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This history aims to meet a felt need locally for an account of the development of the Ashburton region. However its publication is immediately due to outside demands. Mrs Thelma McArtney, as Borough librarian, repeatedly received requests from libraries throughout New Zealand to recommend a history of Ashburton and was unable to satisfy them. As a consequence, she and Mrs Ethel McQuilkin presented a case for the production of a regional history to the County and Borough Councils, which thereupon commissioned this book. The requirements of both the local and the outside reader have been kept in mind. The book tells the story of the main events in the life of the growing Ashburton community and describes in some detail the more important changes which took place. It pays greater attention than is usual in such histories to the character as well as the achievements of individual people. Some are local notables, some are selected as outstanding for one reason or another, a few are chosen as typical. These personal descriptions probably give more intimate pictures of life at different periods than do accounts of happenings or of environmental changes. However, the emphasis on a relatively few individuals has been made at the expense of the lists of people (of little interest to the outsider) often found in local histories. The full records given in Part V have therefore been compiled to compensate for their omission from the main text. Mistakes are inevitable among so much detail. But the number has been kept as low as constant checking and considerable effort can manage.

The background to Ashburton history is supplied by the three volumes of A History of Canterbury. Moreover, much information of interest to the student but not to other readers is contained especially in the graphs and tables in Volume III. Conversely the Ashburton story provides illustrations (not found in the provincial history) of many aspects of Canterbury life, for example of land purchase, pre-emptive rights, road board affairs and farming practices.

Readers will doubtless welcome the inclusion in Part 5 of