2-888-624 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Site of the Canterbury Settlement, New Zealand, 1850. '...the promoters believe that their scheme will prove attractive to a class whom the tone of society prevalent in other colonies has hitherto operated to repel. That the capitalist will see in its economical features security for safe and profitable investment; and that thus, for the first time in the history of colonization, there will be a newly-planted colony, not languishing for years amidst difficulty and disaster, but springing at once into rapid prosperity...The site of the projected colony consists of 2,400,000 acres, on the east coast of Middle Island, in a favourable position, apart from older settlements, and from the vicinity of the natives. It comprises 1,705,000 acres of plain land; of wood land, 237,100 acres; and of mountain and hill land, 397,900 acres; the total population of the native settlements being 359'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.