Background
Cain was born in 1816 in England.
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Henry Cain
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He was at sea from age 13 and was one of Timaru"s first settlers, where he lived for his last 30 years. He went to sea at the age of 13 and traded between Sydney in Australia, the Pacific Ocean, China, and Auckland in New Zealand. In circa 1850, he owned a bar in Sacramento, California.
In the following year, he traded with his 150 ton schooner Pauline in New Zealand, and his first consignment was kauri pine that he sold to Henry Le Cren of Lyttelton.
In 1852, he supplied diggers in the Victorian gold rush with the Fly that he bought from Wellington. After that, he owned The Ocean and traded with Auckland.
In 1857, he was asked by Le Cren to set up a trading post in Timaru, then merely a sheep station owned by George Rhodes. By the following year, Cain had become established in Timaru, was managing the landing station (there was no deep water in the port at that time), and Le Cren himself moved to Timaru and built a homestead for his family.
A statue of Captain Cain is placed in front of the Landing Service Building.
Cain was one of the owners of that building. lieutenant is registered by Heritage New Zealand as a Category I heritage structure. The Timaru Herald reported on Cain from "their archives" as part of the 150th anniversary of their first publication in 1864.
