Talk:Westland County

Categorisation and scope

I've categorised this as Category:Provinces of New Zealand rather than Category:Counties of New Zealand. This may seem a bit strange, and there is certainly a degree of judgement in it. The name would suggest that this is indeed one of the counties. When you read the article, though, you'll see that it was set up as an alternative to creating yet another province. This didn't work in practice, so Parliament changed its mind and made this into a proper province after a few years. In its setup, Westland County was reasonably close to a province, with all the bells and whistles of a mini-Parliament minus the Superintendent; that role was held by a chairman. All other counties were created in 1876 following the abolition of the provincial government system, and they were a true form of local government.

To make things more complicated, one of the counties that was created after the provincial system was abolished was a Westland County, but that was a completely different beast to what they had between 1868 and 1873, and the article is not about that council. If anybody is keen to write about the period post-1876, I suggest that a separate article be written.

Any thoughts? Schwede66 04:47, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Just chipping in here, a decade later(!), to concur that the Westland County of 1868–73 should be treated separately to the subsequent local government. I would almost be inclined to treat the County and Province of 1868–76 in one article—but, whether it is treated separately or together with the province, it should not be treated with the later county, which was part of a completely different level of government. The 1868–73 county and 1873–76 province belonged to the quasi-federal provincial system of government that sat between central and local government (indeed, the provinces originally handled the creation of local councils and boards within their bounds), while the 1877–1989 county was a local government body. I should note here both my expertise and my potential conflict of interest in any decision-making and article split/revision: I am the author of Acknowledge No Frontier: The Creation and Demise of New Zealand's Provinces, 1853–76 (Otago University Press, 2016). Axver (talk) 02:51, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, I've got your book, Axver. I just need to get round dealing with it. BTW, I would not consider you having a COI. You are an obvious subject matter expert, though. Schwede66 04:44, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

I'd support @Axver's suggestion of one article for the county / province (1868–1876), and another for the subsequent county (1876–1989) following the abolition of the provincial government system. Paora (talk) 09:06, 29 March 2024 (UTC)