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Now that New Zealand had its own parliamentary system, the British Colonial Office directed Colonel Robert Wynyard, the Acting-Governor, to introduce "responsible government". The settler government would have responsibility for dealing with most aspects of governing New Zealand, apart from dealings with Māori, which was to stay under the Governor's control. In the main, the Governor's residual powers were handed over in a piecemeal manner during the 1850s and 1860s, in particular when the conduct of the New Zealand Wars - and paying for them - was transferred to the colonial government in 1864-65.

On 23 January an earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale struck the lower North Island. It killed between five and nine people in Wellington, Manawatu and Wairarapa and radically altered the landscape of the Wellington region.

In the year that the Pākehā population exceeded that of Māori in New Zealand, the first Māori king was chosen. A decade previously, this concept had been suggested, then in 1854, Ngāti Ruanui hosted the first of many joint talks among North Island Māori to halt the advance of Pākehā settlement and stem the decay perceived in traditional Māori society. Now a unified Māori response was believed possible in the movement, soon to be called Kingitanga. The aged but very highranking Waikato chief Te Wherowhero (who had not signed the Treaty) became the first king, taking the name Potatau. Around him grew the Kingite movement, supported by Māori from Hauraki to Horowhenua. The Kingitanga was not universally welcomed among Māori, though, with many chiefs refusing to put their mana under that of someone else. The northern tribes of Tai Tokerau had no involvement because they were strongly associated with the Treaty, which was viewed by some as being in opposition to the King movement. They and others reacted against the strongly Tainui tribal connections of the Kingitanga's leadership. It should be noted that the Kingitanga regarded the Queen as complementary to the Māori king, not as a competitor, but the colonial government took a different view. Under the second king, Tawhiao (who ruled for 34 years from 1860), the movement gave strong direction and cohesion in many of the armed campaigns that followed.

Governor Thomas Gore Browne (Governor 1855-1861) convened the first of many large meetings on the Treaty, partly in an attempt to draw attention away from the King movement and the fighting. It should also be noted that the idea of the Treaty as a holy covenant between Māori and the Crown had been present since 1840, when the missionaries appear to have used the term to encourage Māori chiefs to sign. The term was further developed at the Kohimārama meeting, in Auckland. Over four weeks at Kohimārama, a wide range of Māori from outside those groups fighting the Government discussed the Treaty and their concerns over land. The Kohimārama Covenant proposed a Native Council and other ideas, some of which were embodied in the first Native Land Act two years later. The Native Council, however, was never set up. The Government continued to face unremitting political pressure to provide land for waves of new migrants.

Warfare directly linked to land issues broke out in Taranaki in March 1860. The Government, wishing to show its freedom to act, insisted on dealing with a minor chief over a small block at Waitara against the direct opposition of a senior chief, Wiremu Kingi, and most of the local people who were actually living on the block. Those Māori who resisted the alienation of their land were immediately branded as being in rebellion against the authority of the Crown, in defiance of Article 1 of the Treaty, which provided for the Queen's sovereignty. The New Plymouth military commander sent troops to enforce the purchase, and a land dispute became open warfare lasting a year. Many Māori came to Taranaki to fight alongside Wiremu Kingi in defence of his land, and many others throughout the country were sympathetic to his stand.

In May 1861 Tasmanian geologist Gabriel Read discovered gold in Gabriel's Gully, just outside present-day Lawrence. This was not the first time such claims had been made – an earlier announcement had been delayed for fear it would bring rough miners to the town. Within a fortnight of confirmation of the discovery there were 500 men prospecting in Gabriel's Gully, a number that quadrupled in the following two weeks.

New Zealand's first telegraph line linked Christchurch and the harbour town of Lyttelton. It was symbolic of a colonial preoccupation with modern innovations - others of note being steamships and railways. In the North Island, during the New Zealand Wars, telegraph lines were often first installed for military communications. A high rate of investment in infrastructure continued throughout the late nineteenth century.

George Grey was appointed to New Zealand for a second term as governor, commencing in late 1861. Up to this point, 'Native Affairs' had been the responsibility of the Governor because of concerns in England that the elected settler governments would inevitably put their interests ahead of those of Māori. In 1862, however, the British Government instructed Grey to normally accept the advice of his ministers in Native Affairs. However, as commander-in-chief of British forces in New Zealand, he retained a great deal of control, and responsibility for Native Affairs did not fully pass to the New Zealand Government until 1865. In the light of the disastrous Waitara purchase, and as part of its new-found responsibilities, the settler government and Grey together shaped the Native Land Act 1862, which set up the Native Land Court to adjudicate upon competing customary claims to land. It created a court of Māori chiefs, chaired by a Pākehā magistrate. The Act also allowed Māori to deal directly with settlers over land. Because it contravened the Treaty, it had to be approved in London. Given the time this took, and the warfare taking place around the North Island, this Act was hardly ever implemented before it was replaced by the very different 1865 Act.

The war dominated this period. Fighting flared up again in Taranaki in May 1863. Further north, in July, Governor Grey ordered Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron to cross the Mangatāwhiri River (the accepted boundary to the Waikato) with his mixed imperial and colonial army. His stated justification for this action was a belief that the Kingitanga was the fount of Māori resistance to British authority and the fear of an attack on Auckland. The Waikato campaign lasted until the Māori defeat at the battle of Ōrākau in April 1864. The fighting then spread immediately to Tauranga, with the Māori victory at Gate Pā and their defeat at Te Ranga, where East Coast Māori, trying to help, were driven off by government forces. Historians have much debated the causes of the wars. Some suggest that the wars can be seen as an attempt by the British to impose "real" as opposed to "nominal" sovereignty over Māori. More specific factors, such as a hunger for land or the desire to impose British administration, law and civilization on Māori, can be seen as aspects of this over-arching cause. Other historians argue that land was the critical factor that lead to the outbreak of war.

Britain’s costliest day of the New Zealand Wars occurred far from the battlefield. On 7 February 1863 the Royal Navy’s steam corvette HMS Orpheus, bringing supplies and reinforcements, hit the Manukau Harbour bar. The 1706-ton ship was modern and powerful, but it was no match for the treacherous Manukau entrance whose channels and submerged sandbars move frequently.