Lakeside is one of the districts which adjoin Lake Ellesmere. It is about five miles from Leeston, with which it is connected by a coach service. The district was formerly swamp covered with flax and raupo; but it has now been converted into rich, fertile, well drained land, which yields very fine crops. In the winter season it is subject to an overflow from the waters of the lake, until it is relieved by an artificial outlet at Taumutu. There is a fine school, and also a valuable creamery at Lakeside. As in all the districts around Ellesmere, the farmers, as a whole, are prosperous men.

Lakeside Creamery, Leeston. This creamery was established in 1893, and is one of the branches of the Canterbury Dairy Union Company. It has a six-horse power Tangye engine and boiler and two De Laval separators, each with a capacity of 400 gallons. During the first year of the creamery the largest daily output did not exceed 400 gallons, but it is now sometimes 1600 gallons per day. The milk is all supplied from within a radius of six miles, and the cattle are Shorthorns and Jerseys.

Mr. M. Thomas, Manager of the Creamery, was born in Sydenham. For a time he followed farming, but afterwards served an apprenticeship at the Addington Butter Factory. Mr. Thomas received his present appointment in 1893. He has generally taken a keen interest in cricket and football. Mr. Thomas was married, in 1894, to Miss Newton, and has two sons and one daughter.

Alexander, William James,

Mr. W. J. Alexander.

Farmer, “Ridgeland,” Lakeside, Leeston. Mr. Alexander was born at Saintfield, County Down, Ireland, in 1842, and came to Melbourne, in 1860. He remained only one year in Australia, and then removed to New Zealand, attracted by the reports from the Gabriel's Gully goldfield. Not being successful as a gold seeker, he came to Canterbury, where he worked at ploughing and contracting. After a very prosperous year he purchased his present property at Lakeside; it is not large in page 706 area, but it contains some of the most fertile land in the district. It is well subdivided, thoroughly fenced and drained, with a fine modern house. Mr. Alexander has been for a number of years a member of the Lakeside school committee and of the Southbridge Presbyterian church. He married Miss Skilling, and has a family of four daughters and two sons.

Mrs W. J. Alexander.

Cant, Daniel, Farmer, “Brookdale,” Lakeside. Mr. Cant is a nephew of the late Mr. Danzie Cant, so well known at Riccarton and throughout Canterbury, and was born in Essex, England, in 1846. He came to New Zealand in 1865 by the ship “Tudor,” and began carting wool from the Hinds to Rakaia. Later on he tried his hand at building and contracting in Christchurch, and carried on the business for five years. He then settled in the Ellesmere district, where he has been thoroughly successful as a farmer. Mr. Cant has long been a member of the Ellesmere Agricultural and Pastoral Association. He is well known as a breeder of pure Berkshires, is recognised as a leading authority on pigs, and has acted as a judge at various shows throughout New Zealand. Mr. Cant has for many years been a member of the Lakeside school committee, of which he was chairman for seven years. He owns an unequalled herd of Jersey-Ayrshire cattle, descended from stock which he bought in 1878, and has taken many prizes with his Ayrshire bulls. Mr. Cant is also a successful breeder of light horses and hacks, with which he has taken numerous prizes. He is an Oddfellow of old standing. He married Miss Fincham, daughter of the late Mr. Fincham, of Taumutu. Mrs Cant died in 1894, leaving a family of three sons and two daughters.

Overton, Frederick, Walsingham Farm, Lakeside. Mr. Overton is the son of a very prominent and early colonist of Canterbury. He was born in South Australia, in 1851, and at an early age accompanied his parents to Auckland where his father carried on large farming operations at Otahuhu. Owing to the breaking out of the Maori wars in Auckland, the family returned to Australia, but settled in 1862 in Canterbury, where Mr. Overton, senior, purchased a large property of 2000 acres, now known as the Meadowbank and Coe's estates. Mr. F. Overton was educated by a private tutor in Canterbury, and at the High School, Melbourne. On the sale of the Meadowbank estate, through the death of his father, Mr. Overton took up his present fine property, which comprises about 570 acres, where he carries on mixed farming. Mr. Overton has always taken a prominent part in the affairs of the district, and was for ten years member of the Ellesmere Road Board. He has for more than twelve years been a member of the Licensing Committee, of which he was chairman for three years. Mr. Overton has also been a member of the Lakeside school committee for over seventeen years, and chairman during the greater part of that time. He has always taken a great interest in the Ellesmere Agricultural and Pastoral Association, of which he was president for one year. Mr. Overton was for six years a member of the old Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry previous to its disbandment, and refused both a lieutenancy and captaincy. He is one of the trustees of the Wesleyan Church at Leeston. Although respeatedly requested to contest the Ellesmere constituency for Parliament, he has always refused. Mr. Overton is well known as a runner and jumper in the district, and has won awards of the first order. His records are: 100 yards, 9 3/4 seconds; high jump, 5 feet 2 inches; pole jump, 9 feet 9 1/2 inches—all without training.

Mr. F. Overton.

Lambie, James Farmer, Lakeside. Mr. Lambie is the third son of Mr. John Lambie, and was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1851. He accompanied his parents to New Zealand, and helped his father for some years, before taking up his present farm, which formed part of his father's estate. Mr. Lambie successfully carries on mixed farming. He has been a member of the Lakeside school committee for some years, and is also a member of the Ellesmere Agricultural and Pastoral Association. Mr. Lambie is married, and, of a family of eight children, three sons and four daughters are alive.

Mr. John Lambie, Senior, who is one of the early pioneer settlers in the Ellesmere district, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1811. He arrived at Port Chalmers by the ship “Peter Denny,” and came on to Canterbury to join his son, Mr. John Lambie, who was then living at Doyleston. Mr. Lambie began as a settler by buying 107 acres of land, but has since made large additions to his area. He had to contend with all the early privations of pioneering, but as a practical farmer, he foresaw the future capabilities of the land, which only needed draining and intelligent treatment to become profitable and productive. With this firmly fixed in his mind, Mr. Lambie and his perseverance won the usual reward. Mr. Lambie has never taken any part in public affairs, but has always been well known in the district as an ardent sportsman, even up to very recent years. He has, however, been totally blind since 1899, but notwithstanding this affliction he retains his genial good humour, and takes a cordial interest in both the past and the present. Mrs Lambie died in 1899, at the age of eighty-seven, leaving four sons, two of whom live in Canterbury, and two in Taranaki.

Mr. J. Lambie.

Mr. David Marshall, sometime of “Lochrin,” Lakeside, Canterbury, New Zealand, was born at Mount Stewart in the parish of Forgendenny, Perthshire, Scotland, in the year 1815. While being educated with a view to becoming a civil engineer, he had the misfortune, page 707 when he was sixteen years of age, to lose his father by death. As the eldest of a family of eight, he then had to take the management of his father's farm, and the rearing and education of his brother and sisters. Notwithstanding these domestic responsibilities he took an active part in politics at the passing of the Reform Bill, and gave great offence to his landlord, Lord Ruthven, because he would not vote with him. He seceded from the Established Church of Scotland at the disruption in 1843, when the Free Church came out, and he took an active part in building the new church and manse at Forgendenny, he being the treasurer. Mr. Marshall was married in January, 1844, to Miss Ann Gibson, eldest daughter of William Gibson, of Gartwhingan, known in the neighbourhood as Laird Gibson. In 1845 he removed to “Blairathort,” Kinross-shire, and farmed it for nineteen years. On taking possession of the farm, he at once set vigorously to work to drain and lime it all over, as it was cold and wet. Mr. Marshall was sergeant of the first Kinross-shire volunteer company, of which he was one of the original members, and was so good a marksman that he won several trophies. He was a member of the Corn Market Club, and went through all the chairs. As a member of the Orwell Curling Club, he went far and near to play matches. Mr. Marshall was an elder of the Free Church of Scotland at Milnathort, and sometimes acted as Presbytery elder at the meeting of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland held at Edingburgh. In 1865 he and his wife, with their three sons and two daughters, landed in Canterbury by the ship “Greyhound,” which was sixteen weeks on the outward voyage. Shortly after his arrival he bought the farm now known as “Lochrin,” which was then a primitive swamp, which he and his family set to work to reclaim. Mr. Marshall always took an active part in the general affairs of the day in the country of his adoption, and stood, though not successfully, for a seat in the Provincial Council, against Mr. Jollie, then Provincial Secretary, and also against Colonel Brett. He was one of the leading promoters of the Presbyterian church at Leeston, and presented the site on which the first church was built, he being then chairman, treasurer and architect, for the committee of management. Mr. Marshall was senior elder of the church at Leeston, and sometimes represented the Leeston session at the Christchurch Presbytery. When he was seventy years of age he went as Presbytery elder to the meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Auckland Mr. Marshall helped to establish the school at Lakeside, and was chairman of the committee for a number of years. He was a member of the Ellesmere Reclamation Trust, and also a member of the Rakaia Board of Conservators for a number of years. Mr. Marshall was one of the original members of the Ellesmere Agricultural and Pastoral Association, of which he was treasurer for a number of years, vice-president in 1882, and president in 1883. He was well known as a successful exhibitor and breeder of Clydesdale horses, and Mrs Marshall was also a successful exhibitor of butter, cheese, home made wine and preserves. Mr. Marshall lived in an age of progress, and many remarkable changes took place during the period covered by his lifetime. Penny postage, the electric telegraph, railways, the general application of steam as a motive power by sea and land were amongst the changes which he witnessed with the intellectual relish of a man who always took a vivid and comprehensive interest in men and things. In his own industry of farming, the world passed at a bound from the implements and methods of prehistoric times to those of modern science, with all that is meant by the application of steam and electricity as motive powers, in alliance with phenomenal inventiveness in respect to tools and machinery. As a farmer he himself began with the use of wooden ploughs and harrows; his grain was sown by hand, harvested with the hook and threshed with the flail. That was in Scotland in the days of his youth. In New Zealand, in his latter days, he had his land worked by the double-furrow steel plough, dressed by the disc-harrow, sown by the graindrill, harvested by the reaper and binder, and threshed by the traction engine and combine. He died nine years too soon to see the King and Queen Apparent during their visit to New Zealand in June, 1901, but when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Perthshire for the first time in September, in the year 1842, Mr. Marshall was one of those who took part in the loyal ceremonies of the occasion. All the landlords of Strathearn, the garden of Perthshire, which is the Arcadia of Scotland, turned out with their tenantry on horse and foot, to welcome her Majesty, and escort her through their respective estates. At Drummond Castle, where the Queen was the guest of Lord and Lady Willoughby d'Eresby—father and mother of the present Earl of Ancaster—five hundred gentlemen, tenantry of the estate, and all wearing plaids of Drummond tartan, lined the avenue to the castle, where a detachment of the 42nd Regiment and the Drummond Highlanders—the latter with battle-axes, swords and targets—also attended as a guard of honour at the castle, where the Queen stayed two days and three nights, and at a grand ball given in her honour, joined in the country dance, “Meg Merilees.” In her progress through the district, each proprietor, with his tenants on horseback, met and welcomed the Queen at the western boundary of his estate and escorted her to its eastern boundary, where the next laird, chief, or nobleman welcomed and escorted her in like manner. Mr. David Marshall was one of the mounted loyal Scots who thus met Queen Victoria at the Bridge of Earn, and in after years he was accustomed to recall with satisfaction the fact that personally he rode close to the Queen's carriage all the way to the next stage, which was Scone. Of course there were no railways in those days. Mr. Marshall died at “Lochrin,” Lakeside, Canterbury, New Zealand, in 1892, and was survived by his wife, three sons and two daughters.

The late Mr. D. Marshall.