CHRISTCHURCH, the capital of the province of Canterbury, New Zealand, is situated in 43° 34' S. lat. and 172° 35' E. long., on both banks of the small river Avon, about five miles from the sea. It is built upon the great Canterbury plain, which here is a dead level, though the monotony of the site has been much relieved by extensive plantations of English and Australian trees. The town is about a mile square, and the streets, which are wide and well paved, cross one another for the most part at right angles. Christchurch contains a number of handsome public and private buildings, is lighted with gas, and is amply supplied with water from numerous artesian wells. It is the centre of the rapidly extending railway system of the province, and is connected with its port, Lyttelton, by a lino eight miles in length, which penetrates the hills enclosing Port Cooper, on which Lyttelton stands, by means of a tunnel a mile in length. The population of the municipality of Christchurch in March 1876 was officiallyestimated at 10,750, and that of the electoral district at 13,000.