SPECIAL ARTICLE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18461, 15 August 1925, Page 11

SPECIAL ARTICLE.

SrLY CANTERBURY RUNS. 00P& tnurrsK fob "the raiaa.") ' (8* k -A-ciand.) 1 IVitfAfiLES GEORGE TRIPP (1826-1896). ij# TripP deserves especial first man to think of putfrL&on the hi»h country of CanUntil he and his partner, >fcland, tried it, anything the front downs was bejjßL be valtioless for sheen. The the higher hiUs were worth entered Tripp's fertile brain river-bouDd during a to Burke's run at Raincliffe in vis » curious mixture of simjSJriad shrewdness, and these qualf»e very clearly shown in his m«» his other chief charaeteris?%j[i(«iWolcnce. He was so full that he could hardly sit " meals a™ l Kaid J? rac o door to the dining Oh had a quick, excitable way vLajjig, and more stories were told !f •M&in »hearerfi' huts and mastering of «ny othpr run holder in Staff- when orari Gorge was iTflttio'M {t was worth ndin " to see the shearers and jk«d hindt Woe drafted, counted, reagain. tlile they were crossing (i, Mrs Tripp was down the river in a jatr ted ; Tripp found himselS Strife:to get to her assistance. He is Itid to bsfe shouted from the bank, Slen, goodbye, meet you in ffetfsa yon know, meet you in feign." He had not a good memory fa Alices, tut once when a cowboy of ij, brought a disastrous career to a jjgffraiding the pantry and applied again for work within a week or two, under the impression that Tripp mold not recognise him, Tripp asked bis what he ooold do. The boy re"Oh, anything about the ititioa,"' "Anythinc about the station ? ! -'said Tripp, "anything about tie Yos, you shot the mule, * tinllock. yon broke the pole and you eat all the tarts; Yon just run off the place M wot you can! As fast as eftt He W no natural eye for stock.

H« Vtyild hardly, know his own fa|gy fames if ho saw them in s stringe stable. and would aerer ta&a the drafting gate;'but he mwft Teiy good judge of men, and had tie inrilsablo gift of getting them to do ttejr best for him. He had a fine eye for country, and the freehold on 111 fan Was bought with very great jrigaent. He was the first runkjtltiVtft le&sb in South Canterbury, toWlite the danger of the country

big overrun by rabbits/ and to take i fyi to destroy thorn. He bad good ispk juut' the most exti (ordinary LvWw- T\ilMifik'i6lffie' end of his life - i» waft ittt and about his station by . Mten in tho awning. Be w&a esbfcsmeV? temperate in all his way|. He never smoked, seldom drank alcohol; and never sat in any .but a etraight»backed chair. He always F rode his horses at one pace—a steady ' ' trot. He had A very liberal mind, and vis always full of with in the. future : ol the country -in fjeneral and of his on station in particular. He was always progressive, and ever too prone rto aflopV new ideaA and try experiSjenta. It is a bold statement to but I believe he was the noßt , hoipitable man who ever lived in Canterbury. No one could meet liim * without being struck by his kindliness, children and dogs Beemed to take to aim instinctively. I do not think M ud an enemy in the world.

&ATTKAPTJKA. 18-31-48: afterwards 280, 457 and 551). Jtakajraka ran from the Orari to Jw Hftehaetemoana, and from the sea ' foot of the hills. In the earli|wi it ran up to the Orari to a TO*. above Andrew's creek and' up ■mLßm Hae Te Moana to Mackintosh's 4% a little above Four Peats Station, {jHj when Acland and- Tripp took up ■w*? Gorge the owner of Raukapuka fSSfQ over to them the hill frontage. 2®®, ycwo later the lease of four or thousand acres below this again JlMouriit by Tripp, who freeholdedi % wit last block roughly correspondcultivated part of the Tripp I Campbell granted Runs 18 f °' twenty thousand acres each, « ?■»Srn" Francis on November [ and by then) they were sold r Cox, an Australian squatter, t '2af» ■ ox describes this purchase, I Jjßtoia Australia, in his "RecollecI u> which he also gives a lively I JTO&Ut of his adventures in Canterf JvSL elsewhere. F subsequently bought rnn 43, of ? iMttv-m, acres, from George taken it up, but I it year. Duppa was Zealand settler, who I in 1840. He also raards Station, which and Wilkin, and was Canterbury squatters md with a fortune. r Zealand on a recon--1854 but did not until 1857. In the t Dumoulin managed • the earlier southeTi Raukapuka were raided, (but it does not go into details, sen hundred acres of i run for 106 an acre, the block, and also 6H an acre, from the they had bought on was taken up. I do ih freehold he bought 6aid that ono of his way into soma foeaury, which was surbad been supposed to e swamp, and recomXX) merino wethers in ig. They all became wtumn wa-e sold to gs, and the money bled Cox to busy the eoe of country which ight the Kakahu stai and worked it with he sold it to Major ink in 1870. ;!ed permanently in first manager was Bis ant McPherson, and half-brother, J. A. is also his partner in r stations. Id Raukapuka to Su one of the partners Sills and Ashburton ber account of the bes Sir Thomas at arming bat •coentrio

person of apostolic appearance, with oiiow white hair aiid beam, rutiier deaf, and very short-sighted. One evening, he took a sunflower for a man lookingiu at his window, and fired his gun at it.

He did not live at Raukapuka, but at what afterwards became Flatman's store at Woodbury. His son, Se;by Tancred, lived at the station. The was a man named Fergusson, who. came from the Honourable \Y. Robinson's at Cheviot Hills. Fergusson stayed on for a time with the next owner, W. Postlethwaite, who bought Raukapuka in 1875. Until 1882, Cox still retained part of His freehold which became the Kiversleigh Estate. He was unlucky enough to transfer his operations to the North Island, and this grand old pioneer Tost most of his ample fortune in trying to drain some sw,smp up there. He died in Christchurch. Postlethwaite shore 12,000 sneep (8000 carried on freehold} in 1878, and continued to shear over 10 000 until 1887 ; but riboiit 111 at, time he began sellinc oft the Inr.rl an (l ii 1 801 let the Trnniruler, fnurtcH'n hundred arres, to M. Orlioll, for 1 ! yonrs. Tn 1901, before the lease (irul exnired. Postlethwaite sold t'-e p'aro to J. Campbell. Later on Rnulcnnuka wns further subdivided, and sold bv auction, when J. Connelly, the well-known sheep deafer, bnusiht the hnmestend. S : nre that time land has been sold bit by bit, and most of the old home paddocks are now covered by a prosperous suburb of Oeraldine Th<> now a propertv of six hundred acres, belongs to J. Macdonald. KAVLA HU (N.Z.R. 27 and 28: afterwards 495 and 496.) Ihis was originally taken up on November Ist, 1853, by Captain Richard Uestenra, and wy,s desciiooJ in Lieut.Col. Campbell's list aa f '2v umber 44, twenty-five thousand nces, between the Hare (Hae Hae To Moana) and Opihi (the Opuha branch) rivers west of, and adjoining Hornebrook's run." When about 1854 W. G. Brittan, the Canterbury Commissioner of Crown Lands, issued new licenses for the South Canterbury Runs, Westenra was granted two licenses, Numbers 27 and 28, .of 15,C00 acres each. They were re-numbered 495 and 496 under the Canterbury Regulations in February, 1870.

Tlie station was worked on thirds (by Michael John Birke, of Rain-liffe, until 1855, when Westenra, not liking the idea of his sons continually crossing the rivers, sold tho run to Rowland Campion and removed his share of the sheep to Cnmla, his 6tation on tho Selwyn. Campion in the enrly 'fifties had a run which he called Kensall, adjoining Camla, and it is probable that Westenra took this in exchange for Kakahu. Campion's homestead was close to the present Hilton School, where a few big gum trees still mark che spot. In 1861 Campion sold or leased the run to Alfred Cox, who used it as an out-station of Raukapuka. Campion went to England intending to return, hut' was drowned at Fermoy, in Ireland, while showing them how people crossed New Zealand rivers 011 horseback. H» should have been riding Doctor, his grand old groy, on whom he won. a famous match from.Timara to Christchurch against another pioneer, with the freehold of the Kakahu Bush as the stake. The other intending purchaser, knowing the Ran gi tat a and Rakaia were in high flood, took the steamer, and on his arrival in Christchurch via Lyttelton was greeted by Campion with the title deeds of the Bush in Ws pocket. In 1870 Alfred Cox sold Kakahu to Hornbrook Bros. (The Major and William), who owned Arowhfcnua ana Opuha Gorge, and about 1874 the Hornebrooks sold Kakahu to Studholme, Banks and Wigley, who also bought Opuha Gorge from them. The story of that firm will come in better with Opuha Goro-e, from which station they worked the "runs, using Kakahu as an out station, but when the surviving partners, John Studholme and Wigley, divided about 1892, Kakaliu, with about 12 000 acres, fell to John Studholme s share. He made the station over to his second son, William Paul StndholTne. W. P. Studholme earned 14,000 or 15,000 sheep there until about the time of the South African War, when he began selling off the land, selling the homestead and about 2000 ac*es in when he retired to E Th£ nd ' Homestead, after passing through one or two hands, has recently been purchased by Dr. Hargreavcs for his sons. It now carries about 2000 6heep.

MT. FOUBPEAKS. (Runs 240 and 255.) In its later days Fourpeaks, as it is usually called, took in the country - tween the two branches of the Haehae te Moana and ran back to the Devii> s Creek, where it joined Clayton, but at one time it ran right to the Opuha an carried 40,000 sheep. I do not know whether it was taken up under the olu New Zealand Regulations or not, but it was taken up by J. C. Aikman in loot and was numbered under the Landerbury Regulations in February ana May. 1858. . T Aikman sold the station to J. o. Lance, of Horsley Down, about iB6O. Aikman and his brother, C. O. Aikman, had something to do with a wharf o the Heathcote before the railway was made, when goods came by craft from Lvttelton over the Sumner bar. ■ -tie afterwards became an auctioneer, uis place of business being on the site or what is now Ballantyne's buildings, tie was one of the earliest lieutenants or the C.Y.O. After selling Fourpeaks, be resided up to the time of his death at the end of Aikman's road, which was named after him. Lance Rold Mt. Fourpeaks about loro to the Walker brothers, Lancelot ana Sherbrooke, with whom Captain Clojjgeton entered into partnership. lhe Walkers had been in partnership wifcu Dr. Mallock at Horsley Down, and I think Lance took their share in payment. For a time in the 'sixties the firm let the station and sheep to Charles Harper and G. A. E. Ross, who also had Waireka and Lake Coleridge, but the 1867 winter ruined them and Walker, Clougston and Walker had to take the run back About 18(33 they also bought Clayton from Kennaway Lee and Acton, who had had a knock in. the '62 winter, and for years the two places were worked together. Their overseer was E. G. Griffiths, afterwards owner or Betrayer (with whom he won the Canterbury Cup) and other horses; and sporting editor of the "Weekly Press." Sherbrooke Walker, who was at first managing partner, died in the -seventies, and Captain Cloujston in 1881. Tho Honourable Lancelot Walker then sold Clayton to the Hamiitons and the only time he ever went to Clayton in his life was when he gave delivery _ of it. At the same time he sold the high country (the actual hills called Mt. Fourpeaks) to Tripp, of Orari Gorge. Lancelot Walker was one of the last life members of the Legislative Council, and also sat in the old Provincial Council. He had been a subaltern in the Hon. East India Coy.'s Arnjy and left in disgust at not seeing service, a few years before the Indian Mutiny broke out. He was famed for his caustic speeches and haughty appearanceHe was a keen sportsman, and during the good times ran several horses, some of his own and some in partnership with G. G. Stead, under the name of "Mr Frazer." I suppose Trump Card and Le Loup were about the best he owned. He also deserves much of the credit for importing Traducer, whom he placed on board a ship in which he (Continued at foot of wi™" )

was returning from England, but, the weather being vary bad and the horse jioi' teeding, Walker thought he would die and proposed to laud him at the Gape. Harris, of Waikakahi Station, who was also on board, however, ottered to buy him for himself and his partner Innes, and in the btud .Book they are shown as his importers. A good story of aherbrooke Walker told by Lawrence Konnaway in "Crusts." The Walkers had a hut at the back of their run near the boundary of Clayton, which at the tunc( belonged to the Kennaways. From t&eir station the Clayton people saw that this hut was on fire, and galoped over f , ? ; ve what assistance they could. When they arrived, at first they could see no one about, but presently Walker emerged from the smoke and offered K breakfast. He had been camping by limself, and on the fire breaW Jxt had saved what he could, and then Sdmly sat down to. cook his breakfast on the smouldering rums of died at ait. Four£«in 1906. and his executors went sTwith testation until 1912, when ft " sold to the Government for doser settlement. In its last ,t followed bin. Polhill (no w brose rotts, Arthur Reeves at Tjbrarian in Christchurch), (now Law Libranan i PvneSS Guinness) and £°R Corsbio (of the Loan and MerMention mmush"' ' h j"' s ras |, ca d sheplierd '«• s » mething Ute years. Comccticiisi - " _ , given .'or tho Foei For d^ D 6hou i d bo taking up of tins IS f haT6 to a correspondent for the Gooseberry - 8 " proper Oran— only Smith.. He was name wM , Rangitata in Majch, droWßed v. 1 « n carrying out kg 1565, while Ferry .(Ccp; fordaman at tne puotea pin's). It njgg the river, and some diggM3 »^^ ok when h e dropped returning, on Worses Galloping «dong his ooat into the wa it, ™shingle and diwppew*l- - from his horse i CTo be OontinuedJ