1838 in New Zealand

Incumbents

Regal and viceregal

• Head of State – Queen Victoria
• Governor of New South Wales – Sir George Gipps, having been appointed on 5 October 1837, arrives in Sydney on 23 February.

  Government and law

• British Resident in New Zealand — James Busby

  Events

• 10 January
• * — Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier arrives in New Zealand at Totara Point on the Hokianga Harbour.
• * — Flax trader James Farrow purchases an acre of land at Otumoetai, Tauranga.
• 13 January – Bishop Pompallier celebrates the first Catholic mass on land in New Zealand at the home of Thomas and Mary Poynton at Totara Point.
• February
• * — The offer of a Royal charter to the New Zealand Association to take responsibility for the administration of New Zealand is withdrawn..
• April
• * — The French whaler Cachalot, commanded by Jean Langlois, arrives in New Zealand waters and commences whaling near the Chatham Islands.
• May
• * — The Cachalot arrives at Banks Peninsula accompanied by the French corvette Héroine.
• 2 August – Jean Langlois completes the purchase of Banks Peninsula from local Māori and makes a downpayment of goods to the value of 150 francs. Captain Cecille of the Héroine raises the French flag and proclaims French sovereignty over Banks Peninsula.
• August
• * — The New Zealand Association is wound up. In its place the New Zealand Colonisation Company and the New Zealand Land Company are established.

• The Reverend Alfred Nesbitt Brown re-opens the Anglican mission at Tauranga.
• Three Gisborne Māori, having had Christian instruction in the Bay of Islands, return as catechists.

  Births

• 6 October : John McKenzie, politician.
• : Henry Hirst, politician.