The capital moves to Wellington

New Zealand's first capital was at Ōkiato, in the Bay of Islands, but Governor William Hobson soon moved the seat of government to Auckland, and the colony's first General Assembly met there in May 1854. There was dissatisfaction with Auckland virtually from the outset. For South Island members the sea voyage north was a genuine trial: in 1854 some reached Auckland in 12 days by steamer, while the less fortunate took two months by sailing ship. Members also resented long separations from family, farms and businesses. By the 1860s, partly because of the gold discoveries, the South Island had a considerably larger population than the North, and Otago had grown wealthy on gold revenue. Te Ara notes that moving the capital south was contemplated partly to forestall South Island discontent and possible secessionist tendencies. Proposals to meet somewhere more central failed in 1854 and 1856. In 1862 a session was held in Wellington, but a proposal to make the arrangement permanent was defeated by a single vote.

In 1863 a group of Wellington and Nelson legislators proposed that the capital be moved to the shores of Cook Strait, with the site chosen by an independent tribunal. The resolution proposed that the governors of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania appoint the commissioners, and Te Ara records that Governor George Grey appointed three: Francis Murphy, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria; Joseph Docker, a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales; and Ronald C. Gunn, formerly a member of Tasmania's Legislative Council and House of Assembly. They inspected Wellington and sites in the north of the South Island, including Picton, Havelock and Nelson, at a cost of £4085. Their two-page report, sent from Government House, Nelson, on 3 October 1864, listed their criteria, among them central position, the harbour and defence. It announced their unanimous choice of Wellington in a single sentence, with no further explanation. Te Ara says it is assumed they preferred Wellington's superior harbour, important when most members travelled by sea.

The government led by Frederick Weld carried out the move in early 1865, at a total cost of £54,665. On 26 July 1865 Parliament met in its new home, the former Wellington Provincial Council chamber in Thorndon. When the provincial government built it in 1857, it had laid out the rooms in a style suitable for a future national parliament. Auckland protested. Aucklanders felt that the interests of their province, where much of the fighting had taken place, would be overlooked once British forces withdrew. They also feared being left to the mercy of Māori, or losing control of confiscated land, and Auckland demanded separation. Its members of the Assembly made a bid to separate Auckland from the rest of the country. The former premier Frederick Whitaker returned to politics on a programme of separation from the south, won the Auckland superintendency unopposed in October 1865, and led the Auckland 'Phalanx' in the House, calling for rule under a lieutenant-governor.

The secession bid did not proceed, and a later measure to separate the North and South islands also came to nothing. Discouraged, Whitaker resigned as superintendent and from the House in March 1867. Te Ara notes that the central capital made the colonial government more accessible from most parts of New Zealand, and that only after the move did Wellington, whose economy had rested on trade, have a certain future. Though housed in a series of different buildings, Parliament has remained on the same site ever since. Te Ara also observes that New Zealand is unusual in having had its capital chosen, at its own legislators' request, by people who lived in another country. In July 2015 Wellington marked 150 years as the capital; NZHistory notes that many of the country's defining moments, from the women's suffrage petition of 1893 to the introduction of MMP, have taken place there.