The Press Junior THURSDAY, August 16, 1934 Canterbury's Industries

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21244, 16 August 1934, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Press Junior THURSDAY, August 16, 1934 Canterbury's Industries

A hundred years ago there were no factories in any parts of New Zealand and no white men had settled on the Canterbury plains or on the swampy land on which Christchurch was later built. The Maoris of the Ngai-Tahu and the Ngati-Mamoe tribes struggled for possession of the peninsula and plains and they tilled only the ground they needed to supply their kumaras and other foods; a century ago Canterbury was a wild, uncivilised land known to the Maoris by the name Te Wahi Peonamu. Now it is a highly cultivated district supporting much live stock and producing rich grain and root crops as well as dairy produce and manufactured articles of very many kinds. The progress that has been made seems even more remarkable when it is realised that it is the progress of much less than a century; 90 years ago there were perhaps three ploughs in Canterbury—certainly not more than that number; 80 years ago there were small settlements in many of the bays on the peninsula, the city of Christchurch was planned, and work had begun on some of the buildings and streets that we know to-day. The progress of our industries may be dated from December 16, 1850, when two of the First Four Ships arrived at Lyttelton; in that year the first sawmill on the peninsula was built at Robinson's Bay for the Pavitt brothers, and within 10 years there were several steam sawmills in different bays. During these years the dairying industry grew apace; this industry has the oldest history in Canterbury, for it is still in existence while shipbuilding, which was probably begun by fugitive sailors in the iate 'thirties, was carried on by early settlers but died out later in the century to give place to more important affairs such as fruit growing, stock raising and agriculture. It is interesting to note that Canterbury's first settlers, as early as 1843, made money by selling their cheese to visiting ships. The industry flourished and others were begun; Christchurch became a prosperous city with railway schemes, direct access to the sea by way of the Lyttelton tunnel, and industries in numbers that suggested the possibility of holding a winter show at some far distant date. No one, however, could have predicted in 1850 the wonders of the show that we are seeing this week. In an industrial age we are presumably siming at the perfection shown in the weaving factory In New Jersey which works without the attendance of men or women. But New Jersey was settled in 1664; the exhibits at the Winter Show prove that Canterbury has made remarkable industrial progress in the short 90 years since the first settlers began their cheesemaking. .;,_. ..,■*. ,^-