Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 047

Transcript

John Ollivier arrived about 1854, with a large family. He was then a man about 38 or 40, a strong, vigorous, active man endowed with an abundance of cheek and go and a very fluent tongue. He like many others entertained the romantic own vine and fig tree idea, and went upon land on the Lincoln Road. That was soon abandoned. He then started the usual commercial agency affair & auctioneering, and was soon in the thick of politics, attaching himself to the fortunes of Mr William Sefton Moorhouse.

Mr Ollivier’s first place of business, about opposite the present Rotherfield.

On Mr Moorhouse coming into power as Superintendent in 1857, Mr O. became Provincial Secretary, “Prime Minister” of Canterbury, and led the battles in the Provincial Council where at times there was fierce exciting work, there being some very able men amongst the old Provincial politicians, such as Messrs Fitzgerald, Joe Brittan, the present Sir John Hall, Cracroft Wilson, and more of the real old settlers.

Mr Ollivier was great as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and manipulated surpluses with financial dexterity – surpluses got out of the sale of the freehold of the grand Canterbury plains at Two pounds per acre, revenue never to return.