Grand days that turned to ashes

BY MICHAEL BERRY

Arthur Harrison was an enthusiastic photographer who stopped showing his photo slides to guests when his wife died, because he had "lost the one he shared them with", according to friends who wanted to be named only as the Parkers.

"It was like he cut that part of his life out," Mrs Parker said.

He stopped inviting visitors inside the once-grand house at 28 McArtney St that his father-in-law, Jack Adams, had built about 1910, and would instead talk on the veranda when people called by.

The paint on the outside walls began to peel and the house began to look more dilapidated and deserted as Mr Harrison nursed his wife through three years of painful illness before her death in 1982, aged 62.

The few who were invited inside in later years, however, described beautiful antiques and ornaments in the house.

"The inside was filled with the most wonderful articles, a veritable treasure trove," Mrs Parker said.

"If they were still there [when the fire happened], it was such a tragedy that they were destroyed."

There was also a fantastic library in the home, filled from floor to ceiling with the bound knowledge of ages.

The knowledge was not restricted to the library shelves either.

Wayne Boyce, a distant relation of Mr Harrison, said Mr Harrison would talk at length with friends and acquaintances about local and world affairs, but he seldom talked of his family or himself.

"I sort of knew him all my life, without really knowing him."

Mr Boyce said his grandfather and Mr Harrison used to get on well and were friends.

"He was a hard man to know. Ninety per cent of Marlborough didn't even know Arthur existed, really."

Arthur Harrison was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1917.

He grew up on a five-acre (two-hectare) farm in Paramatta during the Depression, and one day in 1937, he just picked up his kit and left for New Zealand.

He kept in touch with his family, and flew to Australia to visit them occasionally.

He served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II and married Marlburian June Adams in 1942. They had no children.

June's mother was Mabel Horton and her father was Jack Adams. The Hortons and Adams were two of the oldest pioneer families in Marlborough. Significant wealth and holdings passed to the Harrisons from Mr and Mrs Adams.

Mr Harrison proved to be a canny businessman and ran the family business as well as other investments, while Mrs Harrison taught elocution to children in the region and directed many plays for the Marlborough Repertory Society.

The plays she directed were very well received at the time and are fondly remembered by those who saw them.

The Harrisons spent a large amount of time in Christchurch, watching plays and shows. "They considered Christchurch a second home. They were always in Christchurch," Mrs Parker said.

The Harrisons spent a lot of time travelling, both for the joy of it and to further Mrs Harrison's directing ability by watching theatre in Britain and in Europe.

They were interested in historical sites and would think nothing of spending a whole day in a cathedral learning everything about it.

"The first place they seemed to go when travelling was to museums, old buildings  historical things," Mr Boyce said.

After Mrs Harrison died he usually travelled alone, although he was known to take friends on trips with him as well.

He took Faye Cregeen, of Invercargill, with him to Britain in 1988 after he met her by chance in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens two years earlier. "He called himself 'the Happy Wanderer'."

"He was always very generous to me and he said that he would leave his money to a trust, but I never realised how wealthy he was," she said.

When in Blenheim, Mr Harrison would often be seen walking into town to check his postbox and tend to his business.

John Davis, founder of Harcourts Marlborough, dealt with Mr Harrison regularly for 25 years regarding the leasing of his extensive property holdings.

He said Mr Harrison was supportive of community projects in which he was involved, although always away from the spotlight.

"He was a community orientated guy."

He was the fairest landlord Mr Davis had met in more than 30 years of real estate and Mr Davis said when he died at 92, he was as astute as most 60-year-olds.

"His knowledge wasn't just commercial, it was of the world  you could talk to him about anything and have a wonderful conversation.

"I admired the man."

In the library of Mr Harrison's McArtney St house were the collected works of William Shakespeare.
Mr Harrison had bought them for June Adams' 21st birthday in 1941, while they were courting.

The books were burnt, as were the rest of his late wife's things, which he had kept for more than a quarter century, in the fire which took his life and the old Adams' house on the windy November night last year.

The ruined house was soon bulldozed to the ground, while elsewhere at the Blenheim Public Trust Office Mr Harrison's will was found. The property of 28 McArtney St sat empty and the weeds grew as the abandoned fire department scene tape fluttered in the breeze. Blenheim seemed to forget.

Until February brought the revelation that Mr Harrison's $10-million estate would create the Adson Charitable Trust, and its income would purchase new exhibits for the Canterbury Museum, forever.

Everyone wanted to know why so much money had been left, in such a specific fashion, to something apparently so far removed from his life.

It could be said, that the legacy replaced Mr Harrison's photographic slides, and Mrs Harrison's repertory plays.

United once more, Mr and Mrs Harrison are ready to share their treasures again. At the museum in Christchurch. The city they considered their home away from home.

- The Marlborough Express