The Lyttelton Harbour Board held its first meeting on 18 January 1877.
[3] The ten inaugural members were Edward Richardson, John Hall, Hugh Murray-Aynsley, Peter Cunningham, Richard James Strachan Harman, David Craig, John Anderson, Edward George Wright, Henry Sawtell, and John T. Rouse.
Richardson was unanimously elected as the inaugural chairman.
[4] The table below shows the original membership of the harbour board: Cunningham resigned in late 1877 and was replaced by Charles Wesley Turner, the deputy chair of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce.
Harry Allwright was elected mayor of Lyttelton in December 1877 and thus replaced Rouse.