Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 106, 15 January 1853
Grehan Mills, Akaroa.Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 473, 16 May 1857, Page 12
MESSRS. C. L. HAYLOCK & SONS beg to announce to the Agriculturists of Canterbury and Banks' Peninsula, that they have just completed a first-rate FLOUR MILL, and will be happy to receive Cargoes of Grain to Smut, Grind, and Dress according to order, at Colonial Prices, and trust by strict attention and perseverance to merit the patronage of their brother Colonists.
Parties sending Cargoes of Grain to grind, &c, by waiting a short time may receive the same on the vessel's return, as they hope to be able to manufacture Twenty Bags per day. For further particulars apply to Messrs. Cookson, Bowler, & Co., Lyttelton, January 7th, 1853.
Grehan Mills, Akaroa, CANTERBURY.
HOLDERS of wheat who wish to have it ground for exportation cannot do better than send the same to the 'Grehan Mills,' Akaroa, for, although the charges there are higher per bushel, no other mill in Canterbury can give an equal quantity and quality of flour from a given quantity of grain; it will therefore be cheaper for holders of wheat to send it to the 'Grehan Mills' than to any other in the settlement, and Canterbury flour will be in higher repute, and sought after in Wellington, and all the adjacent settlements.
C. L. HAYLOCK, Grehan Mills, Akaroa.
Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2536, 19 February 1869, Page 4
FLOUR MILL TO LET. GREHAN FLOUR MILL, Akaroa, TO LET. For terms, &c, apply to GEORGE HAYLOCK. Akaroa, Feb. 15, 1869
From CANTERBURY OLD AND NEW, 1850 - 1900:
PENINSULA AND PLAIN 1840 TO 1851.[info] [photo]
By S. C. FarrTwo of the most important and interesting events which at this time affected the welfare of the early settlers were the erection of the first English flour-mill by Mr. Haylock, and the erection of a sawmill by the Messrs. Pavitt.
After Mr. Haylock decided to erect a mill he purchased a piece of land at the head of the Grehan Valley, through which a stream of water ran with sufficient fall and volume to answer the purpose of driving an 18-feet overshot wheel. A race, or viaduct, was formed, and a good head of water acquired. He and his sons cut most of the timber for the building and machinery, and also erected the building in a substantial English fashion. They made all the gear and fittings, fixed a pair of French burr stones, and concluded that all was ready for work, but, alas! when the water was let run on the wheel the stone nut, or small cog wheel attached to the stone spindle was crushed to atoms, stopping all work. Nothing daunted, however, a second, and a third wheel were made, but in each case the same result, and hope vanished for the time. He then decided to send to England one of his sons for an iron wheel and some other requisites for the mill. After he (the son) had gone Mr. Haylock told me all about his trouble; and although I knew but little about such machinery, I suggested that there must be something wrong with the gearing. Having studied the theory of cog wheels, I told him I would come up and look over it. I did so and found my suspicion correct. I offered, if he would get another nut made, to gear both spur and nut cogs. He accepted the offer, saying he was anxious to get the mill at work. I found the cycloides of the spur wheel not only inaccurate, but irregular. These were carefully struck and formed, the nut made, and within three weeks the mill was smoothly working, thus achieving his ambition to erect and set to work the first English flour-mill driven by water power in Canterbury. I cannot pen his expressions of gratitude for my part in securing success. He was a good miller, and turned out splendid flour. The iron wheel arrived, but I am not sure that it was ever used.
Messrs. Pavitt had bought 100 acres of land in Robinson's Bay. About three-fourths of it were covered with a dense primeval forest. The trees — black and white pine, totara, manuka, kowhai, koanini — were most of them of large size, and they resolved to erect a sawmill if possible. I was counselled about it, though I had never seen a mill. I had, however, read about them, and offered to make a model of one to a scale, assuming that if the miniature form would act it would be quite safe to erect a large one. I began the pattern at once, and made the frame complete, then formed and fitted the machinery. Having a lathe I turned the wheels out of dry kowhai, and formed the cogs out of the solid. When it was complete the model worked to our satisfaction, cutting by hand power small pieces of wood very truly. {Portions of this model I still possess, and intend exhibiting them at the Canterbury Jubilee Exhibition, 1900.} The saw was a vertical one, tightened in frame by screws of my own make. This success so far was encouraging. The first thing then to be done was to ascertain the power we could get to drive the machinery. So the levels had to be taken through the thick bush from an angle in the stream high up in the valley. The level we used was a very primitive one, and was made by fixing three tubes of glass, in which were spirits, to a board attached to a tripod and adjusted by wooden screws, one tube lying transversely and the others longitudinally. Crude as it was it enabled us to find and prove a very good fall for an overshot wheel, 18 feet in diameter, the leverage of which with ample water would provide sufficient power.
I joined with them in a formal partnership, and we began in earnest, week in, week out, some sawmg timber for the mill, some forming a reservoir, others clearing a track and digging a viaduct. We were a busy crew, working early and late, doing everything that was required as it came to hand. We sent to Sydney for blacksmith's bellows, anvils, and tools to do our own iron work, and made charcoal of manuka, to use for lack of mineral coal. In fact no obstacle was allowed to come between us and the object we had in view. We constructed a flume nearly 100 feet long on trestles to convey the water on to the wheel. The wheel was three feet wide inside the buckets. The gudgeons, rings, and pillow blocks with brass bearings came from Sydney, and everyone who saw the wheel called it a perfect model.
The mill had been successfully working, and the labours of our hands and mental faculties were about to realise their reward when a terrible, heavy fire came down through the bush, devouring everything dry, and being furiously driven by the wind, it was only with great risk and difficulty that the saws and other movable tools were rescued. A quantity of sawn timber, lying close by where it had just been cut, perished in the flames, and the mill was burned to the ground. Thus our handiwork and prospective fortunes were wrecked within a few hours.
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