Provinces of New Zealand

The Provinces of New Zealand existed from 1841 until 1876 as a form of sub-national government. They were replaced by counties, which were themselves replaced by districts.

Following abolition, the provinces became known as provincial districts. Their only visible function today is their use to determine, with the exception of the Chatham Islands, Northland, and South Canterbury, the geographical boundaries for anniversary day public holidays.

1841 to 1853

When New Zealand became a separate Colony from New South Wales in 1841, the Royal Charter established three provinces:

• New Ulster (North Island north of Patea River)
• New Munster (North Island south of Patea River, plus the South Island)
• New Leinster (Stewart Island/Rakiura)

In 1846 the British Parliament passed the first New Zealand Constitution Act, which was almost totally suspended on the advice of Governor George Grey. The only operative provisions related to the reform of the provinces. The reformed provinces were:

• New Ulster (All of North Island)
• New Munster (The South Island plus Stewart Island/Rakiura)

In addition, the provinces were separated from the central government for the first time.

1853 to 1876

Creation

New provinces were formed by the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 (UK). This Act established the first six provinces of Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago. Each province had its own legislature known as a Provincial Council that elected its own Speaker and Superintendent.

The Act also created a national General Assembly consisting of the Legislative Council appointed by the Governor and the directly-elected House of Representatives. These provinces came into effect on 17 January 1853 and the regulations defining the boundaries of the provinces were gazetted on 28 February. Electoral regulations were gazetted on 5 March.^[1]

Elections were open to males 21 years or older who owned freehold property worth £50 a year. Elections were to be held every four years. The New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act 1857 provided for the appointment of a Deputy Superintendent.

The Constitution Act provided for the creation of additional provinces, and when the spread of European settlements between the original centres of provincial government and the outlying settlers grew, the General Assembly passed the New Provinces Act 1858.

This Act allowed any district of between 500,000 and 3 million acres of land with a European population of no fewer than 1,000 people to petition for separation provided that at least 60% of electors agreed. As a result, Hawke's Bay Province separated from Wellington on 1 November 1858; Marlborough Province from Nelson on 1 November 1859; and Southland Province from Otago on 1 April 1861. New Plymouth also changed its name to Taranaki under the same Act.^[1]

Abolition

Almost as soon as they were founded, New Zealand's Provinces were the subject of protracted political debate. Two factions emerged in the General Assembly: "Centralists", favouring a strong central government and "Provincialists", favouring strong regional governments. The Centralist members of the General Assembly regarded the Provinces as inherently self-interested, and prone to pork-barrel politics. In the construction of railways, for example, three of the Provinces had constructed railways (as was the case in Australia) to different track gauges, with Canterbury Provincial Railways being built to "broad" gauge, Southland's railways being built to "standard" gauge. As a result, the Public Works Act of 1870 standardised the gauge to be used, and Otago's first railway, the Port Chalmers railway, was built to the new "standard" narrow gauge. Colonial Treasurer (and later Premier) Julius Vogel launched his famous immigration and public works schemes of the 1870s, borrowing the massive sum of 10 million pounds, to develop significant infrastructure of roads, railways, and communications, all administered by central government. This diminished the power of the provinces greatly. The provinces were finally abolished by the Abolition of Provinces Act 1876, during the Premiership of Harry Atkinson. For the purposes of the Act, the provinces formally ceased to exist on 1 January 1877.

Replacement

Following the abolition of the Provinces, local government was vested in elected borough and county councils. The Counties Bill of 1876 created 63 counties out of the old provinces. The former boundaries of the provinces served as administrative areas for the education boards set up under the Education Act of 1877 and for the offices of several Government Departments, including the Department of Lands and Survey. In 1989 the Counties were replaced by enlarged District Councils.

Modern uses of the old names

For the current Provincial Anniversary Days see Public holidays in New Zealand.

It is important to note that the provincial districts have different boundaries from the present day regions, for example, the Manawatu-Wanganui region is largely in the Wellington provincial district. They are also not to be confused with the use of the term in rugby union's Air New Zealand Cup and Heartland Championship (both of which replaced the National Provincial Championship).

Some of the names persist in other contexts as well, such as health administration districts.

Some of the names of former provinces and current regions have a tendency to be preceded by "the", as, for example, in this extract from a recent Court of Appeal judgment: "At trial, there was evidence of a sticker ostensibly from the Manawatu on the courier bag."^{[citation needed]} Thus, for example, we have Auckland, Canterbury, Hawke's Bay, Marlborough and Wellington, but the Waikato, the Manawatu, the Bay of Plenty, and the West Coast.

References

Sources and external links

• List at Rulers site with provincial superintendents
• "New Zealand’s Nine Provinces (1853–76)" - Welcome to the Hocken Bulletin No.31 March 2000, Friends of the Hocking Collections - Dunedin 2000
• Speeches and Documents on New Zealand History, McIntyre and Gardner (Eds), 1971, Oxford University Press

v • d • e Provinces of New Zealand 1853-1876 Auckland | Canterbury | Hawke's Bay | Marlborough | Nelson | Otago | Southland | Taranaki | Wellington | Westland 1846 - 1853 New Ulster | New Munster 1841 - 1846 New Ulster | New Munster | New Leinster