New Zealand's past has become much easier to access, with Statistics New Zealand making digitised versions of resources dating back to the 1840s available on its website.

The figures show that in 1860 among the European population there were about 70 females for every 100 males.



A highlight of the 1890 Official Handbook of New Zealand was a map that showed how long it took to travel around New Zealand.



A trip between New Plymouth and Auckland could be done in a day by steamer, but took four days by rail, horse and canoe.



Taumarunui was hard to get to, taking four days by canoe from Whanganui and four days by horse from Taupo, while riding from Rotorua to Gisborne could take six days.



"These old documents have been available in archives and libraries, but getting them online where anybody can look at them is a window into the way of life in early New Zealand," Statistics NZ information management manager Evelyn Wareham said.



Records showed that just one person was born on Stewart Island in 1855, and nobody died. There were three marriages that year, and two babies born the next year.



Early census publications (1860-1916) provided information on life in early New Zealand, with data on the houses people lived in and how they earned a living.



The Official Handbook of New Zealand (1875-1892) covered everything from climate to crops to the cost of cottages. It was the forerunner of the New Zealand Official Yearbook.



Statistics went back to 1844 and were from Nelson, New Munster (South Island and, for part of the time, the southern part of the North Island) and New Plymouth.



Information from the 1857-58 Maori census was also available, Statistics NZ said.



A highlight of the Statistics of Nelson from 1843 to 1854 was a table listing the number of people in prison, those who could not read or write and those attending church or chapel.



Using the same technology as the digitised New Zealand official yearbooks, users can search the collections by typing in keywords, and copying and pasting tables of data into software such as Excel.