STREET NAMES.

SOME EARLX HISTORY. A STUDY IN ORIGINS' QUAINT BAPTISMAL CEREMONY. In an article which appeared in the jubilee number of tho "Weekly Press" (December 13th, 1900), Mr Edward Jollie, one of the original surveyors of Christchurch, describes the quaint ceremony with which the City streets were baptised in 1850. "Tho names of the streets of the throe towns (Lyttclton, Sumncx - , and Christchurch) were taken from bishoprics," he wrote, "and this is how the baptism was done. The map being completed, Captain Thomas, with his gold spectacles on and a Peerage in his hand, read out a name that he fancied, and if he thought it sounded well, and I also thought so, it was written in on the map. I have been often asked why so few English titles were given to Christchurch. The explanation was this. The Lyttclton map was the first that was finished and the first dealt with, Sumner followed. The result was that these two towns had used up most of the tip-top English titles, and for Christchurch, which came last, there was scarcely anything left but Ireland and tho Colonies."

Origin of Street Names. After Lyttcltun and Sumner, the survey of Christchurch was "pleasant, easy, work." Mr Jollic lived in the grass house at "The Bricks" belonging to Scroggs, an earlier surveyor, and the six men with him were in a weatherboard hut close by. "The day was, of course, spent in work, and in the evening I had eel-fishing, pig-hunting, or quail-shooting in the neighbourhood; quails were plentiful, and I shot many on what is now the site of Christchurch." On March 18th, 1850, the map of Christchurch was finished and a copy sent to the Canterbury Association in London. Another copy, bearing the same date, is preserved in the Lands Department at Christchurch; The lay-out of the City was then very Bimple. Salisbury, Barbadoes, St. Asaph, and Antigua streets were the four boundaries. The chief bishoprics were used in Lyttelton* street-names, such as London, Canterbury, Norwich, Oxford, Exeter, and Winchester; or at Sumner (after tho then Archbishop of Canterbury) in the names Ely, Carlisle, Eochester, Bristol, and York. For Christchurch there were left some English bishoprics (Salisbury, Peterborough, Chester, Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, Lichfield, and others), and those were increased by borrowings from Ireland (Kilmore, Armagh, Cashel, and Tuam), Wales (St. Asaph), the West Indies (Antigua, Barbadoes), Canada (Montreal), India (Madras), and Ceylon (Colombo). Mr Jollie.proposed that several of these struts, instead of being a chain wide, should be wide enough to permit the planting of trees, but Captain Thomas changed this as well as other ornamentations, such as crescents, which ho pronounced "gingerbread." When the work was nearly finished Mr Jollie was given permission to widen some of the streets, but it was then impossible to do this. Cambridge and Oxford terraces appear on the original max), named after the universities, and also Cranmer square, Latimer square, and Cathedral square. Although no church was then built, the central square was set asidefrom the first for a cathedral and for the Christ's College buildings. What is now known as Victoria square was then Market Place, and the diagonal street beside it was called Whately road after a celebrated Archbishop of Dublin. The other diagonal street in tho plan, now High street, •was then Sumner road. Hagley Park was named after Lord Lyttelton's park in Worcestershire/ as the port was named after Lord Lyttelton himself. Naming of Cliristchurch.

There has been some doubt of the origin of the name Christchurch ( itself. In his book, "The Story of Christchurch, New Zealand," Henry F. Wigram discounts tho idea that tho City was named after tho Christchurch in Hampshire, which has also an Avon river winding through it. - Captain Thomas first proposed to place Christchurch at the head of Port Lyttelton, where there was no river. Ho suggested a subordinate town on tho Avon called Stratford, after Shakespeare's Strat-ford-on-Avon. The Avon in Canterbury was named by the brothers Deans after tho Lanarkshire stream which formed the boundary of their grandfather's estate in Ayrshire. Mr Wigram favoured the suggestion that the City was named after Christ Church, Oxford. The Canterbury Association originated there, Mr Godley was a Christ Church man, and the Association's plan for a Cathedral and a collego in a central square was evidently modelled after Christ Church, Oxford. Sunnier, incidentally, was originally to be named Wakefield, after the Wakefield family, but thiß name was changed in favour of that of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Sumner.

A map of the City, dated "12/9/56," by Edward Dobson, shows first the extension of the City to the old Town Belts, later called Moorliouse, Fitzgerald, Bealey, and Rolleston avenues. Selwyn street is marked from the South" Town belt to Lower Lincoln road (now Hagley avenuo). Betwe'on Salisbury street and the North Town belt, Papanui road appears as the continuation of Whately road and Mill terrace as the present Park terrace. The name Sumner road is still retained from the City outwards. The areas immediately outside tho old City boundaries were called Town Reserves, and the streets through them, apart from the continuations of the main streets, were named at the option of property-owners at subdivision—a custom which holds to tho present day. New Streets and Extensions. In 1877, Frederick Strouts in a further plan showed Riccarton road and Lincoln road with Antigua street-Park terrace as the west boundary of the City. What is now North Park road appears as Park road. Horatio street is added to Selwyn street. The main streets are extended to the belts, and the name Sumner road is changed to High street leading to Perry road (after tho Heath cote feriy). In the north-western corner of the City, Peacock, Aldred, and Conference streets had been laid off in commemoration of the first general conference of the Methodist Church in New Zealand. In the south-western corner there were marked Moa place, New street (now Clyde street), and Taylor's lane (now Aberdeen street). The names Market place and Whately road were still retained. The next map, drawn by C. W. Adams in 1879, shows Victoria street and High street leading into Lower High street. Mr Adams prepared plans of streets for extensive subdivision, though most of tho streets and lanes he proposed are not named on the map. Stewart street appears, running to St. Asaph street almost parallel to Selwyn street. Bichmond terrace has been made off Selwyn street. Prom the South Belt between Selwyn and Antigua streets, Stuart Mill street (alter John Stuart Mill)

goes to the south. Walker street joins Montreal street to Durham street, and Bath street leads from Durham strcot to Colombo street, which has now been extended beyond the South belt towards the hills. Eaton place and George street (now Southwark street) are made east from Manchester street, between the South Town belt and St. Asaph street. In the. same block, Lyttelton and Allen streets run west from Madras street. To the east of the East Town belt are Drain road and Gordon street. New street joins Madras street to Barbadoes street. Colombo street becomes Colombo road north of the Town belt, and Caledonian road first appears, parallel to it. Springfield road, Carlton place (now Stoneyhurst street) and Carlton street (now Dublin street) are also marked in this neighbourhood. Between Victoria street and Park terrace is Park street (now Dawson street)'. Bedford row was named after the famous street in London by -William ("Cabbage") Wilson when he subdivided his gardening property. Goslings lane, just below Conference street, was evidently named after Mr Gosling, a blacksmith of the time. The name lias been changed to Airedale place. In Deans avenue there is a memorial to the brothers Deans, of Eiccarton, the first permanent settlers on the plains. The First Suburbs. Gradually the City spread into the suburbs as property after property was subdivided. When the City boundaries were extended on April Ist, 1903, the North, South, East, and West Town belts no longer held their significance, and the names were replaced with Bealey, Moorhouse, Fitzgerald, and Rolleston avenues, after the < four distinguished Superintendents of the province. In the outer area, the names of some groups of streets are still recognisable, but the names of the majority of the smaller streets, being given privately, have little importance or interest.- The Hon. Henry Sewell, for instance, cut up his large area in ' Aldington and named the streets himaelf. W.G. and Joseph Brittan and his son Frank did the same in Linwood. Most of the land in Sydenham was sold by Mr Aitken and Mr Hawden, but the main streets were named (chiefly after poets and authors) by the old Sydenham Borough Council. In Linwood there is a group named after generals—Marlborough, Clive, Havclock, and Wellington. When the late Mr J. A. Eedpath subdivided ho brought; in some more British names—Glasgow, Harrow, and Newcastle. Most of the names 'jof the suburbs are of English origin, with the exception of Opawa and Papanui. Phillipstown was so called after a Mr Phillips, the brother of Mr Henry Phillips. -