Thursday, July 19, 2018

CHRISTCHURCH NEW ZEALAND


CHRISTCHURCH  NEW  ZEALAND
 Late 19th Century photographs from the albums of Sir George Bullough, 
(he was knighted in 1902), collected during his three year-long world tour 1892-1895.

Researched and written by George W. Randall, co-founder in July 1996 and former
Vice Chairman Kinloch Castle Friends’ Association.

CATHEDRAL AND SQUARE CHRISTCHURCH 
(Photograph pre-1894 when a porch was added,
 the transepts and chancel to complete construction in 1904.)
Album XI  *  Image 30  *  Size 8½ x 5¾ inches  *  Original by Wheeler & Son.

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Time of George Bullough's visit to New Zealand November 1894.


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Recollections of the first half of the three year-long world tour of
George Bullough and his travelling companion Robert Mitchell were published 
in a series of twenty-eight articles by Mitchell in the
Lancashire regional newspaper The Accrington Gazette in 1896.

Regrettably the Gazette reports, only cover the first half of the tour, 
the photographs of which appear in the first ten of the twenty albums.

 This blog continues with the remaining photographs of Christchurch, 
in Album XI, (titled Tasmania & New Zealand), plus contemporary  explanatory notes.

Cover Album XI  -  Tasmania  New Zealand.
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CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND.
description published 1892.
 

Christchurch is capital of the Provincial District of Canterbury, South Island,
 New Zealand, a rich agricultural area for cereal, grazing and 
rearing of sheep for wool and meat.
Located on the River Avon, which winds through the city bordered by 
fine English and Australian trees, terraces and gardens, the town is known
 as “The Garden City”  because of the number and beauty of its public 
and private gardens which provide pleasant drives and walks.

Christchurch City Library
Built on a regular grid pattern Christchurch is connected to its port at Lyttleton 
by rail a distance of eight miles 
and the towns of Culverden 
to the north and Dunedin to the south.

The first settlers, known as the Canterbury Pilgrims, settled at Lyttleton in 1850 and founded Christchurch the following year. 
The names of these first immigrants who arrived in 1850 aboard four sailing ships are engraved on a plaque in the Cathedral.

The population in 1855 was 3,549 and by the turn of the 19th century exceeded 45,000.
                                                                                     (Encyclopædia Britannica 11th Edition)

CATHEDRAL AND SQUARE CHRISTCHURCH 
(Photograph pre-1894 when a porch was added
and later transepts and chancel to complete construction in 1904.)
Album XI  *  Image 30  *  Detail from original size 8½ x 5¾ inches 
  Original by Wheeler & Son.

Porch added 1904.


CATHEDRAL SQUARE, CHRISTCHURCH
Album XI   *   Image 29   *   S
ize 8½ x 5¾ inches

Built of local Canterbury stone in Gothic Revival style from designs by 
Sir Gilbert Scott, the greatest ecclesiastical architect of the day and 
Benjamin Woolfield Mountfort.
 The corner stone was laid  on  the 16th of December 1864 in pouring rain by 
Bishop Henry Harper** and dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
The foundations were completed the following year. 

The population of Christchurch at this time was 6,423.

At this point funding ran out. Questions were raised regards the best use of 
money. After considerable delay, building resumed in 1873 and at the time of 
Bullough and Mitchell’s visit in 1894 was still a work in progress. 

It took another ten years, with construction of the chancel and transepts,
 before the Cathedral was finished.

The stone for the Cathedral's outer wall came from the Cashmere and 
Hoon Hay Quarries on the Port Hills, seven miles from Christchurch;
 Native matai (black pine) and totara timber, 
(excellent young and easy to mill naturally regenerated trees), 
from the adjacent Banks Peninsula were used for the decorated roof.

The tower stands 118 feet high, the spire a further 89 feet,
 a total height to the cross of 207 feet. 
The tower contained thirteen bells, the heaviest being almost two tons.
Access to the belfry was gained via a 113 step stone stairway.
The completed Cathedral was consecrated on All Saint’s Day 1904.

The baptismal font was designed for the Dean 
of Westminster
the Reverend Stanley “in memory of his brother, Captain Owen Stanley 
of H.M.S. Britomart by whose patriotism and promptitude the 
South Island of New Zealand was secured to 
Great Britain in (February) 1840.” 
Designed by Benjamin J. Mountfort in 1881, the White  Castle Hill font
 incorporates grey Hoon Hay stone medallions set on four stone columns.


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Standing on six columns of grey Hoon Hay quarried sandstone, 
the pulpit is a Memorial commemorating the life (1809-1878) 
of George Augustus Selwyn, first Anglican Bishop 
of New Zealand, 1858-1868. It is finely decorated and inlaid with 
seven marble reliefs each illustrating a scene from Bishop Selwyn’s life. 


The pulpit was first used on All Saint's Day, 1884.


The Foundations cost £7,526; Building over the foundation £50,525;
Tower and Spire  £6,531; Western Porch £1,000.   Total: £65,582

(Figures supplied by Mr. C. J. Mountfort - Supervising architect)

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Allan Hopkins
Christchurch
City Libraries.
CATHEDRAL SQUARE, CHRISTCHURCH
Allan Hopkins Estate Agent
   
 Album XI   *   Image 29   *   
Detail from original size 8½ x 5¾ inches.
  
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The double-fronted Chambers of Allan Hopkins, Estate Agent, 
No. 8 Cathedral Square, Christchurch, across from 
 (facing) the Bank of New Zealand.
Hansom cabs and carriages await customers in the 
foreground while a horse drawn tram is about to pass in front of Allan Hopkins’ offices.

At the time of George Bullough's visit in 1894 Allan Hopkins was a 
highly successful businessman and pillar of Christchurch Society.


William Allan Hopkins was born on the 31st of December 1857 
at the small market town of Cheadle, Staffordshire, the second youngest 
son of John and Mary Hopkins, émigrés to England owing to the
 Irish potato famine 1845-1852.
In 1881, aged twenty-four, Allan emigrated to Canterbury, New Zealand. 
During the voyage he met and later married Sarah Roebuck travelling 
with her parents. Following their marriage in February 1882 Sarah’s father, 
William, a successful woolen manufacturer, purchased some property to 
help secure the couple’s future. 
For the next ten years Hopkins worked as a builder, contractor and commission agent.
By 1892 he is recorded as leasing No. 8, Cathedral Square in his new role as a 
“House, Land and Estate Agent, Valuator and Land Broker” 
with additional premises at 133 Hereford Street.

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CATHEDRAL SQUARE, CHRISTCHURCH
    
 Album XI   *   Image 29   *   
Detail from original size 8½ x 5¾ inches.

North-east corner of Cathedral Square. 
Sign on canopy (middle right) reads: Lavender.
Steam trams on rails beginning to replace horse-drawn vehicles.

CATHEDRAL AND SQUARE CHRISTCHURCH
Album XI    *    Image 30    *    Size 8½ x 5¾ inches    *    Original by Wheeler & Son

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Despite success and a beautiful home, Hopkins was not spared family tragedy.
Allan and Sarah had seven children, five daughters and two sons; 
Daisy, Gertrude, Serena, Millicent, Dora, Luther and Allan.

In 1893 his eight year old daughter, Daisy, died of a chest abscess. A second daughter, Serena, died of meningitis in 1912, while Dora succumbed to tuberculosis in 1920. 
His son, Allan jnr., was a skilled surgeon who rose to be medical superintendent at 
Westland Hospital, Hokitika, where in 1931 he died aged thirty-four of 
the serious bacterial infection diphtheria. 

But it was the eldest son, Luther, who was instrumental is his father's fall from grace.
In 1911 and 1912 Allan took his wife and daughters on a visit to Europe. 
Millicent in particular enjoyed hearing the Italian operatic tenor Enrico Caruso and 
seeing the young Ukrainian ballet dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky, 
one of the greatest male dancers of the 20th century.

Meanwhile Luther Hopkins, a trained lawyer, was entrusted to run his father’s business.
He failed miserably. Bad real estate transactions, failed mortgages and financial irregularities resulted in a flood of law suits to the point bankers withdrew support.
In the years following his return Allan tried many ways to stave off the inevitable,
which came in April 1921 when he was adjudged bankrupt, his assets coming
under the jurisdiction of the Official Assignee.

The full story of Allan Hopkins’ career, which took him from the “shadows to riches and,
after a spectacular crash back to obscurity” can be viewed on the website below.

Allan Hopkins - Christchurch City Libraries


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CATHEDRAL SQUARE, CHRISTCHURCH
Album XI   *   Image 29   *   Detail from original size 8½ x 5¾ inches

The statue was unveiled by Mr. C. C. Bowen, Mr. Godley's former private secretary.

STATUE OF JOHN ROBERT GODLEY
FOUNDER OF CANTERBURY - 1850

In 1867, three years after the foundation stone for the Gothic Cathedral was laid and facing Christchurch Cathedral, the bronze statue of John Robert Godley was erected by the citizens of the city, .

Arriving in May 1850 Godley and Edward Gibbon Wakefield headed a pioneering group to establish a port and infrastructure in readiness for the arrival of the first Canterbury colonists.
In early September 1850 four sailing ships left England 
carrying seven hundred and fifty men, women and children, 
the Canterbury Pilgrims, arriving at the port of Lyttleton,
(at the time known as Port Cooper), seven miles east of  Christchurch, three months later were met by John Godley 
as leader of the settlement.

Statue of
John Robert Godley
The Story of Christchurch
Henry Wigram - 1916
John Robert Godley was born in Dublin, Ireland, on the 29th of May 1814, the eldest son of an Irish landlord. He was educated at Harrow School, near London, founded in 1572 by Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I, 
and later at Christ’s College, Oxford. His wish was to become a lawyer, but poor health, which dogged him all of his forty-seven years, prevented this ambition. Instead he travelled, in his native country and North America where he formulated his ideas on how colonies should be established and governed

Edward Gibbon Wakefield was born on the 20th of March 1796 in London, son of Edward Wakefield, 
English philanthropist, statistician and author of 
Ireland, Statistical and Political.”
He was educated in London and Edinburgh. He served as a messenger to King George III conveying diplomatic mail across Europe during the Napoleonic Wars. By 1831 he was involved in a number of schemes to promote colonisation of 
South Australia, thus relieving the social problems he saw as a result of overcrowding and over population.

By the late 1840’s Wakefield was working with John Robert Godley on a scheme to promote a settlement in New Zealand sponsored by the Church of England in the form of the Archbishop of Canterbury, English peers and members of parliament.
Known as the Canterbury Settlement, the pioneer group, with Godley in command,
left England in December 1849. The capital city was to be called Christchurch
 after the Oxford University College Godley attended.

Godley was leader of the new settlement for two years in which time he changed 
the Canterbury Association's terms for pastoral leases believing the purpose of the Association was to found Canterbury, not govern it; the people living there should 
decide how it was to be run not politicians half a world away in England.

John Godley returned to England in 1852 where he died on the 17th of November 1861.
Edward Gibbon Wakefield died in Wellington, New Zealand, on the 16th of May 1862.

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CATHEDRAL AND SQUARE CHRISTCHURCH
Album XI    *    Image 30    *    Detail from size 8½ x 5¾ inches
John Walker Gibb 1831-1909.
Christchurch Art Gallery

These shops are in Morten's Buildings facing Hereford Street  directly across from the Cathedral.

J. W. GIBB  
PICTURE FRAME MAKER - ARTIST'S MATERIALS


An artist in his own right and on the Council of the Canterbury Society of Arts, John H. Gibb was in business as a Picture Frame Maker and purveyor of imported artist's materials. 

One of the first professional artists to settle in Christchurch John Walker Gibb arrived in the city 1876 and quickly became a key member of the arts circle and foundation member of the Canterbury Society of Arts. As he travelled around the country Gibb sketched and made notes which he later committed to canvas. 

Examples of his landscape paintings can be found on this link:

Where the picture stops and the world begins - Christchurch Art Gallery

Inside the breakwater Lyttleton Harbour 1886 - oil on canvas by John Gibb.

 From: Canterbury Society of Arts Annual Catalogue 1892.

J. W. Gibb, Picture Framer, Artist's Colourman and Art Dealer, 105 Cashel Street, Christchurch.


For more information on John W. Gibb enter the following link on Google:

https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/media/uploads/2010_08/JohnGibb.pdf

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KIDD   -   TAILOR  &  HATTER
CATHEDRAL AND SQUARE CHRISTCHURCH
Album XI    *    Image 30    *    Detail from size 8½ x 5¾ inches    *    Original by Wheeler & Son.


The business of Kidd - Tailor and Hatter, Hereford Street, Christchurch,
 next door to J. W. Gibb, Picture Frame Maker in Morten's Buildings.





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Aerial photograph of Cathedral Square focusing in on the Cathedral
by K. E. Niven & Co., Wellington. Undated but no later than 1954
the year the visible trams were withdrawn.

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CHRIST CHURCH EAST 
TAKEN FROM THE TOPMOST STONE OF THE SPIRE OF THE CATHEDRAL 
JUST BEFORE THE CROSS WAS PUT UP AFTER THE (1888) EARTHQUAKE.   
Album XI   *   Image 26   *   Size 8½ x 6 inches


Built in the Gothic Revival style from designs by Sir Gilbert Scott and Benjamin Woolfield Mountfort. 
The Cathedral spire, from which the photograph 
was taken was 207 feet high.



Canterbury Plains on which the the city of Christchurch and its cathedral stand continues to suffer earthquake damage, the most recent

and most devastating in 2011.
In 1881, within barely four weeks after the Cathedral's consecration, 
a stone was dislodged from the finial cap of the spire immediately below the terminal cross.

The earthquake of the 1st of September 1888 caused the top twenty-six feet of the spire to collapse. This is most likely the ’quake referred to in George Bullough’s photograph. 
The earthquake  resulted in the cross toppling and remained suspended by its iron ties bringing down about thirty feet of masonry. It was realised at this time that the iron rod anchors were too rigid to stand the severe shock of an earthquake. The solid iron cross was replaced by a lighter one made of hollow copper, gilded and set like the pendulum of a grandfather clock with a weight and chain attached, which, it was hoped, would swing undamaged 
in any seismic shock.

Another earthquake on the 16th of  November 1901 again brought down the top half of the spire.

The earthquake on Christmas Day 1922 dislodged one of the stone crosses. But the quakes of 2010 and 2011 left the cathedral a ruin.
 It was the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake in February 2011, followed by further quakes in June and December 2011 that left the Cathedral so badly damaged it raised the question of demolition.  
                                                                                 Damage caused by the first of September 1888 earthquake. The Cross can be seen dangling by its iron ties on the right.
Christ Church Cathedral after partial demolition – September 2012.

Finally in September 2017, after six years, the Anglican Church announced that Christchurch Cathedral will be rebuilt to its basic design and strengthened against future quakes.
The re-building will be much more resilient to future seismic activity and include 
weathered copper sheeting and an internal seismic damper.  
The work will take ten years and cost almost $94 million (£70 million).
At the same time heating and seating  will be improved. 

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The Cathedral’s thirteen bells were cast in 1978 using bronze melted from the old
bells of Coventry’s Holy Trinity Church, to replace the original bells cast in 1881
by the John Taylor Bell Foundry at Loughborough, Leicestershire, England.
After hanging in the Bell Tower for thirty-three years they fell and were buried
in debris as the tower and part of the Cathedral itself collapsed during the
earthquake on 22nd of February 2011.
The bells, which together weigh almost six tons, were recovered and shipped
back to Taylor’s Foundry where they will be assessed for damage and,
hopefully, restored to their original condition.

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CHRIST CHURCH EAST TAKEN FROM THE TOPMOST STONE 
OF THE SPIRE OF THE CATHEDRAL JUST BEFORE 
THE CROSS WAS PUT UP AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE.
Album XI   *   Image 26   *  Detail from original size 8½ x 6 inches

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The Wool Store premises of  F. C. Tabart,
Auctioneers and Wool Brokers, (above lower left) not only dealt 
in wool, but the importation and selling of native and imported sheep. 
F. C. Tabart were also auctioneers of household effects - see their advertisement (left) from The Press Monday 23rd of March 1891

The Australian Pastoralist’s Review of December 1897 reports that “during Christchurch Show Week Mr. F. C. Tabart  imported 
and sold a number of imported Tasmanian Shropshire ram hoggets,
two bred by by Mr. Burberry of Jericho sold for 20 and 12 guineas respectively, others by Mr. Steele, Forcett, sold for 17 guineas.”

Christchurch Show Day, the largest pastoral and agricultural event in New Zealand, 
originated as a celebration to mark the arrival of the first two clipper ships to the region of 
Canterbury on the 16th of December 1850, the Charlotte Jane and the Randolph.
In the 1950’s the date was changed to the second Friday after the first Tuesday of November. 

CHRIST CHURCH EAST TAKEN FROM THE TOPMOST STONE OF THE SPIRE 
OF THE CATHEDRAL JUST BEFORE THE CROSS WAS PUT UP AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE (OF 1 SEPTEMBER 1888).
Album XI   *   Image 26   *  Detail from original size 8½ x 6 inches

Francis Christopher Tabart (right) was born in London (England) in 1830; 
eight months later, his father having retired from the Royal Navy, 
the family emigrated to Tasmania where Francis was educated. 
Following the death of his father in 1855 Francis moved to Australia 
gaining employment as manager overseeing large sheep and cattle
 stations in the Riverina and Murray districts of Victoria. 
A keen and skilled rider, in his mid-twenties, he won the coveted 
Melbourne Grand National Steeplechase in 1855 on a horse called, “Triton.”

In 1857 he married twenty-four year old Margaret Hignett. 
Returning to Tasmania he continued farming in his own right and 
as a station manager. Five years later he sold-up and moved to New Zealand where he entered into partnership with politician Sir Richard Dry and Mr. J. Meredith 
at their 85,000 acre Highfield Station in Nelson Province’s Amuri district
A heavy snowstorm in 1869 so decimated the flock the farm was sold and partnership dissolved.

Now in his fortieth year, having purchased the auctioneering business of Mark Sprott, 
Francis Tabart moved to the west coast town of Hokitika where he remained until 1877 
when he moved to Christchurch as partner the auctioneering and general 
merchanting business of Robert Wilkin & Co. 
In 1886 Mr. Wilkin died and Tabart formed the business of F. C. Tabart & Co., 
of which he remained head until his death in 1901 at the age of seventy-one.
 He is interred in Woolston Cemetery, Rutherford Street, Christchurch.

Francis Tabart was a highly respected and popular member of the Christchurch community
 and beyond. For a number of years, resuming his love of horses and riding, he was an
 honourary judge for the Canterbury Jockey Club. He left a widow, two sons and six daughters.
                                Reference: The Cyclopædia of New Zealand – Canterbury Provincial District.

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CHRIST CHURCH EAST TAKEN FROM THE TOPMOST STONE OF THE SPIRE 
OF THE CATHEDRAL JUST BEFORE THE CROSS WAS PUT UP AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE (1 SEPTEMBER 1888).
Album XI   *   Image 26   *  Detail from original size 8½ x 6 inches

Oblong sign middle right in photograph reads:

NEW ZEALAND FARMERS'
COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION
 of Canterbury Limited 
Agents for the 
Hornsby Reaper and Binder.

Established along Cashel Street, Christchurch 
in 1881 the business premises comprised a two 
and a three-story brick building incorporating space for several retailers, drapery, earthenware, grocery, perfumery, carpets, stationery, hardware saddlery, seeds, Manchester goods, indeed “almost everything from a needle to an anchor.”
The members of the Co-operative owned shares and thus provided the capital to operate the 
company. This provided the means and opportunity for them to realise the best possible return for their wool, grain, frozen meat, hides and skins for Australian and English markets as well as vast a range of retailed goods throughout New Zealand.
The success of the Association was such that by the mid-1890’s it had branches in Auckland (North Island, New Zealand) and Sydney (Australia) with an office in London (England).
The Co-op’s railway siding at South Belt, about fifteen miles north of Christchurch, stored a large stock of firewood and grades of coal. A hydraulic dumping plant under the supervision of the Association’s staff was available to members to unload their wool.

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G. HOWLAND & CO., 
AMERICAN COACH FACTORY
wheelwrights and blacksmiths
Cashel Street, Christchurch
incorporating Cobb and Co.
Stagecoach operators.



Howland's Thill-Coupling was a U.S. Patent device for connecting the thill,
(or shaft of a cart or carriage), to the animal drawing it.

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SKELTON, FROSTICK & CO., LIMITED
BOOT AND SHOE MANUFACTURERS AND IMPORTERS


Skelton, Frostick & Co., Ltd., was formed in 1889 
out of shoe manufacturers and general importers,
 Lightband, Allan & Co., a company founded in the early 1870’s by Robert Allan and Mr. Lightband, 
Allan became a director of Skelton, Frostick, along with 
Mr. T. Skelton and Mr. J. A. Frostick. 
The company was famous for its stylish 
Zealandia Boots and Shoes.

From: Feilding Star, No. 585. May 1908.    From: Ladies Mirror Volume 4 Issue 3 September 1925.

In 1895 the firm commissioned a four story brick building in Hereford Street, 
where it employed two-hundred and eighty, making it the largest boot factory in the Colony.
Robert Allan died in 1927 aged eighty. Shortly after the difficult conditions of the 
Great Depression resulted in liquidation of the Company.

Tourist's Guide to Canterbury 1902.

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METROPOLITAN TEMPERANCE HOTEL
 located on Cashel Street, Christchurch, strictly adhered to temperance principals.
In 1893 the rate for accommodation was twelve shillings a day.
The hotel was opposite the Canterbury Bowling Club.


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NEW ZEALAND EXPRESS COMPANY 
Campbell & Crust

The New Zealand Express Company, Limited was founded by 
Mr. Henry Crust in partnership with Mr. Duncan Campbell in Dunedin in 1867. Within twenty-five years it was amongst the top carriage, customs, shipping and forwarding agencies in the Southern Hemisphere with New Zealand branches in Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland, Oamaru, Cargill as well as Dunedin and “responsible Agents in all the principal towns in the Colony and abroad.”

Henry Crust was born in the Lincolnshire, England town of Wainfleet in 1847. The family emigrated to Victoria, Australia in 1851. Henry was just fifteen years old when, with the discovery of gold near Dunedin in 1862, the family moved to 
New Zealand, where he worked as a stock rider. Gold brought immense growth 
to the region in terms of population, lavish building projects and opportunity. 
In 1867, aged only twenty 
Henry Crust grasped opportunity and formed his partnership with Duncan Campbell and
 founded the New Zealand Express Company, specialising in the transport of goods.
Campbell died in 1883 at which time Crust took over as sole owner, bringing his son into the business, the company becoming known as Crust & Crust. 
In 1895 the New Zealand Express Company Limited became a public company.
Henry Crust died in 1926.

On the 4th of November 2022 New Zealand Express will celebrate 
one hundred and fifty-five years in the transport business.

To read more click on the following link:

NZ Trucking. Celebrating 150 years in transport is a truly astonishing ...


By Special Appointment to Her Majesty Queen Victoria New Zealand Express Company
(From: Cook's Australasian  Travellers' Gazette and Tourist Advertiser  -  July 1892.)



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CHRISTCHURCH EAST TAKEN FROM THE TOPMOST STONE OF THE SPIRE
OF THE CATHEDRAL JUST BEFORE THE CROSS WAS PUT UP 
AFTER THE (SEPTEMBER 1888) EARTHQUAKE.
Album XI   *   Image 26   *   Detail from original 8½ x 6 inches.

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CHRISTCHURCH EAST TAKEN FROM THE TOPMOST STONE OF THE SPIRE
OF THE CATHEDRAL JUST BEFORE THE CROSS WAS PUT UP 
AFTER THE (SEPTEMBER 1888) EARTHQUAKE.
Album XI   *   Image 26   *   Detail from original 8½ x 6 inches.

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SOUTH CHRISTCHURCH  (Colombo Street) 
TAKEN FROM ONE OF THE BALCONIES OF THE CATHEDRAL
Album XI   *   Image 27   *   Size 8½ x 6 inches

Looking down Colombo Street, Christchurch  in early 1890,
with Hereford Street, first left,  High Street and Cashel Street second and third left.
The four story building right is Morten's Buildings, commissioned by Richard May Morten
who emigrated to Australia aged nineteen in 1859. After a spell in Tasmania he moved to Rakaia, Canterbury, New Zealand in 1860, later purchasing several large sheep stations including 
Mount Pleasant, a block of 6,000 acres.

SOUTH CHRISTCHURCH
TAKEN FROM ONE OF THE BALCONIES OF THE CATHEDRAL
Album XI   *   Image 27   *   Detail from original size 8½ x 6 inches

Morten’s Building, also known as Morten’s Block 
stood on the  south-west corner of Cathedral Square 
facing Colombo Street and Hereford Street. 
The corner shop was at one time Barnett & Co., Chemists.

Richard May Morten, a highly successful sheep farmer 
originating from Buckinghamshire, England, purchased the 
land in 1865 for £3,750 and for twenty years numerous 
small businesses traded on the site. 

In February 1885 Morten’s young son laid the foundation stone for 
Morton’s Buildings incorporating numerous shops at street level 
and the Golden Age Hotel. Designed by architect Stoddart Lambert, 
born in Selkirk, Scotland in 1840 who emigrated to Wellington, New Zealand in 1866, Morten Buildings was constructed of Mount Somers Stone, obtained from Morten's own quarry at Rakaia, 
Morton’s Building cost £30,000 and was one of several Christchurch properties designed and supervised by Mr. Lambert, others included the Opera House, Y.M.C.A., Thompson, Shannon and Co’s Warehouse 
and buildings for the 1882 Christchurch International Exhibition, 
as well as many private residences.

Morten’s Buildings was demolished in early 1990. 
Today the ANZ Bank stands on the site. 
Richard Morten died aged eighty-two in August 1909.

SOUTH CHRISTCHURCH (Colombo Street)
TAKEN FROM ONE OF THE BALCONIES OF THE CATHEDRAL
Album XI   *   Image 27   *   Detail from original size 8½ x 6 inches

Cookson's Sample and Commercial Rooms building.
Williams Hairdresser 666.

SOUTH CHRISTCHURCH (Colombo Street)
TAKEN FROM ONE OF THE BALCONIES OF THE CATHEDRAL
Album XI   *   Image 27   *   Detail from original size 8½ x 6 inches

SOUTH CHRISTCHURCH
TAKEN FROM ONE OF THE BALCONIES OF THE CATHEDRAL
Album XI   *   Image 27   *   Detail from original size 8½ x 6 inches.

National Library of New Zealand.
NELSON MOAT & CO., COLOMBO STREET, CHRISTCHURCH


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SOUTH CHRISTCHURCH
TAKEN FROM ONE OF THE BALCONIES OF THE CATHEDRAL
Album XI   *   Image 27   *   Detail from original size 8½ x 6 inches.

The Drapery, Millinery and Clothing business of Lonargan and Lonargan,
formerly “Hobday’s” the building depicted was built in 1889 following a disastrous fire
when the business was acquired by Lonargan and Lonargan.

New Zealand Tablet - Volume XV - May 1887  *   National Library of New Zealand.

New Zealand Tablet - Volume XVII - June 1889  *   National Library of New Zealand.

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Harris’s Imperial Boot Depot, ladies and gentlemen footwear manufacturers,
both businesses were in Cashel Street, Christchurch.

From: The Star - Issue 7274 - 5 May 1892   *   National Library of New Zealand

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D.I.C.  -  Drapery Importing Company of New Zealand, Ltd.

SOUTH CHRISTCHURCH
TAKEN FROM ONE OF THE BALCONIES OF THE CATHEDRAL
Album XI   *   Image 27   *   Detail from original size 8½ x 6 inches.


D. I. C.  -  Heralded as being 
“the advent of a new Company that will sell goods at reasonable profits for cash … ”

the Wholesale and Family Warehouse premises of D.I.C., - Drapery Importing Company of New Zealand, Ltd., 
was floated in Dunedin with a capital of £125,000 
in 1884 and commenced trading on the 22nd of May 
in the cities High Street.
Its Christchurch warehouse opened the same year, and the Wellington branch shortly thereafter.

The Christchurch store, which gave employment to well 
over two hundred, sold not only drapery but an extensive range of household, ironmongery, glassware, crockery, 
heating stoves, carpets, indeed it seems there was very 
little it did not sell; 
it even had a large musical and piano department.

The Chairman of Directors was Bendix Hallenstein, 
born in Germany in 1835 where his parents 
owned a mill producing woolen cloth from rags.
Aged twenty-two he emigrated with his brothers 
via Manchester, England, 
to the goldfields of Victoria, Australia.

The brothers soon became more interested in
 selling goods to the miners than panning for gold 
and established a wine, spirit and general importing 
business in Melbourne.

In early 1861 Bendix Hallenstein returned to England 
to marry Mary Mountain on Valentine’s Day, 
the 14th of February.

The couple moved and settled in New Zealand in 1863.


From: Canterbury Society of Arts Annual Catalogue 1892

For more information on D.I.C. and its founder please enter the link below on Google:

Bendix Hallenstein and family – Otago – Te Ara Encyclopedia 
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ALBUM XI   *   IMAGE 28   *   SIZE 8½ x 6 INCHES
Left: The Australian Mutual Provident Society  /  Right: Fletcher, Humphreys & Co.

The Australian Mutual Provident Society was established in Sydney in 1848 “to provide financial protection to those in need by sharing financial burdens.” 
It began selling Life Policies in New Zealand in 1854 and opened its first 
New Zealand office in Wellington in 1876.
 On the 20th of February 1886 The Press reported the Christchurch branch of the Australian Mutual Provident Society was officially opened the previous day at Chancery Lane, Cathedral Square “by a luncheon in the splendid room to be occupied by the Chamber of Commerce.”
Today, with over one hundred and fifty years of experience, the Society has over 400,000 
New Zealand customers and 3.4 million customers world-wide. 



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The firm of Messrs. Fletcher, Humphreys & Company, was established on Chancery Lane, Christchurch in 1882 by thirty-four year old George Humphreys, a pioneer of the tea packing industry, and John Johnston Fletcher and dealt in the importation of
wines, spirits, tea, sugar and general merchandise.
The formal Notices for the 
Dissolution of Morrison, Sclanders and Fletcher
and creation of the Partnership of 

Fletcher, Humphreys & Co.
________________________________ 

The three-storey building, with its Oamaru stone façade, was designed by New Zealand born architect Francis William Petre, 1847-1918. 
Based in Dunedin, Petre was a prominent 
and able exponent of the Gothic Revival style of architecture and was responsible for many of New Zealand’s 19th century landmarks, including three cathedrals: St. Joseph’s, Dunedin; the Sacred Heart, Wellington and the Blessed Sacrement, Christchurch, the latter very badly 
damaged by the 2011 earthquake.

George Humphreys was born in Wolverhampton, England, in 1848 and arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1869 when he entered the service of long established general importers and merchants Morrison, Sclanders, Fletcher & Co., Hereford Street.

With the dissolution of the partnership on the 13th of May 1882, John Fletcher joined with George Humphreys and founded Fletcher, Humphreys & Company on the 1st July, 1882.

Following the death of Mr. Fletcher in 1889
 Humphreys entered a new partnership with William Thomas Charlewood, both residing in New Zealand as Acting Consular Agent and Consular Agent 
respectively for France.

Appointed president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1892 George Humphreys continued as a leading light in the commercial affairs of Christchurch until his death in 1934.

The Fletcher, Humphreys & Company building was demolished in 1971 to make way for a new AMP Wealth Management building.



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Edmund Wheeler’s studio was originally in Colombo Street
and later at 51, Cathedral Square, Christchurch.
Their Scenery Depot allowed portraits to be taken against a selection of backdrops.

Edmund Wheeler (snr.)was in his sixties when he and his twenty-two year old son, 
also Edward, established their studio in Colombo Street, Christchurch in 1864. 
Born c.1800 in Worcestershire, England, to Richard and Sarah Wheeler, in November 1837 he married Esther Walker and the couple had a daughter, Sarah Ann born 1840 and a son, Edmund Richard born 1842, the son in the photographic business. 
A second son born 1845 died as an infant. 
Records show the family living in Birmingham (Worcestershire, England) where Edmund (snr.) was employed in the malting industry, first as a maltster and in 1861 as a corn factor.
In 1863 the family emigrated to New Zealand, arriving at Lyttleton onboard the 1,089 ton sailing ship “Zambesi” on the 20th of September.
They lived in a house in Colombo Street, which, along with other properties, 
was destroyed by fire in June 1864. Sometime after Edmund Wheeler started his photographic business for in 1869, the recently appointed Governor of New Zealand, 
Sir George Ferguson Bowen sat for his portrait in Wheeler’s Colombo Street Studio.
 Edmund built a house for the family in nearby Hereford Street East and it was there 
that he died aged seventy-seven on the 19th of October 1877. 
He was interred in Barbadoes Cemetery, Christchurch. 
His wife, Esther, died aged ninety-one in February 1906.

Edmund Richard Wheeler
1842 - 1933
 Edmund Richard Wheeler was born on the 27th of October 1842 
and was educated at King Edward Grammar School, Birmingham, where he excelled in Greek, Latin and French; he also applied
 himself to the new medium of photography.
He had already opened a studio in England prior to emigrating to
New Zealand with the family in 1863 and very soon after arrival established E. Wheeler & Son in Colombo Street, 
later at 51 Cathedral Square, very quickly establishing a reputation for his scenic studies, which, in 1894 were published in the two volume, “The Imperial Album of New Zealand Scenery”.

As a student of the English journalist and poet Sir Edwin Arnold,
Edmund acquired a deep and lasting love of books,
 and in addition to his photographic work he wrote a regular book review column for the “Christchurch Times.”
He also wrote short stories and was an active member along with his sister Sarah
of the Royal Musical Society.
Edmund died on the 16th of January 1933 aged ninety. His obituary in “The Press” said
“Christchurch had been deprived of an old and talented resident.”

 



















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OATWAY & HAYWARD – TAILORS & WOOLLEN DRAPERS



From: The Press, Vol. XXXIX. Issue 5442, 27 February 1883

No further information concerning Oatway and Hayward has so far been found.

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                                                              Highly recommended reading:  


Contextual Historical Overview for Christchurch City





BLOG 74.  Reviewed  12 October 2023.
    
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