Wellington Provincial Council Gazette, Acts & Proceedings

From 1853 through to 1876, New Zealand operated under a system of provincial government where each province had its own elected legislature to administer local affairs. The Wellington Provincial Council initially managed an area as far north as Whanganui and Hawke's Bay but much of their activity was centred in and around Port Nicholson. The Council regularly printed two significant publications which documented its activities; the 'Gazette' & the 'Acts and Proceedings' (also known as the 'Journal of Proceedings'). 

The gazette was published near-weekly to provide a record of official proclamations, bylaws, and included announcements from the Māori Land Court. A huge variety of other information was included such as the number of animals owned by local farmers, census results, commission of inquiry findings and detailed reports from local institutions such as prisons, hospitals & schools. Individual issues were later bound into annual volumes which have been digitised here.

The Journal of Proceedings offers a detailed account of the workings of the council and includes petitions, transcriptions of speeches, council minutes, hospital patient admissions and reports from council-appointed solicitors, engineers and education experts. Local  Acts passed by the council which were applicable to the province were also printed in every volume

As well as providing a historic insight into Wellington's society and economy during the early colonial period, these two publications are also a valuable genealogical resource for conducting family history research into both Māori and Pakeha.  Volumes are presented below in date order with the Journal of Proceedings being followed by copies of the Gazette. Click on the thumbnail images to browse individual issues or run a search below.

Read more about the history of the Provincial Council and this collection here.

The search facility above operates as an 'exact phrase' search across all volumes of both the Gazette and the Journal of Proceedings in this collection only. Note that personal names were normally printed as First name [space] Surname but occasionally as Surname, [comma space] First name. Initials were also sometimes used instead of a first name. We suggest trying all possible name syntaxes if you are searching for a specific individual. Return back to this page to run further searches.