An Elderly Visitor to Port Lyttelton

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Continuing to enjoy her 83 year working career, the 49 metre floating crane Hikitea arrived in the port at 1.35 am on the 5th of June, 2009.

Departing from her home port of Wellington for the first time since her 82 day delivery voyage from Glasgow in 1926, the Hikitea will spend a week at Lyttelton, undergoing hull plate replacement and tailshaft repairs in the graving dock.


Owned by the Maritime Heritage Trust since 2006, the 746 ton floating crane was built by Sir William Arrol and Company Ltd, whose greatest claim to fame is probably the 1894 construction of London's iconic Tower Bridge.

Photo credit: Second photograph Kiwi Frenzy On Location, third to fifth photographs Cranes Today Magazine

Early Christchurch Electric Vehicles

The diasporical and widely appreciated The New Zealand Journal has recently featured a short post entitled Christchurch City Council Belt-Tightening?, in which it's wondered if there might be any advantage to the Council ordering up from storage its electric truck fleet from the early 1920s, which could have the advantage of enabling the Council to meet its greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The post includes this Alexander Turnbull Library image by The Press newspaper photographer Samuel Heath Head.


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By 1915 the Council's Municipal Electricity Department in Armagh Street was charging car batteries overnight, when cheaper off-peak rates were offered between 10 pm and 7 am. The two 100 Kilowatt generators were driven by a pair of steam engines powered by the Council's refuse destructor. In 1921, at the peak of their popularity, the M.E.D. was charging the batteries of 51 vehicles, of which 40 were privately owned, with the other 11 belonging to the Council. The City Council's Municipal Electricity Department even offered hire-purchase agreements to assist companies and individuals to purchase electric vehicles.


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In this elevated westerly view of Bealey Avenue near the Carlton Mill Bridge can be seen the city's entire fleet of electric vehicles. The photograph can be dated to 1926 by the construction of the extent Fleming House at the corner of Park Terrace (Left).


Above: photographed on Park Terrace is the circa 1922 American Walker electric lorry of Wardell Brothers, the Cashel Street Grocers. To the Left is the extant 1915 Summers house. Below: also at the same location is the electric lorry of Sharpe Brothers, aerated water and cordial manufacturers. Both of these photographs were also taken by Samuel Heath Head.



Photo credits:

1926 electric vehicle fleet; Municipal Electricity Department archive, Orion New Zealand Ltd

Sharpe Brothers lorry; Alexander Turnbull Library, reference number: 1/1-011062-G

Wardell Brothers lorry; Alexander Turnbull Library, reference number: 1/1-007411-G

Christchurch Radio - 85 Years

On this day, the 11th of August, in 1923, the Christchurch Radio Society, which had been founded in 1921, began broadcasting in Christchurch with station 3AC.

In 1925, the Radio Broadcasting Company of New Zealand was floated in Christchurch and in 1926 began transmitting as station 3YA. from the extant A. R. Harris building on Gloucester Street (above)

It had two steel 49 metre (154 feet) transmission towers built on and alongside it which were Christchurch landmarks for 70 years. The station began with a 500 watt output and operated on a wave length of 405 metres.

In 1932, the station was taken over by the Government, and is now known as the Radio National Concert Program. The Harris building has been the centre of State broadcasting in Christchurch ever since.

The original 3YA Radio Studio

Mortgagee Sale for Christchurch Apartments

Three apartments in the Parkbridge apartment complex on Park Terrace will go under the hammer in a mortgagee auction.

Parkbridge was built by developers Sharon Bartlett and Murray Blackmore, who bought the historic site on the corner of Park Terrace and Bealey Avenue in 2002. Murray Blackmore, husband of former Christchurch City councillor Paddy Austin is a shareholder.

The complex has 19 apartments in three buildings; the historic 1912 McKellar and 1926 Fleming houses and a new building linking the two.

The total indebtedness is unknown, but a finance company is owed $2m under a mortgage over just one of the apartments.

Bartlett and Blackmore are also selling Daresbury, their 1901 Fendalton mansion (below).

Updates:

Fancy city flats fail to sell - The Press, 09 May 2008

Park Terrace Apartments Ltd put into liquidation by IRD - The Press, 22 July 2008

Developer's empire unravels: The Press, 26 July 2008