Longbeach received its name on account of its nearness to the long beach which was formerly known as the Ninety Mile Beach. The district has, however, become noted chiefly through the exceptional enterprise, energy, and intelligence, with which the late Mr. John Grigg developed the agricultural resources of his celebrated estate. Longbeach is in the county of Ashburton, and within sixteen miles of the town of Ashburton, with which it is connected by a daily coach service. There is daily postal communication with Christchurch, distant sixty-nine miles. Winslow, eleven miles away, has the nearest telegraph office.

The Public School, Longbeach, is situated on the Longbeach Road, about a mile and a half from the Waterton township, and so is conveniently situated for both the township and the families residing at Longbeach homestead. The school, which is well built of wood, was put up about 1876, on the corner of a twelve-acre block, a gift of the late Mr. John Grigg, who acted as chairman of the school committee for a number of years. Mr. Collins was first headmaster. When Mr. Watson, the present headmaster, took charge in 1890, the average attendance was fifty, and it has now risen to fifty-five. There is one female assistant teacher.

Mr. John Watson, Headmaster of the Longbeach public school, was born in Christchurch, and educated at Brookside. He was afterwards a pupil-teacher under Mr. Baldwin, for three years, and also went through a two years' course of training at the Normal School, and obtained his D certificate. He has been master of the Selwyn public school, and the Killinchy public school, and was in South Canterbury for five years, after which he was for two years at Kyle, whence he was appointed to Longbeach in 1890. As a Freemason he is a member of Lodge Ashburton, No. 1811, and was initiated in 1895. Mr. Watson is married, and has three sons and four daughters.

Longbeach House.

Standish and Preece, photo.
Mr. J. Watson.

Longbeach Estate. A portion of this well-known property was taken up as early as 1857 by Messrs Fitzgerald, Cox, Hunter Brown, and Draper, but nothing was done towards reclaiming and cultivating any part of it till eight or ten years later. During the year 1864 Mr. John Grigg, in partnership with Mr. Thomas Russell, of Auckland, began to buy up portions of the country, and continued doing so till 1871, by which time he had acquired a block of 30,000 acres. The land was then a tract of peaty swamp, and no one, looking upon its wild state, would have thought that such an uninviting piece of country could be turned into one of the most productive areas in the colony, or come to be termed “the finest farm in the world.” The draining of Longbeach was a long, labourious and costly undertaking, but it was carried out with the energy and indomitable perseverance which distinguished the character of its founder, Mr. Grigg. While the original property of 30,000 acres was being brought under cultivation, portions on the outskirts were gradually sold, and passed into the hands of farmers, many of whom had gained their early experience at contract and other work on Longbeach, and afterwards built for themselves well appointed and comfortable homesteads. By this process the area of the estate was reduced until it was only half of its original acreage. The sales then ceased, however, and the area remained till recent years at 15,000 acres. In the year 1882 the partnership between Mr. Grigg and Mr. Russell was dissolved, and lead to a memorable sale of stock, which lasted for five days, and realist a total sum of £35,037 12s 8d. Previous to this sale mixed farming had been carried on to a very considerable extent, but the breeding of cattle and sheep had formed the principal feature in each year's operations. Mr. Grigg's long experience, remarkable energy, and almost unerring judgment, were devoted to the selection and breeding of choice stock, and he was, consequently, a large and highly successful exhibitor, and one of the principal prize-takers at the Canterbury metropolitan and other important agricultural and pastoral shows. Large numbers of sheep and cattle were annually reared, and Mr. Grigg did much to found and promote the frozen meat trade. Dairying was also an important branch of page 855 farming on Longbeach. And now between the past and the present of Longbeach there is a vast difference. The “impenetrable bog,” as the estate was once termed, has been gradually developed, and the once wild waste is now a great area of highly cultivated fields, with scarcely an acre over which a traction engine and complete thrashing plant cannot be taken with perfect safety. The breeding and fattening of sheep and roaring of cattle and horses is still carried on on an extensive scale, but of late years the growing of cereals and root crops, which are unsurpassed in any part of the colony, has been a prominent feature in the working of the estate. An area varying from 4000 to 5000 acres, is annually put under crop, and during the height of the ingathering of the grain the estate frequently employs as many as 350 hands. The number of men permanently engaged on the estate varies from 170 to 180. As to the fertility of the land, it may be stated that, in the season of 1901, a total of 1,982 acres of wheat yielded 99,186 bushels, being an average of over fifty bushels per acre. One paddock of 247 acres yielded an average of fifty-eight bushels per acre. The total average yield of oats was from fifty to ninety-nine bushels per acre. The yield of peas was similarly good. On the death of Mr. John Grigg, in November, 1901, 2,500 acres of the original property passed into the hands of his second son, Mr. E. F. J. Grigg, so that Longbeach proper now consists of about 10,000 acres of freehold, and a Government reserve of 900 acres. This large and valuable estate is now the property of Mr. J. C. N. Grigg, the eldest son of its late founder.

Mr. John Charles Nattle Grigg, Proprietor of Longbeach Estate, is a son of the late Mr. John Grigg, the founder of the property. He was born in Auckland, in 1861, and educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, and the University of Cambridge, England. On his way back to the colony, he spent several months in visiting the various important centres of America, and landed in New Zealand in 1883. From that date he acted as overseer of “Longbeach” until 1901, when, on the death of his father, he succeeded to the ownership of the estate. Mr. Grigg was married, in 1891, to Miss A. M. Hutton, daughter of Captain F. W. Hutton, curator of the Christchurch Museum, and has three sons and two daughters.

Mr. John Grigg, Pioneer Colonist and Founder of Longbeach Estate, was born at Liskeard, Cornwall, England, in 1828, and was educated at the Naval College, Stoke, and at other schools. He inherited from his father a freehold farm, which he sold in 1853, and then sailed for Australia in the ship “Blackwall,” by which he reached Melbourne early in 1854. Mr. Grigg remained only about six months in Australia, and then came to New Zealand. He took up land in the Auckland district, where he also married Miss Vercoe. He began in Auckland by devoting his land to the cultivation of potatoes on a large scale, and sending the produce to the Australian markets, but this did not prove a profitable business. During the time of the war with the Maoris, Mr. Grigg contracted with the Government to supply hay for the army horses. This contract was broken by the Government, where-upon Mr. Grigg bought up all the hay in the district. Then the Government, after all, had to obtain its supplies from him, and under the circumstances he exacted double the price agreed upon in the original contract. Mr. Grigg was for some time engaged in sheep and cattle-farming in the Auckland district. He afterwards bought some land in Southland, but did not settle there. It was in 1864 that he bought the first portion of “Longbeach,” and his brother, Mr. Joseph Grigg, managed it while Mr. Grigg himself wound up his affairs in the North Island. When Mr. Grigg first removed his family to Canterbury in 1866, they resided for some years at Avonbank, near the Fendalton bridge, but he personally at once began to apply himself to the reclamation of the Longbeach land, which consisted very largely of peaty swamp, covered with flax, rushes, and other rank vegetable growth, interspersed with deep and dangerous bog-holes filled with water. Then, and up till 1882, his brother-in-law, Mr. Thomas Russell, was in partnership with him in the ownership of the estate, which for a number of years was used solely for raising and fattening sheep and cattle, in the sale of which a large trade was done with the West Coast goldfields. While this was going on, the partners kept adding to their property up till 1871, when it consisted of 30,000 acres, half of which was afterwards sold from time to time in moderate-sized areas: On the balance Mr. Grigg carried on that work of reclamation which ended in making “Longbeach” famous as the finest farm in the world. The huge swamp was effectually drained and cleared, sown in grass, and brought under cultivation with such results that from 4,000 to 5,000 acres have been under crop year by year; with an average in wheat of from thirty to fifty bushels per acre, oats from fifty to 100 bushels, barley forty-seven bushels, and peas about twenty-two bushels per acre. Besides devoting great enterprise, intelligence, and energy to the development of “Longbeach,” Mr. Grigg actively assisted in the establishment of the Belfast Freezing Works, in the management of the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association, and in the work of the Ashburton County Council, the Longbeach Road Board and school committee. He was also for some time a member of the House of Representatives. Mr. Grigg died at Longbeach on the 7th of November, 1901, in his 74th years, and was buried in the Longbeach churchyard beside his wife who had predeceased him by about sixteen years. There had been ten children in the family, but only seven were alive at the time of Mr. Grigg's death.

The late Mr. J. Grigg, Mr. J. C. N. Grigg and Master J. Grigg.