New Zealand’s Oldest Illustrated Children’s Is Begun In Lyttelton – 1851

In 2000, as part of Canterbury’s 150th anniversary, New Zealand’s oldest illustrated childrens book was returned to Christchurch (from England) where it had been penned from 1851 to 1858. James Edward Fitzgerald – Canterbury’s first Superintendent and founder of ‘The Press’ – began to make the book for the three-year-old son of Canterbury Founder and …