Coming after Tuckett, who made the exploratory survey of the Otago Block, Mr. C. H. Kettle was responsible for the definite survey of the area.

After working as a surveyor for the New Zealand Company in the Wellington and Hutt districts, he returned to England, and in 1845 he was appointed a surveyor to carry out the New Edinburgh surveys. He arrived in Otago on February 23, 1846. In 1851 he became Government Surveyor and Registrar of Deeds, and in 1854 took up a run in the Kaihiku district. In 1860 he was elected to the House of Representatives for the Bruce Electorate.

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Kettle's first child was born on March 3, 1847, the first white girl born in Dunedin, and the second child. The first child born on the site of Dunedin was a boy, John Anderson, born at Pelichet Bay on December 10, 1846. He was well–known later as the greatly respected John Anderson, of “Carol,” Waiwera South.

Before leaving Wellington for Otago, Kettle advertised that “tenders are required for the survey of over 100,000 acres of land, chiefly unwooded, at New Edinburgh, at prices per acre, per ten acre, and per fifty acre sections …”

After a ten–day walk right down through the block from Port Chalmers to the Molyneux, Mr. Kettle decided to split the survey into five contracts.

The first contract: The land on the right of the river, including the areas now known at Molyneux, Balclutha, Inchclutha, Puerua, Kaihiku, and Waiwera. This block was allotted to Messrs. Wylie, Wills, and Jollie, a surveying partnership.

The second contract: The area between the Molyneux and the Tokomairiro Rivers. Surveyors: Messrs. Thomas and Harrison.

The third contract: Land between the Tokomairiro and Taieri Rivers, Waihola and Waipori. Surveyors: Messrs. Drake and Tully.

The fourth contract: North from the Taieri River, including the Taieri Plain. Surveyors: Messrs. Scrogg and Abbott.

The fifth contract: Anderson's Bay, the Otago Peninsula, and the Lower Kaikorai. Surveyor: Mr. Charlton.

The town of Dunedin had previously been surveyed by Messrs. Park and Davidson.

The South Molyneux surveyors—Edward Jollie, Andrew Wylie, and A. C. Wills—chartered a brig called the “Bee” in Wellington, and after calling at Port Chalmers, sailed for the Molyneux, but bad weather forced them to the Bluff for shelter. After two days there, they returned to Molyneux and landed in a heavy surf, with snow falling.

The North Molyneux survey party—Thomson and Harrison—also came by boat to Molyneux, which they used as a base.

The South Molyneux survey took the best part of a year, and was completed about the end of June, 1847.