1855 in New Zealand

Population

Incumbents

Regal and viceregal

• Head of State – Queen Victoria
• Governor – Colonel Thomas Gore Browne, appointed in 1854, arrives to take up his position on 6 September.

  Government and law

• Speaker of the House — Sir Charles Clifford
• Chief Justice — William Martin

  Events

• January: The Māori language magazine, The Maori Messenger or Te Karere Maori resumes publication with a change to the Māori title. It stopped publication the previous year. Under this name, it continues until 1861.
• 23 January: The 1855 Wairarapa earthquake causes extensive damage but few deaths. The quake, estimated at magnitude 8.2, raises parts of the Wellington harbour foreshore by as much as 6 metres.
• April: James McKenzie is found guilty of stealing 1000 sheep and sentenced to five years hard labour in Lyttelton. He is pardoned the following year.
• July: New Zealand's first postage stamps are issued.

  Sport

Horse racing

Births

• 23 April: Walter Carncross, politician.

  Deaths

• 26 June: Samuel Stephens, member of the New Zealand House of Representatives
• 21 August: William Hulme, British army officer
• 17 September: Alfred Christopher Picard, member of the New Zealand House of Representatives
• 24 September: Ruawahine Irihapeti Faulkner, tribal leader and landowner
• 18 November: Te Rangihaeata, tribal leader
• 6 December: William John Swainson, ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist and artist
• 12 December: Anne Maria Chapman, missionary