d level, though the monotony of the site has
been much relieved by extensive plantations of English and Australian
trees. A background is supplied by the distant mountains to the west,
and by the nearer hills to the south. The small river Avon winds through
the city, pleasantly bordered by terraces and gardens. The wide streets
cross one another for the most part at right angles. The predominance of
stone and brick as building materials, the dominating cathedral spire,
and the well-planted parks, avenues and private gardens, recall the
aspect of an English residential town. Christchurch is mainly dependent
on the rich agricultural district which surrounds it, the plain being
mainly devoted to cereals and grazing. Wool is extensively worked, and
meat is frozen for export. Railways connect with Culverden to the north
and with Dunedin and the south coast, with many branches through the
agricultural districts; also with Lyttelton, the port of Christchurch, 8
m. S.E. There are tramways in the city, and to New Brighton, a seaside
suburb, and other residential quarters. The principal public buildings
are the government buildings and the museum, with its fine collection of
remains of the extinct bird, moa. The cathedral is the best in New
Zealand, built from designs of Sir G. Gilbert Scott in Early English
style, with a tower and spire 240 ft. high. Among educational
foundations are Canterbury College (for classics, science, engineering,
&c), Christ's College (mainly theological) and grammar school, and a
school of art. There is a Roman Catholic pro-cathedral attached to a
convent of the Sacred Heart. A large extent of open ground, to the west
of the town, finely planted, and traversed by the river, comprises
Hagley Park, recreation grounds, the Government Domain and the grounds
of the Acclimatization Society, with fish-ponds and a small zoological
garden. The foundation of Christchurch is connected with the so-called
"Canterbury Pilgrims," who settled in this district in 1850. Lyttelton
was the original settlement, but Christchurch came into existence in
1851, and is thus the latest of the settlements of the colony. It became
a municipality in 1862. In 1903 several populous suburban boroughs were
amalgamated with the city.

CHRISTIAN II. (1481-1559), king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, son of
John (Hans) and Christina of Saxony, was born at Nyborg castle in 1481,
and succeeded his father as king of Denmark and Norway in 1