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Story: Marlborough region

Kaikōura runholders, 1865

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In the 1850s runholders leased extensive areas of pasture from the government for their sheep flocks, paying annual licences of no more than £2 per acre (0.4 hectares), assessed per head of livestock. Pastoral land could, be put up for sale, and runholders occasionally bought land to avoid losing access to it. The usual – relatively low – price of around 5 shillings per acre made this feasible, and by 1865 some Kaikōura runholders owned between 10% and nearly 50% of their total pasture.

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Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Source: J. M. Sherrard, Kaikoura: a history of the district. Christchurch: Cadsonbury Publications, 1966, p. 117.

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How to cite this page

Malcolm McKinnon, Marlborough region – Grazing and farming, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/graph/31765/kaikoura-runholders-1865 (accessed 24 June 2026).

Story by Malcolm McKinnon, published 9 May 2011, updated 1 November 2016.