By Roselyn Fauth
Demolished 1990s of the old CFCA Canterbury Farmers Co-operative Association building fronting on Beswick St. Timaru, New Zealand, by Muir & Moodie. Te Papa (C.014369)
On the afternoon of 5 February 1908, Timaru’s largest store went up in flames. I picture myself standing on Strathallan Street as the biggest fire since 1868 tore through the Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Association’s flagship building. Flames roared through the drapery windows, smoke billowed down the block, and the heat was so fierce it would have singed my face from across the road. Within hours, the pride of the main street was reduced to scorched brick and twisted iron.
It was not just a fire. It was the sudden loss of a building that had been created out of collective determination. The CFCA was built by and for the farming community and stood as a physical expression of confidence in the future. Its destruction was a shock that rippled far beyond the charred remains. Looking back now, this moment offers more than a story from the past. It shows us where we have come from, speaks to who we are as a community, and asks us to consider how the choices we make about our built environment will be felt by those who walk these streets long after us...
A Co-operative Born of Adversity
The CFCA began in 1880, when South Canterbury farmers faced a deep depression brought on by falling produce prices and stiff overseas competition. Thornhill Cooper, a farmer from Fairlie Creek, suggested forming a co-operative that would cut out the middlemen and keep profits with the producers. On 17 July 1880, around 40 landowners, farmers and others gathered at the Grosvenor Hotel to hear his proposal. From that meeting, the Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Association was born.
Joshua Page was elected the first chairman, with John Hayhurst, John Talbot, Charles Bourn, John Bradshaw, John Buckle, D. McLaren and John E. Goodwin on the inaugural board. By December 1880, more directors had joined, including John Kelland Jr, William Barker Howell, John Campbell, John Scott Rutherford, Andrew Cleland, Michael Studholme and William Upton Slack. The CFCA was registered in January 1881 and purchased Henry Green’s grain stores in Cain’s Terrace that June, which became its first base.
By the turn of the century the CFCA had outgrown Cain’s Terrace. In 1900 the directors bought land on Beswick and Strathallan Streets from Rhodes, McEwen and James Sullivan for about £27,000 and acquired Tattersall’s Stables in Beswick Street. Architect F. W. Marchant was engaged to design a new retail building and builder B. R. Tooth’s tender was accepted for £10,135. By 1902 the move from Cain’s Terrace was complete. The two-storey brick building stretched the depth of the block with drapery, tailoring and dressmaking upstairs and groceries, hardware, saddlery and furniture downstairs. It was a landmark in both scale and purpose.
The Fire of 1908
On 5 February 1908, fire broke out in the drapery department among carpets and linoleum. The chief dressmaker saw it first, but the smoke spread quickly through the open-plan upper floor. The timber floors and highly flammable stock gave the fire all the fuel it needed. The town and railway brigades did what they could but low water pressure made it impossible to bring the blaze under control. In less than an hour the building was gutted. Losses were estimated at £70,000 to £80,000, although most was covered by insurance. The books and some goods were saved, but very little else. The next day the CFCA was open again in temporary premises.
A Second Fire and a Rebuild
The Association returned to Cain’s Terrace while the new Strathallan Street building was planned. In 1909, before it could be completed, the Cain’s Terrace premises were also destroyed by fire. The replacement building, designed by William Black of South Africa, opened later in 1909. It was altered and added to over the decades, remaining a familiar anchor in the centre of town.
In the 1990s the CFCA building was demolished. The site is now home to the WINZ building, a functional structure that does the job but does not carry the same sense of history or belonging that the old facade gave to Strathallan Street.
Looking at What We Lose
When a building like the CFCA is gone, it is more than bricks and mortar that disappear. It is a layer of the town’s memory, a link to the people and the vision that shaped this place. The facade was not just decoration. It was a marker of the time when South Canterbury farmers took their future into their own hands and declared their place in the world through a bold piece of architecture.
Today we walk past a different frontage, and most will not know what once stood there. That is why it matters to tell these stories. They remind us that what we build, and what we choose to keep, becomes part of the identity of our town. And perhaps they ask us, quietly, to think about what we will leave for those who will one day look back and judge whether we too built with care for the future.
My relfection
"The CFCA was more than just a store... it was a statement. It showed farmers taking control of their livelihoods, keeping profits local, and building something that physically represented optimism for the future. Losing it in 1908 was a financial blow and I think in a way, it could have felt like the town had lost a symbol of that spirit.
I’m struck by how quickly they bounced back after the fire. Within a day, they were trading again. Even after two major fires in two years, they rebuilt. That resilience feels like part of Timaru’s DNA and reminds me of the 1868 fire that the central business district endured.
As well as the CFCA being a retailer, I hadn't appreciated that it was also was part of a whole network. From rural servicing, auctioneering, produce marketing... they helped build South Canterbury’s farming base. Over time, local co-ops like this were absorbed into bigger companies. The services stayed, but I wonder if some of the local identity faded after the sale.
I find it interesting to learn how CFCA’s history connects to Guinness & Le Cren, particularly, to the Le Cren family bringing the first landing service to Timaru, to the whole commercial growth of Strathallan Street.
When I reflect on the CFCA building being demolished in the 1990s, we didn’t just lose bricks and mortar, I think we lost a layer of memory. It makes me question what we keep and what we let go and how that can shape what future generations inherit. One day, they’ll walk these streets and judge whether we built with the same care and ambition as those who came before us." - Roselyn Fauth
Timaru., circa 1905, by Muir & Moodie, Burton Brothers. Te Papa (PS.003237)
Side Quest: What Happened to the CFCA?
If you are wondering what became of the Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Association after the fire and all those years on Strathallan Street, the answer is a slow transformation rather than a sudden ending.
For decades after 1908, the CFCA thrived as a South Canterbury–based stock and station agency. It ran auctions, sold wool and grain, and supplied almost everything a farmer might need. Branches opened across the district in places like Geraldine, Waimate, Fairlie and Temuka.
In the later 20th century, the local co-operative merged into larger rural servicing companies. Its stock and station arm became part of Pyne Gould Guinness (PGG), which itself joined with Wrightson to form PGG Wrightson in 2005. The retail side faded away, the Strathallan Street building was demolished in the 1990s, and the CFCA name disappeared from shopfronts.
Its legacy is harder to spot now, but it is still there — in the agricultural networks it helped build, in the prosperity it brought to farming families, and in the reminder that when a community owns and builds something together, it can leave a mark that lasts well beyond its name on a building.
Timaru, 1875, Dunedin, by Burton Brothers, Alfred Burton. Te Papa (C.014372)
Side Quest: Is this the same “Farmers” as the big shop on Stafford Street today?
No, it is not. The Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Association was our own South Canterbury co-operative, born here in 1880 and deeply rooted in the farming community. The modern Farmers department store on Stafford Street is part of a nationwide retail chain that began in Auckland in 1909, when Robert Laidlaw founded Laidlaw Leeds, a mail-order business selling agricultural supplies. In 1917 it merged with the Farmers’ Union Trading Company to become the Farmers Trading Company, expanding into department store retail. Farmers grew steadily through the 20th century, acquiring South Island chains such as Calder Mackay in 1970, and today operates 59 stores nationwide under the ownership of the James Pascoe Group. Timaru’s Farmers store is one branch of this much larger chain, which arrived in the town many decades after its Auckland beginnings. Apart from the name and the fact that both sold a wide range of goods, they are entirely separate stories — and this one belongs to Timaru alone.
A view of Strathallan Street, Timaru, sometime in the 1860s. It appears to be taken from Le Cren's Terrace (now The Terrace) looking across to the Royal Hotel. A copy negative, believed to have been taken by William Ferrier, of an original print.
Side Quest: Where the CFCA Went – and the Guinness & Le Cren Connection
By the late 20th century, the Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Association’s story became one of amalgamations. Like many regional co-operatives, it was drawn into the larger web of rural servicing companies, where local ownership gave way to bigger entities. Its core stock and station operations eventually became part of Pyne Gould Guinness (PGG) — a name that still rings a bell for many in rural New Zealand.
But where did that “Guinness” part come from?
The Guinness lineage in PGG traces back to Edwin Rowland Guinness, a great-grandson of Sir Arthur Guinness of brewing fame. Born in Calcutta in 1842, Edwin moved to Lyttelton as a boy, attended Christ’s College, and carved out a farming career in South Canterbury. He began as a cadet at Otaio, managed Peel Forest Station, and then turned to auctioneering in Timaru for the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency — working under Frederic Le Cren.
That partnership between Guinness and the Le Cren family ran deep. Frederic’s nephew, Henry Arthur Le Cren, had grown up partly in Timaru, his father having helped establish the town’s original landing service. Henry Arthur returned from schooling in London to join the National Mortgage & Agency Company in Dunedin before teaming up with Edwin Guinness.
In 1891, they founded Guinness & Le Cren on Stafford Street, Timaru, offering stock agency services and general merchant trade. They soon expanded — Waimate in 1893, a new headquarters in Strathallan Street, and a purpose-built Waimate office in 1903. Norton Francis, who joined in 1901, pushed for a strong South Canterbury presence, spearheading mergers with Geraldine agents Maling & Shallcrass in 1904 and, ultimately, the landmark 1919 merger with Gould, Beaumont & Co, and Pyne & Co — creating the Pyne, Gould, Guinness name.
It is a reminder that what may seem like separate stories — CFCA, Guinness & Le Cren, and later PGG — are actually interwoven threads in South Canterbury’s commercial past. These businesses helped shape not just the rural economy, but the streets and skylines of Timaru itself.
Side Quest: The Le Crens on Strathallan Street
Henry John Le Cren arrived in Lyttelton in 1850 as part of the Canterbury Association settlement scheme. A merchant by trade, he quickly recognised the opportunity on the South Canterbury coast and in 1858 established Timaru’s first landing service with Captain Henry Cain. This was before a port existed, when all goods and passengers came ashore through the surf in small boats.
Le Cren’s Terrace (now The Terrace) was the site of his early store and warehouse, the hub for imported goods and rural supplies. By 1866, he sold his Timaru business to Miles & Co. and returned to England, later working in London as a colonial merchant.
The family connection to Timaru continued through his nephew, Henry Arthur Le Cren, born in Lyttelton in 1857. Henry Arthur spent part of his early childhood in Timaru before the family returned to England. After schooling, he came back to New Zealand and joined the National Mortgage & Agency Company in Dunedin. In 1891, he entered into partnership with Edwin Rowland Guinness to form Guinness & Le Cren, stock agents and general merchants.
Their headquarters were on Strathallan Street, later expanding to Waimate and other South Canterbury towns. From this base, Guinness & Le Cren played a central role in the region’s rural economy — auctioning livestock, supplying farm goods, and acting as agents for produce sales. The firm’s buildings on Strathallan Street were well known landmarks in the commercial heart of Timaru.
Over time, Guinness & Le Cren merged with other rural service companies, eventually becoming part of Pyne Gould Guinness in 1919. The Le Cren name remains part of Timaru’s early commercial history, even if the physical buildings they once occupied on Strathallan Street are no longer standing.
Le Cren Street was named after Henry John Le Cren (1828–1895) of “Beverley” (see Beverley Road). He had come to New Zealand and Lyttelton to be agent for the owners of the “First Four Ships” bringing immigrants to the Canterbury settlement in 1850. With Joseph Longden he began a business in Lyttelton.
In March 1857, asked by Robert Heaton Rhodes to supply goods for Timaru, he sent Captain Henry Cain, who opened for business in the embryo town with supplies stacked on the beach under a tarpaulin. In October 1858, Le Cren himself came to Timaru to manage the business.
Henry Le Cren’s brother, Frederic, also came to Timaru (see Elmsdale Terrace), and his son, Henry Arthur Le Cren, was one of the founders of the firm of Guinness and Le Cren (see Guinness Street).
Guinness and Le Cren, Strathallan Street, Timaru. Vance, William, 1899-1981 :Photographs. Ref: 1/2-002089-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22582942
CFCA Timeline: From Vision to Vanished Facade
7 June 1880 – Thornhill Cooper writes to the Timaru Herald proposing a farmer-owned co-operative to keep profits with producers.
17 July 1880 – Meeting at the Grosvenor Hotel in Timaru. The Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Association is conceived. Joshua Page becomes the first chairman.
January 1881 – CFCA is formally registered.
June 1881 – Henry Green’s grain stores in Cain’s Terrace are purchased for the Association’s first base.
1900 – CFCA buys land on Beswick and Strathallan Streets from Rhodes, McEwen, and James Sullivan, along with Tattersall’s Stables site. Architect F. W. Marchant designs a new retail building.
1902 – The move from Cain’s Terrace to the new Strathallan/Beswick Street premises is completed.
5 February 1908 – Fire destroys the Strathallan Street store. Only the outer walls remain. Losses estimated at £70,000–£80,000.
1909 – Temporary premises in Cain’s Terrace are also destroyed by fire. The new Strathallan Street building, designed by William Black, opens later that year.
1912 onwards – Major additions and alterations made to the building.
1990s – CFCA building is demolished. The site becomes the WINZ building, removing the heritage facade from Strathallan Street.
CFCA Looks Back on 75 Years 1881-1956 / Head Office Executives and Members of Staff with 25 Years Service or More (17 Oct 1956). Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 13/08/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/457
Purchase of Beswick St properties marked progressive changes in 1900 (1 Mar 1980). Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 13/08/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/94
Pictorial Record of CFCA History (17 Oct 1956). Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 13/08/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/459