Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/181

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

178

to Southbridge, where he acquired a small run.

Charles Johnston, 1840-50, arrived in Lyttelton with Captain Thomas. He built the barracks (assisted by other carpenters, under the supervision of Captain Thomas), as well as several other buildings. These barracks were erected to receive the passengers who eventually landed from the first four ships.

Mr. Peacock (who was the father of the late Hon. J. T. Peacock) owned a brig called the Mountain Maid in 1852. He traded all round the Peninsula, as well as at all New Zealand ports, and his brig was a floating store. He at one time purchased from Mr. E. Hay sixty tons of potatoes, for which he paid £8 per ton from the grape, also 1,000 bushels of oats at 8s. per bushel. This produce he took over to Melbourne, where he got £40 per ton for the potatoes. Those potatoes, by the way, were grown on three acres of land which was originally a flax swamp, but was subsequently drained and brought under cultivation.

George Day, Mrs. Day, William, George, Henry, Robert, Fred, Joseph, Alfred J., Eliza (now Mrs. Dean), Mary Ann (now Mrs.