Page:Ashburton•Scotter•1972.pdf/70
Ashburton
lower plains. The Lyttelton Times (3 February 1877) reported that 35,000 acres of what had been Moore’s Wakanui run were sold by the government during the eight months between May 1876 and January 1877. About the same time, three farmers who established properties and families well known in the Rakaia district, bought their first land there; Peter Doig, 580 acres, James Copland, 600 acres, and John Lambie, 1103 acres. Doig had worked with McIlraith at Homebush, and for twelve years at Cust. He built up his farm by purchasing two estates—Wentworth and Kenmuir—and at the end of the century held 3600 acres of light land which produced sixteen bushels of wheat to the acre. James Copland farmed at Weedons, before he moved south to Chertsey; he soon had a home farm of 1030 acres, and later added other land to his holding. The third man, John Lambie, completed the purchase of his first sections on 16 March 1876, three months before his neighbours. But according to one account[1] he had settled on his farm, Kyle, near the coast, in 1874. Indeed, it is possible that some time elapsed between the application for the land and the Crown grant. The official dates given in this history for all such purchases may not, therefore, accurately fix the time that the settlers arrived in Ashburton. Lambie made his first contribution to the welfare of the district by digging the first well and so saving his neighbours and himself from wearisome journeys to the river. He continued to lead the district by planting the earliest and largest plantations in this area, by introducing one of the first reapers and binders and buying the first motor car. He played a notable part in local affairs as the first small farmer to be elected to the County Council or to become chairman and as county representative on the Lyttelton Harbour Board.
The only other district where most of the available land was sold during 1876 was between the north and south branches of the River Hinds, about Surrey Hills. Here the owner of the Anama run, the Hon. William Spence Peter, who gained a reputation as a scientific sheepfarmer, and the engineer, E. G. Wright, parcelled out between them one of the most attractive areas in the county. Wright did not receive the land, as has been claimed[2] in payment for public works, but like Peter, bought it as money became available.
During 1877 most of what remained of the Rakaia plains, both below and above the railway line, was granted to purchasers by the Crown. The following year saw the height of the Canterbury