1868 in New Zealand

Incumbents

Regal and viceregal

• Head of State — Queen Victoria
• Governor — Sir George Grey is recalled by the British government and is replaced on 5 February by Sir George Ferguson Bowen.

Government and law

• Speaker of the House — Sir David Monro
• Premier — Edward Stafford
• Minister of Finance — William Fitzherbert
• Chief Justice — Hon Sir George Arney

Main centre leaders

• Mayor of Christchurch — William Wilson
• Mayor of Dunedin — John Hyde Harris followed by Thomas Birch

Events

• 1–6 February: The Great storm of 1868 sweeps across the country causing major damage and loss of life.
• 1 June: The New Zealand Advertiser, which had been absorbed into the New Zealand Times in 1867, is revived. It ceases publication for good in December.
• 13 August: A tsunami caused by the 1868 Arica earthquake in South America causes the only fatalities recorded from tsunamis in New Zealand, with about twenty people swept away in the Chatham Islands.
• 24 August: Wanganui Horticultural Society established.
• Nelson Football Club founded.
• 2 November: New Zealand Mean Time adopted throughout the colony; New Zealand may be the first country to have adopted a standard time throughout the country.
• Coromandel Gold Rush

Sport

Cricket

Horse racing

Major race winners

• New Zealand Cup: Flying Jib
• New Zealand Derby: Flying Jib

Shooting

Births

• 23 February Sir Andrew Hamilton Russell, soldier.
• 19 March: Alfred Ransom, politician and cabinet minister.

Full date unknown

• Asajiro Noda, seaman, cashier, gum-digger and farmer

Deaths

• 9 October: George Macfarlan, politician