The Office Of The Official Assignee For Canterbury in on the first floor of the Provincial Council Buildings. There are two entrances, one from Durham Street, and the other from the eastern side. The district extends from the Waitaki in the south to the Clarence river in the north. There are deputy official assignees at Ashburton and Timaru.

Mr. Graham Lord Greenwood, Official Assignee for the Canterbury District, was born at Mitcham, Surrey, In 1834, and arrived at Nelson with his parents in 1843 per ship “Phœbe.” He was educated page 152 at St. John's College, Auckland, and was subsequently engaged in sheep and general farming. Mr. Greenwood was very successful on the Collingwood diggings in Nelson, and was afterwards appointed clerk to the Warden and Resident Magistrate's court at Reefton, serving there and at Ahaura, for three years. He was transferred in 1875 to Oamaru as assistant clerk to the Resident Magistrate's court, and shortly afterwards became clerk to the court at Gisborne, Poverty Bay, where also he filled the office of registrar and sheriff to the Supreme Court, and many other positions, until 1891. In the latter year he was appointed Official Assignee for Christchurch. As a member of the Craft, Mr. Greenwood was initiated in Lodge Turanganui, E.C. Mr. Greenwood was married in 1879, to a daughter of Mr. Hugh Martin, and has two sons and one daughter.