1857

February 8

St Andrews Presbyterian Church opens.

March 17

First vehicle crosses the Port Hills - a spring cart pulled by bullocks negotiates the Bridle Path.

June 19

Complaints reported that the Avon and Heathcote Rivers are becoming clogged with watercress. Provincial Council approves 1500 for clearance. Watercress appears to have been introduced by the ship "Compte de Paris" to Akaroa in 1841, and from there to the Avon by William Deans in 1850.

July 23

First dramatic presentation in Canterbury, which featured Mrs Foley in "The Loan of a Lover" and "Betsy Baker" at the Lyttelton Town Hall.

August 24

Evans Pass road over the Port Hills opens.

August

First daily post, Christchurch to Lyttelton, begins.

The old town halls, High Street, Christchurch [between 1864 and 1882]

October 1

First Christchurch Town Hall opens. This privately owned hall was built on a site in High Street which was later occupied by Stranges Department Store and then by Butterfields.

October 30

Tunnel advocate William Sefton Moorhouse elected as the provinces’s second Superintendent. He resigned in 1863 because of personal financial mismanagement, but later served a second term of office from 1866 to 1868.

November 26

Opening of the first building (long since demolished) on the present Christ’s College site. The school’s original planned site was in Cathedral Square, but the land had been exchanged for the present Hagley Park site to allow room for expansion.

(no date)

First circus, Foley’s Victorian (or Royal American) Circus performs in High Street site. Foley was the some-time husband of Mrs Foley the actress. See July.

Last of Papanui Bush felled.

New Zealand’s first reaping machine imported to Riccarton.

Related

• Year by Year List
• Firsts, bests, worsts and lasts
• Sources
• About the Christchurch Chronology.