CHOOSING THE SITE OF CANTERBURY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6977, 15 December 1900, Page 7

CHOOSING THE SITE OF CANTERBURY.

Mr Pratt, . in tho volume published by the Natives' Association, relates a curious fact known, hesays,'only to a few old colonists. What is now called the . province of Canterbury narrowly escaped being the province of Nelson, and later the Scotch settlement 'of Otago. Captain Arthur Wakefield arrived at Wellington in 1841, in command' of tie expeditionary vessel, the " Will Watch," to •found' the Nelson settlement somewhere in the Middle Island, and to take his instructions from his brother, Colonel Wakefield, the New Zealand Company's agent. The Colonel wished his brother to go South to Port Cooper, where, as whalers had told him, there was a good harbour, and plenty of level country; Lieutenant Governor Hobsoii, however, forbade the southward' expedition, amd limited the choice of a site for "the settlement to Blind Bay ; hence Nelson was for years known as " Hobson's Choice." In 1847 an Association was formed to found a Scotch, settlement in New Zealand. A.-.block of 400,000 acres wassecured from the New Zealand .Company, whose chief surveyor, at Nelson, Mr Tucket, was directed to select a. site-. In a small schopner called the Deborah, he' made a careful survey of the coast from Cape Campbell to the Bluff. He iwas satisfied with the harbour of Port Cooper, and the level country seen from the top of the hills,' but he regarded the range as an insuperable objection. He coasted round Bank's Peninsula, looking for access to the plains, and landed at Joseph Price's whaling station, at Ikiriki. After great labour and fatigue he tramped across what is now the Ellesmere district to Messrs Deans's homestead, at Riccarton. Lake Ellesmere had) been cooped up behind its shingle barrier for some time, . and the surveyor found a water-logg>edi and almost impassable morass, where some of the most fertile fields of New Zealand now exist. He condemned Canterbury as unfit for settlement, and sailing 1 south decided on Porb Chalmers and the adjoining coimtry for the Scotch settlement.