THR

I have acquainted myself with the topic of local government of NZ. I am very interested in politics and government and these issues interest me a great deal. I would like to ask a couple of questions about the nature of local government in NZ.

Namely, NZ is divided into 16 regions and 72 territorial authorities(73 if the Chatham Islands is included). The territorial authorities are either cities or districts. Of the 16 regions, four are so low populated that they act both as regions and districts, the so-called unitary authorities.

If you live in a city, that is a natural unit of local government, cities such as Auckland, Dunedin, Hamilton etc, they are all territorial authorities in their own right.

However, if you get more rural, there are arrangements that 3-4 towns are all included in one district. My question is whether people feel any affinity towards these units of local government or do they still consider themselves as coming from their home-town even if that is part of some larger district? Moreover, is it reasonable to expect that every adult New Zealander knows the name of the local authority under which he lives?

Correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is that NZ has only one tier of local government. The regions only exist for practical purposes but they don't have any government. Neither are the districts subdivided into parishes.

If we take one completely random example: Central Hawke's Bay District Population 12,500 land area 3,300 sqkm.

It consists of towns of Waipukurau and Waipawa. In addition there are numerous smaller villages.

Would anyone say that he is from Central Hawke's Bay? Or would that someone say that he is from Waipawa or wherever he is from?

mickey_d

Both

southerner

I can offer a small clarification about the Regions. These are presumably the Regional Councils that you have come across, and they do have some authority that districts do not, such as environmental and transport matters. The RCs are typically set up along provincial lines, the provinces being the original territories that in many cases had their own provincial parliaments way back in history.

Territorial authorities have tended to change quite a bit over time, and so maybe peoples allegiances are not necessarily based on these bodies. If you ask somebody where they are from it will almost certainly be answered by a) a city/town they live in or near to, or b) the province. eg. Waipawa, or Hawkes Bay.

THR

I understand that the division of the country into these territorial authorities is a relatively recent thing and some time ago almost all towns and villages were units of local government in their own right.

I guess there must have been a lot of opposition against the reform as many smaller villages were merged with the closest larger town.