1896 in New Zealand

← 1895 1894 1893 1896 in New Zealand → 1897 1898 1899
Decades:	1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s
See also:	Other events of 1896 Timeline of New Zealand history

Incumbents

Regal and viceregal

• Head of State — Queen Victoria
• Governor — David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow

Government and law

The Liberal Party is re-elected and begins the 13th New Zealand Parliament.

• Speaker of the House — Sir Maurice O'Rorke
• Prime Minister — Richard Seddon
• Minister of Finance — Joseph Ward resigns on 16 June and is replaced by Richard Seddon
• Chief Justice — Hon Sir James Prendergast
• The Female Law Practitioners Act was passed in 1896, and Ethel Benjamin who had graduated in law from the University of Otago in 1896 was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand in 1897.

Parliamentary opposition

Leader of the Opposition — William Russell.^[1]

Main centre leaders

• Mayor of Auckland — James Holland followed by Abraham Boardman
• Mayor of Christchurch — Walter Cooper followed by Henry Joseph Beswick
• Mayor of Dunedin — Nathaniel Young Armstrong Wales followed by Hugh Gourley
• Mayor of Wellington — George Fisher

Events

• 26 March: Brunner Mine disaster; 65 miners killed in explosion ^[2]
• 13 April: National Council of Women of New Zealand is founded, with Kate Sheppard as its first president.^[3]
• 13 October: First public screening of a motion picture in New Zealand, in Auckland.^[4]
• 4 December: New Zealand general election, 1896.

Undated

• Census measures national population as 743,214.

Media

• The Waikato Argus starts publication. The newspaper runs until 1915.^[5]
• The Gisborne Times is founded.^[6] It became a daily in 1901, and continued to publish until being bought out by The Poverty Bay Herald in 1938.^[7]
• July: The Waikato Times and Waikato Advocate merge, and the former moves to daily publication.^[8]

Sport

Athletics

National Champions, Men ^[9]

• 100 yards — E. Robinson (Canterbury)
• 250 yards — W. Kingston (Otago)
• 440 yards — W. Low (Otago)
• 880 yards — W. Low (Otago)
• 1 mile — W. Bennett (Otago)
• 3 miles — W. Bennett (Otago)
• 120 yards hurdles — W. Martin (Auckland)
• 440 yards hurdles — J. Thomas Roberts (Auckland)
• Long jump — Leonard Cuff (Canterbury)
• High jump — P. Brown (Canterbury)
• Pole vault — tie R. Hunter (Hawkes Bay) and H. Kingsley (Wanganui)
• Shot put — W. Rhodes (Wellington)
• Hammer throw — P. Brown (Canterbury)

Chess

National Champion: W. Meldrum of Rangitikei.^[10]

Golf

• Men's national amateur champion — M.S. Todd (Otago)^[11]
• Women's national amateur champion — L. Wilford (Hutt)

Horse racing

Harness racing

• Auckland Trotting Cup (over 3 miles) is won by Fibre ^[12]

Thoroughbred racing

• New Zealand Cup — Lady Zetland
• New Zealand Derby — Uniform
• Auckland Cup — Nestor
• Wellington Cup — Brooklet

Season leaders (1895/96)

• Top New Zealand stakes earner — Euroclydon
• Leading flat jockey — C. Jenkins

Lawn Bowls

National Champions^[13] There are no national championships this year.

Polo

• Savile Cup winners — Manawatu

Rowing

National Champions (Men)

• Single sculls — C. Chapman (Wairewa)
• Double sculls — Wairewa, Little River
• Coxless pairs — Canterbury
• Coxed fours — Queen’s Dr, Port Chalmers

Shooting

Ballinger Belt — Sergeant Wakelyn (Honorary Reserve Corps, Christchurch)

Soccer

Provincial league champions:^[14]

• Auckland: Auckland United
• Otago: Roslyn Dunedin
• Wellington: Wellington Swifts

Swimming

Not held

Tennis

National Championships

• Men's singles — H. Parker
• Women's singles — Kathleen Nunneley
• Men's doubles — R. Harman and D. Collins
• Women's doubles — Kathleen Nunneley and T. Trimmell

Births

• 15 June (in England): Archie Fisher, painter.^[15]

See also

• List of years in New Zealand
• Timeline of New Zealand history
• History of New Zealand
• Military history of New Zealand
• Timeline of the New Zealand environment
• Timeline of New Zealand's links with Antarctica

References

General

• Romanos, J. (2001) New Zealand Sporting Records and Lists. Auckland: Hodder Moa Beckett. ISBN 1-86958-879-7

Specific

1. "Elections NZ — Leaders of the Opposition". Retrieved 2008-04-06.
2. Brunner mine disaster
3. NCWNZ History
4. MIC - Film pioneers
5. "Waikato Times". National Library of New Zealand.
6. "Poverty Bay Herald". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 2008-09-21.
7. Mackay, Joseph Angus (1949). "Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N.I., N.Z.: Earliest Journals and Their Founders".
8. "Mayor's chair bonds present with past". Waikato Museum.
9. Athletics NZ senior mens champions (MS Word)
10. List of New Zealand Chess Champions
11. edited by A. H. McLintock (1966). "Men's Golf — National Champions". An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
12. Auckland Trotting cup at hrnz.co.nz
13. As the New Zealand Bowling Association at this time consists entirely of South Island clubs, the first truly "national" championships are not deemed to have begun until 1914.
14. "New Zealand: List of champions". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 1999.
15. Blackley, Roger. "Fisher, Archibald Joseph Charles 1896–1959". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 5 April 2011.

External links

Media related to 1896 in New Zealand at Wikimedia Commons