Local history gems come to life: WORD Christchurch 2024

Another great day of WORD Christchurch 2024, and I found myself braving the warm afternoon and late winter nor’wester to attend Gems from the Archives. As I'm cursed by the love of history, the Tuakiri Research Room is always a fascinating place to be, and I was among an engaged and enthusiastic crowd to see and hear what precious gems would be presented to us.

Our MC was Family History Librarian Annette Williams, who introduced our talented readers Andrea Lord (who you may now from the recorded announcement politely telling you it’ll be time to clear off soon at Tūranga) and Tom Trevella of the Lyttelton Arts Factory and Theatre.

After announcing that there were some spot prizes under some lucky chairs (Reader, I won), and that we would be able to see the original materials presented, we got underway.

There were seven different items performed from the 1860s to the 1970s and covering a range of different formats. Each item was introduced by our MC and one of the readers, before the other reader began to perform.

The Gems

Shipboard diary (1864)

Gem 1 was from a shipboard diary from an 1864 journey from Edinburgh to Wellington. The author was quite the observer, noting different weather patterns and events in detail, and was a keen observer of life onboard the ship, from other passengers to the activities of the crew (including a ceremony where they marked the end of their advance pay by ‘beating the dead horse’ (not a rude euphemism)), and the excitement of catching sharks.

The diarist, John Richardson, moved down to Christchurch in 1870 and ended up becoming the mayor of the Woolston Borough Council in 1893. You can read all about the mayors of Christchurch and all its little councils in Canterbury Stories (do we want to engage in such shameless promotion, self-promotion really since I’m editing a lot of these mayoral bios?) [editor's note: Very much so, yes]

Burke manuscript

Gem 2 was from the William Ellison Messervy Burke manuscript. Burke kept a detailed diary filled with cuttings and drawings after his arrival in Christchurch in the early 1850s. Through the 1860s and early 1870s, he worked with the courts. He was court bailiff from 1867 and gives us an amazing account of the ‘seedier’ side of early Christchurch life and some less than flattering depictions of the bigwigs of the early city.

Burke was certainly quite the smart-ass and gossip, and his caustic views of the luminaries of the early city (think all those street names) and his drawings and cuttings gives a great insight into early city life. He talked about the suicide of a Doctor Fleetwood and how he had to be buried outside the cemetery (as a criminal of course), how Alice Allen shocked the leading lights of our fair city by dancing with the visiting Prince Alfred even though she was a working-class sex worker (egad!), and how the early city was still very much the swamp it had been before with all the sanitary problems.

Jane Montgomery letters

Gem 3 was from a series of letters from Jane Montgomery in 1870 to her mother back home. She was the wife of William Montgomery, a leading figure in Canterbury politics and MP for Akaroa. Her letters were filled with domestic details, as well as an awareness of local and national politics. But her letters to her mother were focused especially on her concerns for her young children and the travails she faced with a series of ‘wet nurses’ for them. The letters were rather enlightening about the views of bourgeois families towards their ‘social inferiors’ (Jane was rather upset that her teenage employees were not acting as she thought they should be) and concerns about infant health and mortality.

North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society

Gem 4 looked at “settlers of a different kind” with records from the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society from 1869-84. The Society was formed to bring over animal and plant species “likely to be of use” for the new colony. As well as bringing over species like sparrows, blackbirds, rabbits, and possums, they exchanged native NZ species overseas as well.

One of the less environmentally destructive species they brought across was the ‘humblebee’ (bumblebees) to Canterbury, intended to pollinate red clover on the plains. The Society was very pleased that the humble bumblebee quickly took to Canterbury. Their introduction of European birds was so successful that they were soon exporting them to Australia for our West Island friends’ own acclimatisation efforts (an interesting trans-Tasman link). Sparrows in particular were so "successful" they became seen as a pest by local grain farmers and the was sparrow declared a pest, and the Society itself coming under fire for their work.

New Zealand Expeditionary Force in World War I - Diaries

Gem 5 drew on some diary accounts from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in World War I. Private Herbert Harold Stevens’ diary gave a great account of soldiers’ lives before they got to the front. He wrote about his experiences in Cairo, visiting the Pyramids and Sphinx, and the Cairo bazaars. He also wrote about the trip from Egypt to France crammed into the hold of the ship.

The second diary was from Cecil Malthus, who was a prolific writer to his fiancée Hazel. He wrote of his feelings before combat, the experience of combat and being wounded – trying to underplay things and not worry his fiancée and family, seemingly unworried about the threat of amputation for his wounded foot. Cecil survived the war and returned to marry Hazel.

Radiant Health Society

Gem 6 was from the records of the Radiant Health Society from 1933-50. This was one of the many odd little societies from Christchurch’s past and shows our city as a hotspot of weird little (and not so little) social movements. ‘Radiant Health’ came from California, and the society focused on the “study and practice of Christian psychology and diet”.

It was sponsored by Thomas J. Edmonds (of the baking company) and their hall became the Repertory Theatre on Kilmore Street. The Society held various talks on topics that became increasingly strange and pseudo-scientific, and it all sounded slightly culty, but was a great insight into some of the weirder history of our city.

New Zealand Settler’s Club

Gem 7 was from the minutes of the New Zealand Settler’s Club, a group of organised migrants from the UK from 1968-1978. Among other things, they had regular social gatherings in Christchurch and we got to hear in excruciating detail about the traumatic events of the 1977 New Year’s Eve Party where [redacted] was very rude to other members and caused quite the stir. Oh, the intensity and savagery of incredibly petty and pointless personal disputes!

Sadly, we ran out of time for any more fresh finds from the archives, but we were invited to have a look at the original materials on display in the Research Room. There is of course “a wealth of stuff that waits to be discovered” in the Archives here at Tūranga but this session was a great snapshot at the range of materials that can be found within.

Find out more

More WORD Christchurch

Our WORD Christchurch 2024 coverage - Library staff report back from WORD sessions
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