Territorial authorities of New Zealand

Territorial authorities (Māori: mana ā-rohe) are a tier of local government in New Zealand, alongside regional councils. There are 67 territorial authorities: 13 city councils, 53 district councils and the Chatham Islands Council. District councils serve a combination of rural and urban communities, while city councils administer the larger urban areas. Auckland, Gisborne, Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough each have a unitary authority, which performs the functions of both a territorial authority and a regional council. The Chatham Islands Council is a sui generis territorial authority that is similar to a unitary authority.

Territorial authority districts are not subdivisions of regions, and some of them fall within more than one region. Regional council areas are based on water catchment areas, whereas territorial authorities are based on community of interest and road access. Regional councils are responsible for the administration of many environmental and public transport matters, while the territorial authorities administer local roading and reserves, water supply and sanitation, building consents, the land use and subdivision aspects of resource management, and other local matters. Some activities are delegated to council-controlled organisations. The scope of powers is specified by the Local Government Act 2002.

In 1840 the Colonial Office was given the authority to divide New Zealand into counties, hundreds, towns, townships, and parishes. These divisions were to be of set sizes (similar to North American divisions, many of which are rectangular in shape) but this was rarely implemented.

For many decades until the local government reforms of 1989, a borough with more than 20,000 people could be proclaimed a city. The boundaries of councils tended to follow the edge of the built-up area, so little distinction was made between the urban area and the local government area.

New Zealand's local government structural arrangements were significantly reformed by the Local Government Commission in 1989 when approximately 700 councils and special purpose bodies were amalgamated to create 87 new local authorities. Regional councils were reduced in number from 20 to 13, territorial authorities (city/district councils) from 200 to 75, and special purpose bodies from over 400 to 7. The new district and city councils were generally much larger and most covered substantial areas of both urban and rural land. Many places that once had a city council were now being administered by a district council.

As a result, the term "city" began to take on two meanings.

City also came to be used in a less formal sense to describe major urban areas independent of local body boundaries. This informal usage is jealously guarded. Gisborne, for example, adamantly described itself as the first city in the world to see the new millennium. Gisborne is administered by a district council, but its status as a city is not generally disputed.^{[citation needed]}

Under current law, an urban area has to be at least 50,000 residents before it can be officially proclaimed as a city.