Herriott. — lliafory of llngh'n Park. 427 



Art. XXXVIII. — A History of Hagley Park, Chrislchurch, ivith 



Special Reference to its Botany. 



By Miss E. M. Herriott, M.A., Biological Laboratory, Canterbury College. 



[Bead brfore the New Zealand Institute, at Christrhurrh, Ith^Sth February, IVHJ ; 

 received by Editor, 7th April, 1919 ; issued separately, 19th Aucjust, 1919 ] 



Contents. 



Page 

 Introductiou - - - • • • • • . . 427 



Size and BoundarioH of the Park . . 



Early Histor^y 



History of the J)otiiaiii 



The Historic Trees of the Domain 



Buildings in tlie Domain 

 History of the Park 

 The Soil of Hagley Park 

 The Plant t'overinsz 



Introduction. 



428 

 429 

 431 

 433 

 43.0 

 435 

 437 

 43S 



Those wbo gain the sumniit of the Port Hills by means of the Bridle-path 

 and look across the Canterbury Plains as they appear to-day can have little 

 idea of the appearance they presented to the first Europeans who gazed 

 upon them from a similar vantage-point in the " forties " of last century. 

 They then spread out in a wide stretch of flat country " clothed with 

 abundance of good pasture, singularly deficient in timber."* Isolated 

 patches of forest were to be seen at Riccarton, Papanui, Kaiapoi, and 

 Rangiora. The Papanui Bush has long since, disappeared, but the Riccar- 

 ton Bush still stands, solitary remnant of the famous white-pine {Podocarpus 

 dacrndioides) association, the site of the future city was more or less a 

 swamp, interrupted in various parts by shingle-beds and sand-dunes, 

 through which the little river Avon, then variously known as Teonotopo or 

 Potoringamotu, wound its way amidst a thick growth of Phormium, nigger- 

 heads, and raupo. 



The first permanent settlers on the Plains were the Deans brothers, 

 who arrived in 1842 and decided to settle just on the fringe of the now 

 well-known Riccarton Bush. An account of their first journey gives some 

 idea of the general appearance of the early vegetation covering this district. 

 The journey was made up the river from its mouth in a whaleboat as far 

 as " The Bricks," near the present Barbadoes Street Bridge. From that 

 point a Maori canoe conveyed the party to the bend in the river close to 

 the present Riccarton Road. During the whole river journey the canoe 

 had to be forced through a thick growth of vegetation by pulling on the 

 flax and niggerheads. When the little party left the river a path had to be 

 made through the dense " entanglement of fern, tutu, tussock, bramble, 

 Spaniards, and other native growth, nearly breast-high. "f Such was the 

 virgin state of the land on which the new city was to be built. 



* Handbook for Ncir Zealand, by a late Magistrate, p. 326, 1848. 

 t Canterbury Old and New, p. 50, 1900. 



