name Lyttelton was formalised by the governor in 1858 in honour of George William Lyttelton of the Canterbury Association, which had led the colonisation of the area. 19th and 20th century The Lyttelton Times was one of the principal newspapers of the Canterbury region for 80 years, published from 1851 until 1929, at which time it became the Christchurch Times, until publication ceased in 1935. On 1 July 1862, the first telegraph transmission in New Zealand was made from Lyttelton Post Office. On 1 January 1908, the Nimrod Expedition, headed by Ernest Shackleton to explore Antarctica left from the harbour here. The Lyttelton Harbour Board was created in 1877 to be in charge of the harbour's management. It was dissolved in 1989 after the passing of the 1988 Port Companies Act, which forced it to split into two separate organisations, one commercial (the Lyttelton Port Company, currently owned by Christchurch City Holdings, the commercial arm of the city council) and one non-commercial. In 1996 the Lyttelton Port Company registered on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. 1870 Lyttelton Fire On 24 October 1870, a fire broke out in the Queen's Hotel on London Street and had soon engulfed the main centre of Lyttelton. Prisoners of the Lyttelton Gaol were let out from their cells to help combat the flames. Two thirds of Lyttelton had been destroyed, with 30 businesses in all having perished in the fire, along with many private homes. Lyttelton Timeball Station The Lyttelton Timeball Station was erected in 1876 and started signalling Greenwich Mean Time to ships in the harbour that year. It was one of the world's five working timeball stations until it was destroyed by the June 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The castle-like building was located high on a ridge above the port with extensive views over the harbour. The tower, but not the rest of the building, has been faithfully reconstructed and was once again in working order at the end of 2018. 2010–2011 earthquakes The 2010 Canterbury earthquake damaged some of Lyttelton's historic buildings, including the Timeball Station. There was some damage to the town's infrastructure, but the port facilities and tunnel quickly returned to operation. The overall quake damage was less significant than in Christchurch itself, due to the dampening effects of the solid rock that the town rests on and its moderate distance from the epicentre. On a magnitude 6.3 aftershock caused much