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George Rhodes purchased the Purau property from the Greenwood Brothers for £1,710, and George made that his place of residence until joined there by Robert Heaton, another brother from Australia, in the beginning of 1850. The property acquired on the Akaroa side of the Peninsula was sold: that at Flea Bay to Israel Rhodes, who was no relative, though bearing the same name, and that at the Akaroa Heads to Charles Haylock. On the formation of the Canterbury settlement, the brothers leased lands for pastoral purposes on various parts of the Peninsula: in 1851, 250 acres near Mt. Evans, 250 acres at Mt. Herbert (increased to 10,000 acres in 1857); in 1852, 5,800 acres at Purau, 9,200 at Ahuriri, and 18,000 acres at Akaroa; in 1853, 20,000 acres south of the Rakaia; but most important in 1852 a large area of 150,000 at Timaru, afterwards known as The Levels. This area they stocked with surplus sheep from their Peninsula properties. Besides pastoral areas they purchased freehold areas in moderate-sized blocks, and in favourable localities from time to time, among them the land now forming the business part of Timaru, long known as Rhodes Town. The Timaru properties were
