passed the Hospital and Charitable Aid Ordinance, vesting the Hospital in the Superintendent, and giving rating powers for its maintenance.
It was about this time that an important institution, the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, began its career in Lyttelton, on August 19, 1859, under the title of Lyttelton Chamber of Commerce. (The name was afterwards changed on the removal of the Chamber to Christchurch in 1863).
Mr. Isaac Thomas Cookson, of the firm of Cookson, Bowler and Co., was the first President, and the list of his successors included the names of many of the most successful business men of Christchurch. The subsequent history of the institution has been so inseparably associated with the commercial history of the city and province that a separate record is hardly required. The Chamber of Commerce, in after years, took a prominent part in every movement to promote the commercial welfare of the district. Its headquarters were moved, in 1886, from Tattersall’s Buildings in Cashel Street, to its present chamber in the Australian Mutual Provident Buildings, Cathedral Square.
Mr. FitzGerald returned from England in April, 1860. While acting as Emigration Agent for Canterbury in London, his journalistic instincts had found scope in the re-establishment of the “Canterbury Papers” (New Series), in 1859. In his official capacity as Emigration Agent he had carried out the instructions of the Provincial Government, but on arrival in Canterbury, free from the shackles of his official position, he was at liberty to give expression to his personal opinions, and declared himself an opponent of the Lyttelton Tunnel, and was supported by many others whose opinions were entitled to carry weight. Shortly after his arrival, therefore, he entered into a crusade, with his customary vigour, against the Tunnel, and against Superintendent Moorhouse, who was its energetic promoter. He sought a
