Our Beginnings in NZ
The Orange Order was brought to New Zealand in 1840 by emigrants from Ireland. Lodges were established across New Zealand, and The Grand Lodge of New Zealand was formed in 1908.
When did the Orange Order begin in New Zealand?
Historians tend to have differing views on this. Do we consider the beginning to be when the Grand Lodge of the colony of New Zealand was constituted or when Orangemen carrying warrants issued by the Grand Lodge of Ireland, arrived in the early 1840s and began holding meetings under those warrants.
It wasn’t until after a resolution was passed in the Grand Lodge of Ireland held in Dublin in December 1866 authorising the constituting of a Grand Lodge for the colony of New Zealand that the first New Zealand warrants were issued.
As early as 1840, Orangemen occasionally gathered in Auckland to discuss the future, but having no warrant to hold a lodge, they could only wait in the hope one would come. And in 1842 it did.
When James Carlton Hill from County Wicklow arrived in Auckland that year, he brought with him District Warrant No 1707 which had been issued on 13th September 1828 to “Bro. John Booth and his successors.” This warrant is still in existence in Auckland today. It bears the seal of the Grand Lodge of Ireland and was signed by Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, R.W.G.M.
James Carlton Hill from County Wicklow