Acknowledge no frontier: the creation and demise of New Zealand's provinces, 1853-76

© 2013 Dr. André BrettThis thesis explores the creation and demise of New Zealand’s provincial system of government, active between 1853 and 1876. When founded, the provinces wielded considerable political power, yet twenty-two years later a bill for their abolition easily passed the central parliament. My thesis seeks to explain the origins and evolution of the provinces and why they were so readily abolished. Other British settler societies have maintained various forms of state or provincial governments, and New Zealand’s evolution to unitary statehood demands justification. Many competing explanations have been advanced, from the centralising consequences of warfare to forestry policy, financial insolvency to sheer geographic inevitability. I find that public works, particularly railways, underpinned abolition. Railways were the leading technology of the Victorian era and played a considerable role in reshaping society. This was as true in New Zealand as it was in Britain. Provincial governance was underpinned by two basic tasks: promotion of settlement in the young New Zealand colony by immigration and public works. The failure of the provinces to perform these tasks condemned them, and I demonstrate that previous explanations for abolition were either less significant than public works policy or, in the case of the provinces’ financial plight, were created to a considerable degree by it. Public works and the means of communication within New Zealand provide a continuous thread from the creation of the provinces to their abolition. The design of the provincial system was shaped by the peculiar needs and isolation of the late 1840s rather than by any ideological motivation for a permanent tier of government. Once the provinces were operational, their inability to satisfy settler needs and demands shaped a series of major events that culminated in abolition. The desire for railways, roads, harbour works, and other improvements caused dissatisfaction with the original six provinces from the late 1850s and the creation of new provinces to administer disaffected hinterlands. Reckless investment in railways led to a total prohibition on provincial borrowing in 1867, effectively halting public works development. When the central government took the lead with immigration and public works from 1870 and rapidly achieved success, the provinces were deprived of their key functions and abolition was inevitable