They were initially ordered by the Otago Provincial Council, but they were soon incorporated into the national locomotive fleet when the provinces were abolished.

Other examples of the P class were built for industrial service and never came under the ownership of the New Zealand Railways Department, though one worked on the Kaitangata Line.

The two P class locomotives owned by the Railways Department were known as Kiwi and Weka and they soon passed to the ownership of others, allowing the P classification to be used again in 1885.

It then came into the possession of the Manawatu County Council's Sanson Tramway, who operated it until 1922, when it passed into the ownership of Mangawhero Sawmilling Co at Karioi[1] and was ultimately scrapped in 1932.

Kiwi left the Railways Department's ownership a few years after Weka, just before the arrival of the second P class in 1885.