The following lists events that happened during 1912 in New Zealand. The 1911 General Election, the first contested by the Reform Party, left parliament in an indeterminate state, with Reform holding 38 seats, Liberal 36, Labour 1 and with 5 independents. Liberal, who had been in government for the past 21 years, claimed that Reform did not have a mandate, since many of their seats were the smaller rural electorates, and the Liberals proceeded to form a government under Joseph Ward as per the previous two parliaments.