11 June:The Timaru Herald publishes its first issue.[3] The paper was initially weekly, but increased its frequency of publication to bi-weekly and then tri-weekly, and became a daily on 1 January 1878.[4] It continues today[update].
Up to 6000 miners come to theWakamarina Valley in Marlborough after gold is discovered.Canvastown is founded at the river mouth. About 25,000 ounces (710,000 g) of gold is recovered in 1864, but the surface gold is quickly exhausted.[6]
TheWairau Record starts publishing in Blenheim. The newspaper changed its name toThe Marlborough News and General Advertiser in 1865 and then to justThe Marlborough News. It folded in 1874.[7]
TheMarlborough Times starts publishing in Blenheim. It folds after about six months.[7]
Gearge Parr'sAll-England Eleven plays at a cricket carnival in Dunedin against teams from Otago and Canterbury. They later play atChristchurch'sHagley Park. None of the matches qualified as first-class and the home sides were allowed to field up to 22 batsmen.Itinerary[9]
8 July:Charles de Thierry, adventurer who attempted to establish his own sovereign state in New Zealand in the years before British annexation (born 1793)
Media related to1864 in New Zealand at Wikimedia Commons