Empire City: Wellington becomes the capital of New Zealand

Abstract

It is one of those quirks of historiographical fate that while Wellington was chosen as the site of the New Zealand Company’s ‘first and principal settlement’, becoming the colony’s capital and seat of government within 25 years, it has fared relatively poorly at the hands of professional historians. Despite a plethora of publications on particular suburbs, families, businesses and social institutions, soundly-researched overviews of the evolution of the city and its hinterlands have been at a premium.