The 'John Wickliffe' and the 'Philip Laing' landed with the first settlers in 'Dunedin' in 1848.

A Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland  for the NZ settlement was established, and they entered upon an  arrangement with the NZ Company: the Co would make available 144,600 acres of land, divided into 2,400 properties.

• Town allotment 1/4 acre
• Suburban allotment 10 acres
• Rural allotment 50 acres

The cost would be 2 pounds per acre. The direction  was obviously to make people town-dwellers, and also give them a start as farmers. Of course, this meant the NZ Co in NZ had  to get things going. A priority had been to find a place for people  to settle in the South Island. NZ Co surveyors inspected areas  as prospects, one not liking the Otago site at all. Edward Shortland,  the government's Protector of Aborigines, with local Maori guides, entered the Harbour, proceeding to the upper reaches, then over  a period of days walked what was to become the "Otago Block".  (It is probable that the word 'Otago' came from the Southern Maori  pronunciation of the village at the Heads, 'Otakou', which had  also been a whaling station, now abandoned.) They came to the  hills over-looking a hilly and heavily-wooded harbour. This was the area that Frederick Tuckett, commissioned  by Wakefield, came to consider in 1844. He had been told to find  a site for settlement, initially Banks Peninsula, in what was  to become Canterbury. The site was to be called 'New Edinburgh'.  Tuckett surveyed the South Island's East coast, looking for useful  harbours, on and off the chartered 'Deborah', walking with, or  without, local guides. He tried Port Cooper (Lyttelton), didn't  like it, went to Otago, walking the last miles overland, at that  time a very rough trip. He found the 'Deborah' waiting for him,  in the bay ever since called after the little vessel. He and his  team of surveyors (Barnicoat and Davidson) walked the territory  and came back, minds made up. On such trips is history set up. The local Maori were now involved: the land had  to be bought, and the locals wanted a high price. Wakefield came  down from Wellington with Government officials, and distributed  2,400 pounds in cash to the chiefs for disbursement, and four-penny  pieces into out-thrust hands. It was a very large block of land,  from North of the Harbour, right down to the Molyneux (now Clutha)  River, and inland by several miles.
Surveying began, and the movement to gather financial  backers, capitalists, and other settlers, began in Scotland. It  could have flown, but the plan suffered set-backs, amongst which,  the NZ Co fell into financial difficulties. Everything slowed  down, Tuckett returned to England, those NZ settlers who came  to the future city site to help with preparations (including setting  up an hotel!) languished in hope.

Of course, it wasn't Kettle's task to make  the streets, just lay them out! Rennie's plan had been to have  builders and labourers follow behind, but he was gone from the  Lay Association in Scotland. To add to the difficulties of preparation,  communications were so slow between the UK and NZ, and Wellington  and Otago, that Wakefield found out the impending departure of  the two first ships just before they left, and the boat he sent  to Otago with stores and building materials arrived not long before  the settlers.

"Dunedin", instead of 'New Edinburgh', had been chosen  as the name of the new town in the promised land. It was the Celtic  form of 'Edinburgh', and was part of the movement against establishing  'new' cities which had been current, eg New York. The two ships  had sailed separately, the 'John Wickliffe' leaving Gravesend  on the 24th November, 1847, and the 'Philip Laing' leaving Greenock  three days later. The former carried Captain Cargill, 97 emigrants  and a large quantity of stores. A majority of her passengers were  not Free Kirkers, but Church of England (showing how difficult  it had been to sell the idea of leaving everything for a foreign  land to enough Scots). The 'Philip Laing' was only a little boat  (450 tons), carrying 247 passengers. In charge was the Rev Thomas  Burns. It would be a voyage of 117 days, during which there was  no land in sight! She finally arrived on the 15th April, 1848,  three weeks after the 'John Wickliffe'.
Life on board the 'Philip Laing' was disciplined and ordered.  The emigrants rose at 6.30 am, roll-call 7.30 am, then quarters  cleaned. Breakfast followed, then morning worship at 10.30 am.  There were 93 children under 14, so they had school at 11 am,  under the supervision of the Schoolmaster, James Blackie. Lunch  followed, then, after free-time, school was re-called at 4 pm.  Steerage passengers had tea at 5.30 pm, the cabin party at 6.30  pm. Evening worship brought the day to a close. And weekly rations  for the steerage passengers: