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Christchurch is a major city in the Canterbury Region, and is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand. Established as an outpost of the British Empire in 1850, it is today the second largest city in New Zealand, after Auckland . The area of modern-day Christchurch was originally swampland with patches of marshland and grassland.
The First Four Ships were chartered by the Canterbury Association and brought the first 792 of the Canterbury Pilgrims from Britain to Lyttelton Harbour in 1850. It became a city by royal charter on 31 July 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand.
- First Inhabitants
- Early European Contact
- The First European Settlements
- The Canterbury Settlement
- New Arrivals
- Settling in
- Towards Independence
- Canterbury — A Province
- Transport Problems
- The Boom Years
The first people to live in the place now known as Christchurch were moa hunters, who probably arrived there as early as AD 1000. The hunters cleared large areas of mataī and tōtara forest by fire and by about 1450 the moa had been killed off. North Island Māori (Ngati Māmoe and later Ngāi Tahu) arrived in Canterbury between 1500 and 1700. The rema...
On 16 February 1770 Captain James Cook in his ship the Endeavour first sighted the Canterbury peninsula. He thought it was an island, and named it Banks Island after the ship’s botanist, Joseph Banks. It was probably not until 1815 when sailors from the sealing ship Governor Bligh landed that Europeans first set foot on Banks Peninsula. In 1827 Cap...
Captain William Rhodes first visited in 1836. He came back in 1839 and landed a herd of 50 cattle near Akaroa. The first attempt at settling on the plains was made by James Herriot of Sydney. He arrived with two small groups of farmers in April 1840. Their first crop was successful, but a plague of ratsmade them decide to leave. In August 1840 Capt...
In November 1847 John Robert Godley and Edward Gibbon Wakefieldmet to plan the Canterbury settlement. Wakefield believed that colonisation of countries like New Zealand could be organised in such a way that towns could be planned before settlers arrived. These towns would be like a community back in England, with landowners, small farmers and worke...
In December Captain Joseph Thomas, a surveyor, was sent to Canterbury to choose a site for the Canterbury settlement, and prepare for the first settlers. By the time that John Robert Godley, leader of the Canterbury settlement arrived with his family on the Lady Nugent on 12 April 1850, Captain Thomas had built a jetty, customs house and barracks a...
The Deans brothers at Riccarton and the Rhodes brothers at Purau supplied goods (vegetables, dairy produce and mutton). All heavy luggage had to be taken by small boat around to the Estuary and up the Avon to Christchurch. Other lighter luggage was carried over the Bridle Path. The first ‘selection days’ to ballot sections of land in the new towns ...
Within a year eight chartered Canterbury Association ships and another seven privately backed ships had arrived, bringing the population of the settlement to three thousand. Many new arrivals did not stay in town, but moved out onto the plains, where the land was good for sheep and cattle farming. Already Wakefield’s plan for a small farming commun...
Under the new provincial system, Canterbury’s first superintendent was James Edward Fitzgerald, elected on 20 July 1853. During the time he was superintendent, the sale of the back-country runs gave the Provincial Council a regular source of money. Canterbury prospered in these years, with wool exports steadily increasing the amount of money availa...
Because there were still big problems getting heavy luggage from Lyttelton to Christchurch, Fitzgerald tried to get the road to Sumner by way of Evans Pass completed. In 1854 the Provincial Council agreed to give money to complete the road. On 24 August 1857 Fitzgerald finally drove his dog-cart over the road to Lyttelton. It was still a difficult ...
Canterbury’s growing wealth and prosperity during the boom years of 1857-64 had a big effect on the city. More banks opened Christchurch branches (Bank of New South Wales in 1861, Bank of New Zealand in 1862, and the Bank of Australasia in 1864). New Zealand’s first telegraph opened in July 1863 between Christchurch and Lyttelton. The city’s newspa...
First of the ships bringing settlers to Christchurch was the Charlotte Jane which arrived in Lyttelton on the morning of December 16. 1856 Christchurch became a City by Royal Charter on the 31st July this was because it was the ‘seat’, or base, for a bishop.
Oct 1, 2016 · The 'Canterbury Pilgrims', as they became known, arrived in 1850, and soon set about their plan to construct a town based around a cathedral and college, like ChristChurch in Oxford – from where the city got its name.
East of the city, Richmond and Linwood became early centres of population. Ferry Road was the main route south-east of the city. It led to the wharves on the lower Heathcote which were crucial in Christchurch’s early transport history. Woolston developed along this route, as a residential, commercial and industrial area.
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May 7, 2024 · Christchurch became a City by Royal Charter on 31 July 1856 by virtue of having become an English See under letters patent. It can therefore, justly claim to be the oldest City in New Zealand, preceding Nelson in this distinction by two years.
