Amuri County is one of the former counties of New Zealand, in the area that is now the north of Canterbury Region. The county council was based in Culverden

Culverden

Culverden is a small town in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. The 2006 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings had a usually-resident population of 420. This represented an increase of 7% or 27 people from the previous census in 2001.Culverden is located on State Highway...

 from 1890 until 1989. Other towns in the county include Hanmer Springs

Hanmer Springs

Hanmer Springs is a small town in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located 65 kilometres southwest of Kaikoura , in the Hurunui District. The town lies on a minor road 9 kilometres north of State Highway 7, the northern route between Christchurch and the West Coast...

 and Waiau. It was amalgamated with Cheviot County

Cheviot County

Cheviot County was one of the counties of New Zealand in the South Island....

, Hurunui County and part of Kaikoura County into the Hurunui District

Hurunui District

The Hurunui District is a political district on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, north of Christchurch, New Zealand. It forms part of the Canterbury region and stretches from the east coast to the main divide. Its land area is ....

as part of the local Government reforms of 1989. The last chairman of the county, John Chaffey, became the first mayor of Hurunui District.

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.

Further reading

• MacFarlane, L.R.C. Amuri: The County - Old Times and Old People

Christchurch, Published By Author, 1946