1856 in New Zealand

Population

Incumbents

Regal and viceregal

• Head of State – Queen Victoria
• Governor – Colonel Thomas Gore Browne

  Government and law

• Speaker of the House – Sir Charles Clifford
• Colonial Secretary – Henry Sewell becomes New Zealand's first Colonial Secretary on 7 May. The Sewell Ministry is defeated on 20 May and he is replaced by William Fox. The Fox Ministry is in turn defeated on 2 June and Fox is replaced by Edward Stafford's Stafford Ministry.
• Colonial Treasurer – Dillon Bell becomes the first Colonial Treasurer on 7 May. When the Sewell government is defeated on 20 May he is replaced by Charles Brown. When the Fox government is defeated on 2 June Brown is replaced by William Richmond
• Chief Justice – William Martin

  Events

• 31 July – By Royal Charter, Christchurch is proclaimed New Zealand's first city.
• 18 September – The Wanganui Chronicle publishes its first issue. The paper starts as a fortnightly publication, moves to tri-weekly in 1867, and then to daily in 1871. It continues.
• 11 December – The Auckland Examiner begins publishing. It continues until 1861.
• 26 December – The Otago Colonist publishes its first issue. The newspaper changes its name to The Colonist in 1862 and is absorbed into the Daily Telegraph at the beginning of 1863.

  Arts and literature

Music

• A choral society performance of Handel's Messiah is given in Auckland. This the first known performance by such a musical ensemble in New Zealand.
• A Harmonic Society is formed in Dunedin in this year.

  Births

• 28 July: Arthur Remington, politician.
• 10 October: Florence Young, missionary.
• 27 December: Arthur Brown, Mayor of Wellington.

  Deaths

• 13 April: Nōpera Panakareao, tribal leader, evangelist and assessor

  Unknown date

• Te Kani-a-Takirau, Māori chief who refused to sign the Treaty of Waitangi