Canterbury Provincial Gazette

Also known as New Zealand Government Gazette, Province of Canterbury

Historical Background

Canterbury Province was one of the six original provinces established under the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, proclaimed into force on 17 January 1853. It was formed from the southern portion of the former New Munster province.

Unlike most other provinces, Canterbury had a distinct origin: it was founded in December 1850 by the Canterbury Association, a body of influential Englishmen connected to the Church of England, who had organised a planned Anglican settlement in the region. The first settler ships arrived on 16 December 1850, a date still commemorated as Canterbury's Anniversary Day. The 1852 Constitution Act contained specific provisions for the Canterbury Association, allowing it to transfer its powers to the newly established provincial government; this handover was completed in 1855.

The province covered the central-eastern South Island, bounded by the Hurunui River to the north and the Waitaki River to the south. Its western boundary, initially undefined, ran along the crest of the Southern Alps once the West Coast was separated. Following the West Coast gold rush, the trans-Alpine portion of Canterbury was split off first as the County of Westland in 1868, and then as the short-lived Westland Province in 1873.

Canterbury's population grew rapidly and its provincial council was notably active. The Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings in Christchurch — uniquely among all the provinces — survive to this day. The province's archives are among the most complete of any New Zealand province, and were inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand register in 2023.

Provincial government was abolished under the Abolition of Provinces Act, which took full effect on 1 November 1876. The Canterbury area was subsequently divided into eight counties.

Issue and page numbers

  • Issue numbers restart each year in January at I. Canterbury Gazettes use Roman numerals but have been recorded here with Arabic numerals for consistency with the other Gazettes.
  • For issues from 1853-59, page numbers are not continuous between issues (restarting from 1 in each issue). From 1860, page numbers are continuous between issues, restarting at 1 each year in issue No. I.

Missing Issues

Year Issue No Notes Page numbers
1874 All issues
1870 41 September 149-150
1864 30-31 July 157-164
1861 1-13 Jan-Feb 1-85
1858 All issues
1854 1-4, 21 N/A
1853 1 N/A

Skipped issue numbers

  • 1857 No. 1 is an index issue and has been omitted from this dataset
  • In 1857 there are are two issues marked No 16, one has an asterisk. I have referred to it as 16A.
  • 1857 No 18 is absent, but there are no missing page numbers - it appears this was never printed

Map of provincial boundaries, 1873

1873 Province boundaries (from Wikipedia)

Further reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_Province

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_New_Zealand

https://teara.govt.nz/en/colonial-and-provincial-government/page-2

Browse by Year

1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1859
1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869
1870 1871 1872 1873 1875

The Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings (depicted) were constructed between 1858 and 1865 and are the only purpose-built provincial government buildings in New Zealand still in existence.

Source



Canterbury Provincial Gazette Statistics

21

Years Covered

910

Issues Processed

5,115

Pages Transcribed

35,742

Names Identified

14,543

Unique Names

8,166

Named Officials

914

Unique Officials