Papanui is a major suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is situated five kilometers to the northwest of the city centre. Papanui is a middle socio-economic area with a population of 3,645 consisting predominantly of Pākehā (NZ European & Others) 86.9%, Asian 7.6%, Māori 5.3%, Pacific peoples 3.1%, Middle Eastern/Latin American/African 0.7% (2013 census). The suburb is located at the junction of three busy thoroughfares; Papanui Road leading to the city, the Main North Road that leads to North Canterbury and Harewood Road that leads to Christchurch International Airport. However, as with most Christchurch suburbs, Papanui has no defined borders.
Over the last 160 years Papanui has developed into a major suburban centre and is a satellite centre for Government and City Council services. These include the central government 'Super Centre' in Winstone Avenue, Housing New Zealand in Restell Street and the Council Service Centre and Library on Langdons Road. The area has two high schools and five primary schools. There is little farm land left in the suburb with most of it having been developed into residential and commercial properties.
Etymology
The Māori name Papanui literally translated means 'Big plain' (papa means flat and nui means big), a name which would aptly suit most of central Christchurch, which is one of New Zealand's flattest cities. Another meaning, equally applicable to the district in the early days, is a platform set in the branches of a tree to accommodate a bird-spearer. A third meaning for the word Papanui comes from a Māori Legend and refers to a large funeral pyre. According to the legend, Tuhaitara, a Ngāi Tahu princess, sent her eldest son, Tamarairoa to Papanui to kill her former husband Marukore. But Marukore was aware of his son's intentions and when Tamarairoa and his younger brother arrived, Marukore killed them both and burnt their bodies on a huge pyre.
History
Pre-European
Before European settlement Papanui, like much of Christchurch, was mostly marshy ground covered with native flax, toetoe and raupō brush. There was an abundance of forest birds which were hunted for food by the area's Māori inhabitants. It is believed in 1800 possibly as many as 5000 Māori lived in Canterbury, but from disease like measles and influenza, introduced through the early whaling settlements on Banks Peninsula, and through tribal wars the number had fallen to around 500 in 1840. While most of the plains in the South Island of New Zealand were deforested by either the Māori or the so-called moa hunters in the mid-1300s, Papanui Bush was one of the few stands of pine and tōtara left in the Canterbury region at the time of European colonisation.
European colonisation
The Canterbury Association's surveyor Captain Joseph Thomas and his team of surveyors arrived in Lyttelton (originally named Port Cooper) on 15 December 1848 on the ship Fly. They began to survey the Port Hills and Canterbury Plains around what would become Christchurch and its suburbs. As chief agent for the association Thomas was also responsible for preparing the infrastructure for the arrival of the first settlers at Lyttelton in December 1850. The First Four Ships, Charlotte Jane, Randolph, Sir George Seymour and Cressy landed 773 colonists. By the first anniversary of the first landing fifteen more ships had arrived bringing the colonist population to 3,000. By 1876 the estimated population of the city and suburbs was around 23,000 with the number increasing to 44,000 by 1886.
Papanui Bush
When the pilgrims first began to settle in Christchurch in the early 1851, Papanui Bush attracted a number of sawyers who made a living from milling tōtara and pine timber for construction and fire wood. Near the bush a settlement sprung up along on the old Māori track leading north to Kaiapoi which eventually became the Main North Road. The settlement soon boasted a hotel, store, blacksmiths, clothing shop, butchers, chemist, dispensers, and a school room appeared in 1853. Due to the pressing need for building materials in Christchurch, Papanui Road was one of the first roads built outside the city boundaries. The Papanui Bridge was also built over the Avon River in March 1852 to allow the timber to be brought by bullock drawn wagons directly into the Market Square near the city centre. In 1857 sawmilling had attracted a population of 692 to the Papanui village compared with 953 in Christchurch in the same year.