between the settlers and the Association should be made through Mr. Godley, the Chief Agent of the Association, acting with the Bishop of the settlement, It was clear then, that the provision of a representative committee to speak on behalf of the colonists was very desirable.
The following were the names of the members of the first Committee, many of whom were afterwards well known in Canterbury:—
W. G. Brittan (Chairman), Lieut.-Col. Campbell, James Edward FitzGerald, George Lee, Charles Maunsell, Henry Phillips, John Watts Russell, Henry Sewell, Henry John Tancred, James Townsend, Felix Wakefield, E. R. Ward. Of these, Mr. Lee was unable to sail in one of the first ships, and Mr. Sewell found that his duties as Vice-Chairman of the Association would engross the whole of his time. Their places on the Committee were taken by Mr. Thomas Cholmondeley and Henry Savage, M.D.
About a month after the election of this Committee, the embarkation took place. The “Randolph,” “Charlotte Jane,” “Sir George Seymour,” and “Cressy,” lay close together in the East India Dock, Blackwall, and on July 30 a public breakfast was given on board the “Randolph” to the departing colonists. On Sunday, September 1, a special service was held at S. Paul’s Cathedral, the sermon being preached by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the President of the Association. The “Randolph,” the “Charlotte Jane” and the “Cressy” sailed from Plymouth on September 7, and the “Sir George Seymour” on the following day.
Before recording the arrival of the Colonists at Lyttelton, the story of the only settlement then existing on the Canterbury Plains should be told.
There had been earlier settlements by whalers on Banks Peninsula, but the first attempt at real cultivation on the plains was made by Mr. James Heriot, representing Messrs. Abercrombie and Co., of Sydney, who landed
