emigrants to Canterbury, for Lyttelton often proved to be a sort of roundabout way to the diggings. Shipmasters had great difficulty in keeping their crews. The labour problem became so serious that there was even talk of importing Chinese coolies. The early settler had to do his own work, while his women folk cooked the dinner and scrubbed the floor.
Some fine stories are told about the feats performed by the pioneers. Mr. Marmaduke Dixon dug a well eighty feet deep, with his own hands. He rigged up a windlass and a bucket on a rope, and when he had filled the bucket, he climbed out of the well and pulled the bucket up after him. Think of the labour! But his section at West Eyreton was waterless, and he had to get water. Then there is the story of Mr. John Studholme, who walked, with his brother, all the way ta Dunedin to buy cattle. One can imagine what that meant across the unbridged rivers and trackless plains. But when he got to Dunedin, the cattleman would not take his cheque, there being no Bank in Otago, so, after tossing up with his brother which should go, he shouldered his swag and walked back, cashed his cheque at Lyttelton, and tramped to Dunedin a second time with the money. This was in 1853, and was one of the first overland trips made between the two places. Mr. John Anderson, who came out in the “Sir George Seymour,” established a blacksmith’s shop at “The Bricks,” and after his day's work was done, often walked in to Lyttelton to bring back the iron he needed for the next day’s work,
Another effect of the diggings in Victoria was to raise the price of all foodstuffs. Mr. Sewell tells how in May, 1853, the flour ex “Hampshire” sold at £70 a ton. His diary is full of references to the cost of living. “In truth, the expense of living is about double that of London, with one-fourth part of the comfort,” he said, in a characteristic passage. “People with fixed
