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NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand is a country formed of two
major islands and a number of smaller islands in the southwestern
Pacific Ocean. A common Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa,
popularly translated as Land of the Long White Cloud. New Zealand
also maintains responsibility for the foreign affairs of the self-governing
countries of the Cook Islands and Niue, and administers the
dependency of Tokelau.
Overview
Of New Zealand's four million people, roughly three million live in
the North Island and one million in the South Island. These islands
are among the largest in the world and the combined land area is
comparable to the British Isles or Colorado. Along with Aotearoa,
another Maori name for New Zealand was Niu Tireni, a transliteration
of the English name.
Other islands have much smaller populations
and cover much less land area. The most significant of these islands are:
Stewart Island (south of the South Island), the third largest island by land
area with a population of around 400
Waiheke Island, an island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, and, with about 7,000
people (far more in summer), the third most populated island in New Zealand
Great Barrier Island, east of the Hauraki Gulf
the Chatham Islands, an outlying group of islands with a population of about
750.
Places in New Zealand:
Main centres (articles generally cover the greater area, including satellite
areas): Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Gisborne, Napier,
Hastings, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Wellington, Nelson,
Christchurch, Timaru, Dunedin, Invercargill
Lists of towns and cities in New Zealand
List of New Zealand place names and their meanings
Regions (asterisks denote unitary authorities): Northland, Auckland, Waikato,
Bay of Plenty, Gisborne*, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu-Wanganui,
Wellington, Marlborough*, Nelson*, Tasman*, West Coast, Canterbury, Otago,
Southland, Chatham Islands*
History
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.
New Zealand became a British colony with the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840,
which also promised "complete chieftainship" (tino rangatiratanga) to the
Maori tribes of New Zealand. To this day the exact meaning of the Treaty is
still under dispute, and it remains a source of division and resentment for
some.
New Zealand became an independent dominion on 26 September 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.
Politics
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, currently Helen
Clark of the centre-left Labour party, which governs in coalition with the
further-left Progressive Party, and with support from the Christian
conservative 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 ("MMP").
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.
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.
New Zealand is a member of the following geo-political organizations:
Commonwealth of Nations
APEC
OECD
United Nations
Local Government
When originally settled, New Zealand was divided into provinces. 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. The spirit of the provinces however still lives on and there is
fierce rivalry exhibited in sporting and cultural events.
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 elected
city, borough, and county councils. Over the years some of these councils
merged or had boundary adjustments by mutual agreement, and a few new ones
were created. In 1989, the government completely reorganised local
government, implementing the current two-tier structure of regional councils
and territorial authorities.
Today New Zealand has 12 regional councils for the administration of
environmental and transport matters and 74 territorial authorities that
administer roading, sewerage, building consents, and other local matters.
The territorial authorities are 16 city councils, 57 district councils, and
the Chatham Islands Council. Four of the territorial councils (one city and
three districts) and the Chatham Islands Council also perform the functions
of a regional council and thus are known as unitary authorities. Territorial
authority districts are not subdivisions, as such, of regional council
districts and a few of them straddle regional council boundaries.
Other elected local governance organisations are community boards, liquor
licensing trusts, district health boards and school boards of trustees.
Geography
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 18 peaks of more than 3000 metres 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.
New Zealand is the most geographically isolated of all countries. Closest
neighbour Australia is 2,000 km to the northwest of the main islands across
the Tasman Sea. The only landmass to the south is Antarctica, and to the
north are New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga.
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 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.
Flora and Fauna
Because of its long isolation from the rest of the world, New Zealand has
extraordinary flora and fauna. Until the arrival of the first humans just a
millennium or two ago, 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 (many of them
flightless), reptiles, and insects—some of them almost the size of a mouse
(see weta).
Economy
New Zealand has a modern, developed economy. Its primary export industries
are agriculture, horticulture, fishing, forestry and information technology.
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.
In 2004 it began discussing free trade with China, one of the first
countries to do so.
During the late 1980s, the New Zealand Government sold a number of major
trading enterprises, including 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 establish business
objectives yet prevent 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.
Demographics
About 80% of the New Zealand population is of European descent. Maori people
are the second largest ethnic group (14.7%). Between the 1996 and 2001
censuses, the number of people of Asian origin (6.6%) overtook that of
Pacific Islanders (6.5%) (note that the census allowed multiple ethnic
affiliations). Acceptance of Maori culture continues to grow, especially
with the recent introduction of a Maori Television service.
The main Christian denominations are Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Roman
Catholicism and Methodism. Over a third of the population is unaffiliated.
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