the ordinary accessories of civilisation were often unprocurable—the shops kept little stock, and settlers had to do their shopping from tramp vessels from Sydney. Mr. Sewell described one of these ships, the “Mountain Maid,” “a sort of maritime peddler’s shop. Her arrival in these parts is like that of a travelling peddler in a country village a hundred years ago. She brings down goods of all kinds from Sydney, and sells them at an exorbitant price, 150 per cent. above London prices—linens, prints, boots, shoes, tea and sugar, wine and spirits, candles and groceries, kettles, pots, pans, etc.; one is obliged to lay in a store, not knowing when one’s next chance may be.”
Several of the city’s present business houses started in those days. Mr. John Anderson, as mentioned above, opened a blacksmith’s shop at “The Bricks,” but soon afterwards purchased the present site of Anderson’s Foundry. Mr. W. D. Wood, another pilgrim who arrived in the “Randolph,” built a flour mill in Windmill Road in 1856, and in 1860 established the mill on the Avon near Riccarton. Dunstable House, now Ballantyne and Co., was started by Mrs. Clarkson in 1854, and Mr. E. Reece’s ironmongery establishment was opened two years later.
By December, 1844, the big rush to the diggings was over, and disappointed diggers were beginning to arrive in Lyttelton seeking work. This was the opening of a new era in Canterbury. Hitherto there had been a general acquaintance amongst the settlers, and a freemasonry which was very pleasant; hospitality had been unbounded, people stayed by storm were taken in as a matter of course. Most of the inhabitants of Canterbury up to that time were people carefully selected at Home by the Canterbury Association in the first place, and by the Canterbury Immigration agent afterwards, the later arrivals being often the relations or friends of the early pilgrims.
