Cass, New Zealand
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Cass is a small locality in inland Canterbury on New Zealand's
South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...
, near
Arthur's Pass Arthur's Pass, previously called Camping Flat then Bealey Flats, and for some time officially Arthurs Pass, is a township in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, located in the Selwyn district. It is a popular base for explori ...
. It is known for its small railway station which was the subject of the 1936 painting ''
Cass Cass may refer to: People and fictional characters * Cass (surname), a list of people * Cass (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Big Cass, ring name of wrestler William Morrissey * Cass, in British band Skunk Anansie * Cass, ...
'' by Rita Angus, voted in 2006 New Zealand's favourite work of art. It is also the location of a
University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...
field station established in 1914. Cass currently has a single permanent resident.


Geography

Cass is in the Cass River basin, which is in turn in the Waimakariri River basin in western
Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...
,
Selwyn District Selwyn District is a predominantly rural district in central Canterbury, on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is named after the Selwyn River / Waikirikiri, which is in turn named after Bishop George Selwyn, the first Anglican b ...
, of the South Island. It is 22 km from
Arthur's Pass Arthur's Pass, previously called Camping Flat then Bealey Flats, and for some time officially Arthurs Pass, is a township in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, located in the Selwyn district. It is a popular base for explori ...
, and 105 km from
Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...
via State Highway 73 and the Midland Line. The settlement is on a plain surrounded by mountains 1200–1800 m above sea level, predominantly in the Black Range, Polar Range, and Craigieburn Range. To the east of the settlement is Cass Hill and Sugar Loaf, and to the west are Mount Misery and Mount Horrible; two hills on the floodplain are named Romulus and Remus. The topography of the Cass area was formed by repeated glaciation in the Pleistocene, with the valley floor built up by river fans as the glaciers retreated and the nearby Lakes Sarah and Grasmere enclosed by moraines and ice-eroded rocks. Many of the valleys around Cass post-date the retreat of the Poulter Glacier 13,000 years ago, and are caused by erosion.


History

The Ōtira Gorge route was used by Māori travelling from Canterbury to Westland, and there are traces of forest fires and moa hunting in the area approximately 600 years ago. Travellers would have relied on the lakes in the Cass area for their eels and waterfowl. After the prime grazing land on the
Canterbury Plains The Canterbury Plains () are an area in New Zealand centred in the Mid Canterbury, to the south of the city of Christchurch in the Canterbury region. Their northern extremes are at the foot of the Hundalee Hills in the Hurunui District, and ...
had been settled by European colonists, settlers looked for open country in increasingly-remote mountain valleys. Joseph Pearson and W. Sidebottom was the first Pākehā to investigate the area, in October 1857.
Merino The Merino is a list of sheep breeds, breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monop ...
sheep runs soon followed, with stations set up at Castle Hill, Grasmere, Mount White, Craigieburn (now Flock Hill), and Riversdale by 1860. Joseph Dawson arrived from Australia in 1860 and farmed at Grasmere Station, building a two-room cob cottage which is incorporated in to the current Grasmere Lodge luxury accommodation. Cass, always known in the early sheep-farming days as "The Cass", was named after Thomas Cass, Chief
Surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. These points are usually on the ...
of Canterbury from 1851 to 1867. By 1865 a road and telegraph line had been constructed through Cass as far as the Bealey River, and the
Cobb & Co Cobb & Co was the name used by several independent Australian coach businesses. The first company to use 'Cobb & Co' was established in 1853 by American Freeman Cobb and his partners. The name grew to great prominence in the late 19th century, ...
. coach line was running a twice-weekly passenger and mail service to the Bealey Accommodation House, and by 1866 to the gold fields of Hokitika. In 1866 4,000 sheep and 25,000 cattle were driven over the Pass to feed gold-miners, with Cora Lynn station in Cass used as a holding area and oats grown to feed coach horses. The coach route led to the construction of stables, a hotel, a police post, and a Road Board office (which later contained the Upper Waimakariri Book Library). In the late 19th century there was an annual race meeting on Cass Flats, followed by a dance at the Road Board office. In 1873 what was then Canterbury College was granted over 64,000 acres of land in the area as an endowment, which it then leased out to runholders at Craigieburn, Flock Hill, and Avoca on 21-year terms. Wool was hauled to Christchurch by horse-drawn wagon until the early 1900s, when traction engines were used until the railway arrived. The laying of the Midland Line between
Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...
and the West Coast led to the building of an 800-man construction camp at Cass in December 1910, the then-railhead of the railway line and the start of the coach road. The township was in its heyday, with three stores, a drapers, blacksmith, dining room, butcher, police station and school. In July 1914 the railway station and much of the population was moved to Bealey Flat and then Arthur's Pass, and Cass became a flag station. The settlement was connected by rail to the West Coast when the Otira Tunnel was completed in 1923. A train continued to stop at Cass twice daily, but since November 1987 the only passenger service has been the tourist-oriented ''
TranzAlpine The TranzAlpine is a passenger train operated by the Great Journeys New Zealand division of KiwiRail in the South Island of New Zealand over the Midland Line, New Zealand, Midland Line; often regarded to be one of the world's great train jour ...
'', which does not routinely stop there.


Population

As of 2024 Cass had just one resident: Barrie Drummond, a railway worker who moved there around age 40 and spent over 25 years subsequently as an employee of
KiwiRail KiwiRail Holdings Limited is a New Zealand state-owned enterprise (SOE) responsible for rail operations in New Zealand and operates inter-island ferries. Trading as KiwiRail and headquartered at 604 Great South Road, Ellerslie, New Zealand, Ell ...
, performing switching and track maintenance. Cass is thus one of the few places in the world with a population of one resident. There is a single dwelling, claimed to be the last KiwiRail-owned house in New Zealand, and several holiday homes. Drummond is also the organiser of the annual "Cass Bash", a weekend cricket match each November between locals and representatives of Kiwirail that attracts around 250 visitors. One railway shed has been turned into a bar and music stage for the event. Drummond has also built a
miniature golf Miniature golf (also known as minigolf, putt-putt, crazy golf, and by #Nomenclature, several other names) is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest ...
course and bowling green in the settlement. File:Cass 17 Jan 2024 MRD 06.jpg, Cass's sole dwelling File:Cass 17 Jan 2024 MRD 14.jpg, Midland Line station File:Cass settlement MRD 04.jpg, Les Moxham memorial lodge


Field station

The
University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...
has a field station at Cass, commonly used for undergraduate field trips and research. The station was originally planned for Broken River, but the construction of the camp at the terminus of the Midland Line led to it being built at Cass, and the Mountain Biological Station opened in March 1914. The initial building contained a living room and bunkrooms but no laboratory. In 1929 the building was extended, adding a laboratory, a coal stove, hot water and a bathroom. An additional building was added in 1959. The field station was used for student field trips, and as a base for conducting research on tussock burning, sheep grazing,
entomology Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...
,
glaciology Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or, more generally, ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, clim ...
, climate, and in later years
freshwater ecology Freshwater ecosystems are a subset of Earth's aquatic ecosystems that include the biological communities inhabiting freshwater waterbodies such as lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, springs, bogs, and wetlands. They can be contrasted with marine ec ...
and
plant systematics The history of plant systematics—the biological classification of plants—stretches from the work of ancient Greek to modern evolutionary biologists. As a field of science, plant systematics came into being only slowly, early plant lore usuall ...
. Charles E. Foweraker undertook the first Honours research project there, and his 1915 photographs of the area are valuable sources of information for vegetation change over the succeeding century. Other important photographs of the field station were taken by Ellen Heine and are held at the National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Over 1975–77 a new building called the Teaching Flat was constructed next to the original field station, which was refurbished with teaching spaces and lab and research facilities. The University of Canterbury celebrated 100 years of teaching and research at Cass Field Station on 2–6 December 2014.


Rita Angus's ''Cass''

In May 1936 Christchurch artist Rita Angus took the three-hour train journey to Cass, accompanied by painters
Louise Henderson Dame Louise Etiennette Sidonie Henderson (née Sauze, 21 April 1902 – 27 June 1994) was a French-New Zealand artist and painter. Life Louise Etiennette Sidonie Sauze was born on 21 April 1902 at Boulogne-Billancourt, Boulogne sur Seine, P ...
and Julia Scarvell. The trio stayed for ten days at the Biological Station, sketching the surrounding landscape. Angus and Henderson both painted the small railway station. The resulting painting by Angus, titled ''Cass'', has been described as "one of the defining works of the 1930s and indeed of New Zealand art history." It was voted New Zealand's greatest painting in a 2006 poll on the
Television New Zealand Television New Zealand (, "Te Reo Tātaki" meaning "The Leading Voice"), more commonly referred to as TVNZ, is a New Zealand state-owned media company and Crown entity. The company operates a television network, TVNZ+, streaming service, and 1N ...
arts programme ''Frontseat.'' The station depicted in ''Cass'' is a simple two-room building constructed in 1911 with weatherboard sides and a corrugated iron roof. At the time Angus painted it a larger building and a refreshments room had been removed, but a goods shed was still present. The station still stands today. By the 1980s it had been painted white (the colour depicted in Julian Dashper's photograph), but in the late 1990s it was repainted a uniform ochre red (possibly to more closely resemble the Angus painting), a colour used by museums to paint Māori carvings, known as "Museum Red"). In the early 2020s it was repainted again, to tan with red trim. The settlement has over 1000 visitors a year stopping off to see and photograph the famous railway station. File:Cass Station Goldneys 1984.jpg, 1984 File:Cass Station Susannah Donovan.jpg, circa 1999 File:Cass Station.jpg, 2016 File:Cass Environs (Morning) MRD 05.jpg, 2024


References


External links

* ''Cass'
in the collection of the Christchurch Art Gallery
* 201
''Sunday Star-Times'' video
of Barrie Drummond and Cass Bash {{The TranzAlpine train stops Selwyn District Populated places in the Canterbury Region