“For the last five years, ever since the plan of founding a settlement of Church People in New Zealand was first suggested to me…the thought of it has hardly been for a moment out of my mind; I have become, for the time at least, a man of one idea, to which everything else, public …
On the 6th November 1852, the first sitting of the Canterbury Supreme Court took place at the Lyttelton Immigration Barracks, in the same room used by the future Christ’s College. George Johnston was charged with breaking and entering into a merchant warehouse owned by David Laurie. He was accused of stealing a pair of blankets, …
Marmaduke Dixon was only 14 years old when he first went to sea. Born at Caistor, Lincolnshire, England, his bad health caused his parents so much concern that they sought an occupation that would take their son to a more beneficial surrounding. As a result, Marmaduke saw the world! He first laid eyes on New …
On 9th October 1846, New Zealand received its first law enforcers. After the Police Act 1886 was passed, this developed into New Zealand’s first national, civil police force – and the first recognised Sergeant was Westport local, John Nash. It didn’t take the new settlements of Lyttelton and Christchurch very long to need a lock-up …
As the citizens of Christchurch went about their business at the Land Office (which is now a part of the Canterbury Provincial Chambers), upstairs, in a very small room sat four of our founding fathers, squished in side by side behind a small table. They were John Robert Godley (founder of Canterbury), Mark Stoddart (first …
On the 27th September 1851, the first drowning in Christchurch’s Avon River was reported. The victim had been drunk and had obviously tumbled down the river bank. This would be the beginning of what would be reported as the highest cause of death in those early years of settlement. Christchurch’s rivers weren’t only the cause …
On 21st June 1851, Riccarton Road (or Harewood Road as it began as a route to Harewood Forest in Oxford as it was then known) was opened. Those who visited Riccarton during the beginning of 1851 spoke of the constant noise of the sawyers cutting down the Canterbury Association’s allocation of Riccarton Bush – sadly …
“[Thomas] Cass, [John Cowell] Boys and I have brought 43 heads of cattle and I am going out to Rangiora Wood to manage and take charge of them. I hope to have plenty of leisure to make a home and garden. I have rented 1,750 acres of pasturage for about £14 per year…as soon as …
On 20th December 1850, just a short four days since the arrival of the Canterbury Association first ship, Isabella Williams and her seven children gathered around the first grave to be dug at Lyttelton’s Anglican cemetery. Her husband John had been found on the Lyttelton side of the Bridle Path, dead from a stroke and …
As little Sarah Elizabeth Barker was being born during the darkness of night, her mother Emma held an umbrella over them both in a vain attempt to keep away the driving rain. A terrible storm raged overhead and Emma’s husband Dr. A.C. Barker tended to her, delivering his first and only daughter into the world …
