New Zealand Historical Documents Online

Documents and Maps

Declaration of Independence 1835 - Maori and English text. Part of a Mäori Language site hosted by Gavin Kingsley.
Partial transcript of the instructions to Hobson concerning his duties as Lieutenant Governor of New Zealand in 1839. From nz.com site.
Women's Suffrage Petition - Archives New Zealand page on the 1893 women's suffrage petition - includes image of petition.
See also Treaty of Waitangi links.
NZ national anthem - sheet music, sound files, Maori translation and history of 'God Defend New Zealand', linked from the nz.com site. See also the official New Zealand National Anthems part of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage site.
Niupepa: Maori newspapers 1842-1933. Includes a searchable database. Produced by NZ Digital Library in conjunction with the Alexander Turnbull Library.
The trail of Waitangi: Short eye witness accounts of people and circumstances prior to the Treaty being signed, including Henry Williams's personal view of the Treaty. Site developed by Gary Williams.
Ranfurly and Kilbirnie-Lyall Bay Oral History Collections - two online digital collections from the Alexander Turnbull Library. The Ranfurly Collection is a digital database of the drawings, photographs, diaries, and illustrated reports created by Lord Ranfurly, Governor of New Zealand between 1897 and 1904, and his entourage. The Kilbirnie-Lyall Bay Community Centre Oral History Project is a digital database of life history interviews with seven long-term residents of Kilbirnie and Lyall Bay in Wellington. Participants discuss an area of Wellington that had undergone dramatic physical and social changes since the 1920s. The collection includes photographs and audio and video excerpts.
Papers Past - The National Library has launched Papers Past - a web site of New Zealand papers that provide a record of the country's daily life in the 19th century. The papers have been digitised so that the pages of each edition can be browsed individually on the web, without the need to visit the Library and search microfilm or original papers. The site contains more than 300,000 pages from 20 newspapers and periodicals and all of them are free of copyright. Users can navigate the site in English and Maori. The range of titles and number of pages will be added to over time. For those wanting a place to start, an interesting exercise is to look up how the Tarawera eruption of 10 June 1886 was reported in various newspapers - particularly the Bay of Plenty Times. Please note that those relying on dial-up connections will have to be patient while the viewing software and pages download - it is well worth the wait though!

Photographs and Paintings

Matapihi - an online New Zealand image search portal which combines the digital collections of a number of major institutions.
National Library's impressive Timeframes site - allows you to view and order from their ever-growing online historic photographic collection.
Heritage Images Online - provided by Auckland City Libraries. Contains an online collection of heritage photographs by Henry Winkelmann (Auckland City photographs of the early part of the twentieth century), Clifton Firth (a selection of portraits from 1940�s-1970�s) and Hermann Schmidt (First World War soldier portraits).
Auckland Art Gallery - includes a database containing images and information on about 99% of the 12,500 paintings in their collection.