Charleston: Its Rise and Decline/Chapter 8

by Irwin Faris

Chapter VIII.

WESTPORT.

FROM Charleston’s earliest days the Buller, or Kawatiri, river was that town’s port of supply, notwithstanding the sea-borne traffic to Little Beach, Constant Bay and the Nile River.

The opening of the beach-route, in 1867, resulted in regular and heavy road-traffic, both in passengers and goods, from South Spit to Charleston, and the opening of the Addison’s Flat Road in 1874 resulted in greatly increased traffic.

Originally Charleston overshadowed Westport, both in wealth and population. On 25th October, 1867, about fourteen months after Charleston’s birth, Commissioner Kynnersley quoted its population as being 3,200, and Westport’s as 1,500. The Charleston Argus of 12th April, 1867, spoke of “the new Buller rush.” Only a few years were required to reverse the position; for while Charleston faded away, Westport grew, owing to resources more lasting than gold returns―its harbour, its fertile back-country, and its immense supplies of coal and timber. Its people realised the importance of the port and spared no expense in improving it, to a degree that in early days would have appeared to be a fantastic dream had any one suggested the possibility. Thus “the Buller” became as an elder brother to Charleston; and a visit to Westport was spoken of as “going to town.” The population of Westport to-day numbers thousands, while Charleston’s is in the twenties.

Of the old town, or “First Township,” of Westport, on the North Spit of the Buller, little remains; the river runs over much of its site, and vessels sail where once were busy streets. A portion of it was the site now occupied by the floating basin; some of it was on the beach, and some where the present cattle-wharf stands.

On 14th July, 1863, the question was put to the Provincial Council: “Whether it was the intention of the Government to lay off a township at the mouth of the Buller River; and, if so, when it purposes to carry that intention into effect?” The reply was that surveyors would go down by next steamer to complete the survey of the town and, on completion, allotments would be offered for sale. The survey was made and, in October of that year, 1863, a sale of sections was conducted at Nelson, many being bought for speculative purposes. It is recorded that prior to then, “the settlers camped on the north bank of the river, on the Maori block that was later known as Gladstone Street.” Until destroyed, Gladstone Street remained the main thoroughfare and was the business centre of the settlement. In December of 1865 sections in the new township were put up for sale, and eighty, of a quarter acre each, were sold within a fortnight.

On 4th and 11th December, 1869, two disastrous fires destroyed much of the town, including thirteen of the principal places of business and six hotels, the loss being £11,420.

In 1870 a tidal wave swept away a portion near the beach and flooded the town. An eye-witness states that a wall of water 40 feet high struck the shore and rushed up the river, and that when it receded the river “nearly ran dry.”

In this year, 1870, an agent, reporting upon the condition of certain sections, described No. 33 as being “Amphibious,” Nos. 902, 905 and 909 as “having breakers on the surface,” and Nos. 919 and 920 as being “navigable by ocean steamers.”

During 1872 or in 1873,^[1] the river, after weeks of heavy and continuous rain, changed its course, broke through the lower part of the town and caused havoc. Wharves were demolished, buildings flattened or carried to sea, and the cemetery washed away, “the river,” one recorder says, “being strewn with coffins.”^[2] He also states that he watched the National Hotel slip bodily into the flood and sail across the bar with its lights still burning. The old cemetery was where the centre of the river now is.

On 19th April, 1873, Warden Giles reported: “The past twelve months has been a period of calamity and depression to the town of Westport. Street after street has been washed away by the river and sea encroachments, and the inhabitants have been compelled, at a great loss, to move their houses and places of business to such sites as they could secure, the approach to the new site of the township being then unfinished. There seems to be no particular assignable limit to the further encroachments of the sea and river, and I do not see why the former destruction should not be again repeated if the river bank is not better protected than has yet been the case.” This report implies that at that date, 19th April, 1873, the approach to the new township had been completed and that the “Second Township” was becoming the business centre.

The Westport Times of 6th June, 1873, stated: “Tuesday last will be long remembered in Westport as a day of dire disaster. Of all the misfortunes heretofore, occurring from sea and river encroachment, none has happened so suddenly or resulted in so much loss and destruction of property. The damage done has been variously estimated at from ten to fifteen thousand pounds.” The paper gave a list of premises washed away, destroyed, or pulled down and removed, including 3 wharves; 1 bank; 4 hotels; 9 stores; 2 business premises; 1 office; and 6 residences.

The name “Westport” was recommended to the Executive Council of Nelson Province on 16th July, 1863, by Mr. J. C. Richmond, Land Commissioner, for “the township at the Buller mouth”; and it was adopted.

The new town of Westport, which was about a mile from the bar and in area 730 acres, was partly surveyed by Henry Lewis, Government Surveyor, about 1865, and partly by A. D. Dobson about 1869. The latter in his reminiscences, says: “In the very early days there was a considerable extent of level ground between the forest and the sea; this was the first part occupied. A very large flood occurred and threatened to wash away the whole settlement, and the buildings had to be removed as quickly as possible. I set out a new cemetery at the river Orawaiti, and all the coffins, about 200, were moved from the old cemetery to the new one.” Another authority states that when the cemetery was washed away, some coffins and bodies were collected from the river-banks and the beach.

On 8th April, 1870, Mr. John Blackett, Provincial Engineer, reported: “The sea has made considerable encroachments, necessitating the removal of a great many houses. The damage to the beach extends about 30 chains, the greatest damage being opposite the north end of Russell Street.” On 2nd June, 1870, a petition was presented to the Government by the holders of land, praying for compensation for “land purchased from the Government as freehold, and since removed by the sea.”

In 1872 or 1873 Westport’s main street, was, according to one writer, “completely demolished, and where the old town school stood became a waterway.” Mr. A. D. Dodson records that “Palmerston Street ran parallel to the river and had, in 1869, been cleared to a chain in width.”

The Kawatiri River, later named Buller by Brunner and Heaphy in honour of Charles Buller, a Director of the New Zealand Company, was first entered by Thoms’s sealing schooner in 1844. This vessel was almost certainly the Three Brothers, to which vessel Heaphy refers in an article in the Nelson Examiner, regarding his journey in 1846. He says: “Thoms, master of the Three Brothers, anchored near the Three Steeples or Black Reef about two years since; . . . reporting on his return the existence of a large river, with a, considerable tract of level land on its banks, in the vicinity of that place.”

The first trading vessel to enter the port was the cutter Supply, Captain John Walker, on 30th August, 1859, with stores for Mackay and Rochfort. She landed the stores in the vicinity of Packers’ Point, and anchored in the South Spit Lagoon.

The first steamer to enter this, or any other West Coast river, was the P.S. Tasmanian Maid of 96 tons, on 29th January, 1862. She brought sixty diggers who “increased the population of the district to about 200.” She landed her cargo in the scrub about where Gladstone Street was afterwards located. It may here be mentioned that the first steam vessel to enter New Zealand waters was H.M.S. Driver in 1846.

The port of Westport was declared, by notice in Nelson Gazette, 26th November, 1866, to be “all such portion of the river Buller and its banks, as is comprised within an area which shall include one mile of the river from its mouth, and a space on each bank respectively of not less than forty chains in width.” It was also declared (Nelson Gazette, No. 29, Volume 14) that “the river frontage from Gladstone Street to Wallaby Street was the legal landing-place for the lading and unlading of goods.”

The Flagstaff and Signal-station were erected 17th November, 1866, and Henry Jacobsen was appointed signalman on 22nd of the same month.

The port early gathered trade; the duty collected at the Customs House during the week ending 14th September, 1867, was over one thousand pounds. Naturally the goldfields offered temptation to ships’ crews, and many deserted. Captures of these by the police kept the gaol full and, incidentally, provided much of the labour required for road-making. One example of this trouble is afforded by an announcement in the Westport Times of 10th February, 1868: “The brig Susan, owing to her crew being in gaol, was not ready for sea yesterday.”

In the Public Works Statement of 1885 the Minister announced that the harbour works at Westport had been placed in the hands of a Board which was taking steps to open up quarries at Cape Foulwind by a railway. By March, 1886, two quarries near the lighthouse had been opened out, and a railway constructed to the southern or main breakwater at Buller. In 1914 an extension of the railway-line was made to open out quarries at Tauranga Bay. The Harbour Board operated the railway until 1920 when the Marine Department took over the Westport Harbour, and the Railway Department took over the Cape Foulwind lines, the capital cost of which was £93,450. In 1924 the Railway Reserve (solely for recreation purposes) at Cape Foulwind was transferred to the Lands Department and vested in the Buller County Council as a Domain.

The Buller bridge formed part of the Cape Railway, and is a combined road and railway bridge. It was constructed by the Westport Harbour Board in 1887 at an original cost of £15,000, which was added to in subsequent years. In 1920 the passenger fare Westport to Cape Foulwind was 9d. single; and to Tauranga Bay 1/- single. In February, 1932, the Government decided that the Cape Railway lines, with the Buller bridge, be handed over to the Marine Department, and that both be operated as part of the Westport Harbour Works. The change-over was effected on 1st April of that year.

The first white settlers at Westport were Reuben Waite and John Martin, both in 1860. Waite was at Collingwood when some Maoris came from the Buller with samples of gold found there, so he, with a man named Rogers, chartered the ketch Jane, Captain Jacobsen, and went to the Buller—Rogers did not stay. Waite states that he took with him ten cats, whose numerous progeny are in evidence to-day. In a later year Jock Graham, of Dunedin, took to the Coast a large shipment of cats which he disposed of at good prices.

la partnership with Saunders, Waite established the first store, the original premises being a Maori whare, or hut. He built and ran one of the first hotels (the “Queen’s Arms” on the Esplanade), started the first ferry to the South Spit, and inaugurated the up-river cargo service. He also had interests in the coastal shipping trade, opened the first store at Greymouth, in July, 1864, and worked up an extensive merchant business thereabouts and at Hokitika, though not opening premises at the latter place.

John Martin erected the first hotel in Westport, the Kawatiri Hotel, in September of 1860. Waite, as stated, opened another, in 1873, and Isaac Blake another, also in 1873, the site and name of which is unknown. In the Westport Times of 14th September, 1867, Messrs. G. Haskins & Co., of Westport, advertised the sailing of the cutter Flora McDonald for Constant Bay; mentioning that it was “the first vessel for Pakihi.”

The first gold gathered about the Buller was in 1859, at the “Old Diggings,” twenty miles or so up the river. This locality was later known as “Berlin’s,” that being the name given to its Post Office which was conducted by John Berlin in his “Old Diggings” Hotel. Rochfort noticed gold in the Buller in 1859, and some was seen at Waimangaroa in 1862, but none in quantity was found around the Buller until 1866. The goldfield, as such, was as short-lived as others on the Coast, and the returns faded as rapidly.

The real wealth of Westport lay in its coal measures, the first found being by Rochfort in 1859, near to the mountain that bears his name. In 1861, Julius Haast, later Sir Julius, made a geological survey around the Rochfort plateau, and found a seam of coal at Coalbrookdale. In 1867, coal was found to be in plenty there. In 1881 the Westport Coal Company was formed (or reorganised) and the first coal was brought to the port in 1882.

Westport is to-day the largest coal-port of the Dominion, and up to the end of 1939 over thirty millions of tons of coal had been shipped from there. As before stated, the first hotel was the Kawatiri Hotel opened by John Martin in September, 1860, but in 1863 there were also the Queen’s Arms Hotel on “the Esplanade” and kept by Reuben Waite; and another (site and name unknown) kept by Isaac Blake.

The dates of some of the “first events” are:

First regatta, probably 1867.

Large barbecue, supervised by Maoris, a bullock being roasted, 1867. Another barbecue was held in 1874 to celebrate the turning of the first sod of the Mount Rochfort Railway by Sir George Grey. Mr. Rathbone was in charge of the proceedings.

First race-meeting, January, 1869, in Gibson’s paddock on Orawaiti Beach Road. The Jockey Club was formed in August of that year.

First bridge opened, 1887.

Westport became a borough, August, 1873.

The first Member of Parliament for the Buller Electorate, then termed Westland North, returned at the initial election on 9th April, 1868, was Timothy Gallagher, Storekeeper at Addison’s Flat and later of Westport, who defeated George Donne and Zoffany Horne, receiving 609 votes from a total of about 1,000. The result was not gazetted until the first of June following, a delay occasioned by the absence of telegraph lines, and the fact that most mails were conveyed by horseback—and only when creeks were fordable. Not all men had a vote; but only those with property qualification, householders, and holders of Miners’ Rights; hundreds had no voice in the election. Women did not have a vote, nor had they until the election of December, 1893.

The boundaries of the electorate were roughly Mokihinui to Brighton. Gallagher was member from 1868 to June, 1870, when he resigned; T. A. S. Kynnersley from July, 1870, to February, 1871; Eugene J. O’Conor (the “Buller Lion”) from February, 1871, to January, 1876, when he was defeated by Dr. Joseph Henry, of Charleston, who remained member until September, 1879, when he was replaced by J. B. Fisher.

Apparently, in the early days miners did not take kindly to authority. In May of 1869 complaints were rife, and letters appeared in the newspaper at Westport, concerning the “officiousness” of officials who demanded that hats be removed by persons entering the Warden’s Office. In consequence, the Warden posted upon the door the following notice: “For the satisfaction of persons who are unwilling to take off their hats in this office, it is hereby notified that none but gentlemen are expected to do so.—Joseph Giles.”

 

1. Whether the Buller changed its course during the flood of 1872 (recorded in Warden’s report) or during the flood of 1873 (described by Westport Times) is not clear. Each caused havoc but, almost certainly, the latter was the more destructive. There were several other serious floods during the period 1870-1873, particularly one in 1871. The available records are few and, in some details, contradictory.
2. Another writer holds that the old cemetery was abandoned in 1870, owing to the tidal wave or flood of that year.