1870 in New Zealand

Incumbents

Regal and viceregal

• Head of State – Queen Victoria
• Governor – Sir George Ferguson Bowen

  Government and law

• Speaker of the House – Sir David Monro stands down at the end of the year. He will be replaced after the 1871 election by Sir Francis Dillon Bell
• Premier – William Fox
• Minister of Finance – Julius Vogel
• Chief Justice – Hon Sir George Arney

Main centre leaders

• Mayor of Christchurch – John Anderson followed by Andrew Duncan
• Mayor of Dunedin – Thomas Birch followed by Henry Fish
• Mayor of Wellington – Joseph Dransfield

  Events

• 27 August – 3 September: Second visit by Prince Alfred, returning briefly to Wellington before departing for Sydney.

  Sport

Archery

• The first club meets at One Tree Hill, Auckland.

  Golf

• New Zealand's first golf course was opened in Dunedin.

  Horse racing

Major race winners

• New Zealand Cup: Knottingley
• New Zealand Cup: Knottingley
• New Zealand Derby: Malabar
• New Zealand Derby: Envy

  Rugby union

• 14 May – First rugby club match, Nelson College versus Nelson Football Club "The Town" at the Botanical reserve. This was the first interclub game of rugby union played in New Zealand.
• 12 September – A Nelson team, the "Lunatics", defeats Wellington at Petone.
• – The first "international" between Wellington and a team from HMS Rosario.

  Shooting

Births

• 14 April: James Cowan, writer.
• 20 October: C. F. Goldie, painter.
• no date: Arthur Withy, journalist and politician.

  Deaths

• 5 July: Henry Powning Stark, politician and sharebroker.
• 16 July: Elizabeth Guard, of pioneering whaling family.
• 27 November : James Stuart-Wortley, politician
• 30 November: Francis Jollie, politician