Baldwin settled in
Otago, New Zealand, in 1860, where he purchased a sheep run at
Teviot. Together with
Gabriel Read, he was one of the discoverers of gold at
Waitahuna. On 4 August 1863 at
St Paul's Church in
Dunedin, he married Janet Curling Buchanan, the daughter of
Andrew Buchanan, who was a
runholder at
Patearoa. Following the death of
Charles Kettle, a representative of the electorate, on 5 June 1862, Baldwin was a candidate in the resulting
by-election, but was beaten by
Edward Cargill. Baldwin was a proponent of the
separation of the South Island from the North Island. Baldwin represented the
Gold Fields electorate in the
New Zealand House of Representatives from
14 April 1863 to 27 April 1865, when he resigned. On 20 June 1863, he was elected in the Gold Fields electorate of the
Otago Provincial Council, which he represented until 20 September 1864. From September 1863 to April 1864, he served on the Executive Council of the province. He then represented the
Manuherikia electorate in the House of Representatives from
1866 to 1867, when he resigned because he became insolvent. Captain Baldwin was described in 1867 as "a really eccentric individual who somehow or another always resigns his seat". In
1881, Baldwin was a parliamentary candidate for the
Dunedin East electorate, but he withdrew before nomination day as he urgently needed to travel to England, but he delayed travel until February 1882. The Guardian Company also owned the
Mercurry, its weekly paper, and when Pyke left the
Mercurry in November 1875, Baldwin took over the editorship of that newspaper, too. Baldwin was succeeded as manager by
George Fenwick and left his editorial position in January 1876. Baldwin was a named partner in Baldwin & Ashcroft, an
accountancy and
grain brokerage in Dunedin. ==Life in Western Australia==