Sumner, New Zealand

John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury, after whom the suburb is named

Captain Thomas named the settlement for Bishop John Bird Sumner, one of the leading members of the Canterbury Association.[1]

The Ngai Tahu name for the beach between Cave Rock (Tuawera) and Scarborough is Matuku Tako Tako.[2][1] This name has been used by both the state primary school and the city libraries.

A. W. Reed gives the Māori name for the area is Ohikaparuparu ("o" means place of; "hika" means rubbing, kindling, or planting; "paruparu" means dirt, deeply laden, or a preparation of fermented cockles).[3] However, J. F Menzies indicates this name is associated with a settlement on the shores of the estuary between Redcliffs and Mt Pleasant and prefers an alternative translation of "The place where sticks were rubbed together to make a fire with which to cook cockles in preparation for a journey".[4] Andersen places this name on the beach at the mouth of the estuary, near Shag Rock (Rapanui).[2] James Cowan, retelling Sir Maui Pomare, indicates this name applies to the estuary shallows and means "fall in the mud".[5]

Plan of Sumner, November 1849, by Edward Jollie

Sumner was surveyed in 1849 by Edward Jollie for Captain Joseph Thomas, the advanced agent of the Canterbury Association. Jollie's November 1849 map showed 527 sections and numerous reserved and provisions for churches, schools, cemeteries, town hall, emigration barracks and other town amenities. However, his plans were abandoned through lack of funds and a new survey on which Sumner is based was carried out in 1860.

The first European to carry out work in Sumner is believed to be Charles Crawford, a whaleboat owner, who transported materials from Port Cooper, now Lyttelton, under contract to build the headquarters and storeroom for Captain Thomas. Sumner was settled in late 1849 or early 1850 by work crews building the road to Lyttelton, Sumner is thus one of the oldest European settlements in the Christchurch area. The Day family was the first to settle permanently in Sumner followed by Edward Dobson and his family.

Dobson's house, on left (pencil sketch, 1865)

Sumner had its first shop early in 1870, and its proprietor, S.E. Horneman, was postmaster from 1873 until 1876.

In 1872, it came under the control of the Heathcote Road District. When provincial councils were disestablished in 1876 and replaced with counties, Sumner had a second parent body, the Selwyn County added to the continuing road board.[6] In 1883, Sumner was constituted as a town district and was run by a board of five elected commissioners.[7] The board elected its own chairmen, and the two people who filled that role were C. L. Wiggins (March 1883 – September 1884) and J. M. Wheeler (September 1884 – June 1891).[8] On 1 June 1891, Sumner was proclaimed a borough.[9] Mayoral elections were held on 27 June, and the last chairman was elected the first Mayor of Sumner.[10]

In 1885 the Harbour Board granted the concession to build a bath at the East end of Sumner beach. S.L. Bell enclosed some of the sea, built dressing sheds and a tea shop. The bathing pool was a great attraction but every year terrific storms would batter the bath and gradually dump fine sand. Eventually a flood filled the bath with clay and silt from the hills causing its closure.

In 1912 Sumner established its own gasworks and electricity was connected in 1918.[11] The Anglican evangelical leader William Orange was vicar of Sumner from 1930–1945.[12]

On 22 February 2011, Sumner was hit by the Christchurch earthquake, which destroyed or made uninhabitable a large number of the local houses and commercial buildings. On 13 June the same year, Sumner was hit by another earthquake of almost the same magnitude as the February event. These two earthquakes caused many of Sumner's iconic cliffs to collapse, and many areas to be cordoned off with both traditional fences and shipping containers.

Black Map of Sumner township from November 1849, produced by Edward Jollie for chief surveyor Joseph Thomas

Sumner is nestled in a coastal valley separated from the adjacent city suburbs by rugged volcanic hill ridges that end in cliffs that descend to the sea shore in places. Sumner Bay is the first bay on the northern side of Banks Peninsula and faces Pegasus Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

Because of its ocean exposure, a high surf can form in some swell conditions. The beach is gently sloping, with fine grey sand. It is a popular surf beach for these reasons.

Sand dunes have filled the river valley behind the beach. This has made housing construction relatively easy, although flooding at the head of the valley has been a problem in the past due to the reverse slope caused by the sand dunes filling the front of the valley. This has been addressed by a flood drain.

A sea wall and wide esplanade have been built along the length of the beach to prevent coastal erosion.

The rocky volcanic outcrop of Cave Rock, or Tuawera dominates the beach.[13] Until the mid-1860s, this feature was known by Europeans as Cass Rock, after the surveyor Thomas Cass.[14] There are other rocky outcrops in the area and the volcanic nature of the geology is readily apparent from several of the exposed cliffs around the valley.

Shag Rock, or Rapanui, is another large volcanic outcrop at the western end of the beach and sits at the mouth of the Estuary formed by the Avon and Heathcote rivers.[15] This landmark was shattered by the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011, which reduced the iconic rock to a pile of boulders.[15]

Sumner bar

Sumner Beach from Cave Rock

The Sumner Bar is a sand bar where the estuary meets the sea and is notoriously dangerous to cross.[16][17] The outlet of the Avon Heathcote Estuary, at the western end of the beach, forms the Sumner bar off shore of Cave Rock. The Sumner bar presents a major hazard to shipping, while the fast currents, strong rips and undertows in the area can be a danger to swimmers.

In December 1854, Commander Byron Drury, in HMS Pandora, surveyed the Sumner Bay, including the bar and mouth of the Avon-Heathcote Estuary for the Canterbury Provincial Council. Drury wrote a report and produced a detailed chart of the area, with soundings.[18] Commander Drury's 1854 chart locates several buildings on shore, including a store at the foot of the hill in Clifton Bay, Day's house, which is set well back from the foreshore on a bend in the road, as it turns away from the foot of Clifton hill, and Dobson's house, which is shown at end of the spur at the foot of Richmond Hill. Compared to a modern-day map, the Day's house would have been near the corner at the top end of Nayland Street while Dobson's house would be near the intersection of Nayland Street and Wakefield Avenue.

The earliest recorded accident crossing the Sumner Bar occurred in May 1845 when a whaleboat capsized, without loss of life.[17] The earliest recorded loss of life was in 1851 when a dinghy capsizes and two men aboard drowned.[19] The cutter Hawk broke up crossing the Sumner Bar in rough weather at the end of June 1851 and wrecked on the beach, though the crew survived, the cargo was plundered.[20] Fifteen more vessels were recorded as stranding on the bar between 1851 and 1867, with 7 being total losses.[17][21]

One regular vessel crossing the bar in the early days was the Mullogh, New Zealand's first iron hulled steamer. On 25 August 1865 the Mullogh ran onto Cave Rock, Sumner, in violent surf. Her cargo of liquor created keen interest on the beach. George Holmes of Pigeon Bay, the contractor for the Lyttelton Rail Tunnel, then bought the ship, refitted and used her until 1869.[22][21]

The NZ Trawler Muriel was stranded on Sumner Beach in 1937 and was a total loss and had to be dismantled where she lay.[21]

Sumner is a focal point for the adjacent suburbs of Clifton, Richmond Hill and Scarborough. In earlier times, residents of those suburbs would often have been considered to be living in Sumner, because these suburbs have road access via Sumner or depend on services available in Sumner. Before 1945, Sumner was a separate borough from Christchurch City. Also, before seven-digit landline telephone numbering was implemented in Christchurch (late 1980s or early 1990s), telephone subscribers in these suburbs would have had a four-digit Sumner telephone exchange number.

Sumner town centre and the Sumner Tram, ca 1910

Sumner is administered by the Christchurch City Council.

The Canterbury Association initially administered Sumner, with the valley being surveyed by Edward Jollie in 1849 and he drew up a street plan in November of that year. However, the planned settlement was rejected by Godley and the land was not subdivided. When the first allocation of rural sections was made public in February 1851, rural section No.2 was allocated to Felix Wakefield.[23] This section was bounded in the North by a road along the coast, in the West by the road between Christchurch and Lyttelton, by an accommodation road against the hillside in the East and another accommodation road across the valley in the South.[23][24] The street names on the 1850 settlement plan were not used and Wakefield subdivided and leased or sold off parts of this rural section in smaller lots to create a settlement he called Wakefield Township.

After the Canterbury Association was disestablished, Sumner came under the control of the Canterbury Provincial Council. This lasted until the provinces were disestablished in 1876 and county councils were established instead. Sumner came under the jurisdiction of the Selwyn County Council initially.

A Town Board was established during the 1870s.

By the end of the 1880s Sumner had become a borough and administered the still mostly rural suburbs east of Ferrymead, including Mount Pleasant, Redcliffs, Moncks Bay, Clifton and Richmond Hill as well as the mostly undeveloped land between Scarborough and Godley Head, including Taylors Mistake.

By the 1940s, small town boroughs were becoming uneconomic and Sumner was merged with Christchurch city.

The need for a convenient route between the Port at Lyttelton and the plains settlement of Christchurch was quickly recognised by Captain Thomas, Chief Surveyor for the Canterbury Association. Settlement of flat land at Sumner was also planned at an early stage.

Sumner Lifeboat Station, Scarborough Slipway and Boat Harbour

Because of the hazard posed by the Sumner Bar, Sumner has had a lifeboat of some kind almost since its settlement. There is no record of a formal or even informal lifeboat being available prior to the appointment of a pilot in September 1864. However, it is likely that small open rowing boats were available in the bay from the early 1850s.

The Sumner Life Boat Institution has operated a formal life boat or similar rescue craft in the bay since 1898. The traditional name of Rescue has been applied to three of the life boats.

• Rita Angus (1908–1970), painter
• Edward Dobson (1816/17? – 1908), early landowner and resident
• Ruth France (1913–1968), librarian, poet and novelist
• Denis Glover (1912–1980), poet and publisher
• William M. Hodgkins (1833–1898), painter
• William Orange (1889–1966), Anglican clergyman
• Samuel Hurst Seager (1855–1933), draftsman and architect who had a subdivision of eight houses built on Clifton Spur
• Petrus Van der Velden (1837–1913), Dutch-born painter and lithographer
• Felix Wakefield (1807–1875), first landowner

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sumner, New Zealand.

• Menzies, J. F. (1941). Sumner (PDF). Christchurch: Simpson & Williams Ltd. Retrieved 31 March 2013.