When was christchurch founded

Captain Chase gave the name of his vessel to Pegasus Bay. About the first European landed in Canterbury from another sealing ship, the "Governor Bligh". By the first whaling ships were operating out of Lyttelton and two years later the first shore whaling station was set up at Peraki Bay. By early this party had abandoned its attempt to establish a farm near what is now Hagley Park.

Riccarton House at the present day [] William and John Deans and their farm-hands established themselves and commenced farming at Riccarton in In the or so settlers, already known as the Canterbury Pilgrims, arrived at Lyttelton as the pioneers of organised European settlement in Canterbury.

The settlement had been planned well before their arrival however. Common usage of "Lyttelton Harbour" was, in , officially recognised, and became Port Lyttelton.

In addition, within a fortnight of the arrival of the Charlotte Jane , the Society of Land Purchasers agreed that the capital should be on the plains rather than in Erskine Bay to which Thomas had switched the port. An alternative site was at hand. The Deans brothers had already named the River Avon after the Lanarkshire stream which rose in the Ayrshire hills near their grandfather's farm. The proposal to place a subordinate town on the Avon and call it Stratford arose from an association with a quite different Avon - that in Warwickshire, known to Shakespeare.

By coincidence, Christchurch, Dorset our sister municipality is also situated on a River Avon and this had led to the mistaken assumption that Christchurch, New Zealand, is named after Christchurch, Dorset. Cathedral Square, showing the Post Office and Godley statue, with delivery carts and pedestrians [ca. He worked to establish the Anglican Church in Canterbury, and was behind the successful building of the ChristChurch Cathedral.

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 the Provincial Council agreed to give money to complete the road. On 24 August 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.

The Provincial Council finally agreed, and work began in , 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.

In May the two ends of the tunnel Heathcote and Lyttelton met exactly in the middle. This line later met up with the tunnel line, and extended south to the Selwyn River, with plans for a northern line to Rangiora. The Horticultural Society was formed in , and the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association held its first show in After the death of John Robert Godley in in England, it was decided to erect a statue of him in Cathedral Square , in recognition of his status as leader and founder of the Canterbury settlement.

This statue was unveiled in August , and was the first public statue erected in New Zealand. In Christchurch was made a municipal district, and John Hall elected the first chairman of the Municipal Council. This council introduced street lighting in June , and sank the first water well in February In assisted immigration, or the payment of the fare of selected workers or emigrants, had begun again to Canterbury.

The Provincial Council took over what had earlier been the role of the Canterbury Association and appointed an agent in England to select the emigrants. Between and over 6, new settlers came to Canterbury. His interest in education helped make the school system of Christchurch a model for the rest of New Zealand. For a short time at the end of the s wool prices fell and new immigrants had problems finding work.

But the economy improved again in the s. One of the signs of this prosperity was the increase in the number of public buildings in the city. The first of these buildings was the Canterbury Museum , designed by Benjamin Mountfort and built in The Director of the museum was the geologist Julius Von Haast , who had used the discovery of a large number of moa bones in a swamp in Glenmark to swap moa skeletons for specimens from museums throughout the world.

Canterbury College of the University of New Zealand moved into new buildings opposite the Museum in The city still did not have its cathedral.

The foundation stone had been laid in , and the foundations finished in before the money ran out. Others followed his example and by the building had started again. The increase in the number of people living in the city led to serious public health problems. From there were epidemics of diptheria and whooping cough every year, and in the typhoid epidemic of people died in Christchurch. These diseases are all diseases of poverty - poor food and unhealthy living conditions.

Christchurch in was a polluted city. It had a good supply of artesian water from huge reserves of water deep under the city, but the waste of the city ran into the Avon and Heathcote rivers. Castle Street Christchurch, Dorset Boscombe Hill at Christchurch. Share this. Follow us on Facebook. The planned settlement of Christchurch was founded in by a company financed by the Church of England. The estimated number of guns both licit and illicit held by civilians in New Zealand was estimated to be more than 1.

New Zealand has had few mass shooting deaths. One of the deadliest cases involved David Gray who in November went on a shooting spree in the small town of Aramoana, located about kilometers south of Christchurch.

Armed with a semi-automatic rifle, he killed 13 people, including a police sergeant. Between and , there were 76 murders or manslaughters involving guns in New Zealand, according to police statistics compiled by Radio NZ.