New Zealand royal honours system

In 1848, Governor George Grey received the first honour granted to a New Zealand resident, becoming a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

In 1975, after a review of the system, two uniquely New Zealand honours were integrated into it: the Queen's Service Order, and its affiliated Medal.

Cooke is the only Commonwealth judge from outside Britain to have attained this distinction (James Atkin was born in Australia but only spent the first three years of his life there before returning permanently to England and Wales).

[4] In 2000, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced that no further awards of knighthoods and damehoods would be made in the New Zealand honours system.

However, in March 2009, Prime Minister John Key announced the restoration of knighthoods and damehoods to the honours system, with past recipients of the two highest grades of the New Zealand Order of Merit to be eligible to receive titles.

[27] Three separate orders were created, each with a badge repeating the motto seen on the Kīngitanga coat of arms, Ko te mana motuhake, meaning "The self-determination and control over one’s own destiny".

[28][29] Tuheitia recognized Ihakara Porutu "Kara" Puketapu and Koro Tainui Wētere, both longtime New Zealand public servants and Māori community leaders as the founding members of the Order of the Taniwha.

Dr Puketapu had previously turned down other National and Commonwealth honors, but lent his name to be invested in the Kīngitanga order.