January–February[edit]

• 5 January – Bob Aynsley, rugby league player (died 2012)
• 12 January – Una Wickham, cricketer (died 1983)
• 16 January – Bert Wipiti, World War II fighter pilot (died 1943)
• 18 January – Bill Pearson, writer (died 2002)
• 29 January – Ronald Hugh Morrieson, writer (died 1972)
• 4 February – Joan Wiffen, palaeontologist (died 2009)
• 8 February – Laurie Salas, women's rights and peace activist (died 2017)
• 13 February – Godfrey Bowen, shearer (died 1994)
• 19 February – Marie Bell, educationalist, lecturer, teacher (died 2012)
• 24 February – Joyce Macdonald, swimmer (died 2003)
• 27 February – Anthony Treadwell, architect (died 2003)

March–April[edit]

• 9 March – Ian Turbott, colonial administrator, university administrator (died 2016)
• 13 March – Brun Smith, cricketer (died 1997)
• 17 March – Pat Suggate, geologist (died 2016)
• 18 March – Johnny Simpson, rugby union player (died 2010)
• 21 March – Frank Watkins, World War II pilot (died 1942)
• 22 March – Dick Shortt, cricket umpire (died 1994)
• 24 March – Vincent Gray, chemist, climate-change denier (died 2018)
• 25 March – Grace Hollander, community leader (died 2016)
• 26 March – Bill Mumm, rugby union player, politician (died 1993)
• 8 April – Arnold Christensen, World War II fighter pilot, "Great Escape" participant (died 1944)
• 12 April – Ann Wylie, botanist
• 19 April – Jack Dodd, physicist (died 2005)
• 21 April – Zena Abbott, weaver (died 1993)
• 22 April – Frank Houston, Pentecostal Christian pastor (died 2004)
• 28 April – Ruth Kirk, anti-abortion campaigner, wife of Norman Kirk (died 2000)
• 30 April – Avis M. Dry, clinical psychologist (died 2007)

May–June[edit]

• 11 May – Marguerite Story, Cook Islands politician (died 2009)
• 16 May – Peter Hall, World War II pilot (died 2010)
• 18 May – Ian Botting, rugby union player (died 1980)
• 25 May – Joyce Powell, cricketer (died 2003)
• 8 June – Jim Weir, diplomat (died 2012)
• 14 June – Max Carr, field athlete and coach, athletics official, air force officer (died 2016)
• 19 June – Ray Forster, arachnologist, museum director (died 2000)
• 24 June – Ken Avery, jazz musician, songwriter (died 1983)
• 28 June – Pauline O'Regan, educator, community worker, writer (died 2019)

July–August[edit]

• 4 July – Derek Wilson, architect, environmentalist (died 2016)
• 10 July – Rowan Barbour, cricketer (died 2004)
• 22 July – Jim Allen, visual artist (died 2023)
• 25 July – Alan Peart, World War II fighter pilot (died 2018)
• 31 July
  • Kenneth Clark, ceramicist (died 2012)
  • Owen Hardy, World War II fighter pilot (died 2018)
• 9 August – Peter Johnstone, rugby union player (died 1997)
• 1 August – Alf Budd, rugby union player (died 1989)
• 2 August – Dell Bandeen, netball player (died 2009)
• 10 August – John Feeney, documentary film director (died 2006)
• 13 August – Arch Jelley, athletics coach
• 20 August – Rona McKenzie, cricketer (died 1999)

September–October[edit]

• 1 September – Harold Logan, Standardbred racehorse (died 1948)
• 11 September – Jack Shallcrass, author, educator, humanist (died 2014)
• 15 September – Norman Rumsey, optical systems designer (died 2007)
• 17 September – Ted Smith, rower (died 1997)
• 26 September –
  • Johnny Smith, rugby union player (died 1974)
  • Brian Waugh, airline operator and pilot (died 1984)
• 4 October – Morrie Church, rugby league coach (died 1981)
• 9 October – Kendrick Smithyman, poet (died 1995)
• 10 October –
  • Harry Cave, cricketer (died 1989)
  • Nan Clark, trade unionist (died 1964)
• 11 October – Cole Wilson, musician, singer-songwriter (died 1993)
• 12 October – Randal Elliott, ophthalmologist (died 2010)
• 18 October – Laurie Haig, rugby union player (died 1992)
• 21 October –
  • Bruce Barclay, politician (died 1979)
  • Hone Tuwhare, poet (died 2008)
• 30 October – Bob Chapman, political scientist, historian (died 2004)

November–December[edit]

• 3 November – Alan Blake, rugby union player (died 2010)
• 7 November – Roy McKenzie, horse breeder, philanthropist (died 2007)
• 13 November – Syd Jensen, motorcycle racer, motor racing driver (died 1999)
• 14 November – Douglas MacDiarmid, painter (died 2020)
• 16 November – J.C.P. Williams, cardiologist
• 19 November – Yvonne Rust, potter (died 2002)
• 22 November – Helen Brew, actor, birth campaigner, documentary filmmaker, educator and speech therapist (died 2013)
• 25 November – Maurice Duggan, writer (died 1974)
• 1 December – William James Lanyon Smith, naval officer (died 2018)
• 5 December – Keith Sinclair, historian, poet, politician (died 1993)
• 13 December – Norm Wilson, rugby union player (died 2001)
• 19 December – Christine Cole Catley, journalist, publisher, author (died 2001)
• 26 December – Iain Gallaway, cricketer and broadcaster (died 2021)

Exact date unknown[edit]

• Bettina Welch, actor (died 1993)

January–March[edit]

• 4 January – William Wilson McCardle, nurseryman, founder of Pahiatua, politician (born 1844)
• 14 January – Arthur Thomas Bate, sharebroker, public servant, rugby union and cricket administrator, philatelist (born 1855)
• 16 January – Alan Scott, World War I pilot (born 1883)
• 18 February – Thomas Peacock, politician (born 1837)
• 20 January – Henry Harper, Anglican priest (born 1833)
• 24 February – W. D. H. Baillie, politician (born 1827)
• 7 March – Alexander Donald, sailmaker, merchant, ship owner (born 1842)

April–June[edit]

• 1 April – George Carter, rugby union player (born 1854)
• 3 April – Horace Moore-Jones, war artist (born 1868)
• 14 April – Emma Ostler, businesswoman, prohibitionist (born c.1848)
• 19 April – Percy Smith, ethnologist, surveyor (born 1840)
• 21 April – Robert Thompson, politician (born 1840)
• 15 May – Edward Kellett, politician (born 1864)
• 25 May – Edith Mellish, Anglican deaconess and nun (born 1861)
• 28 May – John von Dadelszen, public servant, statistician (born 1845)
• 15 June – Peter Dignan, politician, mayor of Auckland (1897–98) (born 1847)
• 16 June – Henry Wise, stationer, printer, publisher (born 1835)
• 18 June – Robert Lee, teacher, school inspector, educationalist (born c.1837)
• 23 June – Myer Caselberg, businessman, politician, mayor of Masterton (1886–88) (born 1841)
• 27 June – Frederick George Ewington, estate agent, philanthropist, pamphleteer (born 1844)
• 28 June – George Helmore, rugby union player (born 1862)

July–September[edit]

• 2 July – Seymour Thorne George, politician (born 1851)
• 14 July – Edward Seager, policeman, gaoler, asylum superintendent (born 1828)
• 29 July – Charles John Ayton, diarist (born 1846)
• 29 August – Charles Albert Creery Hardy, politician (born 1865)
• 30 August –
  • John Ewing, goldminer (born 1844)
  • Tom Pollard, comic opera producer and manager (born 1857)
• 31 August – James Job Holland, politician, mayor of Auckland (1893–96) (born 1841)
• 3 September – Donald Reid, politician (born 1850)
• 16 September – Constance Barnicoat, stenographer, interpreter, mountaineer, journalist (born 1872)
• 22 September – Elizabeth Torlesse, community leader (born c. 1835)
• 29 September – Lewis Hotop, pharmacist, Arbor Day advocate, politician, mayor of Queenstown (1880–81, 1891–94, 1903–06) (born c.1844)

October–December[edit]

• 12 October – William Whitby, master mariner, ship owner (born 1838)
• 13 October – Edward Pearce, politician (born 1832)
• 22 November – Moore Neligan, Anglican bishop (born 1863)
• 14 December – Ann Robertson, businesswoman, litigant (born 1825)
• 15 December – Richard Tucker, wool scourer (born 1856)
• 16 December – Charles Harley. politician, mayor of Nelson (1915–17) (born 1861)
• 18 December – John James Pringle, dermatologist (born 1855)
• 25 December – George Sale, politician, newspaper editor, university professor (born 1831)
• 26 December – Arthur Rhodes, politician, mayor of Christchurch (1901–02) (born 1859)