Dominion of New Zealand

The Dominion of New Zealand was the successor to the Colony of New Zealand and the country's formal designation from 1907 to 1947. New Zealand had become a separate Crown colony in 1841 and gained responsible government in 1852, and by the early twentieth century it was effectively self-governing. It declined to join the Federation of Australia and was proclaimed a dominion by King Edward VII on 26 September 1907, a status intended to mark its political maturity within the British Empire. The title changed little in domestic affairs, but it signalled that Britain would no longer shape New Zealand's external policy without consultation. The dominion entered the First World War alongside Britain in 1914, and the imperial conferences of 1923 and 1926 recognized its right to negotiate its own treaties; a commercial treaty with Japan followed in 1928. In 1939 the government decided independently to join the Second World War. Wellington remained the capital and seat of parliament, and the country's population passed one million during this period. After the Second World War the term dominion fell out of use, and New Zealand adopted the Statute of Westminster in 1947.