A Place to Settle
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| Land Office with flag flying |
Buying land
The Canterbury Association’s plans for orderly settlement continued with the sale of land from the Land Office on the corner of Oxford Terrace and Worcester Street. On Monday 17 February fifty copies of the Canterbury Block were available and the fifty first land selections were made.
This oil painting by Henry Ffitch in 1851 shows the Land Office with flag flying. The Land Office features in several early images of the Canterbury Settlement. Find the Land Office in these images:
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| Early view of Christchurch 1851 | Christchurch, December 1852 | Oxford Terrace looking north 1870s |
To be sold for the Canterbury Association
When John Maloney brought land as the highest bidder at an auction in Lyttelton he was required to travel to the Land Office in Christchurch the following month to finalise details.
To be sold for the Canterbury Association by order of their Principal Agent, JOHN ROBERT GODLEY, ESQ., at the Canterbury Association’s Store in Lyttelton, in the Canterbury Settlement, New Zealand, the 2 day of July 1851.
…At the sale by Auction every Lot shall be put up at the upset price of £12 for each quarter of an acre as fixed by the said Terms of Purchase and if no higher price or sum be bidden the same Lot shall be considered as sold upon the said Terms to the Purchaser (if any) who shall have first deposited such upset price and duly expressed his desire to purchase the same by private contract but in any R.W. case the Lot shall be sold to the highest bidder…
Memorandum of agreement referred to above:- I hereby acknowledge myself to be the Purchaser of the lot No. 10 Sections 852,854 in the annexed particulars of Sale by the Canterbury Association, mentioned or referred to being two quarter acres sections of town land at Christchurch and numbered 852,854 on the map of the Canterbury Association at the price or sum of £27 as such Purchaser, and accordingly to pay the sum of £21 the remainder of the purchase money , to John Robert Godley, ESQ., the principal agent of the said Association at the Land Office of the said Association, in Christchurch, on or before the 1st day of August next, and in all other respects to complete the said purchase by me this day made according to the said conditions.
Witness my hand at Lyttelton this 2 day of July 1851
Signed by the mark of X John Maloney
Witness
Rich.Wormald
Solicitor Lyttelton
See also >>
Our new land | Food | Shelter | Stormy weather | Bridle Path | A place to settle | Georgiana’s letter