September, 2025

There can’t be many places in the old British Empire which didn’t have some connection with Jane Austen and her family.  Her novels will have travelled all around the world with early settlers and travellers.

Jane’s brother Edward's grandsons, Arthur and Richard, emigrated to New Zealand in 1852, buying a run in Canterbury, the most genteel, organised and successful immigration scheme in the colonies.  They named their station “Steventon” after the family home in Hampshire.

 Jane Austen, born 250 years ago.  We celebrate here a very fine complete 1892 set of her works. 

 The brothers eventually sold the station into the hands of Lady Barker and her husband Frederick Broome. It was Steventon which figured in Lady Barker’s famous books on station life in New Zealand. 

 Canterbury Association arrived in Lyttelton in 1850 resulting in published accounts by the pioneers, and a concentrated effort to survey and map the region.  We have for sale, an early Canterbury map, and surveys from pioneer and naturalist Julius von Haast, inscribed, another, 1850 map, shows an inset of the new Canterbury settlement. Other items include C L Innes’ 1879 Canterbury Sketches, also collectable, and a rare set of The Lyttelton Times in 6 volumes, covering 1851 to 1857.

The strong association of England with Christchurch (Canterbury) still remains today.