Lions Club of New Brighton - May 2017 - Lions Clubs NZ
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Lions Club of New Brighton
We Serve
The Lyttelton Rail Tunnel was pierced 150 years ago on the 24th May, 1867
Refer story on page 6
May 2017
Volume 53, Number 9
FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK
The 2018 District Convention is only 10 months away
with it being held on the weekend of the 9-11th March 2018.Planning
for this event is well underway, with a convention committee formed
under the guidance of Warren ( our convention director). Two Conven-
tion meetings have been held and with this in mind it is important that
all members pitch in to help make this Convention a sucess.
Registration fees have not been set at this stage but it is likely that they
will be around $150.To make these events affordable I suggest opening
a Convention account, I have one and I drip feed it and usually there is a
sizeable sum come Convention time. Cheryl can set this up for you.
My objective over the next few months is to get our website updated and
to look at setting up a Facebook page. I am in the early stage of planning
our officers changeover day function, looking at a date in late June.
Should have details on Wednesday night.
Finally, it is important that we support training events that are organised
within the District, and with that in mind Alaster and myself are attend-
ing a “Pathways to Leadership” course in Dunedin on 6-7th May.
See you all on Wednesday.
Please Remember:
Canterbury Lions Clubs Training Day
Christchurch RSA, 74 Armagh St., Ch. Ch., 23rd. Jul. 2017 (0930 hrs. to
1500 hrs.).
Cheers, Don
Page 2 BULLETIN1st VP Ray Scott
reports on Social and Membership
We have been fortunate to have Win McDonald as our guest speaker
for our tea meeting on the 3rd of May. I’m sure Win will have a lot of
storys to relate.
On the same evening, Zone Chairman Hugh Curry will be visiting our club.
At our tea meeting on Wednesday the 7th of June, the speaker will be Barbara Dawe
from the Westpac Helicopter Trust. Barbara has invited our club to visit the helicopter
base. This will be after they move into their new depot.
Regards, Ray
Birthdays in May
12th: Cheryl Herlihy
15th: Diane Webb
20th: Win McDonald
26th: Rob Livingstone
Wedding Anniversaries
None recorded for this month
Meet and Greet Roster
3th May: Rob Fifield
17May: Bruce Campbell
7th June: Ray Scott
Rules For The Greeter:
ARRIVE BY 6PM SO EVERYONE CAN BE GREETED ON ARRIVAL
IF NOT ATTENDING YOU MUST ARRANGE A REPLACEMENT GREETER
& ADVISE THE PRESIDENT OR SECRETARY.
May 2017 Page 3From 2nd VP Dick Johns
Our next BBQ will be on Saturday 03 June (Queens Birthday Week-
end) at Ferrymead Mega Mitre 10.
We will have 2 shifts. one from 9am until 1pm, and from 1pm until
4 pm.
Names will be taken at our next tea meeting. We will need 3 people
per shift.
There will be no New Brighton BBQs over the winter months. Please note the following
dates in your diary: 26 August and 16 September BBQ at New Brighton;
11 November BBQ at Rockabilly Car Show.
Thanks folks.
Dick
Canterbury Lions Clubs Training Day
The Training Day will be conducted for all members of the Lions clubs
up to and including Rangiora, Pegasus town area.
Venue: Christchurch RSA 74 Armagh St Ch Ch 23rd Jul 2017 (0930hrs
to 1500hrs}
Important; All Clubs are asked to confirm their numbers for training
days by the Wednesday prior to each training day.
Exchange students
3 Japanese students arriving in 202E on 12 August, departing to Auck-
land on 28 August. Needing host families while they are here, Could
any family offer to host 1 or all, for 4 – 7 days as available.
Also 3 Finnish Students here from 1st July – 15th July, if anyone can
help.
Contact Eileen Yates, Youth Exchange Chairperson,
bobbbysox28@icloud.com
I have an email regarding the Finnish Students which I can forward if
anyone is interested.
Only 1 family has offered so far.
Can you help?
Contact Eileen
Page 4 BULLETINJust a Child
I came home from school today, the house was cold and bare, I wanted
you to see my picture, but there was no one there. You took a job be-
cause you said that we were in a fix. Mum I'd rather we were poor.
Mum I am only six.
I came home from school today, the house was cold and bare, my knee
was hurt, I needed love, but there was no one there, so me and Joe, he's
my mate. We drank the beer from Daddy's crate, you came home and
belted me.
Mum I am only eight.
I came home from school today, the house was cold and bare, hey Mum,
I am captain of the team. But there was no one there, so me and Joe and
his friend Ben, had a smoke behind the shed, then we broke into the
neighbour's.
Mum I am only ten.
I came home from school today, the house was cold and bare, teacher
said, to help me with my homework, but there was no-one there. So my
reading I did shelve and it's into glue I now delve, my head a mess, I am
high again.
Mum I am only twelve.
I came home from school today, the house was cold and bare, I am
hooked on dope and real sick but still there's no-one there. Someone help
me, please, I cry. I've overdosed. Is this Goodbye?
Mum I am only fourteen.
Mum I am far too young to die.
Karl Braun,
Community Constable, Kaiapoi
FUTURE DEADLINE
Contributions for the June issue should be sent to the editor by
Friday evening, 2nd June
May 2017 Page 5(Condensed from various sources on line)
Lyttelton Rail Tunnel (May 1867)
Extraordinary engineering
In 1850 settlers sweated over the steep, narrow Bridle Path from Lyttelton to the
swampy site of Christchurch. Heavy goods had to be unloaded at Lyttelton and put
aboard small craft that were sent across the perilous Sumner bar to Ferrymead, near
the mouth of the Heathcote River. Here they were unpacked again and put into wag-
ons, pulled from late 1863 by New Zealand’s first steam locomotives, which ran to
Christchurch. Ferrymead was just a stopgap; Lyttelton was the only logical deepwater
port.
People talked about a tunnel almost before the Four Ships finished discharging. Action
replaced talk after William Moorhouse won the provincial superintendency in 1857.
‘Railway Billy’ convinced his council to think big and build one of the longest tunnels
yet contemplated (2.6 km), and the first in the world to go through the walls of an an-
cient volcano – to link two townships with just 3000 inhabitants. George Stephenson’s
nephew, G.R. Stephenson, prepared the estimates, but when British contractors de-
manded more money, Moorhouse sailed to Melbourne to sign up Holmes and Co. On
17 July 1861, in appalling weather, he turned the first sod of the ‘Canterbury railway
tunnel’. Being Christchurch, it was a hierarchical knees-up. While the elite banqueted
in a large marquee, 1500 sodden folk rioted over the quality of the beer provided for
them.
The work was arduous. Miners prepared the tunnel faces with picks and long chisels,
fired gunpowder charges and then returned to load the spoil into horse-drawn wagons.
The two faces crept towards each other at a rate of about 3 m a week. It was stuffy and
wet – in one very bad stretch an iron shield had to be built over the miners so that they
could keep working despite the water. The breakthrough was made in 1867. Night-
shift workers still had three years of finishing-off ahead of them, but by December
passenger trains were running.
The Lyttelton portal of the tunnel with construction workers in 1867
Page 6 BULLETINThe Lyttelton tunnel was pierced on the 24th May, 1867, the rate of excavation being
from 5 1/2ft. to 6ft. per day. At 4 p.m. on the 23rd May, when it was estimated that
seven to 10 yards still remained to be driven, a heavy charge fired at the Lyttelton end
cracked the face at the Heath-cote end, and at 6.30 a.m. on the 24th, the Lyttelton min-
ers broke into a drill hole driven from the Heathcote end. They passed an iron rod
through this hole, and thus made the first through communication. The distance be-
tween the faces was then 14ft., and the levels and alignment were apparently correct.
At 3 a.m. on 29th May the Lyttelton gang made a passable breach and rushed through
to Heathcote, where they paid a visit to Mr. Holmes (of Geo. Holmes and Co., the
contractors) at his residence. He congratulated them, and entertained them at break-
fast. There had been considerable rivalry between the opposing gangs as to which
should first break through, and the Lyttelton men thus obtained the credit of being
successful in establishing through communication.
First Man to Pass Through the Tunnel.
It was claimed that Mr. Harry Smith was the first man to pass through the tunnel. He
came from the Heathcote portal, and though a Lyttelton man was first through the
breach, Mr. Smith, having the shorter distance to go, reached the Lyttelton portal be-
fore the Lyttelton man reached the Heathcote portal.
The contractors then invited His Honour the Superintendent and local members of the
Provincial Council to pass through the tunnel. A train left Christchurch at 12 noon for
Heathcote Valley, whence the visitors were conveyed on trollies to Lyttelton, but had
to tranship at the point of junction. At Lyttelton they were met and entertained by the
Mayor and leading residents.
The old tunnel withstood the 2010/11 earthquakes and as the coal wagons and contain-
er flats rattling through the entrance show, it still links port and plain.
The complementary 2-km road tunnel opened in 1964.
Heathcote End of the Finished Rail Tunnel
May 2017 Page 7LIONS CLUB of NEW BRIGHTON
PO BOX 38 -160 CHRISTCHURCH 8842
DISTRICT 202E. ZONE 7
LIONS WEBSITE: http://www.lionsclubs.org.nz
Club Chartered Sept. 1963
Editor: Jim Gordon, 2/b Stopforth St, Woodend, 7610. Ph 03 3122424.
E Mail: jbgordon@xtra.co.nz
TEA MEETINGS: 1st and 3rd Wednesday, 6 pm, New Brighton Club .
Apologies and advice of visitors MUST be given to the Secretary NO LATER THAN 12
NOON on the day prior to the meeting. Please remember Ladies Nights apologies also.
BOARD MEETINGS: Held monthly, refer president.
OFFICERS and COMMITTEE
PRESIDENT SECRETARY
Donald Mackay ……… 359 1335 Phyllis Seymour .......... 980 6893
63 Veitches Rd Casebrook
., 10a Thurso Pl, Nth New Brighton
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT TREASURER
Bob Fifield .................... 383 7492 Cheryl Herlihy ……….029 7779706
3 Fenmere Pl., Burwood, 8083 YOUTH+MEMBERSHIP CONVENOR
1st VP & CENTENARY YEAR CONVENOR
Ray Scott ..................... 383 8347 Bob Fifield ................... 383 7492
2nd VP BULLETIN EDITOR
Dick Johns ................... 942 8596 Jim Gordon.................. 03 312 2424
3rd VP LION TAMER & PUBLICITY
Peter Seymour ............. 980 6893 Peter Seymour ............ 980 6893
TAIL TWISTER CHARITABLE TRUST CHAIRMAN
Alastair Rankin ........... 021 0717889 Warren Glassey ………323 8523
RAFFLE CONVENOR
Peter Seymour ............. 980 6893
Advertisement
Ph (03) 343 6351
PO Box 11265 Fax (03) 343 6461
Christchurch 8443
CONVEYOR SYSTEMS SITE WORK GENERAL ENGINEERING
Unit 5, 17 Watts Rd., Christchurch, 8042
Page 8 BULLETINYou can also read
