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1866
- The city has 56 hotels to cater for the thirsty population of approximately 6500.
- February 6
- Telegraph to the West Coast (Hokitika) opens.
- March 20
- First Cobb & Co. coaches to the West Coast.
- March 23
- Road to the West Coast officially opens.
- April
- City Council virtually bankrupt because of a ratepayers protest led by William Wynn-Williams. Street lights were turned off, Council workers dismissed and night soil collection cancelled.
- May 21
- City Council abandons the vital city drainage scheme because of its financial state. A huge shipment of pipes which had just arrived from England had to be sold off. This guaranteed Christchurch’s reputation as New Zealand’s most polluted and unhealthy city for another 20 years. It is interesting to compare the transport cost of these pipes from Glasgow to Lyttelton - 882 - with the cost from Lyttelton by lighter and cart to Christchurch - 400!
- May 28
- George Dobson (brother of Arthur Dudley Dobson) murdered by the Burgess and Kelly gang in the Southern Alps. The gang mistook him for a gold courier.
- May 30
- Moorhouse elected as Provincial Superintendent - his second term of office.
- June 4
- Refurbished Royal Princess Theatre re-opens as the first Theatre Royal.
- August 16
- Cook Strait cable service links North and South Islands.
- October 13
- Railway south open to Rolleston.
- November 6
- Serious fire on the north-east corner of Armagh and Colombo Streets.
- December 2
- Moa bones discovered at Glenmark. The international sale and exchange of these helped Haast, the Canterbury Museum’s first Director, to finance the new museum.
- (no date)
- Christchurch and Nelson chess clubs compete by telegraph, one of the first uses of this method in the world.
