The history of the University of Canterbury in its first hundred years is published to commemorate the University's centennial in 1973. It gives a critical account of the government, administration and financing of the University and its forerunner, Canterbury College; of its academic achievement in teaching and research; of the life of the University as a community; and of its relations with the wider community beyond its walls. It emphasizes the rapid growth of the University in the last quarter-century and attempts to capture the spirit of each phase of its past, not least by pen sketches of many of the personalities who helped to mould its character. The volume is divided into three chronological Parts and an Epilogue. Part I, which carries the story up to 1918, is the work of Mr W.J. Gardner, a Canterbury graduate and at present a Reader in History in the University. Mr E.T. Beardsley, the University's Information Officer, wrote Part 2 (1918-48) and Professor T.E. Carter, Head of the Department of German, wrote Part 3 (1949-73). The book was edited by Professor N.C. Phillips, formerly Head of the Department of History and now Vice-Chancellor and Rector, who also wrote the Epilogue, which forms Part 4. It is fully documented and contains 32 pages of illustrations.