HISTORY AND PRESENT GOVERNMENT

Monarchy in New Zealand dates back to the first half of the nineteenth century.

After Captain Cook's exploration of New Zealand in the late eighteenth century, an increasing number of European settlers came to New Zealand. In 1833, with growing lawlessness amongst traders and settlers, the British government appointed James Busby as British Resident to protect British trading interests.

Despite Busby's presence, trouble increased. In 1840 the British Government sent Captain William Hobson to New Zealand as Lieutenant Governor, to acquire the sovereignty of New Zealand, by way of a treaty with the native Maori chiefs.

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed on 6 February 1840, at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands. Over 500 Maori Chiefs signed the treaty as it was taken around the country during the next eight months.

Following the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the islands of New Zealand became a British colony.

In 1907 New Zealand achieved the status of Dominion, which meant it was a country of the British Empire and later the Commonwealth, with autonomy in domestic and foreign affairs. The term fell into disuse after the Second World War.

In 1917, the powers, duties and responsibilities of the Governor-General (as the Sovereign's representative) and the Executive Council were set out in a Royal letters patent.

In 1926, the Balfour Declaration at the Imperial Conference in London confirmed the status of New Zealand, along with that of Australia, the Irish Free State, Canada, South Africa and Newfoundland, as self-governing Dominions under the British Crown.

The Statute of Westminster in 1931, an act of the British Parliament, gave legal form to this declaration. It gave New Zealand and other Dominions the authority to make their own laws. New Zealand ratified the Statute in 1947.

More recently, the Constitution Act 1986 has become the principal formal statement of New Zealand's constitution. This Act recognises that the Queen, the Sovereign in right of New Zealand, is the Head of State of New Zealand and that the Governor-General appointed by her is her representative. Each can, in general, exercise all the powers of the other.

Today the Realm of New Zealand comprises New Zealand, Tokelau and the Ross Dependency, and the self-governing states of the Cook Islands and Niue.