On 1 October 1953, Heathcote joined the Great Christchurch and came under the care of the C.C.C. Heathcote was originally known as ‘Hammerton’, the name of the 40 Hectare property owned by a well liked and respected pioneer- Isaac Cookson. When he moved away a decade later, the area was renamed Heathcote, after Sir William …
On 16th December 1950, Canterbury celebrated the centennial anniversary of the arrival of the ‘Charlotte Jane’, the first of our First Four Ships – the first ship from the Canterbury Association. The celebrations and acknowledgements carried on well into 1951. The planned celebrations were named ‘Thanksgiving for One Hundred Years of Progress’. 30,000 Cantabs surrounded …
On 16th December 1950, on Canterbury’s 100th anniversary of settlement, a newly redeveloped Christchurch Airport become New Zealand’s first International airport. The first trans-Tasman flight took place the following year. Firstly known as the Harewood Airport, the first 230 hectares were purchased by the C.C.C. off the Boag Family – the land still being a …
On 21 February 1949, the C.C.C. adopted the newly created design for Christchurch’s Coat of Arms. Like all other Coat of Arms, every single item means something. At a quick glance at ours, it tells us that Christchurch is a Church of England founded city, it’s a city of the common man and its livelihood …
As smoke silently crept up the cellar stairs of Ballantynes, unaware customers continued to sip their drinks in the tearooms and the businesses’ typewriters kept tapping away in the offices on the top floor. Brothers, Roger and Kenneth Ballantyne, were on site keeping an ever watchful eye over the family legacy, theirs since 1872. Ballantynes …
On 14th May 1947, Mabel Bowden Howard became not only New Zealand’s first woman Cabinet Minister but the first in the Commonwealth excluding Britain. She was the Minister of Health and Children’s Welfare. Mabel was born on 18th April 1894 in Bowden, Australia. After the death of her mother at the age of nine, the …
In 1947, after 104 years in residence (since 1843) and then ownership (since 1851), Riccarton House (built 1856, 1874 & 1900) and its estate leaves the ownership of the Deans family. It is purchased by the Christchurch City Council for £16,500! Since the death of Catherine Edith Deans (daughter-in-law of Jane Deans) 10 years earlier, …
From the time that New Zealand’s department stores adopted the idea of in-store Santas to help bring in the Christmas shoppers, new and exciting ways were dreamt up for how Saint Nick could arrive into the city. In 1905, Wellington’s children were invited to attend the arrival of Father and Mother Christmas as they made …
In 1947, Blue Star Taxis, a Christchurch founded company, introduced two way radios to their cabs – the first to do so in the South Island. Blue Star Taxis began operation in 1929 with 15 cabs. They introduced a unique and still-in-place working scheme where those who drive the cabs, own the cabs. In 1930, …
Reverend Frederick George Brittan was only two years old when he and his family arrived in Lyttelton aboard the Canterbury Association’s 3rd ship, the ‘Sir George Seymour’. A few days later, his father William Guise Brittan would lead the first meeting with our settlers concerning their land orders and how things were to proceed. Little …
