Jack, as mentioned in the link provided by Tinto I am a great fan of the Wellington Regiments.
In regards to your silver XI Taranaki Rifles Regiment badge, there is the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good silver XI Taranaki badges are those that are actually made of silver, and as with the gold hallmarked 9ct XI Taranaki badges, these generally rate as patriotic badges.
The following is a silver XI Taranaki badge that is solid backed, marked Sterling and has a pin clip.
Your badge, and I mean no offence by this, is the ugly silver XI Taranaki badge, and IMO should really be termed as a white metal XI Taranaki badge, this would cover both silver plate and chromed, and I agree with Wayne that it is most likely a band badge circa 1921 – 1948.
However there was a certain collector of New Zealand badges who had a habit of silver plating his badges, so who knows.
The bad silver XI Taranaki badge is the type that is currently being sold on E-bay by the following seller, who offers several other silver NZ badges, all of which are copies and are highly doubtful that they contain any silver in them at all.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/WW1-11TH-NEW...IAAOSwZkJUSTwb
For the forums record, in case the seller removes his listing, here is a picture of the front of the badge.
The seller originally supplied a picture of the back of this so called solid silver badge, but for unknown reason now only supplies a picture of the front. Fortunately I saved on file a picture of the back which should help identify this dodgy badge.
Note the Gaunt tab at the bottom and the silver mark at the top.
