Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/131

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Akaroa for some years, and then Mr. McKinnon bought a small farm at Island Bay, where he eventually died.

James Wright, Mrs. Wright, Sarah Ann (now Mrs. Glynan), George, William, Alexander, James, Susanna (now Mrs. Donovan)—all 1840-50—Joseph, Robert, Jack, Mark, Elizabeth (now Mrs. Hooker), and Luke. Mr. and Mrs. Wright left England in the ship Martha Ridgeway; landed in Wellington in 1840, where they remained for two years. They then came south in the Bright Planet in 1842 to Oashore, where Mr. Wright got occupation whaling for “Paddy” Woods, who had a whaling station at that time. When he left the employ of “Paddy” Woods he came to Akaroa in a whaleboat in 1844. Some years afterwards he took up a small run of from two to three thousand acres, called Wakamoa, on the south side of Banks Peninsula. Here he went in for dairying on a large scale, and at one time possessed one of the finest herds of milking Shorthorn cattle in Canterbury, until he replaced them with sheep. Mr. Wright died at the age of seventy-eight. One of his sons is still in possession of the old homestead, and at the date when this is written (21st