1896_in_New_Zealand
1896 in New Zealand
List of events
The following lists events that happened during 1896 in New Zealand.
Regal and viceregal
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
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
- 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.
Music
- 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]
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
- 15 June (in England): Archie Fisher, painter. (died 1959)[15]
- 7 July: Harold Beamish, World War I flying ace. (died 1986)[16]
- 18 May: Daniel Pollen, politician (born 1813)
- 2 August: James FitzGerald, politician (born 1818).
- 28 August:James Hume, medical doctor (born 1823).
- General
- Romanos, J. (2001) New Zealand Sporting Records and Lists. Auckland: Hodder Moa Beckett. ISBN 1-86958-879-7
- Specific
- "Elections NZ – Leaders of the Opposition". Archived from the original on 17 October 2008. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
- "NCWNZ History". Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2008.
- MIC - Film pioneers Archived 14 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- "Poverty Bay Herald". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 21 September 2008.
- Mackay, Joseph Angus (1949). "Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N.I., N.Z.: Earliest Journals and Their Founders".
- "Mayor's chair bonds present with past". Waikato Museum. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
- "New Zealand Championships - Senior Men". Archived from the original (MS Word) on 18 October 2008. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
- List of New Zealand Chess Champions Archived 14 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- 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.
- Auckland Trotting cup at hrnz.co.nz Archived 17 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- "New Zealand: List of champions". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 1999.
- Blackley, Roger. "Fisher, Archibald Joseph Charles 1896–1959". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
Media related to 1896 in New Zealand at Wikimedia Commons