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

Reidston

page 468

Reidston.

Reidston is a dairying and agricultural district on the northern bank of the Kakanui river, and in the Kakanui riding of the Waitaki county. At the census of 1901 there were eighty inhabitants, in addition to twenty-one at Taipo, which is close at hand. Reidston has a fellmongery, a flour and oatmeal mill, stone quarries, and engineering works. The settlement was originally a reserve owned by the Otago Provincial Council, by the instructions of which it was subdivided into quarter acre allotments, and was sold by public auction by the late Hon. S. E. Shrimski, in the year 1872. Close by there are large buildings, which at one time formed part of the Totara station. Mr. W. Rawson, who was the first postmaster, was also the earliest settler to erect a house in the village. Reidston is about seven miles from Oamaru, on the main south road, and the settlement of Maheno lies on the opposite side of the Kakanui river, a mile and a half away. There is a local post office, though neither store, church nor school, but a church and school are both available at Maheno.

The Reidston Post Office dates from 1899, and is at present conducted at the residence of Mr. Albert Carrodus, who has served as postmaster since 1901. Mails are received and despatched every day.

Mr. Albert Carrodus , Postmaster at Reidston, was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, in October, 1864. By trade he is a worsted manufacturer, and served for about sixteen years as a weaving and spinning overseer. In 1883 he sailed by the ship “British Queen,” to Port Chalmers, and settled in Reidston, where he bought twelve acres of land, with buildings upon it. Mr. Carrodus acts as a wool classer during the season, and travels as for as Waihao Downs and Waihaorunga for that purpose; he also deals in hides and skins. He became a member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows in England, and is attached to the Hope of Maheno Lodge, in which he has passed the chairs. Mr. Carrodus was married, in 1877, to Miss Savill, of Bradford, and has had eight daughters and seven sons; four sons and one of the daughters have died.

Maheno Valley Roller Flour And Oatmeal Mills (Clark Brothers, proprietors), Reidston. The building used in this business is of four stories, of stone and iron, and contains a Schumacher roller flour plant, with a capacity of three-and-a-half sacks per hour. It is worked by a twenty-five horse-power turbine, which is driven by the Kakanui river, and the mill is connected with the Government railway by a siding. The flour produced is sold locally or forwarded to Dunedin; the brand of the flour is “Snawdrift,” and that of the oatmeal “Muscular.”

Mr. George Sanderson , Manager of the Maheno Valley Mills, was born in Haddingtonshire, Scotland, in 1844. His father and grandfather were millers, and he was brought up to the same calling. Deciding to see more of the world, he took passage by the ship “Cartsburn,” for Port Chalmers, where he landed in 1874. For six years Mr. Sanderson was head miller at the Waiwera mill, near Balclutha. Subsequently, for ten years, he farmed at Glenledi, near Milton. On removing to Maheno, he took charge of the Maheno Valley mills, under the ownership of Mt. David Hay, and during his four years of service, he superintended the alterations from a stone to a roller plant. Mr. Sanderson then removed to Canterbury, and became head miller of the Wakanui mill for three years. After that he returned to Otago, and had charge of the Shag Valley mill, at Palmerston, for two years, and was appointed to his present position in February, 1902. Mr. Sanderson was married, in 1876, to a daughter of Mr. George Grant, of Port Chalmers, and has three daughters and one son.

Mr. Charles North , formerly the proprietor, was born in 1850, in Sweden, and brought up in California, where he gained his first experience as a miller. He landed in Wellington, in 1865, but removed to Canterbury; he worked in Timaru and Christchurch at his trade, till 1882, when he was engaged as a miller at the Kakanui mill, in Maheno. In 1890, he bought a flourmill at Rakaia, and worked it till 1893, when the place was destroyed by fire. Mr. North was next employed by Messrs Meek in Oamaru till January, 1898, when he returned to Maheno as manager of the Kakanui mill, which he leased twelve months later. He was married to Miss Cruickshank, from Scotland, in 1889, and has two sons and two daughters.