1873 in New Zealand explained

The following lists events that happened during 1873 in New Zealand.

Incumbents

Regal and viceregal

• Head of State — Queen Victoria
• Governor — Sir George Ferguson Bowen is transferred, on 19 March, to Australia to become Governor of Victoria. His replacement, The Rt. Hon Sir James Fergusson, takes up his appointment on 14 June.

Government and law

The 5th New Zealand Parliament continues.

• Speaker of the House — Sir Francis Dillon Bell
• Premier — William Fox, "caretaker" Premier since the sudden resignation of George Waterhouse on 3 March, steps down in favour of Julius Vogel on the latter's return to New Zealand on 8 April.
• Minister of Finance — Julius Vogel
• Chief Justice — Hon Sir George Arney

Main centre leaders

• Mayor of Auckland — Philip Philips
• Mayor of Christchurch — Henry Sawtell followed by Edward B. Bishop
• Mayor of Dunedin — Henry Fish
• Mayor of Wellington — Joseph Dransfield

Events

• 17 February: The Daily Southern Cross Newspaper prints a hoax report of a Russian invasion of Auckland.^[1]
• 3 May: The New Zealand Tablet begins publication in Dunedin. The newspaper was published weekly by the Catholic Church until 1996.^[2]
• Late August: A cyclone hits the South Island east coast, wrecking several ships.^[3]
• December: The Onehunga Branch railway line from Auckland to Onehunga (via Newmarket, Ellerslie, and Penrose) is opened.^[4]

Sport

Horse racing

Major race winners

• New Zealand Cup: Kakapo
• New Zealand Derby: Rapapa

Rugby union

• The Auckland and Thames football clubs adopt rugby union, having previously played association football.^[5]
• North Shore rugby club founded.

Shooting

Ballinger Belt: Lieutenant Hoskins (Thames)

Births

• 17 February: Emily Hancock Siedeberg, New Zealand's first female medical graduate.
• 21 October (in New South Wales): Bob Semple, politician and unionist.
• 9 December (in Ireland): James McCombs, politician
• 18 December (in Tasmania): Edith Joan Lyttleton, writer.

Unknown date

• Benjamin Sutherland, railway clerk, grocer, businessman and philanthropist
• (in England): Lionel Terry, white supremacist, murderer.

Deaths

• 6 or 7 August: Phillip Tapsell mariner, whaler and trader^[6]

See also

• List of years in New Zealand
• Timeline of New Zealand history
• History of New Zealand
• Military history of New Zealand
• Timeline of the New Zealand environment
• Timeline of New Zealand's links with Antarctica

References

General

• Romanos, J. (2001) New Zealand Sporting Records and Lists. Auckland: Hodder Moa Beckett.

Specific

Notes and References

1. http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/timeline&new_date=17/02 New Zealand History online: Today in history - 17 February
2. News: New Zealand Tablet 3 May 1873 – 30 December 1909 (1913 issues). National Library of New Zealand. 23 June 2008 .
3. Ingram, C. W. N., and Wheatley, P. O., (1936) Shipwrecks: New Zealand disasters 1795–1936. Dunedin, NZ: Dunedin Book Publishing Association. pp. 187–188.
4. Web site: Onehunga Dateline . 11 June 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080720152955/http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/r-c/chrono2.html . 20 July 2008 . dead .
5. Web site: RUGBY UNION FOOTBALL . from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966. . Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand . 9 February 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090220161822/http://teara.govt.nz/1966/R/RugbyUnionFootball/History/en . 20 February 2009 . live .
6. http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/1t11 W. T. Parham, Tapsell, Phillip, from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 19-Jan-12