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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Mr. Robert Campbell

Mr. Robert Campbell , Of Milton House, St, Clair, near Dunedin, was born at Renton, Dumbartonshire, Scotland, on the 27th of September. 1814, and arrived in Dunedin. by the ship “Ajax.” on the 7th of January, 1849. He was apprenticed to the trade of calico printing, a trade which he followed almost continuously until he left Scotland, in 1848, for New Zealand. On two occasions of great depression in Scotland, he followed a seafaring life for a short time, and made a trip to North America, the Mediterranean, and the West Indies. When Mr. Campbell and his wife arrived at Dunedin by the “Ajax,” in 1848, the outlook for the young colonists was not very promising, as Dunedin then consisted of a few wattle-and-daub huts. Mr. Campbell, however, possessed two qualifications for a successful colonist—hope and perseverance. He built a house for himself on what is now known as Manor Place. It was not a very pretentious building. as it consisted merely of a few round trees cut in a neighbouring gully. Their ends were stuck in the ground, the roof was made of manuka and rushes, and. inside, the walls were plastered with mud. Yet it was a warm and comfortable house. Mr. Campbell's next care was to get employment, and he considered himself fortunate in being engaged by Mr. Kettle, for his survey party, at a wage of four shillings a day. As the little settlement increased in population Mr. Campbell determined to work for himself, and seeing a good opportunity of making money by trading in a boat from Port Chalmers to Dunedin, he purchased some land at Sawyer's Bay, and with a good boat started on the laborious business of making a fortune—if possible. After building a home. he cleared the ground for growing vegetables, for which there was a good demand, and thus he set out on the road to prosperity. He was constantly employed in conveying goods and passengers from the incoming ships to the township, and in this way he made a lot of money. After clearing his land, in his spare intervals, he added a cow to his live stock of poultry, and by the sale of butter, vegetables and eggs, he enjoyed a considerable increase to his income. Mr. Campbell carried in his boat from the shore to the ship's side the first wool exported from Port Chalmers. It was owned by the late Mr. John Jones, consisted of two bales and a page 379
Mr. And Mrs R. Capbell.

Mr. And Mrs R. Capbell.

half, and was shipped in the year 1850. Success continued to follow Mr. Campbell's efforts, and as he had made sufficient money to enable him to start farming on an extensive scale, he sold his property at Sawyer's Bay and bought a farm at Kaihiku. There he continued to thrive and prosper, and about 1880 he and Mrs Campbell determined to revisit the scenes of their youth in Scotland. After some time spent in seeing the principal sights of the Old Country. Mr. Campbell left Mrs Campbell in Scotland and returned to New Zealand. There he found that all his interests were well looked after by his manager, and he went back to Scotland, through America, to bring home his wife. When they returned to Dunedin, Mr. Campbell bought a property at St. Clair, where he built a handsome Elizabethan residence, where he has lived in retirement since 1883. Mr. Campbell has been twice married. His second wife, formerly Miss McHoul of Kilmarnock, Scotland, has helped to write an interesting little work, entitled “Reminiscences.” compiled partly from Mr. Campbell's diary and partly from his dictation. It sets forth in an interesting manner the privations endured and the difficulties overcome by the hardy pioneers of colonisation in Otago.