Mr. Marmaduke Dixon, sometime of “Eyrewell,” Eyreton, was one of Canterbury's earliest colonists. He was born at Caistor, in Lincolnshire, in 1828, and was descended from an old Lincolnshire family. His grandfather, Mr. Thomas Dixon, of Holton Park, who owned one of the largest estates in that part of the county, took a prominent part in draining the fens of Lincoln. When fourteen years of age, Mr. Dixon was entered as an apprentice to seamanship on board the ship “Senator,” one of the merchant fleet of Mr. Robert Brooks, the principal founder of the Union Bank of Australia, who carried on a large shipping business with the colonies. The “Senator” was wrecked on the coast of South America, and part of the crew went back to England in the ship “Swordfish.” Mr. Dixon was in Port Philip soon after the discovery of gold, at a time when there were in the harbour nearly 400 ships, which had been deserted by their crews; but he, by sheer tact, kept his men together, and soon got loaded and away to the high seas. After several voyages he decided to give up the sea; and though he was at that time offered the command of the “Southern Cross,” Bishop Selwyn's yacht, he refused, as he had made up his mind to settle in New Zealand, to which he came out with Sir John Hall and his two brothers in 1852. Mr. Dixon took up a large run on the banks of the Waimakariri, and settled in the centre of the run for five years. In 1859 he went Home and married Miss Wood, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Wood, of Woodhall Park, Wensleydale, Yorkshire. On returning to the Colony in 1860, he began to take an active part in public affairs. He was elected a member of the Provincial Council, and continued to sit in that body till the provinces were abolished in 1876. While in the Council, Mr. Dixon supported the construction of the Lyttelton tunnel and the West Coast road. He was at one time chairman of three road boards, when most of the main roads and drains in the Ashley county were laid off and made. Mr. Dixon was one of the promoters and founders of the present system of education, and took an extremely active part in organising the Northern Agricultural and Pastoral Association, of which he was one of the first vice-presidents. In 1860 Mr. Dixon imported some choice animals from his father's English herd of purebred Shorthorns. He was the first to introduce into Canterbury straw elevators, three-furrow ploughs, earth-scoops, and the slip-gate for drafting sheep. He also inaugurated a large experimental system of irrigation on the north bank of the Waimakariri in 1893. From 1891 to 1894, Mr. Dixon took a very active part in connection with the introduction of the Ashley-Waimakariri water supply scheme. He died in 1895.