been Chairman of the Land Purchasers’ Society since its inception, declined nomination on the new committee. Later in the year, a third Society, the Christchurch Athenæum, claiming to be non-political, was founded under the Chairmanship of the Rev. O. Mathias.
In March, His Excellency Sir George Grey paid a visit to Canterbury, the first since the arrival of the Pilgrims. His Excellency met with a cold reception, the fact being that Mr. Godley had carried the Canterbury Settlement with him in his uncompromising hostility to Sir George Grey’s paper constitution.
The “Lyttelton Times” of April 24 announced the advent of its first rival, a weekly newspaper, “The Guardian and Canterbury Advertiser,” remarking that “apart from the pleasure which is afforded by so unmistakable an evidence of the advancing prosperity of the settlement, the appearance of an additional voice for the expression of public opinion will relieve us from the difficult position of endeavouring to do justice to the opinion of all parties in the community.” The new journal survived for less than a year, but the building in which it was printed became the seat of the first Provincial Council of Canterbury.
During this year there were frequent sales by auction of Christchurch sections. Hagley Park, 445 acres, was leased for one year at 2/7 per acre, and the Domain, 64 acres, at 4/7. (“Lyttelton Times,” April 24, 1852.) The prices secured for Christchurch sections at auction did not indicate the existence of a speculative spirit, but they showed that the colonists had confidence in the settlement. In April, a town section coveted by several bidders brought £40, and the “Lyttelton Times” mentioned that quarter-acre sections beyond the city boundaries had “fetched as much as eight pounds.” These prices were exceeded quickly, but the fact that the Canterbury Association was still offering town sections
