One of a series of simple, easy to find, caches at railway stations in and around Tasman.
Welcome aboard the New Zealand Rail service to Gowan Bridge! Last stop Wai-iti, next stop Belgrove.
Sir William Fox
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William Fox was born in 1812, in England. He trained as a lawyer and shortly after marrying, he and his new wife emigrated to New Zealand. In New Zealand he got a job as the Nelson Representative to the New Zealand Company after Arthur Wakefield's death at the Wairau Affray (see Nelson rail: Wakefield), where he worked to sort out the mess that the New Zealand Company made of surveys and promises to land for settlers. Fox took on Arthur's brother's job as the representative for all New Zealand when William died five years later. In 1850 Fox went back to England to lobby for political reform, in essence to allow self rule. Back in New Zealand, a new constitution was in place and Fox was elected to the new Parliament. He campaigned against alcohol and votes for women, and for the acquisition of unused land for settlers (although later he backed down from this, possibly to avoid war with Māori). Although Fox became Premier (prime minister) four times, he preferred to let others lead and was happier when in opposition. This was especially noticeable when as Premier, Julius Vogel the colonial treasurer was getting all the news due to Vogel's £10M program of public works.
Fox died in 1893, aged 80. He is remembered for his watercolour paintings and has numerous places named after him, such as this hill and an entire town near Wellington.
This is a very shortened history - a fuller account, made all the more entertaining as it includes his attitudes to Māori and Māori land can be found here. It is well worth a read.
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William Fox
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Foxhill
In 1874, two years before the completion of the original segment of line to Foxhill, the route to Brunner was explored by John Rochfort, surveyor for the Nelson Provincial Council. Of the 227km, only half had arable land, much of the rest would have to be steep gradients, tunnels and bridges. However when the government looked over his plans, they proposed a route through Tophouse to Blenheim. When this proposal was put to the Nelson Council they were unanimous in their opposition as it did not include a route to Buller (Buller being a major coal and timber resource and at the time still part of Nelson Province). Another route proposed in 1878 was to connect Nelson with Blenheim via a mainly coastal route. In 1879 William Blair, engineer-incharge of the South Island reviewed all the South Island plans. He chose the Buller River to Tophouse route with a branch to Blenheim but felt that neither would be required for many years to come. But just before Blair's report came out, the Provincial Council got a small win.
Three years after Public Works completed the line to Foxhill by placing Foxhill Station somewhere other than where Foxhill is, construction starts again. In May of 1879, a contract was let to extend the line another 5km, first crossing the Wai-iti River, at last reaching the community of Foxhill and then continuing on to Belgrove. Construction took two years and this section of the line was opened in July of 1881. After 19 years of petitioning and construction, the Nelson-Foxhill line was actually complete, yet there was no special celebration, not even by the Foxhill residents - 25 July 1881 was just another working day. Since that time very little was done in improvements to the station, although a new ballast pit was opened here about 1898.
Settlers arriving in Nelson Haven, by William Fox, 1841.
On the grass plain below Lake Arthur, by William Fox, 1846.
The cache is outside the property. You are welcome to enter the property and examine the platform area, but please do not drive in - there is no good turn-around space available. The owners of the property and the neighbours know of the cache and are probably playing spot-the-geocacher.
Yes, this cache has the same name as the previous cache in the series. See Nelson Rail: Foxhill for why I did that.
References:
Sinclair, K and Dalziel, R: "Fox, William", teara.govt.nz
McLean, G: "William Fox", nzhistory.govt.nz
Nelson Evening Mail, 22 January 1880
Voller, L:"Rails to Nowhere: The History of the Nelson Railway", published by the Nikau Press 1991
O'Donnell, B: "When Nelson had a Railway", published by the Schematics 2005
Scoble, J: "Names and Opening and Closing Dates of Railway Stations", published by the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand, 2010.