This article is the first study investigating New Zealand's early legislation in apprenticeship from the perspective of historical institutionalism. It shows that, between 1865 and the 1940s, New Zealand's apprenticeship system was less liberal in character than it is today, because a collective skill formation regime, involving dual training, was built up. As apprenticeship legislation neither developed as a response to employers' skill needs nor was promoted by trade unions as a means of labour market control, it was mainly state intervention which brought New Zealand on this track. As a least-likely case of collective skill formation, New Zealand corroborates the view that state intervention and the emergence of a cross-class support coalition are crucial for the creation of collective skill formation institutions.