 He represented Napier as the Member of Parliament for the Napier electorate from the 1861 by-election to 1866, when he retired.In 1871, Colenso was the speaker at the Hawkes Bay Provincial Council when Ngati Kahungunu had been persuaded by farmers, the Russell Brothers, that they could get their land back in what came to be known as the Repudiation Movement.Their chief Henare Matua had already pronounced all land dealing with both the crown and private sales illegal.