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Akaroa Historical Overview - Christchurch City Council

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SECTION FIVE: THE COLONIAL TOWN 1850 TO 1900<br />

“The harbour at<br />

<strong>Akaroa</strong> is the best in<br />

New Zealand. Formerly<br />

it could boast of the<br />

presence at one time<br />

of several French Menof-War<br />

and seven or<br />

eight Whalers. Now it<br />

is a rare thing to see<br />

more than two small<br />

vessels at anchor. Had<br />

Captain Thomas been<br />

assured of the<br />

possession of the<br />

Peninsula by the<br />

Association, he would<br />

have made it the port,<br />

and then how different<br />

its appearance.”<br />

Nelson Examiner and NZ<br />

Chronicle, 7 Feb 1852<br />

Exit the French<br />

The founding of the Canterbury Association in 1848 and selection<br />

of the Port Cooper Plains as the site for Canterbury’s main town,<br />

<strong>Christchurch</strong>, had a profound influence on the development of<br />

<strong>Akaroa</strong>. The Nanto-Bordelaise Company continued to function<br />

through the 1840s and in 1843 was granted title to 30,000 acres of<br />

Banks Peninsula land in consideration of the money it had spent<br />

sending out the emigrants who had founded <strong>Akaroa</strong>. 1 Through the<br />

second half of the 1840s, the French Government and the Nanto-<br />

Bordelaise Company left the French settlers who had founded<br />

<strong>Akaroa</strong> more or less to their own devices. The French naval<br />

presence in <strong>Akaroa</strong> Harbour ended in 1846.<br />

In 1849, with the plan to found the Canterbury Settlement well<br />

advanced, the Nanto-Bordelaise Company sold all its rights to land<br />

on Banks Peninsula to the New Zealand Company (under whose<br />

auspices the Canterbury Association was operating). This<br />

transaction symbolised the end of “French <strong>Akaroa</strong>”. 2<br />

Figure 5.1. The north, “French”, end of <strong>Akaroa</strong> in the mid 1860s. Three<br />

surviving buildings, St Peter’s Church (1863), the Town Hall (1864) and Criterion<br />

Hotel (1864), have already been built. Centre right is the French Magasin, which<br />

was demolished about ten years later, and the Langlois-Eteveneaux Cottage,<br />

which also survives. Ref: 1<br />

1 Andersen, Place Names, p. 16<br />

2 Andersen, Place Names, p. 18; Lowndes, Short History, no pagination; Tremewan, French <strong>Akaroa</strong>, pp.<br />

291-96<br />

AKAROA HERITAGE OVERVIEW : SECTION 5 THE COLONIAL TOWN 1850 TO 1900 PAGE 33

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