The New Zealand Gazette (Maori: Te Kāhiti o Aotearoa), commonly referred to as Gazette, is the official newspaper of record the New Zealand Government (government gazette), serving as the medium by which decisions of Government are promulgated. Published since 1840, it is the longest-running publication in New Zealand. Since 26 October 2017, it has been published online continuously.[1] Special editions are also published twice a year to cover the New Year Honours and King's Birthday Honours.
The predecessor to the New Zealand Gazette was the New Zealand Advertiser and Bay of Islands Gazette, published in Kororāreka during 1840. Whist the Advertiser was a private newspaper, it was used by the colonial government for publishing official notices. When the editor of the Advertiser started to criticise the government for its land policy, the government responded in a way that effectively closed down the Advertiser. In the first issue of the New Zealand Gazette, it was claimed that the Advertiser was no longer being used for government notices because the newspaper had declined to publish them. This was greeted with disbelief by settlers, who found it hard to accept that the newspaper would turn down the very business that sustained it. The government copped much criticism for its actions from the New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, New Zealand's other newspaper at the time.[2]
The first issue was published as Gazette Extraordinary on 30 December 1840. Then it was the New Zealand Government Gazette from 1841 to 1847. Between 1847 and 1853 it was split into the New Zealand Government Gazette, Province of New Ulster for New Ulster (the North Island), published in Auckland, and the New Zealand Government Gazette, Province of New Munster for New Munster (the South Island), published in Wellington. In 1853 the two were reunited as the New Zealand Government Gazette and it changed to its present title on 11 August 1857.[3]
In 2014, the online edition of the Gazette became the official version while a print edition is still available for subscription. Printed editions were replaced by continuous online publishing on 26 October 2017.