New Zealand becomes a Dominion

By the jubilee of annexation in 1890, in Te Ara's view, New Zealand was already politically independent of Britain, and in 1901 it declined to join the new Commonwealth of Australia (see New Zealand declines to join Australia). It was still called a colony, the word people commonly used for all British overseas territories. Canada had been a dominion since 1867, and its prime minister wanted a word to distinguish Canada from small islands. At the 1907 Imperial Conference in London, the premier, Joseph Ward, Richard Seddon's successor, suggested that the self-governing colonies be distinguished from the Crown colonies, and the conference settled on 'Dominions'. In May Ward wrote to Lord Elgin at the Colonial Office that New Zealand had 'well outgrown the "colonial stage"'. According to NZHistory, he also hoped the title would remind the world that New Zealand was not part of Australia.

Parliament backed Ward's motion asking the King to change New Zealand's status. Charles Major, MP for Hawera, declared, 'Deep down there is always something offensive about the term "colony"'. The Leader of the Opposition, William Massey, preferred 'colony' and suspected the change would fuel demands for higher viceregal and ministerial salaries. The Order in Council changing the title was issued on 9 September 1907 and the proclamation was made on 10 September, taking effect on 26 September, when it was read aloud throughout New Zealand. In Wellington at 11 a.m. the governor, Lord Plunket, invited Ward to read the proclamation on the steps of Parliament. Soldiers and school cadets paraded and Māori performed a haka; it was all over in 15 minutes. That evening lights on what is now the Parliamentary Library spelt out 'Advance New Zealand', 'Colony 1840' and 'Dominion 1907'.

The first Dominion Day was a holiday for public servants, and every school child was given a commemorative medal; Te Ara puts the number made at 170,000. Te Ara dates that first Dominion Day to 25 September 1907, but NZHistory gives 26 September, the day the proclamation took effect and was read aloud. Reactions were mixed. Up to 3000 people watched a military parade in Auckland, while at Foxton the town clerk read the proclamation to a solitary reporter and a local. The historian Keith Sinclair later wrote that the change 'produced little public interest' and 'was merely cosmetic'. Nothing changed but the name: the premier was now styled prime minister, and 'Members of Parliament' replaced 'Members of the House of Representatives'. Dominion Day faded as a public event during the 1910s, and Massey did nothing to promote it after he became prime minister in 1912.

Few New Zealanders wanted more independence from Britain, and that feeling persisted into the mid-20th century. When the 1926 Balfour Declaration described Britain and the dominions as 'autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status', Prime Minister Gordon Coates called it a 'poisonous document'. New Zealand did not adopt the Statute of Westminster 1931, which removed London's right to legislate for the dominions unless they asked it to, until 25 November 1947, the last of the dominions to do so (see Statute of Westminster adopted). It joined the United Nations in 1945 simply as 'New Zealand', and in 1953 its official style became the 'Realm of New Zealand', though the 1907 proclamation has never been revoked. The word survived in names such as the Dominion Museum, renamed in 1972, and Wellington's Dominion newspaper, first published on 26 September 1907. For the centenary in 2007 the Parliamentary Library was lit up on 25 and 26 September, the first such illumination since 1937, and Prime Minister Helen Clark hosted a symposium on nationhood at Parliament.