Government & law

Hongi Hika travels to England

The Ngāpuhi leader met King George IV in London, then traded most of the gifts he received for muskets on the return journey through Sydney.

James Busby arrives as British Resident

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

The flag of the United Tribes is chosen

About 25 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 gathered in Auckland, where their hastily built hall was not yet ready, and within days demanded 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

Commissioners from the Australian colonies were asked to pick a capital on Cook Strait, and chose Wellington. Auckland protested, and its members pushed for 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

The nine provincial governments were abolished, leaving central government as the single legislative authority, with new counties in rural areas while towns carried on unchanged.

The Liberals take power

New Zealand’s first modern political party began 21 years in government, with reforms that led many to see the country as ‘the social laboratory of the world’.

Te Kotahitanga — the Māori Parliament

Te Kotahitanga o Te Tiriti o Waitangi

A Māori parliament met from 1892 to 1902, seeking authority over Māori land and people under the Treaty of Waitangi and petitioning Parliament for recognition.

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 in 1935 and built the welfare state: state houses, guaranteed dairy prices, a 40-hour week and free hospital care under the Social Security Act.

Māori War Effort Organisation

Over 300 tribal committees took on Māori recruiting, war work and local food production; Māori felt that for the first time they bore real responsibility for their own affairs.

Statute of Westminster adopted

Sixteen years after the British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, New Zealand adopted it, the last of the Dominions to do so.

The ANZUS treaty is signed

New Zealand, Australia and the United States signed a mutual security pact, giving New Zealand the American security commitment it had sought since the fall of Singapore.

Western Samoa becomes independent

The first Pacific nation to regain independence in the twentieth century did so from New Zealand, ending more than 47 years of often harsh administration.

A frigate sails to Mururoa

Norman Kirk sent HMNZS Otago, with a cabinet minister aboard, to sit off 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. Prime Minister David Lange called it ‘a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism’.

New Zealand becomes nuclear free

Legislation barred nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered ships from New Zealand’s internal waters. The US had already withdrawn its ANZUS security guarantee.

New Zealand votes for MMP

By 54 to 46 percent, voters replaced first-past-the-post with mixed-member proportional representation, after decades of falling trust in politicians.

The first MMP election

The first proportional Parliament took two months 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’s Labour Party won the election, and a woman held the office continuously until 2008.

Helen Clark elected Prime Minister

Labour returned in coalition, and Helen Clark became the first woman to take the office by winning an election, closing the century.