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1849
- European population about 1000, mostly on Banks Peninsula.
- March
- Marine surveys of the coast, Estuary and harbour by HMS "Acheron".
- April 20
- Captain Thomas (in a letter to Sir George Grey) reveals that he has chosen the present site of Christchurch for the new settlement - in spite of the fact that both the Nelson and Otago colonists had rejected it in 1841 and 1844 respectively.
- June 30
- Canterbury’s first "industrial action" - Māori road workers in Evans Pass (constructing a road across the Port Hills) go on strike as a reaction to verbal abuse and dismissals.
- June 30
- New Zealand Company buys the remaining French interests at Akaroa from the Nanto-Bordelaise Company.
- August 12
- Surveyor Edward Jollie arrives to join Thomas.
- November 13
- Royal Charter granted for the incorporation of the Canterbury Association.
- December 12
- New Zealand Company agrees to reserve two and a half million acres as a site for the Canterbury settlement.
- December
- Major Alfred Hornbrook’s grog shop (dignified by the name "Mitre Hotel") operating in Lyttelton. (This was Canterbury’s first pub, and possibly the first commercial enterprise in the province.)
