South Island nationalism

South Island nationalism refers to a nationalist movement in the South Island of New Zealand. This political viewpoint is not widely held – in the 1999 elections the NZ South Island Party received 2,622 votes, 0.14% of the total. Another South Island Party attempted to gain the 500 financial members necessary to contest the 2008 election, but chose not to register.

Julius Vogel, the 8th Premier of New Zealand, was a continual advocate of separation of the North and South Islands, which led to his dismissal from the Otago Daily Times in 1868. The idea of independence was voted on by the Parliament of New Zealand in 1865, and the concern the South Island could form a separate colony was one of the main factors in moving the capital of New Zealand from Auckland to Wellington in the same year.

The successive waves of Maori tribes to settle the South Island – namely the Waitaha, the Ngati Mamoe, and Ngai Tahu – had been politically independent from their northern counterparts. Several attempts by the Ngati Toa (from the Kapiti Coast) to annexe Te Wai Pounamu during the 1830s, under the leadership of Te Rauparaha, were eventually repelled by an alliance of the Southern chiefs of Otautahi and Murihiku. By the time the first European settlers arrived in Te Wai Pounamu in the early 1840s, the Ngati Toa only held control of the Wairau Plains.

...
Wikipedia