PASTORAL OCCUPATION.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 17945, 2 May 1928, Page 11 (Supplement)

PASTORAL OCCUPATION.

THE LEVELS RUN. (Runs 1,2 and 3, N.Z.R.) The Levels was the first station to be taken up in South Canterbury. It was first applied for by Rhodes Bros., in three runs of 159,000 acres altogether on December 24th, 1850. Colonel Campbell (the General N.Z. Government’s Commissioner of Crown Lands) subsequently granted them a license to occupy the country. The Rhodes’ made several applications for country in the neighbour;* hood. In the “Lyttelton Times” of August 20th, 1851, they applied for all the country between the Opihi and the Makikihi and fifteen miles inland. William Barnard Rhodes, the eldest of these brothers, had coma down to Port Cooper (Lyttelton) from Sydney in charge of a whaling ship in 1934, when his shrewd sense made him realise the possibilities of Canterbury. He brought cattle down in 1839, which he turned out at Akaroa, where Green’s Point is named after the man, he left in charge of them. He bought Purau Station from the Greenwood Brothers about 1847, and this is the first sale of station property recorded in Canterbury. He also bought various whaling rights on Banks Peninsula, and took up several runs there. Before the ari’ival of the first four ships W. B. Rhodes had been joined by his two brothers, George and Robert Heaton. There had' been a whaling station at Timaru during the 'thirties, and it was from whaling hands who had been employed there that Rhodes had heard of the beautiful open plains in those parts. Owing apparently to confusion as to the localities of the runs in South Canterbury, further application had to be made for the same country on June 30th, 1851. In January, 1852, a mob of 7000 sheep from Puran, Ahuriri and Kaituna (the' Rhodes' Peninsula stations), was started for their new runs at Timaru. The Rhodes Brothers named the station, after the place neat Doncaster, where their father lived.

•The Levels was originally supposed to cover all the country from the Opihi to the Pareora Rivers, and to run hack from the sea to the Mackenzie Pass, but a preliminary survey showed that the Rhodes Brothers had far more country than they should, so they made over a run of 22,500 acres to J. King, a relative of' W. B. Rhodes. This became tho Otipua Station. The new southern boundary of the Levels ran from the sea at Saltwater Creek in a straight line to the back of Mount Horrible at Claremont. A subsequent survey further reduced the area of the Levels—the Albury and Opawa Runs being cut off - it. George Rhodes looked after the station for himself and his brothers, until 1865, when it was sold to the Honourable Mathew Holmes, as agent for the Canterbury and Otago Land Association, which was soon afterwards merged in the New Zealand and. Australian Land Company. J. H. C. Sidebottom, Stephen Nosworthy (the father of the present Minister of Agriculture) and F. W. Stubs were among the Rhodes Brothers’ managers, and Davison—now of St. Leonard’s —was their overseer at the Cave out-station. As everyone knows, it was from the Levels that the notorious Mackenzie took the sheep to the country he discovered and which hears his name. He was traced and run to earth by Sidebottom.

The Rhodes’ sent J. Caverhill down from the north to represent them at the delivery, during which, the Washdyke race day happened to fall. Caverhill was very fond of racing, and his excuse that the mustering had unfortunately been delayed enabled everyone to enjoy the day’s sport and go on with the work next day. The company changed tuo old brand, a diamond, to HL conjoined (standing for Holmes, Levels) which is still the brand of the owner of the homestead. The Rhodes’ had freehoided ten thousand acres '£ their run, nine thousand of which they retained when they sold. This land lay north of Timaru and was known as the Seadown blocks. Tho station, as the company took it over, consisted of 1000 acres cf ’ freehold and 120,000 ames of leasehold and carried 105,000 slieop. The company afterwards freehrlded 86,000 acres, mostly before 1876. From the 'eighties onwards, however, they sold a good deal of land to settlers, so that when the Government bought the property for closer settlement in 1904 it carried only about 75,000 sheep. W. S. Davidson (who died the other day in England, as general manager of the Land Company) was at that time general manager of their Canterbury properties, and lived at the Levels, where he was one of the originators of the Corriedale breed of sheep . From 1876 until the sale in 1904, Charles Newman Orbell managed the t station, and then bought the homestead block, which he owned until his death the other day. It has now passed to his son. It carries some 2000 sheep, a large part of which are stud Corriedales and Romneys. In the old days, after all the runs were fully stocked, but before freezing had been invented, old sheep off the shears were not worth feeding, not even worth boiling down for tallow, or skinning for their pelts. Cutting their throats took time and the disposal of their carcases was a trouble. An easy and merciful way was found at the Levels—sooo of them were oiice driven over the cliff at the Washdyke and drowned in the sea. The original hut built by the Rhodes’ in 1851 is still standing in the Levels garden.

TENNIS. Tennis was first played in Pleasant Point about forty years ago at the home of the late Mr William Halstead. Some time afterwards a band of enthusiasts chipped a court in front of Mr E. Halstead’s residence where the game was played for a period until the school ground became the venue of play. Some years after the Great War the gavo received an impetus owing to t.ho formation of a. Club which had two asphalt courts in the Domain. During the war period, the club gradually languished and eventually became defunct from mere inanition. After the War, largely owing to thei efforts of Dr. A. M. Paterson —now of Timaru —the game began to take its right place in Pleasant PAint community activities and since that time, through varying fortune, it has continued to function, until to-day it is the most popular of the summer games. The Club lias three good courts delightfully situated in the Domain, and the present momberfihii} numbers fifty. Mr T. D. Burnett-, M.P.. has always taken an interest in the club. Other gentlemen who have helped to place the club in the satisfactory position it bo'ds to-day are: —Dr. Milne and Messrs W. Arnot-t, A. H. Roberts, J. Jull and 15. Felton. The ' Club's present executive are: —Patron, Mr M. Maze; President, Dr. Benham; VicePresidents, Messrs Acton, W. Wall, W. Batchelor. A. Crossman, A. W. Gosling and T. Peach: Honorarv Secretary and Treasurer, Air W. T. Taylor-