South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2727, 16 December 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1881.

To-day is the thirty-first anniversary of the Province of Canterbury, bo called, from its being the day of the year on which the first settlers arrived at Lyttelton in the good ship Charlotte Jane. This vessel cast anchor off Port Lyttelton on December 16,1850, at 10 a.m., after having made a passage of 93 days from land to land, or 99 days from port to port; and the early pilgrims—the pioneers of the settlement —looked upon the field of their future labors —and a wild and rugged field it then was. They were stout of heart, however, and being determined to make Canterbury a home for themselves and their children, they set about their work of colonisation with great skill and ability, and success crowned their efforts. When the Charlotte Jane cast anchor, one of the passengers made the remark that "henceforward the age of the colony would be described ac dating from the arrival of the Charlotte Jane.” He was correct in his prediction, and those of the pilgrims and their descendants who are vpet alive and amongst us, will not be likely to forget the sixteenth of December. The ships Randolph, Sir George Seymour, and Cressy were the other ships that conveyer! the pilgrims to the shores of New Zealand, and as they, including the Charlotte Jane, all arrived in the month of December, 1850, they are called the " first four ships ”by all old colonists. Let our readers imagine that but thirty-one years ago this country was in its rough, uncultivated, natural state, inhabited only by the Maoris,and compare it with the colony of the present day. We now have splendid harbors at all the principal centres of population, we have railways running right through the island connecting the three principal provincial districts, we have telegraphic communication all over the colony, and to its very remotest part, our large rivers are all bridged, we have excellent roads, fully three parts of the country is settled by farmers, the best of the land is under cultivation, and smiling farms meet us on every hand, large and prosperous towns have sprung up in a number of places, and Timaru which not very many years ago was part of a sheep run owned by Mr Rhodes—is now a large town with nearly 8000 inhabitants. Our harbor works, which were only commenced about three years ago, are now rapidly approaching completion, and Timaru will soon be one of the beat ports in the colony. We have also completed the long talked of scheme of providing Timaru with a supply of water for fire prevention and domestic purposes, and the Mayor and Councillors formally turned on the supply this afternoon in the presence of a large number of the townspeople. The Horticultural and Ploricultural exhibition of to-day shows that in the general race for wealth, the people have* not forgotten to cultivate the beauties of nature ; and the sham fight at the Washdyke is an evidence that Englishmen, although transplanted to the Antipodes, have not lost the martial ardour which for so many centuries has made our mother country respected and feared by all Foreign Powers.