Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/146

 Government had not completed the purchase of lands from the Natives, who naturally resented settlement until they received payment. They refused to allow Mr. Hay to settle, so he arranged with Mr. Wakefield to have his land order transferred to the South Island. He and a Mr. Sinclair then procured a schooner called the Richmond, in which, with their families, they sailed southward, and arrived in Pigeon Bay in April, 1843. Mr. Hay selected his land here, and, having brought down from Wellington two cows and a heifer calf, proceeded at once to establish the nucleus of a home. First of all he and Mr. Sinclair sold the Richmond to Mr. W. B. Rhodes, of Wellington, for ten cows, valued at £20 per head. Those cows were at Akaroa, and to get them to Pigeon Bay a track had to be cut through the bush. The line selected for this track was that of the path used by the Maoris, which was faintly marked by broken twigs, and blazing here and there on a tree trunk. There was no pretence at grading, for the track followed the contour of the land straight up one side of a spur and down the other. It took eight men three weeks to widen this track sufficiently to enable the cattle to be brought