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Settlement, 1853–78

result of the first exploring expedition across the upper Rakaia River. In April 1857 Thomas Henry Potts, Henry Phillips and F. G. P. Leach made this journey following extensive exploration from their runs into the country behind Lake Coleridge. They rode by way of the Lake Stream to Lake Heron which they reached after four days. They were so pleased with the look of the land that they decided to apply for runs. Potts wrote in his diary:

We saw two or three lakes, one we called Clear Water, as we named the last one we passed yesterday, Lake Heron, from seeing many white herons gently sailing over its surface, or standing motionless on its stony beach. We ascended a hill which allowed us to see the Rakaia, Ashburton and Rangitata, and immense jagged peaks away to the west covered with snow. One of extraordinary altitude we supposed to be Mount Cook. T. H. P. prefers Clear Water and south of Ashburton for a run; Leach the opposite side of the river by Lake Heron. The most remark able feature is the absence of bush. The only firewood we got was drift Irishman. We returned to camp before sundown and thought we would apply for 20,000 to 30,000 acres each.[1]

Potts also named Lake Camp and Lake Emma, the latter after his wife. The three men returned by way of the Ashburton Gorge. Potts applied for two runs of what became Hakatere Station. He refused to pay the customary deposit as a guarantee of putting stock on the country. Instead, he mustered his cattle quickly off Phillips’ Rockwood run and by driving them at all speed to Hakatere secured his rights there. ‘. . . so I have taken and stocked the most westerly run yet discovered in about the shortest time on record,’ he wrote.

Potts subsequently took out licences for three more of the seven runs which at one time or another formed part of Hakatere. He was not only one of the largest Ashburton runholders, but probably the most widely known man to be associated with any Ashburton up-country property. His fame, however, rested on his writings as a naturalist, on his work for horticulture and forestry, and on the full part he played in public life, including twelve years on the Canterbury Provincial Council and four in Parliament. Although he was known as ‘the only man in the [Ashburton] Gorge who could use a twenty-foot stockwhip’,[2] he spent little time at Hakatere. This ‘brisk, peppery, extremely strong little man, witty and congenial’[3] contributed little to the history of the region.

Leach, a Welshman who gave the name to Snowdon Station,

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  1. ↑ Dairy of T. H. Potts in Alexander Turnbull Library.
  2. ↑ Acland, p.297
  3. ↑ A. H. McLintock, An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, II, p.847
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