The independence of New Zealand from the United Kingdom came about progressively through a number of constitutional reforms. No single date is recognised as the point at which New Zealand became independent.
Beginning in the late 1700s New Zealand's Māori population was supplemented by sealers and whalers from Europe, followed by sporadic arrivals of adventurers from Europe and the Americas, Christian missionaries, and escaped convicts from Australia. British Resident James Busby arrived in New Zealand in May 1833. In 1835, a number of Māori chiefs asserted their sovereignty within their independent tribal nations by signing the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand (He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni). On 6 February 1840, William Hobson, as representative of the United Kingdom, and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which established the right of the British Crown to govern, and Hobson subsequently proclaimed British sovereignty over the islands in May of the same year.
On 16 November 1840, the British government issued the Charter for Erecting the Colony of New Zealand. The Charter stated that the Colony of New Zealand would be established as a Crown colony separate from New South Wales on 1 July 1841. In 1853, only 12 years after the founding of the colony, the British Parliament passed the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, granting the colony's settlers the right to self-governance. New Zealand was, therefore, to all intents and purposes independent in domestic matters from its earliest days as a British colony.
A major step towards nationhood on the international stage came in 1919 when New Zealand was given a seat in the newly founded League of Nations. In 1926 the Balfour Declaration declared Britain's Dominions as "equal in status", followed by the creation of the legal basis of independence, established by the Statute of Westminster 1931, which came about mainly at the behest of nationalist elements in South Africa and the Irish Free State. Australia, New Zealand, and Newfoundland were hostile towards this development, and the statute was not adopted in New Zealand until 1947. Irrespective of any legal developments, some New Zealanders still perceived themselves as a distinctive outlying branch of the United Kingdom until at least the 1970s. This attitude began to change when the United Kingdom joined the European Community in 1973 and abrogated its preferential trade agreements with New Zealand, and gradual nationality and societal changes further eroded the relationship. The final legal constitutional links between the two countries were severed by the Constitution Act 1986.
Declaration of Independence (1835)
On 28 October 1835, the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand was signed by the United Tribes of New Zealand, a loose confederation of Māori tribes from the far north of New Zealand organised by British resident James Busby. This document declared the independence of the Māori tribes (iwi) who signed the Declaration, which was acknowledged by Lord Glenelg, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies on behalf of the British Crown on 25 May 1836, following consideration of the Declaration by the House of Lords.
In 1839, in instructions given to Captain William Hobson, Lord Normanby said: "I have already stated that we acknowledge New Zealand as a sovereign and independent State, so far at least as it is possible to make that acknowledgment in favour of a people composed of numerous dispersed and petty tribes, who possess few political relations to each other, and are incompetent to act or even to deliberate in concert. But the admission of their rights, though inevitably qualified by this consideration, is binding on the faith of the British Crown." This was in the context of the urgent need to establish British authority in New Zealand, primarily to protect Maori from disaster. Normanby continued: "...extensive settlement of British subjects will be rapidly established in New Zealand, and that unless protected and restrained by necessary laws and institutions, they will repeat unchecked in that quarter of the globe the same process of war and spoliation under which uncivilised tribes have almost invariably disappeared, as often as they have been brought into the immediate vicinity of emigrants from the nations of Christendom. To mitigate, and, if possible, to avert these disasters, and to rescue the emigrants themselves from the evils of a lawless state of society, it has been resolved to adopt the most effective measures for establishing amongst them a settled form of civil government."
Colonisation: Treaty of Waitangi
The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840 marked the beginning of the colonisation of New Zealand by Britain. At the same time, the New Zealand Company sought to acquire land from Māori in the lower North Island and upper South Island for its colonisation schemes. The company viewed itself as a prospective quasi-government of New Zealand and in 1845 and 1846 proposed splitting the colony in two along a line from Mokau in the west to Cape Kidnappers in the east—with the north reserved for Māori and missionaries, while the south would become a self-governing province, known as "New Victoria" and managed by the company for that purpose. Britain's Colonial Secretary rejected the proposal. On 21 May 1840, in response to the creation of a "republic" by the New Zealand Company settlers of Port Nicholson (Wellington), who were laying out a new town under the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand, Hobson asserted British sovereignty over the whole of New Zealand, despite the incompleteness of the treaty signing. New Zealand was originally a sub-colony of the Colony of New South Wales, but in 1841 the Colony of New Zealand was created. Waitangi Day is thus celebrated as New Zealand's national day. Some constitutional lawyers, such as Moana Jackson, have argued that the Treaty did not cede total sovereignty of New Zealand to the British Crown, and argue that the Treaty intended to protect tino rangatiratanga or the absolute independence of Māori. Others dispute this, pointing to the use of the term kāwanatanga (governorship) in the Treaty deducts from rangatiratanga, equating the term to Māori control of Māori assets.
On 17 August 1840 the first French colonists (from the Nanto-Bordelaise Company) arrived in Akaroa, soon learning of the new British rule, and thus effectively ending any further colonisation attempts by France. The connection was severed formally when the last Commissaire du Roi (Representative of the king of France) departed New Zealand on 10 April 1846.Copland, Tessa. "French", Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Accessed 4 December 2022. .
The principles behind the independence of New Zealand began before New Zealand even became a British colony. There had been minor rebellions in Canada, and in order to avoid making the mistakes which had led to the American Revolution, Lord Durham was commissioned to make a report on the government of colonies which contained a substantial British population. The principles of self-government within the Empire were laid down in the Durham Report of 1839 and first put into operation in Nova Scotia in 1848. Canada, New Zealand, and the Australian colonies very soon followed suit. The first New Zealand Constitution Act granting self-government was passed by Britain's parliament in 1846 but suspended following the arrival of Governor George Grey, who cited the outbreak of the Flagstaff War (the beginning of the New Zealand Wars) and the unwieldy nature of the 1846 Act as reasons for suspending the Act. In response, the Wellington Settlers' Constitutional Association was formed to campaign for self-government. Some members of this group, such as newspaper publisher Samuel Revans, recounting earlier New Zealand Company schemes for a separate colony, advocated for independence outside of the British Empire.
As a result of this pressure, Governor Grey wrote his own draft constitution bill, while camping on Mount Ruapehu in 1851. The draft was largely accepted by the British parliament, and New Zealand finally became a self-governing colony in 1853 following the passage of the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, which established an elected legislature, the New Zealand Parliament, in the colony. The New Zealand Parliament was bound by a number of acts of the British Parliament, such as the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 and the Colonial Naval Defence Act 1865, which led to the creation of the flag of New Zealand in 1869.
New Zealand participated in the 1891 National Australian Convention in Sydney to consider the Federation of the Australian and New Zealand colonies. The convention agreed to four principles including the creation of a Federated army and navy. Interest in the proposed Australian Federation faded and New Zealand did not send a delegation to the 1897 National Australian Convention.Meaney, Neville (1976). The Search for Security in the Pacific, 1901–1914, Sydney University Press.
Dominion status
In 1901, New Zealand did not ratify the Australian Constitution, and did not partake in the Federation of Australia. Prime Minister Joseph Ward determined that New Zealand should become a dominion, and parliament passed a resolution to that effect. On 26 September 1907 the United Kingdom granted New Zealand (along with Newfoundland, which later became a part of Canada) "Dominion" status within the British Empire. New Zealand became known as the Dominion of New Zealand. The date was declared Dominion Day, but never reached any popularity as a day of independence.
Despite this new status, there was some apprehension in 1919 when Prime Minister Bill Massey signed the Treaty of Versailles, which indicated that New Zealand had a degree of control over its foreign affairs. Massey, himself a fervent imperialist, did not view it as a symbolic act.
The Balfour Declaration of 1926 declared that the British Dominions were equal, which had the effect of granting New Zealand control over its own foreign policy and military. The legislation required to effect this change, the Statute of Westminster 1931, was not adopted by New Zealand until 1947. By 1939, the governor-general ceased to be Britain's High Commissioner to New Zealand; instead, an independent officer was appointed.
League of Nations New Zealand joined the League of Nations on 10 January 1920. Under International Law only a sovereign state can sign an international treaty – although New Zealand and the other Dominions signed as part of a "British Empire Delegation", and their names were indented in a list following that of Britain. The significance of the indentation was perhaps deliberately left unclear. The Treaty of Versailles offered membership to any "fully self-governing State, Dominion, or Colony" (Art. 1).
At the 1921 Imperial Conference British Prime Minister Lloyd George said:
1926 Imperial Conference
The Balfour Declaration made at the time (not to be confused with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 on Palestine) stated that "They [the Dominions] are autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations." This was given legal effect by the Statute of Westminster 1931, which took effect when a given Dominion adopted it. The New Zealand Government saw little urgency in the Act and delayed ratification, but for practical purposes 1926 had removed doubts about functional independence. At the opening of the 1930 Imperial Conference which drafted the Statute of Westminster, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, George Forbes stated: