New Zealand

New Zealand is one of the most recently settled major land masses. Polynesian settlers arrived probably some time between 500 and 1300 AD, and established the indigenous Maori culture.

The first Europeans known to reach New Zealand were led by Abel Janszoon Tasman, who sailed up the west coast of the South and North islands in 1642. The Dutch thought it was a single land which they named Staaten Landt . It was later named "Nieuw Zeeland" after the area in Batavia where they had been based, which in turn was named after their province of Zeeland. In 1769 Captain James Cook began extensive surveys of the islands. This led to European whaling expeditions and eventually significant European colonisation. The Treaty of Waitangi on February 6, 1840 between the British government and the Maori established British sovereignty over New Zealand.

New Zealand became an independent dominion on September 26, 1907 by royal proclamation. Full independence was granted by the United Kingdom Parliament with the Statute of Westminster in 1931; it was taken up upon the Statute's adoption by the New Zealand Parliament in 1947, since when New Zealand has been a sovereign constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations.

New Zealand is a Constitutional Monarchy with a parliamentary democracy Under the New Zealand Royal Titles Act 1953 Queen Elizabeth II, is Queen of New Zealand, and is represented as head of state by the Governor General, Dame Silvia Cartwright.

Parliament, consists of the 120-member unicameral House of Representatives from which an executive Cabinet of about 20 ministers is appointed. There is no written Constitution.

The Cabinet is led by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark of the centre-left Labour party, which governs in coalition with the further-left Progressive Coalition party, and with support from the centre-right United Future.

General elections are held every three years; the most recent were held in July 2002. The Leader of the Opposition is Don Brash who became leader of the National party on 28 October 2003. Currently seven parties are represented in the House of Representatives, which since 1996 has been elected by a form of proportional representation called Mixed Member Proportional.

A true-colour image of the North Island. The scene was acquired by NASA’s Terra satellite, on October 23, 2002.
Larger version

A true-colour image of the South Island. The scene was acquired by NASA’s Terra satellite, on October 23, 2002.
Larger version

''A true-colour image of the region around Auckland on the North Island. Auckland is the brownish patch just left of centre. The scene was acquired by NASA’s Terra satellite, on October 23, 2002.
Larger version

New Zealand is a party to the ANZUS security treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States. In 1985 New Zealand refused to allow US nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships to enter its ports, causing the US to abrogate its ANZUS responsibilities to New Zealand in 1986. New Zealand has not formally withdrawn from the treaty.

When originally settled, New Zealand was divided into provinces, though these were abolished in 1876 so that government could be centralised for financial reasons. As a result, New Zealand has no separately represented subnational entity such as a province, state or territory apart from its local government.

Since 1876, local government has administered the various regions of New Zealand. Due to its colonial heritage, New Zealand local government was modelled fairly closely on British local government structures, with city, borough and county councils. Over the years some of these councils merged with each other by mutual agreement. Many councils were merged and reorganised into districts and regions by the Local Government Commission in 1989. Today, New Zealand local government is divided into 16 regional Territorial Authorities that encompass 57 districts and 16 cities of which four are unitary authorities, with combined regional and district administrative roles (marked by a *):

• Auckland
• Bay of Plenty
• Gisborne *
• Hawke's Bay
• Northland
• Taranaki
• Waikato
• Manawatu-Wanganui
• Wellington

South Island

• Canterbury
• Marlborough *
• Nelson *
• Otago
• Southland
• Tasman *
• West Coast

New Zealand is composed of two main islands and a number of smaller islands. The South Island is the largest land mass, and is divided along its length by the Southern Alps, the highest peak of which is Mount Cook, at 3754 metres. There are eighteen peaks of more than three kilometres in the South Island. The North Island is less mountainous than the South, but is marked by volcanism. The tallest North Island mountain, Mount Ruapehu (2797 metres,) is an active cone volcano.

The total land area of New Zealand, 268,680 km², is somewhat less than that of Japan or of the British Isles, and slightly larger than Colorado in the USA. The country extends more than 1600 km along its main, north-northeast axis.

The climate throughout the country is mild, mostly cool temperate to warm temperate, with temperatures rarely falling below 0°C or rising above 30°C. Conditions vary from wet and cold in Southland and the West Coast of the South Island, where most of the country's rain falls, to subtropical in Northland. In Wellington the average minimum temperature in winter is 5.9°C and the average maximum temperature in summer is 20.3°C.

• National parks (New Zealand)

Scenic backdrop

Because of its long isolation from the rest of the world, New Zealand has an extraordinary flora and fauna. Until the arrival of the first humans just a millennium or two ago, 80% of the land was forested and, bar two species of bat, there were no mammals at all. Instead, New Zealand's forests were inhabited by a diverse range of birds (many of them flightless), reptiles, and insects—some of them almost the size of a mouse (see weta).

New Zealand has a modern, developed economy. Its primary export industries are agriculture, horticulture, fishing and forestry. There is also a substantial tourism industry. The film and wine industries are considered to be up-and-coming.

Since 1984 successive governments have engaged in major economic restructuring, transforming New Zealand from a highly protectionist and regulated economy to a liberalised, free-trade economy. Despite periods of dynamic growth in the mid 1980s and early 90s, real incomes have declined from 1980 levels, and average yearly economic growth has been poorer than expected and is highly reliant on massive levels of immigration to boost GDP.

The current New Zealand government's economic objectives are centred around moving from being ranked among the lower end of the OECD countries to regaining a higher placing again, pursuing free-trade agreements, "closing the gaps" between ethnic groups, and building a "knowledge economy."

Unlike in previous decades, New Zealand has now contained inflationary pressures, meaning hyperinflation has been consigned to the past.

New Zealand is heavily dependent on trade - particularly in agricultural products - to drive growth, and it has been affected by global economic slowdowns and slumps in commodity prices. Since agricultural exports are highly sensitive to currency values and a large percentage of consumer goods are imported, any changes in the value of the New Zealand dollar has a strong impact on the economy.

During the late 1980s, the New Zealand Government sold a number of major trading enterprises, including, amongst others, its telephone company, railway system, a number of radio stations and two banks in a series of asset sales. Although the New Zealand Government continues to own a number of significant businesses, collectively known as State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), they are operated through arms-length shareholding arrangements as stand alone businesses that are required to operate profitably, just like any privately owned enterprise. Various items of protective legislation establishes business objectives yet prevents shareholding governments from having influence over day to day operations of the business. Postal services, electricity companies, radio and television broadcasters, as well as hospitals and other trading enterprises are established in this way. The core State Service consists of government departments and ministries that primarily provide government administration, policy advice, law enforcement, and social services.

Although the majority of the New Zealand population (~80%) is now of European origin, Maori people are the second largest ethnic group (14.7%). Between the 1996 and 2001 census, people of Asian origin (6.6%) overtook Pacific Islanders (6.5%) as the third largest ethnic group. Note that the census allowed multiple affiliations. Maori culture is a significant feature of New Zealand's public life.

The main Christian denominations are Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Roman Catholicism and Methodism. Over a third of the population is unaffiliated.

See also: New Zealand English, New Zealand cinema, New Zealand literature, Music of New Zealand, Iwi

Rugby as a sport is closely linked to New Zealand's national identity. The national rugby team is called the All Blacks and New Zealanders expect it to be able to beat the world. This style of name has been followed in naming the national team in several other sports. New Zealand's national sporting colours are not the colours of its flag, but are black and white (silver). The silver fern is a national emblem worn by New Zealanders representing their country in sport. The haka - a traditional Maori war dance - is often performed at sporting events. The All Blacks traditionally perform a haka before the start of play.

National teams:

• Rugby - All Blacks
• Women's Rugby - Black Ferns
• Soccer - All Whites
• Basketball - Tall Blacks
• Cricket - Black Caps
• Netball - Silver Ferns
• Hockey - Black Sticks
• Rugby league - Kiwis

Auckland hosted the last two America's Cup regattas (2000 and 2003). In 2000, Team New Zealand successfully defended the trophy they won in 1995 in San Diego but in 2003 they lost to a team from Switzerland led by Russell Coutts, the expat Kiwi who led Team New Zealand to victory in the previous two regattas.

External links