Canterbury Police Gazette

The Canterbury Police Gazette was formally titled “New Zealand government gazette. Province of Canterbury. Police Department” and the first issue was published in August 1863. It was based on the one established in Otago in 1861, which in turn had been based on Australian examples.

In 1852 New Zealand was divided into six provinces, each with an elected council and a superintendent. These provincial governments became responsible for policing within their own regions, and each set up police forces of their own. In the North Island, because of the New Zealand wars, the police forces tended to be an extension of the military forces. In the South Island, the focus was more on preventing civil crimes, such as theft, vagrancy and drunkenness.

Like Otago, Canterbury’s decision to publish a Police Gazette was driven by an increase in population, which became more acute with the discovery of gold on the West Coast from 1864. Canterbury police were responsible for the Coast until Westland was established as an independent county in 1868 with its own police force.

Much like Otago’s, the Canterbury Police Gazette contained notices about crimes committed, items stolen, reports on inquests, and information about missing people, deserters, and escaped prisoners. It also contained details of arrests and sentences, and information about police appointments and promotions. From October 1865 it included a table listing the prisoners discharged the previous month from the local prisons, along with their crimes, sentences, and physical descriptions.

Both Southland (1864) and Auckland police forces (1865) also established their own police gazettes. However, copies of the Otago and Canterbury police gazettes are the only ones to survive. Once the provinces were abolished in 1876, all the provincial police gazettes were merged to become the national New Zealand Police Gazette, the first issue of which appeared in July 1877.