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The Christchurch History Society was formed in 1989 and is dedicated to the study of the past of the Borough of Christchurch and its environs and the preservation of all aspects of the past and surviving heritage. The Society is unusual in that it has an archive collection to manage, preserve and expand. The objectives of the Society as a non ...
WELCOME TO THE CHRISTCHURCH HISTORY SOCIETY. The Society organises ten evening meetings a year, with talks on topics usually involving local history. It organises visits and guided walks and attends community events. The Society is the custodian of the Christchurch Archive, some 20,000 documents, photos and maps, on which a group of volunteers ...
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1/ The Christchurch History Society has film copies of most of the weekly editions of the Christchurch Times newspapers that began publication in 1855. It continued through to 1983, except for a break from 1918 to 1925. Film copies do not record details before 1858. 2/ The Society has also created a searchable index of a lot of the data ...
- 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...
Join us to study local history in the community. We are custodians of a large archive of materials (some 20,000 documents, photos, maps, etc.) relating to Christchurch and its history. These are held in an upper room in the Priory Church itself. In normal times we hold ten monthly evening meetings from September to June.
Historical society. A historical society is non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting, and promoting the history of a particular place, group of people, or topic. They play a crucial role in promoting historical awareness and understanding by providing a platform for research, education, and public engagement. [1]
Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand's South Island, has bounced back from the devastating earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 in an admirable manner.Once characterised by wide tree-lined avenues, heritage buildings and British-style atmosphere, Christchurch now finds itself reinvented.
