FIRST SETTLERS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 128, 12 March 1936, Page 4

FIRST SETTLERS

PASTURES REPLACE BOULDERS. THE INITIAL TREE-PLANTING. A few of the early settlers of Mayfield and the adjacent district were Mr Coskerie, Mr Rutherford, a noted boundary rider and also noted for the big pack of well-trained collie dogs he invariably had at his heels, Mr John Ballantyne and Mr David Morrow (Montalo), Dr. Elmslie, the Rev. Gree, Messrs G. Sewell, Albert Roberts, J. Rutherford, J. Coskerie, C. J. Harper, .John Toner, Samuel Miller, William Elmslie, E. Tayler, Maberley, W. M. and James Dellow, Mrs W. Dellow (first postmistress), Mr W. G. Gallagher (who was working as a boy for Mr Ballantyne when the first trees were planted, afterwards one of the County Council’s water rangers, and now one of the most able members of the County Council, as well as chairman of the Hospital Board and a member of the Electric Power Board), Mrs W. G. Gallagher (a daughter of the first school inspector appointed in Canterbury and who was .the pioneer school teacher in the Ruapuna district), Mr E. G. Beskett, later residing in Timaru, and his brother. Since these pioneers first took up land near Mayfiield, thousands of acres of shelter and timber trees have been planted all over the Ashburton County, and for the past five or six years the County Council has been receiving a handsome revenue out of plantations which have come to maturity and have been sold for cutting out by sawmilling companies, while a very fine plantation of hardwood trees at one time provided poles with which to help reticulate the Ashhurton Electric Power Board district in order that all desirous of doing so could obtain an ample supply of current for power, lighting aiid heating purposes. Tree Seldern Seen. When Mr Ballar.tyne first took up land near Mayfield there was scarcely a tree within many miles. With the advice of Ms then farm manager, the late Mr Charles Doherty, Mr Ballantyne set about to alter this barren looking state of affairs, and Mr Doherty himself was the first to plant trees in that locality. Mr Ballantyne had sent him all the young trees he required, and Mr Doherty personally planted and attended to them till they were thoroughly established and giving promise of the splendid shelter belts now to be seen in all directions in the Mayfield, Rpapuna, Anama, Lismore, and other nearby localities.

These trees stand as monuments to the forethought of the early pioneers while there are also countless huge heaps of stones or cairns which are monuments to the patient industry of those who have made splendidly-grass-ed paddocks and good grain-growing areas out of land which 60 years ago, was thickly strewn with boulders. Mr Morrow was amongst the first settlers who realised that underneath these stones there was fertile land which, with a judicious cultivation, could be made to return a handsome profit.