- For other uses, see New Zealand (disambiguation).
New Zealand is an island nation-state in the south-western Pacific Ocean. The country consists of two major islands and a number of smaller islands. A popular Māori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, often translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud. New Zealand is a parliamentary democracy and a Commonwealth Realm. New Zealand is responsible for the self-governing states of the Cook Islands and Niue and administers Tokelau and the Ross Dependency.
New Zealand is the most geographically isolated country in the world. Its closest neighbour, Australia, is 2,000 km to the north-west 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.
History
- Main article: History of New Zealand
New Zealand is one of the most recently settled major land masses. Polynesian settlers arrived by canoe some time between 1500 and 600 years before present[1], and established the indigenous Māori culture. Separate settlement of the Chatham Islands in the east of New Zealand produced the Moriori people. New Zealand was divided tribal territories called rohe, each controlled by an iwi, no two iwi had overlapping territories. The Māori hunted the giant flightless Moa to extinction, they ate Polynesian Rat and cultivated sweet potato called kumara both of which they introduced to the country, and made use of the native marine and floral resources for food.
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 had been named after the Dutch 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. From as early as the 1780s Māori had encounters with European sealers and whalers, acquisition of muskets by those tribes in close contact with European visitors destabilised the existing balance of power between Māori tribes, and there was a period of bloody inter-tribal warfare, known as the Musket Wars.
French interest in the region, led the British to negotiate the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840, making New Zealand a British colony. The treaty promised the Māori tribes 'tino rangatiratanga', this phrase, translated as "chieftainship" by the British, more accurately means 'Sovereignty' in Māori. Treaty violations by the British were the cause of the New Zealand land wars which took place between 1845 and 1872. In 1975 the Treaty of Waitangi Act established the Waitangi Tribunal to hear claims of Crown violations of the Treaty of Waitangi dating back to 1840.
New Zealand was administered as a part of the Australian colony of New South Wales and became a colony in its own right in 1841. Self-government was granted to the settler population in 1852. New Zealand was involved in a Constitutional Convention in March 1891 in Sydney, New South Wales, along with the then-colonies of Australia. This was to consider a potential constitution for the proposed federation between the then-British Colonies of Australasia. New Zealand lost interest in joining Australia in a federation following this convention.
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
- Main article: Politics of New Zealand
Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand
|
Helen Clark, Prime Minister
|
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 unicameral House of Representatives, normally consisting of 120 members, from which an executive Cabinet of about 20 ministers is appointed. There is no single written constitution, however the Constitution Act (1986) is the principal formal statement of New Zealand's consitutional structure. The Cabinet is led by the Prime Minister, 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 eight 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).
New Zealand has a High Court (until 1980 known as the Supreme Court) and a Court of Appeal (formerly part of the Supreme Court), as well as subordinate courts. Until 2004, appeals from decisions of the Court of Appeal could be appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. In 2003 the Supreme Court Act was passed, abolishing appeals to the Privy Council, with effect from 2004 and setting up a Supreme Court of New Zealand in Wellington. The current Chief Justice is Dame Sian Elias.
Foreign relations and military
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 but still has a policy against all forms of nuclear power generation and weapons. In practice, therefore, ANZUS is dormant and remains a source of friction between New Zealand and its allies.
New Zealand is a member of the following geo-political organisations, APEC, Commonwealth of Nations, OECD and the United Nations.
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 is also a signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, and is an important staging post for the exploration of, and scientific endeavours in, Antarctica. New Zealand operates Scott Base in the Ross Dependency, over which it asserts juristiction (although any territorial claims are in abeyance under the Antarctic Treaty).
The New Zealand military has three branches, the New Zealand Army, the Royal New Zealand Navy, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force. New Zealand considers its own national defence needs to be modest, it disbanded its combat airforce in 2001. New Zealand has contributed forces to recent regional and global peacekeeping missions, including UNTAET in East Timor.
Local Government and external territories
A map of New Zealand showing the major cities and towns.
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. 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 of regional council districts, and a few of them straddle regional council boundaries.
Regions are (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*.
New Zealand is responsible for the self-governing states of the Cook Islands and Niue and administers Tokelau and the Ross Dependency.
Geography
- Main article: Geography of New Zealand
A satellite image of New Zealand. Lake Taupo is visible on 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 and a number of smaller islands. 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-north-east axis. According to New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, the country has the fifth largest Exclusive Economic Zone, at 4.2 million square kilometres in 2000.
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 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. New Zealand broke away from Gondwana about 80 million years ago. The most significant 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 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 Northland. Of the main cities, Christchurch is the driest, receiving only some 500 millimetres of rain per year. Auckland, the wettest, receives a little less than three times that amount.
New Zealand's landscape has appeared in a number of television programmes and films. In particular, the television series Hercules and Xena were filmed around Auckland, 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. Other movies currently filming in New Zealand include King Kong and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
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 less than two millennia 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
- Main article: Economy of New Zealand
Auckland at night, with the Sky Tower in the background
New Zealand has a modern, developed economy. New Zealand has a high standard of living, the country ranks 18th on the 2004 Human Development Index and 15th of The Economist's 2005 world-wide quality-of-life index. Since 1984 successive governments have engaged in major microeconomic 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 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. Despite periods of dynamic growth in the mid 1980s and early '90s, average yearly economic growth has been poorer than expected and is highly reliant on massive levels of 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 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." 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, forestry and information technology. There are also substantial tourism and export education industries. The film and wine industries are considered to be up-and-coming.
Demographics
- Main article: Demographics of New Zealand
New Zealand has a population of 4.2 million. About 80% of the population is of European descent. New Zealanders of anglo-celtic ancestry are known as Pākeha, this term is used variously and some (Māori) use it to refer to all non Māori New Zealanders. Māori people are the second largest ethnic group (14.7%). A large proportion of white New Zealanders are of Scottish ancestry. 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). Virtually all Māori are of mixed heritage (Māori/Pākeha). New Zealand is positive about migration and is committed to increasing its population by approx 1% per annum. At present migrants from the UK constitute the largest single group (30%) but new migrants are drawn from many nations, increasingly from the far east.
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 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
New Zealand has a diverse contemporary culture with influences from British, the Māori,and other European immigrants and most recently polynesian cultures. There were many people from Scotland amongts the early British settlers and elements of their culture persists, New Zealand is said to have more bag pipe bands than Scotland. Cultural links between New Zeland 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).
The pre-European contact Māori culture was stone age, modern Māori do not live a traditonal lifestyle, elements of Māori culture survive and the Government actively promotes it to all New Zealanders. The Māori language (Te Reo Māori) ceased to be used as a living, community language 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.
Sport
- Main article: Sport in New Zealand
New Zealand's most popular sports are rugby union, cricket, netball (the sport with the most players), soccer (the most popular sport amongst children) and rugby league. Also popular are golf, tennis, rowing, cycling and a variety of water sports, particularly sailing. Snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding are also popular. Equestrian sportsmen and sportswomen make their mark in the world (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 as 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
Rugby as a sport 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. 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'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 has something of 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, 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. The presence of Coutts, Brad Butterworth and other former members of Team New Zealand in the Alinghi crew was seen as a sign of betrayal of their country by many New Zealanders.
Team New Zealand will compete for the America's Cup at the next regatta in Valencia in 2007.
Public Holidays
- Main article: Holidays in New Zealand
Statutory Holidays
(These holidays are legislated by several Acts of Parliament.)
There are also Provincial Anniversary Days to celebrate the founding days or landing days of the first colonists of the various colonial provinces. The actual observance of Anniversary days can vary even within each province due to local custom, convenience or the proximity of seasonal events or other holidays. This may differ from the historical observance day, and may be several weeks from the historic date of the events being commemorated. A full list of Anniversary days is listed in the article Holidays in New Zealand.
Related topics
Notes
1. ⇧McGlone, S.M. and Wilmshurst, J.M. 1999. Dating initial Maori environmental impact in New Zealand. Quaternary International 59:5 - 16
External links
|
