← 1903 1902 1901 1904 in New Zealand → 1905 1906 1907
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
See also:	History of New Zealand List of years in New Zealand Timeline of New Zealand history

The following lists events that happened during 1904 in New Zealand.

Incumbents

Regal and viceregal

• Head of State – Edward VII
• Governor – The Earl of Ranfurly GCMG, succeeded the same year by The Lord Plunket GCMG KCVO ^[1]

Government

The 15th New Zealand Parliament continued. In government was the Liberal Party.

• Speaker of the House – Arthur Guinness (Liberal)
• Prime Minister – Richard Seddon
• Minister of Finance – Richard Seddon
• Chief Justice – Sir Robert Stout

Parliamentary opposition

• Leader of the Opposition – William Massey, (Independent).^[2]

Main centre leaders

• Mayor of Auckland – Edwin Mitchelson
• Mayor of Wellington – John Aitken then Thomas Hislop
• Mayor of Christchurch – Henry Wigram then Charles Gray
• Mayor of Dunedin – Thomas Scott, then Thomas Christie

Events

• 13 January: Portobello Marine Laboratory opens, initially as a fish hatchery
• 17 March: The New Zealand Horticultural Trades Association is founded in Normanby.^[3]
• September: The Canterbury Steam Shipping Co is founded in Christchurch.^[4]
• 15 November: The Waikato Independent begins publishing in Cambridge. The newspaper became the Cambridge Independent in 1966. It closed in 1995.^[5]

Arts and literature

See 1904 in art, 1904 in literature, Category:1904 books

Music

See: 1904 in music

Sport

Association football

• A New South Wales representative team tours, playing a New Zealand team in Dunedin and Wellington. These are the first recognised matches by a New Zealand national football team.^[6]
  • 23 July, Dunedin: NZ loses 0–1
  • 30 July, Wellington: Draw 3–3

Boxing

National amateur champions

• Heavyweight – J. Griffin (Greymouth)
• Middleweight – J. Griffin (Greymouth)
• Lightweight – T. Rickards (Christchurch)
• Featherweight – J. Watson (Christchurch)
• Bantamweight – J. Gosling (Wellington)

Chess

• The 17th National Chess championship was held in Wellington. The champion was W.E. Mason of Wellington.^[7]

Golf

The 12th National Amateur Championships were held in Otago ^[8]

• Men: A.H. Fisher (Otago)
• Women: Miss E. Lewis

Horse racing

Harness racing

• The inaugural running of the New Zealand Trotting Cup is won by Monte Carlo ^[9]
• Auckland Trotting Cup: Rebel Boy^[10]

Rugby union

• Wellington defeat Auckland 6-3, becoming the first challenger to win the Ranfurly Shield.
• Wellington defend the Ranfurly shield against Canterbury (6–3) and Otago (15–13).

Soccer

Provincial league champions:^[11]

• Auckland: Auckland Corinthians
• Otago: Northern
• Southland: Nightcaps
• Taranaki: New Plymouth
• Wellington: Diamond Wellington

Births

• 2 February: A. R. D. Fairburn, poet.^[12]
• 7 February:Morton Coutts – invented the continuous fermentation method of brewing beer.
• 11 February: Keith Holyoake, politician and 26th Prime Minister.^[13]
• 12 March: Ken James, cricketer.^[14]
• 24 December: Thomas O'Halloran, Australian Rules footballer.

Category:1904 births

Deaths

• 5 January: William Walker, politician and speaker of the Legislative Council (b. 1837).
• 11 February: George Lumsden, politician (b. 1815).
• 22 February: James Nairn, painter (b. 1859)
• 16 April: Charles Edward Haughton, politician (b. 1827).
• 2 October: Thomas Ellison, rugby player (b. c1867).
• 11 December: Octavius Hadfield, Anglican Primate of New Zealand (b. 1814).
• Tamati Ngakaho, a Ngāti Porou carver.^[15]

Category:1904 deaths