Morey’s contribution to built heritage on Horomaka Banks Peninsula

Part three of a series by Carl Bonniface

Edward and Charlotte Morey had seven children, three boys and four girls. Tragically, all three boys died young, two in infancy and the third, Alfred Roelof, aged seven. His grave is in the Akaroa Anglican Cemetery. Three of the girls married mariners – Myra Martha married Captain Mello Schenkel at the Wesleyan Church in Lyttelton in February 1862. The writer of this week’s final story in the series on Edward Morey, Carl Bonniface, is descended from the Schenkel line.

When Edward Morey arrived in Akaroa in early 1864 he leased land in what is now Rue Jolie and built one of the first houses on the street. Number 109a is still there, although it has been added onto over the years and is today called “The French Rose Cottage”. The original house had two stories, minus the current bay windows, with two rooms downstairs and two upstairs accessed by a steep narrow staircase. The staircase and upstairs rooms feature wooden match lining, while the original hand sawn board and batten exterior cladding remains in good condition.

Other structures that Morey built during his 18 year stay in Akaroa were:

• 1869 a wooden Congregational Church on the site of today’s St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Le Bons Bay.

• 1872 the wooden Okains Bay School, still standing proud next to the restored St John's stone church, also built by Morey in 1863.

• 1876 the Robinsons Bay School, which has been demolished.
• 1878 the brick and stone Farr’s bridge on Rue Jolie.
• 1879 extensive repairs to Hahn’s bridge on Rue Lavaud. Both bridges are still in use today.

Morey’s business ventures in Akaroa were varied – in August 1876 he was advertising bricks for sale in the Akaroa Mail. The location of his brick kiln has been a mystery until recently – copies of the original deeds have now been sighted showing when Morey bought and sold the four acres on which the kiln was built (in the approximate location of 65 Grehan Valley Road today). The writer also has one of Morey’s bricks, identified by his initials EWM pressed into the frog before firing, albeit that this example has those initials in a different order, as in MEW.

Around the same time, Morey sank a lot of money into setting up Aotearoa New Zealand’s first oyster farm in Takamatua German Bay, which at its peak contained 252,000 oysters! He also purchased one acre of land in that bay and built two houses (where Quail Crescent is now), which he then put up for sale in September 1877. Risky ventures like these saw him bankrupted twice, first in June 1868, when he ended up as a guest in Lyttelton Gaol (the irony being that he had put in a quote to build it in late 1860), and again in September 1877.

Edward Morey was also involved in many civic minded projects. In August 1877 he set up and was Captain of the first ‘bucket and ladder’ fire brigade in Akaroa – there were no high pressure water hoses back then. He stood successfully for the Akaroa Borough Council and in 1879 fought hard for the railway to be extended from Little River through to Akaroa, a very ambitious project, which never eventuated. His earlier commitment to the Oddfellows Society continued when he moved to Akaroa. He was actively involved in setting up a second lodge which he called “Nil Desperandum” – meaning “never lose hope”. That may well have been his personal motto?

Later Morey moved to 134 Rue Jolie (now demolished) and set up a building supply business and large garden (a keen gardener, he won prizes in horticultural shows). In 1881 Edward and Charlotte left Akaroa to be with family, first to live in Christchurch, then Auckland. In 1892 they moved again to Picton to stay with members of the Schenkel family. Morey died there on 8 July 1892, aged 70, due to injuries sustained after falling from scaffolding while volunteering his labour to help build the new Presbyterian church. He and Charlotte, who passed away at North West Bay in Pelorus Sound on 14 March 1894, aged 72, are buried side by side in the Picton Cemetery.

Ironically, after making numerous tombstones during his lifetime, Edward and Charlotte did not have their own until descendants of the Morey family had one made, dedicating it at their grave site on 5 June 2005. Edward William Morey, an amiable, eloquent gentleman, gave much to the various communities he lived in and left a wonderful legacy around Horomaka Banks Peninsula which current generations are treasuring.

See also:

Part One: Edward William Morey – Builder of Churches, Schools and Bridges

Part Two: A Busy Man Indeed – Edward Morey builds St Cuthbert’s, Governors Bay and St John’s, Okains Bay