Author: Ian

Saddle Hill Hotel

Saddle Hill Hotel
(9 miles from Dunedin)
Ewan McColl……..Proprietor
First class wines and spirits.
(N.B. Good stabling and paddock accommodation)
This was the advertisement in the Otago Witness in 1864.
Little is known about the early history of this hotel but it appears that Ewan M’Coll was killed in an accident when he was a young man. The next owner was James Purvis and an early photograph shows the building marked ‘James Purvis Hotel’, and on the Dunedin side there is an extension marked ‘Oats and Chaff’. There was no balcony or iron work but three sash windows upstairs and two windows and a centre door at ground level. Behind the hotel the large hump of Saddle Hill can be seen, with bush right down to the present Saddle Hill road.
By 1851 the route round Saddle Hill had been established as the main road to the south and by 1859 it was metalled as far as Taieri Ferry. On 12 January 1961 James McIntosh, Otago’s pioneer coachman set out from Dunedin to drive the mail coach for the first time as far as the Clutha Ferry.
Saddle Hill and Lookout Point were two of the trouble spots on the south road. Passengers had to walk up Saddle Hill and to steady the coach for the downward journey, a skid, fastened to a chain, was placed  under the back wheel.
A passenger commenting on early coaching days writes ‘How Carmichael managed to get his four horse team safely round the exposed places on Lookout Point and Saddle Hill I cannot tell. I turned my head or shut my eyes while he, standing up with the whip and voice, urged them past danger.’
In the early days there was a small settlement further down the hill called The Junction where the road branches off across the Plain. Here in 1869 Sydney Turnbull opened a store and bakery and in his large brick ovens he continued to make bread for several years to supply his second store at the corner of Bush and Gordon Roads. There was a blacksmith, wheelwright and saddler and also Steadman’s Hotel which was a stopping place for coaches. Near here was the toll-house which for some years was in the charge of ‘Cheekie” McKenzie, who had an iron hook over an injured hand.
Mr R W Stevenson whose great grandfather Robert Stevenson came out in the Philip Laing has lived in the former Saddle Hill Hotel with his family since 1957. He has made it more comfortable inside and where he raised the back about three feet to brighten the kitchen he has matched the timber carefully with the skill of a craftsman. He is proud of his old hotel but although he has had all the materials for some time to repaint it he has been unable to do so. – “More Taieri Buildings” 1972 by Daphne Lemon.

Salisbury Property

Donald Reid was ambitious, disciplined, far-sighted and a hard worker. He was born on a farm in Fifeshire, Scotland and it had always been his ambition to own his own farm.
With his two young brothers and his widowed mother, who had just remarried, he arrived at Port Chalmers in 1849. He was fifteen years old. In two years’ time he was grazing his own bullocks at Breadalbane, North Taieri. Before he took up 62,000 acres at ‘Salisbury’ in 1857, he had gained experience at the Valpy Farm at Forbury and had also operated his own farm at Caversham for two years, where he had succeeded in bringing swamp land into cultivation.
By 1857 there were clay-walled thatched roofed cottages sparsely dotted round the foothills of North Taieri well above the swamp of the central plain. Reid built a peesy (or pise [with e acute]) which was his highland name for the Australian named wattle and daub cottage. He brought the water supply right to the cottage with a tap on the verandah. He called his property ‘Salisbury’, as the hills reminded him of Arthur’s Seat and the Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh. Gradually the wilderness of high fern, manuka scrub and flax became a model farm: the flax and fern roots were broken up by ploughing with oxen; bricks were burnt on the property to build accommodation for the men; shelter belts of blue gums, macrocarpus, wattles and pinus insignis, ornamental trees such as poplars, weeping willows and hawthorn hedges were planted, and a plantation of gum trees were started with seed from Australia. ‘Salisbury’ was almost a self-contained community where most of their requirements were produced, including candles and soap. By 1865 the change from grain growing to sheep grazing had been made and it became one of the best grazing estates in Otago, splendidly watered and well sheltered with belts of trees.
When gold was discovered in 1861, Reid made a bargain with his men. They agreed not to abandon their farm duties for the goldfields until their important summer work was over. In return, Reid supplied transport, equipment and supplies for three months whilst they worked a claim together. This claim brought them more than their usual share of luck. Reid also ran a carting business to the diggings taking farm produce and stores, making a trip each way every week with a bullock dray.
… The first Mrs Donald Reid died in 1868 and he married Mrs Price in 1874.
… Donald Reid was one of the outstanding men on the Taieri and in Otago. His interests were wide including farming, transport, Harbour Board, politics and the development of industry and local affairs. He served continuously on road boards and school committees and donated the glebe of 10 acres on which the North Taieri Church and manse stand; he was instrumental in the passing of some early land Acts and in Sir H. Atkinson’s government, after the Abolition of the Provinces in 1876 he was Minister of Lands and Public Works. When he retired from public life in 1878 he commenced the business of auctioneer and stock and station agent which … developed into the … large concern.
His journey of 24 miles to Dunedin and back each day involved three to four hours’ travel in all weathers, part of it in an open buggy. in 1911 Reid made the decision to sell ‘Salisbury’ and the following year it was purchased by Mr L C Hazlett who retained the flat land for grazing his race horses and built the four cottages between ‘Salisbury’ and the North Taieri Church.
From 1945 to 1965 Mr E C S Falconer of Dunedin owned the property… The present owners are Mr and Mrs P O McDonnell. To maintain the ‘Salisbury property in its former condition would be costly and a great deal of work. Young Mr and Mrs J W Penno [who] now live in the house… – “Taieri Buildings” 1970 by Daphne Lemon

Whare Flat School

Starting from a whare of stones, built by Mr Birnie in 1857 at the junction of Whare Creek and the Silverstream, the settlement at Whare Flat consisted manly of Scots, nearly all of whom spoke Gaelic. The first school opened in 1868 in a ‘but’ and ‘ben’ with Mr Neil McLeod as the teacher. The earliest roll call has a strong highland flavour: Macmillans, McQuilkans, Camerons, Kays, McDoalds, McInnesses, McLachlans, Jollys, McKenies, Leishmans, Pages, McRaes, McIntyres, Andersons, Hays, Thomsons, Rollinsons, Lambs, Lennies, Dodds, Gilchrists.
Later, the present wooden schoolhouse and school were built and Mr Robert Leishman, who owned the only bullock dray in the valley carted all the timber. This one-class, sole-charge school had 42 pupils at one time before it closed in 1943 and the pupils came from as far as Strath-Taieri and boarded in the valley during the week. The building was the centre of social, educational and religious life of the community and on Sundays public worship was held there by preachers from Knox Church and later from North Taieri Church, with Dr Stuart presiding on special occasions.
The first southern exit from Dunedin was by Halfway Bush along the Silverstream to North Taieri so that this settlement, with its two flax-mills and rope works, was until about 1860 a busy highway. Travellers would be mainly on foot, carrying heavy loads as bullocks and horses were scarce. Stock for the farms was driven this way from Port Chalmers and Dunedin where it was landed from Australia and thousands of sheep passed each year at shearing time to and from the woolshed on Flagstaff. About 100 diggers set to work on the surrounding hills when gold was discovered at Darkie’s Gully and there was said to be an illicit still at Powder Creek. In the mid 1870s however, the Dunedin Corporation took over the whole area as a watershed and the settlers gradually moved out as the trees were planted. – “Taieri Buildings” 1970 by Daphne Lemon

Horseshoe Bush

South of Lake Waihola in the region known as Waihola Gorge, a road branches off the Main South Road by the brick Ewing Phosphate Company building. At the end of this, a left-hand turn marked ‘Drivers Road. No Exit’ leads to this stable where Mr P J Heffernan, owner of Horseshoe Bush Estate since 1967 keeps his racehorses.
This stable, completed in 1884 with stone from the hill behind, took two years to build and consists of 12 stalls, 2 loose boxes, living quarters for two men, harness and storage rooms. The concrete floor laid over 18 inches of blue metal hammered into the swamp ground, the joinery by Mr Littlejohn of Milton and the masonry by Mr Lothian of Burnside are still in excellent condition; and the original spouting and Scotch iron roofing are still there. …
… It was built for Henry Driver who, born in the U.S.A. came to Otago as a youth from the Australian gold diggings. A merchant in Dunedin, he served on the first City Council and the Provincial Council and for a number of years was the member for Roslyn in the House of Representatives. …
… in 1884 he retired from public life. With the eye of a perfectionist, he supervised the completion of the stable and the area adjacent to it was divided into eight 22-acre paddocks with hawthorn hedges, each one with a heavy oregon gate with a number. …
… W H Valpy [when he] settled on the property in 1853, calling it ‘Horseshoe Bush’. …
… Another point of interest at ‘Horseshoe Bush’ is the ‘mound’, Waihola Gorge (now Clarendon) cemetery, which is on top of the knoll reached through a gate where the road marked Circle Hill joins the Clarendon-Berwick road. There are several unmarked graves, but names of several well-known families and people in the area can be read on the remaining tombstones. These include Yorston, Young, Bell, Fryer, Sinclair, Sutherland, Craigie, Donald McMaster, Rev. John McNicol and H B Flett. – “More Taieri Buildings” by Daphne Lemon, 1972.

Thomson’s Wairongoa Water

Mr A C B Thomson lifted a moss-covered piece of wood from the track and exposed an iron pipe from which water poured into a small tank set in the ground. I gasped slightly as I swallowed the first mouthful. ‘It’s fizzy and tastes like the Tonic you have with gin.’ The water contains carbon dioxide, 99.5 per cent pure, soda, iron and many trace elements. ‘This could be a spa like those in the Black Forest but it’s much more beautiful here, I think. … There are ten natural springs in 100 yards along the track through the glade where the most surprising mixture of native and exotic trees grow together. …
… The bottling shed, where the track opens out, was built in 1894, and about six year ago was refaced with corrugated iron. Inside is a balcony with a wooden slatted front. ‘As children we used to act plays up there and the audience would sit downstairs.’ A small six-sided shed, next to this building, once housed the gasometer where the natural carbon dioxide, collected from the spring water, was used to charge the soda syphons.
Wairongoa, which means Medicine Water, was known to the Maoris and this area was first acquired by Mr John Bell who settled at Woodside. Mr Alexander Thomson purchased it from him in 1894. Bottling of the water commenced the same year in the existing shed and it was exported as far as Australia until transport and freight charges made it uneconomical. The bottling business closed down in 1939.
In this corner of North Taieri, once bare tussock, scrub, gorse and rocks, Alexander Thomson ran his farm, specialising in Clydesdales which won many prizes and championships; and he also created a beauty spot. Visitors in their thousands used to come to see the trees, spacious lawns and two splendid fountains. Trains made a special stop here. And although the bottled water was on sale in the shops, visitors were allowed to drink it on the property and to take away as much as they could carry with them. But this generosity was repaid with the most violent form of vandalism and the Thomson family were forced to close their property to the public.
Wairongoa is still closed to the public and readers are requested not to try and gain admittance. – “Taieri Buildings”, by Daphne Lemon, 1970.

Traquair property

James Reid … [after] 1854 … arrived from Scotland with his wife and two sons. His descendants have been maily responsible for developing the large well-known properties of ‘Allendale’, ‘Horsehoof’ and ‘Traquair’ on the Maungatua. Originally ‘waste land’ outside the Otago Block, this hill country grass-land was commonage for stock which farmers were allowed to use in proportion to the size of their freehold.
In 1854 the Government granted licenses for waste land, with 14 year leases costing for $10 to $20 per annum; and a tax of 6 cents a head for cattle and 1 cent for sheep. Each run was about 20,000 acres with streams for boundaries and they were mainly stocked with merino sheep.
Edward Lee, who settled at Maungatua in 1847, was one of the early run holders. From the earliest days of the Otago Settlement he gave employment to a number of new immigrants, many of whom later became well-known owners. …
… The Reids’ properties of ‘Allendale’ and ‘Horsehoof’, which was originally called ‘Harvey’s Flat’ were once part of the Fultons’ Lee Flat run; ‘Traquair’ was part of Edward Lee’s run 57 of which a considerable part was bought or leased by James Shand of Abbotsford farm.
Three Shand brothers, George, James and William, with their sister Mrs Milne came to Otago in the ‘Phoebe Dunbar’ from Inverurie, Scotland in 1850. James died shortly after and it was his son, James, who started taking up sections in 1861 to form the ‘Abbotsford’ property (Allanton Rd) which he ran as a model farm with imported modern machinery. During the next 17 years, he acquired more and more land; on the hill country by the Dunstan Road, he bought the freehold of 6,000 acres, calling it ‘Traquair’, which is now owned by Mr R J Reid. – “Taieri Buildings” 1970 and “More Taieri Buildings” 1972 each by Daphne Lemon.