Extract from Southland Times 02 May 2008

The magnificent Metzgers

Metzger Street — gravelled grass between ditches —
A Pompeii that never had been inhabited 
And existed only in that Metzger mind 
Which once had brooded from Heidelberg Hill.

If you are living in Metzger St and reading this, you can be forgiven for feeling confused as well as a bit miffed.

Fortunately, the Metzger St Dan Davin was remembering was from the 1920s when, as a lad living in Morton St, he spent many hours roaming "Metzger's bush".

Dan Davin's recently published collection of Southland stories — The Gorse Blooms Pale — contains several references to Heidelberg, Heidelberg Hills and Metzger's bush. He even has a character in the story Albatross whose name is Hawk Metzger.

It is not surprising a man interested in words would be continually puzzled by the names of Metzger St and Heidelberg.

He was living in a town where most of the street names conjured up a picture of Scotland with the occasional English or Irish feature thrown in. His father spoke in gaelic to Irish friends and the stories he heard at home and at school were of Ireland.

Yet, here were two obviously German names, which today still has people asking: "Why do we have a suburb with the name of Heidelberg in a city of predominantly Scottish names?" The answer lies in Metzger St — now a very much inhabited street — and named along with the suburb of Heidelberg by two well-liked and successful early Invercargill businessmen — Martin Metzger and his uncle, Joseph Metzger.

Joseph (Josef) Metzger was born in 1849 in the parish of Mulfingen, kingdom of Wurttemberg, Germany. He and his brother's son, Martin, who was born 26 years later, were part of generations of Metzgers born in this same parish.

In the 1860s Joseph went to England, to relatives in Bradford, and there learned the butchery trade.

His employer, JH Smith, immigrated to Invercargill and Joseph too, after a short spell in Australia, ended up here, working for his old employer. He and a workmate Thomas Maltby then opened their own butcher shop.

Even in its infancy, Invercargill had quite a community of Polish and German settlers, and Joseph Metzger met and married Ernestine Radka. They moved to Bluff where Joseph had the Bay View Hotel built. Joseph became a Bluff Borough councillor and later Deputy Mayor of Bluff.

He and Ernestine had a large, gracious two-storied home, called Rosenberg built on 1.2ha of land in Bann St. Here they brought up 12 children and hosted guests including the world famous pianist Paderewski when he visited New Zealand.

Paderewski went on to become Prime Minister of Poland in 1919. Life in Joseph's household was never dull it seems. In 1902 the newspaper carried a photo of "Pat, a king penguin from Macquarrie Islands, which is the property of Mr Metzger of Bluff".

Not your usual pet, even in Southland.

Martin, too, left his hometown in Germany as a teenager. After the death of their mother, Martin and his seven brothers and sisters went to St Louis, in the United States to live with a maternal aunt.

Around 1893 the 23-year-old Martin came to Invercargill to visit his uncle Joe, stayed on, and also went into the hotel trade, taking up the licence of the Gladstone Hotel by the Waihopai bridge. He met and married Josephine Fosbender and they had two children, Wilfred and Josephine. The family moved to Metzgers Hotel at Orepuki. Here Martin also owned a team of trotting horses. In 1899 shortly after work began on their new hotel — the Railway, fire destroyed a large part of the wooden Metzgers hotel and along with it, stock, furniture and five valuable horses. There was no insurance.

Undeterred, building continued on their new, brick, hotel.

The Railway Hotel advertised among its many features — "sample rooms", which were rooms made available to travelling salesmen to set up samples of their merchandise for the public to look at and order from. One of the regular travellers, bringing samples of manchester, was John William Smith. A few years later JW Smith and his sister Helen started a store in Invercargill — H & J Smiths. In later years Martin always enjoyed meeting up with "John Willie" as he called him, and they would remember with a smile the days of the sample cases of spotted handkerchiefs and linen! In 1902 the Orepuki shale works closed down and with it went a lot of business in the town. Martin, Josephine and family moved back to Invercargill and into the Albion Hotel in Dee St, where Reading cinemas now stands. But bad luck was once again not far behind them. In the winter of 1903 Josephine died of pneumonia. She was 33.

Two years later the good citizens of Invercargill town voted in no-license or prohibition as it is more commonly called. Twelve months later, at 10pm on June 30 1906, the hotel bars of Invercargill closed — forever, as some people hoped. Bluff and Waikiwi were unaffected, resulting in a huge upturn in trade! The Albion Hotel was altered for shops and the remainder of the building let as a private hotel. Martin then became a tobacconist, taking premises in the Federal buildings in Dee St. He also decided to buy land to develop and Joseph asked to go in with him. While the slow business of clearing and draining their land went on, Martin and Joseph continued other business and sporting interests which included the new sensation in town — the motorcar.

The importing, arrival and sales of the motorcar were big news then.

In October 1905 the Times reported that Martin Metzger had sold his 10hp Oldsmobile to Dr Cantrell and was now going in for a 12hp two-cylinder Darracq.

Fourteen months later those magnificent Metzgers and their motoring machines were in the news again.

The crates containing Martin's 15 to 20hp four-cylinder Darracq had arrived at Stones Bros in Invercargill.

The Times reported: "Several had the opportunity of seeing the car put together and later participating in the trial run. The car is without a doubt the largest and most beautiful yet acquired by a Southland resident." The enameled white car with red leather upholstery was reported to be the first four-cylinder car to arrive to local order and had a speed of 45mph.

Soon after, in February 1907, Joseph's 16 to 20hp Ardler arrived in Bluff.

"The first car of its make in the colony." Joseph had purchased it in Frankfurt and used it in his tour of Europe and Great Britain, occasionally scattering poultry and livestock in country lanes, reminiscent of scenes from Toad of Toad hall! Unfortunately, it wasn't only livestock being scattered in the streets of Invercargill. The newspaper reported cyclists becoming flustered when a motorcar appeared and reacting by riding onto the wrong side of the road. Several cars were involved in accidents, some on their debut run. The A & P show began a motorcar driving competition which in 1907 was won by Tom Stone. In second place was PH Vickery and Martin Metzger was third.

Boy racers they were not, but a correspondent to The Times warned about the dangers of speeding cars stating that the car he had been driven in to the A P show had travelled at 15mph — twice as fast as a car should be allowed to go! Then the inevitable happened and Martin Metzger along with his friend William Stone were charged with having driven a motorcar within the Borough of Riverton at a greater speed than the by-Laws permitted — namely 10mph.

The case was heard in Riverton on January 28, 1909 before Mr G Cruickshank SM.

The hearing coincided with the Southland Motor Association's annual run from Invercargill to Riverton, and Mr Cruickshank adjourned the court so those concerned with the case could see the procession of 22 cars and six motorbikes arrive. Those were the days! Martin and William Stone won their case. As well as there being no signs in the Riverton Borough showing the speed limit, the by-law had not complied with the Motor Regulation Act 1906 and did not specify "streets only" in the Borough so would in fact cover vehicles on private land and racetracks.

Mr Cruickshank did comment that while he felt the evidence did not disclose any likelihood of danger to the public he did think they had in fact been driving at more than 10mph.

For those interested, the car run from Invercargill to Riverton took one and a half hours.

But what of Heidelberg? Martin had agreed to Joseph joining him in the purchase of Section 17 Block I Invercargill Hundred, previously known as Conyerstown. This land ran from Oteramika Rd (now Tweed St) to John St. Over the next seven years the land was cleared, drained, more than 100 chains of ditching went in and the land was surveyed into a township with streets and sections of 32 poles. The subdivision was given the name of Heidelberg after the German city renowned as one of Europe's great seats of learning. The Metzgers also had relatives living there. The higher part of the subdivision was called Heidelberg Hills. The streets were named Metzger after themselves, Wilfred, after Martin's son, Nichol after Joseph's son-in-law — Ernest Nichol of Bluff, Joseph after Joseph himself, Josephine which was the name of Martin's late wife and also his daughter and View because it gave one of the best views across Southland. King was named to show their allegiance to the sovereign of NZ.

Later on King was changed to Dome and Joseph and Josephine to Totara and Rimu.

"Brooding from Heidelberg Hills" as Dan Davin suggested was definitely not for the Metzgers. Joseph had developed a showpiece garden on his three acres in Bluff, he had numerous business and leisure interests and made regular trips overseas.

Martin married again, to Anne Deer, and sometime later they settled for good in Princes St. Here their two children Mollie and Martin (Tim) were born.

Martin also bought Section 18 Block I Invercargill Hundred from the estate of the late James Smith. This land, which ran alongside Heidelberg, and was being used as a farm, is remembered fondly by Miss (Mollie) Metzger.

She and Tim would walk with their father from Princes St, up Centre St and through Heidelberg to the farm to feed the animals they kept there. In the 1920s the farm was leased to William (Billy) Morris who kept pigs which were sold to Lindsays Bacon Curers on Elles Rd. In 1929 Martin Metzger sold the farm to George Gibbs, the coal merchant, much to the distress of his children. A few years after the death of George Gibbs, in 1947, his family sold the land to Hugh Doherty of Centre Bush. The land was subdivided and the Heidelberg streets running east-west were extended. As well Hugh Doherty put in Lime St and donated land for Calvary Hospital.

Heidelberg in the 1920s wasn't quite "a Pompeii that had never been inhabited" but it was close to it.

It had been slow to develop and Miss Metzger remembers dirt roads, and open ditches where they caught frogs. There were only three houses "up on the hill".

Mr Preston, the solicitor's house, the Huffadine's and Mr Anderson's. There were a few more houses north of Centre St.

"Scott's paddocks", which Davin also wrote about, were where Girls' High now stands and was the favourite place for the Metzger children to fly their kites. The Chinese market gardens were where Peacehaven now stands. Martin sympathised with the Chinese and the unfairness of all the Government regulations concerning them. He used to visit them and help them with the barrage of forms they had to fill in. Prejudice was not unfamiliar to Martin. One borough councillor, a well-known land agent, was unhappy with the fact that Martin was quite capable of marketing his own properties and kept declining the councillor's frequent requests for his business. Said councillor tried to get the name of Heidelberg changed to something he thought more patriotic but the mayor, John Miller, a popular and sensible man, said he would have none of it.

Heidelberg it stayed.

Why, when a successful land agent was wanting the business, did Heidelberg not grow? The short answer is: world events.

The first section sales were in 1912 and the next in 1914. Many of the young men that bought sections were called up for war service and didn't want their parents to have the worry of the payments while they were away.

Martin and Joseph bought back many of their sections. The Great War resulted in a huge loss of life. Southland and Otago's losses were the highest for all of New Zealand, taking many future leaders from our midst. It was not an easy time to have the name of Metzger.

One of Joseph's sons, serving with a New Zealand unit, was captured by the Germans. He buried his identity tag as he knew his surname would see him killed as a traitor.

By the 1920s the loss of such a huge number of men as well as the deaths from the 1918 influenza epidemic, meant also the loss of dreams of marriage, land, home and family. The need for sections just was not there; Then came the Depression followed by another war.

It wasn't until the 1950s "baby boom" that Heidelberg, along with other areas of Invercargill, began to grow. Fifty years it had taken and by now Joseph and Martin were no longer alive.

Martin died in 1933. He had been ill for three years with an aneurism on his heart.

Joseph was away at the World Fair in Chicago and was distraught when he returned home to find his much loved nephew had died. Joseph died four years later aged 88.

What would they think now if they looked out from Heidelberg Hill? For a start they would be confused. Heidelberg has now shifted south and contains streets with Scottish names like Dundee, Kelso, Kilmarnock and Lauder. There is the English town of Arundel as well as Mavora — begorrah! The streets that tell the story of Heidelberg — Metzger, Wilfred and Nichol are now part of Newfield so the map in Dan Davin's book unfortunately confuses the reader as it shows Heidelberg in a different place to where it was when Davin grew up.

I am sure though that Martin and Joseph would be happy to see the homes, play areas, churches, "seats of learning" and care facilities for the elderly of Invercargill on what was once a waste land.

Happy too, that Invercargill's hotels are no longer "dry" and one can drive faster that 10mph through the now tar sealed streets of Riverton.

Last updated 21:46 02/05/2008 - © Fairfax NZ News