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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]

Towns

Towns.

The population of Canterbury is better distributed than that of the other provinces. Even in Auckland by far the largest section of the provincial populace is concentrated round the one large city. There is nothing in Auckland province to correspond to Invercargill or Oamaru in Otago, Wanganni or Palmerston North in Wellington, and Lyttelton, Ashburton, or Timaru in Canterbury. This tendency to centralisation in Auckland is well illustrated in the figures of the census returns in 1891 and 1896. Between 1891 and 1896 the city of Auckland and suburbs added 6329 to their population, while the population of the outside boroughs, taken together, decreased to the number of 178. This means that there must have been a continual inflow of population from the smaller towns to the capital of the province. In Wellington the chief city and suburbs added 7568 to the previous population, but including new boroughs the outside population of the province increased during these five years by 5450. In Otago, Dunedin and suburbs increased only 1411, while the outside boroughs rose in number 2043. Canterbury does not come out of this comparison so well as Otago and Wellington, but is much better off than Auckland. Between 1891 and 1896, Christchurch and suburbs added 3484, while the outside boroughs showed an increase of only 430. At the same time it must be remembered that towns like Ashburton, Waimate, Kaiapoi, and Rangiora are not of very recent growth, and that the ease with which Canterbury was “settled” ensured the early expansion of these boroughs long before the country towns of other provinces had time to grow.

The rapidity with which the province, and especially Christchurch, has developed, has been touched upon under the head of population. One of the most noticeable features in the early growth of the towns was the transference of population from Lyttelion to Christchurch. At the first census, taken in 1854, the town of Christchurch contained only 548 inhabitants, increased by the inclusion of the suburbs to 1279. But Lyttelton at this time page 30 numbered 919 residents, for the port was naturally well developed before the inland city was settled. But by the time the second census was taken the growth of the capital city had already over Balanced the advantage of situation held by the seaport. Christchurch then contained 2485, and Lyttelton had sunk to 760. From that time onward the steady development of Christchurch was assured. By 1873, when the population of Lyttelton was about 3000, that of Christchurch, including suburbs, was about 13,000. At the present time, as noted in another section, the population for Christchurch City in 1901 was 17,537, but the inclusion of the suburban boroughs raises the total to 44,815, and the further inclusion of portions of the adjacent road districts gives a grand total for Greater Christchurch of 56,033. The population of Lyttelton in 1901 was 4023.

The third town in importance, and second in point of population, is Timaru, in South Canterbury, 100 miles south of Christchurch. The foundation of Timaru may be said to date from the arrival of the “Strathallan,” in 1859, with about 100 settlers. By 1873 the population of the town was about 1500; today it is 6421.

Kaiapoi, on the Waimakariri, once the chief port after Lyttelton in the province, dates back as far as 1852. Within five years from the opening of the settlement thirty-three freeholds had been taken up in and around the present town. By 1873 there was a population of over 900, and though this fell off with the loss of the river trade, consequent on the opening of the railway, the advent of the woollen factory restored prosperity, and to-day the population is 1795. Rangiora received settlers as early as 1851, but the town really dates from 1853. The population is almost the same as that of Kaiapoi, being 1768. Ashourton, the most important town between Christchurch and Timaru, is of more recent growth than the others mentioned. The first house within the present borough limits was not built till 1858; and at first the town progressed so slowly that by 1871 there were not thirty people living in it. Still, by 1878, it became a borough, and though its history for practical purposes did not commence till more than twenty years after the founding of Christchurch, Kaiapoi, and Rangiora it has now a population of 2322. Other towns whose development within twenty or thirty years illustrates the vigour and rapidity of provincial progress are Temuka, population 1464; Waimate, population 1359; Hampstead, population 1118, and Geraldine, population 868.