A First Year in Canterbury Settlement

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

PREFACE

CHAPTER I

Embarkation at Gravesend — Arrest of Passenger — Tilbury Fort — Deal — Bay of Biscay Gale — Becalmed off Teneriffe — Fire in the Galley — Trade Winds — Belt of Calms — Death on Board — Shark — Current — S. E. Trade Winds — Temperature — Birds — Southern Cross — Cyclone.

CHAPTER II

Life on Board — Calm — Boat Lowered — Snares and Traps — Land — Driven off coast — Enter Port Lyttelton — Requisites for a Sea Voyage — Spirit of Adventure aroused.

CHAPTER III

Aspect of Port Lyttelton — Ascent of Hill behind it — View — Christ Church — Yankeeisms — Return to Port Lyttelton and Ship — Phormium Tenax — Visit to a Farm — Moa Bones.

CHAPTER IV

Sheep on Terms, Schedule and Explanation — Investment in Sheep-run — Risk of Disease, and Laws upon the Subject — Investment in laying down Land in English Grass — In Farming — Journey to Oxford — Journey to the Glaciers — Remote Settlers — Literature in the Bush — Blankets and Flies — Ascent of the Rakaia — Camping out — Glaciers — Minerals — Parrots — Unexplored Col — Burning the Flats — Return.

CHAPTER V

Ascent of the Waimakiriri — Crossing the River — Gorge — Ascent of the Rangitata — View of M’Kenzie Plains — M’Kenzie — Mount Cook — Ascent of the Hurunui — Col leading to West Coast.

CHAPTER VI

Hut — Cadets — Openings for Emigrants without Capital — For those who bring Money — Drunkenness — Introductions — The Rakaia — Valley leading to the Rangitata — Snow-grass and Spaniard — Solitude — Rain and Flood — Cat — Irishman — Discomforts of Hut — Gradual Improvement — Value of Cat.

CHAPTER VII

Loading Dray — Bullocks — Want of Roads — Banks Peninsula — Front and Back Ranges of Mountains — River-beds — Origin of the Plains — Terraces — Tutu — Fords — Floods — Lost Bullocks — Scarcity of Features on the Plains — Terraces — Crossing the Ashburton — Change of Weather — Roofless Hut — Brandy-keg.

CHAPTER VIII

Taking up the Run — Hut within the Boundary — Land Regulations — Race to Christ Church — Contest for Priority of Application — Successful issue — Winds and their Effects — Their conflicting Currents — Sheep crossing the River.

CHAPTER IX

Plants of Canterbury — Turnip — Tutu — Ferns — Ti Palm — Birds — Paradise Duck — Tern — Quail — Wood Hen — Robin — Linnet — Pigeon — Moa — New Parroquet — Quadrupeds — Eels — Insects — Weta — Lizards.

CHAPTER X

Choice of a Run — Boundaries — Maoris — Wages — Servants — Drunkenness — Cooking — Wethers — Choice of Homestead — Watchfulness required — Burning the Country — Yards for Sheep — Ewes and Lambs — Lambing Season — Wool Sheds — Sheep Washing — Putting up a Hut — Gardens — Farewell.