Hello Michael again,
This time from:
"Beyond the Waimakariri, A Regional History", by D N Hawkins, published 1957, published and printed by Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd, Christchurch.
Page 39 - 40:
By the end of 1857 quite a number of rural sections had been taken up on all sides of the bush, and the population of the settlement Rangiora had been increased by the arrival of Samuel Andrews, Samuel Golding, Edward Good, Edmund Robinson, William Vincent, Edward Pentecost, Stephen Mounsey, George Lock, Smith Howard, and Jonathon Bell. Some time before they left England Ivory and Stapleforth saw a brightly-painted dray at Charing Cross station, and were told that it belonged to a man named Bell who was migrating to New Zealand. Months later, while tramping into Christchurch, they saw the same dray standing beside a cottage at Heathcote. Two years later its owners, Jonathon Bell and his father, left Heathcote to look for a section of good land, taking with them a spade to test the soil. They literally dug their way north, and finally found soil of the quality they required near Rangiora Bush, about a mile away from Mr Ivory.
Page 297:
At Rangiora a ploughing match was first held in August 1865, on a paddock now occupied by the railway station. Jonathon Bell won a prize for the best ploughing with a horse and bullock harnessed together, but was disqualified from winning the main trophy for exceeding the time limit.
Page 298:
The first threshing machine to be used in the north was imported by the Rev. John Raven, about 1856. This machine was simply a revolving drum turned by horses harnessed to a capstan. Raven attached two spirited horses to his thresher when he first tried it out, but the clattering of the gears frightened them and they bolted around the paddock dragging the noisy machine behind them. Jonathon Bell of Rangiora also had a similar machine. While the horses worked a man fed in the sheaves. The grain was then dressed in another machine, and a day in which two hundred bushells was thus treated was considered a good one.
Regards,
Jean