Big skies, braided rivers, vast plains and snow-capped mountains: Canterbury has beauty and drama in all directions. At the heart lies Christchurch, with its settled charm and lively cultural scene.
The English settlers who reached Lyttelton in December 1850 first saw the Canterbury Plains from the top of the Bridle Path, which took them up the Port Hills from Lyttelton Harbour. Below them was marshy, open country. The city of Christchurch now sprawls across these plains. But the wider Canterbury landscape has changed little in more than 150 years. Behind the curved coastline of Pegasus Bay, the great plain recedes to the distant Southern Alps.
Canterbury is a region of vast skies, extensive views and bold contrasts – from flat plains to high mountains, and from the indented coastline of Banks Peninsula to the featureless beaches that edge the plains.
Christchurch is the South Island’s largest city. More than any other New Zealand city, it has kept strong ties with its farming hinterland. Farming is now less important in the Canterbury economy than it was. But the region is still defined by images of farmland with long lines of shelter belts, and high-country sheep runs with lonely homesteads in magnificent mountain country.
Today the Canterbury regional council, known as Environment Canterbury, covers north, mid- and south Canterbury, and Kaikōura. North and mid-Canterbury are discussed here. The northern limit is the Conway River, and its southern boundary is the Rangitātā River. Its western boundary is the main divide (the summit line) of the Southern Alps.
Canterbury was once a bigger area. The Canterbury Province of 1853 ran from the Waitaki to the Hurunui rivers, and from the east to west coasts. But the region now known as Westland, on the West Coast, became a separate province in 1873, and the area around the port town of Timaru sought (unsuccessfully) to separate as South Canterbury.
Especially compared to North Island urban regions, Canterbury has relatively more people of European descent and relatively fewer Māori, Pacific Islanders and Asians. Its population is slightly older and more settled than in many other regions.
The Māori people of Ngāi Tahu and earlier iwi (tribes) knew Canterbury intimately and used many of its resources. But the Māori population was always quite sparse.
Canterbury’s origins are quite distinct from those of Auckland and Wellington.
English immigrants arrived in 1850, organised by the Canterbury Association. The community they envisaged was different from others in New Zealand: the goal was a hierarchical English society, with the Anglican Church at its centre.
In 1844, from a hilltop on Banks Peninsula, Bishop G. A. Selwyn ‘obtained a magnificent view over the vast plains of the South. Below us stretched the apparently interminable line of the ‘Ninety mile beach’, a continuous range of uniform shingle without headland or bay. Within this shingle bank is a great lake, Waihora [Ellesmere]… Beyond the lake are plains of vast extent, bounded by a range of snowy mountains behind which the sun was setting.’ 1
The association’s plan was to base the settlement on labour-intensive small farms. Instead, huge leased sheep runs developed on the expanse of grassland, followed by vast freehold estates. The last of the freehold estates were not broken up into smaller farms until the early 20th century. Large leasehold pastoral runs still dominate the high country.
Canterbury’s identity is also bound up in its geography and climate. The extensive Canterbury Plains, the wide braided rivers that cross them, the hot, dry nor’west winds, the rugged grandeur of the glaciated mountains, the dramatic landscape of the high country – together, these features distinguish the region.
The Southern Alps dominate even distant views in Canterbury. Their rocks, which are mainly greywacke, were laid down between 230 and 170 million years ago. The Alpine Fault runs west of the main divide (the summit line of the alps).
Alps are thrust up as the Pacific tectonic plate undercuts the Australian Plate. Ranges uplifted between 140 and 120 million years ago were subsequently worn down. Another period of mountain-building, which formed the present-day mountains, began about 26 million years ago and is continuing. Total uplift has been about 20,000 metres, but erosion has kept the highest peaks north of the Rangitātā River below 3,000 metres.
In the past 2 million years there have been at least five major periods of glaciation. The last ended between 18,000 and 14,000 years ago. Since then, minor glacier advances have left the moraines (ridges of boulders and debris) that are a feature of Canterbury’s mountain landscapes. Since about 1890 the glaciers have been in fluctuating retreat.
The glaciers gouged out wide valleys that have been partly filled with gravels. They also enlarged some depressions into basins between mountains. Lake Coleridge and Lake Sumner are in valleys excavated by glaciers. Smaller lakes lie in the hollows of old moraines.
Banks Peninsula was born when eruptions of basalt began between 15 and 12 million years ago, about 50 kilometres east of the mainland. Over 6 million years these eruptions formed two large, overlapping volcanoes, which later eroded to less than half their original height.
About 1 million years ago alluvial fans, forming east of the rapidly eroding Southern Alps, linked this volcanic mass to the South Island. At times of intense glaciation, the sea was 130 metres below its present level and the coastline 40 kilometres further east. What had been an island was periodically landlocked. After the last peak of glaciation 18,000 years ago, this land link remained. Today’s harbours and bays are valleys that were drowned when the sea level last rose.
Movement on faults in Canterbury has caused earthquakes in historic times:
Movement on the Alpine Fault is expected to cause major earthquakes affecting Canterbury in future.
In the early 1880s, Alford Forest was the scene of a ‘diamond rush’, when J. S. M. Jacobsen announced he had discovered diamonds there. Although geologists said his finds were only small crystals of quartz, people poured into the area. But the geologists were right, and the planned town was never built.
Canterbury does not have many mineral resources. There is some coal, which was sporadically mined mainly at Mt Somers and in the Malvern Hills. Plentiful limestone is quarried for agricultural purposes and in the 19th century was burnt to make mortar. In the 1880s, Mt Somers limestone was exported to Australia.
An outcrop of red-tinted, recrystallised limestone on the Waiau River supplied Hanmer ‘marble’ for many years, while stone from Halswell was used for buildings in Christchurch. Silica sand was mined at Mt Somers for glass making. Clay from Malvern Hills was used in brick and pottery works. On the Port Hills, loess (deposits of a fine, wind-blown sediment) was used to make bricks in Christchurch. The region has abundant gravel and sand for construction and road-making.
Three large rivers, the Waimakariri, Rakaia and Rangitātā, rise in the mountains and have glaciers at their heads. The Ashburton springs from smaller glaciers in the outlying Arrowsmith Range. The Waiau and Hurunui rise on the Main Divide but lack glaciers.
Most major Canterbury rivers have braided shingle beds and flow bank to bank only in high flood. Smaller, rain-fed rivers rise in the foothills and flow down between the fans of the major rivers.
In North Canterbury there are extensive areas of downlands – rolling country between the foothills and the plains. The underlying rocks are limestones and marine sands, with some coal and older volcanic rocks. These were laid down between 100 and 13 million years ago and eroded when mountain building raised the Southern Alps.
The Canterbury Plains, about 180 kilometres long and of varying width, are New Zealand’s largest area of flat land. They are not strictly flat but slope at an average 1 in 132 from the base of the foothills (at 365 metres or more above sea level) to the coast. They have been formed by the overlapping fans of glacier-fed rivers issuing from the Southern Alps.
The plains are often described as fertile, but the soils are variable. Most are derived from the greywacke of the mountains or from loess (fine sediment blown from riverbeds). Some hold little moisture. The best were formed from mud and peat accumulating in the hollows between the fans of rivers.
Unlike most urban water supplies, Christchurch’s water comes from aquifers (water-filled bands of gravel) beneath the city. According to some, it’s the best drinking water in the world.
Canterbury has abundant water, in the rivers which carry mountain rainfall to the coast, and in aquifers (underground gravels holding water). Beneath the plains, layers of porous gravels are interspersed with impermeable finer sediments. Near Ashburton, bedrock is at a depth of 1,600 metres.
Groundwater flows towards the coast through these porous layers. The aquifers are recharged by rainfall and by river seepage. They have been tapped to irrigate farmland and for town water supplies.
Most of Canterbury’s coastline is open beach – sandy north of Banks Peninsula and shingly to the south. All Canterbury’s beaches are composed of material eroded from the Southern Alps and carried down the rivers. Varied habitats include cliffs and coves along the coastline north of Waipara in North Canterbury, lagoons at the river mouths, and the estuary of the Heathcote and Avon rivers.
The most significant wetland is Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere), about 20,000 hectares in extent, near the coast south of Christchurch. Some swamplands, for instance those at Longbeach, were drained after European settlement, to create excellent soil for farmland.
The mountains give Canterbury a climate of greater extremes than most other parts of New Zealand. Of the country’s main cities, Christchurch has the least rainfall and the greatest range of temperatures.
The mountains lie at an angle to the prevailing westerly air flow. These westerlies lose their moisture when they rise to cross the alps. On the eastern ranges and the plains, rainfall is much less. Rainfall on the plains comes from the south and east, when depressions off the east coast push southerly flows over Canterbury.
Christchurch has an average annual rainfall of 648 millimetres (roughly half that of Auckland and Wellington).
The nor’wester blows across the plains as a hot, dry wind which can send Christchurch’s temperature soaring above 30°C. Associated with the nor’wester are distinctive cloud formations, including the nor’west arch. Typically, this wind is followed by a southerly.
Early settler Mark Stoddart wrote a poem about Canterbury’s nor’westers. One verse runs:
I’ve witnessed all the winds that blow, from Land’s End
to Barbadoes –
Typhoons, pamperos, hurricanes eke terrible
tornadoes.
All these but gentle zephyrs are, which pleasantly go by
ye,
To the howling, bellowing, horrid gusts which sweep down
the Rakaia.’
1
In winter, southerlies occasionally bring snowfall to the plains, and cold air that causes hard frosts.
Christchurch is also affected by easterly winds. Easterly cloud keeps the sunshine hours on the coast to 2,100 hours a year.
Canterbury’s strongest winds blow from the north-west. A north-west gale on 1 August 1975 flattened tree plantations and damaged buildings. The 26–27 December 1957 storm that caused severe flooding in the mountains was also a nor’wester.
Canterbury is subject to two sorts of floods:
The Rakaia River was recognised as a threat to farmland in the 1860s. But the most severe flood hazard in Canterbury is the flood plain of the Waimakariri River. The first major protection works were built in the 1860s, but Waimakariri flood waters flowed through Christchurch in 1868. The last serious break-out of the Waimakariri occurred in 1957.
Much of Christchurch was built on drained wetland, so local flooding after storms has been a periodic problem.
Canterbury is prone to droughts. The average rainfall is adequate for farming, but during nor’westers the rate of evaporation is high, especially from shallow, gravelly soils.
Droughts of a few months to two or more years occur on average once every six years.
Frosts can be particularly heavy inland. Some lakes become frozen in winter, and Lake Lyndon and Lake Ida have in the past been popular for ice skating. Snowfalls in Canterbury are usually little more than an inconvenience, except in the high country, where heavy snow can cause severe stock losses – as in 1868 and 1895. Record snowfalls in Christchurch occurred in 1918 and 1945.
Much of Canterbury was originally covered by tall podocarp forests. Kahikatea and mataī trees flourished in fertile, damp sites, while tōtara dominated stony soils.
There was beech forest in the hills north-west of the Rangitātā River, and in some parts of Banks Peninsula. High-altitude forests south of the Rakaia River contained mountain tōtara, mountain cedar and celery pine. Above this, broadleaf, dracophyllum and small-leafed shrubs grew in subalpine areas. Alpine vegetation consisted of tussock grasses and herbs.
After the arrival of Māori, fires destroyed forests on the plains. They were replaced by tussock grassland, which spread from alpine areas. Other native plants such as matagouri, kānuka, mānuka, kōwhai and wild Spaniard thrived after the fires.
When Europeans arrived, less than one-tenth of the region was forested. Timber was cut or burnt to create pasture, further reducing forests. In the mountains, fires were lit to provide better feed for sheep. This promoted the spread of short rather than tall tussock, and destroyed scrub and beech forest.
On the plains and downs, ploughing and introduced grasses all but eliminated native grassland. On the dunes, marram and lupin replaced native species. Pines, macrocarpa, gum and other introduced trees were planted.
Today, some original vegetation survives only in the alpine zone, in the foothills and on Banks Peninsula. Grasslands and arable farming prevail on the plains.
With pre-human habitats different from much of the rest of New Zealand, Canterbury had a distinctive fauna. Wetlands, especially at Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere), were once home to many fish and bird species. The mixing of cold subantarctic and warm subtropical waters off the Canterbury coast attracted fish, marine mammals and seabirds.
Seals were a food for Māori, and whales were hunted by early Europeans. Other water species were threatened as the wetlands were drained, overfished and polluted.
Local native species at risk include Hector’s dolphins, Canterbury mud fish, alpine grasshoppers, orange-fronted parakeets and several other birds.
Rabbits became a problem when they spread into Canterbury from Marlborough and Otago in the 1880s. Goats and red deer also severely damaged plants. Nassella tussock, a troublesome exotic weed, was a serious problem in North Canterbury.
The moa, adzebill and a native goose were hunted to extinction by Māori. The giant Haast’s eagle disappeared with the loss of its main prey, the moa. The piopio and the laughing owl disappeared after the arrival of Europeans, and the native quail was last seen around 1870. The eastern weka disappeared from Canterbury in the early 20th century. Kiwi, kākāpō, yellowheads, parakeets and tūī have disappeared from Banks Peninsula.
Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere) and the Avon–Heathcote Estuary were once linked by an extensive wetland across the neck of Banks Peninsula. It formed when the shoreline retreated about 6,500 years ago. The prolific bird and fish life provided a rich supply for Māori, but the land was mostly drained after European settlement.
Cantabrians such as Thomas Potts, Leonard Cockayne and Harry Ell were prominent in the growth of New Zealand’s conservation movement. Conservation is still a major issue. Problems include loss of habitats for native species, pollution and over-exploitation of water resources.
Irrigation, homes and industries, conservation programmes, recreational fishing and power generation compete for water, which once seemed a limitless resource. Nitrate levels in groundwater are worryingly high in some areas. Erosion in the high country is also a problem.
The Department of Conservation in 2005 administered nearly 20% of the land area of Canterbury (including South Canterbury). Reserves were first set aside at Hanmer Springs in 1881 and at Arthur’s Pass in 1901. Small forest reserves were created on Banks Peninsula. Arthur’s Pass National Park became the South Island’s first national park in 1929.
Other initiatives include:
Canterbury was first settled by Māori 600–700 years ago. They lived mainly by the productive wetlands near the coast, and around Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere) and Wairewa (Lake Forsyth) – renowned eel and flounder fisheries.
Horomaka (Banks Peninsula) was important because it combined the resources of forest and sea. But artefacts have been found inland, at summer camps for expeditions to gather moa and weka, eels and rats.
Canterbury lies within the traditional boundaries of the main South Island iwi (tribe), Ngāi Tahu. Originally from the North Island’s East Coast, the Ngāi Tahu people migrated south to Wellington, and then to the South Island. As they moved south they fought several battles with two tribes already living there, Ngāti Māmoe and Waitaha, and today’s tribe members are linked to these earlier peoples. By the end of the 18th century Ngāi Tahu had reached Foveaux Strait, at the foot of the South Island, and occupied the West Coast.
The most important pā was at Kaiapoi, a centre of trade in pounamu (greenstone) from the West Coast. In the early 1830s it was sacked by the Ngāti Toa chief, Te Rauparaha, but his raids from the North Island did not succeed. Ngāi Tahu kept their ownership of Canterbury.
Since European settlement, relatively few local Māori place names have remained, but three rivers keep their original names. The English names of Courtenay for the Waimakariri, Cholmondeley for the Rakaia and Alford for the Rangitātā, did not catch on.
Captain James Cook sighted the Canterbury coast in 1770, but did not land. From well offshore he mapped Banks Peninsula as an island. The first recorded European landing came in 1815 or 1816, when a sealing ship put into Akaroa to trade for potatoes and flax.
In the 1830s, whaling ships began anchoring in Port Cooper (Lyttelton Harbour) and Akaroa Harbour. Shore whaling stations were established in the southern bays of Banks Peninsula.
Signatures to the Treaty of Waitangi were gathered at Akaroa in 1840, opening the way for British settlement. But organised settlement began when a French captain founded the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, which sent out French (and German) settlers, arriving in August 1840. Though British sovereignty had been proclaimed by the time they arrived, the French settlers stayed to found Akaroa.
From a Banks Peninsula whaling station, a small party of Englishmen set out in 1840 to establish a farm on the plains. After 18 months at Putaringamotu (Riccarton), they abandoned the venture. But in 1843 brothers John and William Deans returned to the same site to found the first permanent European settlement on the plains.
Most of the region was purchased from Ngāi Tahu by the government in 1848. In an atmosphere fraught with misunderstanding, 16 Ngāi Tahu chiefs signed a deed prepared by Commissioner Henry Tacy Kemp at Akaroa on 12 June. This allowed them to keep their settlements and food-gathering sites as well as other reserves. But when the land was surveyed later that year, many of the agreed reserves in the Kemp Purchase were reduced or ignored. The people of Ngāi Tahu never gave up their claim for compensation.
In 1848 the Canterbury Association was founded in England, inspired by Edward Gibbon Wakefield and John Robert Godley, to start a settlement in New Zealand. They sent out Captain Joseph Thomas, who was not deterred by the swamps, a lack of timber, and tricky access between port and plains. He laid out the port town of Lyttelton and the plains town of Christchurch, and began a road over the Port Hills before the first settlers arrived.
The first four Canterbury Association ships (the Randolph, Cressy, Sir George Seymour and Charlotte Jane) arrived in December 1850. Between 1850 and 1853, 3,549 settlers arrived. Of these, 400 were land purchasers, and the rest were mostly labourers and servants. The association’s goal was to replicate England’s stable, class-based society in Canterbury.
The northern mountains were explored by men trying to find ways to bring sheep from Nelson and Marlborough into Canterbury. Routes were discovered from the upper Clarence River onto the Hanmer Plain in 1850–51.
Another aim was to find routes over the Southern Alps. Leonard Harper had a Māori guide when he crossed Harper Pass in 1857. The main routes to the West Coast goldfields – Arthur’s Pass and Browning Pass – were crossed in 1864 and 1865 respectively. In the 1860s, Julius Haast, as Canterbury provincial geologist, penetrated most of the mountain valleys. But remote areas of the alps were not explored until the 1930s.
Banks Peninsula was close to the southern limit for kūmara (sweet potato) growing, and gardening was never as important in the Māori economy of Canterbury as it was further north. The introduction of potatoes extended the range of cultivated crops.
European farming began when cattle were landed near Akaroa in 1839. Before 1850, the Deans family had established a successful farm at Riccarton, and other Europeans were farming on Banks Peninsula and at Motunau.
In 1844 John Deans wrote to his father about his land at Riccarton: ‘This is certainly by far the best place I have seen in New Zealand, and for squatters like ourselves no place could be better, as there is plenty of level land with good pasture for cattle of all descriptions … there is a wood about 200 acres … and a river of water clearer than crystal (indeed the finest water I ever saw) running close past the front.’ 1
Three years after the arrival of the Canterbury Association settlers in 1850, the Canterbury Province was established. To support development of the region, it began recruiting more immigrants from the United Kingdom, offering assisted passages to labourers and skilled workers in particular.
While 56% of migrants between 1854 and 1870 were from England, 22.1% were from Ireland and 19.9% from Scotland. Scottish shepherds were encouraged to emigrate and help on the back-country runs.
Unexpectedly, sheep farming gave Canterbury its economic start, and no other region is more closely associated with it. Sheep were turned out on ‘native’ pastures to produce wool, which was in demand in Europe. By 1860, most of the region was divided up into large leasehold runs, and many of the runholders were to become extremely wealthy. Sheep numbers reached 3,152,525 in 1885 – 21.7% of the national flock. The top breed was merino. Besides wool, skins and hides, tallow and potted and salted meat were produced.
On the plains, leasehold sheep runs gave way to freehold estates and family farms in the 1870s and 1880s. But in the high country, sheep grazing on leased land remained the norm. The laconic shepherd and the autumn muster became key elements of the image of Canterbury.
Steel ploughs and reaping and threshing machines made wheat-growing easier and more profitable.
In the 1870s and early 1880s Canterbury enjoyed a wheat boom. Between 1870 and 1913, it had more than half the total area of New Zealand’s wheat land. Large flour mills were built in Christchurch and Ashburton. But by 1900 the boom was over. It had speeded up the change from large sheep runs to mixed farming on smaller properties.
For a few years Banks Peninsula farmers earned good money from an unusual crop: the seed of cocksfoot grass. This plant flourished on the volcanic hills, which the settlers had cleared by burning. The seed was in demand for pastures in the North Island, and in 1905 the peninsula grew 83% of New Zealand’s supply.
Some small landowners in the 1850s were little more than subsistence farmers, but a ‘middle rung’ of farmers was already producing wool, meat, milk and wheat for markets.
More intensive farming on the plains was possible once rural railways were built and shelter belts planted. New crop options – peas, potatoes and fodder crops – made small farming more profitable. Large areas of the plains were without surface water, and the first water races were built in the 1870s, bringing water to stock between the Waimakariri and Rakaia rivers. Stock races were built in mid-Canterbury and on the Waiau Plains in the 1880s.
Refrigeration helped make smaller farms viable. The Canterbury Frozen Meat Company was formed in December 1881 and slaughtering and freezing began at Belfast, on the northern outskirts of Christchurch, in February 1883. Cross-bred sheep, for both meat and wool production, were developed as the family farm emerged. But the depression of the 1880s limited opportunities to get into farming in Canterbury, and in the 1890s many farmers moved to the North Island to try their luck.
The spread of the family farm was hastened by the breaking up of large freehold estates between 1890 and 1914. The Liberal government acquired estates for farm settlements, and some owners subdivided their land privately.
By the time of the First World War, the family farm of between 320 and 640 acres (130 and 260 hectares) was the norm on the plains. After the Second World War, some large properties were cut up by the government for returned servicemen.
Between the world wars, farm mechanisation, the use of lime, and improved seed, raised farm productivity. There was even greater progress in the 1950s and 1960s. ‘Canterbury lamb’ remained one of the region’s major products.
Canterbury celebrates its anniversary not on the actual date of its founding (16 December), but on Show Day, held by the Agricultural and Pastoral Association each November. At the Christchurch Showgrounds ‘town and country mingle more freely than in any other metropolitan centre of New Zealand’. 1
In 2002, sheep numbers reached 4,931,565. But this represented only 12.5% of the national flock, compared with 21.7% in 1885.
The region also remained ‘the granary of New Zealand’. In 2002, 60.7% of the country’s wheat, 51.1% of the barley and 43.7% of the oats were grown in north and mid-Canterbury. The Ashburton district alone produced 45.3% of the country’s wheat.
Today, on small holdings, especially around Christchurch, farmers grow vegetables and fruit, and raise poultry. Apple and other fruit orchards have been planted in the sun-trap valleys of the Port Hills and at Loburn. Some Ellesmere farmers grow vegetables for freezing in a plant near Hornby.
The region’s first grapevines were planted by Akaroa’s French settlers in the 1840s. After the first large vineyard was planted near Christchurch in the 1970s, grape-growing expanded at Waipara and Burnham, but the region produces far less wine than Marlborough.
In 2002, north and mid-Canterbury had 8.8% of the land used in New Zealand for horticultural crops.
Large-scale irrigation of the Canterbury Plains came only after the Rangitātā diversion race was completed in 1945. This drew water from the Rangitātā River and snaked across the upper plains to the Rakaia River. Three major irrigation schemes are supplied by the race.
Construction of a major irrigation scheme in the Amuri district began in 1977. Water flowed into the main race from the Waiau River in 1980. The smaller Balmoral scheme, with an intake on the Hurunui River, was begun in 1981. Farmers outside the schemes sank bores and used spray equipment.
In 2002 the 188,170 hectares of irrigated land in the region was almost half the total area of irrigated land in New Zealand. Much of the expansion occurred after 1985, despite the removal of government subsidies for irrigation.
With irrigation, dairying expanded quickly in the 1990s. North Island dairy farmers were attracted south by cheaper land. Effluent and heavy use of water from aquifers caused environmental problems.
Socially, different work routines disrupted traditional patterns of community life. Long-established families sold up, and share-milking increased the movement of families in and out of districts.
Despite the growth in dairying, in 2002 the greater Canterbury region still had only 7.7% of all dairy cows in the country.
In the 19th century, small townships had developed as rural service centres. Besides shops and stock and station agencies, they had churches, schools and public halls. Even in their heyday, few of these towns had more than 1,000 inhabitants.
After the First World War, country people began driving to Rangiora, Ashburton or Christchurch to shop. Some villages disappeared, leaving only a church or hall. Country schools, hospitals, banks and post offices closed, and hotels became taverns.
A few settlements grew because they were within commuting range of Christchurch. Hanmer and Akaroa became popular for holiday homes and retirement and, like Methven, with tourists.
From the early days of settlement Christchurch had a range of industries, and a number of well-known New Zealand firms are still based there.
The earliest factories processed farm products or made goods for farmers. Flour mills, tanneries, wool scourers and soap factories were built mainly at Woolston, near the Heathcote River. Large woollen mills were built at Kaiapoi and in Christchurch, and freezing works at Belfast, Kaiapoi, Islington, Hornby and Fairton. Ashburton also developed industries such as flour mills, which linked town and country.
In the 20th century, Hornby opened a fertiliser works. The Addington railway workshops were at their peak when branch railways served the rural areas.
Clothing, boots and shoes, beer and biscuits were produced for the domestic market. Lane Walker Rudkin, Lichfield and other garment producers made Christchurch the clothing centre.
Initially Christchurch dominated the rubber industry. The Para Rubber Company was founded by George Skellerup in 1910. Plastics for electrical goods became important from 1932 on.
In the later 20th century many long-established factories closed down – the railway workshops, the Hornby glassworks, the Islington freezing works, the Kaiapoi woollen mills, the Whitcombe & Tombs printing factory. Since then, electronics industries have flourished.
In 2001 a relatively high proportion of Canterbury’s population worked in manufacturing: 15.1% compared to the national average of 13%.
Electronics and computing industries have a high profile in Christchurch. In 1998 the top sporting venue, Lancaster Park, was renamed Jade Stadium, when naming rights were sold to the locally based Jade Software Corporation Ltd.
In 1915 a hydroelectric project at Lake Coleridge produced a continuous supply of power to Christchurch. It became a major source of energy for industry.
With native timber scarce, there was an early interest in exotic forestry. Exotic trees were also planted for shade and shelter on the exposed plains.
Government afforestation began in 1902–3 at Hanmer, and continued after the First World War at Balmoral and Eyrewell. Exotic forestry proved marginal because of frost and the fire risk associated with drought. In 1955, 7,600 acres of the Balmoral pine forest were destroyed by fire.
Many forest products are used locally. A plant near Rangiora manufactures particle board.
Fishing fleets have worked out of both Lyttelton and Akaroa. Commercial fishing has all but ceased from Akaroa, but continues from Lyttelton, which also services deep-sea trawlers. A salmon farm operates at Akaroa Harbour.
Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere) once supplied Christchurch with fish. In the 1970s large numbers of eel were taken for export, but stocks were depleted and the eel fishery is now small.
Outdoor pursuits and urban attractions draw numerous overseas visitors. In Christchurch in 2003, tourism accounted for around 12% of all jobs – higher than the national rate – and the figure was higher in popular spots such as Akaroa.
Christchurch’s international airport is the South Island’s gateway to Mt Cook, Queenstown and Milford Sound. The Mt Hutt ski field attracts Australian skiers. Passenger trains survive because they are popular with tourists. In 2004, tourist guest nights in Canterbury increased faster than in New Zealand as a whole.
In 2001 only a small proportion of New Zealand’s incoming and outgoing cargo was passing through Lyttelton port and Christchurch airport. But the airport handled over one-quarter by value of all cargo loaded for export in New Zealand.
One of the disadvantages of Christchurch’s site was that the Port Hills separated the city from its port. The Sumner Road was completed in 1857, but most goods were still ferried across the Sumner bar to wharves on the Heathcote River. In 1863 the wharf at Ferrymead was linked to Christchurch by the first public steam railway in New Zealand. A year earlier, the first telegraph line in New Zealand linked Lyttelton and Christchurch.
The problem of port access was solved by the Lyttelton rail tunnel. The first in New Zealand, it was completed in 1867. A road tunnel opened in 1964.
Up to about 1950, most people used trams and bicycles, or walked. Christchurch had New Zealand’s most extensive tram system (87 route-kilometres), but these and trolley buses were replaced by diesel buses in the mid-1950s.
Cycling peaked in Christchurch in the early 1950s, when 80,000 bikes were in use. But even in 2006 Christchurch was said to have one of the highest proportions of cyclists to car drivers in New Zealand.
A northern motorway and arterial roads, and a one-way inner city system have spared Christchurch severe congestion. But there are high accident rates, partly because of the many intersections.
The main trunk railway south from Christchurch reached Ashburton in 1874 and Dunedin in 1878. The line north had reached Waipara by 1880, but did not extend to Parnassus until 1912, or to Marlborough until 1945.
The Canterbury provincial government began building railways out from Christchurch in the 1860s. Branch railways carried passengers and freight between rural districts and Christchurch or Ashburton. They were not displaced by road transport until the 1950s.
The westward railway finally reached Arthur’s Pass in 1914. The 8.5 kilometre Ōtira tunnel opened in 1923, forging an important link with the West Coast. Timber and coal came east. The Press newspaper went west. Trampers and mountaineers used trains to reach Arthur’s Pass. Today, West Coast coal comes to Lyttelton for export, and the Tranz Alpine Express is popular with tourists.
The single furrows which guided the earliest travellers across the plains were soon replaced by metalled roads. The long, straight, dusty road leading to the horizon became emblematic of Canterbury, as Robin Muir describes: ‘The road stretched ahead, straight and true, pointing at the wall of mountains; the telegraph posts like a lesson in perspective drawing’. 1
In 1864 gold was discovered on the West Coast. The first diggers used a rough track across Harper Pass. In 1865–66 a stock track was built over Browning Pass, but it was high and steep, and Arthur’s Pass was chosen for a new road that opened in March 1866. A track was made over the Lewis Pass in the 1890s and a road, built during the depression, opened in 1937.
Rivers were a major obstacle to roads and railways. Slowly, river ferries were replaced by bridges, many doubling for road and rail. Construction was often difficult because of extremely wide riverbeds with no bedrock near the surface. One bridge across the Rakaia River is still the longest in the South Island, at 1.75 kilometres.
The overnight ferry service between Lyttelton and Wellington ceased in 1976. It was replaced by the day ferry service between Picton and Wellington, and by air services.
In 1923, the Sockburn field of the Canterbury Aviation Company became Wigram Aerodrome, the birthplace of the New Zealand Air Force. An Air Force Museum, opened in 1987, remained after Wigram closed in 1995.
Ashburton had the first local-body airport in the South Island, from 1930. The Christchurch municipal airport was opened in 1940. In 1950 it was designated New Zealand’s first international airport, and in 1956 became a base for flights to Antarctica.
A provincial government was formed three years after the founding of the settlement. The Canterbury Provincial Council was the main focus of political activity.
The Canterbury province of 1853 took in Westland and South Canterbury. It lay between the Waitaki and the Hurunui rivers, and the east and west coasts. Westland became an independent province in 1873, and South Canterbury sought provincial status (unsuccessfully) from the 1860s.
After the abolition of the provinces in 1876, the former province was divided into a number of large counties. Now there are five local authorities in north and mid-Canterbury: Christchurch City (which from 2006 included Banks Peninsula) and Waimakariri, Selwyn, Ashburton and Hurunui districts.
The Canterbury United Council of 1979 was the first regional government body since the abolition of the provinces in 1876. In 1989 it was replaced by the Canterbury Regional Council, which covers north, mid- and south Canterbury and Kaikōura.
Christchurch was made a city by royal charter in 1856, and in 1862 became a municipal district. The Christchurch City Council originally administered only part of the urban area. In the first half of the 20th century, Christchurch City absorbed neighbouring boroughs, and areas run by county councils. The Christchurch Regional Planning Authority was established in 1954. In 1989 the entire built-up area was included in the city.
For the first national elections of 1853, the region was divided into four electorates – Christchurch Country, Christchurch Town, Lyttelton and Akaroa. The urban electorates of Christchurch grew in number, but rural electorates were fairly static.
For most of the first half of the 20th century there were five urban and four mostly rural electorates. North and mid-Canterbury now contain:
The Māori seat of Te Tai Tonga includes all of the South Island.
Eight of the South Island’s 16 general seats in Parliament are in north and mid- Canterbury.
The Canterbury Association envisaged Canterbury society having a strong upper class, but Christchurch also has a tradition of radicalism.
In the 19th century, the suburb of Sydenham was ‘the capital of New Zealand prohibition’, although the only district in the region to go ‘dry’ was Ashburton. Kate Sheppard and other leading figures in the associated women’s suffrage movement were from Christchurch. Later, Christchurch gave the country its first woman member of Parliament, Elizabeth McCombs, and its first woman cabinet minister, Mabel Howard.
The Christchurch City Council has a long-standing commitment to ‘municipal socialism’. This prompted Auckland businessman Douglas Myers to describe the city as ‘the People’s Republic of Christchurch’ in 1998.
Christchurch was an early centre of the New Zealand Labour Party. In 1925, the city elected the country’s first Labour mayor, John Kendrick Archer, and the first Labour-controlled city council in 1927. Local left-wing politicians who had a national impact included William Pember Reeves, T. E. (Tommy) Taylor and Dan Sullivan. Unions were strong, and the 1889 Kaiapoi Woollen Company strike and 1932 tramway strike were key events.
From the 1970s there were vigorous campaigns against American military activity in Canterbury. In 1973 the country’s first environmental centre was set up in Christchurch.
Four conservative prime ministers came from Canterbury:
Three Labour prime ministers had strong Canterbury connections:
The Church of England (Anglicanism) was central to the Canterbury Association’s plan for the new settlement. Although Anglicans continued to predominate in Canterbury society, there were many Presbyterians among the Scottish settlers who arrived in the 1850s and 1860s, and Roman Catholics among the Irish. Wesleyans and Baptists were strong in some districts. In Christchurch, Anglo-Catholicism had a following, and there were also some eccentric sects.
The 20th century saw the growth of the Mormon Church, and in urban areas fundamentalist Christian sects and non-Christian religions such as Buddhism and Hare Krishna.
The Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals are among Christchurch’s most notable buildings. Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists also built inner-city churches in the 19th century.
The earliest schools in Canterbury were private or run by churches. The ideal of education for all was realised from 1863, with the establishment of state elementary schools under the Provincial Government. But primary education was not free to all until the passage of the Education Act 1877, and secondary education remained out of reach for many until 1936.
The oldest educational institution in Canterbury is Christ’s College, an endowed fee-paying boys’ school, founded by the Canterbury Association in 1850. Christchurch Boys’ High School and Christchurch Girls’ High School were founded as public secondary schools later in the 19th century.
There are now many other public high schools in Christchurch and the larger country towns such as Cheviot, Darfield, Leeston and Ashburton. Several private secondary schools and the older state secondary schools in Christchurch attract students from rural areas.
The only tertiary institutions of education in the region are in or near Christchurch. Canterbury University College (now University of Canterbury) was founded in 1873. With the College of Education it moved from an inner-city site to a new campus in the suburb of Ilam in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2004, the university had 13,265 students.
The Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (which remained in the inner city) grew out of the Christchurch Technical College, founded in 1902. Lincoln University (which began in 1878 as an agricultural college) is less than half an hour’s drive from Christchurch.
Public health was a pressing concern for 19th-century Cantabrians. Epidemics of infectious diseases took a heavy toll. Built on swampy land, Christchurch was particularly unhealthy and smelly. Its artesian water supply was contaminated by cesspits in the 1870s, and it was not until a drainage board was established in 1876 that improvements were made. Christchurch did not have a sewerage system until 1882, and this did not extend widely until 1914.
A hospital opened in Christchurch in 1859, and other facilities and services developed gradually. A district nursing service founded by Sibylla Maude in 1896 was one progressive measure, later adopted nationally, that brought health care to those most in need.
Christchurch has always suffered winter air pollution, and it was very bad in the 1970s. On cold nights the hills, clear skies and lack of wind create an inversion layer that traps smoke and fumes over the city. By the 1990s pollution was reduced as industries converted to electricity, and people relied less on open coal fires to heat their homes.
Christchurch has several private and six major public hospitals, with a specialist spinal injuries unit at Burwood Hospital and a mental health service at Hillmorton Hospital (formerly Sunnyside Hospital). There are also public hospitals at Akaroa, Ashburton, Darfield, Ellesmere, Lincoln, Oxford, Rangiora and Waikari.
The Christchurch Press, founded in 1861, is New Zealand’s oldest surviving metropolitan daily, linking town and country. Its older competitor, the Lyttelton (later Christchurch) Times, founded in 1851, was a victim of a celebrated newspaper war and ceased publication in 1935.
The evening Christchurch Star was started in 1868. It combined with the rival Sun in 1935, appearing as the Christchurch Star-Sun until 1958 when it reverted to its former name. Since the early 1990s it has been a free broadsheet, published twice weekly.
Daily newspapers were once supported by a number of Canterbury towns, but the Ashburton Guardian, dating from 1879, is the only survivor. In the early 1900s the Weekly Press was the country’s leading agricultural and racing newspaper.
Ngāi Tahu life was dominated for 150 years by a long campaign to get the Crown to honour promises it made at the time of land purchases. Partial settlement was achieved in the first half of the 20th century, and the Ngāi Tahu Trust Board was set up. The claim was finally settled in 1997. Ngāi Tahu is now a major force in the Canterbury economy.
The traditional rūnanga (councils) of Ngāi Tahu are based at Tuahiwi, Rāpaki, Koukourarata, Ōnuku, Wairewa and Taumutu. From the 1950s, some Māori of North Island tribes began moving to Christchurch. One trade-training hostel developed into the city’s main urban marae, Rehua. Work in freezing works and shearing sheds brought North Island Māori to mid-Canterbury, and in 1970 the old Fairton School became the Hakatere Marae.
There were no barriers to Christchurch’s growth on the plains, except for the sea to the east and the Port Hills to the south. Laid out in a grid pattern centred on Cathedral Square, it spread along the main tramlines. Early outlying villages like New Brighton, Sumner, Papanui and Upper Riccarton were eventually swallowed up. The downtown area remained the focus until the 1960s, when the first suburban malls appeared.
Christchurch grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, when large tracts of state housing were built. A green belt curbed growth into farm land, but the changes in town planning associated with the Resource Management Act 1991 have allowed peripheral expansion to proceed.
Christchurch is sometimes described as the most English of New Zealand cities. Tourism ventures often exploit this, focusing on the central city’s picturesque architecture and promoting such activities as punting on the river Avon. But apart from the remarkable collection of Gothic stone buildings at its heart, Christchurch is unlike any English city in layout and appearance.
Compared to other New Zealand centres, a slightly higher proportion of the overseas residents were from England in the early days. But by the later 19th century the Irish were as numerous as elsewhere and the Scots only slightly fewer.
Christchurch is also seen by some as having more obvious social distinctions than elsewhere in the country, with a marked ‘upper crust’: the élite living in Fendalton, sending their children to the right schools, shopping at Ballantynes and belonging to the Canterbury Club or Christchurch Club.
The Canterbury Association’s wish to transplant the English class system may have promoted a stronger sense of division. Even today, being able to trace ancestry back to one of the first four ships carries some weight. Yet some commentators insist that social and economic inequalities are no greater in Christchurch than in other New Zealand cities.
The son of one of the Canterbury Association founders explained the class differences in Christchurch: ‘[T]he great and obvious distinction between the population of Canterbury and the other provinces of New Zealand is, that Canterbury is populated by representatives of every class and section of English society, from the peer to the peasant, while the population of the other provinces is nothing more nor less than a straggling, struggling mob – an undistinguished herd, made up of mere men and women.’ 1
Like all large cities, Christchurch has its subcultures and nonconformists. The best-known local eccentric is the Wizard (Ian Brackenbury Channell). In the 1970s and 1980s urban communes and alternative lifestylers made a mark: the Avon Loop community (known fondly as ‘Loopies’) promoted environmental awareness and self-sufficiency.
At that time a local punk culture also emerged. A negative side of social change was racial violence, when white-supremacist skinheads periodically attacked ethnic minorities. Despite concerns about such violence, and drugs, the Christchurch crime rate has fallen since 1995.
Christchurch has a well-tended and attractive environment. Hagley Park at the centre, with its magnificent trees, is one of many parks and reserves. The high standard of public and private gardens has earned the Christchurch the name Garden City. Notable public gardens include Mona Vale, the grounds of the Ilam Homestead, and the Botanic Gardens.
There are popular walking tracks over the Port Hills, and the beaches at Sumner, New Brighton and Taylors Mistake are popular. Residents and tourists enjoy Christchurch’s proximity to the mountains, lakes and rivers for outdoor pursuits such as skiing, snowboarding, fishing, tramping and mountaineering.
The central city has a flourishing café culture, and boutique food outlets in or near Christchurch sell local, often organic, produce such as cheese, bread and walnuts.
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island. The metropolitan area contains three-quarters of the population of Canterbury and one-third of the population of the South Island.
In 1900 Christchurch had about the same population as Auckland. By 2000, Auckland had three times the population of Christchurch. Christchurch and Wellington, however, kept pace with each other in size and rate of growth. Which city has more people depends on how the figures are compiled. In 2001 the Christchurch urban area (with 334,107 people) was only slightly smaller than the combined urban areas of Wellington, Hutt Valley and Porirua (334,707), but much bigger than the Wellington urban area alone (162,981).
The total population of the Canterbury region in 2001 was 423,603 – 11.33% of the population of New Zealand. Some 79% of residents lived in the Christchurch urban area, which had a population of 334,107. Close to 90% lived in Christchurch City or on the city’s fringes in the Waimakariri and Selwyn districts.
Most of the region has very low population densities. Between 1996 and 2001 the populations of all the districts in Canterbury grew, but those parts of Waimakariri and Selwyn close to Christchurch increased fastest. In other districts and Christchurch City, growth was below the national rate.
Christchurch’s sizeable Chinese community includes descendants of 19th- and 20th-century immigrants, and more recent arrivals from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South-East Asia. They embrace both Chinese and New Zealand culture: for instance, the Taiwanese have formed a writers’ association whose members write in Chinese, and translate New Zealand works into Chinese.
Canterbury’s population first boomed between 1871 and 1881. There was a second spurt from 1955 to 1970. During the 20th century the population trebled. By the early 2000s the proportion of urban dwellers (in Christchurch, Rangiora, Kaiapoi and Ashburton) had grown to more than 90%. The rural population as a whole was steady until 1941, but then fell and has not recovered.
Canterbury’s population is still more European than in most North Island regions. In New Zealand as a whole in 2001, 80.1% of the population identified themselves as European. Canterbury’s 91.2% is significantly higher. In Ashburton district alone, 95.5% identify as European.
Most Māori, Asian and Pacific people of the region live in or near Christchurch. The proportion of Asians is about the same as the national figure, but the proportion of Māori and Pacific people is much lower:
Between 1981 and 2004 the proportion of Māori and Asians grew. And by 2004 there were 3,000 Muslims from 35 countries living in Christchurch.
Through the 20th century, compared to the rest of the country, Christchurch people were older, better educated and enjoyed a higher level of home ownership and lower mortgage debt.
Median incomes are close to the national figure except that in Selwyn, where they are significantly higher. In the region, unemployment in 2001 was below the national average, largely because of high levels of employment in farming areas. But in Christchurch unemployment was close to the national average.
The Canterbury Association had a vision of Christchurch as a place where culture, literature and art would flourish. Verse appeared in the Lyttelton Times in the 1850s. In the 1860s, the Press published some of the earliest writings of Samuel Butler, whose satirical fantasy Erewhon (1870) drew on his New Zealand experiences.
Mary Anne Barker published factual accounts of life on a high-country sheep station in the 1860s. George Chamier’s novels were based on his experiences in Canterbury around the same time. In 1898, poet and politician William Pember Reeves produced the first comprehensive history of New Zealand.
Many early artists of Canterbury’s distinctive landscapes – among them Nicholas Chevalier, J. B. C. Hoyte and C. D. Barraud – were wayfarers rather than residents. But a regional art movement gradually emerged, foreshadowed by masters such as Petrus van der Velden.
From the 1850s architecture flourished under Benjamin Mountfort and his successor Samuel Hurst Seager. Mountfort’s magnificent Gothic Revival public buildings, notably the Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings, Canterbury Museum and Canterbury College, have given central Christchurch a distinctive architectural flavour.
A strong tradition of local choirs began in the 19th century. The all-male Christchurch Cathedral choir, founded in 1881, is one of the oldest cathedral choirs outside England. But not all musical tastes were highbrow: more popular musical and theatrical entertainments were offered regularly by touring companies, and brass bands gained a strong following in working class areas.
Christchurch’s press, university and art school all fostered creative expression in the early 20th century, and by the 1930s the city had a leading place in New Zealand arts. Two important small presses, Caxton and Pegasus, were founded then, and leading literary figures included the poets Denis Glover, Allen Curnow and Ursula Bethell.
In visual art The Group, a Christchurch-based art association, included some of the most progressive painters: Rita Angus, Leo Bensemann, Olivia Spencer Bower, Evelyn Page, Rata Lovell-Smith and Doris Lusk. Between 1927 and 1953 the Little Theatre played a critical role in the development of drama in New Zealand, particularly under the directorship of Ngaio Marsh in the 1940s.
But by the 1950s Christchurch had lost its literary and artistic leadership, especially once painter Colin McCahon and composer Douglas Lilburn left for the North Island. For a time, its cultural life was seen as stuffy and conservative.
Author Stevan Eldred-Grigg has examined Canterbury and its people in many publications. Histories such as Southern gentry (1980) and A new history of Canterbury (1982) give fresh perspectives on the past. Novels including Oracles and miracles (1987), The siren Celia (1989), The shining city (1991) and Gardens of fire (1993) are set in Christchurch and Canterbury and often draw on historical episodes.
Staff of the Canterbury School of Fine Arts, including Doris Lusk, William A. (Bill) Sutton, Don Peebles and Rudolph Gopas, were influential as teachers and practitioners between the 1950s and 1970s. They inspired major artists such as Philip Clairmont, Philip Trusttum, Tony Fomison, Buck Nin and Bill Hammond.
In architecture, Miles Warren’s clean-lined concrete block structures were designed for the Canterbury climate, while Peter Beaven’s imaginative public buildings paid homage to an earlier Christchurch architect, Benjamin Mountfort.
Professional theatre began in 1971 with the Court Theatre. In 1975 the old central-city university buildings were renamed the Christchurch Arts Centre and became home to the Court Theatre and other arts groups, including in its early years the new Christchurch School of Instrumental Music.
In the late 1970s Christchurch had two rival orchestras – the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and the Canterbury Trust Orchestra. They were linked to opposing political factions, and their disputes created a long-running public controversy. In the end, only the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra survived.
From 1973, Radio Avon catered to the wide audience for popular music. Performing at venues such as Dux de Lux in the Arts Centre, alternative bands, including The Bats and The Jean Paul Sartre Experience, gained a following in the 1980s. The award-winning band Salmonella Dub formed in Christchurch in the early 1990s.
In the early 2000s Christchurch had a professional or semi-professional ballet, opera, theatre, orchestra and choir. The School of Music at Canterbury University includes a well-regarded jazz school. In popular music, rapper Scribe dominated New Zealand’s hip hop scene.
An exciting development was the 2003 opening of the Christchurch Art Gallery/Te Puna o Waiwhetu. This replaced the Robert McDougall Art Gallery as the home of the city’s art collection.
With so much flat land, Christchurch has always had many playing fields. Hagley Park was the birthplace of many sporting codes in Canterbury, and Lancaster Park (now Jade Stadium) was the focus of Canterbury sport from its opening in 1881.
A cricket club formed as early as 1851, foreshadowing Canterbury’s domination of the game. The New Zealand Cricket Council was formed in Christchurch in December 1894 and administration has centred on Christchurch ever since.
The Canterbury Rugby Football Union (1879) was the first in New Zealand. It remains the main Canterbury union, although mid-Canterbury is a separate union competing in the National Provincial Championships.
In the 20th century, rugby was the most popular sport in Canterbury. Lancaster Park was its home, and many provincial and national touring sides battled it out with the local team in its distinctive black and red colours. The Christchurch-based Crusaders, Canterbury team for the tri-nations Super 12 series, held the title five times in the 10 years of the series, and won the inaugural Super 14 series in 2006.
The Christchurch Lawn Tennis Club was founded in 1881, and there were at least eight clubs by 1886. Anthony Wilding, who won Wimbledon men’s singles titles between 1910 and 1913, gave Canterbury its leading place in the nation’s history of tennis.
By the late 1880s Riccarton Racecourse was known as the home of the New Zealand Cup and the Grand National Steeplechase. Cup Day in early November was timed to coincide with the Agricultural and Pastoral show, and it remains a key event.
In 1896 the New Zealand Racing Conference was set up in Christchurch and was based there until 1930. Trotting began at Lancaster Park in 1886, and Christchurch was soon regarded as the country’s trotting capital. The centre for trotting is now at Addington.
The Pioneer Bicycle Club (1870) was probably the first in New Zealand. The Canterbury Rowing Club held regattas on the Avon River from the 19th century. And both the New Zealand boxing and hockey associations were formed in Christchurch in 1902.
In the 1900s swimming and surf clubs formed at Canterbury beaches. Later, other individual sports such as hang gliding and jogging became popular. Nearby ski fields at Mt Hutt and on the Craigieburn Range have made skiing a very popular Canterbury sport.
Lancaster Park (now Jade Stadium) has hosted many major sporting events. One of the most exciting was when Kiwi runner Peter Snell set a world half-mile record on 3 February 1962. At the same time he broke the world record for 800 metres, and set an unofficial world record for the 660 yards.
The most important single event in Christchurch’s sporting history was the 1974 Commonwealth Games. It was considered one of the most successful and friendly games ever held, and television coverage gave the city international publicity.
(National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research data, 1971–2000)
(Multiple responses allowed)
Ngāi (Kai) Tahu
(Figures are for workers aged 15 and over, in selected industries in which the region’s employment pattern is most distinctive)
(Agricultural Production Survey, Statistics New Zealand)
Cant, Garth, and Russell Kirkpatrick, eds. Rural Canterbury: celebrating its history. Wellington: Daphne Brasell Associates, 2001.
Cookson, John, and Graeme Dunstall. Southern capital: Christchurch: towards a city biography, 1850-2000. Christchurch: Canterbury University Press, 2000.
Eldred-Grigg, Stevan. A new history of Canterbury. Dunedin: John McIndoe, 1998.
Gardner, W. J. Where they lived: studies in local, regional and social history. Christchurch: Regional Press, 1999.
Peninsula and plain: a history and geography of Banks Peninsula and the Canterbury Plains. Christchurch: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1966.
Rice, Geoffrey. Christchurch changing: an illustrated history. Christchurch: Canterbury University Press, 1999.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/node/3260
This page on nzhistory.net.nz offers a clickable map so users can see images and details of major memorials in Canterbury.
The official visitor information website for Christchurch and Canterbury, it contains details of current events and activities, along with travel and accommodation information.
Environment Canterbury is the regional council for Canterbury, including north, mid and south Canterbury, and Kaikōura. The site contains details of the council’s activities, which include a range of environmental and safety responsibilities.
http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Heritage/Publications/Art/TheGroup/
This section of the Christchurch Public Library website has digitised catalogues for The Group, the well-known Christchurch arts association. It includes a 1977 survey of The Group's activities, and an annotated bibliography.
The website of the University of Canterbury gives details about administration, courses and staff. Established in 1873, the university was the second to be established in New Zealand, and is now one of the country’s top research institutions.