and was licensed by Akaroa-based magistrate John Watson in 1846. On 23 February 1846 the ship Mary Catherine anchored at Koputai. On board was Charles Kettle the surveyor to the New Zealand Company together with his wife and a staff of six assistant surveyors and 25 labourers, whose task was to survey the land that had been purchased from the Māori. kettle and his wife took up residence in Tuckett’s cottage. The survey of the town was completed in May 1846. At first the European settlers intended to christen the settlement ‘New Leith’ or ‘New Musselburgh’, as they disliked the Māori name of Koputai; but the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland (later known as the Otago Association), desired that the port might be named after Dr. Thomas Chalmers, the leader of the Free Church movement in Scotland and this suggestion was adopted. The first organized European settlers arrived in Otago Harbour on the John Wickliffe, which moored off what was now Port Chalmers on 23 March 1848. Captain Cargill who was the agent for the New Zealand Company and a small party went in the ship's boat to the head of the harbor, while the other passengers went ashore in parties to explore the land around Port Chalmers. The second ship, the Philip Laing arrived on 15 April 1848 to find a settlement surrounded by dense bush to the water’s edge except for a small clearing behind the centre of the beach and consisting of the New Zealand Company’s store, Tuckett’s former cottage and three whare (Māori huts). At the time Port Chalmers had 400 potential sections available compared with Dunedin’s 2,000. The arrival of organized European settlement eventually led to the town superseding the earlier Otakou as the harbour's international port. By 1849 the population had reached 38 and by January 1854 the population had reached 80, but was still less than 130 by 1861. In 1854 the 220 ton Nelson was the first steamer to visit the port. As Otago harbour was too shallow for large ships to reach Dunedin. Ships initially used to anchor in the stream, and the cargo was transshipped to lighters, which were towed by tugs to Dunedin at the head of the harbor. There was also a connection by steep road from North East Valley to Sawyers Bay, a spur of the main road north. On 31 May 1855 the