Akaroa Historical Overview - Christchurch City Council

Figure 5.37. Hughes Family Hotel was one of a number of facilities that provided
tourist accommodation in landscaped grounds. Ref: 1683-1
Horticultural ventures: “villainous wines and uncertain cheeses”
Akaroa's well established gardens were seen by new immigrants as an indication of rich
and productive soil and for many this was the encouragement they needed to settle in
the town. From the late 1870s a number of Chinese market gardeners had established
themselves at the entrance to Akaroa near Waeckerle's Hotel on Rue Lavaud. It is unclear
whether these sites were already cultivated or were operating as commercial gardens.
One, the garden of Sing Chow, was located on the edge of the Wai-iti (Balguerie) Stream
in the area previously occupied by the naval gardens and it is possible that Chow worked
a portion of this remnant cultivation.
As well as the market garden landscape within the town there were specialist orchards
and other equally impressive private orchards like those of the Rev. Alymer and of Dr
Watkins and his nurseryman son, Stephen. These men, along with others from
Takamatua (German Bay), were exporting much of their fruit as confirmed by
advertisements appearing in Dunedin and Christchurch papers for Akaroa fruit, jam and
butter from the 1860s. Dr Watkins' other son, Henry, Akaroa's dispensing druggist, was
also a wholesale and retail dealer in jams, jellies and fruits and raspberry and other
syrups as well as grafted fruit trees. 111 A number of the French settlers were sending
large quantities of their walnuts and grapes out of the bay. Wine was made locally with
peach wine a specialty of the town, although 1880s reports of Akaroa's “villainous wines
and uncertain cheeses” suggest that these may have been an acquired taste. 112
The potential for other revenue streams for the Akaroa economy was investigated in the
late 1870s and a number of new horticultural initiatives were proposed. The first of
these, a sericulture trial, was promoted by the Government in 1881 and two-hundred
and fifty white mulberry trees from Sydney were planted around the boundaries of
properties and paddocks in the town. Although no white mulberry trees are known to
have survived from this trial, three black mulberry trees are noted in the town, two on
William Street and one on Seaview Avenue. Their size suggests that they may date from
the 1880s if not earlier.
111 Advertisement, Southern Provinces Almanac, in Allison, An Akaroa Precinct, p. 12
112 Taranaki Herald, 7 September 1882, p. 2 ; Otago Witness, 10 July 1880, p. 6
AKAROA HERITAGE OVERVIEW : SECTION 5 THE COLONIAL TOWN 1850 TO 1900 PAGE 72