Amuri County

{{Short description|Former county in New Zealand}} {{for|Amuri statistical area|Culverden#Amuri statistical area}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox Former Subdivision | conventional_long_name = Amuri County | common_name = Amuri County | image = Amuri County.jpg | subdivision = [[County (New Zealand)|County]] | nation = [[New Zealand]] | p1 = | s1 = | flag_s1 = | year_start = 1876 | event_end = | year_end = 1989 | date_end = | image_coat = | image_map = | capital = [[Culverden]] | stat_area1 = | stat_pop1 = | stat_year1 = | category = | today = [[Hurunui District]] | footnotes = | image_map_caption = Amuri County in 1981 }}

'''Amuri County''' is one of the former [[counties of New Zealand]], in the area that is now the north of [[Canterbury, New Zealand|Canterbury]] region.

During the period 1853 to 1876, the area that would become Amuri County was administered as part of [[Nelson Province]]. With the [[Provinces of New Zealand#Abolition of Provinces Act 1876|Abolition of Provinces Act 1876]], Amuri County was created, taking over administration of its area in January 1877. The county council's administrative headquarters was located in [[Culverden]], from 1890 until 1989.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/canterbury-places/page-2 | publisher=[[Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand]] | title=Canterbury places – Amuri district | first=John | last=Wilson | accessdate=9 January 2017}}</ref>

Other towns in the county included [[Hanmer Springs]] and [[Waiau, Canterbury|Waiau]].

Amuri County existed until the [[1989 local government reforms]], when the [[Hurunui District]] was formed through the amalgamation of the administrative areas of Amuri County, [[Cheviot County]] and the part of [[Kaikoura County]] south of the [[Hundalee Hills]] (an area which had been the subject of a failed 1971 proposal to create a Hurunui County).<ref name="2009 Hurunui merger">{{cite web |url= http://www.lgc.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/KaikouraHurunuiDetermination.pdf |title=Determination on proposal for the abolition of Kaikoura District and its inclusion in Hurunui District |work=[[Local Government Commission (New Zealand)|Local Government Commission]] |date=May 2009 |access-date=6 November 2018}}</ref> The last chairman of the county, John Chaffey, became the first mayor of Hurunui District.<ref>[http://www.hurunui.govt.nz/News/News.htm?sec=News&ID=5092 John Chaffey obituary, Hurunui District Council] {{Dead link|date=April 2016}}</ref>

Although there is no settlement named Amuri, the name lives on in a number of forms: The Amuri Community Arts Council, Amuri Area School in Culverden, and the Amuri ski field near Hanmer Springs. The county itself took its name from the [[Amuri Plain]], which surrounds [[Culverden]]. The headland of [[Amuri Bluff|Amuri (Haumuri) Bluff]] lies on the Pacific coast near [[Oaro]].

==See also== *[[Marmaduke Bethell]], chairman of the county (1917–1935)

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * MacFarlane, L.R.C. (1946) ''Amuri: The County – Old Times and Old People'', Christchurch, self-published

[[Category:Politics of the Canterbury Region]] [[Category:Counties of New Zealand]] [[Category:1876 establishments in New Zealand]] [[Category:1989 disestablishments in New Zealand]]