New Zealand

New Zealand
Aotearoa

Flag of New Zealand Flag of New Zealand
Principal languages	English, Māori
Capital	Wellington
Largest city	Auckland
Queen of New Zealand	Elizabeth II
Prime minister	Helen Clark
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 73rd 268,680 km² 2.1%
Population  - Total (2004)  - Density	Ranked 120th 4,061,300 15/km²
Independence	1907
Currency	New Zealand dollar
Time zone	Universal Time +12
National anthem	God Defend New Zealand
Internet TLD	.nz
Calling Country Code	+64

New Zealand is a country of two large islands and a number of smaller islands in the south-western Pacific Ocean In legends of the indigenous Maori people, the southern main island was called the canoe of mythical ancestor Maui, and the northern island, Maui's fish. As the Maori language was promoted late last century, New Zealand also came to be known as Aotearoa or the "Land of the Long White Cloud." New Zealand is separated from Australia to the northwest by the Tasman Sea, some 2,000 km across. Closest neighbours to the north are New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga. The population of New Zealand is mostly of European descent, with Māori being the largest minority. Non-Māori Polynesian and Asian peoples are also significant minorities, especially in the nation's cities.

Geography

File:Satellite image of New Zealand in December 2002.jpg

A satellite image of New Zealand. Lake Taupo and Mount Ruapehu are visible in the centre of the North Island. The Southern Alps and the rain shadow they create are clearly visible on the South Island

New Zealand comprises two main islands (simply called the North and South Islands in English, or usually Te-Ika-a-Maui and Te Wai Pounamu in Māori) and a number of smaller islands. The total land area of New Zealand, 268,680 km²), is a little less than that of Japan and a little more than the United Kingdom. The country extends more than 1,600 km along its main, north-north-east axis. The most significant of the smaller inhabited islands of New Zealand include Stewart Island/Rakiura; Waiheke Island, an island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf; Great Barrier Island, east of the Hauraki Gulf; and the Chatham Islands, named Rekohu by Moriori. The country has extensive marine resources, with the fifth-largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world covering over four million km², more than 15 times its land area.

The South Island is the largest land mass, and is divided along its length by the Southern Alps, the highest peak of which is Aoraki/Mount Cook, at 3,754 m. There are 18 peaks of more than 3,000 m on the South Island. The North Island is less mountainous than the South, but is marked by volcanism. The tallest North Island mountain, Mount Ruapehu (2,797 m), is an active cone volcano. The dramatic and varied landscape of New Zealand has made it a popular location for the production of television programs and films, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Aoraki/Mount Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand

The usual 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 on the west coast of the South Island to dry and continental in the Mackenzie Basin of inland Canterbury and subtropical in the Northland. Of the main cities, Christchurch is the driest, receiving only some 640 mm of rain per year. Auckland, the wettest, receives a little less than three times that amount.

History

Carbon dating suggests the exotic Polynesian rat was established in New Zealand 2000 years ago, and the only way a rat could get there was on a canoe with humans. But evidence so far indicates that human settlement began in the 13th century AD, and those first settlers, the Maori people, comprised up to 200 men and women from East Polynesia who traveled in a number of canoes. DNA mapping of their Maori descendants indicate origins in the nation now known as Taiwan.

The Moriori people of the Chatham Islands, located 800km east of New Zealand, multiplied from a group of New Zealand Polynesians who transferred themselves there by canoe some time in the 14th or 15th centuries.

On the mainland, the abundance of a large flightless bird, the moa, the drumsticks of which were as big as a leg of beef, provided a ready food source, and soon was hunted to extinction. Sweet potato (kumara) cultivation, fishing, the gathering of shellfish, berries and other raw foods from the forest, along with native birds, led to the growth of settlements.

Tribal culture developed 16th century. Individuals identified with their family (whanau) and tribe (iwi), membership of which was traced to the canoe an ancestor arrived in. There were paramount chiefs (ariki), chiefs (rangatira), commoners (tutua) and slaves. Both aristocrats and commoners could increase their status (mana) by becoming experts (tohunga) in activities of physical, artistic or spiritual nature. The country was divided into tribal districts (rohe), often delineated by geographical features. Ownership of an area was established by length of occupation, active use of resources or conquest.

“Utu” is the Maori word for the modes of conduct to regulate behaviour and may be translated to mean “reciprocity” or “revenge.” Failure to seek authorization to be in an area, defeat in battle or a grievance of any sort would be grounds to seek revenge and trigger bloody battles in which a fortified village (pa) could be wiped out to avenge the death of one person. Conquered peoples were killed, eaten or enslaved. Cannibalism continued until the 1830s. By the 18th century, the Maori population reached about 110,000.

First European contact was by Abel Janszoon Tasman, the commander of a two-ship Dutch East India Company expedition seeking opportunities for trade in gold, silver, spices and fabrics, who encountered two double-hulled canoes full of Maoris on December 18, 1642. A canoe rammed a rowboat, killing three Dutch men and mortally injuring a fourth. Tasman sailed away without setting foot on land. He named that area Murderers’ Bay, and named the country Staten Landt. This was changed by Dutch cartographers to Nova Zeelandia, after the Dutch province of Zeeland.

The next European contact was by Lieutenant James Cook, of the British Royal Navy, who sailed south from Tahiti where, in July 1769, he observed the transit of the planet Venus across the Sun. In a six-month journey around the archipelago, Cook met Maori on dozens of occasions, and was able to communicate with them thanks to the presence of a Tahitian chief who had learned some English.

Cook created a considerably accurate map of the main islands, as well as the east coast of Australia, thus dispelling the myth of Terra Australis Incognita. He named the country New Zealand. He recognized the relationship between the Maori and Tahitian people. His three voyages and four visits to the country provided a body of knowledge for scientists, historians and anthropologists for years to come. He introduced Maori to metal (nails), potatoes, turnips, cannons, muskets and his crew introduced venereal disease.

The year of Cook's first visit was the year French explorer Jean de Surville conducted the first Christian service in New Zealand waters on Christmas Day.

British penal colonies were established at Port Jackson, Australia, in 1788, Norfolk Island from 1789, and Hobart, Australia, in 1803, and Sydney and Hobart became bases for sealing, whaling and trading. The first Europeans to live in New Zealand were seamen who jumped ship, escaped convicts, sealers, whalers and traders. Sealing for skins in the south created the first European commercial operation in the 1790s, and the first European community in 1793. Ocean whaling, to provide oil for lamps in Europe, started in New Zealand in the 1790s and peaked in the 1830s.

Timber and flax attracted traders, and led to Maori acquisition of muskets. Maori people initially wanted guns for hunting, but it was not long before they were used in inter-tribal fighting known as the Musket Wars. A flood of cheap European weapons became the main item traded for flax, timber, pork or potatoes. The first use of muskets in tribal fighting was the defeat of a Ngapuhi tribe war party by the Ngati Whatua tribe at Maunganui in 1807 By 1820, musket warfare assumed the proportions of an arms race. The fiercest fighting occurred from 1822-36. The entire country, except the mountainous interior, was affected. More than 20,000 were killed over 30 years. There was much cruelty after battles. Tribes were displaced. Feasting on corpses could go on for days. The last of these wars were between Te Ati Awa and Ngati Raukawa in 1839, and between Ngati Tama and Ngati Mutenga on the Chatham Islands in 1840.

The Church of England’s Church Missionary Society sent Samuel Marsden, in 1814, to launch the first mission to evangelise the Maori people. Maori had always been a spiritual people, so once bi-lingualism made discussion possible, it did not take a huge leap of faith for Maori to believe in a single God. Successive missionaries can take the credit for brokering peace between warring tribes, ending slavery and ending cannibalism.

Missionary activity, requests from tribes for protection, and a plan by the New Zealand Company to buy land from tribes and sell it to colonists prompted the British Government to send a first British Resident James Busby, then a Governor William Hobson to sign a treaty between the British Queen and Maori chiefs. In the three-sentence Treaty of Waitangi, the chiefs cede to the Queen of England government of their lands, the Queen acknowledges that the chiefs and tribes own their lands, and if they wish to sell, must sell to a Queen-appointed agent, and the Queen would protect Maori people and allow them the rights of British subjects. Forty five chiefs were the first to sign on February 6, 1840, and as further chiefs signed Hobson proclaimed British sovereignty over the whole country on May 21, 1840.

But the first English colonists had arrived before the treaty was signed, and large areas of land had already been sold by chiefs who did not appreciate that under English land laws, once land is sold it is gone forever. Because the unsophisticated Maori language lacked words for “sovereignty” and “government,” it was later argued that the chiefs had not knowingly ceded sovereignty to the Queen. As land was surveyed and colonists built their houses and farms, skirmishing escalated into a series of armed clashes, known as the Maori Wars, the NZ Wars, or the Land Wars, that continued until 1872.

New Zealand was administered as a part of the colony of New South Wales, until it became a separate colony in 1841. The third governor, Sir George Grey, was the first governor with the resources to enforce the rule of law with military strength. His Constitution Act of 1853 set up a national system of government, with elected provincial councils, an elected House of Representatives, an appointed Legislative Council, an Executive Council and a prime minister. Voters had to be male owners of property. The Governor would retain responsibility for Maori affairs. Foreign policy would be controlled by Britain. From 1867, all Maori men could vote, and from 1893, all women could vote. The ballot was secret from 1870, and property qualification was abolished in 1879.

The first capital of New Zealand was Okiato or Old Russell in the Bay of Islands but shortly afterwards moved to Auckland. European settlement progressed more rapidly than anyone anticipated, and by 1860 there were more Europeans than Maoris in NZ. There were political concerns following the discovery of gold in Central Otago in 1861 that the South Island would form a separate colony. So in 1865 the capital was officially moved to the more central city of Wellington. New Zealand was involved in a Constitutional Convention in 1891 in Sydney, along with the Australian colonies. This was to consider a potential constitution for the proposed federation between all the Australasian colonies. New Zealand lost interest in joining Australia in a federation following this convention.

New Zealand became an independent dominion in 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 then, New Zealand has been a sovereign constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations.

In 1975 the Treaty of Waitangi Act established the Waitangi Tribunal, charged with hearing claims of Crown violations of the Treaty of Waitangi dating back to 1840. Some Māori tribes and the Moriori never signed the treaty.

Politics

New Zealand is the only country in the world where all the highest offices in the land are occupied by women, including the sovereign, the governor-general, the prime minister, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the chief justice.

The current Prime Minister is Helen Clark of the Labour Party. She has served two complete terms as Prime Minister and has begun her third.

New Zealand is a parliamentary democracy. The executive branch comprises Head of State Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, represented by Governor General Dame Silvia Cartwright, the Prime Minister, and a cabinet of ministers appointed by the Governor General on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.

The legislative branch is the House of Representatives, or parliament, comprising 120 seats filled by 69 members elected by popular vote in single-member electorates, including seven Maori electorates, and 51 proportional members chosen from party lists, all serving three-year terms.

New Zealand also includes the Cook Islands and Niue, which are entirely self-governing; Tokelau, which is moving towards self-government, and Ross Dependency, New Zealand's claim in Antarctica.

Race relations

British culture prevailed while New Zealand prospered from exporting farm products to Britain. Immigrants from England, Scotland and Ireland continued to flood in. The gold rush of the 1860s attracted Chinese, who made their mark with extensive market gardens. Increasing numbers of Dutch arrived after the end of the Second World War. Māori continued to live in rural communities until 1945, when many drifted to better opportunities in towns and cities. The Kotahitanga movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries showed the resilience of Māori culture. Maori politician Sir Āpirana Ngata fostered the development of Maori land. Te Puea Hērangi revitalised the Māori King movement. Wiremu Rātana founded the Rātana Church in the early 1920s.

In a nation that once prided itself for racial harmony, Māori anger at economic deprivation and loss of land put the spotlight on race relations and the Treaty of Waitangi. Sporting contacts with apartheid South Africa became a divisive issue. During the 1981 Springbok rugby tour, police and protestors fought street battles. After the tour, many protest leaders turned their attention to Maori issues, became part of the civil service, and agitated from within to attain compensation for land confiscations and alleged treaty breaches. The Waitangi Tribunal was set up in 1975 to consider these claims and in 1985, the tribunal was empowered to investigate grievances back to 1840.

From the 1970s, efforts to foster the Māori language and culture led to New Zealand society being promoted as bicultural. But with increasing numbers of migrants arriving from the Pacific islands in the 1970s, from South Africa after the collapse of apartheid, Zimbabwe, Somalia, the Arab countries, and Asian countries, it was clear New Zealand had become multicultural. After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Centre towers in New York, New Zealand was seen as a safe destination and immigration, largely from the third world, skyrocketed.

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Foreign relations and military

New Zealand maintains a strong profile on environmental protection, human rights, and free trade, particularly for agriculture.

For its first hundred years, New Zealand followed Britain's lead on foreign policy. "Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand," said Prime Minister Michael Savage in declaring war on Germany in 1939. However, Britain's inability to protect New Zealand from Japanese aggression in World War II led New Zealand to come under the influence of the United States for the generation following the war.

New Zealand has traditionally also worked closely with Australia, whose foreign policy followed a similar historical trend. In turn, many Pacific Islands such as Samoa have looked to New Zealand's lead. The American influence on New Zealand was weakened by the disappointment with the Vietnam War, the nuclear danger presented by the Cold War, the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by France and by disagreements over environmental and agricultural trade issues.

New Zealand is a party to the ANZUS security treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States. In 1984 New Zealand refused nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships access to its ports. In 1986 the United States announced that it was suspending its treaty security obligations to New Zealand pending the restoration of port access. The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act of 1987 prohibits the stationing of nuclear weapons on the territory of New Zealand and the entry into New Zealand waters of nuclear armed or propelled ships. This legislation remains a source of contention and the basis for the United States' continued suspension of treaty obligations to New Zealand.

In addition to the various wars between Iwi, and between the British settlers and Iwi, New Zealand has fought in the Second Boer War, World War I, (sustaining the highest casualties per head of population of any combatant nation), World War II, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency (and committed troops, fighters and bombers to the subsequent confrontation with Indonesia), the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the Afghanistan War, and has briefly sent a unit of army engineers to help with rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure.

New Zealand considers its own national defence needs to be modest; it dismantled its air combat capability in 2001. New Zealand has contributed forces to recent regional and global peacekeeping missions, including those in Cyprus, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sinai, Angola, Cambodia, the Iran/Iraq border, Bougainville and East Timor.

External territories

A map of New Zealand showing the major cities and towns

As a major South Pacific nation, New Zealand has a close working relationship with many of the smaller Pacific Island nations, and continues a political association with the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau. New Zealand operates Scott Base in its Antarctic territory, the Ross Dependency. Other countries also use Christchurch to support their Antarctic bases and the city is sometimes known as the "Gateway to Antarctica."

Flora and fauna

File:Kiwi.jpg

The Kiwi, a flightless bird, is one of New Zealand's most famous species and a national icon.

Because of its long isolation from the rest of the world and its island biogeography, New Zealand has extraordinary flora and fauna. About 80% of the New Zealand flora only occurs in New Zealand, including more than 40 endemic genera. The main two types of forest have been dominated by podocarps, including the giant kauri and southern beech. The remaining vegetation types in New Zealand are grassland of grass and tussock, usually associated with the sub-alpine areas, and the low shrublands between grasslands and forests.

Until the arrival of the first humans, 80% of the land was forested and, barring two species of bat, there were no non-marine mammals at all. Instead, New Zealand's forests were inhabited by a diverse range of birds, including the flightless moa, now extinct, and the kiwi; the kakapo; and the takahē, which are all endangered due to human actions. Unique birds capable of flight include the Haast's eagle, which was the world's largest bird of prey before it became extinct, and the large parrots known as the kaka and the Kea. Reptiles present in New Zealand include skinks and geckos and the tuatara. There are no snakes, but there are many species of insects— including the weta, which may grow as large as a common mouse.

Economy

File:DowntownAucklandNight.jpg

Auckland at night, with the Sky Tower in the background

New Zealand has a thriving, modern, developed economy. Since 1984, successive governments have engaged in major macroeconomic restructuring, transforming New Zealand from a highly protectionist and regulated economy to a liberalised free-trade economy. During the late 1980s, the New Zealand Government sold a number of major trading enterprises, including its telecommunications company, railway network, a number of radio stations, and two financial institutions in a series of asset sales. Although the 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.

Unfortunately, due in part to the sudden transition to a market economy, an economic bubble developed in the New Zealand stock market starting in 1984. This burst in 1987, and the total value of the market halved within a year (it has still to recover this lost value). The effect of this bubble was a period of poor economic growth that lasted until the mid-1990s. It also led the government to begin a program of massive immigration to boost GDP. However, since 1999 New Zealand has enjoyed a period of relatively strong and sustained growth, and contained inflationary pressures.

The current New Zealand government's economic objectives are centered on 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." In 2004 it began discussing free trade with China, one of the first countries to do so.

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. Its primary export industries are agriculture, horticulture, fishing and forestry. There are also substantial tourism and export education industries. The film and wine industries are considered to be up-and-coming.

Demographics

New Zealand has a population of about 4.1 million. About 70% of the population are of European descent. New Zealand-born Europeans are collectively known as Pākeha — this term is used variously and some Māori use it to refer to all non-Māori New Zealanders. Most European New Zealanders are of British, Irish and Dutch ancestry. Māori people are the second-largest ethnic group (the percentage of the population of full or part-Māori ancestry is 14.7%; those who checked only Māori are 7.9%). Between the 1996 and 2001 censuses, the number of people of Asian origin (6.6%) overtook the number of people of Pacific Island origin (6.5%) (note that the census allowed multiple ethnic affiliations). New Zealand is positive about immigration and is committed to increasing its population by about 1% per annum. At present, migrants from the U.K. constitute the largest single group (30%), but new migrants are drawn from many nations, increasingly from East Asia.

Christianity is the predominant religion in New Zealand, although nearly 40% of the population has no religious affiliation. The main Christian denominations are Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Roman Catholicism and Methodism. There are also significant numbers who identify themselves with Pentecostal and Baptist churches and with the LDS (Mormon) church. The New Zealand-based Ratana church has many adherents among Māori. According to census figures, other significant minority religions include Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

Culture

Contemporary, Pākehā New Zealand has a diverse contemporary culture with influences from British, Irish, and Māori cultures, along with those of other European cultures (such as Dutch, Dalmatian, and Polish) and - more recently - Polynesian (including Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian, and Hawai'ian) and Southern and Southeast Asian (Indian, Chinese, Korean, Cambodian, and Japanese) cultures. There were many people from Scotland amongst the early British settlers and elements of their culture persist; New Zealand is said to have more bagpipe bands than Scotland. Cultural links between New Zealand and the UK are maintained by a common language, sustained migration from the UK and the fact that many young New Zealanders spend time in the UK on their "overseas experience (OE)".

Pre-European contact Māori culture had no metal tools, relying on stone and wood. Māori culture survives and the Government actively promotes it to all New Zealanders, and many are protected under the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Use of the Māori language (Te Reo Māori) as a living, community language remained only in a few remote areas in the post war years but it is currently going through a renaissance; with generous state support for Māori language medium schools and a Māori language television channel. Out of the four television channels, Māori television is the only TV channel where the majority of it's prime time content is delivered in the Māori language with English sub-titles. Māori television is also the only television channel which tries to generate new content in Māori, and, subtitle English programmes in to Māori. It remains to be seen whether any of the other television channels will follow in acknowledging Māori as a local language, which has been made an official language equal to English.

ew Zealand's landscape has appeared in a number of television programs and films. In particular, the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess were filmed around Auckland, and the film Heavenly Creatures in Christchurch. The television series The Tribe is set and filmed in New Zealand as well. Director Peter Jackson shot the epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy in various locations around the country, taking advantage of the spectacular and relatively unspoiled landscapes, and Mount Taranaki was used as a stand-in for Mount Fuji in The Last Samurai. The latest of such major international films to be released are King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Sport

New Zealand's most popular sports are rugby union, cricket, netball, lawn bowling, soccer (perhaps surprisingly, the most popular football code in terms of participation in NZ) and rugby league. Also popular are golf, tennis, cycling and a variety of water sports, particularly sailing, whitewater kayaking, surf lifesaving skills and rowing. In the latter, New Zealand enjoyed an extraordinary Magic 45 minutes when winning four successive gold medals at the 2005 world championships. Snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding are also popular. Equestrian sportsmen and sportswomen make their mark in the world, with Mark Todd being chosen international "Horseman of the Century", and all the way down to the juniors at pony club level.

Olympic Games

The country is internationally recognised for achieving extremely well on a medals-to-population ratio at Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. See, for example, New Zealand Olympic medallists and New Zealand at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Rugby union

Rugby union is closely linked to New Zealand's national identity. The national rugby team is called the All Blacks and has the best winning record of any national team in the world, including being the inaugural winner of the World Cup in 1987. The style of name has been followed in naming the national team in several other sports. For instance, the nation's basketball team is known as the Tall Blacks. New Zealand is to host the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup. 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 Māori challenge—is often performed at sporting events. The All Blacks traditionally perform a haka before the start of international matches.

Yachting, America's Cup

New Zealand is one of the leading nations in world yachting, especially open water long distance or around the world races. Round-the-world yachtsman, Sir Peter Blake was a national hero. In inshore yachting, Auckland hosted the last two America's Cup regattas (2000 and 2003). In 2000, Team New Zealand successfully defended the trophy they had won in 1995 in San Diego, which made them the only team in the history of the Cup to successfully defend a challenge other than a United States team, but in 2003 they lost to a team headed by Ernesto Bertarelli of Switzerland, whose Alinghi syndicate was skippered by Russell Coutts, the former skipper of Team New Zealand.

Team New Zealand will compete for the America's Cup at the next regatta in Valencia in 2007.

External links

• Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
• Te Puna Web Directory - A directory to New Zealand web sites
• Ministry for Culture and Heritage - includes information on flag, anthems and coat of arms.
• New Zealand Government Portal
• Travel guide to New Zealand from Wikitravel
• New Zealand weather
• NZHistory.net.nz New Zealand history website
• Statistics New Zealand - Official statistics.
• Tourism New Zealand
• www.zoomin.co.nz Maps of New Zealand

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