Government & law

Hongi Hika travels to England

The Ngāpuhi leader met King George IV in London, then converted the gifts he received into muskets on the return journey through Sydney.

James Busby arrives as British Resident

Britain’s first official in New Zealand arrived with a grand title, no troops, no budget and no legal authority — remembered as a man-of-war without guns.

The flag of the United Tribes is chosen

Twenty-five northern rangatira selected a national flag so that New Zealand-built ships could be registered and trade legally.

New Zealand becomes a separate colony

New Zealand was detached from New South Wales and given its own Governor, Legislative Council and courts.

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 Parliament meets

Thirty-seven members assembled in a temporary building in Auckland and immediately began demanding control of the executive.

Responsible government begins

Henry Sewell formed the first ministry answerable to Parliament rather than to the Governor — though Māori affairs stayed in the Governor’s hands.

Pōtatau Te Wherowhero becomes the first Māori King

Te Kīngitanga

Iwi across the central North Island raised a king to hold land, halt sales and deal with the Crown as an equal. The Kīngitanga continues today.

The capital moves to Wellington

Australian commissioners were asked to pick a more central capital, and chose Wellington. Auckland was furious and briefly talked of separation.

Māori Representation Act

Four Māori seats were created as a temporary measure, giving Māori men the vote twelve years before all Pākehā men got it.

The provinces are abolished

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 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.

Te Kotahitanga — the Māori Parliament

Te Kotahitanga o Te Tiriti o Waitangi

A Māori parliament met annually for a decade, seeking the self-government promised by Te Tiriti and passing its own legislation.

New Zealand declines to join Australia

A royal commission weighed federation with the new Commonwealth of Australia and recommended against it. The Australian constitution still leaves the door open.

New Zealand becomes a Dominion

The colony was renamed a Dominion — a change of title that Prime Minister Joseph Ward wanted for its prestige, and which altered almost nothing legally.

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.

Māori War Effort Organisation

More than 300 tribal committees organised recruitment, production and welfare — the most effective Māori self-administration the Crown had allowed since 1840.

Statute of Westminster adopted

Sixteen years after it was offered, New Zealand finally took full legal independence from the British Parliament — the last Dominion to do so.

The ANZUS treaty is signed

New Zealand, Australia and the United States signed a mutual security pact, completing the shift from British to American protection.

Western Samoa becomes independent

The first Pacific nation to regain independence in the twentieth century did so from New Zealand, ending 48 years of often harsh administration.

A frigate sails to Mururoa

Norman Kirk sent HMNZS Otago, with a cabinet minister aboard, to sit in the French nuclear test zone in protest.

The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior

French secret service agents sank the Greenpeace ship in Auckland Harbour, killing photographer Fernando Pereira. A friendly government had committed an act of state terrorism.

New Zealand becomes nuclear free

Legislation banned nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered ships from New Zealand waters, effectively ending the ANZUS alliance with the United States.

New Zealand votes for MMP

By 54 to 46 percent, voters replaced first-past-the-post with mixed-member proportional representation — largely as a punishment for a decade of unmandated reform.

The first MMP election

The first proportional Parliament took nine weeks of negotiation to produce a government, and looked more like the country than any before it.

Jenny Shipley becomes the first woman Prime Minister

Shipley replaced Jim Bolger in a party-room coup. Two years later Helen Clark won an election outright, and a woman held the office continuously until 2008.

Helen Clark elected Prime Minister

Labour returned in coalition, closing the century with the first woman elected to the office rather than appointed to it.