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after year as the bush was cleared others went in for dairy farming. Mr Ware brought the first sheep into Okain’s about seven and twenty years ago.

Mr. J. E. Thacker came to Okain’s about thirty-eight years ago from Christchurch, and gradually bought up land, the six thousand acres purchased in all, now forming a magnificent estate. He erected a sawmill about fifteen or seventeen years ago, and soon cut all the suitable timber in the Bay. It was the largest sawmill ever at work on the Peninsula, and could cut 70,000ft in a week, so that it did not take long to clear the land, a large number of hands being employed. The building in which the engine and machinery were once located is still in good preservation, and is now used as a wool-shed. The tramway to fetch down the logs to the mill went away to the top of the valley, and parts of it are still to be seen. The Alert, Jeanette, and Elizabeth were the vessels employed to carry the timber to Lyttelton, and they had all they could do to clear it away as it was cut.

The Okain’s Road Board was formed in 1864, and the present road to Akaroa was made in 1878.

Okain’s has settled down to a quiet peaceful existence, the inhabitants being chiefly dependant on the production of cheese, grass seed, and wool, and as long as these commodities command any price this fertile Bay is bound to give generous support to its healthy and happy sons and daughters.