Māori History The Waitaha/Canterbury region is central to the history, culture and identity of Ngāi Tahu. The vast network of wetlands and plains of Canterbury, which became known as Kā Pākihi Whakatekateka o Waitaha, link the iwi to the earliest strands of tribal whakapapa and previous iwi that resided in the Waitaha area. The kōrero relating to the area indicates that the entire Oxford area including Glentui and Te Rākau (Birch Hill) were part of the broad mahinga kai landscape utilised by Ngāi Tūāhuriri and others of Ngāi Tahu based at Kaiapoi Pā. Ngāi Tahu used the extensive beech forest seasonally to snare rats and kereru as well as to gather specifically utilised resources of weka, kiwi, kākāpō and tī kōuka. Smaller mahinga kai were located along the Rakahuri ara pounamu (pounamu trail) that followed the Rakahuri (Ashley) River. One of the better known trails is the Blowhard Track, by the Glentui and Garry Rivers. A change of Māori land tenure occurred in 1894 when Orohaki Native Reserves 893 and 894, were established in what became known as the Birch Hill District. The Reserves, a belated result of the government of the day’s tardy response to institute occupational Reserves as part of their land sales agreement, are adjacent to the Birch Hill Station and approximately three kilometres to the north-west of where the Birch Hill Station cemetery is situated. Modern day reminders of this Māori history remain in the naming of the Orohaki Māori Reserves 893A and 893B and nearby Māori Stream, and the long Māori Reserve Road, off which comes Garry River Road leading to Birch Hill Station homestead and cemetery. Archaeological discoveries confirm early occupation in the wider Oxford area, south and south-west of Glentui. When the bush was cleared off View Hill (Otauaki, south-west of Oxford) in about 1872, three Māori ovens were found on its northern slopes near a small flax swamp. Evidence of seasonal clearings was noted in the bush near Gammans Creek (Pekapeka) and stone adzes were found at the ‘Ram Paddock’ (Tutae tarahi), just over one kilometre north of the Eyre River. Birch Hill Station Sheep stations were integral to the colonial development of the South Island and in the 1850s the Canterbury Plains and low-lying hill country was taken up under the settlement scheme of the Canterbury Association as large leasehold pastoral runs. By 1855 almost the whole of the Canterbury block had been subdivided, much of it being stocked with sheep. Several of these pastoral runs were in the Ashley County in North Canterbury. J T Brown took up Birch Hill in 1853, who sold it to R McKay in 1854, who in turn sold it to C O Torlesse, in 1856. T S Mannering purchased the run between Glentui and Mount Thomas for his homestead block in about 1857. The following year, Mannering over-extended his capital and A H Cunningham joined him in partnership. Much of this block was black beech bush, often referred to as birch, which restricted the pasturage available to land along the river flats by the banks of the Garry River. In preparation for the arrival of his wife and newborn infant, Mannering built a pit-sawn timber homestead, which he called Birch Hill, on a rise which overlooked the Garry and Ashley Rivers. Mannering occupied Birch Hill until 1866 when it was taken over by George Hart. In 1860, Captain William Newton Millton (1816-1889) purchased View Hill run, consisting of more than 20,000 acres (8.094 hectares) from John Christie Aitken. Captain Millton held View Hill run for five years before selling it and purchasing the nearby Birch Hill run from George Hart in 1874 to use as his shearing station. Captain Millton had arrived in New Zealand in October 1842, as second in command of the barque Arachne, which brought cattle, general cargo and a small number of passengers from Australia to Wellington. The Captain’s first full command, the Louisa, came in July 1845. In December 1856, he married Caroline (née Stockman, 1837-1887), and the following year they purchased land in Nelson, before taking up View Hill, Okuku Hills, Ashley Flats and Snowdale in North Canterbury, in 1857. Birch Hill was grazed by Captain Millton from 1874 until his death in 1889. Captain Millton built a nine-roomed weatherboard homestead, near Mannering’s earlier cottage. The couple had six sons and a daughter. Millton’s sons were noted for their administrative abilities and sporting prowess - three represented the province in rugby, cricket and tennis, and two the country in rugby. After Captain Millton died, his land was split up between his sons, who immediately purchased the freehold of Birch Hill. The toss of a coin between the two oldest living sons, James Dothie (J D) Millton and Edward Bowler (E B) Millton, resulted in E B Millton getting the Birch Hill Station block and hills which he worked until his death in 1942. In 1898, a huge fire threatened to destroy the homestead and outbuildings, but they were saved by E B and Maude Millton and their staff. A grand replacement homestead was built in 1908/09, by John Forbes of Cust, to the design of Christchurch architect, Samuel Hurst Seager. Mounted Rifles and New Zealand’s military service E B Millton, who rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, ran Birch Hill on methodical, almost military, lines. His men always saluted him and the Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry frequently held their camps at Birch Hill. With the outbreak of the South African (Boer) War, companies of mounted infantry were formed throughout Canterbury. In 1900, the Cust Mounted Rifles was formed, with most of the men coming from the Oxford and Cust Districts. Henry Lance commanded as captain, with E B Millton and Henry Johnson as his lieutenants. By the time the Cust unit paraded in front of the Duke and Duchess of York in Christchurch in June 1901, E B Millton had been promoted to captain. About 45 Oxford and Cust members of the Cust Mounted Rifles served in the South African War. Three were killed in action. The Cust Mounted Rifles remained an active unit for several years, holding annual camps throughout the district. Sons of farmers, as owners of good horses, were the main source of recruits. In 1911, changes in the New Zealand defence system resulted in the Cust and Malvern Mounted Rifles being amalgamated to become C Squadron of the Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry. A distinguished squadron, it secured honours in a number of military competitions in 1912 and 1913. Under the 1911 military training scheme, youths aged from 14 to 18 were trained as senior cadets. In 1911, E B Millton was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the 8th (South Canterbury) Mounted Rifles, based in Timaru. On 8 August 1914, three days after the declaration of war in Europe, Prime Minister Massey told the House of Representatives: ‘We shall require a fairly large number of horses, probably three thousand or more. …If there are patriotic citizens who own horses suitable for mounted infantry and artillery purposes, and who are willing to hand them over to us, the Government will be glad to receive them as soon as possible.’ It is understood that E B Millton provided horses from Birch Hill Station for this purpose, though he remained in Canterbury during the war period. When the First World War broke out in August 1914, the government had to raise a completely separate organisation, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF), as distinct from the existing Territorial Force infantry battalions and mounted rifle regiments, whose role was home defence. Accordingly, the Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment (CMR) was one of four mounted rifles regiments raised to serve overseas in the NZEF during the First World War, 1914-18. The component parts of the CMR were known as 1st (Canterbury) Squadron, 8th (South Canterbury) Squadron and 10th (Nelson) Squadron. The CMR was part of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles (NZMR) Brigade and left New Zealand with the ‘Main Body’ of the NZEF in October 1914. The NZEF Main Body was made up of some 8,400 men and 3,753 horses. Eight of the 12 New Zealand transport ships carried the New Zealand horses for the seven week sea journey. The men and horses from the 8th (South Canterbury) Squadron sailed on the HMNZT Athenic, crossing the globe to finally arrive in Alexandria, Egypt, to disembark on 3 December 1914. In April 1915 the Infantry and Artillery departed Egypt to attack the Gallipoli peninsula. Within three weeks, the Canterbury Mounted Rifles were fighting in the Dardanelles, not as mounted riflemen but as Infantry because the precarious hills were unsuitable for the horses. After the evacuation from the Dardanelles in December 1915, the Canterbury Mounted Rifles came back to Cairo in Egypt where their spirits were uplifted in being reunited with their horses. Early in 1916 they began the campaigns in the desert of Sinai and Palestine. These were more successful than at Gallipoli, because the men and horses of the NZMR proved a more capable fighting force in the open desert and plains, and the Ottoman forces eventually surrendered in October 1918. Over the period 1914-1918, New Zealand sent a total of 10,238 horses on active war service to Europe, including France, Egypt and Palestine. The role of mounted riflemen was to ride to the scene of a battle but, unlike traditional cavalry, dismount before going into action as normal infantrymen. In the First World War this distinction was sometimes blurred in practice, with men occasionally fighting from horseback. Mounted rifles were valued for their superior mobility and ability to patrol and carry out reconnaissance over a much larger area than could be covered on foot, but in some cases the horses and required gear was a hindrance. Horses were an essential means of transport for soldiers and a key part of the Commonwealth's strategy of defence and attack. Lack of statistical information about the mounted service is a common theme throughout the British Empire, but it is thought that about 14% of horses died or were destroyed whilst in service. The relationship between a mounted soldier and his horse is often described as a close friendship, the horse a very part of the soldier’s life. At the end of the campaign, many a hardened trooper was devastated to learn that the horses were not coming home for reasons of cost and quarantine. Only four horses returned to New Zealand after peace was declared. Over 100,000 New Zealanders served overseas in the First World War, many of them young men who had never left home before. Around 18,500 of those died in or because of the war, and about 41,000 were wounded. A total of 186 men from the Oxford district served through the First World War, in Egypt, France and Palestine and at Gallipoli. Several of these men were decorated and mentioned in despatches, including G Munn, R Garlick, O A Gillespie, M Pavelka, L Tritt and W L Watson. The names of those who died from the district are inscribed on the war memorial erected in 1923 at the entrance to Pearson Park in Oxford’s Main Street. The mounted battles of the First World War were the last in which mounted forces played a vital role in a military campaign. This is because of the development of modern firepower and because horses were largely superseded by mechanical vehicles such as tanks and automobiles. Birch Hill Station Cemetery In the years and decades following the First World War, communities throughout New Zealand recognised the service and sacrifice of those who served in the war through the erection of war memorials and plaques. In 1937, a rectangular section, 1 acre and 5.2 perches, of the Birch Hill Station land was vested in Edward Millton, Reginald Ford and John McCracken as Trustees for the purposes of a cemetery. The land was part of Rural Sections 31196, 31651 and 31831 and the whole of the land comprised in Certificate of Title 446/125, and it was declared that use as a cemetery would not happen until after 31 March 1937. It appears that E B Millton had been planning the cemetery for some time, as the area had been fenced and planted and some plots were already surveyed as early as February 1935. Unofficially, the cemetery was intended only for the burial of persons related to the Millton family, workers from the Birch Hill Station, or neighbours. A historic map of the cemetery shows that three of the sets were dedicated to Anglican burials, two to Presbyterian, two to Roman Catholic and one to Methodist burials. As a focal point, at the southern end of the cemetery a stone monument was erected, most probably shortly after the cemetery was created in the 1930s. It is not certain who designed the monument, but it may have been E B Millton himself. The stone monument contains plaques in memory of J T Ford and his wife, Eliza, as well as Caroline, wife of W N Millton. In addition, it commemorates the horses of the 8th (South Canterbury) Regiment NZMR that died in that ‘Great War’ and the men of Birch Hill Station who fought in the First World War. For the latter, the ten men named on the plaque are: J T Ford, W J Thompson, H B Brittan, P Burke, M Pavelka, H D Harris, J Tait, A George, M Fitzgibbon and H Coombes. Some of these men served in the 8th (South Canterbury) Regiment of the NZMR, such as W J Thompson, who fought and was wounded at Gallipoli and subsequently survived the sinking of the SS Marquette. Others joined reinforcements. M Fitzgibbon, for example, joined the 14th Reinforcements and after a period of training at Trentham, he served in the trenches of France before being wounded in the advance upon Messines. Sergeant Michael Pavelka received a decoration for his service abroad. Various members of the Millton family are buried in the Anglican plots closest to the stone monument. Some of the burials relate to the descendants of families associated with the area prior to the Milltons, for example there are headstones for members of the Hamilton family who descend from both J T Brown who briefly took up the Birch Hill run in 1853 and T S Mannering who held the property from circa 1857 until 1866. Some headstones are for Ford family members – Ford being Maude Millton’s maiden name - including John James Ford, former manager at the station, and Reginald John Ford, one of the trustees when the cemetery was first established. Other headstones for former station workers include that for the ashes of Selwyn Tomkies, retired wool classer. The earliest headstones at the cemetery belong to E B Millton (d. 11 March 1942), his brother, Frederick John Millton (d. 6 April 1942) and E B Millton’s wife, Maude (d. 4 February 1946). Apart from a small number of burials or interment of ashes in the 1950s and 1960s, most headstones date to the 1970s-1990s. A small number date from the early 2000s. After E B Millton’s death, his medals were placed in the Millton-Ford table part of the monument at the cemetery as part of a type of time capsule. These were stolen in circa 1978. Sunlight League of New Zealand and E B Millton Charitable Trust E B Millton and his wife Maude (née Ford) had no offspring. The Lieutenant Colonel died in 1942 and after Maude’s death in 1946, their homestead was gifted, per instructions in E B Millton’s will, to the Sunlight League of New Zealand and turned into a children’s home known as the Ford-Millton Memorial Home, funded from profits by the station. It functioned this way until 1985, and it was during this time that the nearby private cemetery at Birch Hill Station became more widely known. In 1997 the E B Millton Charitable Trust was formed and one of its many roles involves assisting the Waimakariri District Council in the administration of the cemetery. Public ownership of cemetery In 1980, the trustees decided to vest the cemetery and transferred 0.4178 hectares to the Hurunui County Council and this became public property. Since 1991 the cemetery has been administered by the Waimakariri District Council (together with the E B Millton Charitable Trust) and is available for any burials, whether local or not. The cemetery is used frequently as a site for picnics and family gatherings. New burials are occasionally made at the site. A memorial ride to Birch Hill Station Cemetery took place on 15 February 2015, specifically to recognise the important role that New Zealand military horses played in the First World War. In late 2014 the original stone gateposts at the northern entrance to the cemetery were relocated to within the cemetery boundary and in early 2015 a new, larger, entranceway was installed to the north-west of the cemetery on land owned by E B Millton Charitable Trust. The new gateway was designed, built and installed by Daniel Smith and was funded by Daniel and Annette Smith.

Construction Professionals: Not known Current Description The Birch Hill Station Cemetery is located approximately 20 metres from the west bank of the Garry River on a terrace facing the north. It has a high bank on its south side, planted with exotic trees, including cyprus, wattle, oregons, Wellingtonias and larch. Amongst these are wild cherries. The former Birch Hill Station homestead is situated nearby at 136 Garry River Road, approximately half a kilometre north-west of the cemetery. The cemetery is fenced off and includes relocated stone gate posts which are faced with smooth river-bed stone at the north end of the cemetery. Just outside the cemetery, to the north-west, is the concrete entranceway installed in early 2015 which bears the name of the cemetery, the dates 1914-1918, and the words ‘Lest We Forget’. The main part of the cemetery is on grassed flat land. It is a rectangular site with an orderly rectilinear arrangement of paths and plots forming a grid pattern. Set out in two rows, it caters for eight rectangular sets of 20 burial plots. Of the 160 plots available, around 46 have burial or cremation markers such as headstones or plaques. The front, south-eastern plots comprise a pair of low-walled concrete and river stone family plots containing ten separate headstones for departed members of the Millton family. Physical features of the cemetery include graves, headstones, open spaces, entrance gates, grassed paths and plots, purposely planted and wilding trees, shrubs and flowers, and grassy areas including a grassed semi-circular carriage turning area in front of the large stone monument at the south end of the cemetery. Grave elements include headstones, footstones, grave covers, surrounds, grave furniture and grave plantings. A focal point at the southern end of the cemetery is the stone monument, constructed of local greywacke, smooth river-bed stones, with a cement facing and concrete backing. The monument is a curved wall, approximately two metres in height and 10.5 metres wide, including its wings, with square posts at each end. The wall is shaped from these posts gradually down to smaller square posts on each end. The wings are 2.5 metres wide. A half-metre wide step is on the inside of the curved wall. The wall contains two bronze plaques. On the eastern part of the wall the plaque reads ‘In memory of the horses of the 8th Regiment NZMR that died in the Great War, 1914-18’ and at the top left of the plaque is the Regiment’s coat of arms and the words ‘MOVEO ET PROFITIOR’ (‘By my actions I am known’). On the western side of the wall a plaque states ‘In memory of the Men of Birch Hill Station who fought in the Great War 1914-1918, T J Ford, W J Thompson, H B Brittan, P Burke, M Pavelka, H D Harris, J Tait, A George, M Fitzgibbon, H Coombes’. From the main square posts there is a paved stone area, four metres in front of the wall. This has a step around three sides. This area has on it a stone rectangular memorial in the form of a table, approximately two metres by one metre wide. It contains a bronze plaque with the Millton family crest and motto ‘Sine Fraude Fides’ (‘faith without deceit’) and the words ‘1816-1889, William Newton Millton, sea captain, landed New Zealand 1842, occupied the Okuku country, 1857.’ The limestone atop the table rises to a shallow peak, the lower flat sides of which form a type of frieze imprinted with stylised geometric and swirling patterns of Māori design. At the end of the stone wall monument, the square posts have slightly pointed limestone caps. On the four sides of these caps the same pattern of motif, incorporating swirls and circles, has been imprinted or pressed into the limestone. The rectangular land parcel of the cemetery is bounded on all sides by land owned by the E B Millton Charitable Trust and much of this has been kept in forestry. A programme of change is currently being implemented on this land, particularly on the western side, where trees have been felled with the view to create a new car parking and entrance area. In late 2014 the original stone entrance gates for the cemetery were shifted approximately 25 metres southward to just inside the boundary of the cemetery. Land immediately to the north of the cemetery comprises a grassed area that forms part of the original road that ran between Rakahuri Station to the east and Birch Hill Station. Comparative Analysis Cemeteries Birch Hill Station Cemetery cannot be considered rare as a private cemetery. While most people in New Zealand are buried or interred in public cemeteries, historically it was common for communities, including farms, to have small private burial grounds. Mesopotamia Station, South Canterbury, is an example of a high country station that has graves that range in date from 1861 through to 2007. It remains a common practice for whānau, iwi and hapū to have their own small cemeteries or urupā on their land. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage maintains numerous historic graves and monuments on both public and private land, such as Mangungu Mission Station Cemetery in Northland, which contains graves of 23 early settlers. There are currently 36 cemeteries or cemetery-related entries on the New Zealand Heritage List, most of which relate to public cemeteries. War Memorials There are several New Zealand memorials that specifically commemorate the men of a private station who fought in the First World War. For example, at Kuriheka Station in North Otago, is a station memorial, erected in 1922, to those workers from the estate who served in the First World War. At Mount Dasher Station, inland from Oamaru, are memorial plaques on the entrance gate posts which are dedicated to two brothers from the station killed in the First World War. Birch Hill Station Cemetery is rare for its commemoration of war horses. An almost identical commemorative plaque at the Phar Lap Racecourse in Timaru is also dedicated to the horses of the 8th (South Canterbury) Regiment of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles of the First World War. This was recently relocated from the South Canterbury Returned Services Association (RSA) in Timaru. That there is an almost identical plaque in South Canterbury matching that at Birch Hill Station Cemetery reflects E B Millton’s commitment to both places. To have two plaques both commemorating the same horses is particularly notable, especially since memorials to war horses are not common in New Zealand. A well-known horse memorial in New Zealand is the ‘Memorial to Bess’, Bulls (Category 1 Historic Place, List No. 7571), which was erected in 1934 after the death of the returned First World War horse named Bess. That memorial is a personal rather than an official one, prompted by the death of the horse, but it has become a memorial to all of New Zealand's horses that served during the war. Bess served in the Wellington Rifles Regiment in the First World War. Of the 3,817 New Zealand horses that served during the war, Bess was one of only four horses to return home. On her death in 1934, Bess’s owner, Captain Charles Guy Powles, erected the small stone memorial over her grave. A number of war memorials feature both soldiers and horses. In Otahuhu, for example, the War Memorial (Category 2 Historic Place, List No. 533) is a heroic size bronze statue representing a New Zealand Mounted Rifleman seated upon a rearing horse. Wellington’s Cenotaph (Category 1 Historic Place, List No. 215) includes sculpted horses. Kowhai Bush’s War Memorial features St George on horseback fighting the dragon. Internationally, there is some precedent for memorials to war horses. In South Africa, ‘Horse Memorial’ at Port Elizabeth, is a statue of a horse and soldier that was built in 1905 as a rare memorial to horses that suffered and died in the South African (Boer) War of 1899-1902. When it comes to the First World War, the horse is the animal most often associated with that international conflict. Memorials have been erected to the service of horses in that war, including that at St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, England, which bears the inscription ‘Most obediently and often most painfully they died – faithful unto death.’ In the United States of America, a monument by Lake of the Isles, Minneapolis, is dedicated to the horses of the Minnesota 151st Field Artillery killed in battle during the First World War. In Canberra, Australia, the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial, or Light Horse Memorial, commemorates the men of the Australian Light Horse Brigade and New Zealand Mounted Rifles who died between 1916 and 1918 in Egypt, Palestine and Syria. It was erected in 1967 and is a duplicate of the replica in Albany, Western Australia, of the memorial destroyed at Port Said in 1956. The 2004 ‘Animals in War Memorial’ in London commemorates animals, including horses that served with the British and their allies in all wars. In summary, the NZMR plaque at Birch Hill Station Cemetery is a commemorative plaque and has an almost identical twin plaque in Timaru, reflecting E B Millton’s involvement in both places in Canterbury. However, the Memorial to Bess is not just a memorial to, but a grave site of, one of the few horses to return from the war and is considered to be of outstanding significance. Design While the headstones and layout of the cemetery are fairly standard, the stone monument as the focal point within the cemetery is notable for its motifs which appear as stylised Māori designs. They bear similarities to some of the patterns incorporated in early 1930s Art Deco architecture in post-quake Napier. The way the patterns have been arranged, particularly the spirals with the floral outline, are also reminiscent of some Asian art. The carved stone font in St Luke’s Church (1905-6, Category 1 historic place, List No. 7094) at Little Akaloa on Banks Peninsula has similar flowing motifs and was designed by John Henry Menzies, an English settler farmer who was fascinated with Māori decorative art. Menzies had previously designed Māori inspired timber carvings for the interior of his son William’s house, Rehutai (1894, Category 1 historic place, List No. 7501) at nearby Menzies Bay. Māori motifs appear in a number of Napier’s Art Deco buildings, for example in the 1934 ASB Bank building (Category 1 historic place, List No. 1112) and the Ministry of Transport Building (Category 2 historic place, List No. 4815). The Art Deco style was used for a number of the First World War memorials, as it was a popular style that flourished internationally in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. A significant example is the Carillon at the National War Memorial in Wellington which also features decorative motifs (Category 1 historic place, List No. 1410). In summary, the stylised motifs of the Birch Hill Station monument are notable, but not rare in New Zealand.