Mr. Andrew Dawson, of Waterton, is a very old colonist, who landed in New Zealand prior to the first four ships. He was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1826, and was brought up to agriculture. In 1849 he arrived in New Zealand in the ship “Duke of Portland,” and landed at Wellington. He came out as a cadet, and throughout his long experience in New Zealand has never once regretted the step he took. On the arrival of the first four ships at Lyttelton, Mr. Dawson went to Canterbury, and settled for some time at the Head of the Bay, in Banks' Peninsula. In 1872, he took up his present farm of 1460 acres, then mostly swamp land, covered with flax and tussock. It has all been drained and farmed successfully, and the crops yield good returns. Mr. Dawson was for many years an active member of the Longbeach Road Board, and was for a long time chairman of the Waterton school committee. He married a daughter of the late Mr. Prebble, of Prebbleton, and has a surviving family of four sons and four daughters. Mrs Dawson was brought out, when a child, with her parents, in 1840, and is considered the oldest surviving lady colonist in Ashburton county.