sheep paddock of more than 500 acres is fenced in and trenched (the tortuous course of two small streams rendering it only necessary to fence one side), and there is a considerable piece of land under the plough. The house, farm buildings, bridge over the little river, etc., have all been substantially erected, and the station generally has all the appearance of a well managed farm, none of the makeshifts usually seen in squatters’ locations being visible.”
There can he no doubt that Mr. Willis’s report had weight with the agent of the New Zealand Company, and that he wished to encourage such enterprising settlement, but the control of the Port Cooper Plains passed about this time into the hands of the Canterbury Association, and in 1849 Captain Thomas, the agent of that Association caused a survey to be made and a map drawn on which a block of 400 acres at Riccarton was shown as the first estate reserved on the Canterbury Plains. The map was dated August 22, 1849, and signed by Captain Thomas as agent for the Canterbury Association.
For more than seventy years the Riccarton Bush remained the property of the Deans family, and very early in that period became the only surviving piece of native bush in the Canterbury Plains—a landmark for miles round. It was carefully preserved by the family, who surrounded it with a shelter belt of English trees, which are now as tall as the native timber, and when some years ago, the old Riccarton homestead had to be rebuilt, the new house was panelled with oak grown on the estate. The preservation of standing bush on such valuable land as that at Riccarton involved a very great pecuniary sacrifice, but it is also on the higher ground of sentiment and old association that Canterbury owes a debt of gratitude to the Deans family.
It only remains to add that in 1914, the Riccarton Bush, comprising nearly sixteen acres, was presented by the Deans family, a free gift to the Mayor of Christ-
