Independence of New Zealand
The independence of New Zealand is a matter of continued academic and social debate. New Zealand has no fixed date of independence from the United Kingdom; instead, political independence came about as a result of New Zealand's evolving constitutional status.
James Busby, first "British resident to New Zealand"
Captain William Hobson was New Zealand's first British-appointed Governor (originally Lieutenant-Governor) 1840–1842.
Lord Plunket declaring New Zealand a Dominion, 26 September 1907
Zealandia rejecting Australian Constitution in 1900.
New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island and the South Island —and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland.
The Waitangi sheet from the Treaty of Waitangi
A meeting of European and Māori residents of Hawke's Bay Province. Engraving, 1863.
The snow-capped Southern Alps dominate the South Island, while the North Island's Northland Peninsula stretches towards the subtropics.
Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest point in New Zealand, at 3,724 metres.