Chch history plotted in print

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 9

Chch history plotted in print

Christchurch from Abattoir to Zhu Xuanren.

The city’s history is listed that way in the index of “Christchurch Chronology: 1000 years of settlement,” a new City Council book. In the text, written by Mr, John Densem of the townBing division, events are in the order they happened. It is just coincidence that the visit of Professor Zhu Xuanren, vicegovernor of China’s Gansu Province, was one of the most recent events in the city. Mr Densem, the writer and composer for the “Roadshow 5, road, safety theatrical production, said yesterday that the new project started when the City Council realised it needed some background on such projects as the Victoria Square redevelopment. “We needed some form of concise history,” he said. When facts about Victoria Square were seen in a chronological sequence, council officers realised that an entire history of the city could be written that way. “Virtually all the books written about Christchurch were used,” said Mr Densem. “We extracted facts from them and put them in chronological order.’.’ Hundreds of people in the community had also helped in the “co-ojperative chronology” by looking up information for him. The council now wanted people to use the book and reepond to any errors or they fourth If

there was enough input, a second edition was possible.

The chronology’s first page starts some time in the 1000 s, when moa-hunting Maoris first appeared in Canterbury. Canterbury’s Maori population, which was about 5000 when the first Europeans arrived in the late 1700 s, had been seriously reduced by civil war. By 1849, there were about 1000 European settlers in the area, mostly on Banks Peninsula, and at least 500 Maoris. The chronology intersperses “dry facts” with details of unusual weather, natural disasters, the introduction of animals, business openings, and building construction. The area’s first armed robbery, for instance, happened before Canterbury Association settlers arrived. A Purau farm was held up and ransacked by three men in 1846.

In 1851, the Avon River claimed its first drowning victim. In the first 50 years of settlement, 105 drownings were recorded in the river. Many of the victims were drunk.

In 1862, when the city’s population was about 2000, the public hospital opened on a site in Hagley Park, but not, the history shows, until after the first “Hands off Hagley” protests from residents.

Artesian water was discovered the same year. During work on the Lyttelton railway tunnel, waterpvas

found, which indicated its presence under the city. In 1864, the City Council’s “Committee on Swans” decided to bring in black swans to control the Avon River’s watercress. The swans came, but they left almost immediately. They preferred far-away lagoons and marshes. That same year, the Christchurch Cathedral foundation stone was laid. The weather, by the way, was terrible. In an introduction to the

book, the General Manager and Town Clerk, Mr John Gray, said it was apparent from an early draft of the chronology that it was “too valuable to be held on file for occasional use by specialists.” The information is stored in a computer, and can be easily corrected and upThe last entry, for July 24 this year, records New Zealand’s first “test-tube” twins Christchurch Hospital