NEW HISTORY OF CANTERBURY

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28010, 3 July 1956, Page 12

NEW HISTORY OF CANTERBURY

Centennial Project’s Progress THREE VOLUMES NOW PROPOSED Publication of the Canterbury centennial history will now be under taken in three separate but uniform volumes. Material for the first is almost ready for the printer and it is expected that it will be published early next year. The other two volumes may not necessarily appear in sequence as the most painstah-ing research ever done on the history of Canterbury is involved. The wealth of reference material has grown proportionately with the age of the province and aB possible sources are being examined for the periods after the first years of settlement. The centennial history will - throw much new light on what, when, and why events happened throughout the development of Canterbury and the people concerned. Many dates and sequences will be recast. Rather than a mere restatement of well-known facts, this will be a complete reassessment.

A great deal of new material has been assembled. Original documents, which have come to light only in recent years, have been examined for the first time and years of patient research has permitted “old men’s tales” to be authentically documented. This particularly applies to the first volume on the first days of settlement.

Each volume will now number 20J to 250 pages. The first will contain a

general introduction by the editors, Sir James Hight and Mr C. R. Straubel, a geographical description by Professor George Jobbcrns, and then cover the period from “pre-history” up till 1853. Mr Straubel has written the first chapters on the “pre-Pilgrim period,” including the place of the Maoris, and Captain Joseph Thomas’s preliminary surveys round Lyttelton. The Canterbury Association and ffie story of actual settlement has been covered by Profcsor L. C. Webb, now of the Australian National University at Canberra.

The second volume will deal with the Provincial Government period from 1854 to 1876 and the third will cover 1876 to 1950. There will probably be an epilogue bringing the record up to the centennial in 1950.

A history of Canterbury was first proposed for the New Zealand centennial in 1940. Editors were appointed and a good deal of material was assembled. But. with the Second World War, the writers chosen for various sections became dispersed. Some went on overseas service, one was killed in action, and later others took appointments in other countries.

In February, 1949, a new start was made with the formation of the historical committee of the Canterbury Centennial Association. As investigations progressed, the amount of new material found exceeded all expectations and, rather than hurry the history into print without exhausting all sources, the committee has delayed publication so that everything may be examined to provide an interesting, accurate, and valuable record.