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Tales of Banks Peninsula

No 34.—Messrs Rhodes Bros

page 251

No 34.—Messrs Rhodes Bros.

The three Rhodes Brothers, William Barnard, George and Robert Heaton, were intimately connected with Canterbury since a date many years prior to the first settlement by the colonists, and that connection is as intimate in their descendants at the present day. W. B. Rhodes was the first of them to visit the place that was to become Canterbury. He was a seafaring man, and in 1834 and 1835 he commanded a whaling ship, the Australian, belonging to a Sydney firm, Messrs Cooper & Holt, afterwards Cooper and Levy, whose names were given to the two adjacent harbours, Port Cooper and Port Levy. The former was later named Lyttelton Harbour. Mr Rhodes was in the harbour in 1834, when he climbed the bills looking over the Canterbury Plains, which he described as a vast swamp with two patches of native bush. Trade was carried on with the natives, and in February, 1839, a Captain Francis Leathart purchased an area of land from the natives through Taiaroa, which area Leathart transferred in September, 1839, to the firm which Rhodes had now joined —Cooper, Holt and Rhodes. The last named purchased a fine barque, the Eleanor, and buying 50 bead of cattle, including two bulls, at £16 a head from Mr Rust at the Hunter River, New South Wales, he landed these at Takapuneke, or Red House Bay, Akaroa Harbour, early in November, 1839, These were the first cattle landed in Canterbury, and he left one William Green in charge of them at the Bay. Green had had charge of the stock on the boat, and settled at Red House with his wife and little boy, two years of age. In 1842, W. B. Rhodes was joined by his brother Joseph, but he left Akaroa soon after 1843, and settled first in Wellington, but soon afterwards in Napier, where he acquired a fine property. W. B. Rhodes also made his home in Wellington, and he was there when George Rhodes arrived at Akaroa in December, 1843, having left London by the Mandarin in June of that year, coming to New Zealand via Van Diemsan's Land. He was brought page 252up as an English farmer, and on arriving at Akaroa he took charge of the cattle station. A brother Peter accompanied him. but he, not liking Nev Zealand, returned to England and carried on farming there. In May, 1847, W. B. Rhodes and George Rhodes purchased the Purau property from the Greenwood Brothers for £1710, and George made that his place of residence until joined there by Robert Heaton. another brother from Australia, in the beginning of 1850. The property acquired on the Akaroa side of the Peninsula was sold—that at Flea Bay to Israel Rhodes, who was no relative though bearing the same name, and that at the Akaroa Heads to Charles Haylook. Oa the formation of the Canterbury settlement, the brothers leased lands for pastoral purposes on various parts of the Peninsula: In 1851, 250 acres near Mt. Evans, 250 acres at Mt. Herbert (increased to 10,000 acres in 1857), in 1852, 5800 acres at Purau, 9200 acres at Ahuriri and 18,000 at Akaroa; in 1853, 20,000 acres south of the Rakaia; but most important in 1852, a large area of 150,000 acres at Timaru. afterwards known as The Levels. This area they stocked with surplus sheep from their Peninsula properties. Besides pastoral areas, they purchased freehold areas in moderate sized blocks and in favourable localities from time to time, among them the land now forming the business part of Timaru, long known as Rhodes Town. The Timaru properties were principally managed by George, Robert Heaton managing those at Purau and about Christcburch. From the variety of their early training, the three brothers formed an excellent business combination, and all their ventures proved successful. George died at Lyttelton in June, 1864, Robert arriving from a visit to England just in time to attend the funeral, which was also Attended by William Barnard from Wellington. Robert Heaton Rhodes died at Christchurch in June, 1884. The brother George did not take an active part in public life. W. B. Rhodes, however, was a member of the first General Assembly held in Auckland in 1854, and was also a member of the Legislative Council; and Robert Heaton Rhodes represented Akaroa in the first Provincial Council of page 253Canterbury in 1853, holding the seat for ten years He also represented Akaroa in the General Assembly in 1871 2 3. In the last named year illness caused him to leave New Zealand, to which he returned in 1878. In social matters the brothers were most liberal, giving or selling on easy terms sites for schools, churches and public schools, besides assisting with contributions. They were also at all times ready to help steady working men, and besides paying high wages to their employees, they gave them a share of the profits from their dairies and other farm produce. The two brothers, especially connected with Akaroa, George and Robert Heaton, left fairly large families; among them are men of business capacities equal to those of their fathers. Robert Heaton Rhodes, of Bluecliffs, South Canterbury, a son of George Rhodes, has been Chairman of the Waimate County Council for several years; another son, Arthur E. G. Rhodes, has been a member of Parliament for Gladstone and Geraldine, and also Mayor of Christchurch; and the Hon. Robert Heaton Rhodes, son of R. H. Rhodes, is a member of the Ministry of the present Government, being the representative of the Ellesmere District, and part of the Peninsula. In 1886 the Rhodes Convalescant Home was opened by means of £10,000 contributed by the children of Robert Heaton Rhodes. The Christchurch Cathedral is greatly indebted to the family. The tower was erected by Robert Heaton, in memory of his brother George, and the spire was erected to the memory of their father by the children of George Rhodes, in 1881. One part of the spire being shaken down by the earthquake of 1st September, 1888, the cost of rebuilding it was borne by members of the Rhodes family. A memorial window of three lights, too, was presented to the memory of Robert Heaton Rhodes, and he, himself, presented the eight largest of the ten bells in the tower. Soon after these brothers had taken up the Levels at Timaru, they chartered a schooner of light draught She was taken into Lake Ellesmere to a point called McQueen's Point, loaded with stores and timber. She sailed out and went to Tirnaru and dis-page 254charged her cargo for the Messrs Rhodes brothers for the Levels, Few people in Canterbury have had a better opportunity of judging the sterling qualities of these three brothers than I have had. Their word was their bond in all matters My first acquaintance with Mr. George Rhodes was in 1846, when I was a small boy, and Mr. R. H. Rhodes four years later, and being almost close neighbours the whole of their lives I had a good opportunity of judging their sterling qualities—just the right sort of men for starting a young colony.

[This article was contributed by Mr James Hay).]