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Ashburton
It is said that Turton, then living in Kaiapoi, was induced to accept the post of accommodation house keeper and ferryman by George Hall. The selection was fortunate for although the ferryman’s duties ‘at the Ashburton’ were less onerous than others, the hotel increased in importance with the growth and organization of the traffic. Many such houses were of the lowest standard, being little more than drinking dens. However, the three earliest in the central area, William Dunford’s on the north bank of the Rakaia, Turton’s, and Joseph Ward’s at the lower ferry of the Rangitata, were well conducted and generally clean. Yet C. L. Innes, arriving very tired at Dunford’s on a trip south in late 1859, ‘could not sleep for FLEAS . . .’,[1] and he complained of the monotonous fare both here and at Turton’s—‘bread, tea and chops’.
Dunford had to keep not fewer than fifteen beds ready in six or more bedrooms, Turton, eleven beds in five rooms, Ward, ten beds in three separate bedrooms. The demands of the travelling public soon outran these provisions, especially at Turton’s, which became the usual place to dine or break the journey for the night. In 1863, Turton’s licence required twenty beds. Edward Reginald Chudleigh, whose published diary is one of the most useful and humorous contributions to early Canterbury history, wrote of one visit in his year—‘50 people in Turton’s house for the night’, and of another ‘Turton’s, as usual full of people 6 beds on the floor in the public room’.[2]
The house attracted a good deal of custom besides that of travellers. It was a social centre for the men from the runs, who, judging by the standards of a century later, drank astonishing quantities of liquor. In reminiscences published in 1917 an ‘old timer’ declared of Turton’s that ‘he had seen a man throw a £65 cheque over the bar and say: “Cut that out and let me know when it’s done”.’ After some days spent in drinking and sleeping the same man sold his horse, saddle and bridle, spent the cash, and left the house ‘stoney broke’.[3] Whether the pioneer’s memory was reliable or not, this was common practice throughout Canterbury; it was called ‘lambing down’. For all that, Turton had a good reputation. Robert B. Booth, an energetic young gentleman who carried out contracts on many neighbouring runs, described his reaching ‘the Ashburton, where was a very superior house of entertainment, conducted by a Mr Turton, a man above the general run of bush hotel keepers’.[4]
By 1864 there were accommodation houses at the River Hinds,