The Writers' Plaques, Christchurch, New Zealand

In 1997 the New Zealand Society of Authors (Canterbury branch), financially aided by The Community Trust, placed 32 plaques dedicated to writers in the pavements in various parts of Christchurch. With the earthquakes some of them have gone, although probably no one knows how many because a large number of streets in central Christchurch remain cordoned off. I searched for as many as I could find.

Outside the Caxton Press, Victoria Street:

'DENIS JAMES
MATTHEWS GLOVER

D.S.C., B.A., HON.D.LITT.

 

1912 – 1980

 

When Tom and Elizabeth took a farm,
The bracken made their bed,
And Quardle oodle wardle doodle,
The magpies said.

 

The Magpies'

 

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Outside Christ's College, Rolleston Avenue, three plaques:

 

'JAMES

COURAGE

 

NOVELIST

 

1905 – 1963

 

"...as for the schoolmasters, I'd cheerfully

dump the whole crew, my revered

father included... he doesn't have the

faintest notion he's educating boys

for colonial life, not English; for the

farm, not the Foreign Office.

 

 The Young Have Secrets (1954)'

 

'GAVIN

BISHOP

 

1946 –

 

CHIDLREN'S AUTHOR

AND ARTIST

 

"Katarina made some tea and

some kai, then she and Banjo sat

on the back of the verandah, talking

about when they were children

in the Waikato ... And in the

evenings that followed, with her

mokopuna gathered around her,

Katarina would recall the old

whakatauki – Mate kainga taui,

ora kainga rua – A person is

lucky indeed to have two homes

rather than one."

 

From Katarina, 1990'

 

'D'ARCY

CRESSWELL

 

1896 – 1960

 

POET, JOURNALIST,

DRAMATIST,

AUTOBIOGRAPHER

 

"Farewell Cathedral City! – and its Square,

Its Founder foundering in a pot of tar.

Farewell you City Fathers! Have a care,

Tho' you be down'd, you not yet feathered are."

 

From "Lyttleton Harbour," 1936'

 

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There are a number of plaques (not all of which are clearly visible at the moment due to the cordon) outside the Arts Centre, the Old University:

 

'MERVYN

THOMPSON

 

PLAYWRIGHT

 

1935 – 1992

 

Though at times my work is
ignored by infidels and scorned
by the cold of heart, the battle
on the cultural front
is slowly being won.

 

All My Lives (1980)'

'STEVAN

ELDRED-GRIGG

 

NOVELIST, SOCIAL HISTORIAN

 

1952 –

 

"...in my search for truth I found

there were some books about

Phillipstown, which to me had

always been just another stretch

of asphalt and soot and iron; it

turned out to have history.

Phillipstown, a romance,

a meaning!"

 

Oracles and Miracles (1987)'

 

'EDITH SEARLE

GROSSMANN

 

1863 – 1931

 

GRADUATED M.A. (HONS)

FROM

CANTERBURY COLLEGE

1885

 

It is no use discussing whether

men are better than women...

What we do know for certain is

that men have had dominion over

women, and that they have

shamefully abused their power.

It is forfeited.

It must cease forever.

 

From Hermione: a Knight of

the Holy Ghost,

by Edith Searle Grossmann'

 

'EDITH NGAIO

MARSH

 

1895 – 1982

 

EDUCATED AT

CANTERBURY COLLEGE

SCHOOL OF ART

 

Miss Carter slid out of her

kimono and with a sort of

bovine good-nature, eased

herself into position...

The gas heater roared and

the great lamp above the

throne held the motionless

figure in a pool of light.

 

From Black Beech and Honeydew

by Ngaio Marsh'

 

'KERI

HULME

 

1941 –

 

E, wrap me in the black bark-cloth

                                  strew kokowai

                               let there be

                               a paua-crafted hook

                               laid handily

                               to show my trade

                                                               catching dreams

 

                                            Saying Nothing / In the End'

 

'KARL

POPPER

1902 – 1994

RENOWNED PHILOSOPHER,

OF SCIENCE, SOCIAL

AND POLITICAL THINKER,

LECTURER, BROADCASTER

AND AUTHOR

 

"If in this book harsh words

are spoken about some of the

greater among the intellectual

leaders of mankind, my motive

is not, I hope, the wish to

belittle them. It springs rather

from my conviction that, if

our civilisation is to survive, we

must break with the habit of

deference to great men. Great

men may make great mistakes..."

 

From The Open Society and Its Enemies,

completed at Canterbury University College

in 1943, published in 1945.'

 

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At 315-17 Montreal Street:

 

'DOROTHY

EDEN

 

1912 – 1982

 

NOVELIST AND

SHORT STORY WRITER

 

"My childhood on a lonely

New Zealand farm was the

most invaluable background

for developing imagination

... It taught me to love

spookiness and to know its

gripping effect ... I knew

with absolute certainty that

I would be a writer."

 

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At 74 Armagh Street:

 

'ERROL

BRATHWAITE

 

1924 –

 

NOVELIST,

TRAVEL WRITER,

ANTHOLOGIST

 

"They turned a swampy,

scrub-covered waste into an

approximation of an English

cathedral town and a wilderness

into  something not far removed

from an English county."

 

From Sixty Red Night Caps, 1980'

 

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Outside Old Magistrates Court, 84 Armagh Street, two plaques:

 

'BLANCHE EDITH

BAUGHAN

 

POET, REFORMER

 

1870 – 1958

 

Alive! Yes, Te Ika,

Of the Bone of the Past, of the Blood,

Of the Present,

Here, at the End of the Earth, in

the First of the Future,

Thou standest courageous and youthful,

A country to come

 

Maui's Fish'

 

'A.K.

GRANT

 

1941 – 2000

 

SATIRIST, SCRIPT WRITER,

LYRICIST, LAWYER

 

"The apple of self-knowledge

may also be the pineapple

of self-laceration, and it is

not for us to question

these arrangements."

 

From the preface to

I'm glad I asked you that, 1982'

 

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Several other plaques are outside the Arts Centre, although within the fenced off area, and so more difficult to read:

 

'ARNOLD WALL

 

(1869 – 1966)

 

SCHOLAR, POET, ESSAYIST,
BROADCASTER, BOTANIST

 

"There lies in our city folded in the mist,
Like a great meadow in an early morn ...

Above us such an air as poets dream,
The clean and vast wing-winnowed clime of Heaven.

Each of her streets is closed with shining Alps,
Like Heaven at the end of long plain lives."

 

From "The City from the Hills", 1943'

 

'THOMAS ALLEN
MUNRO CURNOW

 

1911 – 2001

 

EDUCATED AT
CANTERBURY COLLEGE

 

from Island and Time(houses in central Christchurch, 1941)

 

Tentative the houses
Unhaunted over tombs;
Wind shakes the standing
Timber, shakes rooms
Where cold under rimu
Rafters they discover
The wind wet with change, and
The stranger for lover.'

 

'FIONA
FARRELL

 

1947 –

 

That I should touch your
skin thourhg the holes in your
tee-shirt

that we should exchange
ordinary tales...

 

From "Seven wishes"
Cutting Out, 1987'

 

'SUE
McCAULEY

 

NOVELIST

 

1941 –'

 

Unfortunately I was unable to fully transcribe this, so I leave the quotation out completely.

 

The links below may also be of interest:

 

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Writers' Walk, Dunedin, New Zealand
The Wellington Writers Walk, North Island, New Zealand