Boundaries And Area.

The land district of Canterbury covers the central portion of the Middle Island, to the east of the Southern Alps. To the north the boundary follows the Conway River and then runs over Barefell Pass up to Mount Franklin. The western boundary runs from the Spenser Mountains by Mount Barrow, past the head of the Amuri and Hurunui Rivers, and along the summits of the Southern Alps, as far south as the river Hopkins and Lake Ohau. On the south the district is bounded by the rivers Ohau and Waitaki, and on the east by the South Pacific Ocean. The total length of the district is thus about 220 miles, and the average breadth from the summit of the Dividing Range to the sea is seventy miles. The total length of sea coast is about 300 miles; but this extensive coast line is mostly gently curving beach, broken by the projecting rocky mass of Banks' Peninsula, which contains the only natural harbours. To the north of Banks' Peninsula, the sandy beach runs along Pegasus Bay for over forty miles: to the south of Lake Ellesmere, the low dunes stretch for nearly 100 miles along the shore of the Canterbury Bight. The total area of the Canterbury land district is officially stated as 9,604,045 acres. Taking the area roughly at 15,000 square miles, Canterbury ranks in extent far below Otago and Auckland —25,000 square miles each; but considerably surpasses Wellington and Nelson, which come next in order of area, each with about 11,000 square miles.

The boundaries of the present district differ considerably from those of the original provincial district. The area of the Canterbury province was at first 8,985,400 acres. But the Canterbury land district now includes also Cheviot County—about 206,000 acres, and Amuri County, north of the Hurunui— page 8 about 1,511,700 acres, which originally belonged to the province of Nelson. The total area taken from Nelson was about 1,420,000 acres. But against this increase in the north must be set the large triangular district in the south-west corner of he province, which was taken from Canterbury and given to Otago. The area of this district was approximately about 500,000 acres. By this process of addition and reduction the area of Canterbury reaches the figures already given.