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chose the country north of Lake Heron and for some way down the Lake Stream. He took out licences for this area as Run 175 and for Run 174 which became part of Clent Hills. But he sold both runs in 1860 because he had lost his money through the muddling of a partner. He is best known as a sporting man and as one of the founders of the Canterbury Jockey Club.

Some high-country stations continued to grow until 1863, but the last new ones were established in 1861: Winterslow and Stronechrubie (Erewhon). Winterslow covered difficult hilly country with insufficient flat land. It was first owned by Brian W. Taylor, who gave his name to Taylor’s Stream, and from 1866 to 1890 by Ivan R. C. Cunningham Graham. Graham attracts the attention of the historian because he was the cousin of the famous Cunningham Graham—Scottish laird, member of the House of Commons, radical leader and South American horseman. He achieved some prominence, himself, as the owner of a 1000 acre farm on Graham’s Road, Tinwald, and from his excursions into politics as an eccentric candidate at parliamentary elections. He was the avowed enemy of all the ‘hard-fisted’ early runholders, who, in his opinion, had ‘filched’ the land from the people.

Stronechrubie lay far back at the head of the Rangitata River and between the Clyde and the Lawrence. It was first leased by Richard May Morton and Stace. The former arrived in Canterbury in 1860 by way of Victoria and Tasmania. This was his first holding, but he became well known later, because of his ownership of Mount Pleasant and Ahuriri, near Christchurch, and more so as a result of his construction of Morton’s Building, the present United Service Hotel, on his section facing Cathedral Square. At least five Staces were farming at that time near Christchurch. The man concerned here has not been identified.

Runholders stocked their properties with either beef cattle or merino sheep. Both were expensive to buy, whether purchased locally, driven overland from Nelson or imported from Australia. Merinos proved more profitable on the greater part of the Ashburton country. Wool was the principal export and merinos could thrive under rough conditions, although they were not prolific breeders or good mothers. Until fences were erected, the size of the flock or herd was limited by the number of men available to tend it. At best, only the inner portion of the run could be fully used. Both cattle and sheep were threatened by serious diseases.