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General.

The City of Christchurch lies on the eastern edge of the Canterbury Plains, about six miles in a direct line from the sea. It is connected with Port Lyttelton by a railway about seven miles in length. Communication with the sea was one of the chief difficulties faced by the early settlers, and the rivers Avon and Heathcote were both utilised as far as possible for the conveyance of goods. Mr. Godley states in one of his early dispatches that “boats of five or six tons come up the river as far as Mr. Deans's.” The Heathcote was for years the chief route for supplies of all kinds; and the old ferry and the steam wharf on the Ferry Road were for some time the centres of an active trade. A large bridge now spans the Heathcote at the Ferry at the junction of the Heathcote and Sumner Roads. The coast on the New Brighton side, though only six miles from the city, is impracticable for sea traffic; but the Waimakariri, as previously stated, long contested commercial supremacy with Lyttelton as the chief harbour for Christchurch; indeed, there was some thought of fixing the site of the capital at Kaiapoi, so as to take advantage of the river. But the Lyttelton Tunnel effectually settled most of the difficulties in the way of communication with the sea; though the high railway freight is still a standing grievance, and a positive hindrance to the development of the country's resources.

The plain on which the city stands rises very slowly from the sea. Upper Riccarton, at its highest point, is less than thirty feet above sea level at a page 40 distance of nearly ten miles from Pegasus Bay. Many points in the city are less than ten feet above high water mark. As a natural result it is almost impossible to get any comprehensive idea of the appearance and extent of the town from any vantage ground within it. The view from the Cathedral Tower can be described as interesting, but is in no sense impressive or grand. The best idea of the city and its surroundings is to be obtained from the Port Hills, especially from one or two points along the Dyer's Pass Road, which leads to Governor's Bay. Seeu from this quarter, the city seems almost buried in trees, and it is hard to trace, at the distance of four or five miles, the run of the streets and the course of the Avon and Heathcote. But as the eye grows familiar to the scene, there rises up among the trees and along the winding river banks the picture of a great and busy and populous city. From the foot of the Port Hills to Papanui, seven miles, north and south, from the Ferry at Woolston to Addington along the Lincoln Road, and from the Canal Reserve at Linwood to the old mill at Upper Riccarton (six miles east and west) there is no break between the city and the suburbs. In the centre of this great area is the city proper, including within its four belts an extent of 1249 acres. It is laid out in rectangular form, and is about two miles by one mile and a quarter in dimensions. Within the belts there are about forty miles of streets. The city was planned with a mathematical regularity that to some observers seems rather monotonous and depressing. Many of the streets which run east and west stretch in undeviating line for more than a mile, and the vista of unrelieved flatness has yet to be redeemed by lofty and impressive buildings. The streets running north and south are to some extent relieved by the diagonal of High Street, continued at another angle by Victoria Street, which ultimately becomes Papanui Road. But the lack of variety in the streets and their arrangement is fully compensated by the eccentricities of the river. The Avon, which rises four miles above Christchurch, and flows four miles and a quarter within the city, winds round and through the town in never ending curves, reappearing at the most unexpected points, and constantly breaking the rigid regularity of the city with new and charming scenic effects. The huge willows—planted, so tradition says, from slips taken originally from the grave of Napoleon at St. Helena—shade the river along miles of its course. On its bank, by the side of Hagley Park, there are planted dense groves of English trees—oak and elm and silver birch and ash and sycamore—beautiful through every season of the year. The bridges are numerous and always picturesque; some, such as the Victoria Street and Gloucester Street bridges, are imposing architectural structures; but the most delightful portion of the Avon is the part of its course enclosed within the Museum grounds and Botanical Gardens. No stream of its size could possibly display more refined and quiet beauty than the Christchurch Avon, and it well deserves to be regarded as the most important element in the peaceful charm of the city.

Along the sides of the river within the belts, run two winding streets— Oxford Terrace and Cambridge Terrace. Where the curves of the river leave room, the banks have been laid out in garden plots and planted with flowers. Mill Island, where the old Hereford Street Mill stood, is completely covered with flowers and shrubs, and the sloping bank between Gloucester Street and Worcester Street is, in springtime, alive with narcissus and daffodils. All this is the work of the Beautifying Association, which, for love of the city, has spent untold time and trouble upon the river banks. Market Square, in the space between the river and Colombo Street, on either side of Victoria Street, for years the site of squalid shops and sheds, has now, in the hands of the Association, become a stretch of green sward variegated with brighthued flowers. Everywhere may be uoted the love of the citizens for grass, shrubs, and trees. At some distance east and west of Colombo Street, there are two open rectangular spaces, neatly railed in, and laid out in grass with asphalt walks, and planted round with English trees. Latimer and Cranmer Squares are two invaluable breathing spaces, which, apart from their natural beauty will, as the city grows crowded, be of inestimable value to the comfort and health of the citizens. The quaint nomenclature of the city thoroughfares may deserve a passing note. The names of the streets—Cashel and Tuam. Gloucester and Worcester, Hereford and Colombo, are the names of great English bishoprics, and in them, as in the names of the two squares, the colonists preserve a reverent memory for the ecclesiastical origin of the settlement, and the deeply religious purpose which inspired its founders.

The suburbs, on the whole, partake of the main characteristics of the town. On the north-east Linwood stretches far past the East Belt towards Burwood and New Brighton on the lower Avon, merging at last in the low line of sandhills which separate Christchurch from the sea. Woolston, in the east, is the township that has grown up round the old shipping stations on the Heathcote, but it is now absolutely continuous with Christchurch. Opawa, stretching down to the Heathcote Valley, and towards the mouth of the Lyttelton Tunnel with its river, its willows, and its gardens, is one of the most beautiful parts of suburban Christchurch. Sydenham, the “model borough,” comes next, to the south of the city, and Addington to the south-west is separated from Riccarton on the west only by the Riccarton Road, by which the Deans brothers, the pioneers of civilisation on the Plains, first made their home. Further north is Fendalton, with its shady lanes half hidden in overhanging trees—the most “English” of all these Anglicised suburbs. By Bryndwyr we reach Papanui, through which the great North Road starts on its long journey towards Culverdeu, Kaikoura, and Blenheim. To the north-east again lies St. Albans, completing the circle of the suburbs, which radiate from the city, all lying within three miles of the centre of the town. Architecturally, Christchurch is not so impressive as might be expected from its extent, its wealth, and its population. Many of its public buildings are, in themselves, imposing and even splendid. Cathedral Square, with the chief architectural glory of Christchurch, the Cathedral spire, would dignify a far greater city; and the commercial streets —High Street, Colombo Street, Hereford Street—contain many fine edifices. But these are still interspersed with small and irregularly-built structures, relics of the past, which must be replaced by finer buildings before the citizens can be satisfied with the impression page 41 that their town will produce upon casual visitors. Various good reasons for the lack of impressiveness are the facts that the streets are very straight, the land is very level, and the buildings are scattered. Thus Christchurch cannot boast of any such fine continuous display of commercial and industrial activity as that afforded, for instance, by George Street and Princes Street in Dunedin. At the same time, many of the individual buildings, which will be dealt with in their proper place, are worthy ornaments of the city and province.

The City Council, which governs Christchurch, has many and comprehensive duties to perform. In March, 1901, the population of the city proper was 17,537 (8251 males and 9286 females), while the suburban road board districts and borough population ran the total up to 56,033. Of the suburbs, Linwood has a population of 6737, St. Albans 6605, Sydenham 11,404, Woolston 2532; Sumner (844) and New Brighton (1007) are not included in this computation. As far as the city proper is concerned the municipal authorities have to administer a revenue of nearly £24,000. There can be no reasonable doubt that much of the municipal work is thoroughly well done. The land lends itself to good road-making, and the metalling and asphalting of the streets make Christchurch and the surrounding suburbs the joy of cyclists and the envy of citizens from other New Zealand towns. The streets are, on the whole, clean, and in summer well watered, and the incandescent gas-burners now supplied to the street lamps give the town a well lighted appearance at night. The tram system and conveyances require separate notice; but it may be observed that electricity so far plays but a small part in Christchurch, either as a motive force or an illuminant. The possibility of employing the enormous waste force of the Waimakariri by means of electrical motors has often been discussed, and there seems some probability now that the suggestion may take a practical turn.

But the range of duties which the municipality may be called upon to perform is not easy to limit. Already steps have been taken to form a Burgess Association for the purpose of urging on the City Council to the execution of various important public works. The amalgamation of the boroughs and the creation of a Greater Christchurch to supersede the present limited city government has long been contemplated. A high pressure water supply, an extended drainage system, municipal tramways, municipal abattoirs, municipal electric lighting, municipal co-operation —these are some of the projects already beginning to take definite shape in the minds of progressive citizens. The suggestion that the water-power of the Waimakariri should be employed to work for the city is fertile with great possibilities. Clearly, the City Fathers have before them a vast and unexplored field for the efficient discharge of their functions. But in whatever direction municipal government may develop, there is little doubt that the views of the majority of citizens are in sympathy with the colonial tendency towards centralisation, and that they are, on the whole, inclined to support the City Council in undertaking a large number of duties that have hitherto been left to private enterprise. The drift in the direction of State socialism is no less apparent in Christchurch than it is in every sphere of New Zealand public life.