Historic Christchurch House For Sale

LARGE IMAGE OPENS IN A NEW WINDOW
Bill Moorhouse (1825-1881), as he was known upon embarking for New Zealand in 1851, was a Lawyer, trans-Tasman ship owner, Editor of the Lyttelton Times, Real Estate speculator, Registrar-General of Lands, Politician, Superintendent of Canterbury, Mayor of Wellington and a Bankrupt.

Superintendent Sefton Moorhouse, as he came to prefer being known, bought 50 acres of Charlotte Jackson's Merevale Farm in the Papanui district in 1862 and proceeded to build a 21-room clapboard palazzo, which he named Merevale House. The sheer expense precipitated bankruptcy the following year, and although completed, only a substantial part of his grandiose folly survives.

Successive owners have included John Thomas Peacock, Alfred Louisson, a Samuel Butler, John and Michael Studholme, Harry and Ada Wells, Charles Todhunter, Yvette Nicholls and Murray Hunter, Andrew and Jocelyn Allison, Patrick and Jo Kerr, and Christopher and Danielle Smith since 2000. Since the later 1950s the area has become known as the salubrious suburb of Merivale (sic).

The surviving part of his home is currently being offered for sale at $995,000, but curiously the marketing blurb makes no mention of any aspect of the historical significance of the five double-bedroomed house, now on a mere 831 square metres of land, at 31 Naseby Street, Merivale.

The Real Estate Agent's Listing

Canterbury Maps

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Akaroa Harbour, Surveyed by Commander Owen Stanley (1811 – 1850) and James S. Hill of HMS Britomart, 1840

Map of the land sold by the tribe of the Ngaitahu to William Wakefield for the New Zealand Company, done at Akaroa on the 12th day of June 1848

Akaroa Harbour, surveyed by Captain J. L. Stokes, etc. H.M.S. Acheron, 1849-50

Birds eye view of proposed Christchurch Canal, 1906

Canterbury Land District. No. 6 plan shewing pastoral runs in Canterbury N.Z., 1889

Chart of Banks' Peninsula, taken by the officers of the Corvette Le Rhin, in 1844 & 1845

Christchurch, surveyed and published by Charles Edward Fooks (1829 – 1907), Architect & Surveyor, 1862

Christchurch area, 1963, showing swamps & vegetation cover. Compiled from Black Maps of 1856

Christchurch International Exhibition, plan of the site, showing levels, etc., to accompany conditions for competitive designs. George McIntyre, Surveyor, 1905

Christchurch, compiled from data supplied to the Christchurch City Council and District Drainage Board ; Thomas Stoddart Lambert (1840-1915), 1877

County of Waimairi, District Scheme. Planning maps, 1974, Part 1

County of Waimairi, District Scheme. Planning maps, 1974, Part 2

County of Waimairi, District Scheme. Planning maps, 1974, Part 3

County of Waimairi, District Scheme. Planning maps, 1974, Part 4

County of Waimairi, District Scheme. Planning maps, 1974, Part 5

Extract from the French Government chart of Banks' Peninsula, 1845

Geological map of the Provinces of Canterbury and Westland, by Julius von Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., Principal Geologist, circa 1866

Geological sections of Lyttelton and Christchurch railway tunnel, by Julius von Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., circa 1875

Mandeville and Rangiora Road District, probably by Thomas Cass, Chief Surveyor of Canterbury District (1851-1867), 1864

Maori place names of Banks Peninsula, from sketch plans supplied by Canon James W. Stack, with additional names by W.H.S. Roberts & Others. Insets: Coastline from Lakes Ellesmere to the Rakaia River, rough sketch plan by William Deans of Banks Peninsula & part of the Plains in 1845 showing the whaling stations & Riccarton, 1894

Maori reserve north of Kaiapoi, circa 1850

Map of Banks' Peninsula showing roads and physical features, circa 1924

Stone's Map of Christchurch, circa 1930

Map of Christchurch, Supplement to The Press newspaper, circa 1930

Map of Christchurch, supplement to The Press, July 11th, 1912

Christchurch and suburbs, includes advertising at top and bottom of the map, 1922

Map of Province of Canterbury, by Thomas Cass (1817-1895), 1866

Map of surveyed districts, Canterbury, drawn by A. Wills from the original map by Joseph Thomas, Chief Surveyor to the Canterbury Association, 1852. Part 1

Map of surveyed districts, Canterbury, 1852. Part 2

Map of surveyed districts, Canterbury, 1852. Part 3

Map of surveyed districts, Canterbury, 1852. Part 4

Map of surveyed districts, Canterbury, 1852. Part 5

Map of surveyed districts, Canterbury, 1852. Part 6

Map of surveyed districts, Canterbury, 1852. Part 7

Map of the city of Christchurch, 1929. Part 1

Map of the city of Christchurch, 1929. Part 2

Map of the city of Christchurch, 1929. Part 3

Map of the city of Christchurch, 1929. Part 5

Map of the city of Christchurch, 1929. Part 6

Map of the city of Christchurch, 1929. Part 7

Map of the city of Christchurch, 1929. Part 8

Map of the city of Christchurch, 1929. Part 9

Map of the colony of New Zealand from official documents, 1844

Map of the Cust Road District, 1866

Map of the Heathcote Road district, 1879

Map of the Mandeville and Rangiora Road District, circa 1880

Map of the Mount Cook Road District, 1878

Map of the Oxford Road District, 1883

Map of the Port Hills' Akaroa Summit Road and reserves, circa 1918

Map of the Province of Canterbury, New Zealand shewing the pasturage runs, circa 1860

Map of the Riccarton Road District, 1879

Middle Island, 1850

New Brighton, Christchurch, building allotments, 1899

Map of the North and Middle Islands, General Survey Office, 1889

New Zealand : Te Anau Lake to Milford Sound : tourist foot road, 1904

New Zealand : the Southern Alps : Eastern slope of Mount Cook, 1904

Part of city of Christchurch, 1926

Parts of Canterbury and Nelson, shewing the route to Hanmer hot springs, 1900

Plan of a portion of the plains of Canterbury, 1865

Plan of Christchurch and suburbs, 1879

Plan of sections in blocks I and II, Lyndon Survey District, Hanmer Plains 1899

Plan of subdivision of rural sections no. 217 and 218, circa 1903

Plan of the city of Christchurch, 1874

Plan of the city of Christchurch (Selwyn County) Canterbury, N.Z., 1883

Plan of the Lowry Peak Run, in the Amuri District, province of Nelson, circa 1854

Plan of the town of Akaroa, 1878

Plan of the town of Ashburton, 1879

Upper Waimakariri and Lake Coleridge Road Districts, circa 1880

Plan of town of Ashbourne, circa 1883

Portion of West Coast of Middle Island, New Zealand, showing route from Nelson via Buller to Hokitika, and Otira Gorge route circa 1900

Road map of the province of Canterbury, New Zealand, circa 1910

Sketch map shewing railways, South Island, 1887

Sketch of Middle Island (New Zealand) shewing the East Coast as laid down by Captain Stokes, 1850

Sketch of the harbours of Port Cooper and Port Levy November, 1842

South Westland and central portion of Southern Alps, New Zealand, circa 1900

Taununu's Pa, Ripapa Island, Lyttelton Harbour, 1872

The central portion of the Southern Alps of New Zealand, 1892

The colony of New Zealand, between 1887 and 1889

The Islands of New Zealand, 1838

The provinces of Canterbury and Westland, New Zealand during the great glacier period, circa 1875

Topographical map of Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, Westland, New Zealand, 1911

Town of Lyttelton, circa 1860

Town of Waiau, before 1866

Town, village and suburban sections Port Robinson, suburban sections Gore Bay, & parts of Blocks IX & XI, Cheviot survey district, 1894

Township of Ashburton, between 1874 and 1880

Township of Rakaia, 1874

Trigonometrical and topographical survey of the districts of Mandeville and Christchurch, 1850

Wairau plain and valley, 1849

Fleshin' Out Dem Dry Bones

Republished here for the first time since 1856 The Progress of Canterbury : A Letter Addressed to Joseph Thomas, Esq., Late Principal Surveyor and Acting Agent of the Canterbury Association is a 7,422 word pamphlet in the form of an open letter from one of the more unusual Shagroons to his long term friend; an even more unusual sort of chap.

Bob Waitt and his chum Joe Thomas arrived at Wellington in 1840. Robert Waitt (1816-1866), a 24 year old canny Scot settled at what was then known as Te Aro Beach, establishing himself as a General Merchant, Agent, Auctioneer, Importer, Exporter and Coastal Trader. Joseph Thomas (1803-1881), a former Army Captain, joined the survey staff of the New Zealand Company.

Described as an engaging character the eccentric Waitt, a Wellington Municipal Councilor by 1842, sealed his letters with a neat Dinna Forget in place of the usual crest or monogram. In 1850 he opened a branch of his business at Lyttelton and by 1854 had also leased the Motunau station from Edward Greenwood. To the North of the Waipara River, and then known as Double Corner, he renamed it Teviotdale Station (in his text Waitt refers to Motunau as Motinua).

Fellow run holder Charles Cox described him as a red-faced man with tow-like white hair, large prominent tusks of teeth, and abundant evidence of being addicted to tobacco for chewing purposes. A picturesque story-teller, his friends are said to have known him as "white-headed Bob, the liar."

At some time between 1854 and 1857 Waitt purchased the 50 acre Casterton estate in the Heathcote Valley from the Reverend Robert Paul, where he is described as a Gentleman by 1860 - a presumption that would probably have invited ridicule in his native Jedburgh. He died, aged 50, in 1866 and is buried in Christchurch's Barbadoes Street Cemetery. Survived by only one of his three children, he was thereby the grandfather of Leo Acland, author of the renowned The Early Canterbury Runs.

The ostensible recipient of Waitt's loquacious paean led the Canterbury Association's 1848 preliminary expedition. Acting as the first resident Agent and Principal Surveyor he appears to have offended many of the 110 Europeans employed in the early development of the Theocratic Utopia. Said to be overbearing, unreliable and impulsive, the large, burly and bespectacled Thomas was unable to brook advice or opposition.

The opinion of his assistant Edward Jollie was that Thomas was not altogether in his right mind, "...he had had so many losses from putting trust in other people's honesty that he had become suspicious of everyone. He was however a very honest and hard working administrator of affairs for the Association..."

Joseph Thomas' boss arrived at Lyttelton in April 1850, expressing dissatisfaction at what he considered the excessive expenditure on some of the works which Thomas had thought necessary. The eventual consequence being that Thomas left the Province in January 1851, departing the colony permanently in the following year.

Perhaps one of the least fortunate aspects of his legacy was a refusal to allow his assistant to include broad avenues and crescents in the city plan, describing them as mere "Gingerbread."

However, Waitt's contemporary perspective on the early development of the Province makes for an interesting read.

The Progress of Canterbury : A Letter Addressed to Joseph Thomas, Esq., Late Principal Surveyor and Acting Agent of the Canterbury Association

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