Opens with pipe band music.
Mr K. McDonald [probably Kenneth Cornwell McDonald] tells the history of European settlement in Oamaru and North Otago.
He begins with a story about early travellers passing through the Oamaru area; Dr. Edward Shortland shot two ducks there in 1844, then in 1852 W. B. Mantel explored the area for the lands department and gave several places European names.
The first European resident of Oamaru was Hugh Roberson, who arrived in 1853. However, there was a whaling station at Moeraki from 1836 and sheep runs from the 1840s. The sheep runs extended all the way up the Waitaki Valley by the 1850s.
In 1858, some stores opened in Oamaru and by the next year the government surveyors had planned a township and given the streets names. The chief surveyor was from Northumberland and named the streets after northern English rivers.
Property in the new town was sold from May 1859. From 1860 land around the town was offered for sale for £1 per acre. Many of the existing runholders tried to buy the land they were already leasing. There were also newcomers who built estates. Within twenty years, most of the best land was in the hands of a few owners, whose properties ranged up to thirty thousand acres. They were often good employers and lavish spenders, but the socioeconomic implications of such large estates were at odds with the ideals of the young democracy.
However, wool prices slumped, and faith in Oamaru faltered by the late 1880s. This resulted in demand for the large estates to be split up. When Ardgowan was broken up in 1895, there were 1,640 applications for the 64 sections, which illustrates the demand for land at the time. The government also resumed possession of many thousands of acres of land.
Resettlement of the countryside marked a turn towards recovery for Oamaru, but it never regained its former boom. Those who stayed were proud of their town, as can be seen in the two given examples.
Rainfall is scarce in the area, so the townspeople built a water race to carry water 26 miles from the Waitaki River. It was completed in 1880.
The natural port at Oamaru was too open and presented problems; the provincial authorities were reluctant to improve it as they believed the harbour at Moeraki would be better. However, the people supported a harbour scheme and by 1888 a safe harbour had been constructed.
Such was the enterprise and sturdy self-reliance of those who built Oamaru.