First Cattle For Canterbury.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LI, Issue 5218, 21 September 1926, Page 12 (Supplement)

First Cattle For Canterbury.

Landed at Greens Point in 1839. Brought from Hunter River, N.S.W, by W. B. Rhodes. In the year 1839, the first cattle for Canterbury were landed at Red House Bay, Green Point, Akaroa, and the followingarticle by the late Mr. James Hay is of interest: —"The three Rhodes Brothers, William Barnard, George, and Robert Heaton, were intimately connected with Canterbury since a date many years prior to the first settlement by the colonists, and that connection is as intimate in their descendants at the present day. W. B. Rhodes was the first of them to visit the place that was to become Canterbury. He was a seafaring man, and in 1834 and 1835 he commanded a whaling ship, the Australian, belonging to a Sydney firm, Messrs Cooper and Holt, afterwards Cooper and Levy, whose names were given to the two adjacent harbours, Port Cooper and Port Levy. The former was later named Lyttelton Harbour. Mr. Rhodes was in the harbour in 1834, when he climbed the hills looking over the Canterbury Plains, which he described as a vast swamp with two patches of native bush. Trade was carried on with the natives, and in February, 1839, a Captain Francis Leathart purchased an area of land from the natives through Taiaroa, which area Leathart transferred in September, 1839, to the firm which Rhodes had now joined—Cooper, Holt and Rhodes. The last named purchased a fine barque, the Eleanor, and buying 50 head of cattle, including two bulls, at £16 a head from Mr. Rust at the Hunter River; New South Wales, he landed these at Takapuneke, or Red House Bay, Akaroa Harbour, early in November, 1839. These were the first cattle landed in. Canterbury, and he left one William Green in charge of them at the Bay. Green had had charge of the stock on the boat, and settled at Red House with his wife and little boy, two years of age. In 1842, W. B. Rhodes was joined by his brother Joseph, but he left Akaroa soon after 1843, and settled first in Wellington, but soon afterwards in Napier, where he acquired a fine property. W. B. Rhodes also made his home in Wellington, and he was there when George Rhodes arrived at Akaroa in December, 1843, having left London by the Mandarin in June of that year, coming to New Zealand via Van Dieman's Land. He was brought up as an English farmer, and on arriving at Akaroa he took charge of the cattle station. A brother, Peter, accompanied him, but he, not liking New Zealand, returned to England and carried on farmingthere. In May, 1847, W. B. Rhodes and George Rhodes purchased the Purau property from the Greenwood Brothers for £1710, and George made that his place of residence until joined there by Robert Heaton, another brother from Australia, in the beginning of 1850. The property acquired on the Akaroa side of the Peninsula was sold —that at Flea Bay to Israel Rhodes, who was no relative though bearing the same name, and that at the Akaroa Heads to Charles Haylock. On the formation of the Canterbury settlement, the brothers leased lands for pastoral purposes on various parts of the Peninsula ; In 1851, 250 acres near Mt. Evans, 250 acres at Mt. Herbert (increased to 10,000 acres in 1857), in 1852, 5800 acres at Purau, 9200 acres at Ahuril'i and 18,000 at Akaroa; in 1853, 20,000 acres south of the Rakaia; but, most important in 1852, a large area of 150,000 acres at Timaru, afterwards known as The Levels. This area they stocked with surplus sheep from their Peninsula properties. Besides pastoral areas, they purchased freehold areas in moderate sized blocks and in favourable localities from time to time, among them the land now forming the business part of Timaru, long known as Rhodes Town. The Timaru properties were principally managed by George, Robert Heaton managing those at Purau and about Christchurch. From the variety of their early training, the three brothers formed an excellent business combination, and all their ventures proved successful. George died at Lyttelton in June, 1864, Robert arriving from a visit to .England just in time to attend the funeral, which was also attended by William Barnard, from Wellington. Robert Heaton Rhodes died at Christchurch in June, 1884."