move from Wellington to the site he had chosen on the Port Cooper — the same site that had been occupied in 1840 by Harriot and McGillivray. His brother had come out to Nelson in 1842, but was soon convinced that Port Cooper offered better prospects. While John awaited an opportunity to go to Sydney to buy sheep and cattle, William used the schooner Richmond, chartered by Captain Sinclair and Hay, which sailed from Wellington on 10 February 1843, taking William Deans and his two farm workers and their families to Banks Peninsula. Hay accompanied them to look for a place to settle. They put in at Port Levy, where European whalers were living among the Māori, and left the women and children there, while Deans went on to Akaroa to notify the resident magistrate of his proposed occupation of part of the plains. Before leaving Wellington he had asked the Administrator to approve his venture. He was given an assurance that there was ‘no objection to his “squatting” on land in New Munster not occupied by or in the immediate vicinity of the cultivations of the natives. After his return from Port Levy, Deans went along with Manson by boat to Sumner and up the Avon River. Alongside the Putaringamotu Bush they built a long slab house for the cattle and sheep that John Deans was bringing over from Sydney. The families of Gebbie and Manson were to move over to the plains in May 1843. Deans named the site Riccarton, after his native parish in Ayrshire. On 17 June 1843, John Deans arrived at Port Cooper from New South Wales by the ship Princess Royal after the passage of 21 days from Newcastle. He landed at Rapaki 61 head of cattle, three mares, two sows, 43 sheep — the first sheep in Canterbury. What Ebenezer Hay, the owner of Richmond, saw of Banks Peninsula and the plains, during this voyage with William Deans convinced him that he could not do better than follow his example. Captain Sinclair was of the same mind and so both families began preparations to move from the Hutt Valley to Pigeon Bay on Banks Peninsula. The schooner later sailed back and took a further group of settlers from New South Wales. These were the Greenwood brothers who settled at Purau. All three groups of settlers were stock-keepers rather than agriculturalists. The Deans brothers,