GOVERNORS

A brief survey of the persons who have held viceregal office in New Zealand shows that our Governors can be classified into certain relatively well-defined groups. Those who held office in the first period, from Gipps to Gore Browne, were military or naval officers who had been detached from active service to assist the Colonial Office, New Zealand being their first or early charge. The Governors of the second period — from Sir George Grey (second term) to Sir W. F. D. Jervois – were already well-experienced colonial administrators by the time they arrived in New Zealand, and most of them became Governors of other colonies after they left. All the Governors of this period were picked men, and two of them — Robinson and Gordon – were regarded as being among the most competent of Britain's colonial administrators. As a group these Governors came into prominence during the second half of the nineteenth century. Their rise was due, principally, to the provision which made their retirement pensions, paid by the Imperial Government, dependent upon the size or class of salary attaching to their final vice-regal position. Because there were such wide divergencies between payments made by the various colonies, the Colonial Office was able to institute a system of viceregal promotions within the Empire which enabled the Service to retain an experienced Governor's services for many years. When, after Jervois's term, the New Zealand Government reduced the Governor's salary and allowances, the Colonial Office could no longer send such men to this country, Lord Onslow, who came to New Zealand as our first “cheap Governor”, accepted his appointment on the clear understanding that he would be expected to spend large sums from his own purse to keep up the dignity of his office. This proved an expensive undertaking, and one of the immediate effects was to reduce the Governor's term of office in New Zealand from six to four years. After Lord Onslow's appointment, Lord Liverpool was the first Governor to serve his full term. The Governors of this period, all extremely wealthy men, were members of the House of Lords with no previous experience of vice-regal office.

With the gradual evolution of Dominion status, and the corresponding lessening of Imperial control over the New Zealand Government, greater emphasis came to be placed on the Governor-General as the Monarch's personal representative. This necessitated a further change in the type of person selected. Since Lord Freyberg, New Zealand Governors are drawn from men who have distinguished themselves either in the British political world or in the armed forces. Nowadays it is most unusual for a Governor-General to have had prior vice-regal service.

*Died in office

For biographical details see separate entries: e.g., Gipps, Sir George; Freyberg, Sir Bernard, etc.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• GOVERNORS

Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.