Top house
| Top house | ||
| Geographical location | ||
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| Coordinates | 41 ° 46 ′ S , 172 ° 54 ′ E | |
| Region ISO | NZ-TAS | |
| Country |
 New Zealand
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| region | Tasman | |
| District | Tasman District | |
| Ward | Lakes-Murchison Ward | |
| Residents | few | |
| height | 687 m | |
| Post Code | 7275 | |
| Telephone code | +64 (0) 3 | |
Tophouse , also known as Tophouse Settlement , is a small settlement in the Tasman District on the South Island of New Zealand .
geography
The settlement is located around 6.5 km northeast of Saint Arnaud and around 60 km southwest of Nelson in the valley of the Motupiko River . The New Zealand State Highway 63 passes just under 2 km south of the settlement.
history
The settlement was named after a hotel founded in the 19th century that housed drovers and their sheep on their way between Canterbury and Marlborough . The hotel is still in operation today and is best known for a double homicide in 1894. For many years the name actually only referred to the hotel, but was also used for the surrounding area. On May 10, 2001, the New Zealand Geographic Board named the area " Tophouse Settlement ".
There were earlier plans to build a railway junction in Tophouse . A plan from the 1880s for the routing of the Main North Line from Christchurch to Marlborough and Nelson suggested that in Culverden ending Wairau Branch about Hanmer Springs to Tophouse continue and then a branch line through the valley of the Wairau River to Blenheim and another after Nelson Build. These considerations persisted until the 1930s when a coastal stretch across Parnassus and Kaikoura was built instead .
The "Top House Tragedy"
In October 1894, the owners of the top-house hotel, Nathaniel and Louisa Longney , traveled to Blenheim . Her cousin, John Lane , continued the business during this time, while the nanny Catherine Wylie looked after the three children. Louisa’s brother , William (Bill) Bateman , who is said to have wooed Caterine Wylie without success , heard about it and was obviously jealous.
He traveled to the hotel and arrived there on October 4th. He went rabbit hunting with John and shot him in the back of the head. After hiding the body in the bushes, he went to the telegraph station 300 meters away and told duty officer William Wallis that John Lane wanted to speak to him. When Wallis accompanied Bateman , he too was shot and his body was hidden under a horse blanket. During the night he threatened Caterine Wylie and the wife of Wallis (who had locked herself in the telegraph station and tried to call for help), but did not shoot either woman.
When the police arrived the next evening because of Ms. Wallis' calls for help , they found Bateman on the hotel porch. He had shot himself in the head with his shotgun. The holes of the balls can still be seen today in the ceiling boards of the veranda.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Topo250 maps . Land Information New Zealand , accessed September 5, 2017 .
- ^ Decisions of The New Zealand Geographic Board . Land Information New Zealand , May 10, 2001, archived from the original on July 4, 2014 ; accessed on May 20, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).
- ^ The Tophouse Tragedy . In: The Colonist . Vol. XXXVII, No. 8061 . Nelson October 8, 1894, p. 2 (English, online [accessed September 5, 2017]).