New Zealand Geographic Board Act 1946 (repealed)

Here you can find out about the jurisdiction and authority that the New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa (NZGB) had under the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 1946 (repealed).

Note: In 2003 the government began a review of the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 1946 (repealed).

NZGB jurisdiction

Under the 1946 Act, the NZGB set standards and regulated place naming activity, including and extending to:

• New Zealand
• the Kermadec, Antipodes, Chatham, Auckland, Campbell, Snares and Bounty Islands
• New Zealand territorial waters within the 12 nautical mile limit.

Although not part of the 1946 Act, the NZGB was also New Zealand's place naming authority for New Zealand's area of interest in Antarctica by a 1956 Cabinet directive. Find out more about finding Antarctic names.

NZGB authority under the 1946 Act

What the NZGB could name

The Act made provision for the NZGB to assign or alter any place name in New Zealand. The term “place” was defined as:

• any town, village, village settlement, special settlement, goldfield or mining district, land area, or other district, place or locality whatsoever (not being the district of a territorial authority or a ward or riding thereof)
• any railway or railway station
• any post office
• any mountain, peak, hill, pass, valley, glen, forest, lagoon, swamp, creek, stream, river, ford, lake, bay, harbour, or other natural feature whatsoever.

What the NZGB could not name

Excluded from the NZGB's 1946 authority were:

• the naming of territorial authorities and their districts (under the authority of the Local Government Commission)
• streets and roads (under the authority of territorial authorities)
• national parks and reserves (under the authority of the Department of Conservation)
• the name of the country, which would require a separate act of Parliament to change and
• specific agreements resulting from Treaty of Waitangi settlements, which added new names or changed existing names - arising from settlements where the NZGB's role was advisory.

Official names status

Place names become official by being processed through the provisions of the 1946 Act (Sections 12, 13, 14, and 15).

In other cases, as prescribed in section 18 of the 1946 Act, other place names could be published if they had been shown on a map previously published by the Surveyor-General - these were termed "Recorded Names". Unofficial place names were able to be published, provided it was stated that they had not been approved by the NZGB.