Regal and viceregal
Head of State – Queen Victoria
Governor – Sir George Grey
Government and law
The 3rd Parliament continues.
Speaker of the House – David Monro
Premier – Alfred Domett replaces William Fox on 6 August after Fox loses a vote of no-confidence.
Minister of Finance – Reader Wood loses the post on 6 August with the fall of the Fox government, and is replaced by Dillon Bell, but is reappointed just 15 days later on 21 August.
Chief Justice – Hon Sir George Arney (he is knighted during the year)
27 January – The Auckland Register, which started in 1857, ceases publication.
1 July – The first telegraph transmission in New Zealand is made from Lyttelton Post Office to Christchurch.
7 July – Parliament meets in Wellington for the first time. (see also 1863; 1865)
15 August – Horatio Hartley and Christopher Reilly arrive in Dunedin with 87 pounds of gold from the banks of the Clutha river in Cromwell George leading to the Dunstan Gold Rush.
12 November – The Invercargill Times publishes its first issue. It changed its name to The Southland Times two years later, and became a daily in 1875. It continues to publish today.
Otago Gold Rush (1861-63)
The Nelson Intelligence is a short-lived newspaper in the Nelson, New Zealand area.
The second inter-provincial game is played. Nelson defeat Wellington.
New Zealand Derby — Emmeline
The Auckland club is now playing on its own green.
1 January — The first recorded rowing regatta takes place on Lyttelton Harbour.
Later in the year the Canterbury Rowing Club is formed to row on the Avon River in Christchurch.
Ballinger Belt – Private Holt (Nelson)
15 June: George Helmore, rugby union player
21 October: John Findlay, politician
Albert Pitt, politician
16 May: Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a driving force behind New Zealand's colonisation
5 June: Charles Kettle, surveyor of Dunedin
October: Iwikau Te Heuheu Tukino III, tribal leader
