An interesting contribution to the history of the early days of Christchurch, and especially of the district now known as Sydenham, was made by Mr Henry Ffitch, of Glandovey road, Fendalton, in a series of reminiscences related by him to a “Press” representative.
“My father’s section of sixty-three acres, was bounded by the Windmill road on the west and on the east by H. and W. Clarkson’s section. Colombo street extended no further south than just below Sydenham Park. When my father sold his farm he gave the land for the continuation of Colombo street through to the present junction of Colombo street and the Windmill road corner (Windmill road was re-christened Antigua Street by the City Council in 1909, although the two names had been used interchangably since around the 1860s, so this would suggest it was the corner of Strickland and Colombo street). My father also had a preemptive right of purchase over 250 acres on the Port Hills, commencing from the hills at the end of the tram lane and up to Dyer’s Pass, including the site of Victoria Park and nearly the whole of the spur. This pre-emptive right my father sold for a very small amount, I am sorry to say. After a time we turned young cattle out to graze on the hills; as there were no fences we had some hard runs to muster them.

“My father brought about twenty tons of cargo with him from the Old Country, including a four-roomed house. This was brought round from Lyttelton in a small schooner of 22 tons called the Old Man. This schooner came up the river Heathcote as far as Wilson’s bridge, landing it there. It was then carried and wheeled in wheelbarrows across Clarkson’s section on to my father’s section. The site my father chose for the house was close to a sandhill. A hole was made in the side of the sandhill, in which my father and the man he brought out with him slept while putting up the house. We afterwards found Maori skeletons in this sandhill. One — a perfect one — we gave to Dr. Coward, which I believe he sent Home to the British Museum. Of course the whole country was in its native state, growing flax, fern, cabbage trees and tussocks, interspersed with waterholes and swamps. We used to walk to St. Michael’s Church across country; there were no fences, and the track wound round deep holes, flax bushes, and swamp. St. Michael’s Church was a small building then, with a large bell, hung on four posts, close to the ground. I believe this bell became cracked in some way, and had to be re-cast. I have heard that a gentleman took the clapper off for a joke and took it home to England with him. Archdeacon Mathias was incumbent.
“I remember the first mob of sheep I saw in the country was a small mob of merino ewes, brought over from Australia by the late G. H. Monro, of Glenmark. They were grazing in my father’s paddock about a fortnight before going on to Glenmark. Part of the first crop of wheat which we grew from seed my father brought out with him, we carried down to Mr Tattus, who had a small stone hand mill, where we ground it, carried it home, sifted it through a fine cloth, and the bread made from that flour was very good – quite a treat after ship’s biscuits. Not long after, there were two flour mills started – lnwood’s on the Avon by the Hereford street bridge, and W. D. Wood’s windmill on the Windmill road, from which the road takes its name. Some of the first wheat my father grew in the country he sold to the late Mr John Deans, of Riccarton, at 10s per bushel.
“There were no trees, with the exception of the Riccarton and Papanui Bushes. The settlers commenced to plant as soon as possible. My father bought from the late William Wilson (gardener) afterwards known as Cabbage Wilson, twelve small willow cuttings, about 9in long, giving 1s for them.
“Money-was very scarce at that time, and it was a hard matter to find it to pay wages. We used to help each other in the work of the farms, and barter, exchange, and borrow. I remember during one harvest we borrowed a ladder from a neighbour and used it through the harvest. We found out afterwards that they slept in a loft, and this ladder was the only means they had of getting up to bed; but they never asked for the ladder until we had no further use for it. How they managed we never knew.
“My father paid the man he brought out with him £1 per week. He stayed with us one year, and did very well in the country, soon getting a farm of his own. As a rule a man would not draw his wages until the end of the year, or even two, and trust to his employer to pay in a lump sum. I know one case where the employer could not find the money, and the man took the team of horses he was working as payment; his master getting further into his debt, eventually he took the farm from his employer, who then worked for him, taking his place as employee.
“Mr Edward Bishop had a man working for him as day labourer who used to walk from Lyttelton and back every day to his work; he was a Highlander. Day wages were 5s per day, without board.
“There were a few Maoris about dressed in their flax mats and flax sandals, invariably carrying their carved wooden spears. They were very friendly —almost too much so. They would come into the house without asking permission, take off the lid of the saucepan, and if it smelt good would stop and have some. We never said them nay.
“Although we worked hard and fared hard, we did not go to the Provincial Government for help. Nor did we have a Royal Commission to enquire into the cost of living; but had the true spirit of the pioneer and the colonist and had great faith in the country. But they harve nearly all passed away, as have their old homesteads and landmarks. A new order of things has taken place. The increase in the value of the land is enormous. The original price per acre to the Canterbury Association was £3. [4]
Postscript:
Mr. Henry Ffitch, who arrived in Lyttelton in 1851, died at Fendalton in 1918 at the age of 78. For many years he was inspector of farms for the Church Property Trustees. He came out from Essex with his father and family under the auspices of the Canterbury Association in the Sir George Pollock. For a number of years he was engaged in farming with his father in what is now Sydenham, and in the sixties he removed to Ellesmere, afterwards taking up the Woodstock run on the Waimakariri, where he remained for some years. He was also engaged in farming in the Oxford district before retiring to Fendalton. [6]
- Source: State Library of Victoria.
- St Michael’s Bell Clapper. Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 22, 26 July 1897, Page 3.
- Image: National Library of New Zealand Ref: ID: 1/2-C-22845.
- “I REMEMBER.” Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14454, 7 September 1912, Page 14.
- Image: State Library of Victoria.
- Source: ‘OBITUARY’. Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16164, 19 March 1918, Page 7, and Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 69, 21 March 1918, Page 8.