Ashburton Borough Centenary/The Ashburton Post Office

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Perhaps it is symbolic that the first building in Ashburton—Turton’s Accommodation House—was also the first Post Office, so although the Borough is 100 years old this year, the Post Office services have been in force for 120 years. On May 1st 1858, the first mail contractor on the run between Christchurch and Timaru, Mr W. Bain, carried out his inaugural delivery. He was employed to carry the mail fortnightly, starting from Christchurch every alternate Wednesday and returning from Timaru the following Wednesday, weather permitting. He rode on horseback, following a single plough furrow and using small strips of white calico tied to manuka bushes to guide through the swamps at Tinwald. He forded the rivers across his path. He also managed to acquire a collection of merchandise which he sold at a handsome profit when he reached Turton’s with the mail. William Turton was Ashburton’s first Postmaster.

A year or so later, a Mr Manning took over the contract, but Mr Bain returned to work with him. Perhaps he missed his lucrative trading connection at Turton’s!

Another stage was reached in 1864, when Cobb and Co’s coaches took over the contract on a two day service, and this continued for 10 years till the railway went through in 1874. Meanwhile, the Postmaster changed, Mr John Turton taking over from his brother on August 1st, 1868, and continuing till the telegraph service came to Ashburton in 1871. A telegraphist, Mr Docherty, was then appointed Postmaster and remained so for six and a half years, at the same time carrying out his fault-repair work on the telegraph line.

The next man appointed to this position was W. St. George Douglas, an extremely popular man in the district, who remained Postmaster for 20 years. In 1873, a money-order and savings-bank section was introduced. Delivery of mail by a daily postman was instituted in July, 1878. The “Evening Echo” which preceded the “Ashburton Guardian” voiced its appreciation of the postman “clad in full uniform of blue faced with red” who would in future save people so much time in not having to go to the Post Office and perhaps wait till their mail was sorted. Mail services to Wakanui and Seafield were started the same day.

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​In 1895, a telephone exchange was opened with 79 subscribers, attendance from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays only. A seven-day week continuous service was not introduced till 1921.

Before the advent of rural mail deliveries by car, as in present times, most railway stations had a postal department that received mail from, and posted it to, other parts of the country for the Postmaster.

Fire Damaged First Post Office

The first Post Office in Ashburton was a wooden building on a site in East Street about where the telephone exchange is now and opposite the railway station. No date is known when it was erected. The Postmaster and his family also lived in it and a fire which broke out in the washhouse in 1900 destroyed part of the Post Office and probably hastened its demise. The Borough Council on April 2nd, 1900, passed a motion to ask the Ministry of Public Works to provide a suitable new premises for the Post and Telegraph Office at Ashburton instead of repairing the damaged one. The Minister agreed in reply that a new one might be necessary. The Postmaster-General informed the Council that tenders were being called for a new Ashburton Post Office on a site opposite Baring Square East.

On January 21st, 1901, at 11 a.m. the Hon. J. G. Ward, Postmaster-General, laid the foundation stone and was presented with a silver trowel by the Council. On the piece of parchment placed beneath the stone were the names of the architect, John Campbell, P. W. D., Peter Hyndmann, Contractor, W. H. Renner, Postmaster, Hugo Friedlander, Mayor, Charles E. Fooks, Town Clerk. The new one-penny Universal postage stamp was placed on a second piece of parchment and, along with some current coins and a copy of “The Lyttelton Times” and “The Ashburton Guardian” placed under the foundation stone. After 64 years in a good state of preservation, the stamp was framed—to be placed in the next new Post Office in 1965, along with the original parchment and coins.

The total cost of the 1901 Post Office, constructed of bricks faced with Oamaru stone, was £4,500, and it was opened for business 11 months later, on Monday, November 18th, 1901. The old wooden building was sold to W. Page, Builder and Contractor, for £100 at the end of November.

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​After much discussion between the Borough Council and the Post Office authorites, a letter came on June 9th, 1902, saying that Cabinet had decided to put a clock in the tower on the Ashburton Post Office, provided that the Council contributed a cheque for £375. The cheque was duly sent and the clock arrived on January 18th, 1904. Installation began. Robilliard and Son’s tender for its winding and maintenance was accepted by the Council. The Borough Clock was to cease chiming when the Post Office Clock was started. The Mayoress, Mrs Davis, performed the ceremony of starting the clock on February 4th, 1904.

By 1938, Ashburton’s rise in population had demonstrated that the Post Office was now too small for the volume of business that passed through it. Sketch plans were drawn up for a £16,000 building to accommodate all the necessary areas of Post and Telegraph business, but the project was stillborn in spite of urgent representations from Mr H. E. Herring, M.P.

In January, 1944, the Postmaster-General informed the Council that the Post Office tower would be removed because of earthquake risk and the consequent danger to life and property. Would the Council please take charge of the chiming clock which belonged to the people of Ashburton? Two years later when tenders were being called for the demolition of the tower, a public meeting protested against this removal, pointing out that Ashburton was not in an earthquake region. The protest fell on deaf ears, and F. Crum and Son started the work on February 18th, 1946.

A new automatic telephone exchange was built in East Street next to the Post Office in 1957. The old manual telephones were replaced in town and country. The Hon. R. G. Gerard, Minister of Lands and M.P. for the Ashburton Electorate declared it open on October 4th, 1957, made the last call on the manual system and the first on the automatic. The Exchange had cost £370,000. Other speakers at the ceremony were the Mayor (Mr A. A. McDonald), the County Chairman (Mr E. T. ​Grigg) and Mr L. O. Tyrell (Regional Engineer for the Post and Telegraph Department).

After 64 years of service a larger Post Office became necessary to serve Ashburton’s growing numbers (12,900), and the once handsome building of brick and Oamaru stone was demolished by Burnett’s Motors. J. E. Collins and Company designed a new building and the Fletcher Construction Company Limited erected it at a contract price of £104,346. The laying of the foundation stone was performed by the Hon. R. G. Gerard on November 22nd, 1963. Other speakers were the Mayor, Mr J. Davidson, the County Council Chairman, Mr R. E. Buick, and Mr K. C. Cooper, President of the Ashburton Rotary Club and Vice-President of the Ashburton R.S.A. A canister containing New Zealand coins, a set of current New Zealand stamps, a copy of the Post Office Report for the year ending March 31, 1963, a list of permanent officers of the Post Office and copies of newspapers, was placed behind the foundation stone as a record of the ceremony.

The building, in reinforced concrete to harmonise with its neighbour, the automatic exchange, was built to accommodate another storey if it ever became necessary. The Postmaster-General, Mr W. J. Scott, performed the opening ceremony on September 7th, 1965, at 12.30 p.m.

Facilities Adequate

Today in the Centennial Year of the Borough, the building still appears adequate. The main extensions of service have been in establishing satellite automatic exchanges in country areas, starting with Westerfield, 26th June, 1965; Willowby, 1st June, 1968; Wakanui, 7th July, 1970; Winchmore, 16th October, 1970; Highbank, 17th December, 1971; Chertsey, 19th May, 1972; Mt. Somers and Springburn, 10th August, 1973; Methven, 2nd May, 1975; and the last one was opened for Rakaia and Dorie, 22nd June, 1977.

The fact that Tinwald’s Post Office has had its Centennial this year, is not so well known. The original Post Office was combined with a store in Graham’s Road on the property now occupied by Mr T. A. Lane. Following an office for many years in the Railway Station, now a porcelain door-handle is one of its few remains. In the shopping block at Tinwald, a modern Post ​Office functions to carry on a tradition of public service. The Centenary was celebrated on January 2nd, 1978, eight months earlier than the Borough’s birthday.

Postal business, in Tinwald, commenced on January 2nd, 1878, in a General Store run by Joseph Beswick. It was transferred to the Railway Station in 1883, when a Stationmaster, who was also a telegraphist, was appointed. After Tinwald’s amalgamation with the Borough, the Council prevailed upon the Postal Department for improved postal facilities at Tinwald, and thus, in 1962, a modern Post Office was opened in Bryant’s shopping centre.

Besides Tinwald, the Ashburton Post Office (Postmaster, E. H. G. Breach) controls Hampstead, Chertsey and the Ashburton West Post Office. Yet it still has not been designated a “chief post office.”

Over the past century, the Borough Council has asked many times for its promotion, yet it still operates under Christchurch. Maybe this will be its destiny in the second century.