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the land board by paying six months’ rent and undertaking to place the required number of animals on the country within that time. Areas between the first runs were taken up in 1852.

The Rakaia formed a barrier to the extension of settlement until late in 1853. Six men, indeed, made applications for runs over the river between September and December, 1852, but of these applicants only the three Hall brothers are significant. None of the others stocked his country; two abandoned theirs—Spaxton—to the Halls. John Hall, and probably his brothers, George and Thomas, did not arrive in Canterbury until July 1852. Disappointed that all the worth-while areas on the plains were taken up. John made a thorough inspection of the sheep country available in the North Island. He reported to Godley that there was nothing there to match the Canterbury plains and downs. So the brothers applied for the runs which made up the later Highbank, Springfield and perhaps Lendon stations. John then obtained a grant from Godley towards equipment for a ferry and he and some friends spent a whole day trying to paddle a canoe across the main stream of the Rakaia near the present lower bridges, and to fix a line from bank to bank. One party managed to cross towards evening, but carelessly lost the canoe and so spent the winter’s night in the open, lightly clad and without matches or food. Hall wrote later^[1] that the experience persuaded him to buy Run 20, the Rakaia Terrace Station, which was offered for sale by its Australian lessee, Mark P. Stoddart. The brothers made this run the centre of their farming operations. Nevertheless, during 1853–4 they took up and perhaps occupied two runs of the later Mount Hutt Station and sold them, together with Spaxton, in 1856–7. They retained Highbank, where Tom lived, until 1859 and secured Westerfield which, after defeating other claims, they sold to Charles Reed. Only at Ringwood did they remain for long. George Hall took an active interest in it, retaining an able manager, Edward Stericker, until he sold it in 1863. By that time the brothers were involved in four Mackenzie Country runs.

The Halls were therefore the first runholders in the Ashburton area. The enterprise shown in securing so many runs just ahead of demand and selling at least some of them at a useful profit was early proof of the energy and ability which made John Hall one of the most successful landowners in Canterbury. He was also one of the most unusual. Educated not at public school and university but at various institutions in France, Switzerland and Germany, he

1. ↑ Canterbury Old and New, p.122