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The Kemp Deed Was Signed – 12th June 1848
On 12th June 1848, forty Ngai Tahu chiefs signed the ‘Kemp Deed’ (also known as the Ngaitahu Purchase) at Akaroa. The New Zealand Company, acting on behalf of the Crown, purchased just over eight million acres of Te Wai Pounamu (the South Island) from the native people for £2000. The Waitaha area of this purchase …
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The Canterbury Association Formed – 27th March 1848
As Edward Gibbon Wakefield – the director of the New Zealand Company – was recovering from a stroke at Malvern, England, he got chatting with a new up and coming colonisation promoter who was beginning to make a name for himself. His name was John Robert Godley and this meeting was the birth of the …
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Canterbury’s Oldest Stone House Was Built – 1848
After surviving the three month voyage from Scotland and completing his two year work contract with the Deans brothers of Putaringamotu (Riccarton), Samuel Manson, Canterbury’s first carpenter and father of the first European child born on the plains, must have felt a great pride when he built his own staff quarters on his own land. …
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North Canterbury’s First Sheep/Cattle Farm Established – 1847
Unfortunately for the British-born Greenwood brothers – James, Joseph and Edward – their hard times weren’t to end with them fleeing from their farm at Purau. Even though it had only been Edward who personally experienced Canterbury’s first ever robbery, none of the three brothers now felt safe on the Peninsula and longed to leave …
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