Waikoko And The Spit
(Runs 143, 143A, and 433)

Waikoko did not develop from a Class III run but was a freehold property gradually built up in the old Kaituna Run by William Birdling, who bought his first section there in the early 'fifties and called it Lake View. But as the runs afterwards known as the Spit were worked from it for many years, I include it in my catalogue.

Runs 143, 143a, and 433, each of five thousand acres, were on the bank between Lake Ellesmere and the sea and ran from a line across the bank where Run 143 joined Kaituna, about three miles from the eastern end of the bank, to the outlet at the south-western corner of the lake. I think the Rhodes's Kaituna stock must have grazed it in the early 'fifties.

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Who first took these runs up I cannot say, as I have not been able to find the early records of them; but either the Rhodes's or Birdling took up Run 143 in December, 1854. Run 143 was probably assumed to cover the whole spit; and in November, 1858, when there was danger of an outsider taking up the country beyond it, the owner took up another five thousand acres, Run 143a, in order to protect it. Run 433 lay on the lake bed on land often flooded, and was taken up by Birdling and his partner, Joseph Price, who then held the licenses for 143 and 143a, in March, 1862.

There was never any homestead on the Spit, so perhaps it should not be called a station. Both Birdling and Price, who held the licenses in the 'sixties, had large freeholds nearby, and either worked the sheep from Birdling's Station in partnership, or each ran his own sheep on the runs and drafted them when he wished to take them home.

Birdling and Price seem to have been great friends; at least they took up runs across the lake next each other in the early 'fifties.

I learn from Andersen's book that Birdling was engaged by George Rhodes in 1843, starting at £20 a year. He rose to be overseer at Purau and stayed 10 years with Rhodes Brothers. He then bought a small section, the homestead of Waikoko, on what is now called Birdling's Flat. He added to this property until it contained over five thousand acres of freehold, and fifteen thousand of leasehold (much of it bought from Rhodes Brothers when Kaituna was subdivided), and carried over 10,000 sheep at one time. In 1877 Birdling handed the management of his station over to his sons and, after farming in a smaller way for many years, bought the Lansdown homestead near Halswell in 1896 and died there in 1902.

Joseph Price was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1810. When he was 13 he ran away to sea and in the 1830's came to New Zealand as mate of a whaling ship. During the 'forties he was shore-whaling from Ikoraki and elsewhere, and in 1852 he turned to farming. He page 340bought himself a fine estate in Price's Valley, which he called Kelvin Grove, and died in 1901.