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The Early Canterbury Runs: Containing the First, Second and Third (new) Series

Wakanui — (Runs 139, 140 and 150)

Wakanui
(Runs 139, 140 and 150)

I do not know who took up the Wakanui runs. Runs 139 and 140 were taken up in May, 1854, and Run 150 was taken up in July, 1855. They contained about sixty thousand acres altogether, and in 1856 they belonged to Moore and Kermode, who I daresay were the first owners.

Wakanui took in the country between the Ashburton Station and the sea, and to the north it joined Acton and Rokeby.

The first manager was Jonathan Brown; he was succeeded by W. J. Moffatt, who stayed until Moore and Kermode sold the station. Wakanui was a cattle station until 1861, when it was stocked with 3000 sheep from Glenmark. The first head shepherd was Malcolm Miller, whose wife came down from Christchurch in a bullock dray to live with him as soon as his sod hut was ready.

Moore and Kermode transferred the station to Joseph Palmer in 1874 and Palmer transferred it on the same day to Joseph Archer, William Valentine and James Mercer. Palmer was the manager of the Union Bank in Christchurch and the transfer to him I suppose was a legal formality. I cannot find out the later history of Wakanui except that it was cut up some time in the 'eighties when Sandry and Blackler bought the homestead and sold it a few years later to Giles Keeley. In 1903 Keeley sold the place to John Cairns, the father of the present owners. The homestead was on the Wakanui Creek about a mile above the sea. page 112W. J. Moffat afterwards managed Mt. Parnassus, and still later owned the Lakes Station at the head of the Hurunui.