they couldn’t find any domestic servants. This may seem like an extravagance by today’s standards, but in the Victorian era it was very common for the man of the house to be working while the wife raised the children and did domestic chores like shopping, and a maid or two kept the house tidy.

If these settlers were to make a living out here on the plains they needed more people!

Charles Torlesse led the charge by purchasing more rural sections with the intention subdividing them into more affordable parcels to entice more people into the area.

In 1855 he purchased rural section 385 from the Crown, along what is today Victoria Street. His first subdivision, along High Street, was sold to George Hanmer – another early settler.

In 1858 Hanmer built the first Lion Hotel on this subdivision at the corner of what are now High and Ivory Streets. This included a stock sales yard and stables. The Lion was positioned in the perfect place as a stop for loggers coming along the dray road from Harewood forest at Oxford to Kaiapoi, and the stock yards meant that merchants could bring stock to Rangiora for sale rather than forcing the farmers to go to Kaiapoi.

Rangiora had taken the first steps towards becoming an economic hub for the district.

The next subdivision from rural section 385 was sold to William Ivory who founded a garden nursery towards the southern end of the section, supplying Rangiora with fruit trees.

Land sales from rural section 385 continued through the decade, attracting many small landowners. By the early 1860s rural section 385 was the home of several small farms, churches, houses, and other businesses.

Next Torlesse set his sights on the Canterbury Provincial Government.

The Canterbury Provincial Government had been established in 1853 to take over from the Canterbury Association. Torlesse began petitioning them to form the direct road between Kaiapoi and Rangiora that had been surveyed by Boys.

Kaiapoi was a rapidly growing town. Having a direct road would allow Rangiora to tap into this labour market. It would also provide much more direct access to the Kaiapoi markets and port, and to Christchurch.

The Provincial Government refused. The cost to build a road through the forest and the swamp – just to service a bunch of farmers – could not be justified.

But Torlesse persisted. Creating the direct road would be beneficial not only to Rangiora but the entire province. By 1858 immigration to Canterbury had slowed to a crawl, and there were still a lot of unsold rural sections around Rangiora. Having a direct road would make these sections far easier to sell – and the Provincial Government could use the proceeds of these sales to bring over more assisted migrants from Britain.

Torlesse’s argument was picked up by Councillor A. A. Dobbs – the elected Provincial Council member for Kaiapoi. This argument was successful. Boy’s Direct Road would be formed!

The work was to be done in two parts – the first part being the portion of the road within Rangiora, modern day Victoria Street, Percival Street, and Southbrook Road. This was at an estimated cost of about £1,500 (Lyttelton Times 27/11/1858: 4). The contractor for metalling this portion of the direct road was early settler Jonathan Bell, and the work was completed mid-1859.

The second part was forming the road between Rangiora and Kaiapoi. This required the swamp to be drained. The job cost about £1,909, and what is today Lineside Road was completed in 1861 (Lyttelton Times 29/10/1859: 4, Lyttelton Times 19/12/1860: 4).

(The comparatively low cost of the Rangiora to Kaiapoi portion of the direct road was because the road was finished to a lower standard than the road within Rangiora).

Forming Boys Direct Road was going to open Rangiora up. And the early settlers were quick to capitalise on the 1858 announcment of the works.

Advertisements started going out singing the praises of Rangiora – a big draw card being the Rangiora Bush which could supply all the building materials a new arrival would need for cheap.

In 1860 Torlesse struck again! He purchased rural section 370, which covers much of modern-day Southbrook. The south brook stream was always well flowing and would be perfect for manufacturing.

Torlesse immediately subdivided the section. In 1864 a section was sold to John Grimwood who established a large-scale waterwheel powered flour mill. This mill is still active today as Mauri Stockfeed. Another mill would be opened by Edward Steggal on what is now the Pak n’ Save property.

By the end of the decade Southbrook would grow into a rural industrial hub with several flour and flax mills, a major hotel (the ‘Masonic’, later known as ‘The Brook’), blacksmiths, seed merchants, shingle pit, post office, and police station.

But the other early settlers were already following Torlesse’s lead.

John Birch purchased rural section 316 from Spowers (along Boys Road) in 1858 – a section containing another large piece of the Rangiora Bush. In 1862, after the completion of the direct road, he subdivided it into 1-acre sections. Each subdivision being large enough to build a house and keep a few animals, with the forest on each section providing the timber making the construction of a house very cheap.

And the men who owned the rural sections in what is today central Rangiora began creating their own town.

They began subdividing and selling portions of their farms along the dray road. These parcels would attract retailers, who had learnt of the growing township north of Kaiapoi and were keen to setup their boot shops, butcheries, and general stores to service the growing community. High Street was born.

At the same time these men began creating their own roads through their rural sections. These “accommodation roads” made travel through the town to High Street much easier. They also allowed the men to further subdivide their properties into housing lots and small holdings, attracting yet more people to the growing town. Any parcels that weren’t sold were put up for lease.

Church, King, Percival, Alfred, George, Cone, Bush, Charles, Ivory, and Queen Streets, and White Street north of High all started as private accommodation roads.

Being private these accommodation roads weren’t subject to the same regulations as government formed roads. They didn’t need to be surveyed and they didn’t need to keep to the 1-chain width. This is the reason Rangiora has some strange road layouts and narrow streets today!

And these efforts were hugely successful! People started pouring into the makeshift town. Keen to take advantage of the economic potential of the place.

1860 saw Frederick John Elmer set up an auction house, supplying Rangiora with a professional land sales service.

Thomas Hills would set up a Hoffman kiln in 1862, supplying the new town with a steady supply of high-quality bricks. Hill’s bricks are found throughout Rangiora and Kaiapoi, and his kill is still standing on Brick Kiln Road.

In 1866 John Johnston, a blacksmith, would purchase a section from Westby Percival, on the corner of two accommodation roads Percival had formed on his land – today these are Queen Street and Percival Street. Johnston would set up a professional smithy on his property – giving the Rangiora locals easy access to high quality tools and repairs.

Hugh Boyd and Thomas Keir would set up shop next to Johnston. Professional carpenters, they would bring professional building and contracting work to the community.

And with this growth of population more services began being attracted to the young town.

1861 saw Ingram Shrimpton sell a large piece of his section, 53A, to Reverend Benjamin Wooley Dudley, and St John the Baptist Church was established. In 1863 a Baptist church was established on land subdivided by Torlesse on Victoria Street. And 1870 saw the Catholic St Mary and St Francis de Sales church (St Josephs school) established on land donated by Percival.

In the mid-1860s William Samson, son of early store owner also named William Samson, would run a carriage to Kaiapoi – joining up with the Cobb and Co. service that ran from Christchurch to Kaiapoi. Making Rangiora directly accessible from Christchurch for day trips and business.

The Plough would be established in 1861 by early settler Solomon Stevens, and the Junction would be established in 1868 by John and William Sinclair. Both catering to the growing number of logging drays coming from Oxford and the growing numbers of people coming to Rangiora to conduct business.

And the Rangiora Rifles were established in 1866 – a volunteer militia of Rangiora locals ready to defend the country and the Empire.

By 1871 Rangiora had become a bustling country town with a population of 763 – making it only slightly smaller than Kaiapoi (1871 census).

In fact the growth through the 1860s had been so large that the Rangiora Bush was almost completely gone by 1869, being harvested for building materials.

What had started in 1851 as a handful of isolated farming families, in the middle of nowhere, struggling to make do, had boomed into a centre of religion, trade, industry, and farming. Rangiora was now a dominant economic hub, rivaling Kaiapoi as the economic town of the region. It kept the surrounding farming communities supplied, and was the centre of business and commerce for the surrounding towns out to Oxford.

All through the sheer tenacity of Charles Torlesse and the other early settlers! Against the intent of the Canterbury Association, and certainly without help from the Association or the Provincial Government. A self forged town.

And Rangiora would continue to grow!

What would become Borough School was established in 1873 on land subdivided from rural section 53 by J. Hamilton Ward. 1872 saw the establishment of John Knox Presbyterian church on High Street (the location of the old police station), again on land subdivided by Ward. The telegraph would reach the town in 1873. 1874 would see the establishment of the volunteer fire brigade. And Southbrook School would open that same year on land originally subdivided by Torlesse.

But on paper Rangiora was still just rural farmland. Legally the town didn’t exist. It wouldn’t even appear on survey maps through the 1870s! And this would create problems for the new makeshift town…