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1907
- In 1907, the colony became the Dominion of New Zealand, which heralded a more explicit recognition of self-government within the British Empire.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_of_New_Zealand
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In 1840, when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, New Zealand became a colony of Britain. At first it was a Crown colony, which meant it was ruled by a governor appointed by Britain – but European settlers wanted their own government.
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The colony was granted self-government with the passage of the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852. The first parliament was elected in 1853, and responsible government was established in 1856. The governor was required to act on the advice of his ministers, who were responsible to the parliament.
The company viewed itself as a prospective quasi-government of New Zealand and in 1845 and 1846 proposed splitting the colony in two, along a line from Mokau in the west to Cape Kidnappers in the east—with the north reserved for Māori and missionaries, while the south would become a self-governing province, known as "New Victoria" and managed by the company for that purpose.
In 1907, therefore, ‘dominion’ became the distinguishing label for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, Cape Colony, Natal and Transvaal. Australia remained a ‘commonwealth’, and South Africa was, from 1910, a ‘union’, but generally ‘dominion’ referred to the self-governing white Empire.
The Dominion of New Zealand was the historical successor to the Colony of New Zealand. It was a constitutional monarchy with a high level of self-government within the British Empire. New Zealand became a separate British Crown colony in 1841 and received responsible government with the Constitution Act in 1852.
Yet, for all but the first six years after 1840, when it was a Crown colony (ruled personally by a governor), the country has had various forms of self-government. These progressively led to independence of action, even if the formal constitutional arrangements suggested otherwise.
New Zealand achieved self-government and independence from Britain through a series of small steps rather than a single large stride. New Zealand was a colony in the British Empire from 1840 to 1907 and a dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations from 1907 to 1945, and became a separate monarchical realm of the Commonwealth in 1953.
