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1885
- April
- "Russian scare" leads to building of gun emplacements around Lyttelton Harbour.
- May 8
- Strike in boot factories.
- September 2
- Public meeting of 25,000 (possibly the country’s biggest to that time) in Hagley Park in support of the proposal to build a railway to the West Coast (the Midland Line).
- October 10
- Life insurance fraud ("The Case of the Severed Hand") at Sumner. The perpetrator, Arthur Howard, was sentenced to 2 years prison on April 11 the following year.
- December 22
- Statue of William Moorhouse unveiled in the Botanic Gardens.
- (no date)
- Bells Baths built at Sumner.
