Taken c.1865, post the March 1864 Tay Street fire. The building to the left is the same one seen in photos 70 and 32. In this photo the name J. Ott is written above the door, so this is the first Ott family cottage.

The Royal Hotel is in a les replendent than in the 1863 photo number 78, and may well have been in use as Mr Cook’s School as in photo 68, but there is no clear evidence of this.

Fire Engine House and Bell-tower erected by the Town Board. It looks like the road surface of Tay Street is under construction, with a footpath also being formed in the right bottom corner of the photo.

Jacob and George Ott, brothers

Jacob Ott came to Dunedin in the early 1850s. He was a shoemaker and came out employed by the Lutheran Mission under Johann Friedrich Heinrich Wohlers, although not a missionary himself. On the Crown Grants map of 1860, Jacob Ott’s name is on Block XII Section 3 and this is where he had a business as a boot and shoemaker.

“Coming up the [Tay] Street, and near the site of the present Royal Hotel, Jacob Ott had a small shoemaker's shop” (Tay Street in 1859. Pioneer Recollections of Mrs Jane Hunt. Collected by Herries Beattie. XIV – Southland in the Late Fifties. Mataura Ensign, 30 July 1909, p.4).

Jacob later owned the Junction Hotel [presently the Whitehouse Hotel] on the corner of the North Road and the road to Riverton.

[See advertisement for his business: Otago Witness, 16 January 1858, p.2.]

George Ott was born in Germany in 1831 and learned the trade of a tailor in his native country. He came to New Zealand by the ship Maori in 1847 and found work as a journeyman in Dunedin. He settled at Invercargill in 1862, when the borough was covered with bush, and notwithstanding that there was no demand for tailors, he commenced business as a tailor and clothier, possibly in the building shown in the photo.

In 1866, he moved his business to Dee Street opposite the Southland Club. In 1870, he moved back to Tay Street opposite the Church of England (Block XII Section 9), and next door to George Lumsden, watchmaker. He continued here until 1881, when he retired owing to ill health. The business was bought by Messrs Gale and Frobath who had been employees. In 1883, it was again sold to Messrs Turner and Colbran.

[See advertisements for his business: 18 November 1862, p.1, Southland Times, 21 November 1866, p.1, Southland Times, 17 June 1870, p.1]

In 1874, George Ott leased a section on the corner of Tay and Dee Streets (later No5 Dee) located in Block II Section 22, opposite the Post Office, and beside George Lumsden’s watchmaking and jewellery shop. Ott built a shop there but immediately leased it out to Samuel Jacob (Southland Times, 25 September 1874, p.3).

The Southland Times (10 February 1875, p.2), reporting on the ‘Town Improvements’ in the main streets of Invercargill, particularly noted that “the edifices which begin to make the most noticeable appearance in Dee Street are those which are being erected for Mr Charles Freeman, Mr Louis Rodgers, Mr George Ott, and, as abutting upon the same street…. [mentioned] the new premises for the Bank of New South Wales, and the Atheneum; and in Tay Street those which are being constructed for Mr W. Barham and Mr J. Coutts. The material used in all these structures is brick”. It was also stated “that Mr H. Mayo purposes erecting a theatre on the space between Mr Barham's new premises and the Bank of New Zealand”. Photo 41 shows these shops. Now demolished for the inner city rebuild.

[Notice about George Ott retiring: Southland Times, 8 April 1881, p.3]

[Obituary for George Ott: Southland Times, 30 January 1909, p.5]

Establishing a Volunteer Fire Brigade

“The old Town Council erected a look-out and fire-bell on the vacant land in Tay Street, opposite Herbert, Haynes and Co. There were no buildings on the land from the Bank of N.Z. corner east to the corner of Kelvin Street, nothing but waste land south to Puni Creek (Old Time Echoes, Southern Cross, 2 February 1918, p.11). This would equate to Block LXXV Section 14 or 15 between Tay Street and Wood Street.

Fire was a constant threat to property and from its earliest days, there were calls for the formation of a Volunteer Fire Brigade in Invercargill. The establishment of a Town Board was regarded as an opportunity to see this happen, but the path to success was not a smooth or rapid one.

The Editor of The Invercargill Times was relentless in his criticism of the lack of fire protection for the town. An editorial in The Invercargill Times (9 December 1862, p.2) noted: “We trust that the [Town] Board will not forget to take all necessary precautions against fire — not merely in the purchase of a fire engine, and the establishment of a Brigade — but in providing a sufficient supply of water to enable it to be of use, should circumstances necessitate it. As regards Invercargill, a plentiful supply could be readily obtained by sinking a deep well at each corner of Blocks II, III, XI, XII, and XIII, fronting Tay Street, which are the most thickly built on.”

And then in January the next year he wrote “We believe there is no subject to which it is so difficult to attract public attention, as. the danger arising from fire. We live in a town built entirely of wood, and not only are ordinary precautions against fire very much neglected, but instances of the grossest carelessness are of almost daily occurrence” (Southland Times, 30 January 1863, p.2).

At a meeting of the Town Board on 23 September 1863, the necessity for establishing a Fire Brigade, with a suitable engine, was once again raised. Mr Giller pointed out to the Board that “by the 42nd section of the Ordinance, they were authorised and required to provide a Fire Engine. In this, the interests of everyone were involved. In the event of a large fire, everyone would be affected, some directly and others indirectly, all by the consequent stagnation of business”. Giller moved that a committee be appointed to take the necessary steps to procure a Fire Engine, pipes and the proper appurtenances and that the Clerk should be instructed to ascertain from Government, Insurance Companies and the Banks, the amount of subscriptions they would give towards the organization of the Brigade. Mr Beaven thought the Board had quite enough to do already and might leave the matter to the Brigade Committee, but Mr Giller did not see how the Board could override the 42nd section of the Ordinance and the motion was carried (Southland Times 25 September 1863, p.3).

After a major fire in Leet Street in 1863 and then the disastrous fires in Tay Street in March 1864 and then in October the same year, the topic arose again. Insurance companies and merchants in the town felt the responsibility fell upon the Town Board but they argued that they did not possess the capital to undertake such an expensive venture.

A very scathing editorial in The Invercargill Times (7 December 1863, p.2) again brought the subject to the public. The Editor berated the townsmen of Invercargill about their apathetic feeling as to addressing such a public grievance. Several meetings previously called had come to nothing and the subject was now urgent. And so, the grievance rumbled on.

In January 1864 Volunteer Fire Brigade Committee reported that it was their intention to make application to the Superintendent for the £500 voted by the Provincial Council as a subsidy to the Brigade, which would enable them to complete the purchase of an engine, and all the necessary apparatus. It would only, therefore, remain for the Town Board to assist the Brigade by the erection of an engine house, and an alarm bell.

A public meeting of the inhabitants took place in November 1864 the Hall of the Mechanics' Institute to once again look towards the establishment of a Volunteer Fire Brigade for Invercargill and the desirability of such a brigade being speedily formed. The meeting resolved “that in light of the recent fires and the lack of firefighting equipment to extinguish them, a fire brigade should at once be formed, and measures be taken for providing the necessary appliances." Mr. Kingsland said there was a ladder carriage in town to be bought for sum under the original cost, and an engine had been offered at what was considered a low figure. They also had considered the advisability of erecting a bell-tower, with engine house etc attached. Also, tanks should be sunk under the grating in different parts of the street to provide a water supply. As to payment, the committee found that neither the Government nor the Town Board were in a monetary position to do anything, everything thus resting with the inhabitants, with the co-operation of the insurance companies. The sum required to provide fire equipment items was estimated at £566:- Hook and ladder carriage £160 (original cost £200); engine (price at which one in town can be purchase for £50); engine house, bell-tower etc £200; fire bell,, £6; repairs and purchase of hose etc, £50; water-tanks etc £100.

It was also proposed that every merchant or trader should give a shilling a week to fund the brigade, and "that those gentlemen desirous of joining the brigade enrol themselves at the end of the meeting." Forty-eight members were enrolled at once, and the subscription list filled up satisfactorily (Southland Times, 14 November 1864, p.3).