Christchurch is a major city in the Canterbury Region, and is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand. With a Māori history stemming back to the thirteenth century as the domain of the historic Waitaha iwi, Christchurch was constituted as a colonial outpost of the British Empire in 1850. Today Christchurch is the second largest city in New Zealand, after Auckland, with a metropolitan population of over half a million.
The area of modern-day Christchurch was originally swampland with patches of marshland and grassland. Evidence of Māori activity in the area goes as far back as 1250 AD. Māori settlements within the area later settled by colonists took advantage of nearby food gathering sources, such as rivers, streams and the Avon Heathcote Estuary (Te Ihutai), a traditional food-gathering estuary for local iwi. Māori were also believed to have been moa hunter-gatherers, who occupied coastal caves around the modern-day suburb of Sumner.
The Canterbury Association's Chief Surveyor, Captain Joseph Thomas, surveyed the area in 1849 and 1850. Working with his assistant, Edward Jollie, they named the various ports and settlements in the area, and chose a simple grid pattern for the streets of Christchurch. The First Four Ships were chartered by the Canterbury Association and brought the first 792 Canterbury Pilgrims to Port Cooper (later called Lyttelton) in 1850.
Christchurch was heavily industrialised in the early 20th century, particularly the suburbs of Woolston and Addington. Many warehouses, factories and large premises of railway workshops were built along the Main South Line. There was notable development of breweries, flour mills, and light commercial businesses in Christchurch during this time period. Christchurch later hosted the 1974 British Commonwealth Games at the purpose-built Queen Elizabeth II Park.
Pre-European settlement
The area of modern-day Christchurch was originally swampland with patchworks of marshland, grassland, scrub and some patches of tall forest of mostly kahikatea, mataī and tōtara. The inner coastal sand dunes were covered in hardier scrub bush, including akeake, taupata, tūmatakuru, ngaio, carmichaelia, and coprosma.
Evidence of human activity in the area goes as far back as 1250 AD, with evidence of prolonged occupation beginning no later than 1350 AD. These people in the pre-historic Māori period are believed to have been moa-hunters, who occupied coastal caves around modern-day Sumner. Excavations at Moncks Cave at Redcliffs, and the nearby Moa Bone Point Cave (Te Ana-o-Hineraki), have provided valuable insights into the early Māori occupation of the area. Moncks Cave is considered to be one of the greatest archaeological finds in New Zealand.
The early settlers and their descendants are known from Ngāi Tahu tradition as the Waitaha iwi. Around the Kāti Māmoe tribe migrated south from the east coast of the North Island, and gained control of much of Canterbury. They were later joined by Ngāi Tahu beginning in , who ultimately absorbed Waitaha through a mixture of conflict and marriage.
For these early Māori, the area of Christchurch was an important foraging ground and a seasonal settlement. The nearby major Ngāi Tahu pā at Kaiapoi was dependent on food gathered from the surrounding area, and the marshland rivers of Christchurch (the Avon River / Ōtākaro, Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River and the Styx River) were one of the richest eel-fisheries in the country, with semi-permanent eel weirs dotted along them. The cabbage trees that grew abundantly in the marshes were used to make sugar.
The most notable Māori settlements within Christchurch during the early-nineteenth century were at Pūtarikamotu in modern-day Riccarton, and Papanui. In both cases these were located in areas of surviving tall forest. In South New Brighton there was a major Māori settlement named Te Kai-a-Te-Karoro, this was an important area that had kelp gull presence and mānuka scrub. Te Ihutai (The Avon Heathcote Estuary) was an important food source for local iwi and hapū, the estuary providing food such as, flounder and shellfish. The mudflats near modern-day Sumner, were called Ohika paruparu. Shellfish was primarily gathered there. North New Brighton and the Travis Wetland were originally called Ōruapaeroa, this area previously was rich in eels and birdlife, numerous whare were demolished in 1862, after an early European settler acquired the land. Pūtarikamotu in particular was an important seasonal camp and foraging ground, providing birds, eels and fish. The main walking track connecting the major Ngāi Tahu settlements at Kaiapoi and Rāpaki passed through the heart of what is today the Christchurch Central City.
A significant portion of original forest cover on the northern slopes of the Port Hills was lost to fire in the period prior to European settlement, with further areas burned on the flat land.
European settlement
A whaling station was established in 1839 by the Weller brothers, whalers of Otago and Sydney, at Oashore Bay just south of Lake Forsyth. The Wellers believed they had purchased much of the South Island, including Banks Peninsula from Kōrako, an Otago chief of Ngāi Tahu. On this basis, they on-sold much of the land to companies in Sydney. From the station at Oashore Bay, parties of European settlers led by James Herriott and a man known as McGillivray established themselves in what is now Christchurch, early in 1840. They found the isolated location difficult to manage in part due to the plagues of rats that destroyed their crops. After one season news reached them that the Weller claim was invalid and they abandoned the holdings. These were later taken over by brothers William and John Deans in 1843, who had more success in becoming established in the area. The Deans farm was a crucial factor in the decision of where to place the settlement of Christchurch, as it proved that the swampy ground could be farmed. The Deans brothers named their farm at Pūtarikamotu Riccarton after their former parish in Ayrshire, Scotland; they also named the river near their farm after the Avon Water in South Lanarkshire, which rises in the hills near to where their grandfather's farm was located.A History of Canterbury, Vol. 1 – Sir James Hight & Straubel, C.R.; Canterbury Centennial Association and Whitcombe and Tombs, Christchurch 1957, p. 121.
The Canterbury Association's Chief Surveyor, Captain Joseph Thomas, surveyed the area in 1849 and 1850. Working with his assistant, Edward Jollie, they named the various ports and settlements in the area, and chose a simple grid pattern for the streets of Christchurch. The First Four Ships were chartered by the Canterbury Association and brought the first 792 of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton Harbour in 1850. These sailing vessels were the Randolph, Charlotte Jane, , and Cressy. The journey took three to four months, and the Charlotte Jane was the first to arrive on 16 December 1850. They supplied local Māori with potatoes. A local chief (rangatira) showed a drawing of his tattoos (tā moko) to the Bishop. The Canterbury Pilgrims had aspirations of building a city around a cathedral and college, on the model of Christ Church in Oxford.Cathedral History (from the official Christ Church Cathedral website). In order to establish the city, the surrounding swamps had to be drained.
Transport between the port and the new settlement at Christchurch was a major problem for the early settlers. By December 1849, Thomas had commissioned the construction of a road from Port Cooper, later Lyttelton, to Christchurch via Evans Pass and Sumner. By the time that John Robert Godley arrived in April 1850 all of the funds for public works had been used up in constructing the road. Godley ordered that all work on the road should stop, leaving the steep foot and pack horse track that had been hastily constructed over the hill between the port and the Heathcote valley as the only land-access to the area of Christchurch. This track became known as the Bridle Path because the path was so steep that pack horses needed to be led by the bridle. Goods that were too heavy or bulky to be transported by pack horse over the Bridle Path were shipped by small sailing vessels some by sea around the coast and up the Avon Heathcote Estuary to Ferrymead. Overturned boats at the Sumner bar were a frequent cause of new arrivals to the colony losing all their luggage. The Sumner Road was completed in 1857, though this did not alleviate the transport problems. In 1858 the provincial superintendent William Sefton Moorhouse announced that a tunnel would be dug between Lyttelton and Christchurch. While the tunnel was under construction, New Zealand's first public railway line, the Ferrymead Railway, opened from Ferrymead to Christchurch in 1863. After some delays the tunnel opened at the end of 1867. This was the world's first tunnel driven through the wall of an extinct volcano, and is considered to be nineteenth-century New Zealand's greatest engineering achievement.
In December 1879, the New Zealand Orange Order organised an Orange parade to take place on Boxing Day. An Irish Catholic march was also scheduled for the same day. The mayor asked the Orange Order to reconsider the march due to opposal from Catholics.Weldon to Reader, P 1 84/1880AG 168 2/1, Hocken Library, Dunedin Sectarian riots broke out when around 30 Catholics attacked the Orangemen with pickaxe shafts. The riot became known as the “Battle of the Borough". The aftermatch saw the aggressors sentenced to jail. The Orangemen returned with swords to finish the procession.
Provincial growth
Between 1853 and 1876, Christchurch was the administrative seat of the Province of Canterbury. While slow at first, growth in the town began to accelerate towards the end of the 1850s, with a period of rapid growth between 1857 and 1864. Christchurch became the first city in New Zealand by royal charter on 31 July 1856, and Henry Harper was consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury as the local Anglican bishop. He arrived in Christchurch a few months later in December 1856. In 1862 the Christchurch City Council was established. By 1874, Christchurch was New Zealand's fourth-largest city with a population of 14,270 residents. Between 1871 and 1876, nearly 20,000 immigrants arrived in Canterbury, and through the 1880s frozen meat joined wool as a primary export. The last decades of the nineteenth-century were a period of significant growth for the city, despite the national economic depression. Many of the city's stone Gothic Revival buildings by provincial architect Benjamin Mountfort date from around this period, including Canterbury University College, Christ Church Cathedral, Canterbury Museum, and the Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings, among others. Mountfort oversaw construction of a prison on Lincon Road in 1874, which operated until 1999.
Christchurch experienced a number of minor natural disasters during this period. Heavy rain caused the Waimakariri River to flood Christchurch in February 1868. Victoria Square (known as Market Place at the time) was left underwater with "the whole left side of the [Avon] river from Montreal-street bridge to Worcester street was all one lake, as deep as up to a horse's belly". Christchurch buildings were damaged by earthquakes in 1869, 1881 and 1888. The 1888 earthquake caused the highest 7.8 metres of the Christ Church Cathedral spire to collapse, many chimneys were broken, and the Durham Street Methodist Church had its stonework damaged. In November 1901, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake, centred near Cheviot, caused the spire on top of Christ Church Cathedral to collapse again, but this time only the top 1.5 metres fell. On this occasion, it was rebuilt with timber and metal instead of stone. The first fire brigade was established in Market Square 1860.