1896 in New Zealand

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

The following lists events that happened during 1896 in New Zealand.

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 Harry Joseph Beswick
• Mayor of Dunedin – Nathaniel 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]
• 30 September: The government increases the New Zealand head tax to £100 per head from £10, and tightens the other restriction to only one Chinese immigrant for every 200 tons of cargo from 100 tons.
• 13 October: First public screening of a motion picture in New Zealand, in Auckland.[4]
• 4 December: 1896 New Zealand general election.

Undated

• Census measures national population as 743,214.

Arts and literature

Music

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]

Cricket

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

Rugby union

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 – Richard Harman and D. Collins
• Women's doubles – Kathleen Nunneley and T. Trimmell

Births

• 15 June (in England): Archie Fisher, painter. (died 1959)[15]
• 7 July: Harold Beamish, World War I flying ace. (died 1986)[16]

Deaths

• 18 May: Daniel Pollen, politician (born 1813)
• 2 August: James FitzGerald, politician (born 1818).
• 28 August:James Hume, medical doctor (born 1823).

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". Archived from the original on 17 October 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
2. Brunner mine disaster
3. "NCWNZ History". Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2008.
4. MIC - Film pioneers Archived 14 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
5. "Waikato Times". National Library of New Zealand.
6. "Poverty Bay Herald". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 21 September 2008.
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. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
9. "New Zealand Championships - Senior Men". Archived from the original (MS Word) on 18 October 2008. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
10. List of New Zealand Chess Champions Archived 14 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
11. McLintock, A. H., ed. (1966). "Men's Golf – National Champions". An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
12. Auckland Trotting cup at hrnz.co.nz Archived 17 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine
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.
16. Flight Lieutenant Harold Beamish

External links

Media related to 1896 in New Zealand at Wikimedia Commons