A prominent hill, 2,218 ft above sea level, it lies 8 miles north of Dunedin in Waikouaiti County, Otago Province. It is a prominent landmark visible from Dunedin City and most parts of the district, and was named after Captain W. Cargill, leader of the Otago colonists who arrived at Otago Harbour in the John Wickliffe on 23 March 1848. This is one of the volcanic hills surrounding Dunedin City; the summit portion consists of a basaltic plug with columnar, spheriodal, and tabular structures, and the flanks consist of gently sloping lava flows. A scenic motor road which runs from Waitati along the eastern slopes of Cargill to Dunedin presents magnificent views of Otago Harbour, the city, and its environs.

by Bryce Leslie Wood, M.SC., New Zealand Geological Survey, Dunedin.

The only crime punishable by death in New Zealand is treason, the death penalty for murder and piracy having been abolished in 1961.

As far as is known, there have been no executions in this country except for murder. Originally, however, death was the prescribed punishment for a number of crimes, and until 1867 the death penalty theoretically applied to certain types of arson, certain acts done with intent to murder, buggery, and robbery with violence. Before 1862 executions were in public; since then they have taken place within prison walls, the only persons entitled to be present, apart from those officiating, being Justices of the Peace and up to 10 adult male spectators at the sheriff's discretion. The method of execution has always been hanging.

The first execution in New Zealand was that of a Maori named Maketu, convicted at Auckland in 1842. This was said to have much impressed the natives of that area with the effectiveness, impartiality, and fearlessness of British justice. But the circumstances which permitted Maketu's trial were exceptional, and for many years afterwards, because of the uncertain nature of British control over native territory, Maori murderers outside the settled areas had to fear only the possible vengeance of their fellows.

Figures for the period before the seventies are not readily obtainable, but murders and executions seem to have been much more numerous proportionately than in this century. In the eighties there were 12 executions, in the nineties seven, and from 1900 to 1909 there were three executions out of 15 murder convictions. From these figures it must have seemed that capital punishment was gradually falling into disuse, but after 1920 there was a regression to a harsher policy. Between 1920 and 1935 there were 26 convictions and 13 executions.

The abolition of capital punishment had long been the policy of the Labour Party, and after it took office in 1935 all death sentences were commuted. This policy was confirmed by the abolition of the death penalty for murder in 1941. In 1950 the National Party, then in power, restored it, and from 1951 to 1957 there were 18 convictions for murder and eight executions. From 1958 to 1960 the death penalty was again made inoperative by a Labour Government through the automatic exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy. Finally, in 1961, a free vote of Parliament, in which 10 members of the National Government voted with the opposition, removed capital punishment from the statute book except for treason.

The arguments of supporters and opponents of capital punishment are variants of a few basic ones. Some who favour it rely on the claim that it is a more effective deterrent. Others assert that, deterrent or not, execution is the only fitting punishment for some murders. These have their counterpart in the abolitionists who claim that the death penalty is never justifiable. Most opponents of capital punishment, however, either deny that it is necessary to protect society, or stress the danger of innocent persons being executed.

In New Zealand the battle has been waged at public level principally on the issue of deterrence. Both sides have valid points to make. There is evidence that in certain cases the death penalty can deter, although the New Zealand instances most quoted are unconvincing. On the other hand, statistics show that the form of punishment has no detectable effect on the number of murders. What probably did more than anything else to secure abolition in New Zealand was a growing belief that the situation whereby the fate of a convicted murderer depended not on his crime but on the political colour of the Government in power was intolerable. This undoubtedly influenced many whom the arguments of abolitionists had failed to convince.

by Bruce James Cameron, B.A., LL.M., Legal Adviser, Department of Justice, Wellington.

During the last decade the rural population increased by 4.65 per cent, but the bald census returns require further interpretation, especially for the back-country counties. In Tawera, Oxford, Amuri, Kawai, and Geraldine counties it would seem that the increases have been registered in the small townships rather than in the distinctly agricultural districts, whereas in Waipara and Cheviot counties the actual farming districts appear to have shown an increase in population. The decline in Mackenzie county is attributable to the completion of the hydro constructions on Lakes Tekapo and Pukaki and the abandonment of construction camps. Over the same period of time the urban population has increased by 26.16 per cent and the increase in the Christchurch region was slightly higher at 26.58 per cent.

The Christchurch Region hardly requires a separate treatment from Christchurch City, but one must note the expansion that has occurred and the main features of its economic structure. In 1961 the Christchurch Employment District, which includes the urban area and the counties of North Canterbury, had a total labour force of approximately 100,300, of which 33,300 were engaged in manufacturing. In the period April 1953 to April 1961 the labour force in manufacturing increased by 21.97 per cent, slightly below the national rate at 24.14 per cent, whereas the total labour force increased by 20.11 per cent, compared with the national figure of 18.24 per cent. The proportion of the labour force engaged in primary industries is inevitably lower in the Christchurch Employment Area, 9.07 per cent, than in the Ashburton Employment District (33.75 per cent) and the Timaru Employment District (23.49 per cent). The labour forces in these two districts have shown lower rates of growth than that of the Christchurch district. In Ashburton the labour force engaged in manufacturing grew by 15.38 per cent and the total labour force by 5.26 per cent. In Timaru the labour force in manufacturing grew by 12.12 per cent and the total labour force by 6.39 per cent.

It would be meaningless to present a figure for the combined employment districts, simply because within Canterbury there is a clear division between the development of its agricultural industries and regions and the industries of the Christchurch urban area. The productivity of the farming areas is reflected by the increases in the sheep (43.69 per cent) and breeding ewe (51.64 per cent) numbers during 1951–61, both rates being above national rates. The continued application of modern methods and techniques ought to sustain, especially in the plains, the growth of the rural economy. The Christchurch Region contains 66.29 per cent of the regional population; it is favoured as an industrial centre by the supply of power and water, by the flat and cheap land and its attractive surroundings. Furthermore, with its strong tradition, both in the arts and in the applied sciences, Christchurch ought to be capable of maintaining its position within an increasingly industrialised New Zealand.

by Samuel Harvey Franklin, B.COM.GEOG., M.A.(BIRMINGHAM), Senior Lecturer, Geography Department, Victoria University of Wellington.

• A History of Canterbury, Vol. I, Hight, J., and Straubel, C. R. eds, (1951), “The Land of Canterbury”, Jobberns, G.
• Land and Livelihood, McCaskill, M. ed. (1962), “The Fragmentation of Farm Land in Canterbury”, Johnston, W. B.
• Proceedings of the Second New Zealand Geography Conference, Christchurch, (1958), “Irrigation in Canterbury”, Stuart, R. C.
• New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Vols. 81 and 82, Nov 1950–Feb 1951, “Farming in Canterbury”, Stephens, P. R.
• New Zealand Geographer, Vol. 13, April 1957, “The Vegetation of Castle Hill Basin”, Relph, D. H.

On the lower easier parts of the ranges, where the snow risk is not great, are the store-sheep farms, the runs averaging between 8,000 and 10,000 acres and Corriedale and cross-bred flocks predominate. Immediately adjacent to the plains and extending in a narrow belt throughout Canterbury lies the foothill country, undulating to hilly land nearly all ploughable. In South Canterbury as late as the 1950s the foothills were a rather depressed agricultural area. During the inter-war period a Department of Agriculture survey revealed 72 per cent of the farms to be uneconomic units and, despite amalgamations, 59 per cent remained uneconomic in the post-war period. After a period when, like the rest of the plains, the area had been extensively grazed with Merino and half-bred flocks and ploughed up for wheat farming, a policy of closer settlement and returned-soldier settlement led to the subdivision of the large estates and the establishment of 200- to 400-acre farms which, under a system of intensive cereal cropping, proved incapable of maintaining the rent and mortgage charges. To meet the crisis some farmers concentrated on cereal production, thus depleting the fertility of the soil; those more unfortunate left their properties. Once again in Canterbury the institutional framework proved inadequate for the needs of the farmers and the necessities of the environment. However, with increased size of holdings and the application of established fertiliser and pasture practices, the farmers of the area can anticipate a more prosperous future.

Christchurch and Timaru apart, the settlements of Canterbury are concerned with servicing the requirements of the rural community. North Canterbury is without any major settlement and the local trade is conducted in the small townships, like Culverden, 397; Waiau, 386; Cheviot, 491; Amberley, 714; and Oxford, 871 – population figures are for 1961. Rangiora and Kaiapoi both possess a number of agricultural processing industries, whilst Kaiapoi has also woollen and textile mills. In the period 1951–61 it showed a high rate of growth, increasing by 38·46 per cent. Ashburton, for its size, also grew at a fast rate, 40·0 per cent; again its industrial activities were an important factor in the growth. South Canterbury has a larger number of towns than the northern part of the region and, in addition, it possesses small servicing centres, such as Methven, 960; Rakaia, 768; Pareora, 605; Pleasant Point, 895; and Fairlie, 844.

The wealth of Canterbury lies in the plains; the mountains and the foothills have the scenery, the romance, and the problems, for there the older extensive farming systems have persisted almost unchanged and in an environment which is marginal. The high country extends in a sweep of broken and steep country along the eastern flanks of the Southern Alps from Otago through Canterbury to Nelson and Marlborough. The soils are thin and poor, often infertile, and usually unstable under excessive stocking and burning. Tussock grassland (Festuca and the grasses of the Danthonia genus predominating) is the principal vegetation below 5,000 ft and forms the basis for the extensive runs of 50,000 and more acres with their fine-wool Merino and half-bred flocks. Some of the land is freehold, but most of it is held under Crown lease, the lessees often owning the land in the immediate vicinity of the homesteads or near fords. A critical factor in the management and the stocking of the runs is the apportionment of the land between the high summer pastures and the important winter holding pastures, which are not covered by snow for long periods. Cropping is rare and is limited to small patches of valley bottom land; hence the farmer is overwhelmingly dependent upon pasture growth for his feed, and this he has sought to encourage by constant burning to produce fresh green shoots palatable to the sheep. The consequence has been invasion by less palatable species like scabweed, fennel, and thistle, and accelerated erosion; reaching extreme proportions in some areas, as, for example, at Mount Peel, the upper Rangitata, and the upper Ashburton areas.

The environmental problems of the high country have received much and often overdramatised publicity, whilst the institutional framework which has committed the runholders to a continuance of these harmful practices and made alternative systems impracticable has largely been ignored. Properly organised and financed research into the ecology of the region commenced only this decade, 40 years after A. H. Cockayne underlined the need to discover palatable grass species with which to regenerate the pastures, and 40 years after he had established trial blocks which later fell into disuse. The Soils Conservation and Rivers Control Act of 1941 gave the necessary legal framework for legislative action and, in the post-war period, the Tussock Grasslands Research Committee was established in 1952 and the Tussock Grasslands and Mountains Institute in 1960. An important contribution to maintaining production has been made by aerial topdressing and oversowing, so that in recent years the Land Settlement Board has acceded to many requests by the runholders to increase their stocking.

The power of the Land Board to intervene in the management of the runs stems from the legislation contained in the 1924 and 1948 Land Acts, the latter Act being the more important, for it abolished finally the auctioning of pastoral leases and extended the period of the lease from 21 to 33 years, granting the occupying leaseholder preference in renewing. Thus two of the most iniquitous features of high-country tenures were removed. From the period when the runs were first established, the practice of auctioning pastoral leases had led to inflated land prices, speculation, and the mining of the soil's fertility. Absentee ownership, and subletting, and the mortgaging of land acted as a further discouragement to good farming. Furthermore, the licensee has never been able upon quittance to claim from the Crown compensation for improvements. The most recent legislation has made no significant change in this respect. But the Marginal Lands Act has provided a welcome source of development finance and the Land Board is permitted to finance improvements which are considered necessary or justified. Nevertheless, throughout almost the whole of its history, the high country has been worked under the most disadvantageous of tenurial practices and with a minimum of scientific knowledge. The results are apparent in the landscape even to the undiscerning traveller.

By 1958–59 the installed irrigation works were capable of watering approximately 150,000 acres and the total irrigable area was estimated at 650,000 acres. This figure is to be compared with the 850,000 acres of light soils. The existing schemes lie between Ashburton and Waimate, with the Ashburton-Lyndhurst Scheme supplying a net area of 32,000 acres, the Mayfield-Hinds Scheme supplying 85,000 acres, and the Valetta-Tinwald Scheme, 13,000 acres. The earliest of schemes (1938), Redcliff and Levels, waters 125,000 acres. The largest of the projected schemes lie north of Ashburton and towards Christchurch, with the most northerly ones near Culverden. The current schemes draw water from the Rangitata River diversion race and, by means of border dykes, the water from the head race is flooded across the pastures. The labour requirements are considerable, but not uneconomic, and automatic irrigation is an unlikely development. The relatively slow progress made in the extension of the schemes is in part due to the adoption of cheaper and more effective alternatives. The use of fertilisers, insecticides, lucerne and lucerne-grass mixtures, together with close subdivision, have doubled profits per acre. Nevertheless, irrigation remains an important and economical factor in the future.

Through the ports of Lyttelton and Timaru passes the produce of the region; 48,654 tons of frozen meat and 34,091 tons of wool were shipped in 1963 from Lyttelton in overseas ships, and also 5,485 tons of seeds, 6,399 tons of beans and peas, and 8,639 tons of hides; 26,001 tons of grain and 7,720 tons of flour were carried by coastal vessels. Similarly with Timaru, 35,804 tons of flour, 17,389 tons of cereal products, and 10,081 tons of potatoes, etc., were loaded into coastal vessels, whilst 52,020 tons of frozen meat and 21,744 tons of wool were shipped overseas. In terms of tonnage handled, Lyttelton is the third largest port in the country.

The low rainfall, the “shortage of water”, were recognised as limiting factors during the first decade of settlement, but the initial phases of agricultural development sought to avoid these problems rather than confront them, first, by farming the plains under a system of extensive pastoralism and, later, by introducing a hardly less extensive system of cereal cultivation. In the 1850s, apart from a small area of mixed farming near Christchurch, the whole of the plains and much of the foothills and ranges were opened up under pastoral leases for grazing, a number of Australians experienced in working large sheep stations being attracted to the province. The grazing practices were extensive and, because of land speculation and burning of the tussock grasses, often destructive of the habitat, especially in the steeper country. Nevertheless, large fortunes were made and the squatters dominated the political life of the region until they were challenged by the smaller farmers in the 1880s, when refrigeration made intensive farming a possibility. Between 1858 and 1867 the total population increased from 8,967 to 38,333, and in the next decade it rose to 91,922 (1878). This decade witnessed the boom period and the creation of the railway network; the Lyttelton line was opened in 1867 and the link with Dunedin completed in 1878.

The deteriorating quality of the tussock pastures necessitated ploughing, and with the improved transport offered by the new railway system this became the important factor in the expansion of the bonanza wheat farms. By 1883, 4 million bushels of wheat were exported. Wheat farming proved to be a very profitable venture, the large landowners benefiting by mechanisation, which reduced their labour costs, and by the large scale of their operations. Utilising the untapped fertility of the virgin soils, they at first obtained high yields, but these were not sustained and production fell off in the marginal areas. The transitory features of the bonanza period ought not to obscure the fact that it constituted a critical period in the agricultural development of Canterbury. Apart from accustoming the farming community to mechanised farming, it brought that community face to face with the question of conducting arable farming under the particular environmental conditions of the region, and it made it quite clear that a sound system of arable farming could be obtained only on a scientific basis. Thus, in a sense, Hilgendorf's later work is directly related to the establishment at the time of Lincoln Agricultural College.

In the 1880s Canterbury farming entered a new phase of development associated with the introduction of refrigeration and the breaking up of larger estates. In a drive towards a more intensive type of farming the farmers could no longer avoid the problems posed by climate and soils and their increasing degree of success in dealing with these problems is reflected in a number of ways: by the reversal in the trend of wheat yields, by the changing character of the sheep flocks, and by the establishment of a system of mixed arable farming.

The soils of the plain are derived mostly from river deposits – gravels, sands and silt, and clays – which in places have been overlain by loess. In composition the soils range from rich loams to peats and thin droughty soils, and within any one district a range of soil types is to be expected. For the farmer the most critical factor is the moisture capacity of the various soils, for under relatively low-rainfall conditions (annual average rainfall, Christchurch, 26.3 in.; Timaru, 23.5 in.), high sunshine hours, and, especially, strong drying winds, and in a system of mixed arable farming, the maintenance of pasture and fodder production becomes a major difficulty.

With the establishment in the early 1880s of a London market for frozen meat, farming in Canterbury entered a more intensive phase. Leicester rams were used with Merino and half-bred ewes to produce the original Canterbury lamb. The extension of fencing permitted better feeding practices and the necessity of supplementary feeding was soon recognised. The land legislation of the 1890s was aimed at destroying the domination of the large landowners. By the beginning of the First World War the Government had acquired approximately 453,000 acres for subdivision in North Canterbury, in the Cheviot and Amuri counties, and in South Canterbury, to the south of Ashburton.

Though intensive, Canterbury farming could hardly be described as scientific until the inter-war period. The importance of lime was not recognised until the 1930s, the period when the value of subterranean clovers and improved strains of rye grass was first widely appreciated. In 1928 the Wheat Research Institute was established to continue the researches of Hilgendorf into improved wheat varieties and, with the establishment of the Winchmore Irrigation Station in 1946, another aspect of Canterbury farming was brought under scientific study. Not until the 1960s, however, were the tussock lands of the high country given their due, with the establishment of the Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute. In 1911 the Canterbury Land District had 4.31 million sheep. By 1921 the figure was 4.49 million; by 1931, 5.41 million; by 1951, 5.70 million; and by 1960, 7.86 million. The impact of science and technology during the post-war period is evident from these figures.

The area where cropping is carried on extends from Culverden in the north towards Timaru in the south and reaches its greatest width in Ashburton County. Two principal types of farms are operated. The first is dependent upon the sale of fat lambs and wool for its income; and its cropping programme is directed towards the production of fodder, but some cash crops are grown. The second type draws its revenue mostly from the sale of cash crops. Dairy farming, with some cropping for fodder and specialised dairying, is concentrated in the vicinity of Christchurch, a feature borne out by the ratio of dairy cows in milk per hundred shorn sheep. The Christchurch Region is also the centre of market gardening, orchards, and small-fruit growing. In 1960, 211,915 acres were under cereals for threshing in the Canterbury Land District and 259,147 acres of land were devoted to the production of fodder-crops. In addition 102,507 acres were producing grass seed.

The air approach to Harewood brings in to view at once all the major elements of Canterbury's geography. Immediately below the aircraft lies a unique feature in the New Zealand landscape, the checkerboard pattern of the fields, emphasised in early spring by the dark colour of ploughed land against the green pasture, and in early summer variegated by the distinct hues of cereals, crops, and pastures. This farm land extends across the gravel fans which make up the plains; the pattern is broken by stretches of poor dry pasture, where the gravels are coarser, and by the darker stains of coniferous forests. Across all this is lain a reticule of roads and irrigation channels drawn in strict, undeviating, linear patterns. To the west lie the foothills, broached through strikingly terraced gorges by the principal rivers that pour out on to the plains, their wide, cursive, braided river beds crossed by narrow road and rail bridges. Beyond are the foothills of the Southern Alps in all their majesty. Christchurch City, its commercial and industrial sector hidden in a gardenlike landscape, laps on to the foot of Banks Peninsula (q. v.), itself a remarkable structure – a dissected basalt dome with erosion calderas at Lyttelton and Akaroa.

The absence of forest and the extensive level surfaces of tussock land explain in part the early prominence and economic importance of Canterbury. Without significant gold discoveries to provide a stimulus, economic development depended upon the establishment of pastoralism and agriculture. In the process of development many problems associated with the exploitation of a new environment and the elaboration of suitable institutional framework were encountered for the first time. Canterbury's prominence in the political, social, and academic life of the country must in part be attributed to the successful manner in which so many of the new problems were solved.

The Canterbury region lies to the east of the Southern Alps in the South Island and extends over a distance of approximately 200 miles from the Waiau River in the north to the Waitaki River in the south. Christchurch (Urban Area population, 220,510, 1961) is the largest city of the region and is dealt with separately elsewhere. In order to present a complete statistical account of the whole region, the statistics for the following counties, including their interior boroughs and cities, have been combined and are presented under the heading of “Christchurch Region”: the counties are Paparua, Waimairi, Heathcote, Halswell, and Mount Herbert. In a similar fashion the statistics for Akaroa and Wairewa Counties have been combined and are presented here under the title of “Banks Region”. In 1961 the Canterbury region had a total population of 343,196 (14.21 per cent of the New Zealand total population) of which 0.08 per cent were registered as Maoris.