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Jan 1, 1450
Moa killed off
By about 1450 the moa had been killed off by moa hunters who lived in the area now known as Christchurch -
Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
North Island Māori arrive
North Island Māori arrived in Canterbury between 1500 and 1700. The remaining moa hunters were killed or taken into the tribes. -
Able Tasman discovered the North Island ('Statenland')
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Period: to
Captain Cook mapped the whole of Aotearoa in series of 3 voyages
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Captain Cook arrives
On 16 February 1770 Captain James Cook in his ship the Endeavour first sighted the Canterbury peninsula. -
First sealers arrive
In 1815 sailors from the sealing ship Governor Bligh landed, this is probably the first time Europeans set foot on Banks Peninsula. -
Period: to
Māori population falls
During the 1820s and 1830s the local Māori population fell. The reasons were fighting between different groups of Ngāi Tahu and the impact of European diseases. -
New Zealand Company founded with aim to create English colonies in NZ
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Treaty of Waitangi signed
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signatures for the Treaty of Waitangi collected from Ngāi Tahu chiefs
In May 1840 Major Thomas Bunbury arrived on the HMS Herald to collect the signatures of the Ngāi Tahu chiefs for the Treaty of Waitangi. -
William and John Deans arrive and establish a farm
In 1843 The Manson and Gebbie families also came with them, to work on the farm. Together they built the first European house on the Canterbury Plains. -
The Canterbury Association was formed
Early in 1848 the Canterbury Association was formed, and it was decided to name the capital city Christchurch after the college John Godley had gone to at Oxford University. -
Charlotte Jane arrives
The first of the ships, the Charlotte Jane, arrived in Lyttelton on the morning of December 16, 1850 -
First proper theatre opend
The city’s first proper theatre, the Royal Princess Theatre, was opened on 26 December 1863. -
First sewerage system in NZ
Christchurch had to wait until the 1880s for an underground sewerage system, but it was the first city in New Zealand to have one. -
First whaling ship in NZ