FIRST HOMESTEAD IN DISTRICT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19373, 23 December 1932, Page 8

FIRST HOMESTEAD IN DISTRICT

SKETCH PRESENTED TO HARBOUR BOARD. A pencil sketch of the first homestead in South Cantebury, /which belonged to Mr George Rhodes and his brothers, has been forwarded to the Timaru Harbour Board to be included in its collection, by Mrs P. R. Woodhouse. who is a grand-daughter of the late Mr Rhodes. In an accompanying letter, Mrs Woodhouse said that to 1851, the Rhodes brothers had taken up the first run in South Canterbury, the Levels, which then extended as far south as North Street, in Timaru. Their first homestead was built on the beach, and was described by Mr F. W. Stubbs in a letter published by “The Timaru Herald,” on June 14, 1914. Mr Stubbs arrived at the Levels in 1852 with the first mob of cattle to reach South Canterbury, and was overseer on the run for some years. He wrote as follows: —“The first homestead was built on the beach under the cliff, just in front of the site cf the stone store of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. It was of wattle and dab, battens being tied to the posts with flax, and clay dabbed on. The roof was thatched with tussock. Mr Stubbs described a hut at the Levels when he arrived in 1852, which was “shaped like an inverted V,” and Mrs Woodhouse understood that within one or two years, the main homestead was moved to that site, and the slab cottage built, which is still standing in Mr W. H. Orbell’s garden. It was decided to thank Mrs Woodhouse for her gift.