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funds to the road boards, was not made until late in 1877. In November that year, the council decided that there was work which it alone could do well—such things as organizing a water supply and perhaps irrigation, building major bridges and fostering the development of railways. At the beginning of 1878, therefore, it set up its own machinery, and appointed Frederick Mainwaring as clerk. The son of an admiral, Mainwaring had been secretary of the Board of Education under the Canterbury Provincial Government. Earlier he had worked in the county possibly at Anama. He proved himself an able administrator, although his method of keeping records depended very largely on his memory. He was genial and courteous in his dealings with staff and public. He remained in the post for forty-four years.

During the provincial period from 1853 to 1876, Ashburton as a separate electorate was represented in the Canterbury Provincial Council by J. C. Wilson, 1862-6, W. C. Walker, 1866-7 and 1874-6, W. S. Peter, 1867-9, and John Studholme, 1869-74. All four men were local runholders. Few men apart from sheep farmers were able to devote some months of each year to the sessions of the council. All four were also members of Parliament, although the Hon. W. S. Peter was in the Legislative Council and Walker’s parliamentary career belonged to the period 1884-1903.

Studholme has only been briefly mentioned. He served the longest of Ashburton’s provincial representatives, being a member of four councils, though in only one of them (the sixth, 1870-4), did he see out the full term. He had earlier represented Timaru when it extended to the Ashburton River. A man of handsome and impressive appearance, Studholme was noted for the influence he exerted in the lobbies, as well as for the brevity of his speeches in the chamber. The part he played in the council, when in 1857 the runholders secured the continuance of their pre-emptive rights, is described in The Song of the Squatters:

In 1867 he and his brother Michael bought the Coldstream run which they left, however, in the hands of their able manager, C. H. Dowding. The brothers dissolved partnership in 1878, John retaining Coldstream. With an interest in several other runs in