Same but Different: A Lawson Detour, a Side Quest, and the Making of Otago

By Roselyn Fauth

I'm on a to be on a history hunt to learn more about Timaru. It made sense to take a wider view and learn about the history in the wider area. I thought an approach could be to find things that were the same and different and then work out why. Today's history hunt was looking at a Church in Otago, designed by the hands and mind of Robert Arthur Lawson. He also designed Timaru's former Goverment Buildings that evolved into the post office. The church is facinating, and so is its story, so here is what I learned about the First Church of Otago, known as Lawsons most ambitious and celebrated work and the spiritual centre of the Otago Free Church settlement. It was built when the community believed faith, governance and daily life were inseparable, almost as a civic building as well as a religious one... it opened on 23 November 1873, just 25 years after the first settlers arrived in Dunedin and took six years to complete.

Before the masons arrived, there was a big task to knock off... The grounds were created by 100s of men with pick and shovels to chop the top off the Bell Hill by 40 feet and level the site.

You can’t really miss it. First Church rises up from Moray Place and my first impression was that it was a bit audacious. The city reshaped its own geology, and then placed this church on the newly formed edge like a declaration. This was not intended to be a modest building. But to understand why, I had to follow the side quest further back.

If you have ever driven around Dunedin as a novice you may have found navigating the steep roads a mission. I hate to think how much harder it is when the streets are a little frosty or slippery from ice. Why was the town laid out like this?

Long before the Scottish settlement, the wider area (Ōtepoti) was part of Kāi Tahu life and movement, connected to Ōtākou at the harbour mouth, with travel and food gathering across harbour, bays, and inland routes. The city’s harbour focus was a continuation of a place defined by movement through water and land corridors.

I heard that the town planner was charged with recreating Edinburgh the capitol of Scotland. This would make sense as the center of Dunedin fells like a literal cut and paste. It feels like the typography of the cookie cutter approach was not factored in, and the result of the towns plan is tricky terrain to nagivate. Turns out the surveyor Charles Kettle, is responsible, as he designed the original town plan and saw it implemented. 

Bell Hill is an example of having to make the land fit the plan. The area was a barrier between the early town and the wharves. So the Provincial Government began cutting it down in the 1860s and 1870s, using the spoil to reclaim harbour mudflats, starting around what is now Queens Gardens. when I visit Dunedin it feels like one part is the planned civic heart, and the other was the built out of the working edge of trade and shipping.

A Edinburgh feel was on purpose. George Rennie had a 1842 vision to re-framed the native area to a Scottish settlement designed to counter the English dominators. This was  a “new Edinburgh” in the southern hemisphere, the same, but as it would evolve became a bit different. In a way, the plan of the town was a brand promise. Even the name Dunedin is an older form of Edinbrugh. Familiar names, a recognisable structure, a civic centre, and a town belt all reinforced stability and civilisation, to build the trust of emigrants considering moving across the oceans.

Once McGlashan, Burns and Cargill turned the venture into a Free Church enterprise, the settlement wasn’t just about place. It was about building a society with religion, governance and education tightly linked.

Front elevations of the First Church of Otago. Godfrey’s handiwork in the small faces, leaf patterns and dragons placed in pairs on each side of the upper windows and in other carving detail. The fine bracket lamps towards the rear of the church and the lamp-post on the lawn at the front are old Edinburgh street lamps gifted to the church.

LEFT: Frist Church of Otago designed by Robert Lawson.  RIGHT: The Larnarch Tomb at the Northern Cemetery also designed by Robert Lawson.

Rennie's  “New Zealand settlement for Scotland” vision was a new Edinburgh on the other side of the world. That plan was reshaped by John McGlashan, Thomas Burns, and William Cargill, who turned the venture into something more ideological... that the Dunedin would be a Free Church settlement. His concept was a planned, disciplined layout suited that goal. A city designed with a clear centre, legible hierarchy, and a defined edge is easier to imagine as a “well ordered” community than a loose sprawl. 

The Free Church was a new concept at the time. It had broken away from the Church of Scotland in 1843 in protest against state control and patronage. This was not just theology. It was about power, independence, moral authority, and who had the right to decide how communities were run. Some, including Thomas Burns, nephew of poet Robert Burns, were deeply suspicious of non-Presbyterian settlers, dismissing them as “the little enemy”.

By August 1848, over half of Otago’s United Kingdom-born population was Scottish. Two-thirds of the original Otago settlers were Free Church Presbyterians. Dunedin itself took its name from Dùn Èideann, an older form of Edinburgh. Otago and Southland became, and remain, the heartland of the Scottish legacy in New Zealand.

Then gold arrived.

What had been described as a little township in 1866 suddenly became New Zealand’s leading city. The gold rushes also coincided with international impacts like the American Civil War, all contributing and reshaping global migration patterns. with the lure of gold, people poured in from everywhere. By the end of 1864, Scots made up just over a third of the Otago and Southland population. Still influential, but no longer as dominant.

Scots brought with them more than work ethic and labour. They brought a deep belief in education, justice, and civic responsibility. Literacy rates in Scotland had been high for centuries, driven by Calvinist insistence on Bible reading and later by the Scottish Enlightenment. Parish schools educated children regardless of wealth. Scotland had more universities than England for much of the nineteenth century.

That belief travelled.

Otago led New Zealand in education. Otago Boys’ High School opened in 1863. In 1871, New Zealand’s first public high school for girls opened, one of the earliest in the world, after a long campaign by a Scot, Learmonth Dalrymple. Its first principal, Margaret Gordon Burn, was also Scottish. Otago University followed in 1869, supported by clergy recruited to serve the goldfields. The model was deliberately Scottish, broad in curriculum and free from control by an established church.

I hadn’t quite realised until now that I owed my own access to education, especially as a teenage girl, to this Scottish influence.

Scots shaped so much else too. They dominated sheep runs in harsh country where earlier English settlers struggled. James MacKenzie famously stole sheep from the Levels run near Pleasant Point and vanished into the high country that now bears his name. Jeanie Collier became the country’s first recorded woman pastoralist. The Scottish shepherd and his border collie became a familiar figure, now immortalised in bronze at Tekapo.

They led the meat-freezing industry. They shaped public health. They founded museums, galleries and libraries. They filled leadership roles in towns like Timaru, often driven by a Calvinist concern to improve society.

They also shaped politics. James Busby, New Zealand’s first British Resident, was a Scot. So was Andrew Sinclair, colonial secretary in the 1840s. Donald McLean played a pivotal role in Māori–Crown relations. John McKenzie, shaped by his hatred of landlordism in Scotland, reshaped land ownership. Five of ten cabinet ministers in Joseph Ward’s government were Scottish.

Women shaped by Scottish educational ideals were at the heart of the suffrage movement. Kate Sheppard, Learmonth Dalrymple, Margaret Sievwright and Jessie Mackay. New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893.

All of this came rushing back to me as I stood in front of First Church.

Lawson designed it as the spiritual heart of this Free Church vision. Built largely from Oamaru stone, grounded with darker Port Chalmers stone, and designed in an assertive Decorated Gothic style, it was intended to dominate the city and declare values as much as faith. The building took years to complete. Plans were revised. Storms caused damage. Even the spire had to be dismantled and rebuilt after it was discovered to be the wrong height. There is something very nineteenth century about that combination of confidence and correction.

Inside, the story becomes more complicated. The church was criticised for being too elaborate. Too fancy. There were arguments over music, hymn singing, instruments. Congregations split and reformed. The building stayed, but belief kept shifting underneath it.

Like so many large nineteenth century stone buildings, First Church has required a lot of maintenance and care. Repairs, strengthening, and major restoration campaigns have kept it standing. It survives firstly as a place for worship, but to people outside the religion it is a monument, a marker in time, a living building shaped by religion, ideas, values, politics, changing fears, and technologies.

Walking around it, I thought again about Lawson’s buildings in Timaru. About what we no longer see. About ornament removed and confidence softened. About how our relationship with risk has changed. In the nineteenth century, height and decoration signalled progress. Today, restraint feels responsible.

Same architect. Built in stone (or to mimic it). Same century. But... Different outcomes.

That is why these history hunts matter to me. Not just to catalogue buildings, but to understand why they look the way they do, and what shaped them. The First Church of Otago is more to me than a church now that I understand its past and place in time. It is a physical expression of immigration, ideology, ambition, education, and a belief that society could be built better.

Now that I understand the people behind it, I see why this building is so key to the identity and heritage of Otago. I see now why Larnarchs chose this as their grave design. The church, beyond its materials reflects who Dunedin's colonial was founded on, and who they felt they were.

Same, but different. And absolutely worth the side quest.

Timeline: Scottish Settlement, Faith, and Influence in Otago and New Zealand

1817–1841: Foundations overseas

• 1817 – Norman McLeod leaves Scotland for Nova Scotia, leading a Gaelic-speaking community seeking economic and religious security.

• Early 1800s – Scotland has one of the highest literacy rates in Europe, driven by Calvinist insistence on Bible reading and parish schooling.

• 1843 – The Disruption of the Church of Scotland leads to the formation of the Free Church of Scotland, a breakaway movement protesting state control and patronage in church affairs. This ideological split will later shape Otago.

1842–1847: Planning a “New Edinburgh”

• 1842 – George Rennie begins planning a “New Zealand settlement for Scotland”, with the idea of founding a “new Edinburgh”.

• Mid-1840s – The venture is reshaped by John McGlashan, Thomas Burns, and William Cargill, who turn it into an explicitly Free Church enterprise.

• The settlement is conceived as a place where faith, governance, education, and daily life are inseparable.

• Thomas Burns, nephew of poet Robert Burns, becomes a leading moral authority. He refers dismissively to non-Presbyterian settlers as “the little enemy”, revealing the strength of sectarian feeling.

1848–1850: Settlement begins

• 1848 – The first Otago settlers arrive.

  • By August 1848, Otago’s United Kingdom-born population numbers 403.

  • Over half are Scottish-born.

  • Two-thirds of the original settlers are Free Church Presbyterians.

• The settlement is named Dunedin, derived from Dùn Èideann, an older form of Edinburgh.

• Otago and Southland begin their long role as the heartland of Scottish culture in New Zealand.

1851–1859: Expansion and pastoral dominance

• 1851 – Norman McLeod leads his people from Nova Scotia to Australia, and then on to New Zealand, contributing to Highland migration.

• 1850s – Scots become prominent in pastoral farming.

  • Canterbury actively recruits Scottish shepherds, valued for being hardworking, sober, and reliable.

  • Scots dominate sheep runs in harsh country where earlier English settlers struggled.

• 1855–1856 – James MacKenzie steals sheep from the Levels run near Pleasant Point and disappears into what becomes the Mackenzie Country.

• Mid-1800s – Jeanie Collier becomes New Zealand’s first recorded woman pastoralist, reflecting Scottish success in frontier farming.

• The Scottish shepherd and border collie become iconic figures, later commemorated by the Tekapo sheepdog monument.

1861–1866: Gold and transformation

• 1861 – Gold is discovered in Otago, coinciding with the American Civil War.

• What was described as a “little township” rapidly becomes New Zealand’s leading city.

• Massive population growth dilutes the early Scottish majority.

• 1864 – By the end of this year, Scots make up just over one-third of the population of Otago and Southland, still influential but no longer dominant.

• 1862 – New Zealand’s first Caledonian Society is formed, reflecting the desire to preserve Scottish identity amid diversity.

1863–1875: Education, institutions, and leadership

• 1863

  • Otago Boys’ High School opens.

  • Clergy are recruited to serve the goldfields, strengthening links between church and education.

• 1864 – Robert Stout, a 19-year-old Shetlander, arrives in Dunedin.

  • He embarks on careers in teaching, law, and politics.

  • Proud of his Shetland heritage, he encourages further migration.

• 1869 – University of Otago, New Zealand’s first university, is founded.

  • Modelled on Scottish universities, with broad curricula and no ties to an established church.

• 1871 – New Zealand’s first public high school for girls opens in Otago.

  • The campaign is led by Learmonth Dalrymple.

  • The first principal, Margaret Gordon Burn, is Scottish.

• 1872 – Scotland introduces compulsory, free primary education, which becomes the model for New Zealand’s 1877 Education Act.

• 1875

  • New Zealand’s first medical school is founded in Otago.

  • Scots John Scott and John Malcolm hold senior academic posts.

  • Grace Neill, a Scottish woman, plays a key role in developing public health.

1870s–1890s: Migration, culture, and politics

• 1870s

  • Large numbers of Shetlanders migrate following Clearances and assisted passage schemes.

  • Some settle at Port William (Stewart Island) and Karamea.

  • Others mine gold in Otago or work as fishermen and seamen.

• 1871–1890 – Significant numbers of Shetlanders arrive as fishermen and seamen.

• 1891 – The first Burns Club is founded in Dunedin.

• Late 1800s

  • Burns nights (25 January) and St Andrew’s Day (30 November) become key cultural celebrations.

  • Burns-inspired poetry is written in New Zealand by John Barr, Jessie Mackay, and Hugh Smith.

• Scots lead key industries, including meat freezing, pioneered by Thomas Brydone and William Soltau Davidson.

1893–1926: Reform and influence

• 1893 – New Zealand becomes the first country to give women the vote.

  • Women shaped by Scottish educational ideals play leading roles, including Kate Sheppard, Learmonth Dalrymple, Margaret Sievwright, and Jessie Mackay.

• 1899–1926 – Robert Stout serves as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

  • He plays a significant role in tertiary education and progressive reform.

• Scots dominate public life:

  • James Busby, first British Resident, is Scottish.

  • Andrew Sinclair, colonial secretary, is Scottish.

  • Donald McLean plays a key role in Māori–Crown relations.

  • John McKenzie, Minister of Lands, reshapes land ownership.

  • In Joseph Ward’s government, five of ten cabinet ministers are Scottish.

1914–1936: Later migration and legacy

• 1914–1919 – The Presbyterian Church founds eight secondary schools, though these do not create a closed subculture.

• 1916–1945 – Another wave of Shetland fishermen and seamen migrate.

• 1923 – The SS Athenic brings 100 Scots to New Zealand, including shipyard workers, miners, artisans, and shopkeepers.

• 1936 – The Scottish-born population in New Zealand reaches 54,188, its highest level since 1886.

1940s and beyond: Enduring traditions

• As late as 1940

  • The Presbyterian Church is still commonly known as “the Scotch Church”.

  • Ministers wear long black Geneva gowns.

  • Strict Sabbath observance remains common.

• The Church continues recruiting ministers from Scotland until the mid-20th century.

• Scottish values of education, justice, egalitarianism, and public service remain deeply embedded, especially in Otago and Southland.

Contextual conclusion

• The strong Presbyterian and Scottish foundations help explain why buildings like First Church of Otago are so deeply tied to regional identity.

• Scots were not just settlers, but institution builders, shaping education, politics, health, science, culture, and civic life.

• Many of the places you love in Timaru today, museums, galleries, libraries, were shaped by this same worldview.

• The egalitarian spirit of Scottish culture helped make New Zealand a society of rough equality, rather than rigid class hierarchy.

Side quest: What does “Calvinist” actually mean?

Calvinism is a strand of Protestant Christianity shaped by the ideas of John Calvin in the 1500s, and it placed enormous emphasis on discipline, education, moral responsibility, and the idea that faith should shape everyday life, not just Sunday worship. Calvinists believed individuals were accountable directly to God, not to church hierarchy or the state, which helped fuel resistance to state control of religion and later fed into movements like the Free Church of Scotland. Because everyone was expected to read the Bible for themselves, literacy mattered deeply, leading to widespread education, high reading rates, and a respect for learning that extended well beyond theology. Over time, this produced communities that valued hard work, self-improvement, civic responsibility, and social justice, alongside a suspicion of excess, hierarchy, and ornament. In places like Otago, Calvinism quietly shaped not just churches, but schools, town planning, public institutions, and a belief that society itself could and should be improved.

Side quest: How Scots reshaped education for women

Scottish culture placed unusually high value on educating girls, long before this was common elsewhere. From the 1600s, Calvinist belief that everyone should read the Bible meant girls, as well as boys, were taught to read. By the 1700s, the Scottish Enlightenment reinforced the idea that education improved society as a whole, not just individual status. When Scots migrated to New Zealand, they carried these expectations with them. In Otago, this translated into early and determined advocacy for girls’ education. New Zealand’s first public high school for girls opened in Dunedin in 1871 after sustained campaigning by Scot Learmonth Dalrymple, and its first principal, Margaret Gordon Burn, was also Scottish. The University of Otago, founded in 1869 on Scottish models, admitted women from its early years, allowing women to pursue higher education decades earlier than in many other countries. These foundations helped normalise the idea that educated women strengthened families, communities, and public life, directly influencing later reforms,

Side quest: From Scottish belief to New Zealand law

Scottish ideas about education did not arrive in New Zealand as slogans but as systems that became law. Calvinist insistence on literacy, reinforced by the Scottish Enlightenment, produced a culture where educating girls was normal, useful, and socially responsible. In Otago, where Scots were numerous and influential, these values translated into public action: Otago Boys’ High opened in 1863, the University of Otago in 1869, and New Zealand’s first public high school for girls in 1871 after determined campaigning by Scot Learmonth Dalrymple. These provincial successes helped shape national thinking. Scotland’s Education Act 1872, which made schooling compulsory and publicly administered, provided a philosophical blueprint for New Zealand’s Education Act 1877, establishing free, compulsory, secular primary education. Educated women then moved naturally into higher education at Otago, creating precedents in medicine, law, and the professions. By the time women won the vote under the Electoral Act 1893, female literacy, organisation, and public confidence were already normalised. In this way, Scottish belief became provincial practice, provincial practice became legislation, and legislation reshaped women’s lives.

A paragraph you can drop straight into your writing

What began in Otago did not stay in Otago. By the time Timaru emerged as a town, Scottish-influenced systems of education and civic life were already established in the south. The expectation that girls deserved schooling, that education should be publicly funded, and that communities should invest in schools, libraries, and cultural institutions flowed north into South Canterbury. The opening of Timaru Girls’ High School in 1882 sits squarely within this tradition. It was made possible because Otago had already proven that girls’ education worked, that it served the public good, and that it belonged at the centre of civic life. In this way, the Scottish legacy embedded in Dunedin quietly shaped the opportunities available to girls in Timaru.

1) The Scottish influence became law through “systems”, not slogans

Scots did not just argue that girls should be educated. They helped build provincial education machinery (boards, funding models, expectations of literacy) that later became the template for national law. Te Ara notes that before the Education Act 1877, schooling was uneven, but Otago and Nelson had more efficient and better-funded systems than some northern provinces.

That matters because it shows why Otago could pull off an early girls’ high school and a university. The institutional habits were already in place.

2) “Women’s education” advanced through a public funding argument

The Otago Girls’ High School campaign is a perfect example of the logic shift. It wasn’t framed only as private virtue, it was framed as public good. The NZ History page records that the school was the outcome of seven years of campaigning and that some opponents argued girls’ education was a waste of public money, which tells you the debate was explicitly about the role of the state.

How this impacted Acts, very specifically

A) Scotland’s 1872 education law became a blueprint mindset

Scotland passed the Education (Scotland) Act 1872, which made elementary education compulsory (ages 5 to 13) and formalised a public system with local school boards.
Even when New Zealand didn’t copy Scotland line-for-line, it borrowed the underlying principle: education is a public obligation, organised by boards, paid for collectively.

B) New Zealand’s big pivot: Education Act 1877

This is the central “Acts” answer.

The Education Act 1877 established free, compulsory, secular primary schooling for Pākehā children and created regional education boards.
This mattered for women and girls because it:

• normalised girls being educated as a right and a state responsibility at primary level

• created a literate female population who could push for secondary and tertiary access

• produced women who could participate in public life more confidently, which feeds into later reform movements

A key Scottish link is that the Canterbury system (shaped by William Rolleston) became a persuasive precedent for the 1877 Act, which Te Ara’s DNZB biography explicitly notes.

Important nuance (and worth naming when you write about “justice”): Te Ara also makes clear the Act did not create equal outcomes for Māori. Māori schooling largely ran through the separate Native Schools system, and while Māori children could attend state schools, equality was not built into the structure.

C) Girls’ secondary education: achieved first by provincial power, not national law

Otago Girls’ High School opened 6 February 1871, the first public girls’ secondary school in the southern hemisphere, after seven years of campaigning led by Learmonth White Dalrymple.
This wasn’t created by a national “girls’ education act”. It came through provincial decision-making, showing how Scotland’s civic habits (petitioning, committees, “public good” arguments) translated into practical local governance.

D) University access: created by policy environment, then proved by precedent

The University of Otago’s own profiles record that Caroline Freeman was the first matriculated woman to enrol (1878) and later graduated BA (1885), and that women’s “firsts” then accelerated: Emily Siedeberg entered medicine (1891) and graduated (1896), Ethel Benjamin entered law (1893) and graduated (1897).
Once women were in, each success became precedent, and precedent is how institutions change.

E) Political rights: suffrage becomes law in 1893, and education is part of why it could happen

The Electoral Act 1893 gave women the vote (signed 19 September 1893).
Education didn’t automatically produce suffrage, but it made the movement far harder to dismiss. Literate women could:

• organise petitions

• run committees

• write letters, editorials, arguments

• build national networks
  Those are “education skills” as much as political ones.

Acts timeline

• 1872 (Scotland): Education (Scotland) Act makes elementary schooling compulsory and expands public administration via school boards.

• 1867 (NZ): Native Schools Act creates a separate state-controlled village school system for Māori communities.

• 1871 (Otago, provincial): Otago Girls’ High School opens as the first public girls’ secondary school in the southern hemisphere.

• 1877 (NZ): Education Act establishes free, compulsory, secular primary education for Pākehā children and sets up education boards.

• 1893 (NZ): Electoral Act gives women the vote in parliamentary elections. 

including women’s suffrage in 1893.

How all of this lands in Timaru

1) Timaru inherits the Otago–Scottish system, not an English one

Timaru was not founded as a Free Church settlement in the same way Dunedin was, but it grew inside the institutional world Scots had already built. By the time Timaru developed as a town in the late 1850s and 1860s, Otago had already established a powerful model of:

• public education

• civic responsibility

• library, museum, and gallery leadership

• moral reform and social improvement

Those systems flowed north into South Canterbury.

2) Education in Timaru follows the Otago template

Timaru’s secondary education story mirrors Otago’s priorities:

• Timaru High School opened in 1880.

• Timaru Girls’ High School followed in 1882, remarkably early by international standards.
  This timing is not coincidence. It reflects the normalisation of girls’ education in the south after Otago Girls’ High School opened in 1871. Once girls’ secondary education existed and was publicly funded in Otago, it became reasonable, expected, and defensible elsewhere.

This is Scottish influence at work, not through theology, but through precedent.

3) People carry ideas with them

Many of Timaru’s early civic leaders, educators, ministers, and benefactors were Scottish-born or Scottish-trained, or worked within Presbyterian networks that stretched across the South Island. These networks:

• shared teachers and ministers

• sat on school committees

• advocated for public funding

• promoted education as a civic good

You see this clearly in Timaru Girls’ High School’s early leadership and in the town’s willingness to invest in education for girls so soon after the national Education Act 1877.

4) The Presbyterian Church as a civic engine

In Timaru, as elsewhere, the Presbyterian Church was not just a place of worship. It functioned as:

• a leadership training ground

• a governance network

• an education lobby

• a moral reform platform

Ministers often sat on school committees. Church halls doubled as meeting spaces. Campaigns for education, temperance, and women’s welfare overlapped heavily with Presbyterian life. This is the same pattern seen earlier and more intensely in Otago.

5) Why this matters for women in Timaru

Girls growing up in Timaru in the late 1800s benefited directly from:

• the Education Act 1877, shaped by southern precedent

• the earlier success of Otago Girls’ High School

• Scottish ideas that framed girls’ education as useful, not indulgent

This made it possible for Timaru Girls’ High School to exist when it did, and for generations of girls to expect education as a right, not a favour.

6) The built environment tells the story too

Just as Dunedin’s First Church embodies Scottish Free Church confidence in stone, Timaru’s investment in schools, churches, libraries, museums, and galleries reflects the same inheritance. These were not afterthoughts. They were civic priorities, often supported by Scottish-trained professionals and philanthropists who believed education and culture improved society.