EARLY MAPS OF NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27165, 8 October 1953, Page 10

EARLY MAPS OF NEW ZEALAND

Bibliography Being Compiled GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY PROJECT Little-known maps of considerable geographical and historical interett are being listed by the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Geographical Society as a start in compiling 8 complete bibliography of the maps of the Dominion. » Early in 1952, the society received a request from the map division of the Library of Congress, Washington, seeking a complete bibliography, but apart from a catalogue of current maps obtainable from the Lands and Survey Department, it was found that no full record existed. , Canterbury members of the society decided to cover Canterbury, Westland, Nelson, and Marlborough. Research students had already unearthed valuable material. At the start of this inquiry, two members of the committee in a week listed and annotated more than 250 uncatalogued maps in the Lands and Survey Department in Christchurch. Another member, in five days, examined and recorded information on more than 150 maps of the West Coast in the Nelson and Hokitika offices of the department The field has since been extended to local body offices, museums, libraries, and private archives. Records of early Canterbury examined included maps of a Maori pa, gardens and fishing grounds in the vicinity of Christchurch ini 1848-40; early maps of the town of Christchurch showing the position and use of every building in the central core of the town in 1862 and 1877; and maps of land ownership illustrating preemptive rights and “grid-ironing, a method used by the pastoralists of early Canterbury to retain large tracts of land at low rentals. Maps of the West Coast have be«i found, showing topographical features of the gold rush era—water races, dams, old mining claims, tramways, tracks, roads, river-mouth ferries, stores and townships, old sawmills, flaxmills, and former bush boundaries. More than a score of the smaller mining townships of the West Coast were surveyed between 1869 and 1885. Early maps showing their street patterns distribution of buildings are invaluable records, as today many of these townships are mere ghost towns, lost among scrub, second-growth forest, and sluice tailings. It is believed that members of the society may know of the existence of ea rly maps of Canterbury which have not been preserved in Government archives. There must be many estate sales maps dating from the period 0‘ the break-up of the large runs at the beginning of this century. In many cases, these estate maps show the to which every field or paddock was put at the time of sale, and are a valuable record of farming systems and land use patterns. . Any person who has information may be of value is asked to communicate with the secretary of the New Zealand Geographical Society at Canterbury University College.