Editing List of cities in New Zealand (section)

===City councils===

The first [[municipal council]] to bear the title of "city council" was the Auckland City Council formed in 1854 by act of the [[Auckland Province#Auckland Provincial Council|Auckland Provincial Council]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Auckland City Council Act| publisher=Auckland Provincial Council|date=6 February 1854|url=http://www8.austlii.edu.au/nz/legis/auk_ord/acco1854256/}}</ref> Following the election of an anti-taxation [[superintendent (New Zealand)|superintendent]] in March 1855, [[William Brown (New Zealand politician)|William Brown]], the Auckland City Council was dissolved and formally disestablished 1856.<ref name=Brett2020/> A new [[Auckland City Council]] would be established in 1871, which was later was merged into [[Auckland Council]] in 2010.<ref>{{cite web|title=Timeline of previous local government agencies 1862–2010|website=Auckland Council|url=https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/arts-culture-heritage/heritage/archives/Documents/previous-local-government-agencies.pdf|access-date=18 September 2023}}</ref>

The [[Christchurch City Council]] was formed by an act of the [[Canterbury Province|Canterbury Provincial Council]] which received [[Royal assent]] on 31 January 1863.<ref>{{cite web|title=Christchurch City Council Ordinance 1862| publisher=Canterbury Provincial Council|date=31 January 1863 |url=http://www6.austlii.edu.au/nz/legis/can_ord/ccco1862323/}}</ref> The council has been active since and is therefore the longest continuously operating city council in New Zealand.<ref name=Brett2020/><ref name=CCL/>

A legal oddity also provides Dunedin with a minor claim to being New Zealand's oldest city. Legal disputes over the powers that the [[Otago Province|Otago Provincial Council]] delegated to  the newly formed Dunedin City Council in 1865,<ref>{{cite web|title=Otago Municipal Corporations Ordinance 1965|date=18 May 1865|publisher=Otago Provincial Council|url=http://www.nzlii.org/nz/legis/ota_ord/omco1865367/}}</ref> resulted in the central government stepping in and confirming its powers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Otago Municipal Corporations Empowering Act 1865|date=30 October 1865|url=http://www.nzlii.org/nz/legis/hist_act/omcea186529v1865n55549/|publisher=Parliament of New Zealand}}</ref> Consequently, Dunedin City Council was the first council recognised in central government law. Furthermore, the central government passed legislation in 1868 to better regulate municipal councils across the country. Dunedin was already under the provisions and was therefore unaffected. The new act brought all other "city councils" in New Zealand under the central government regulations as "borough councils". The name change, however, was only due to an oversight in the language of the act and an amendment was made in November 1868 allowing some councils to revert to using the title of "city council". As the act, and therefore the brief name change, did not apply to Dunedin, Dunedin City Council can claim to have the longest continuous use of the title "city council".<ref name=Brett2020/><ref name=act1867>{{cite web|title=Municipal Corporations Act|date=10 October 1867|publisher=Parliament of New Zealand|url=http://www.nzlii.org/nz/legis/hist_act/mca186731v1867n24381/}}</ref>