1 gen 1874 anni - Cocksford seed dominant industry

Descrizione:

On the hillsides cleared of forest a pasture grass, cocksfoot, flourished, “whitening the
hillsides”. Cutting cocksfoot and processing its seed for export was the pre-eminent
Peninsula industry for several decades. Banks Peninsula was the first large forest area in
New Zealand to be cleared and sown in grass. When the same process was set in train in
the North Island, the demand for cocksfoot seed soared, and was satisfied until the
second decade of the 20th century almost entirely from Banks Peninsula. Although the
cocksfoot industry was large it was dispersed. The seed was processed on the hillsides of valley floors, bagged and shipped out from the bays in which the seed had been cut.
Significant quantities of bagged cocksfoot seed was shipped out over the main wharf of
Akaroa, but each bay had its own wharf through these years and the seed was usually
shipped out from the bays, rather than being brought into Akaroa for shipment.
Some cocksfoot seed merchants, among them Joseph Vangioni, had premises in Akaroa.
A large shed opposite the Gaiety, used in later years as a motor garage but recently
demolished, was built originally for the storage and processing of cocksfoot seed. Many
of the seasonal and itinerant workers who harvested the seed spent time, and money, in
Akaroa, but the industry otherwise did not have a noticeable presence in the town. The
cocksfoot industry was, however, of critical importance to the economy of the Peninsula
as a whole and had, therefore, a considerable impact on Akaroa’s development. “The
Monarch Cocksfoor absorbs all interest in the Peninsula this week” the Akaroa Mail
noted in January 1897, “and nothing else is thought of, talked of, or worked at.”

Source: https://ccc.govt.nz/assets/Documents/The-Council/Plans-Strategies-Policies-Bylaws/Plans/district-plan/banks-peninsula/AkaroaHistoricalOverview-part-1.pdf

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