BEFORE THE PILGRIMS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20421, 16 December 1931, Page 13

BEFORE THE PILGRIMS.

,IN CANTERBURY. (PPT HOMESTEADS. * ll|pf® AT LYTTELTON. ' ■tri' TOR the peess "' J.? a HEpf'first settlers" can in its at Lyttelton from the Inj&ae and the Randolph, on Hferistcbnrch alone Is considWEL nere the first cowsidcniblc HBfele to come fw® England Hpjglfss purpose of Bettling here pf the Canterbury Asaoand; establifihharbour, »J>d on been antieifrom Welling* KjiJHß|M)tomfie title rcalthe account, howthat most merely rcpreot immigration that* disaatißa better opporAssociation, wen brought to fpr the Asfor the arrival BPWHHft- i in February 1840, ■ffijfljHrton, bpt thV; place was ■NKf $ year.- ftjnp. April, ■HHm thure wereffcrwt main f MwpSpot thj« and Hay John and «H|Sm employimm*, «*e tjfco®* 1845 the ImM',' left BaUb% » iv Jjttoilp of families HSHBHre tofftoost no roarVHKpr's*?«xcept for what BHEY tfcpy could sell in 'occasional trade fIHK f there were ;*mo]s (ships, barques, ■HP' I'igflpa.Bay together, ■K voter, beef, potatoes, ■Hg. There was even Hays^and fflBKgL ■■■Hjp Biccarton. BBBBjpMS. bringing with ■Bl Samuel Hanson HHpp; and his brother HHHMllfoweastle in June, MRpd ''attempt to settle ■HHwJnt was made before and Levy, the HHmHjr, who bought the from the Maoris, out under Captain HHBftl possession was lost flHHEbtterombio and Co., of ■Hnfptcd themselves in jHHwb Malcolm McKinnon, BHGn Forsyth with cattle A following hands, implements, m|HK alone and molested forced to abandon Akaroa in March, was a delight through Canterbury ■jHßftors, and the Deans ■HHpso provide the agents. B|p with valuable inforthe nature of the ■HK In one report they remarkably fine and oats, never bushels to the acre, HHpoa over 60 buahflu. to the acre, and descrip■Hi says: "Their garden witli fruits and description, and I tlic apple trees, crop with wliicri to God ley, sod 30 or 40 horses. HvFrancu Sinclair and HHBugappointed with the their allotments decided to Sooth Wand

Harbour and saw Pigeon Bay which pleased them, but went on to Otago, investigated there, and coming bac took the first cargo of native P r .°^" c ® froxh the Maoris of i to Wellington. They decided that Pigeon Bay was better than Otago ana made plans to take up their there rather than in Wellington province. In early April, 1843, they a rired at Pigeon . Bay with their fam * lies—l 3 persons m all, deluding M Hutcheson, who lived with the bin ° For the first two years the two JS lies lived Hay "Annandale," and Sinclair Craig forth." Their schooner was sold W. B. Rhodes for 10 head of cattle delivered at Akaroa. They w troubled by the imminence of a Maori plan to massacre the P?K ha f s en tly and 1844, and were visited [ J by whalers, as well as by the notorious "Blue Cap" with his bushrangers, wft actually held up the, Greenwoods at Purau. In his Journal, under the date of January 15th, 1844, Bishop wr£ "IwJkid. (from Akaroa) where I . f ®V nd , i: v . Scottish settlers of the ™S ht . ' o wn ing in. great comfort by their own exertions, making everything foi t . selves, and, above all keeping up their religious principles and usages, th g, far from any ministerial Jissugi a Sinclair was lost at sea in . for tome years Mr Mcintosh, went to Mcnzies Bay,, leased t H.y took order* Thomas for much of C ooper, for building trade and later at .Cbrotahurclthy j of continuing even after the arn the pilarims. Purau and Gebbie's Valley. _ Purau was occupied by the bro er D* Joseph, and Edward Greenwood the property to W. B. a " a Wm and took up their run a * Motu "f U p urau Birdling was put in charge at Sui Sod., and hi. brother o««p.»'J it themselves' from the J 56 / 111 " 1 "? first 1850. Captain B. Rhodes had first amended the Port Bills and viwed the Canterbury Plains when lie was in torn ma id of one of Cooper and Levy s mana 01 UUD . *. Purau was whaling vessels in, 1834. * . eat the chief source of supply of s . tt l . and vegetables to the/".P 1 " ton from 1850 onwards. Gebbie ana Manson, after spending two yearsi w. the Deans brothers at Riccarton sele(11 ad aditfining sections of . teJ Poojer .(«05 _T44to»W>

A. McQueen spent some years as shepherd for the Greenwoods at Purau, and then also took up land at Gebbie 's Valley while the Prebbles, also with the Greenwoods from 1843, later started on tjbeir own account. Works at Lyttelton. All these were practically isolated homesteads, but Lyttelton was a busy village for 18 months before the first four ships came to the New Zealand coast, with a rapid influx of people after the middle of 1850, so that, according to one of the pilgrims, "there was a population of two to three hundred when we arrived, chiefly employed on the works of the Association" The first . activity on the site of Lyttelton began in July, 1849—the Governor having approved two months earlier of the establishment of the Canterbury Settlement on the plains—when Captain Thomas arrived to undertake the work of survery, the erection of barracks and offices, and to build a road to the plains. Needing workmen for these undertakings, he brought to Lyttelton carpenters, blacksmiths, and general labourers, while, to provide for thp needs of these men, traders and adventurers came to' open stores and two 'hotels.' By November, 1849, the works wero well under way, and then tiny settlement received a further influx of 120 Maoris brought from the £Tortb Island in a specially chartered brig to work on the formation of the road. They were paid 2s 6d a day when well, and Is when sick, and were under agreement to be taken back to their homes before tho beginning of the winter. Commenting on this in the following April, Godley wrote that even -Thomas, while considering the experiment successful, thought the sick pay arrangement a bad one. "By having these natives he gets n great pull upon the white labourers, who - would otherwise have him at their mercy. He thinks, however, that the whites are, as yet, cheaper at 4s 6d than ' the Maoris at 2s 6d." These Maoris were camped at Polhill Bay, and returned north in* April. There was some intention of bringing them back to complete the work after the winter, but the shqrtness of. funds caused the road project to be abandoned. ' Population and Progress. After the works were started there was a continued influx of men seeking work) and several ships came bringing

stores and timber, that for tho jetty being cut at Pigeon Bay. The men on the job were not polished citizens, and in November, 1849, Captain Thomas wrote that "considering the rough ..characters who for the most part form our labouring population, collected as they are from all the Australian colonies . . . the works proceed well." To assist in tho maintenance of law and order Mr Deans was made a J.P., and Court was held once a week in Lyttelton, when he and the Resident- Magistrate from Akaroa (Mr J. Watson) used to preside. At this time there were also at the port a doctor, W. McDonald, appointed by Captain Thomas, and a Customsliouse officer, Mr Gouland, appointed by the Deputy Government at Wellington. "On rounding the bluff I was perfectly astounded at what I saw," wrote J. R. Godley, after visiting Lyttelton on April 12th, 1850. "One might have supposed that the country had been colonised for years, so settled and busy was the look of its port. In the first case there is what the Yankees would call <t 'splendid' jetty; from thence a wide, beaten road leads up the hill and turns off through a steep cutting to the eastward. On each side of the road are scattered houses to the number of about 25 (built and occupied by people with Captain Thomas's permission to 'squat'), including two 'hotels,' and ,a Custom house. In a square, railed off close to the jetty, are four excellent houses, intended for immigrants' barracks, with a cookhouse in the centre.'' He adds that "there was a great dinner at the grogshop, dignified by the name of the 'Mitre Hotel,' aiid kept by Major Horn brook, a field-officer of engineers in the Spanish Legion, who has come down front Wellington on a speculation, and who says he will give £IOO a year to the individual who gets the section on which he has located himself." Desire to Take Up Land. Interest in the new settlement gradually increased in Wellington and Nelson as the time of arrival of the first immigrant ships approached. At the beginning of November, 1850, Godley wrote that numbers of people would go to Canterbury with sheep and cattle if be could offer them a right of freehold or pasturage. ■ Even without any such right, and knowing that they were liable to expulsion it any of the first claimants should choose their runs, Captain Mitchell, of the 84th Regiment, had formed a station

at Mt. Grey, and Mr Waitt. who had opened a store at Lyttelton, had startad another at Double _ Corner. Motunau had been occupied since 1847 by the Greenwood Bros., and .the Deans brothers were taking up another run at Homebush, just outside the Canterbury Association's block. During November, a number of small craft loaded with stores and passengers arrived at Lyttelton* and there was an eager demand for land, which could not be allotted until the Association's own settlers arrived, even though as much as £6OO was offered for one iacre section. So it was that the passengers of the First Four Ships found ready to receive them a complete colonial township, with its sea wall and jetty, streets levelled, culverts made, several sections fenced, substantial buildings put up by the Association, and numerous shanties occupied by the earlier arrivals. There were also the two • hotels, stores to provide what goods and implements they needed, bakers to make their bread, and loneestablished settlers nearby to supply them with vegetables and fresh meat. The one difficulty was that though there was an impressive road round the hill, it led in broken fashion only to the Association's store at Sumner, the bridle path to Heathcote was uncompleted until the second week in January, there were insufficient boats to take them by sea to the Heathcote and the Avon, and at Christchurch there was only one building, and a shed at "The Bricks." But that they came to a place at. all prepared was due to chose who had been on the spot for over a year before theni, and, but for the enterprise and success of those who liad settled there since 1843, it seems unlikely that the plains would have been selected as the site for the Canterbury Association's experiment.