1853:The Southern Provinces Almanac

August 16, 2019

By AHNZ

I have brought something back to life.

The Southern provinces almanac, directory, diary and year-book was published from 1853 to 1892 in Christchurch. Originally the Almanac covered a number of provinces, but from 1865 the Almanac concentrated on Canterbury. This description, and full text scans of some of the editions, have been made available by Christchurch City Libraries.

The Almanac was a device for accessing the interlink of networked information about (and relevant to) the Southern Provinces. There are advertisements, lists of officials, directories for community and commercial services, and updates about the colony’s position. Of particular interest to me are the monthly climate updates that all seem to hold up very well today. Every month is described for what can be expected and the reference point used, of course, is what English month it would resemble.

What a British colony considers to be its important dates is also of interest. Most of the today-in-history events are things today’s New Zealander has never heard of. Perhaps your great great grandad owned this almanac and was able to stand out before the other farmers by being able to mention that, “Ah, August 20th today is it? The day in 1839 Hong Kong was taken!”

She Lives Again

I have made a copy of the monthly climate synopsis and the today-in-history information. Had to restrain myself from leaving out the religious occasions such as Tenth Sunday after Trinity as unimportant and put them in anyway. They were important days to our ancestors so belong in the calendar to maintain its integrity.

You can now visit the Anarchist History Today In History page to be presented with the current month’s climate and today’s historical event. Or, the same script is running below. This information has been dead, locked in old books since 1898. Now it’s live and useful again to be looked up online and you don’t even have to turn a page. At some time in the future I might create a similar almanac for Maoris.

February

22 February: Procl. Martial Law at Taranaki, 1860
This, the first autumnal month, like that of August in England,
usually displays more of the characteristics of summer weather than
that of autumn. Vegetation is still in the midst of luxuriant growth,
although the weather is generally hot and dry, so much so as to
suspend, in a great degree, the usual duties of planting and sowing,
and to restrict the operations of the garden to the collection of ripe
fruits for preserving. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, and raspberries
will now be ripening in great profusion, and ought to be collected
only when perfectly dry; for fruit gathered and boiled in a wet state
is sure to ferment.

Ref. Southern Provinces Almanac, 1868

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