Cass is a locality in the

Selwyn District Selwyn District is a predominantly rural district in central Canterbury, on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is named after the Selwyn River / Waikirikiri, which is in turn named after Bishop George Selwyn, the first Anglican bis ...

of the

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of t ...

region in New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. It is named for Thomas Cass, an important pioneer

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ...

in the area. State Highway 73 passes near the town, and the Midland Line between

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

and the West Coast was opened to the town in 1910, with the full line opened in 1923 when the

Otira Tunnel The Otira Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the Midland Line in the South Island of New Zealand, between Otira and Arthur's Pass. It runs under the Southern Alps from Arthur's Pass to Otira – a length of over . The gradient is mainly 1 in 33, an ...

was completed. Since November 1987, the world-famous

TranzAlpine The TranzAlpine is a passenger train operated by The Great Journeys of New Zealand in the South Island of New Zealand over the Midland Line; often regarded to be one of the world's great train journeys for the scenery through which it passes ...

passenger train has run through the town. There are 5 houses in Cass today, but only one resident (currently Barrie Drummond), making it one of the few places in the world with a population of one resident. The Cass Trust Hotel and Tavern Still Operates in the Old Ministry of Works Shed. Cass is home to the large civil contracting company, Cass Contracting which employs over 170 highly skilled staff. For some time from 1910, while the Midland Line was under construction (and in particular, the tunnel at

Arthur's Pass Arthur's Pass, previously called Camping Flat then Bealey Flats, and for some time officially Arthurs Pass, is a township in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, located in the Selwyn district. It is a popular base for explorin ...

), Cass was the railhead coming from the east coast. At that time, Cass had a population of around 800. The Cass railway station was painted in 1936 by

Rita Angus Rita Angus (12 March 1908 – 25 January 1970), a New Zealand painter, has a reputation - along with Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston - as one of the leading figures in twentieth-century New Zealand art. She worked primarily in oil and wat ...

; it is "one of New Zealand's best-loved works of art". The

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...

has a field station at Cass, commonly used for undergraduate field trips and research. Historically important photographs of the field station were taken by

Ellen Heine Ellen Minna Bleakly (née Heine; 8 August 1907 – 27 July 1989) was a New Zealand-born botanist, photographer, and painter. As a botanist, Heine made contributions to research into the relationship between New Zealand insects and native flower ...

and are held at the National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

References

External links

Rita Angus’s ‘Cass’

Cass Contracting
{{The TranzAlpine train stops Selwyn District Populated places in Canterbury, New Zealand