Waterford
(Run 105)

This was a small cattle station of five thousand acres in the corner formed by the north bank of the Rakaia and the sea. It was bounded on the other two sides by Homebrook. For a short time the Rakaia Island belonged to it. I have not been able to find the early records of it. It was taken up by a man named Brittin, whom I cannot identify. He was probably D. A. or J. D. Brittin, who registered a brand between them in 1854. Anyhow he sold the run to Moses Cryer in 1854. Cryer came to Nelson from Gloucestershire in the 'forties and was afterwards a butcher in Lyttelton. He died at Waterford in 1895, aged 90.

The freehold was bought up early, so that in 1862 it became Run 94, Class II., and by 1866 there were only eight hundred and sixty acres of the run left. Cryer however secured a nice little freehold property out of it himself, most of which still belongs to Miss Sarah Cryer, his daughter.

Cryer was about the first squatter in these parts to make himself a comfortable homestead and his kindness and hospitality were long remembered by his neighbours.