Christchurch Chronology 1877 - Heritage - Christchurch City Libraries

1877

January 8: First trial of harvesting machines at Riccarton.
January 17: Council swimming pool in the Avon River opens. Not one of the Council’s better projects - the pool was only a few hundred metres downstream from the hospital’s effluent outfall.
January 18: First meeting of the Lyttelton Harbour Board.
February 23: Lillywhite’s "All England" cricket team visits.
May: The Normal School (designed by Samuel Farr, and opened in April 1876) becomes New Zealand’s first teachers training college.
June 7: New Canterbury College (University) building opens. Designed by B.W. Mountfort, the building is now part of the Arts Centre.
August 11: Canterbury Cricket Council formed.
September 13: Christchurch Girls High School (designed by Thomas Cane) opens on the corner of Hereford Street and Rolleston Avenue. The school moved to its present Cranmer Square site in 1881. The original school is now part of the Arts Centre.
October 25: First high pressure water supply system in operation at Lyttelton.
October 29: Sydenham Borough formed.
Railway station - 1878 December 20: 70 kilometres (44 miles) of railway line north to Amberley converted from broad to narrow gauge in a single day by 500 men - in time for the opening of the railway station the following day.
December 21: New Christchurch railway station opens.
(no date): Police duties taken over by Government.