“I find that my notion of a distinct settlement in New Zealand, under the patronage of a powerful body in this country, desirous of spreading the Church of England, stands a good chance of being realized sooner than we expected. The subject has been fully considered, and at length something like practical conclusions have been …
After reading about Sir William Fox and getting the idea that he tended to go where the wind took him, I can’t ignore the fact that today, we do not have a clear idea of what William was really like. The descriptions of his personality and values go from one side of the scales to …
On the 27th March 1848, the day the Canterbury Association was founded, the dream that was to become Christchurch was born. Although at the time, the Port Cooper (Canterbury) Plains was just one of the options, by the month of December, it was almost a certainty. All throughout 1848, Canterbury Association surveyors began to replace …
Tommy Cass knew life’s ups and downs. By the time he was surveying the 33,000 acres that would become the Deans’ future rural station of ‘Homebush’ in 1851, Tommy had earned the respect and admiration of all those around him. You get the feeling that he walked along with a great confidence and self knowledge …
So, what are cities built on? Before all the politically correct answers start rolling through your mind, the answer is much simpler than that…a city is built on a dream. Edward Gibbon Wakefield (Owner of the New Zealand Company) and John Robert Godley (pictured) shared the same dream. In 1848, they founded the Canterbury Association …
The Treaty of Waitangi in uber size at the Beehive in Wellington. It was a very cool thing to see up close but most of us really don’t know about the events before this historical document came into being. Figured I would start from the beginning: * 1000 – 1200 AD: Kupe, a great Polynesian …
It seemed many brothers decided to throw their lot in together and make a go of things in Canterbury…and they make the most interesting character studies. There were the Deans, Brittans, Moorhouses, Bealeys, Greenwoods, Rhodes, Wakefields, Fishers and the Jollies – Francis Jollie is pictured here. Francis Jollie (1815 – 1870) arrived in the Wakefield …
I’m sure as the schooner ‘Ballet’ sailed down the east coast of the Middle (South) Island, William Deans leaned against the deck railing and watched the passing coastline with great interest. He was aboard Captain Edward Daniell’s schooner as an approved stow-away and he held great hopes for what he might find down on the …
I’m sure after Edward Jollie had finished surveying (driving pegs into the ground to mark out the roads and sections) the areas of Canterbury that would become Christchurch, Lyttelton and Sumner, he was quite over tussock, flax, cabbage trees and slipping up to his thighs in the swamp that was the Canterbury Plains in 1849. …
Edward Jerningham Wakefield (1820-1879) had a lot going for him – he really had the world laid out before him. Born to Edward Gibbon Wakefield and Eliza Pattle in London, he became a member of a family that made colonising New Zealand a family business! Jerningham (as I will call him to save confusion with …
