Maori
The lower South Island was known as Murihiku, a name that loosely means ‘the tail end’. Maori trace their arrival in Southland back to the chiefs Rakaihautu and Tamatea. Before Europeans arrived, Murihiku were largely hunter-gatherers. It was a difficult existence, and probably no more than 200 people lived in the district. After moa became extinct, it is likely that people moved to the coast for its food sources, building settlements at Waikawa, Bluff, Aparima (Riverton), and on Ruapuke Island.
The early tribe of Waitaha was assimilated into Ngati Mamoe and then, in the early 1800s, into the Ngai Tahu tribe. In 1852 Walter Mantell bought for the Crown the Murihiku block, largely Southland’s boundaries, from local Ngai Tahu and Ngati Mamoe. Reserves were never properly laid out. Into the 1850s, as settlement of the Southland plains began, Maori found themselves on the margins of the new society.
European ownership of the land
In February 1872 the Crown granted Robert Gillies, surveyor, Section 29, Block II of the Invercargill Hundred, in the district of One Tree Point. On 21 February 1882 part of Gillies land was purchased by Robert Coupland (c.1834-1914).
Coupland and his wife Margaret (nee McQueen, 1835-1904) left Scotland around 1857. In 1882 the Couplands took up land at One Tree Point, now Kennington, naming the farm ‘Dunragit’ after Robert’s home town in Scotland. They built a house, the site of which was some way to the rear of the site of the later homestead. In 1902 Robert Coupland retired to Invercargill. He sold Dunragit to his nephew John McNab.
The McNab family
A number of Margaret Coupland’s siblings, including her sister Janet (c.1838-1876), had followed her to New Zealand. Janet married Alexander McNab (1809-1890) of Knapdale, ’one of the best properties of its class in this part of the colony.’ McNab arrived in New Zealand in 1855 and became one of Southland’s earliest explorers. As a runholder and member of the Otago and Southland Provincial Council, he became a prominent figure in the fledgling colonial settlement.
The McNabs had eleven children, five of whom died during an attack of British cholera in 1871. Their eldest son, Robert (1864-1917), held the Liberal seat in Mataura from 1893-1908. In 1906 he became Minister of Lands and Minister of Justice and Marine in 1915. McNab also researched New Zealand’s early history, publishing numerous articles and books on the subject including Murihiku (1905) and Historical Records of New Zealand (1908). Amassing a collection of over 4000 books, in 1913 he donated his collection to the Dunedin Public Library. It was written of McNab that he helped ‘to create in history, science, literature, the arts, journalism and politics a sense of a distinctive New Zealand destiny and identity’.
Other McNab sons distinguished themselves in various fields; three in agricultural studies and one as a Harley Street eye surgeon. It is John McNab who is the least well-known of the family.
John Brentwood McNab was born in Invercargill in 1876, the youngest in the family. By 1896 McNab was living on part of his father’s Knapdale Station. McNab named his portion of his father’s estate Okapua ’famed throughout this island for its grazing capabilities.’ Tenders were invited in 1898 for the erection of station buildings and a residence, to be built in brick and slate, at Knapdale Station. Yet a few years later, McNab leased the Okapua estate.
In 1902 McNab took the opportunity to buy Dunragit from his uncle, Robert Coupland. Later that year an advertisement for tenders appeared ‘for the erection of a residence in brick and stone at One Tree Point.’ Tenders closed on the 21 October with the architect C.J. Brodrick winning the tender.
Like the McNabs, the Brodrick family played a significant social and economic role in the development of Southland. Captain John Brodrick arrived in Invercargill in 1864. He quickly established himself as a commercial leader, as agent for Lloyds, National Mutual Company and manger of the Invercargill Savings Bank. His sons distinguished themselves in commercial, surveying and public arenas. The family’s connection to surveying was strengthened by C.J. Brodrick’s marriage to Jemima, daughter of surveyor, engineer, architect, explorer and writer John Turnbull Thomson in 1906.
Cuthbert John Brodrick was born in 1867, nephew of the well known British architect of the same name (1822-1905). In 1884 he was apprenticed to F.W. Burwell and travelled with him to Melbourne to complete his training. After working as an architectural draughtsman for the Queensland Government, he returned to New Zealand in 1891. Settling in Hawera, Brodrick practised there for six years before returning to Invercargill where he practised until his retirement in 1943. The architect was responsible for such historic Invercargill landmarks as the Masonic Lodge, Bank of New South Wales, Alexander Building and Grand Hotel. Brodrick was also President of the Southland Progress League, a member of the Borough Council for three terms and became Deputy Mayor. He was also President of the Institute of Architects.
Brodrick’s buildings demonstrate an ability to successfully accomplish a variety of architectural styles. Versatility was the key to his architecture. His style ranged from Baroque Revival, apparent in the Grand Hotel and Southland Daily News Building; to Classical and Italian Renaissance, exhibited by the Masonic Hall and former Bank of New Zealand; to domestic residences, some exhibiting an eclectic combination of styles. Brodrick’s 1946 obituary noted that his reputation extended throughout the country, ‘although he is probably not generally sufficiently recognised for his contribution to New Zealand architecture’.
The house
Local legend has it that John McNab’s new residence was to be a dream house built for his beloved wife-to-be. On the grand lawn surrounding the grand house, fountains would flow and peacocks would roam.
Details concerning the construction of residential properties are often lost in the passage of time; yet information concerning McNab’s build was preserved in an unexpected manner – in the Court news. On 20 November 1903 an article appeared in the Southland Times, titled ‘Of Interest To Contractors’. A test case was being heard in the Magistrate’s Court concerning the interpretation of the Workmen’s Lien Act 1893, which ‘was watched with interest by a number of contractors, and is of general importance to those engaged in the building trade’. The defendant, McNab, was sued for material supplied and work done by sub-contractors in the building of his home. Evidence showed that a contract was signed between McNab and Alexander Menzies, contractor, to build a residence for £1450. The contractor failed to complete within the period stipulated in the contract and the architect took over the works in August. The build was completed according to specifications on 14 November 1903 at a cost of £334 10 s 3d. From the beginning of the contract to completion there were no omissions or extras.
The plaintiffs contended that money was due to Menzies from McNab which should then be paid to the sub-contractors. The claimants were W. Smith and Co., who had contracted to do the doors, windows sashes etc. to the value of £187 10 s 10d, and were owed £57 7s 7d; R.G. Speirs, who was owed £119 for plumbing; G.S. Williden was owed £25 for slating; Timpany Bros £69 8s 5d for timber and mouldings; C. Myers and Son, £65 16s for bricks; G. Duthie £20 10s for carting; and Southland Sawmilling Co. £115 3s 2d for timber.
McNab argued that the final cost of the residence was considerably over the contract price. Contending that his total liability under the contract was £1450, McNab was prepared to pay only £106, not the £404 8s 8d being claimed against him. The workmen’s wages had already been paid.
Points of law were argued over the rights of subcontractors in a contract and the responsibilities of the employer vs the contractor, particularly when the work had been taken out of the contractor’s hands. The plaintiffs argued that when the contractor was released then the employer became responsible for the sub-contracts.
The arguments were lengthy and complex and the judge reserved his decision until December. In the final judgment, the claims were substantiated and payable by the employer. Although McNab’s lawyer gave notice of an appeal to the Supreme Court, there was no further reporting of the case.
The house, then, was built between November 1902, when the tender was let to Alexander Menzies, and 14 November 1903, when it was completed with Brodrick in charge. McNab named the property, albeit briefly, ‘Balnab’.
The house is an eclectic conglomeration of styles. In one respect it is an excellent example of early Queen Anne Revival design incorporating Anglo Dutch elements. By the turn of the century the Queen Anne revival was gaining popularity. Style markers include ‘conglomerate composition’ or a collection of colonial features, medieval towers, large porches etc. all arranged in asymmetrical composition. An inventive use of brickwork, a winsome roofline, and numerous small decorations freely adapted from classical models are all common identifiers of the style. The domestic Queen Anne styling is charming with verandas on more than one side, often widened to form ‘piazzas’, set in picturesque gardens beyond. The roofs are slates; the structure is usually brick cavity walls in stretcher bond, with a timber roof and floor.
The Anglo-Dutch style, current from about 1890 to1915, features the curvilinear gable, ‘candle-snuffer’ roof, tower, precisely laid red brick work, round windows or vents, and a ‘picturesque silhouette’. Windows are usually double-hung, vertically proportioned and painted white. Facades are ‘busy’ with numerous elements freely adapted from classical models. The Anglo-Dutch style has been described as one which seeks ‘to charm rather than overwhelm. Classical themes [are] re-interpreted with originality and wit’.’
Balnab echoes these style elements with a turret, a steeply pitched roof with decoratively-arranged slates; notched curvilinear gables; oeil de boef portholes surrounded by keystones; two wide and decorated verandas, brick walls in stretcher bond, double hung, vertical windows and a façade which features a number of classical decorations.
While Anglo Dutch and Queen Anne style indicators are evident, there are also Italian Renaissance design elements. These include rectilinear verandas, opposed to a more traditional Queen Anne design; the heavy pediment over the main entrance; the extensive used of the Corinthian order seen in the columns and even in the rounded chimneys. Pediments over the windows are a further Italian element, as are the rosettes banding the house, directly below the roof eaves.
The building’s architecture expresses the themes of certainty, progress, status and wealth. It is the ‘stately home’ of the rich rural landlord resounding with local community mana. Balnab has the ‘grand homestead’ aesthetic. It symbolises so many of the cultural ideas adhered to by colonial Victorians and turn of the century Edwardians. Grand houses were favoured by society’s elite as a shield against coarse colonial reality and as a reflection of progress and standing. Its very being affirmed the owner’s material and cultural achievement and was the ‘finest currency of progress.’
Architecture…effectively celebrated the certainties of bourgeoisie culture...[they] hired architects to translate their vision into buildings….[celebrating] the triumphs of the pioneers and the certainty of progress through capitalism.
Otago and Southland’s wealthiest, often linked together by business or family ties, ‘legitimised their power by conspicuous consumption’. Ardneil, one of Invercargill’s grandest residences, was designed to display the social status, wealth and pride of one of the region’s elite.
By November 1903 McNab’s dream home was finished. According to local legend, however, the dream suddenly shattered with:
the would-be bride breaking off her engagement and taking herself far away, tho’ no one knew where. The broken-hearted bridegroom realized there could no longer be any happiness for him in Kennington, so young John McNab went away, no doubt leaving his dream at the foot of the sale notice at the gate.
Indeed tradition would have it that he ordered the builders to stop work and swore to never live in the house. The romantic story spread through the district and down the passage of time, although it is likely untrue. Certainly it was a broken contract, rather than a broken heart, which halted construction on the house. Also, McNab did live in the house though for no more than two months. In addition, although the vision of McNab driven from his dream home by a broken heart makes for wonderful local legend, it is more likely that dwindling finances were the true cause, particularly as the judgement was against him. Whatever the true reason, for many years afterwards the house was known as ‘McNab’s folly’.
In September 1903 John McNab sold his ‘well known and highly-improved farm’ Dunragit, 300 acres with homestead and all farm buildings together with 135 acres leasehold, to Mr William Philpott of Rimu. The report added that ‘Mr McNab retains as a residential estate about 60 acres of the property, upon which stands the handsome brick residence recently erected by him’. On 30 September McNab’s horses, sheep, cattle and farm implements were sold in a clearing sale.
In February 1904 the Southland Times advertised an ‘Important sale of Superior Furniture and Furnishings’ at Balnab, Kennington. The advertisement, inadvertently, contained a wealth of information. John McNab, it read, was leaving for England and was selling his furniture which was ‘PRACTICALLY NEW, having been in use for only two months’. McNab’s occupancy of Balnab, however limited, at least existed. The advert also provides an interesting insight into the use of the rooms and their original furnishings. The dining room included a red pine suite in leather, a marble clock, and heavy velvet carpet. The smoking room included a first class leather suite, writing table and Brussels carpet. The master bedroom contained a handsome oak suite in green, and a massive wardrobe with glass front, a Brussels carpet and ‘Valuable Fur Rugs’. McNab also put up for sale ‘superior silver plated goods’, one D.B. Breech-loading Gun, and camera with the ‘latest photographic appliances’.
By the end of 1904 McNab was in England and cutting financial ties with New Zealand. According to local legend, McNab remained a broken, lonely man for the remainder of his life. Perhaps the locals missed the following announcement which appeared in the Otago Witness in January 1906:
McNab-Watt.-On the 10th January inst., at Holborn Church, Aberdeen, by the Rev. Andrew McQueen, B.D., John McNab, of Invercargill, to Elizabeth Mowat Watt, M.A., Aberdeen.
During World War One McNab served in the Royal Labour Corps. He lived out the remainder of his life in retirement at Eastbourne. McNab died at the ripe old age of 81 on 1 August 1958, survived by one daughter. Perhaps the story had a happy ending after all.
Ardneil
On 3 October 1905 McNab’s house and its surrounding acreage were secured by Henry Fowler (1867-1947). Again the home belonged to a family of civic leaders who contributed significantly to the development of Southland.
Henry Mitchell Fowler was born to John and Barbara Fowler on 14 June 1866. Educated at Waikiwi Primary School, he worked on the family farm until he and brother James took up a farm at Oreti. On 25 April 1899 Henry Fowler married Clara Mitchell (1867-1963), daughter of a later Mayor of Invercargill, John Mitchell. Henry spent holidays exploring Fiordland, often accompanied by James, and is remembered for his contribution to the exploration of the lower South Island. He named many landmarks included tiny Lake Norma, after his three month baby daughter. He also named Ardneil Peak, Mt Fowler and Fowler Pass. Over the years Henry gave talks and wrote articles about his expeditions, pushing for tracks to open up access to the area.
Henry and his family moved to Kennington from Oreti in 1905. Fowler liked the property from first sight. His wife’s reaction was ‘somewhat different. With her first sight of the house from the curve of the drive, she gasped ‘Are you mad, Harry?’
One commentator later noted that the rooms were perfectly proportioned, giving ‘a feeling of domesticity. For though it’s big, it’s not grand. It retains the feel of the family home…’ Years later Henry and Clara’s daughter, Norma, recalled her impressions:
Certainly, the house presented a palatial appearance with its tower, two massive identical verandas – one facing front or north, the other facing east – Corinthian pillars, balustrades, two large ornamentations above….Father was very happy to name it ‘Ardneil,’ after the family home at Tranent, Scotland…
Norma described the house as it appeared after a few years of Fowler family residence:
[S]hall we take a tour? Starting at the road gate, we follow the winding drive, its right verge planted with toi-toi and flax alternating and on the left a big macrocarpa hedge bounds the orchard – there where the hedge ends a branch drive skirts a clump of bush to arrive at the back of the house. We keep to the main drive and mount the broad welcoming steps that curve upward to join the two front pillars at veranda level. The front doors are open, so we go into a rather larger hall than usual. It is oblong in shape with an open fireplace across the far right corner. On both long walls are double sliding doors, one to the dining room, and the other to the lounge. The doors slide behind unusually wide architraves, heavily carved and quite beautiful. Not just two to a door, but three, the identical third joining the two sides above the doors, making an unusual impact. The focal point of both rooms is the colonial-style fireplaces. Both also have two 6ft floor to ceiling windows – each an exit to a veranda, one from the dining and one from the lounge; and to the side veranda another exit from the lounge window and a bedroom one. Maybe those exit windows were forerunners of glass doors of a later era. When the double doors are open the length of the frontage makes one whole entertaining space – including three fireplaces.’
The design of the lower floor, as Norma describes it, reflects how rural New Zealanders socialised during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Balls and weekend parties were a common feature in the social life of Southland’s elite. Ardneil’s substantial central foyer which accessed two large lounge rooms provided perfect open plan entertainment space. Given the Fowlers’ position in society, it is not surprising that the house was the scene of many balls and dinner parties.
The Fowler property also contained numerous outbuildings including a cow shed and a hen house. Beyond the homestead and its orchard was a two-room cottage containing a bedroom and a kitchen-living room, complete with camp oven. The Fowler family, devout Presbyterians, used the small cottage for Knox College divinity students filling in for the pastor during summer holidays. Arnold Nordmeyer, as a trainee minister and later leader of the Labour party, stayed in the house and took his meals with the family.
During his time at Ardneil, Henry Fowler grew into a civic leader who took an active interest in the economic development of Southland, particularly in the development of the Kennington township. Seeing the need for a dairy factory in the district, in 1909 he mortgaged his home and property to build the local factory to service the farms in the area - although, Henry forgot to mention it his wife. He was active also in other community forums, organising lectures, administering the Southland Progress League and as Chairman of the Southland Electric Power Board.
In 1922 Henry sold Ardneil to release funds for his eldest son to take up a farm in South Otago. On the eve of the Fowler’s departure for Dunedin in 1922 the Kennington community presented Henry with a handsome roll-topped oak writing desk. The couple remained active until their deaths. Clara’s obituary noted that through their public activities the couple were ‘closely associated with the development of the province’.
Jopp Residency
On 27 July 1922 Ardneil and the surrounding farm was taken up by Keith James Jopp (1891-1965). Born in 1891, by 1920 he was farming near Mount Allan and looking to build a house on site. By 1922, however, Jopp had bought Ardneil. His wife died there in 1923. In 1927 Jopp married again and sold Ardneil.
Hillis residency
On 8 April 1927 Ardneil and 200 surrounding acres was bought by Alice Hillis (nee Ward, 1881-1951), wife of Alexander Hillis (1876-1951) of Invercargill, farmer. Alice used money left to her to fund the purchase in her own name.
The Hillis family farmed the surrounding land for many years and raised a family of seven children. Alice furnished Ardneil with style. Old family photographs lined the walls and rooms were furnished with antique vases and furniture. Alice’s daughter remembers the house fondly. She also recalls the two roomed cottage being moved to its present situation near the rear of the house.
In 1951 both Alice and Alexander died. In 1953 the property was transferred to their sons Alexander and Desmond Hillis. Bachelors, the two men lived in three rooms in the back of the house, originally servant quarters. A visitor noted in 1966 that Alice Hillis’ furnishings remained untouched and the house was completely unmodified, other that the addition of electricity and a telephone. The rooms still reflected the ‘Edwardian era of elegance and graciousness.’ She concluded that it was ‘a house built for a lady. A lady of a hundred years ago, not today’s busy housewife’.
The Hillis brothers continued to farm the surrounding land but maintenance on the house fell so far behind that local identity Fred Miller wrote in the Southland Times in 1974 that ‘restoration was probably out of the question’.
In 1989 ill-health forced the brothers to lease out the farm and move into care. In April 1992 the property was bought by Regina Stephenson. Desmond died in 1994 and Alexander in 1997.
Restoration
For eight months between 1989 and 1990, the house remained empty. During that period, intruders emptied the home of its furnishings. Thieves removed clocks, two twelve foot dining tables, hall furniture, antique mirrors, a bureau, every brass doorknob, thirteen brass coat hooks, a marble washstand, ‘and a host of treasured pieces of china…nothing but a piano remains of the original furnishings of one of Southland’s best homes’. Even the timber-panelled fire surround was pulled askew in an effort to remove it.
The new owner, Regina Stephenson, was faced with a house stripped of its treasures and decades worth of deferred maintenance. Work began. By 1993 the interior was restored to its original condition. The restoration was tasteful and, as far as possible, the original colours were used. The exterior, however, needed a great deal of work. The turret was rusting, the fascia was rotting, and the slate roof needed repairs as did the chimneys. The NZHPT made a small grant toward the works. By March 1995 the project was completed and the repairs were judged to have been well executed.
Over the intervening years, Regina continued with repairs with the aid of an excellent builder. In 2010 a project was begun to replace the roof. By 2011 the slates had been replaced and the original pattern exactly reproduced. The house was finally watertight.
Ardneil stands alone in terms of the aesthetic eccentricity of its design and the unique stories which surround its construction. In Southland there are no other registered domestic dwellings which were built in the early part of the twentieth century. There are a few registered dwellings but they were largely built around the 1860s, 1880s and the 1920s. Extending the comparison to Otago, the homestead’s early Edwardian date of construction places it in the same category as a small collection of Dunedin’s treasures such as Olveston, Manono and Stuart Street’s terraced houses. Nationwide there are relatively a small number of examples of outstanding domestic dwellings built around this era, Antrim House, Wellington, being one of the few. Beyond this, however, is the special whimsical and eclectic aesthetic appeal of Ardneil. The historical contribution of its owners to the establishment of New Zealand’s southernmost province is also outstanding. In these respects it has few challengers.
Ardneil has a special place in the history of Southland and in the heart of the community. The Southland Times has called the building ‘one of Southland’s best homes’. Regina Stephenson hoped that Ardneil would always hold a place in Southland’s future.
People have always loved to look over the hedges and see the slate roof and the towers; we are private people and cannot share it all now; but in the future, after we have gone, then it will be the turn of others.
