It is the purpose of this study to determine and explain changes in the relative status of New Zealand seaports during two significant periods in the country's economic development, in an attempt to identify and understand the complex physical and human factors affecting the development of ports. The origin and evolution of New Zealand seaports since the establishment of British settlement in 1840 has closely mirrored the nature and the direction of the economic growth of the country. Indeed, seaports as places “equipped. to facilitate the necessary relations between ships as agencies of sea transport and the land” have been of supreme importance in the development of New Zealand, particularly in view of the country's remoteness from the main concentration of population and markets in the world, the overwhelming dependence on international trade and the necessity of sea transport within and between the North and the South Islands.