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Sumner Road Sumner road ordinance plan The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 1 (May 1, 1930)

Etymology

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Sumner Road was so named because it connected to a village that was founded on the other side of the hill from Lyttelton Harbour in honour of Bishop Sumner, a member of the Canterbury Association.[1][2] It is probable that Evans Pass was named after the master of the Acheron, F.J. Evans, but it is possible that the pass was named after a staff member who surveyed the Sumner Road for Thomas.[3][4]

History

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Joseph Thomas was sent by the Canterbury Association and was, for legal reasons, under contract by the New Zealand Company to establish the Canterbury settlement and prepare it for the arrival of the first settlers. Once the site of the Canterbury settlement had been fixed, the first task was to decide where to place the harbour and the chief town. Thomas as the chief surveyor was in charge, and he initially favoured Rapaki for the harbour town, and considered the head of the harbour basin near present-day Teddington as the site for the settlement's capital.[5] Very quickly, Thomas realised that reclaiming enough land to meet the desired 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) of flat land for the capital was going to be too expensive, and the site of present-day Christchurch was chosen instead.[6] Thomas intended to connect the port at Rapaki with a road from there over the hill to the Canterbury Plains.[5] Within a further week or two, it became clear that the Māori at Rapaki would not give up their land, and the harbour town was placed 2 miles (3.2 km) closer to the harbour entrance at Lyttelton. Thomas still considered a route over Rapaki Saddle, but he rejected this due to necessary land negotiations with the Māori. He then considered a route over the hill from Lyttelton which eventually became the Bridle Path. His final choice, on which he settled, was a route suggested by an officer of the survey ship Acheron, which would go along steep slopes towards a 650 feet (200 m) pass towards the harbour entrance. This was to become the start of the Sumner Road. David Monro was unconvinced that the chosen route was sensible, and the work required at the bluffs was described by him as "might be executed by a Napoleon or a King of Egypt, but hardly by the New Zealand Company".[1]

Surveyors Henry John Cridland was tasked with laying out the line of the road, and Charles Torlesse undertook the survey.[7] The first road gang of more than 50 Māori arrived from the North Island in August 1849, and thus the first highway in Canterbury was under construction. A second gang arrived in November. The formation was put in place with pick and shovel, and rock blasting was left for later, which meant that the road was initially not even useful for walking to Sumner.[8] By November 1849, Edward Jollie had laid out the village of Sumner.[8]

Of course, building the Sumner Road was only one of many tasks that had to be accomplished in preparation for the arrival of the settlers, but it proved to be the most expensive part. By January 1850, it was clear that the £20,000 budget for the overall works was insufficient. He applied to further funds from William Fox, the chief agent of the New Zealand Company, and was granted an additional £3,500.[9] To stay within his new budget, Thomas had no choice but to halt the works until further orders could be received from England, and in mid-March 1850, he laid off the road work gangs. A month later, John Robert Godley arrived from England as the chief agent of the Canterbury Association. Whilst he was delighted with progress, he was distressed to find that more money had been spent already than originally allocated. Godley ordered all remaining work to stop immediately, and within days went to Wellington, where he awaited further orders.[10] An estimated further £7,000 were needed to complete Sumner Road over the hill.[11] It was not before early November 1850 that Godley received further dispatches from England, but they did not clarify the financial situation. As news had arrived that the first ships with settlers had been due to leave England in August of that year, Godley guaranteed a further £5,000 from his own assets for work to be able to resume.[12] Godley left for Christchurch by the end of November, and much of the work resumed, which included the survey of the road from Heathcote to Christchurch.[13] There was, however, no chance to complete the Sumner Road over Evans Pass in time, and a road gang was tasked to scratch out a rough alternative track over the hill. The name of this Bridle Path was deceptive, as it was not easy for a man on a horse, and it was challenging for people on foot. It was unfinished before the settlers arrived between 16 and 27 December 1850; no further work was undertaken on the Sumner Road for the time being.[14]

A Lyttelton and Christchurch Road commission was formed to evaluate options for a connection between the port and Christchurch. The commission was chaired by the civil engineer William Bray, and others on the committee were the surveyor Henry John Cridland, engineer Edward Dobson, engineer Richard James Strachan Harman, and surveyor Edward Jollie. The commission investigated four options:[15]

  1. building a port at the Avon Heathcote Estuary – this was rejected as too expensive
  2. building an open road over the Port Hills – four different alignments were considered, with crossings from Evans Pass in the east to Rapaki in the west, and of those only the Evans Pass alignment was suggested for further consideration
  3. building a road that crosses the Port Hills in a tunnel – two alignments were considered (one connecting Lyttelton with the valley where the Bridle Path descends into the Heathcote Valley, and the other a tunnel beneath Evans Pass), with the second recommend for further consideration
  4. two railway tunnels were considered – the first of these would not make a connection to Lyttelton but come out at Gollans Bay closer towards Godley Head, with the second alignment a much longer tunnel connecting the Heathcote Valley directly with Lyttelton; whilst the commission was unanimously in favour of the former tunnel, they did not investigate it in much detail as it did not fulfil their brief, and they recommended the longer tunnel for further consideration

"The Sumner Road was completed in 1858, but the notorious zig-zag near the top of Evans Pass, on the Lyttelton side, was not eliminated until 1920."[16]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Hight & Straubel 1957, p. 122.
  2. ^ Reed 2010, p. 379.
  3. ^ Reed 2010, p. 118.
  4. ^ Harper, Margaret (20 February 2014). "Christchurch Place Names: A - M" (PDF). Christchurch City Libraries. p. 91. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  5. ^ a b Hight & Straubel 1957, p. 120.
  6. ^ Hight & Straubel 1957, p. 120, 122.
  7. ^ Hight & Straubel 1957, pp. 122f.
  8. ^ a b Hight & Straubel 1957, p. 123.
  9. ^ Hight & Straubel 1957, p. 125.
  10. ^ Hight & Straubel 1957, p. 126.
  11. ^ Hight & Straubel 1957, p. 128.
  12. ^ Hight & Straubel 1957, p. 129.
  13. ^ Hight & Straubel 1957, pp. 129f.
  14. ^ Hight & Straubel 1957, p. 130.
  15. ^ "Report". Lyttelton Times. Vol. IV, no. 172. 22 April 1854. p. 14. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
  16. ^ Chapter 3: Transport

References

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  • Hight, James; Straubel, C. R. (1957). A History of Canterbury : to 1854. Vol. I. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.
  • Reed, A. W. (2010). Peter Dowling (ed.). Place Names of New Zealand. Rosedale, North Shore: Raupo. ISBN 978-0-14-320410-7.
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