By Roselyn Fauth
Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns,[a] was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns
At the gates of Timaru’s Botanic Gardens you can wave to a marble poet. He’s there to greet you, though he never once set foot in New Zealand. For years I thought our Robbie Burns statue was something uniquely Timaru — until a Facebook post from Ballarat popped up in my feed, and there he was again! I soon learned that Robbie stands in many corners of the world. So why did our town choose to honour Robert “Rabbie” Burns — the ploughman poet of Scotland — with pride of place in the park? The answer stretches from the heart of Ayrshire to the clay soils of South Canterbury, weaving together heritage, identity, and community memory, a bit like the threads of a tartan kilt....
A Statue of Burns; The Unveiling Ceremony at the Timaru Botanic Gardens in May 1913. Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 03/10/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/44
Our Burns statue was unveiled on 22 May 1913, in front of a large crowd at the entrance gates of the Botanic Gardens. It was gifted by James Craigie, then Timaru’s mayor and local Member of Parliament, who later became a Legislative Councillor. The eight-foot figure of white Carrara marble stood on a base of bluestone, surmounted by a grey Coromandel granite pedestal. The carving was executed in Italy after the statue had been modelled locally, and erected by Timaru stonemason S. McBride.
On the pedestal were inscribed Thomas Carlyle’s tribute — “The largest soul of all the British lands” — and Burns’s egalitarian couplet: The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, The man’s the gowd for a’ that.
It was Sir Robert Stout, the Prime Minister, who gave the eulogy. He spoke at length about Burns as the poet of democracy and equality, while children sang Ye Banks and Braes and Auld Lang Syne. Imagine their voices floating through the gardens. It must have been a proud day for Timaru.
I was curious, we could have had anyone on that pedestal, so why did we choose Burns?
Robert Burns (1759–1796) was a farmer, exciseman, poet, and songwriter and became a cultural icon. His verses in Scots and English carried themes of love, toil, humour, justice, and human worth. I have sung Auld Lang Syne most new years of my life. And it is still sung around the world every New Year’s Eve. Burns preserved it, polished it, and made the old Scottish folk song immortal. In 1788, Burns sent the song to the Scots Musical Museum, saying he was giving them “an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man’s singing. Burns refined and added to the verses, giving the song its power. It riles something in me every year, so it was fun to find out this song has a Burns connection.
His A Man’s a Man for A’ That, declared that dignity came not from rank or wealth but from character. This is a message that resonated strongly with working people and immigrants building new lives abroad, and I think is still relevant today.
By the late 1800s Burns had become the global voice of the Scottish. Statues were springing up from Dunedin’s Octagon (1887) to Melbourne’s Treasury Gardens (1888), from Boston to Ballarat. The Robert Burns World Federation was established in Kilmarnock in 1911, uniting Burns clubs across the globe. Timaru’s statue, unveiled just two years later, tied our small Timaru town into that international network.
For Timaru — a settlement with a strong Scottish thread among its merchants, councillors, and Presbyterian church leaders — Burns was both a cultural anchor and a badge of pride. By placing him at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens, the town positioned itself alongside Dunedin, Melbourne, and other centres of Scottish culture.
Side Quest: Who was the man behind the gift: James Craigie
When we pause before the Burns statue in the Botanic Gardens, it is not just Robert Burns we are honouring. I think it is also the vision of James Craigie, the man who gifted the monument to Timaru. Craigie was born in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1851, the son of James and Agnes Craigie (née McFarlane). He emigrated to New Zealand as a young man and trained as a paperhanger in Dunedin before setting up his own business in Timaru at just 21. In 1875 he married Catherine Orr of Donegal, and together they raised one son and six daughters.
But Craigie was more than a businessman. He became one of Timaru’s most outstanding civic leaders, with a vision that shaped the town we know today. He served as:
Chairman of the Kingsdown School Committee for 11 years
Member of the South Canterbury Hospital Board for 8 years
Chairman of the Timaru Harbour Board (1906–10)
Borough councillor in 1901, and Mayor of Timaru for over a decade (1902–13)
Member of Parliament for Timaru (1908–22)
Member of the Legislative Council (1922–29)
Craigie’s impact can still be seen across the city. He was instrumental in securing cheap government loans for underground drainage that transformed public health. Craigie saw public art and architecture as part of the town’s cultural fabric. As Mayor, he promoted the development of Caroline Bay and supported monuments “for the betterment of Timaru.” He gifted the oak trees of Craigie Avenue, donated the Town Clock chimes (first installed in the Post Office tower in 1913, later moved to the Municipal Buildings), and contributed to schools, the hospital, and the stained-glass windows of the Basilica.
Craigie also had a deep love of art and culture. In 1914, when grateful citizens presented him with a public testimonial, he devoted it to purchasing two paintings for the art gallery. He was instrumental in securing a Carnegie grant of £6000 to build the Timaru Public Library, ensuring books and learning would always be at the town’s heart. He served on the South Canterbury Arts Society, fostering a civic culture where art, music, and literature thrived.
In 1914 Craigie presented the renowned painting “The Mother” by Thomas Kennington to the South Canterbury Art Society. After his death, the Craigie family donated a C.F. Goldie painting "Memories. The Last of her Tribe” (painted in 1913) to the people of Timaru. Both paintings can be seen at the Aigantighe Art Gallery in Wai-iti Road, Timaru.
His descendants planted a tree in his honour in Craigie Avenue at Easter, 1994.
Craigie was an enthusiastic admirer of Robert Burns and was at one-time regarded as New Zealand's leading authority on Burns. Craigie was an Overseas Vice President of the Robert Burns World Federation. In 1931, Craigie delivered a lecture to the Wellington Burns Club entitled "The Humanity of Robert Burns". Craigie provided funds for the erection in the Timaru Botanic Gardens of a statute of Robert Burns. The statue was unveiled by Craigie before a huge crowd on 28 May 1913.
And through it all, Craigie never forgot his Scottish roots. He was known to quote Robert Burns in his speeches, drawing on the poet’s words to inspire his community. Gifting the Burns statue in 1913 was more than a civic gesture; it was personal. It was his way of linking Timaru’s story to the Scottish cultural traditions he carried with him, and of expressing gratitude to the town that had become his home.
n 1935, Craigie was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.
When he died in 1935, James Craigie left behind not only monuments, trees, and buildings, but also a spirit of civic pride, cultural ambition, and generosity that continues to shape Timaru’s character today.
Side Quest: Where are the women in this story?
Burns’s widow Jean Armour preserved his manuscripts after his early death at 37, ensuring his poems were published and his reputation secured. Without her efforts, there would have been no cult of Burns for Craigie to join.
And at the unveiling in 1913, it was the women teachers of Timaru who prepared their pupils to sing Burns’s songs. Through them, the voice of Burns reached not just officials and dignitaries but the children of everyday families.
Behind every man like James Craigie, there is often a woman whose story is far less visible. In this case, it was his wife, Catherine Priscilla Craigie (née Orr) Born Ireland 1852. Born into an Irish Catholic family from County Donegal. She was 22 when she married James Cragie in 1875 and together they raised seven children — one son and six daughters — while James built his business and launched into public life.
James Craigie moved to Timaru in 1873 where he started a glass and house decoration business. He also opened a large home decoration shop in Cains Terrace, Timaru. He subsequently merged his business with a Dunedin firm and it became known as Smith & Craigie. The merged business would ultimately become part of Smith & Smith, a company which continues to operate throughout New Zealand.
Craigie's purchased a large farm in Kingsdown, about 5 km south of Timaru, where they built a substantial house, Craigielea. Craigielea was subsequently destroyed by fire.
Catherine’s Irish roots added another Celtic thread to the cultural fabric of Timaru. While James was Scottish Presbyterian by background, Catherine’s faith and heritage connected the Craigie household to the town’s Catholic community. It is almost certainly through her influence that James Craigie supported projects like the stained-glass windows in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. I wonder if what might look like simple civic generosity from the outside may in fact have been a way of honouring Catherine’s heritage while also reinforcing his own public role as a benefactor?
Catherine’s name does not appear on plaques, nor is it carved into stone. She doesn’t show up in the public records of Timaru’s councils and boards, yet her presence can be felt in quieter ways. She held together a household, raised a large family, and helped James maintain the kind of stability that made his public life possible. Her influence lingers in the coloured glass of the Basilica and in the less visible fabric of community life.
It is a reminder that the big gestures we remember in history — the avenues of oak trees, the harbour works, the civic gifts — were often shaped in part by the women beside these men, whose contributions rarely made the headlines.
Catherine died on 7 December 1944 in Kingsdown, Canterbury aged 91.
James died on 17 August 1935 in Kingsdown, Canterbury, New Zealand, aged 83.
James Craigie died at his home Craigilea in Kingsdown, South Canterbury on 17 August 1935 due to “heart weakness”. He is buried in the Craigie Family Plot in Timaru Cemetery.
Side Quest: Why Timaru in 1913?
The statue was more than poetry. It was about who Timaru wanted to be. By 1913, the Botanic Gardens were already a place of pride, transformed from gullies of clay and flax into oases of beauty with English trees and native bush. Across town, the Harbour Board was modernising the port, and new public buildings were rising. I think the Burns statue was probably part of that pattern: Timaru working to assert itself as more than a provincial town, a place that valued culture and progress. It was a friendly rival to Dunedin’s Burns, a nod to the international diaspora, and a gift to generations who would stroll through the gardens and wonder about the marble man with the thoughtful gaze.
What I’ve learned
Learning about Robert Burns and why Timaru chose to honour him has taught me something deeper about where we come from. The statue is not just about Scotland, or poetry, or James Craigie’s generosity. It is about the values our town once chose to put on a pedestal — literally.
Burns’s message, carved in stone at the garden gates, reminds us that equality and dignity matter more than rank or wealth. Craigie’s vision reminds us that civic leaders can leave gifts that still shape our daily lives a century later. And the women — from Jean Armour to Catherine Craigie to the teachers who prepared those songs — remind us that heritage is always held and carried forward in quiet, determined ways.
So next time you walk into the Botanic Gardens, take a moment to wave back at the marble poet. He never set foot in Timaru, yet through him we can see how our town imagined itself — connected to the wider world, proud of its roots, and hopeful about what it might become.
How did the local Scottish community inspire the arts and history
James Craigie’s gift of the Burns statue was more than a gesture of civic pride. It was part of a wider Scottish imprint on Timaru’s cultural life. Scottish settlers carried with them not only their accent and industry but also their deep love of poetry, music, and art. They wanted to plant more than crops and businesses; they wanted to seed culture that would endure.
Craigie himself was a member of the South Canterbury Arts Society, founded in 1895 with the ambitious goal “to promote the study, practice and enjoyment of the fine arts, to assist artists to dispose of their works, and, as funds permit, to establish an art library and gallery in Timaru.” As well as gifting the statue of Robert Burns, Craigie donated artwork to the Society and played an active role in supporting its exhibitions and growth. His involvement shows how the same civic pride that inspired him to place a marble poet in the Botanic Gardens also found expression in nurturing local artists and their work.
That vision carried forward when the Society’s long-held dream of a public gallery was realised in 1956. The Aigantighe Art Gallery opened in the former residence of Alexander and Helen Grant, Scottish immigrants who had farmed Gray’s Hills Station. Their daughter Jessie Wigley, with the support of her brother James, gifted the house and its grounds to Timaru as a “home of welcome” (the meaning of Aigantighe in Scots Gaelic). From its opening day, the gallery brought together the Art Society’s collection and the Grants’ vision of generosity. Over time it grew into a nationally significant collection of more than 1,800 works by artists such as Colin McCahon, Doris Lusk, William Sutton, Toss Woollaston, and Charles Goldie.
This pattern of Scottish generosity extended beyond art. The South Canterbury Museum, for example, was established on land bequeathed in 1941 by Thomas David Burnett, a Mackenzie runholder and Member of Parliament with strong Scottish roots. His gift, along with the efforts of the South Canterbury Historical Society, laid the foundation for a museum that continues to preserve and share the region’s stories.
Seen together — Craigie’s statue and his civic and art gifts, the Art Society’s exhibitions, the Grants’ home of Aigantighe, Burnett’s museum bequest — these contributions reveal a community determined to honour its heritage and inspire future generations. They show that Timaru’s Scottish settlers helped to built a cultural identity that intertwined literature, heritage, and the visual arts. The statue of Robert Burns is not an isolated monument, but part of this continuing story of creativity and cultural pride.
South Canterbury. Thomas Burnett (whose parents were born in Scotland) donated the land for the museum also known as Pioneer Hall.
Souvenir of Timaru. Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 03/10/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/3697 Photograph of the statue of Robert Burns which stands at the west end of the Timaru Botanic Gardens. Presented to the people of Timaru by Member of Parliament (and former mayor) James Craigie, in 1913.
Side Quest: Trinity and the Mother Church of Presbyterianism
While exploring why Timaru honours Robert Burns, I found myself wandering down another path... Barnard Street, where the Trinity Church once stood.
Imagine walking there in the late 1800s: a neoclassical temple rose ahead, with tall white columns and a triangular pediment, more like Athens than a colonial port town. This was Trinity, the mother church of Presbyterianism in South Canterbury. It was bold and ambitious — seating 600 people when Timaru had barely 2,500 residents. Its very architecture made a statement: Presbyterians were declaring their faith rational, civic-minded, and enduring.
The story began in 1865 when Rev George Barclay arrived from Ireland, tasked with ministering a parish that stretched from Rangitata to Aoraki. His wife, Susan Clifford Barclay, and their children became woven into the region’s story — their sons later becoming doctors, barristers, and businessmen. After Barclay came Rev William Gillies, who guided the congregation for 26 years, building the grand Barnard Street church and even leading the service mourning Queen Victoria in 1901.
But Trinity was never just a building. It was baptisms, weddings, funerals, and Sunday gatherings across generations. It was women running societies and bazaars to raise funds, choirs filling the nave with song, and ministers urging civic and spiritual duty. Its design may have been Roman in inspiration, but its heart was thoroughly Presbyterian: the pulpit central, the Word of God the focus.
By the mid-20th century, Trinity had aged badly. Rainstorms and heavy masonry cracks sealed its fate, and in 1957 the congregation held their last service before moving to College Road. By 1964, the grand portico was gone, replaced with a car park. Yet even in its absence, the legacy of Trinity lingers. Just down the street, the Scottish Hall, built in 1929, kept alive traditions of music, Highland dress, and community. For decades, Barnard Street carried both faith and heritage, side by side.
Trinity’s lesson is clear: buildings only survive as long as communities find them useful. The church could not adapt, but the Scottish Hall pivoted and endured. Together they remind us that heritage is fragile, but also that it can be renewed if we have the imagination and will to carry it forward.
Chalmers Church used to be Prebytarian - Photo Roselyn Fauth
Side Quest: Why does Barclay ring a bell?
It felt like déjà vu — I had already come across a Dr Henry Charles Barclay, the long-serving Superintendent of Waimate Hospital, in earlier research. He was known as a steady hand in South Canterbury’s medical life, guiding patients and staff through decades of change.
But here’s the link I hadn’t made until now: Dr Barclay was the son of Rev George Barclay, the very first Presbyterian minister of Timaru. Rev Barclay arrived in 1865 and preached the first Presbyterian service in the town, before helping establish Trinity Church on Barnard Street. His wife, Susan Clifford Barclay, managed the manse and raised their family while George shouldered a parish that stretched from Rangitata to Aoraki.
The Barclay children carried forward that legacy of service in different ways. Alfred Richard Barclay became a barrister and Member of Parliament in Dunedin. George Baker Barclay entered business with Guinness and Le Cren in Timaru. And Henry Charles turned to medicine, caring for the people of South Canterbury as a doctor.
So the Barclay story links faith, health, politics, and commerce — one family embodying the Scottish drive to build strong, lasting institutions in a new land. Stumbling across Dr Barclay in both church history and hospital records was a reminder that these stories are woven together, just like the tartan threads of heritage itself.
Robbie Burns in Ballaarat Australia Corner Sturt and Lyiard Street - From Ballaarat Facebook page
Side Quest: Fyfe, Scotland, and the Craigie Connection
Just when I thought I’d got the Fyfes more or less straight in my head, another thread unraveled. Like many of these history hunts, one name led to another, and suddenly the Fyfes weren’t just Fyfes– they were linked into another settler family altogether: the Craigies.
Here’s how the story runs. Thomas Webster Fyfe – the Gleniti quarryman, farmer, and school committee man – tied the Fyfes into the Craigie line through marriage. After losing his first wife, Margaret Craigie, in 1863, Thomas later married Jane Craigie in 1864. Both women were from the Craigie family of Angus, Scotland, and had come out to New Zealand. This means the Fyfe story in South Canterbury is stitched firmly into the Craigie story too.
The Craigies were another early Scottish family whose name carries its own strands of history in Timaru and Geraldine. And from this union came children who would make their mark in very different ways. One of them – Thomas Camperdown Fyfe, son of Thomas Webster and Margaret Craigie – became a mountaineer of national fame. In 1894, he led the first successful ascent of Aoraki/Mt Cook, alongside George Graham and Jack Clarke, carving the Fyfe name into New Zealand’s alpine history.
So, while I started this blog trying to work out whether the Fyfes of Gleniti were all related, I’ve ended up down another rabbit hole altogether – one t
The oak trees established within a significant road reserve were gifted by Craigie, leading to the well known name of Craigie Avenue. His descendants planted a tree in his honour in here at Easter, 1994.
A Statue of Burns; The Unveiling Ceremony. Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 03/10/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/44
Glouster Gates Timaru Botanic Gardens - Roselyn Fauth 2025