The Canterbury Settlement.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20419, 14 December 1931, Page 10

The Canterbury Settlement.

In another column will be found a report of a service at the Christchurcli Cathedral in commemoration of the • eighty-first anniversary of the Canterbury Settlement. It is pleasant to find that the passage of time deprives this celebration of none of its spontaneity, and to realise that there is such a good reason. For in commemorating the settlement of Canterbury we are not commemorating one of the chance events of history, but a carefully thought-out venture fired with an idealism that is rare in the history of colonisation. The development of Christchurcli and of Canterbury has been largely a progressive revelation of the wisdom of those who planned and executed this venture, and they can be praised without flattery. But there is owing to their memory something more than praise, and that is an intelligent intereat in what they did and thought. Much has been written about the settling of Canterbury, but there is much still to write, and proximity to the event makes people careless. They fail to realise that what is a commonplace in the knowledge of one generation. may easily bo lost to the next unless it is put on record. The number of those who can remember the City and the province in their infancy is steadily growing smaller, and it is the duty of everyone to make sure that the part which each of these pioneers played in the history of Canterbury is not forgotten.