"Erina" Run No. 8(1854)

This was originally Run No. 9 (1849) and was taken up in 1848 by Richard Coward, who with his brother George had arrived in New Zealand in 1847 as cabin passengers on the barque Ralph Bernal.

During the autumn of 1848 Richard Coward helped drive a flock of sheep from Nelson to the Wairau, and upon returning to Nelson applied for the depasturage licence of "Erina". This was a small run tucked in between Lansdowne and Bankhouse runs. About the end of September 1849 while returning to his run from Nelson alone and on foot. Richard Coward was drowned in the Wairau River. Just how long his brother George carried on the run is not known, but by the beginning of 1854 a fresh licence was issued to George William Schroder. The licence was transferred to William Wells and John Thompson Galloway on 6th April, 1854. As well as surrendering the page 32licence to Wells and Galloway, Schroder also sold them his freehold section II of 50 acres. The Erina Run at that time was about 6,200 acres, out of which Wells and Galloway freeholded a further 917 acres.

G. W. Schroder came out to Nelson by independent means and established a merchant business as well as becoming a runholder in the Wairau. After disposing of Erina he took over the Raglan Run and leased Birch Hill from George Duppa, but was ruined by scab, and later became constable at Waiau in North Canterbury, clerk of the Amuri Road Board. Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, and several other official duties at Waiau. Galloway and Wells are listed as gentlemen of Nelson, and afterthe death of J. T. Galloway on 13th March 1857. Wells sold the freehold to William Douglas Hall Baillie, a figure well known later on in public life, both on the Marlborough Provincial Council and the New Zealand Legislative Council.

Captain W. D. H. Baillie was born in New Brunswick in 1827, served in India for six years and came to New Zealand in the Oriental in 1857. After disposing of Erina to the mortgagee Alfred Fell in 1870 he moved to Para. In 1861 he became the second Superintendent of Marlborough, and also that year he became a member of New Zealand's Legislative Council, remaining until his death in 1922.

Alfred Fell was an early settler to Nelson, having arrived in the sailing ship Lord Auckland in 1842. He quickly established himself as a merchant with good success. Later he sold the business to Nathaniel Edwards and Co., and returned to England where he died in 1871. His executors sold Erina in 1873 to William Stavert of Nelson, merchant, for 2,900 pounds. Stavert soon sold the run to William Bell and his two elder sons William and James.

The Bells retained the run until 1883 before selling to George Fowell Watts, a younger son of Charles Fowell Willett Watts ofLansdowne. In 1915, Watts transferred Erina to his wife's name in order to take over the ownership ofLansdowne from his father's estate. Erina was sold to the Crown in 1917 for the settlement of returned servicemen, and 13 servicemen were settled there.