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The Early Canterbury Runs: Containing the First, Second and Third (new) Series

Flea Bay — (Part of Run 30, Block II)

Flea Bay
(Part of Run 30, Block II)

In January, 1852, the Rhodes brothers got pasturage licenses from the Provincial Government to replace their old leases from the Maoris. Kaituna, Ikoraki, Flea Bay, and the remainder of the old Akaroa Run were all included in Run 30, Kaituna and Ikoraki being called Block I, and Flea Bay and the Akaroa page 331country Block II. The boundary of the Flea Bay and the Akaroa Run went from the head of Stony Bay to the top of Mount Berard, thence down to a point in Akaroa Harbour about a mile south of Onuku Bay, and so back along the seashore to the head of Stony Bay; where the first homestead was built. The whole of Block II contained seven thousand acres.

Israel Rhodes managed the station for Rhodes Brothers chiefly as a cattle and dairy station; but about 1855 he bought a section of his own and built a new homestead in Flea Bay itself, and Rhodes sold him the grazing rights of four thousand acres of the Flea Bay end of the run. A few years later Rhodes Brothers sublet the whole area to Israel Rhodes and Charles Haylock, and in 1866 the license was transferred to them altogether.

Although the lease was in their joint names, Israel and Haylock owned their stock separately. Until 1885 Haylock owned most of the sheep; but from then on they all belonged to Israel Rhodes's two sons, who had by that time succeeded him. In the 'nineties they carried 3500 sheep, and about 1905 divided the property between them. Part of the place remains in the hands of one of his grandsons to this day.