1863–1864 Whitaker–Fox Ministry

The Whitaker-Fox Ministry was a responsible government which held power in New Zealand from October 1863 to November 1864.Instead, he was attorney-general sitting in the Legislative Council while William Fox led the Government in the lower house.[3] There was also a provincialist streak to the Whitaker-Fox government, with the last restrictions on provincial borrowing being abolished.[2] Reader Wood went to London to seek a £3 million loan for war and reconstruction purposes, but the British government would guarantee only part of this loan, and also announced that the New Zealand government would soon be liable for the upkeep of British Army regiments utilised in the New Zealand Wars - to the tune of £40 per soldier per year.[4] When the government submitted to this dictate, the Opposition politician Frederick Weld announced a new policy of ‘self-reliance’ which prompted the fall of the Whitaker-Fox ministry barely a year after it had assumed office.