The provinces are abolished
- When
- 1 November 1876
- Reach
- Nationwide
Nine provincial governments were swept away and replaced by central government plus counties and boroughs — the shape of local government for the next century.
The provinces had run land sales, immigration, public works and education in their own way, producing wildly different systems in a country of 400,000 people. Vogel’s borrowing had already moved the real money to Wellington. Abolition centralised power decisively, and the regional rivalries it was meant to end have outlived it by 150 years.
Regions affected
Sources
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Related
New Zealand Constitution Act
Representative government arrived, divided into six provinces — and the property franchise excluded almost all Māori, who held land communally.
The first Labour government
Michael Joseph Savage led Labour to a landslide and built the welfare state: state houses, guaranteed prices, free health care and a 40-hour week.
WellingtonNew Zealand enters the First World War
About 100,000 served overseas from a population of just over a million. Around 18,000 died and 41,000 were wounded — proportionally among the heaviest losses of any country.
The Liberals take power
The world’s first organised political party to hold national office began two decades of reform that made New Zealand a byword for social experiment.