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Story: The New Zealanders

A handbill, 1851

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A handbill, 1851

At the beginning of the 1850s white settlers did not describe themselves as New Zealanders. This handbill, about the debates over a new constitution, was addressed to both ‘fellow settlers’ and ‘fellow colonists’, but not ‘fellow New Zealanders’. It would be 10 years before that term was used.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: Eph-D-Politics-Wellington 1851-01

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Jock Phillips, The New Zealanders – European New Zealanders, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/1899/a-handbill-1851 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 May 2015.