Mr. John Carter, who was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1838, and came to New Zealand about 1859, was among the earliest settlers in the Ashburton district, and was closely identified with its agricultural progress. He was for two years manager of the Mount Hutt station, and afterwards took over the management of the Wanaka Lake station in Otago. About 1872 he was appointed manager of Messrs Wilkin and Thomson's estate at Maronan, where he remained until Mr. Thomson's death. He then entered into partnership with Mr. Robert Wilkin, with whom he carried on Maronan and several other farms, also the well known Grove Farm estate, and managed the various properties for many years. Mr. Carter was well known in sporting circles. He imported thoroughbred stock, including “Miss Kate,” “Macsiccar” and “Forget-Me-Not,” whose progeny are well known throughout New Zealand; “Perkin Warbeck II.,” “Prime Warden” and “Lady Zetland,” for example. Messrs Wilkin and Carter also imported valuable Clydesdales. In 1882 Mr. Carter went to America and imported several trotting mares for Mr. R. Wilkin. Mr. Carter went to England in 1875 and remained there three years. He was married, in 1876, to the eldest daughter of the late John Harland Cowper, of Wensleydale, and returned to New Zealand in 1878. He died at Grove House, Tinwald, in 1884, leaving a widow and one daughter.

Mr. Arthur Johnston Huston, of Carter's Terrace, Tinwald, is a native of County Derry, Ireland, where he was educated and brought up on his father's farm. He arrived in Lyttelton in 1868, and went to Christchurch by the first passenger train that steemed through the tunnel. After arriving in Canterbury he worked on Mr. John Millen's farm at Southbridge for twelve months, and then on Messrs Dudley and Lawrence's farm at Leeston. While there he bought 50 acres of land at Malvern. On leaving Messrs Dudley and Lawrence he leased a small place at Leeston, where he worked at contracting for some years. He then moved to Malvern, where he leased an additional fifty acres, which he held for only twelve months. His health failing, he sold and went to Christchurch, where he worked at the coach-building trade for four years and a half. In 1879 he bought a farm of 100 acres at Longbeach, and subsequently acquired adjoining it an additional 320 acres, which he drained and farmed for twenty years, growing principally crops of oats and wheat. Mr. Huston was a large supplier of milk to the Flemington Dairy Factory, and at one time milked as many as forty-seven cows. Three years before selling his Longbeach property, he bought a farm of 948 acres at Mayfield, on which he raised a large amount of wheat. After selling out at Longbeach he bought another farm at Mayfield. it had an area of 620 acres, on which he grew turnips and fattened sheep and lambs, the carcases of which he froze and sent to London. Mr. Huston then sold his first Mayfield farm to Mr. M. Anderson, and the others to his eldest son, and now lives in retirement at Carter's Terrace, Tinwald. He is a member of the Canterbury and Ashburton Agricultural and Pastoral Associations, and has been a director of the Flemington Dairy Company, and also of the Mayfield Saleyards Company. Mr. Huston was married in Ireland, and has seven sons and five daughters.

Mitchell, photo.
Mr. A. J. Huston.

Mr. Donald McLean, of “Kinraid,” Tinwald, has had more than half a century's colonial experience, and comes from the Western Highlands of Scotland, where he was born in 1835. He came out to Melbourne early in 1852, and followed the “rushes” to the diggings. When, ten years later, he arrived in New Zealand, he was appointed manager of the well-known Lagmhor estate, and filled the position for thirty-six years. This estate was then owned by the Messrs McLean Bros., and was stocked with 20,00 sheep chiefly Merinos. Mr. McLean has been a page 838 teetotaller from his cradle, but he is not a prohibitionist, and has been a member of the Ashburton Licensing Committee for several years. For over twenty years he has been chairman of the Upper Ashburton Road Board, and he was also a member of the Ashburton County Council for three years. He takes an active interest in the local Caledonian Society, and is president of the Ashburton Trotting Club, and a member of the New Zealand Trotting Association. Among his well-known trotting horses are “Tracy Bell,” “Barney O'Hea,” and “M.M.” He also owns a full sister of “Tracey Bell,” and formerly owned the standard bred trotting horse “Mambrino Mac.” Mr. McLean married Miss Alice Rowley, of Christchurch, one of the most accomplished lady musicians in the Colony, and has two daughters. At the New Zealand University examinations for 1899 Mrs McLean graduated as a Bachelor of Music, and is the first lady student who obtained this degree in New Zealand.

Standish and Preece photo.
Mr. D. McLean.