It is the start of the second week of June 1919 and New Zealand’s Prime Minister, William Massey and the Minister of Finance, Sir Joseph Ward, are in Paris awaiting the signing of the Peace Treaty …
To the inhabitants of colonial Nelson, Léontine, Countess de la Pasture was the epitome of Victorian refinement and manners. To her husband – Gerard Gustavus Ducarel, the fourth Marquis de la…
In early October 1889, my 2 x great aunt, Clara Wright leaves her family home in Thames and travels on the steamer, ‘Tarawera’ to start a new life with her estranged father in Christchu…
Bathing machines are at last to be established at Sumner, and they will supply a want which has long been felt. There is one already at New Brighton in connection with the Hotel, but I should imagi…
A Tale of Convicts, Ship Wrecks, Strange Family Relations, and a £500 Bequest. Before the Canterbury Settlement was inaugurated, a young Australian lad landed at Port Cooper in the company of his f…
‘Ice Cream Charlie’ operated a well-known ice cream cart in Cathedral Square for much of the first half of the twentieth century. He was reknowned for his friendly nature and delicious …
On this summer’s day in 1906, the ten o’clock morning tram to Sumner is about to depart from outside the Royal Exchange in Cathedral Square. An excursion to Sumner was a popular outing …
“William Wilson was formerly a cabbage dealer in Canterbury; but fourteen years ago he was poor, whereas now he is rich, a circumstance attributable to a lucky speculation in a piece of land …
Conan Doyle’s fascination with the supernatural brought him to New Zealand in 1920 – where he met a special terrier named ‘Darkie’ who he believed had mystical powers. In th…
“The tale of a shipwreck has for most readers a fascination unequalled by any other of the many forms of tragedy which from time to time sweep some unlucky band or section of humanity into et…
The health benefits, cleanliness and exoticism of the Turkish Bath so appealed to Canterbury settlers that it became the height of fashion in the 1880s. Today we enjoy city operated spa facilities …
Retired Aircraft Engineer, Corporal Colin Creighton, No. 41 Squadron, RNZAF recounts his experiences serving during the American Vietnam war.
Charismatic, athletic and intelligent, Jonathan Roberts came from a respectable family. A native of Cornwall, he immigrated to New Zealand with his family as a small child in 1862. After leaving sc…
Dressed in a black cutaway coat, dark trousers and a white silk neckcloth, and sporting a Billy-Cock hat over short hair, Henry Jame Muir stood before a London magistrate in 1889 dressed in the clo…
From 1919 until 1963, New Zealand audiences were guaranteed ‘snappy scenes, bright singing, excellent dancing and sparkling comedy’ when attending a Stan Lawson Production.
Sandwiched between the iconic White Hart Hotel and the Universal Boot Depot at 223-225 High Street, was the business founded by Mr James Freeman, a pastry cook and caterer. Opened in 1891, the buil…
“Perambulators are one of the necessities of the nineteenth century. The children of savages may roll in the dust or be carried in a shawl, or strapped to a piece of board, but the children of civi…
John Jauncey Buchanan and his Valuable Allotment Before arrival in Christchurch, the family of Scotsman John Jauncey Buchanan purchased land on what would become the centre of Christchurch. It was …
Page 4 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 27 June 2012.
Page 5 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 23 February 2013.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 22 February 2013.
Page 5 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Thursday 18 July 2013.
Page 7 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 13 December 2013.
Page 7 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Monday 3 September 2012.
Page 6 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Thursday 23 February 2012.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Friday 6 December 2013.
Page 8 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Monday 9 December 2013.
Page 5 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 11 January 2014.
Page 19 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 19 February 2014.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Monday 24 February 2014.