1821 in New Zealand

Events

• 12 July – Thomas Kendall, Hongi Hika and Waikato arrive back in the Bay of Islands from their trip to England. While in England they have helped to compile a Maori dictionary, met King George IV who gave Hongi a suit of armour, and Hongi has acquired a number of muskets.
• 20 July – Grass is sown for the first time in New Zealand, on land cleared from fern at Kerikeri.
• 5 September – Hongi Hika and 2000 Ngā Puhi, armed with 1000 muskets, lay siege to Mauinaina pā at Tamaki. The pā is taken and the inhabitants massacred.
• September
• * – John Gare Butler and his family move into the Mission House even though it is still unfinished.

• Construction of the Mission House is started.
• Late in the year Hongi Hika and Ngā Puhi lay siege to the Ngāti Maru pā at Te Totara, but after 2 days they make peace with the defenders and withdraw. They return that night and take the pā without difficulty.
• Te Rauparaha and Ngāti Toa move south from Kawhia to resettle in Taranaki after several defeats by Waikato and Ngāti Maniapoto.

  Births

• 21 February : James Menzies, Superintendent of Southland Province.
• 12 July : William Richmond, politician.
• 10 August : John Turnbull Thomson, engineer and surveyor.
• 29 August : Elizabeth Fairburn, missionary and Bible translator.
• 10 September : William Jervois, 10th Governor of New Zealand
• 2 November : George Bowen, 5th Governor of New Zealand.

• John Bacot, politician.
• : Samuel Bealey, runholder and politician.
• : Thomas Brunner, explorer.
• : John Cargill, politician.
• Oswald Curtis, politician.
• George Hunter, politician.
• : Charles Kettle, surveyor of Dunedin.
• Reader Wood, politician.

• : William Montgomery, politician and merchant.
• : George O'Brien, painter.

  Deaths