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Abel Tasman discovering the North island
On 13 December 1642 they sighted land on the north-west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, becoming the first Europeans to sight New Zealand. Tasman named it Staten Landt "in honour of the States General" (Dutch parliament). -
First inhabitants
The first people to live in the place now known as Christchurch were moa hunters, who probably arrived there as early as AD 1000. The hunters cleared large areas of mataī and tōtara forest by fire and by about 1450 the moa had been killed off. North Island Māori (Ngati Māmoe and later Ngāi Tahu) arrived in Canterbury between 1500 and 1700. The remaining moa hunters were killed or taken into the tribes. -
Captain Cook mapped the whole of Aotearoa in series of 3 voyages
Captain James Cook made three voyages to New Zealand from Britain between 1769 and 1779. Captain James Cook's ship the Endeavour was small at just 32 metres long and 7.6 metres wide. It departed from Plymouth on 26 August 1768 with 94 men. -
First whaling ship in NZ
the William and Ann
The first recorded whale ship was the William and Ann under the command of Captain William Bunker, who called at Doubtless Bay in 1791 during a sperm-whaling voyage in the Pacific Ocean. -
The first European settlements
Captain William Rhodes first visited in 1836. He came back in 1839 and landed a herd of 50 cattle near Akaroa.
The first attempt at settling on the plains was made by James Herriot of Sydney. He arrived with two small groups of farmers in April 1840. Their first crop was successful, but a plague of rats made them decide to leave.
In August 1840 Captain Owen Stanley of the Britomart raised the British flag at Akaroa, just before the arrival of sixty-three French colonists on the Comte de Paris. -
Treaty of Waitangi
On 6 February 1840, te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands by Captain William Hobson, several English residents, and between 43 and 46 Māori rangatira. -
The Canterbury settlement
In November 1847 John Robert Godley and Edward Gibbon Wakefield met to plan the Canterbury settlement. Wakefield believed that colonisation of countries like New Zealand could be organised in such a way that towns could be planned before settlers arrived. These towns would be like a community back in England, with landowners, small farmers and workers, and with churches, shops and schools. -
Kemp's Deed
Governor Grey sent the land commissioner Henry Kemp to the South Island in 1848 to buy land for the new settlement. Sixteen Ngāi Tahu chiefs signed ‘Kemp’s Deed’, selling the larger part of their land for £2,000, but keeping some land for settlements and reserves, and those places where they gathered food (mahinga kai). This was signed at Akaroa on 12 June 1848. Ngāi Tahu were to be given back larger reserves of land once the surveying had been done. -
New arrivals
In December Captain Joseph Thomas, a surveyor, was sent to Canterbury to choose a site for the Canterbury settlement, and prepare for the first settlers. By the time that John Robert Godley, leader of the Canterbury settlement arrived with his family on the Lady Nugent on 12 April 1850, Captain Thomas had built a jetty, customs house and barracks accommodation for the newly arrived settlers. -
Settling in
The ships stayed in the port at Lyttelton for several weeks while goods were unloaded. The passengers from the ships stayed in the Immigration Barracks, in tents, or V-huts (basic huts built quickly and simply).
The Deans brothers at Riccarton and the Rhodes brothers at Purau supplied goods (vegetables, dairy produce and mutton). All heavy luggage had to be taken by small boat around to the Estuary and up the Avon to Christchurch. Other lighter luggage was carried over the Bridle Path. -
Towards independence
Within a year eight chartered Canterbury Association ships and another seven privately backed ships had arrived, bringing the population of the settlement to three thousand.
Many new arrivals did not stay in town, but moved out onto the plains, where the land was good for sheep and cattle farming. -
The boom years
Canterbury’s growing wealth and prosperity during the boom years of 1857-64 had a big effect on the city. More banks opened Christchurch branches (Bank of New South Wales in 1861, Bank of New Zealand in 1862, and the Bank of Australasia in 1864).
New Zealand’s first telegraph opened in July 1863 between Christchurch and Lyttelton. -
Transport problems
Because there were still big problems getting heavy luggage from Lyttelton to Christchurch, Fitzgerald tried to get the road to Sumner by way of Evans Pass completed. In 1854 the Provincial Council agreed to give money to complete the road. On 24 August 1857 Fitzgerald finally drove his dog-cart over the road to Lyttelton. It was still a difficult road, which not many people were prepared to drive over. -
Building the Lyttelton tunnel
The new Superintendent after Fitzgerald was William Sefton Moorhouse. Connecting the city and port was still a problem, and Moorhouse’s solution was to build a railway tunnel through the Port Hills to link Christchurch and Lyttelton. The Provincial Council finally agreed, and work began in 1860, coming to an early halt when harder than expected rock was struck during tunnelling.
Moorhouse brought in a new contractor and work on the tunnel began again.