The counties of New Zealand were territorial local authorities that governed the country's rural areas, existing from the abolition of the provinces in 1876 until the major local government reforms of 1989. They existed alongside the country's boroughs, town districts, and other territorial local authorities during that period.
From 1853 until 1876, New Zealand had a semi-federal system of provinces. Each province had its own legislature and superintendent. These provinces set up their own local boards and councils. The provinces were abolished on 1 November 1876, following the passage of the Abolition of the Provinces Act 1876.
The original Counties Bill intended to merge 314 road boards into 39 counties; however, as a result of lobbying, the final Counties Act 1876 as passed created 63 counties. The counties established by the Act were found to be too small; they could not effectively provide the expected services and mainly continued on the construction and maintenance of rural roads as the pre-existing road boards had done. Many ad hoc bodies were created to manage services such as education, health, water, and ports over the succeeding decades.
As of 1966, it was no longer possible to create new counties except for the merger of pre-existing counties. Counties at that point could create county towns, subordinate to the county, in areas with at least 200 people or 60 dwellings. There were 117 counties in 1966, with all but two having county councils; two remained without government as they were sparsely populated.
The Local Government Act 1974 sought to rationalise local government, attempting to tackle the problem whilst dealing with staunchly independent local authorities. The Act abolished the distinction between boroughs and counties, and allowed for the creation of regional units of government. The Act also increased the powers of the Local Government Commission.
Almost all of counties were abolished following the Fourth Labour Government's 1989 reforms to local government, which consolidated around 850 local government bodies into just 86. The exception was Chatham Islands County, which was abolished on 1 November 1995 following the passing of the Chatham Islands Council Act 1995, which transitioned the islands governance to a sui generis territorial authority.
County councils mainly concerned themselves with providing roads and controlling rivers and other waterways. These services were paid for by rates on property and government loans and subsidies.
Many small counties struggled to maintain roads to an acceptable standard; in 1922 a Main Highways Board (NHB) was set up that would oversee roads across the country. In 1937, almost 6,500 km of highways were designated "state highways", with control being moved to the NHB over the counties.
The first elections for the county councils were to be held on 22 December 1876.