Mr. James Gray, sometime of East Eyreton, was born in 1826 near Skipton, Yorkshire, England. He was brought up as a farmer, and worked, as such for a number of years, before coming to Lyttelton, by the ship “Cashmere,” about 1864. He settled almost immediately in the East Eyreton district, and about two years afterwards purchased his first section of fifty acres of land, which he subsequently increased to seventy acres. Mr. Gray was married, in 1855, to a daughter of the late Mr. H. Laytham, of York. He died in 1890, leaving three daughters. Mrs Gray still survives her husband.