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1863
- February 10
- First sitting of the Court of Appeal.
- March 5
- Samuel Bealey elected third Superintendent of Canterbury.
- March 31
- 21 Canterbury military volunteers sail north on "Phoebe" for duty in the Waikato land wars.
- May 5
- Christchurch Gas Company formed.
- June 23
- First cab stand in City, on the corner of Colombo and High Streets.
- July 9
- Civic tree planting begins. Part of the day’s planting was a commemorative tree, generally regarded as the beginning of the Botanic Gardens.
- September 7
- City’s first murder trial. G. Lumley convicted.
- October 22
- First Agricultural and Pastoral Association show in showgrounds (which is now Sydenham Park). An "unofficial" show had been held in October, 1862.
- October 26
- Chamber of Commerce transfers from Lyttelton.
- November 10
- First Cobb & Co. coach to Timaru.
- November
- Provincial Government commission tables critical and far-reaching education report. This report led directly to the opening of the first public schools in the following year.
- December 1
- Opening of the Ferrymead to Moorhouse Avenue railway, New Zealand’s first public steam railway. (The gauge was 5ft 3ins.)
- December 26
- Opening of the Royal Princess Theatre, the city’s first true theatre. It had been the Canterbury Music Hall, see 1861.
- December
- First patients at Sunnyside Hospital.
- (no date)
- Total Abstinence Society formed - the beginning of the New Zealand temperance movement. The City’s crime and drink problem was one of the worst in New Zealand during these years.
- Aulsebrooks biscuit factory established.
- "Brother’s Pride" arrives at Lyttelton with 44 fever deaths during the voyage - the worst ever of any ship to Canterbury. The hapless survivors were quarantined under very primitive conditions at Camp Bay.
