THE NEW ZEALAND OFFICIAL YEAR-BOOK, 1975

New Zealand is in the south-west section of the Pacific, that great ocean stretching across one-third of the earth's surface. To the west, beyond the Tasman Sea, is Australia, 1,600 kilometres away. From its position on the rim of the Pacific basin, New Zealand is a little over 10,000 kilometres from San Francisco and Panama and a similar distance from Tokyo and Singapore. In area 26.9 million hectares, it is similar in size to the British Isles and Japan.

One of the chief charms of the New Zealand landscape is its infinite variety. Such level lowlands as exist arc small in area; contrasts between coastal plain and bordering hard-rock mountains are abrupt. High mountains make up most of the South Island area—often stark and bare or mantled in permanent snow. By contrast, most of the North Island is weak-rock hill country. From Cook Strait to the Bay of Plenty a hard-rock mountain core dominates the North Island scene, forming an effective barrier between east and west; the only low level gap across it is at the gorge cut by the Manawatu River near Palmerston North.

A peculiar and special feature of the North Island is the volcanic country of the interior. Here are the largest North Island lakes and in a line from Ruapehu to White Island, most of the still active volcanoes, hot springs, and geysers.

The most spectacular mountains are in the South Island; high mountains, deep and narrow valleys, swift rivers, and glacial lakes, large and small, give infinite variety to the scene. It is in this high country that ice has left its special mark in glacial troughs and fiords and, above all, the noble southern lakes. There is little weak-rock hill country in the South Island; the lowlands are mainly bordering plains, basin plains, and valley plains. Of these the most extensive are the plains of Canterbury and Southland.

New Zealand has large areas of luxuriant forests which are the delight of trampers, campers, and hunters. Forests cover nearly a quarter of the total land area, of which national parks and scenic reserves set aside as permanent forest form 2 million hectares.

The indigenous forests may be grouped broadly into two main formations: mixed temperate evergreen forest and southern beech forest. The former is a mixed community of many species of broad-leaved trees and conifers, and the latter a pure community of one or more of the species of southern beech. Generally, the mixed temperate evergreen forests are the forests of the north and of the warm, wet lowlands and lower mountain slopes. The beeches form the forests of the south, of the high mountains, and of the drier lowlands. But there are extensive areas where the types mingle in forests of extremely varied composition.

Mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, and beaches have influenced the characteristics of the people. New Zealand society has been shaped and subtly tempered by a number of factors—geographical, historical, social, and psychological during more than a century of growth as a nation. New Zealand today represents both an extension and a modification of the European tradition. In addition to its Maori population, New Zealand has experienced in recent years a considerable inflow of Polynesians from its associated territories and elsewhere in the Pacific. Auckland has become the major city of Polynesia, and as such a focal point of the South Pacific. The Polynesian (including Maori) population is of greater significance than its relatively small numbers would suggest. Outside the Pacific area New Zealand may present a basically European face to the world, but the preservation of distinctive life-style by the Maori, together with a close compatibility (extending to frequent intermarriage) between the two races, has doubtless been a determining factor in the evolution of New Zealand society.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION—The islands of New Zealand have been shaped from the projecting crests of earth folds which rise as broad ridges from the floor of the South Pacific Ocean, 1,600 kilometres east of the continent of Australia. There are three main islands—North, South, and Stewart separated only by relatively narrow straits—with adjacent islets and a small group called Chatham islands, 850 kilometres to the east of Lyttelton. Dating from 1842 the administrative boundaries of New Zealand, including the minor islands, extend from 33 degrees to 53 degrees south latitude and from 162 degrees east longitude to 173 degrees west longitude. Inhabited outlying minor islands are Raoul Island in the Kermadec Group, 930 kilometres north-east of the Bay of Islands, and Campbell Island, 590 kilometres south of Stewart Island.

New Zealand is also responsible for the administration of two island groups in the South-west Pacific—Niue and the Tokelau Islands. These are incorporated within the boundaries of New Zealand. Niue is 2,460 kilometres north-east of Auckland, while the Tokelau Islands are 1,130 kilometres further north. The territorial area reaches to within 8 degrees of the Equator.

The Ross Dependency, some 2,300 kilometres to the south, has been under New Zealand's jurisdiction since 1923 and comprises the sector of the Antarctic continent between 160 degrees east and 150 degrees west longitude, together with the islands lying between those degrees of longitude and south of latitude 60 degrees south.

The administrative area of New Zealand can be classified as follows. In this Yearbook, in general, New Zealand refers to the group of islands shown in (a) only. Areas are calculated to mean high-water mark. Adjustments have been made to statistics published prior to 1974.

The 16 Cook Islands achieved a status of self-government in free association with New Zealand on 4 August 1965; more detail is given in Section 38 of this Yearbook.

GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES: Coastline—Since the combined length of the North and South Islands extends over 1,600 kilometres, and since the width of neither Island exceeds 450 kilometres at its broadest point, New Zealand possesses a very lengthy coastline in proportion to its area. With the exception of the low-lying North Auckland Peninsula, the New Zealand land mass lies along a south-westerly and north-easterly axis, parallel to the direction of its mountain chains.

In the North Island, Whangarei, Auckland, Tauranga, and Wellington are natural harbours which have been developed into ports for extensive use by overseas ships. At Napier and Gisborne artificial harbours have been made. On the east coast of the North Auckland Peninsula several other deep and sheltered harbours exist, but production from the hinterland is limited. In the South Island the Marlborough Sounds and the West Coast Sounds form perfect land-locked harbours, but owing to their situations and the rugged nature of the terrain they have—with the exception of Queen Charlotte Sound—little or no commercial utility. By dredging and by breakwater construction, ports capable of accommodating overseas vessels have been formed in Lyttelton, Otago, and Bluff Harbours and on the coast at Timaru. On the west coast of both Islands the strong ocean drifts and high seas cause shoaling at river mouths and harbour entrances, although an overseas port has been developed at New Plymouth, while on the east coast of the South Island similar circumstances prevail, due to the large quantities of shingle brought down by the rivers being spread along the coast by ocean currents.

Mountains—The mountainous nature of New Zealand is one of its most striking physical characteristics, less than one-quarter of the land surface lying below the 200 m contour. In the North Island the higher mountains occupy approximately one-tenth of the surface; but, with the exception of the four volcanic peaks of Egmont (2,518 m), Ruapehu (2,797 m), Ngauruhoe (2,290 m), and Tongariro (1,968 m), they do not exceed an altitude of 1,800 m. Of these four volcanoes only the first named can be classed as dormant. Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe have been particularly active from time to time. Other volcanoes include Mount Tarawera and White Island, each of which has, upon one occasion within historical times, erupted with disastrous consequences. Closely connected with the volcanic system are the multitudinous hot springs and geysers.

The mountain system of the North Island runs generally in a south-west direction, parallel to the coast, from East Cape to Turakirae Head, and includes the following ranges from the north: Raukumara, Huiarau, Ruahine, Tararua, and Rimutaka. This chain is flanked on the west between the Huiarau and Ruahine by the Ahimanawa, Kaweka, and Kaimanawa Ranges, while west of the Kaimanawa is the National Park volcanic group comprising Mounts Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro. The Hauhangaroa and Rangitoto Ranges run in a northerly direction from the National Park group. In the east the Moehau Range parallels the length of the Coromandel Peninsula. Mount Egmont forms the only area above 1,200 m on the west coast of this Island.

The South Island is much more mountainous than the North. Along almost the entire length of the Island runs the massive chain known as the Southern Alps, which attains its greatest height in Mount Cook (3,764 m), while no fewer than 16 peaks exceed 3,000 m. West and north-west of the main portion of the Southern Alps are the Victoria, Brunner, and Lyell Ranges and the Tasman Mountains, the Victoria Range being flanked by the Papa Range. To the north run the St. Arnaud and Richmond Ranges, while to the north-east are the Spenser Mountains and the Kaikoura and Seaward Kaikoura Ranges, the two latter ranges running parallel to the east coast. The south portion of the Southern Alps breaks up into a miscellany of ranges dominating the mountainous Fiord and north-western Southland regions.

There are at least 223 named peaks of 2,300 m or more in altitude. Below is a list of the peaks restricted to the four largest volcanic cones in the North Island and to mountains of a minimum height of 2,740 m in the South Island.

Glaciers—In keeping with the dimensions of the mountain system, New Zealand possesses, in the South Island, a glacial system of some magnitude. Of the glaciers the largest is the Tasman, which, with others of comparable size, rises in the more elevated area surrounding Mount Cook. Flowing down the eastern slope of the range, the Tasman Glacier has a length of 29 km and a width of 9 km. In common with other glaciers on the eastern slope, of which the more important are the Murchison (17 km), the Mueller (13 km), the Godley (13 km), and the Hooker (11 km), its rate of flow is slow, while its terminal face is an altitude of somewhat over 600 m. On the western slope of the range, owing to the greater snow precipitation, the glaciers are more numerous and descend to lower levels, while the steeper slope gives them a more rapid rate of flow. The two largest of these are the Fox and the Franz Josef, with lengths of 15 km and 13 km respectively, and terminal faces at altitudes of 200 m and 210 m.

Rivers—New Zealand rivers, owing to the high relief of the country, are mostly swift-flowing and difficult to navigate. As sources of hydro-electric power the rivers are of considerable importance, since their rapid rate of flow and dependable volume of water make them eminently suitable for this purpose. The Waikato and the Rangitaiki in the North Island and the Waitaki, Cobb, Clutha, and Waipori in the South are used for major hydro-electric schemes.

Following is a list of the more important rivers. For purposes of uniformity, the length of a river is taken to be the distance from the mouth to the farthest point in the system, whether this should happen to bear the same name or that of an affluent, and is inclusive of the estimated course of a river flowing into and emerging from any lake in the system.

The discovery in 1861 that the beds of rivers in the South Island contained extensive deposits of alluvial gold was of considerable importance in the early economic development of the country.

With the very successful acclimatisation of freshwater fish, notably trout, many rivers now provide exceptionally fine fishing.

Lakes—In considering New Zealand's numerous lakes a distinction can be made, especially from the scenic viewpoint, between the lakes of the two Islands. Surrounded by extremely rugged country the larger lakes of the South Island are distinguished by the grandeur of their alpine settings, while some of the larger ones of the North Island, situated on a volcanic plateau, have their own particular beauty. As reservoirs the lakes of both Islands are of vital importance for the maintenance of the rivers and streams draining them and as a of flood prevention. More especially is this the case where hydro-electric schemes are involve Waikaremoana and Taupo in the North Island, and Lakes Coleridge, Pukaki, Tekapo, Wanaka, Hawea, and Wakatipu in the South Island, being of particular significance in this respect. A series of narrow man-made lakes have been produced in connection with hydro-electric development along some of the rivers. In 1965 Lake Benmore, New Zealand's largest artificial lake, was created. It lies on the Waitaki River in North Otago and covers 79 sq km in area and consists of two arms, the main arm being 30 km in length and the Ahuriri Arm 18 km in length.

Some particulars of the more important lakes are given in the following table.

GEOLOGY—The islands of New Zealand are part of the unstable circum-Pacific Mobile Belt. This is a region where volcanoes are active and where the earth's crust has long been buckling and breaking at a geologically rapid rate. The interplay, in the past, of earth movements and erosion has made the sedimentary rocks that cover almost three-quarters of New Zealand. Land areas that the earth movements have raised have been attacked by erosion, and the sand, mud, shingle, and other debris thus formed has been carried away to the sea, where it has accumulated in great thicknesses to form rocks such as sandstone, mudstone, greywacke, and conglomerate; the shells and other skeletons of sea creatures have accumulated to form thick layers of limestone. Many of the sedimentary rocks are in distinct layers called strata. Earth movements have later raised them above the sea to form land, and the strata are in many places tilted and folded by pressure. Seas have advanced and retreated over New Zealand many times and these sedimentary rocks represent almost every geological period since the Cambrian (see Time Scale). Their age is revealed by the shells, foraminifera, and other fossils that they contain.

As well as sedimentary rocks, and volcanic rocks of various ages, New Zealand incorporates in its complex structure schist, gneiss, marble and other metamorphic rocks, and granite, diorite, gabbro, serpentine, and other intrusive igneous rocks. Most of these metamorphic and intrusive rocks are hundreds of millions of years old. They were formed at depth in the earth's crust early in New Zealand's history, in the “roots” of ancient mountain ranges, long ago destroyed, and are visible at the land surface today only because erosion has removed thousands of feet thickness of other rocks that once covered them. The metamorphic rocks developed when huge, elongated sea basins (geosynclines) were formed, in which tens of thousands of feet thickness of sediments accumulated. When these geosynclines were slowly compressed during major mountain-building episodes the deeper sediments were subjected to great pressure and shearing stress, which caused new minerals and structures to develop, changing the sediments into metamorphic rocks. The granites and other intrusive rocks are coarsely crystalline, and are usually considered to have intruded into the outer crust in a molten state during mountain building; some, however, may be the products of an intense metamorphism of sediments.

Geological History—Evidence of the earliest-known events in New Zealand's history is given by ancient rocks in Nelson, Westland, and Fiordland that were formed in the early Paleozoic era, perhaps as long as 600 million years ago (some in Westland may be older). They include thick, geosynclinal sedimentary rocks. This suggests that a large land mass existed at that time to yield the great volume of sediments, but little has been deduced about its shape or position.

The history of the later part of the Paleozoic era, and the Mesozoic era, is rather better understood. For a vast span of time from the Carboniferous period—probably until the early Cretaceous period—an extensive geosyncline occupied the New Zealand region. At first, during much of late Paleozoic time, huge quantities of submarine lava and volcanic tuff were included in the materials that accumulated in the geosyncline, but in the later Permian and Mesozoic times the sediments were mainly sand and mud, derived probably from some land west of present New Zealand; they were compacted into hard greywacke (a type of sandstone) and argillite (hard, dark mudstone).

In the early Cretaceous period one of the main mountain-building episodes in New Zealand's history took place. Although geosynclinal sedimentation continued through the Cretaceous period in eastern New Zealand, the geosyncline elsewhere was compressed, and the sediments were intensely crumpled and broken and raised above the sea, probably forming a large, mountainous land mass. Some of the geosynclinal deposits, now exposed over much of Otago, alpine Westland, and parts of Marlborough Sounds, were metamorphosed into schist and gneiss by the tremendous deforming pressures to which the geosyncline was subjected.

The time that has elapsed since the intense folding of the strata in the New Zealand geosyncline in the mid-Cretaceous period may be considered as the later geological history of this country, embracing roughly 100 million years.

During the early part of this late history, erosion slowly wore down the mountains that had risen, producing a land of low relief. Over these worn-down stumps of the Mesozoic mountains the sea gradually advanced, beginning its transgression earlier in some areas than in others. In the early Cretaceous period it began to submerge land in the region of present North Auckland and the eastern margins of the North and South Islands, and thick deposits of mudstone and sandstone accumulated in some parts of these areas. At the close of the Mesozoic era, and in the very early Tertiary, land became so reduced in size and relief that little sediment was formed, and only comparatively thin deposits of fine bentonitic and sulphurous muds, and fine, white, foraminiferal limestone accumulated. In some areas New Zealand's main coal deposits accumulated in swamps on the surface of the old land. These became buried by marine deposits as the sea continued its transgression in the Eocene period.

By the Oligocene period, most of the land was submerged, and in shallow waters free of land sediments, thick deposits of shell and foraminiferal limestone accumulated. (Scattered, remnant patches of this Oligocene limestone furnish most of New Zealand's cement and agricultural lime.)

After the Oligocene submergence earth movements became more vigorous; many ridges rose from the sea as islands, and sank or were worn down again; sea basins formed and rapidly filled with sediments. New Zealand's late Tertiary environment has been described as follows: “The pattern of folds, welts, and troughs that developed was on a finer scale than in the Mesozoic... the land moved up and down as a series of narrow, short, interfingering or branching folds ... we can think of Tertiary New Zealand as an archipelago ... a kind of writhing of part of the mobile Pacific margins seems to have gone on ...”. The thick deposits of soft, grey mudstone and sandstone that now make up large areas of the North Island, and some parts of South Island, are the deposits that accumulated rapidly in the many sea basins, large and small, that developed in the later Tertiary.

Very late in the Cenozoic era—in the Pliocene and Pleistocene periods—one of the greatest episodes of mountain building in New Zealand's history took place. Earth movements became intense, and slowly pushed up the Southern Alps and other main mountain chains, and determined the general shape and size of the present islands of New Zealand. Much of the movement during this mountain building period (the Kaikoura Orogeny) took the form of displacement of blocks of the earth's crust along fractures called faults. The total movements of the earth blocks adjacent to major faults amounted to thousands of feet. It must have been achieved very slowly, probably by innumerable small movements, each of a few inches or feet. The blocks adjacent to “transcurrent” faults moved not only vertically but also laterally along the faults. The New Zealand landscape today in some regions shows well preserved tilted fault blocks bounded by fault-scarps—steep faces hundreds or even thousands of feet high. Fault movements continue to the present day, and have accompanied several major earthquakes of the past century. Many minor but revealing landscape features such as scarplets, fault ponds, and shutter ridges show where movement has been occurring in recent centuries.

Erosion during this time has eaten into the major landscape forms that the earth movements have built, carving detailed landscape pattern of peaks, ridges, valleys, and gorges, and has built up alluvial plains, shingle fans, and other construction forms. At the coast, waves have driven back the headlands and built beaches, splits, and bars. The Pleistocene period was the time of the Ice Age, and in the high mountains of the South Island glaciers carved deep valleys and carried huge loads of rock, dumping them as moraines. The late Pleistocene glaciers carved the fiords of Fiordland and the basins occupied by most South Island lakes; there were small glaciers also on Ruapehu, where remnants survive, and on Mount Egmont and the Tararua Range.

Volcanic activity of the past few million years has played an important part in making the rocks and shaping the landscape of parts of the central and northern North Island. Banks Peninsula, a twin volcanic dome in Canterbury, achieved much of its growth then. The largest volcanic outpourings of late geological times in New Zealand have been in the region between Tongariro National Park and the Bay of Plenty Coast: andesite lava, scoria, and ash were erupted in the Pleistocene period and later to build the huge volcanoes, Ruapehu, Tongariro, and Ngauruhoe. More than 8,000 cu km of molten rhyolitic magma was erupted in the form of ignimbrite, pumice, and rhyolite lava, building up the Volcanic Plateau. This is one of the largest and youngest accumulations of acid volcanic rocks in the world.

Mount Egmont is a huge, conical, andesite volcano, with the remnants of two other volcanic cones nearby; all are of Pleistocene age. In the Waikato there are eroded Pleistocene cones of approximately basic andesite composition. The largest is Pirongia, some 900 m high. Auckland city and the area immediately to the south has been the scene of many eruptions of basalt lava and scoria in late Pleistocene and Holocene times; and many small scoria cones can be seen in the locality. Lafau Tertiary and Quaternary basaltic eruptions in North Auckland have built lava plateaus and many young cones.

Geological maps and an accompanying description were included in issues of the Official Yearbook up to 1971, and are also included in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.

A Descriptive Atlas of New Zealand contains geological maps of New Zealand and summaries of New Zealand's geology and landscape development. New Zealand Geological Survey Bulletin 66, the Geological Map of New Zealand, 1:2,000,000, is a lengthier summary with a more detailed geological map and cross sections.

EARTHQUAKES: Geophysical Background—An earthquake occurs when energy is suddenly released from a volume of rock within the earth's outerlayers, and is radiated outwards in the form of elastic waves that can be felt at places near the origin, and detected by sensitive instruments at greater distances. Earthquakes are most common in certain geographically limited regions, one of which includes New Zealand. Within these disturbed zones, young fold mountains, oceanic trenches, volcanoes, anomalies in the earth's gravitational field, and active geological faulting are also usual, and like the earthquakes have their ultimate cause in the internal processes incidental to the major structural development of the earth, and as yet imperfectly understood.

The seismically active zones define the margins of a system of stable blocks or plates which are not completely inactive, but experience large earthquakes only infrequently, and are thought to be the primary units of the earth's crust. Two of these units, the Pacific and Indian Plates, abut in the vicinity of New Zealand, forming a triple junction with a third, the Antarctic Plate, south of Macquarie Island. As a result of thermally generated convective movements in the deeper levels of the earth, relative displacement of the plates is occurring, and this provides the continuing source of the energy that is intermittently released as earthquakes.

Instrumental records have shown that at the time of an earthquake large shearing movements take place at the source. It seems probable that all major earthquakes are the result of the breakage of rock under strain, but other factors such as the presence or absence of liquid in the pores and fractures of the rock are also of primary importance in determining the time and place at which a shock occurs.

In large shallow earthquakes a rupture may appear at the surface, forming or renewing movement on a geological fault. In regions where the majority of earthquakes are very shallow, such as California, there is a tendency for the earthquake origins to cluster near geological fault traces, but in regions where there is deeper activity, such as New Zealand, this is not so. For example, there is little activity near the Alpine Fault, which stretches for some 500 km from Milford Sound to Lake Rotoiti, and is considered one of the world's largest and most active faults. Conversely, instances of fault movement that have not been accompanied by earthquakes are known. Practical assessments of earthquake risk must therefore be based upon the statistics of known earthquake distribution, and the broader geological setting of the origins.

New Zealand Seismicity—Compared with some other parts of the Pacific margin, such as Japan, Chile, and the Philippines, the level of seismic activity in New Zealand is moderate. It may be roughly compared with that prevailing in California. A shock of Richter magnitude 6 or above occurs on the average about once a year, one of the magnitude 7 or above once in ten years, and one of about magnitude 8 perhaps once a century, but in historic times only one shock (the south-west Wairarapa earthquake in 1855) is known to have approached this magnitude.

Other natural disasters and accidents are together responsible for more casualties than earthquakes, the most serious seismic disasters in New Zealand having been the Hawke's Bay earthquake of 1931 in which 255 deaths occurred, and the Buller earthquake of 1929 in which there were 17. The total resulting from all other shocks since 1840 is less than 15. The last earthquake to cause deaths occurred at Inangahua in 1968, when 3 people died.

Regarded broadly, the zone of seismicity within which New Zealand lies extends continuously from the triple junction south of Macquarie Island to Samoa. When looked at more closely, breaks in continuity and changes in the character of the activity become apparent. There are changes in direction, in the positional relationship of the deeper and shallower activity, and in its association with the other geophysical and geological features of the region.

Within New Zealand itself, at least two separate systems of seismic activity can be distinguished. The main seismic region, which is the larger, covers the whole of the North Island apart from the Northland peninsula, and the South Island north of a line passing roughly between Banks Peninsula and Cape Foulwind. The southern, or Fiordland seismic region includes southern Westland, western Southland, and western Otago. Less clearly defined activity covers the remainder of the two main islands, and extends eastwards from Banks Peninsula to include the Chatham Islands.

Shallow earthquakes, which are the most numerous, originate within the earth's crust, which in New Zealand has an average thickness of some 35 km. These shocks are responsible for almost all damage to property, and now and in the past they have been widely scattered throughout the country. In historically recent times, the main and Fiordland seismic regions have been significantly more active than the rest of New Zealand, but neither the central seismic region that lies between them nor the Northland peninsula has been free from damaging shocks. The details of the present pattern are not necessarily unchanging, and could alter significantly after the occurrence of a major earthquake. Because of this, because of the broader geophysical setting, and because of the distance to which the effects of a large earthquake extends, it would be highly imprudent to treat any part of New Zealand as free from the risk of serious earthquake damage.

Many active regions of the earth have only shallow earthquakes, but in others shocks have been known to occur at depths as great as 700 km below the surface. It is thought that these deep shocks originate within the edges of crustal plates that have been drawn down or thrust beneath their neighbours. Such deep events are common in both the main and Fiordland seismic regions of New Zealand, but their relative positions with respect to the shallow activity and to other geophysical features are rough mirror images. This is believed to indicate that in the North Island, the edge of the Pacific Plate lies below that of the Indian Plate, while in the south of the South Island the Pacific Plate is uppermost and the Indian Plate has been thrust beneath it.

The most important system of deep shocks in New Zealand lies in a well-defined zone beneath the main seismic region, stretching from the Bay of Plenty to Nelson and Marlborough. The maximum depth of occurrence at the northern end is about 400 km, and decreases smoothly to merge with the shallow activity before the southern boundary of the region is reached. Along the whole of the system, there is also a decrease in maximum depth from west to east. In northern Taranaki, near the western limit of this activity, a small isolated group of shocks at a depth of about 600 km has also been recorded. In the central seismic region only shallow shocks are known.

The maximum depth of the earthquakes in the Fiordland region appears to be only about 160 km, but it is only recently that instrumental coverage has been adequate for a proper study of this area. Here, the deep activity is more concentrated than in the north, lying close to Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri.

Both earthquakes and volcanoes are found in geophysically disturbed regions, but although small earthquakes usually accompany volcanic eruptions, large ones are rare. Regions of active volcanism are also subject to periodic outbreaks of small earthquakes, all of similar magnitude, and very numerous. These events are known as “earthquake swarms”. Although the number of shocks may cause alarm, it is unusual for even minor damage to result. There is not often a simultaneous volcanic outbreak, but swarms do not seem to occur in non-volcanic regions. In New Zealand they have occurred in the volcanic zone that includes Mt. Ruapehu and White Island, in the Coromandel Peninsula, in parts of Northland, and near Mt. Egmont.

Seismological Observatory—Each year the Seismological Observatory, Wellington, a section of the Geophysics Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, publishes the analyses of several hundred earthquakes originating in the New Zealand region, using data obtained from its own network of recording stations, and from stations in other countries. The instrumental data are supplemented by information about felt effects, supplied by a large number of voluntary observers, who complete a standard questionnaire.

The network of recording stations controlled by the Observatory is now one of the world's largest and most extended, covering the main islands of New Zealand, a large part of the south-west Pacific, and the Ross Dependency. The 36 permanent stations now operating are:

Apia and Afiamalu (Western Samoa); Nadi (Fiji); Niue; Rarotonga (Cook Islands); Raoul Island (Kermadecs); Cape Reinga, Onerahi, Great Barrier, Auckland, East Cape, Karapiro, Whakatane, Gisborne, Wairakei, Tuai, Tarata, Chateau, Taradale, Mangahao, Castlepoint, Cobb River, Wellington, Kaikoura West, Kaimata, Christchurch, Gebbies Pass, Chatham Islands, Mount John, Milford Sound, Oamaru, Roxburgh, Monowai, Waipapa Point; Campbell Island; Scott Base (Antarctica).

At Afiamalu, Rarotonga, Wellington, and Scott Base the equipment includes instruments of internationally standardised pattern designed to record both local and distant activity. The stations at Karapiro and Roxburgh are also equipped to record both local and distant shocks. At the other stations, many of which record more than one component of the ground motion, the instruments are primarily intended for the study of shocks within about 1000 km.

Scott Base and several of the island stations provide preliminary reading by radio, but all final analyses are made at the Observatory in Wellington. Portable equipment is available for more intensive study of aftershock sequences, earthquake swarms, and micro-earthquakes, and for other research projects. In addition, the department's physics and engineering laboratory maintains a network of strong motion recorders intended to provide data on large shocks for engineering purposes.

The information collected and published by the Observatory covers all significant earthquakes in the New Zealand region. It is made freely available to the public and the press, as well as to seismologists, engineers, and other specialists. In addition, a very large number of distant earthquakes are recorded, and readings of these, as well as of the local activity, are regularly sent to international agencies and to overseas seismologists who have a need for them. The Observatory itself carries out a vigorous programme of research into problems of seismicity and earthquake mechanism, and into the structure and constitution of the earth's crust and its deep interior.

Earthquakes During 1974—For the first time since 1968 a shallow earthquake in the New Zealand region attained a magnitude of 6 (Richter scale). This shock occurred on the evening of 5 November 1974, about 20 km off the Taranaki coast near Opunake, where some minor damage occurred. The shock was felt throughout Taranaki and as far afield as Waikato, Wellington, and the north of the South Island. The main shock was followed by numerous aftershocks the largest, of magnitude 5 1/2, occurring a quarter of an hour later.

The largest earthquake in the South Island was a shallow shock near Milford Sound on the morning of 21 September. Its magnitude was 5.9 and its main aftershock, during the early evening of the same day, was almost as large. The main earthquake was felt in Dunedin and coastal Otago, and throughout the south of the South Island. Felt reports of this earthquake were confused by the occurrence, three minutes later, of an unrelated shock of magnitude 5.2 centred about 30 km to the north-west of Christchurch. This earthquake was felt strongly in the Christchurch area, and there was some difficulty in distinguishing between the effects of the two events.

The most damaging earthquake of the year originated a few kilometres south of Dunedin in the early evening of 9 April. Its magnitude was only 5.0, but its closeness to the city and its shallow depth resulted in damage to nearly 2,000 chimneys, and threw goods from shelves in many shops and houses. The Earthquake and War Damage Commission estimated the cost of the damage at about $250,000, more than for any other New Zealand earthquake since the major Inangahua earthquake in 1968. An interesting feature of the Dunedin earthquake was the variation of its effects in parts of the city, because of differences in the type of underlying ground. The shaking was significantly greater in the low-lying alluvial parts of the city, compared with that on the firmer rock of the surrounding hills.

Early in March, a series of shallow earthquakes occurred in the western Bay of Plenty, about 200 km east of Auckland. They were widely felt in the Auckland district, but resulted in only scattered minor damage. The largest of the series, of magnitude 5.6, took place in the early morning of 1 March, and during the next 3 days six other shocks reached a magnitude of 5 or more. Analysis of the records shows that these earthquakes were richer than usual in long-period energy, and that consequently their effects upon tall buildings would be more severe than upon ordinary dwellings.

There were no particularly large deep earthquakes during the year. One, 100 km deep below the Taupo region on 24 June, had a magnitude of 5.1, and was felt between Taupo and Wellington.

The only earthquakes in the volcanic regions that attracted attention were a swarm of small shocks near Rotorua on the morning of 10 January. Nine confirmed shocks were felt between 6 and 7 a.m., with magnitudes ranging from about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2.

Volcanic activity has been mainly confined to Mt. Ngauruhoe, which was active in January and March. On 26 and 28 January pyroclastic avalanches were produced, which flowed down gullies on the northern and western slopes of the mountain. The principal eruption on 28 March was a spectacular ash and gas discharge, unequalled since the 1954 eruptions. This activity was accompanied by only minor earthquakes.

WEATHER INFORMATION—The collection of weather information and the provision of weather forecasts and climatic data for diverse interests in aviation, shipping, agriculture, Government departments, and the general public are functions of the New Zealand Meteorological Service. By arrangement with the administrations concerned the Service performs similar functions for British territories in the Pacific.

Weather reports for use in forecasting are made at about 140 places within New Zealand and 35 in the Pacific islands and are sent by telegraph and radio, along with measurements of winds at upper levels made at 10 radio wind stations, and of temperatures made at 9 radiosonde stations. Daily observations are made for climatological purposes at about 280 places in New Zealand and 60 in the islands. Rainfall measurements are made at a total of about 2,400 places within New Zealand and 120 outside the country.

Detailed climatological statistics are published annually by the New Zealand Meteorological Service in the Meteorological Observations and in Rainfall Observations. Current statistics appear monthly in the New Zealand Gazette.

CLIMATE—Situated between 34°S and 47°S the main islands lie within the broad belt of strong westerly winds which encircles the hemisphere south of about latitude 35°S. Just to the north is the high-pressure ridge of the subtropics from which barometric pressure decreases southwards over New Zealand to the deep low-pressure trough located near latitude 70°S.

The weather pattern from day to day is dominated by a succession of anticyclones, separated by troughs of low pressure, which pass more or less regularly from west to east across the Australia-Tasman Sea - New Zealand area and beyond. In this region there is no semi-permanent anticyclone such as those found in similar latitudes over the Indian Ocean and eastern Pacific Ocean respectively. The troughs normally have a north-west to south-east orientation and are associated with deep depressions centred far to the south. A typical weather sequence commences with a low-pressure trough approaching from the west. Freshening north-westerly winds prevail with increasing cloud followed by rain for a period during which winds may reach gale force. The passage of the trough with its associated cold front, is accompanied by a change to cold south-westerly or southerly winds and showery weather, occasionally with some hail and thunder. Barometers then rise with the approach of the next anticyclone from the west. Winds moderate and fair weather prevails for a few days as the anticyclone moves across the country.

While the sequence just described is very common the situation is frequently much more complex. The troughs are very unstable systems where depressions readily form, some of which develop into vigorous storms that may pass over New Zealand at any time of the year. Occasionally in summer a cyclonic storm of tropical origin passes over or near New Zealand accompanied by gales and heavy rain affecting mainly northern and eastern districts of the North Island. The anticyclones vary in size, intensity, and rate of movement. Their centres, on the average, follow a track across the North Island but individual centres may pass either north or south of the country, the more northerly tracks being favoured in spring and the southerly tracks in autumn. At times when little development occurs within the troughs the anticyclones follow each other at intervals of about 6-7 days.

The other main factors which influence the climate of New Zealand are first, its position in the midst of a vast ocean, and second, the shape and topography of the country itself.

Hot air masses from the interior of Australia in summer or freezing air masses from the Antarctic, which occasionally reach New Zealand, retain little of their original character after their long ocean passage. Thus, there is an absence of extreme variations of temperature. On the other hand, since abundant supplies of moisture are supplied by evaporation from the ocean, and depressions are frequent and vigorous, the average precipitation is high.

The chain of high mountains, which extends from south-west to north-east through the length of the country, rises as a formidable barrier in the path of the prevailing westerly winds. The effect is to produce much sharper climatic contrasts from west to east than in the north-south direction. In some inland areas of the South Island just east of the mountains the climate is distinctly continental in character, despite the fact that no part of New Zealand is more than 80 miles from the sea.

Winds—Winds from a westerly quarter prevail in all seasons, with a general tendency to increase in strength from north to south. However, considerable local modifications to the general air flow occur during its passage across the mountainous terrain. Approaching the main ranges the flow from the west turns towards the north-east and on descending on the eastern side swings towards the south-east. This results in an increased number of south-westerlies in Westland and a predominance of north-westerlies in inland districts of Otago and Canterbury where strong gales from this quarter occur at times in the late spring and summer. Daytime sea breezes usually extend from the coast inland for 30 km or more during periods of settled weather in summer. On the Canterbury coast the wind comes most frequently from the north-east, partly because there is a persistent sea breeze from this quarter, but south of Dunedin south-westerlies predominate. Cook Strait, the only substantial gap in the main mountain chain, acts as a natural funnel for the air flow and is a particularly windy locality afflicted by gales from the south-east as well as the north-west, This “funnel” effect is also in evidence about Foveaux Strait. North of Taranaki the general air flow is more from the south-west, and there is a noticeable reduction of windiness in the summer.

An indication of the variation in the frequency of strong winds from summer to winter, and in different parts of the country, is given in the next table. These figures were all obtained by the use of anemographs at airports (except for Auckland where the site is at Mechanics Bay).

Rainfall—The distribution of rainfall is mainly controlled by mountain features, and the highest rainfalls occur where the mountains are exposed to the direct sweep of the westerly and north-westerly winds. The mean annual rainfall (see map) ranges from as little as 300 mm in a small area of Central Otago to over 7000 mm in the Southern Alps. The average for the whole country is high, but for the greater part it lies between 600 and 1500 mm, a range regarded as favourable for plant growth in the temperate zone. The only areas with under 600 mm are found in the South Island to the east of the main ranges. These include most of central and north Otago, and South Canterbury. In the North Island, the driest areas are central and southern Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, and Manawatu where the average rainfall is 700-1000 mm a year. Of the remainder, much valuable farm land, chiefly in northern Taranaki and Northland, has upwards of 1500 mm. Over a considerable area of both Islands rainfall exceeds 2500 mm a year but, with the exception of Westland, this is mountainous and unoccupied, much of it being forest-covered.

For a large part of the country the rainfall is spread evenly through the year. The greatest contrast is found in the north, where winter has almost twice as much rain as summer. This predominance of winter rainfall diminishes southwards. It is still discernible over the northern part of the South Island but, over the southern half, winter is the season with least rainfall, and a definite summer maximum is found inland due to the effect of convectional showers. The rainfall is also influenced by seasonal variations in the strength of the westerly winds. Spring rainfall is increased in and west of the ranges as the westerlies rise to their maximum about October, while a complementary decrease occurs at the same time in the lee of the ranges.

Areas which are exposed to the west and south-west experience much showery weather, and rain falls on roughly half the days of the year. Over most of the North Island there are at least 150 rain days (days with at least 0.2 mm of rain) a year except to the east of the ranges where there are, in places, fewer than 125 rain days. Those areas of the South Island with annual rainfall under 600 mm generally have about 100 rain days a year. In the far south the frequency of rain increases sharply; in Stewart Island and Fiordland rain days exceed 200 a year. Over most of the country between 55 and 65 percent of the rain days also qualify as wet days (2.5 mm or more). The percentage increases to over 70 in Westland, but in the low rainfall area of inland Otago there are only about 40 wet days a year compared with 100 rain days.

On the whole the seasonal rainfall does not vary greatly from year to year, the reliability in spring being particularly advantageous for agricultural purposes. It is least reliable in late summer and autumn, when very dry conditions may develop east of the ranges, particularly in Hawke's Bay.

The highest daily rainfall on record is 582 mm which occurred at Rapid Creek, Hokitika Catchment, where the mean annual rainfall exceeds 6000 mm. Other areas with considerably lower rainfall are also subject to very heavy daily falls; such areas are to be found in northern Hawke's Bay and in north-eastern districts of the Auckland Province. By contrast, in the Manawatu district and in Otago and Southland daily falls reaching 80 mm are very rare.

Thunderstorms—Thunderstorms are not numerous. Their frequency is greatest in the north and west where thunder is heard on 15 to 20 days a year; east of the ranges (except in Gisborne) the figure is five or less.

Hail—Hail is most frequent in the south-west where it is reported on about 20 days a year, but for the greater part of the country it occurs on about 5 days a year or less. Most of the hailstones are small, but occasionally large stones cause local damage to glasshouses, and to orchards and market gardens, chiefly in Canterbury and Hawke's Bay.

Temperature—Mean temperatures at sea level decrease steadily southwards from 15°C in the far north to 12°C about Cook Strait, then to 9°C in the south. With increasing altitude, temperatures drop about 2°C per 300 m. January and February, with approximately the same mean temperature, are the warmest months of the year; July is the coldest. Some temperature statistics for selected places are included in the table on climatological averages. Highest temperatures are recorded east of the main ranges, where they exceed 30°C on a few afternoons in most summers, usually in association with a north-westerly Föhn wind. The extremes for New Zealand (measured in a standard thermometer screen) are 42°C, which has been recorded in three places: Jordan (Marlborough), Christchurch, and Rangiora (Canterbury); and -19°C Ophir (Central Otago).

As is to be expected, there is a small annual range of temperature (difference between mean temperature of the warmest and coldest months). In Northland and in western districts of both Islands the annual range is about 8°C. For the remainder of the North Island, and east coast districts of the South Island, it is 9°-10°C. Further inland it exceeds 11°C in places, reaching a maximum of 14°C in Central Otago where there is an approach to a continental type of climate.

Temperatures in the preceding paragraphs are recorded on the Celsius scale (formerly called centigrade), and not the Fahrenheit scale. The degree Celsius (°C) equals 5/9 (°F-32).

Frost—It is well known that local variations in frostiness are considerable, even within quite small areas. On a calm, clear night the cold air in contact with a sloping surface gravitates slowly downhill to collect in valleys and depressions, and it is these “Katabatic” drifts which are mainly responsible for local temperature variations at night. Gently sloping ground with a northerly aspect tends to be least affected by frost. Favourable sites in coastal areas of Northland are free of frost, although further inland light frosts occur frequently in the winter months. At Albert Park, Auckland, the screen minimum thermometer (1 m above the ground) has registered below 0°C only once in 65 years, yet up the harbour at Whenuapai Aerodrome there arc eight screen frosts per annum on the average. Excluding the uninhabited mountainous areas, the most severe winter conditions are experienced in Central Otago and the Mackenzie Plains of inland Canterbury, and on the central plateau of the North Island. Even in these areas night temperatures as low as -12°C are rarely recorded. Elsewhere over the North Island the winters are very mild and pastures maintain continuous growth. In both Islands sheep and cattle remain in the open all the year round.

Snow—The majority of New Zealanders rarely see snow except on the mountains. The North Island has a small permanent snow field above 2,500 m on the central plateau, but the snow line rarely descends below 600 m even for brief periods in winter. In the South Island snow falls on a few days a year in eastern coastal districts, and in some years may lie for a day or two even at sea level. In Westland it does not lie at sea level. The snow line on the Southern Alps is around 2,000 m in summer, being slightly lower on the western side where the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers descend through heavy bush to within 300 m of sea level. In inland Canterbury and Otago, where there are considerable areas of grazing lands above 300 m, snowfalls are heavier and more persistent and have caused serious losses of sheep during severe winters in the past. However, only rarely does the winter snow line there remain permanently below 1,000 m.

Relative Humidity—Humidity is commonly between 70 and 80 percent in coastal areas and about 10 percent lower inland. It varies inversely to the temperature, falling to a minimum in the early afternoon when temperature is highest and frequently lying between 90 and 100 percent during clear nights. As the following table shows, the diurnal variation is greater than the difference between summer and winter.

Very low humidity—from 30 percent down to about 5 percent—occurs at times in the lee of the Southern Alps where the Fohn effect is often very marked. In summer the hot, dry “Canterbury Nor'-wester” is generally a most unpleasant wind. Cool south-westerlies are also at times very dry when they reach eastern districts. In Northland the humid mid-summer conditions are inclined to be rather oppressive though temperatures rarely reach 30°C. Dull, humid spells arc generally not prolonged anywhere, but their frequency shows a marked increase in the south.

Sunshine—The sunniest places are near Blenheim, the Nelson-Motueka area, and Whakatane, where the average duration of bright sunshine exceeds 2,400 hours a year. The rest of the Bay of Plenty and Napier are only slightly less sunny. A large portion of the country is favoured with at least 2,000 hours. Even Westland, despite its high rainfall, has 1,800 hours. Southland, where sunshine drops sharply to 1,700 hours a year, lies on the northern fringe of a broad zone of increasing cloudiness. Four hundred miles further to the south at Campbell Island the sunshine has the extremely low value of 650 hours a year. A pleasant feature of the New Zealand climate is the high proportion of sunshine during the winter months. To eliminate the effect of varying day-length the summer and winter sunshine at a few selected stations has been expressed as a percentage of the possible sunshine.

As these figures indicate, there is a marked increase in cloudiness in the North Island in winter, but little seasonal change in the South Island, except in Southland.

Climatological Averages—The following table provides a brief summary of the main climatological elements for selected locations.

NOTES: (1) Averages of rain days and wet days 1950-70; sunshine 1935-70; mean temperature 1931-60; other temperature data and days of screen frost, various periods—all exceeding 10 years.

(2) For normal monthly and annual rainfall for these stations, see table under subsection on Rainfall.

Brief Review of 1974:Year—The most important feature of 1974 weather, in which it resembled 1971 to some extent, was an exceptionally high frequency of winds from an easterly quarter. The only month in which this feature did not occur was July. These persistent easterlies brought excessive cloud and rain to eastern districts, especially from Christchurch northward, while most western districts experienced comparatively dry sunny conditions.

Rainfall was above normal, mainly by 10 to 40 percent, east of the ranges from Ashburton northward and also in Bay of Plenty, Wellington, and Nelson. For a number of stations in Southern Wairarapa, Wellington City, North Canterbury and Banks Peninsula, this was the wettest year in 40-60 years of observation. By contrast, rainfall was mainly below normal by 10-40 percent on the West Coast along with Southland and the greater part of Central Otago; in Auckland along with western and northern Northland, and in parts of Waikato and Taranaki. It was the driest year on record for Milford Sound and Manapouri.

It was a warm year, with average increases over the 1931-60 normal of 1.0°C in the North Island, 0.7°C in the South Island and 0.8°C over New Zealand, as in 1973. The highest departures were west of the main ranges, the lowest in the east.

Sunshine was above normal by 1-200 hours in western districts, except South Taranaki, and also over most of Northland. It was below normal by about the same amount east of the main ranges from Timaru northward and in Bay of Plenty.

Seasonal Notes—January was a dry month, with the driest, warmest, and sunniest weather in western and northern districts. In parts of the North Island rainfall had been inadequate since September 1973. Dairy production was already seriously affected by the dry weather, and in some places supplementary feed was being supplied to cows and sheep.

February was a very warm month, especially in the north, besides being very cloudy in Canterbury and Otago. Good rains in the second half brought relief to most districts but they were inadequate in parts of the North Island, where the drought persisted in places.

March was a cool month. Rainfall was inadequate to provide significant drought relief in some North Island areas, especially in the west. Napier, Masterton, and Wellington had their lowest March mean temperatures since 1936. The coldest spell was from the 18th to the 22nd, when the mean temperature was 6°C to 7°C below average in many eastern areas north of Christchurch.

April was a warm month, with very cloudy and wet conditions in eastern districts. Good growth was reported in many areas. Over three times the normal monthly rainfall was recorded in some eastern areas and about Cook Strait.

May was a relatively mild month and good growth was reported over the greater part of the country. The week from the 23rd to the 29th was the wettest part of the month.

In June the weather was very wet and cloudy east of the ranges. Parts of Hawke's Bay received up to 250 mm of rain on the 15th, causing serious and extensive Hooding, mainly around Hastings; at Napier Aerodrome 124 mm of rain was recorded in 12 hours. In most areas the health of stock was reported to be good.

July was unusually wet and mild and also very cloudy. Stratford Mountain House received 1573 mm of rain, one of the highest monthly totals ever recorded in New Zealand. Parts of North Otago received as much as 170 mm from the 28th to the 30th. Many Otago rivers were in flood on the 30th; and extensive dislocation of rail traffic both north and south of Dunedin was reported. The coldest spells were from the 3rd to the 6th and from the 9th to the 11th, with snow to low levels in the South Island and on the high country of the North Island.

During August persistent cloud and rain prevailed in eastern districts, where conditions were too wet for the farmers; lambing losses were reported from snow and cold rain, especially in Canterbury.

September was a cloudy, warm month. As in August, the weather was too wet in most eastern districts. Elsewhere however, farmers found the weather favourable, reporting good growth. Parts of the Kaikoura Coast and North Canterbury reported particularly heavy rain on the 3rd and 4th. Clinton River, northwest of Kaikoura, received 236 mm on these two days. Dannevirke, Masterton, and Wellington reported record low sunshine.

October was a cloudy month and mainly also wetter than normal. Considerable losses of lambs occurred in the South Island due to snow to comparatively low levels, on the 8th and 9th. It was also at this time that a large proportion of the rain fell; and a station to the northeast of Nelson received 315 mm in three days, from the 7th to the 9th. Flooding resulted in parts of Nelson and Marlborough, besides Otago. During the period from April to October Wellington had 1430 mm of rain, making this the wettest 7-month period in 113 years of observation. Similar excesses were recorded in southern Wairarapa, on the Kaikoura coast, and in parts of North Canterbury.

November was unusually dry and also rather warm. On the Canterbury Plains this was the driest November so far this century, with totals of 5 to 10 mm of rain.

December was unusually sunny and also warm. In Manawatu, Wellington, and Wairarapa, and also eastern districts of the South Island, farmers were finding conditions too dry. Thunderstorms were comparatively widespread over both Islands on the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 17th, and 31st. A severe hailstorm caused serious damage to crops in the Darfield/Hororata area of the Canterbury Plains on the 6th. New Plymouth, Masterton, Wallaceville (Upper Hutt), and Blenheim all recorded their highest December sunshine in 35 to 40 years of observation.

Summary of Meteorological Observations for 1974—The observations from which the following summary was compiled for the year 1974 were made at 0900 hours New Zealand standard time, i.e. 2100 hours Greenwich mean time.

For 1974 the mean sea level pressure values in millibars at 0900 hours New Zealand standard time were: Auckland, 1015.1; Kelburn, Wellington, 1014.3; Nelson Aerodrome, 1014.5; Hokitika Aerodrome, 1014.1; Christchurch, 1014.2; and Dunedin Airport, 1013.5.

EARLY HISTORY: General—When New Zealand was discovered by Europeans in 1642 it was found to be inhabited by a race of Polynesians called Maoris, who had migrated to these islands at least 300 years previously. It is generally accepted that the Maoris came originally from South-east Asia, whence, as proto-Polynesians. they moved eastwards from island to island until they reached the eastern Pacific, where they settled the islands now known collectively as Polynesia. From Polynesia the ancestors of the Maori sailed south-west in ocean-going canoes to reach New Zealand and these voyages were probably spread over several generations, perhaps several centuries. Oral Maori history and genealogy support the view that there was a final wave of migration of considerable magnitude about A.D. 1350. Adapting themselves to a new physical environment, in isolation from the outside world, the Maoris produced forms of social and economic organisation and material culture which were significantly different from their Polynesian prototypes.

Coming from tropical latitudes, the Maoris mainly confined themselves to the warmer North Island, and when discovered by Europeans were in a high state of neolithic civilisation, with marked superiority in the arts of wood carving and military engineering. Their principal social unit was the family group, and from combinations of the numerous groups were formed the subtribes and tribes. They had highly developed social and ritualistic customs, and their system of land tenure and methods of cultivation were communal within the subtribes. Inter-tribal and intra-tribal warfare was common, and as individuals Maoris displayed exceptional courage and intelligence.

From the early days of European settlement in the first half of the nineteenth century many Maoris believed that their interests were best served by co-operation with the settlers. For the most part the Europeans adopted a humanitarian attitude to the Maori people, who accepted their assurances and found a satisfactory safeguard for their interests in the exercise of their rights and privileges as British subjects. As the Europeans established a self-contained and aggressively growing society, there grew up a rivalry for land and a clash of power. In the 1860s Maori tribes in Taranaki, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty fought the settlers and Government troops in a series of sporadic campaigns based on loss of land rights and rising Maori nationalism. After 1870 there followed the development of a European colony of settlement with Maori people making further economic adjustments to European ways.

The introduction of European diseases and firearms, and the impact of European civilisation on the traditional way of life and customs of the Maoris, had such an adverse effect that their numbers must have been reduced by over half during the nineteenth century. However, the virility of the race gradually asserted itself, and from the beginning of the twentieth century the Maori population has been rapidly increasing though still forming a minority component.

Discovery by Europeans—On 13 December 1642, Abel Janszoon Tasman, a navigator of the Dutch East India Company, discovered the country to which he gave the name of Staten Land, and which later became known as “Nieuw Zeeland”. Tasman had left Batavia on 14 August 1642, and, after having discovered Tasmania, he steered eastward and sighted the west coast of the South Island, described by him as a high mountainous country. Sailing north, he had the misfortune to come into conflict with the Maoris at Golden Bay, on the north coast of the South Island, so that, though he continued his northward journey until he reached the northern tip of the country, he did not again attempt to land.

There is no record of any European visit to New Zealand after Tasman's departure until Captain James Cook sighted land on 7 October 1769 near Gisborne. Cook and a party of men from the Endeavour landed at Gisborne on 9 October 1769. On his first voyage Cook spent 6 months exploring the New Zealand coastline, and he completely circumnavigated the North and South Islands. His activities can best be described by saying “he found New Zealand a line on a map, and left it an archipelago”. Not only was Cook's ability shown by his cartographical accuracy, but also in his peaceful dealings with the Maoris. He returned to New Zealand again in 1773, 1774, and in 1777. His careful observations made New Zealand known to the western world; the accounts of his voyages were translated into a dozen languages. The bi-centenary of Cook's first visit to New Zealand was celebrated in 1969; an account of his voyages of discovery in the Pacific is given on pages 1116 to 1128 of the 1969 issue of the Official Yearbook.

The European discovery of Niue Island was made by Captain Cook in 1774. The first recorded discovery of the Tokelau Islands was made by Quiros in 1606.

European Settlement and Colonisation—Whaling stations sprang up along the coast from 1792 onwards and a trade with New South Wales began not only in whale oil and seal skins, but also in flax and timber. In 1814 Samuel Marsden., chaplain to the Governor of New South Wales, was responsible for the establishment of the first mission station in the Bay of Islands. To promote the translation of the Bible into Maori, Thomas Kendall (one of Marsden's assistants) took two Maori chiefs with him to England in 1820. The printing of the Bible in Maori was made possible through the establishment of a printing press by William Colenso at Paihia in the Bay of Islands in 1835.

The growing white population in the Bay of Islands, and the lawlessness of crews of visiting ships led to the appointment by the British Government of James Busby as British Resident at Waitangi in 1833. The Governor of New South Wales in 1837 sent Captain William Hobson, in command of HMS Rattlesnake, from Sydney to the Bay of Islands to report on New Zealand. Among other things, Hobson suggested a treaty with the Maori chiefs and the placing of British subjects under British law. On 29 January 1840 Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands as Governor to proclaim British sovereignty.

By 1840 numerous mission stations had spread through the northern half of the North Island. Conversion of Maori tribes to Christianity was accompanied by the introduction of new crops and methods of cultivation and pacification of the warring tribes.

The first body of immigrants to reach New Zealand under a definite scheme of colonisation arrived at Port Nicholson, Wellington, on 22 January 1840 to found the initial settlement of the New Zealand Company. The colonists were in the main sturdy resourceful people seeking a better future than was offering in nineteenth century industrial England.

The guiding genius of the company, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, aware of the intention of the British Government to annex New Zealand, had earlier (in 1839), dispatched his agents in order to purchase large areas of land from the Maoris before the Crown could assume a monopoly of land purchase.

Wakefield's scheme of colonisation was based on the sale of land to investors or men of wealth for development by labouring class immigrants. With the profit from land sales the company could bring out more immigrants. Wakefield aimed at a balance between landowners and labourers; in effect he aimed to transplant a cross-section of English society. But, ignorant of the system of tribal ownership of Maori land, the company had bought land from individual Maoris; then Hobson provided that all European land titles should derive from the Crown which would be the only purchaser of land from the Maoris. Title to land remained a difficulty for some years and was a cause of distress to the colonists and, combined with a considerable degree of absentee ownership and land speculation, made most precarious the existence of the early company settlements of Wellington, Wanganui, New Plymouth, and Nelson. The company had brought nearly 10,000 persons to New Zealand by 1848. The later settlements of Otago, in 1848, and Canterbury, in 1850, organised under the aegis of the New Zealand Company in co-operation with the Free Church of Scotland and the Church of England respectively, achieved a much greater measure of success owing to the absence of any large Maori population and to satisfactory land purchase arrangements..

The non-Maori population in the main settlements in 1842 totalled 3,801 in Wellington, 2,895 in Auckland, 2,500 in Nelson, 895 in New Plymouth, 380 in Russell, 236 in Hokianga, and 198 in Akaroa. By 1862 the non-Maori population had reached 125,000 (as against 55,000 Maoris) and by 1866 it had jumped to 200,000 with men from Australia joining in the gold rush to Otago. Migration then dropped away until 1874 when there was a high inflow for several years from Britain with the Vogel policy of public works development.

After the death of Hobson in 1842, subsequent governors, through lack of funds and weak administration, found themselves unable to protect the small and helpless settlements from threatening Maori aggression engendered by strong feelings on land ownership. The response of the Colonial Office was to appoint Captain George Grey as Governor and to provide him with adequate funds and troops so that he soon restored order and won not only the confidence of the Maoris but also for a time that of the settlers. Grey, through his chief land purchase officer, Donald McLean, endeavoured to buy up land in advance of the settlers' needs in order to prevent conflict between settlers and Maoris. By 1858 the census revealed that the settlers outnumbered the Maoris who, fearful that they were being swamped by the settlers, became increasingly reluctant to sell their land. At the same time the intensified settler pressure for more land led McLean to negotiate only with those Maoris still favourably disposed to land sales. This practice alarmed the other Maoris and finally the war broke out in 1860 over a land dispute at Waitara in Taranaki where settler demand for land was strongest. The return of Grey as Governor did not solve the problem for, as an autocrat, he could not work with elected ministers nor could he regain the confidence of the Maoris and finally he quarrelled with the commander of the Imperial troops. Widespread confiscation of Maori land by the settlers' government in order to pay the cost of the war included land belonging to friendly as well as hostile Maoris and aroused further resentment. Although the war had died down by 1870 it was only during the term of Donald McLean as Native Minister that some measure of reconciliation began with the establishment of four Maori electorates in 1876.

Public Works and Farm Development—The absence of hostilities and the discovery of gold there had allowed the South Island to obtain a lead in commercial and political development which it long maintained. Moreover, with the subsequent agrarian expansion especially in the development of the large pastoral holdings, the country ceased to be merely self-sufficient agriculturally but began to develop a substantial export trade, mainly in wool.

By 1870 the gold boom had ended in the South Island. To remedy the situation of economic stagnation, Sir Julius Vogel began a policy of extensive borrowing for railway and road construction and for immigrant labour. The results of this policy were to double the population to 500,000 by 1880, to immensely improve transport and communications, and to encourage industry in the towns where most of the immigrants had congregated. After Vogel's plans for these loans to be secured against the land were frustrated by the provinces, he decided that the provincial system, begun in 1853, had outlived its usefulness and that parochialism was a hindrance to the development of the colony. The system was abolished in 1875, local administration being provided for by the Counties Act and the Municipal Corporations Act 1876.

When systematic colonisation began, New Zealand's only important trade association was with the east coast of Australia. It was, however, the inflow of British capital which set the New Zealand economy on a path of growth: that determined by the requirements of markets in the United Kingdom. Britain with a vigorously expanding demand from its working population required from the young colony an assured and increasing supply of food and raw materials, and a guaranteed market for its industrial goods. In accordance with this archetypal pattern of colonial development agricultural trade with the United Kingdom assumed over-riding importance as the land was brought into production. By 1868, in spite of the problem of distance, the United Kingdom had already become New Zealand's principal trading partner.

With the introduction of refrigeration in 1882 and steam navigation in the late 19th century, the development of exports of frozen meat and dairy products assured the dominance of the United Kingdom in New Zealand's external trade. These developments, with a continued substantial investment of British capital, particularly in farming and food processing industries, established that degree of specialisation to meet the needs of the British market, which shaped the entire New Zealand economy during its first hundred years.

The depression of the 1880s, a consequence of a fall in world price levels, resulted in unemployment and large emigration but export prices recovered in the nineties. From 1880 onwards the natural increase of births over deaths exceeded the net inflow from migration.

In 1891 John Ballance, as leader of the Liberal Party, became Premier to be followed on his death in 1893 by Richard John Seddon, who remained Premier until his death in June 1906. The Government pursued a vigorous legislative programme in which the main emphasis was that of social justice, the principal manifestations of which were the breaking up of the large estates, the establishment of the Court of Arbitration, and the introduction of old age pensions. The policy of subdivision of large estates to produce closer settlement included the compulsory purchase of large holdings by the State, but more important were the effects of refrigeration, which encouraged the smaller dairy and fat-lamb farms, the accelerated Government purchase of Maori lands and the widespread introduction of systems of Crown leasehold with subsequent loans to small farmers to establish themselves. In inaugurating the Court of Arbitration, the object was to eliminate strikes by giving labour a recognised bargaining status; and the enactment was in accord with the enlightened code of labour legislation passed at that time under the influence of William Pember Reeves.

The 6 years from 1906 with Joseph Ward as Prime Minister were marked by several notable events in imperial affairs, but, on the whole, the Government's domestic policies were singularly uninspiring.

The expansion of the exports in dairy produce and frozen meat during the 1890s produced more intensive settlement and the rise of a new farming class in which the “cow-cockie” was the dominant figure. These farmers, having benefited by the spread of prosperity, were in 1911 mainly responsible together with the city businessmen for the overthrow of the Liberal regime. The new Reform Government under William Massey, in order to strengthen the primary producer, introduced measures of which the extension of rural credit was typical. Industrial conflict on the waterfront and with the Waihi miners ended in a victory for Massey who relied on the use of troops and special constables to repress the strikes.

Three years after the advent of the Reform Party, the First World War, 1914-1918, broke out, leading to a coalition Government and an Imperial commandeer of exports which created the precedent for the establishment after the war of central boards to regulate the exports of pastoral products. War activities were marked by heavy casualties in proportion to the population while the landing at Gallipoli signified the growing awareness of a sense of nationhood.

Though the effects of the post-war depression during the period 1921-24 showed themselves in an increase in unemployment and slight wage reduction, no drastic legislation was necessary to stabilise economic conditions. During the following years the price level rose; and on the administrative side, the period was characterised by extensive public works expenditure, with particular attention to hydro-electric schemes and highways. Prime Ministers in the 10 years from 1925 were J. Gordon Coates, Sir Joseph Ward, and George Forbes.

Land values rose steeply, accelerated by Government efforts to settle returned servicemen on the land, and between 1915 and 1925 forty percent of the occupied land had changed hands. New Zealand was extremely vulnerable to the overseas price fluctuations of the pastoral products. With the advent of the depression by 1930, farmers, despite greatly increased production, were faced with a serious decline in income (over forty percent) together with heavy mortgage commitments on land bought at high prices so that many were faced with foreclosure. In the towns, tradesmen and shopkeepers faced bankruptcy, and wage earners unemployment or reduction in wages. A coalition Government, formed in 1931 to meet the crisis had, as its leading figure, Coates, who was Minister of Finance from 1933. In order to produce balanced budgets and cope with the effects of the depression, enactments provided for unemployment relief, for the suspension, in effect, of compulsory arbitration, for the establishment of a Reserve Bank, for a mortgage moratorium, for raising the exchange rate, and for reduction in interest rates and wages. Partly as a consequence of these measures and of a rise in overseas price levels a general economic revival was taking place by 1935.

DEVELOPMENT AS A NATION—The election of a Labour Government in 1935 (with notable politicians including Michael Savage, Peter Fraser, and Walter Nash, who successively became Prime Ministers) reflected the general climate of opinion and led to change in administrative policy, the preoccupation being mainly with social problems. These attitudes were reflected in certain distinctive trends in legislation.

The first major influence was a humanitarian attitude reinforced by a progressive economic policy. Evidence of this is implicit in the provision for a basic wage, and later for a minimum wage, employment-promotion legislation, amendments to workers' compensation, industrial conciliation and arbitration, mining, etc., legislation, the system of basic prices for certain farm products, the creation of farm industry reserves, and the rationalisation of production and marketing by the establishment of boards for certain items of primary produce.

Another dominant trend was the acceptance of the principle that society should take active steps towards the improvement of the working, living, and social circumstances of its members. Foremost in this category was the Social Security Act and its later extensions providing for monetary benefits such as age, superannuation, family allowances, sickness, and unemployment, and by the provision of a system of medical, pharmaceutical, hospital, maternity, and other related benefits. (The evolution of social security in New Zealand was summarised in a special article in the 1972 issue of the Official Yearbook; this was an extract from the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Social Security in New Zealand published in March 1972.)

Other legislative enactments under this heading include the provision for paid annual holidays, reduction of working hours, extension of workers' compensation insurance, improvement in safety and health and welfare conditions in industry, and extension of educational facilities and opportunities.

The financial needs of the Second World War from 1939 onwards were met with virtually no overseas borrowing. Financing the war by taxation and internal borrowing also assisted in the achievement of a successful stabilisation policy. Full employment in war was followed by full employment in peace. Expansion and diversification of manufacturing and servicing industries provided avenues of employment for the growing labour force.

Shaken by conflict with its industrial left-wing, and faced with increasing public impatience at the continued existence of some wartime controls and concern at inflation, the Labour Government was defeated at the 1949 election after holding office since 1936. The National Party took office under the leadership of Sidney Holland and its first term was marked by a conflict with the Waterside Workers' Union. This dispute in 1951 ended in a complete victory for the Government after it introduced most stringent emergency regulations to deal with the situation. For the first time this century, Holland held an emergency election before parliament had run its full 3-year term. The result was to return the National Government with an increased majority.

In 1952, continued inflation and a balance of payments crisis produced restrictions on exchange allocation to importers in an effort to build up overseas reserves. The 1954 election reduced National's majority and was marked by the appearance of a third party, the Social Credit Party which gained 11 percent of the votes.

During his time as Prime Minister, Holland initiated a constitutional change with the abolition of the Legislative Council on the grounds that it no longer possessed any effective function. Illness caused Holland's retirement in 1957 when he was replaced as leader by Keith Holyoake.

In 1957, the Labour Party gained a narrow victory at the polls under the leadership of Walter Nash. Budgetary policy to meet a recurrence of the balance of payments crisis proved unpopular and at the 1960 election, the National Party under the leadership of Keith Holyoake was returned to power, as it was in subsequent elections in 1963, 1966, and 1969. Early in 1972 John Marshall became leader of the National Party. At the 1972 election the Labour Party swept back into power under Norman Kirk; after his untimely death in 1974 W. E. Rowling became Prime Minister.

International affairs have assumed growing importance in recent decades. It was evident when peace returned to the Pacific area in 1945 that New Zealand found itself in a different world, where its relations with the countries geographically closest to it would grow rapidly in importance. This did not, however, alter the extent to which New Zealand identified itself as a European nation. New Zealand took part in the Paris Peace Conference and it was not until 1955 that it altered the planning commitments of its defence forces from security arrangements in the Middle East to similar arrangements in the South-east Asia and Pacific areas.

The most far-reaching reorientation required of New Zealand in this new situation was the need to obtain a guarantee of its security from the United States rather than the United Kingdom to which it had traditionally turned. With Australia it signed the ANZUS pact with the United States in 1951 and this provides the cornerstone of New Zealand's security arrangements. It also gives New Zealand a common interest with the nations of Western Europe in encouraging the United States to maintain outward-looking policies and a global defence capability.

New Zealand's growing regional awareness has been expressed partly in its defence relationships through SEATO, and through the collective defence arrangements with Malaysia and Singapore; but more widely in its participation in the Colombo Plan and other arrangements for extending development aid to South-east Asia, the South-west Pacific and the Indian subcontinent. The stability and well-being of these areas are vital to New Zealand's interests and relationships with the countries of the region are becoming closer every year.

A feature of the 1960s was a series of national conferences on industrial development (1960), export development (1963), agricultural development (1963-64), and national development (1969).

Relations with Europe—Agricultural development has continued to be based on the principle of the family farm, and the New Zealand farmer remains typically both labourer and manager, as well as landowner. The present level of efficiency has been won by hard effort, skilled management, the application of the results of scientific research, and a heavy personal investment in farm improvement. Dairy producers are now faced with problems of maintaining overseas markets as a result of Britain's move to join the European Economic Community.

Farm production has constantly expanded so that New Zealand has become one of the world's greatest exporters of pastoral produce. The bulk of this produce still goes to the British market.

The advantages of a closely bilateral trading relationship with the United Kingdom were not one-sided. The association was grounded in economic logic, and enabled New Zealand to develop its only major natural asset into a pastoral system of unmatched economic efficiency, which, to the present day would, under free trading conditions, enable its farm products to meet any competition.

The pattern of economic dependence developed in accordance with a series of mutually agreed decisions extending over a long period, and these were formalised by the Ottawa Agreement of 1932 between the British and New Zealand Governments which provided preferential access to each other's markets. The advantages of this economic rationalisation were demonstrated most strikingly in the Second World War, 1939-45 when, apart from the New Zealand military contribution, its continued substantial supply of food to a beleaguered Britain was vital to the continuation of the Allied war effort.

Settlers came originally to New Zealand because of some dissatisfaction with the conditions of life they knew in their country of birth. They sought to build a new society which, while retaining what was good in Britain and Europe, would exclude the pressures which they had found damaging to the quality of their own lives. It is perhaps ironic that, to the extent which a new society has been created, this has been achieved by means of, and is contingent upon, continued strong economic ties with Europe. The decision of Britain to become part of the European Economic Community with effect from 1973 and thus subject to a new pattern of trading arrangements would have been disastrous for New Zealand's exports of dairy produce and lamb, but for the negotiations of special arrangements for continuing trade; in these negotiations Holyoake and Marshall were key personalities.

Pacific Orientation—Increasing interest has been taken in the last decade in welfare and social development generally of both the rapidly growing Maori population and the inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific with New Zealand ties.

New Zealand has experienced in recent years a considerable inflow of Polynesians from its associated territories and elsewhere in the Pacific. One-tenth of the New Zealand population is Maori or Polynesian, and there are more Niue Islanders in New Zealand than in Niue. Cook, Niue, and Tokelau Islanders are New Zealand citizens who freely move back and forth. These people have undoubtedly had a big influence on the character, attitudes, and behaviour of the rest of the New Zealand population—most have some understanding of the “Polynesian way”. New Zealand has a number of other basic links with the South Pacific, due in part to the common colonial history shared with such nations as Fiji. This British heritage has given a common language and the democratic tradition. Today all the independent states of the South Pacific are associated in the British Commonwealth.

The most recent political development is the establishment of the South Pacific Forum. This group, comprising the leaders of the independent and self-governing nations of the South Pacific (Cook Islands, Niue, Western Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Nauru), together with Australia and New Zealand, has had highly successful meetings in their respective capitals. The South Pacific Forum is a new concept in international relations—an exciting development. There is no constitution, there is no agenda, and there is no formality. The leaders come together in private sessions for frank and concentrated discussion on practical matters of direct relevance to the people of the Pacific. The island leaders themselves suggested the formula and proposed Australian and New Zealand participation. Clearly they saw the need to exchange views, discuss projects and priorities, and generally to secure on a regional basis effective collaboration and co-ordination at the highest level. A South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation has been established with a broad programme of trade, production, and economic development. It is based in Suva.

Expansion of overseas aid to the Pacific and to Asia from 1973 onwards was a feature of the Labour Government under Kirk and subsequently under Rowling.

Sovereignty—On 29 January 1840 Captain William Hobson, R.N., arrived in the Bay of Islands. His instructions from the British Government required him to take possession of the country with the consent of the Maori chiefs, this policy being designed by the Colonial Office strongly influenced by missionary opinion, to safeguard the well-being of the native people. Hobson read his commission at Kororareka on 30 January and on 6 February 46 chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, a compact whereby all rights and powers of sovereignty were ceded to the Queen, all territorial rights were secured to the chiefs and their tribes (with the Crown having the sole right of purchase) and in return the Queen extended her protection and all the rights and privileges of British subjects. Other chiefs throughout both Islands later adhered to this Treaty.

On 21 May 1840 Governor Hobson proclaimed British sovereignty in the case of the North Island by virtue of the Treaty of Waitangi, and in the case of the South Island and Stewart Island by right of discovery. New Zealand remained a dependency of New South Wales until 3 May 1841, when it was created a separate colony by Royal Charter dated 16 November 1840. The capital was at first transferred from Russell to Auckland, but in 1865 it was again transferred, on this occasion to Wellington, where the seat of Government has since remained.

During Governor Grey's term, steps were taken to draft a constitution for the colony. An Act granting representative institutions was passed by the Imperial Parliament on 30 June 1852, and was published in New Zealand by Proclamation on 17 January 1853. Under it, provision was made for the constitution of a General Assembly consisting of a Legislative Council and a House of Representatives. Provision was also made for the division of the country into provinces, each province having an elected Council and Superintendent. (The provincial system was abolished in 1875 and the Legislative Council in 1950.) In the first General Assembly of 27 August 1854 certain members of this body were associated with the permanent members of the executive but they did not hold any portfolios. It was not until 7 May 1856 that responsible government was actually established.

One aspect, that of native affairs, was withheld from the responsible Ministers, and the Governor, as representative of the Crown, continued to act independently of his elected advisors in this sphere. In 1861 Grey attempted unsuccessfully to hand over this responsibility but the Ministers were unwilling to assume responsibility for the cost of the war. Finally in 1864 Sir Frederick Weld instituted the “self-reliant policy” whereby the colony accepted responsibility for the settlement of difficulties with the Maoris and consented to the withdrawal of troops by the Imperial Government.

In recognition of a nascent sense of nationality and of an increasing desire for self-reliance in political matters New Zealand was given the title of Dominion in lieu of Colony, the new title taking effect on 26 September 1907.

Of the constitutional events in recent years the passing by the United Kingdom Parliament of the Statute of Westminster in December 1931 was of major importance. The draft of this statute was submitted for the confirmation of the various Commonwealth legislatures before its passage through the United Kingdom Parliament. The statute granted complete autonomy to the various self-governing member countries, but it did not automatically apply to Australia or New Zealand. In other words. its operation in the latter self-governing members of the Commonwealth was declared to require specific adoption by the legislatures of those countries. It was not until 1947 that the New Zealand Government formally adopted the Statute of Westminster.

NEW ZEALAND'S INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS—Until the early 1930s New Zealand's external interests were almost exclusively centred on its relationship with Britain. The British Navy protected New Zealand and Britain took the bulk of New Zealand's exports. Where Britain led, New Zealand followed, not blindly but with pride and conviction. Britain, as a great power, played a major role in world affairs. New Zealand's “foreign policy” consisted chiefly of seeking to modify British policy in those few cases where New Zealand had a strong interest or a viewpoint rather different from that of Britain.

The emergence of a distinctively New Zealand foreign policy is usually regarded as dating from 1935. The Labour Government strongly upheld the principle of collective security and looked on the League of Nations as the custodian of that principle. It pressed for vigorous collective action by the League against aggression in Abyssinia, Spain, and China at a time when the United Kingdom was pursuing the policy which came to be known as “appeasement”. In addition to making its views known in confidential communications to the United Kingdom Government, New Zealand also gave them forthright expression in the Council and Assembly of the League of Nations.

There was nevertheless, no suggestion that New Zealand was departing from its historically close association with Britain. The course it would follow in the event of war was never in doubt. When war broke out the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. M. J. Savage, expressed New Zealand's position in these terms:.

“Behind the sure shield of Britain we have enjoyed and cherished freedom and self-government. Both with gratitude for the past, and with confidence in the future, we range ourselves without fear behind Britain. Where she goes, we go. Where she stands, we stand.”

But the Second World War changed the pattern of power in the world and made it necessary for New Zealand gradually to revise its foreign policy. During the war years the Government had participated in discussions among the allies and it believed that New Zealand, whose armed forces had fought in many theatres of war, should have an effective voice in the development of a post-war world order. To this end the Government established (in effect from 1943) a career foreign affairs service, and made a beginning in stationing its own diplomatic representatives in countries where New Zealand's interests made their presence necessary. In particular. New Zealand sought to foster good relationships with its neighbours in the Pacific and Asia and to increase the measure of security and welfare in these areas.

Woven into post-war policy was the traditional New Zealand belief in the principle of collective security and international justice, which the United Nations was pledged to support. There was also the belief that the international community should give high priority to the welfare and political advancement of dependent peoples and to the elimination of poverty, disease, and other economic and social causes of international tension.

The threat to New Zealand's security posed by Japanese aggression in the Pacific brought this country into close association with two of her Pacific neighbours—Australia and the United States. In 1944, in the Canberra Pact, Australia and New Zealand provided machinery for continuing consultation between the two Governments. The wartime alliance of the two Pacific Commonwealth countries with the United States found expression in peacetime in the ANZUS Treaty, in which, for the first time, New Zealand and Australia entered into a security treaty with a foreign country. The ANZUS Treaty, which came into force in April 1952, gives an assurance of United States support in the event of an armed attack from any quarter in the Pacific and so constitutes New Zealand's major safeguard against aggression in the area. The signing of the Manila Treaty and the establishment of SEATO in 1954, like the formation of the ANZUS alliance, took place against a background of continuing instability and violence in South-east Asia. (Details of New Zealand's defence policies and arrangements are set out later in this chapter.)

The scope of New Zealand's interests in Asia widened considerably in the years following signature of the Manila Treaty. Diplomatic relations were established with a growing number of countries in the area, leading to increased co-operation in fields besides that of defence. By the mid-1960s New Zealand had more widespread representation in Asia than in Western Europe. Subsequent accession to membership of regional organisations such as ECAFE and the Asian Development Bank furnished further evidence of this country's recognition of its constructive links with Asian countries. Diplomatic relations were established with the People's Republic of China in December 1972 and ambassadors have been exchanged. The Government is actively exploring the possibilities for new forms of regional co-operation in Asia.

The political evolution of the South Pacific with the emergence of Western Samoa, Nauru, Fiji, and Tonga as independent states and the Cook Islands as self-governing in free association with New Zealand has led to the development of a new pattern of relationships, bilateral and multilateral, between New Zealand and its South Pacific neighbours. In addition to its special relationship with Western Samoa, a former United Nations Trust Territory administered by New Zealand, and the Cook Islands, New Zealand has close bilateral ties with Fiji, Nauru, and Tonga. It is co-operating with all these countries at the regional level in the South Pacific Forum where the independent and self-governing countries in the South Pacific, together with Australia and New Zealand, discuss their common problems. Also, through its membership of the South Pacific Commission, New Zealand is endeavouring to promote the economic and social welfare of the South Pacific peoples and to foster a strong sense of regional identity.

New Zealand has continued to place special importance upon its membership of the United Nations. It is an active participant in the work of the General Assembly, and has been a member of all Councils of the Organisation. In 1950 it provided troops to the United Nations Command in Korea and has contributed military observers and civilian police in various peace-keeping operations. It has sought to assist all efforts to attain the political and social objectives outlined in the Charter.

The historical links with Britain and with Western Europe and North America remain close, as does the economic relationship with Britain, New Zealand's largest single customer. Although New Zealand has been making satisfactory progress in diversifying her markets, especially within the Pacific Basin, her trading and other interests in the European Economic Community remain a major policy concern.

The Labour Government, which was elected in 1972, has emphasised its wish to strengthen New Zealand's bilateral links with the nations of Asia and the Pacific as well as expand regional cooperation, its commitment to a more vigorous programme of aid to less-developed countries, and its belief that the United Nations can and should do more to protect and advance the interests of its smaller members. It has made clear in action, its total rejection of all doctrines of racial superiority. It intends to ensure that New Zealand plays a more independent role in world affairs.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs—The primary responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to advise and assist the Government in formulating and executing decisions in the field of New Zealand's external relations. It is the agency through which other governments and their representatives in New Zealand communicate with the New Zealand Government. It operates New Zealand's aid programmes and maintains New Zealand's diplomatic and consular representation abroad. Its overseas functions are discharged through a network of 35 diplomatic and consular posts consisting of embassies, high commissions, consulates-general, and other permanent missions. At home, the preparation and co-ordination of foreign policy recommendations is carried out in close association with a number of other Government departments. The ministry is administered jointly with the Prime Minister's Department. Prime Ministers have often held the Foreign Affairs portfolio. The Secretary of Foreign Affairs is also Permanent Head of the Prime Minister's Department.

The ministry has a substantive role in the formulation and execution of New Zealand's economic policies. In Wellington the ministry works closely on these questions with other departments such as the Treasury, Department of Trade and Industry, Customs Department, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Economic activity is as much part of an overseas mission's everyday work as its political, consular, and trade functions. Officers of the ministry have a major responsibility to inform foreign governments of New Zealand's policies, negotiate agreements, and keep the New Zealand Government informed of economic developments in the country to which they are accredited.

The ministry's involvement in the economic sphere was amply demonstrated in the events leading up to Britain's entry into the EEC. The negotiations in Luxembourg, that decided the terms of British entry and the special arrangement for New Zealand exports of butter and cheese to Britain, were preceded by an intensive campaign of publicity for New Zealand's case, continuous ministerial and official contacts in Britain and Europe, and a series of visits to New Zealand by British and European Ministers, officials and journalists directly concerned with Common Market affairs. In all this activity the ministry played a full part in Wellington, with other departments, and abroad where its officers were heavily involved. (More detailed information on New Zealand's external trade and economic policies is contained in section 22.)

The ministry has a special role also as a clearing house for material provided by New Zealand posts overseas for other departments, and through its posts it performs numerous services on behalf of departments without representatives abroad.

In the Official Section at the end of the Yearbook the diplomatic and other New Zealand representation overseas is listed.

New Zealand in the Commonwealth—As a member of the Commonwealth New Zealand is able to consult and co-operate with 34 other countries in a wide variety of activity, both governmental and non-governmental. The value to New Zealand of its Commonwealth links is derived not only from the practical benefits of what the Commonwealth does but also from the heterogenous composition of the association. Its 34 members take in the 6 continents and the 5 oceans of the world. The Pacific region is now fully represented in the Commonwealth. Fiji, Tonga, and Western Samoa are full members along with Australia and New Zealand, and Nauru has special status.

As the Commonwealth has grown and changed, its relationships have taken on a new scope and emphasis. As Commonwealth heads of government affirmed in the Commonwealth Declaration adopted at their meeting in 1971, the association “provides many channels for continuing exchanges of knowledge and views on professional, cultural, economic, legal and political issues among member states. These relationships we foster and extend for we believe that our multinational association can expand human understanding and understanding among nations, assist in the elimination of discrimination based on differences of race, colour, and creed, maintain and strengthen personal liberty, contribute to the enrichment of life for all, and provide a powerful influence for peace among nations.” New Zealand, itself a country where different races live in harmony, sees in the Commonwealth a special opportunity for multi-racial co-operation and understanding.

The value of the association in providing a forum for the exchange of views between a large number of diverse nations was illustrated again at the 1973 Heads of Government meeting at Ottawa. Discussions were frank, informal, and private, ranging over topics which included changing power relationships, security, nuclear testing, trade, monetary issues, development assistance, private foreign investment, international transport, food shortages, and Southern African questions.

The belief of member countries in the potential of the Commonwealth led to the establishment of a permanent Commonwealth Secretariat in London in 1965. Under the leadership of its Secretary-General, Mr Arnold Smith, it has become the main agency for multilateral communication among Commonwealth governments. The Commonwealth Secretariat promotes consultation and disseminates information on matters of common concern, organises meetings and conferences, and coordinates many Commonwealth activities. Prominent among these is the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation. The fund is financed by voluntary contributions from most Commonwealth countries. Its primary purpose is to promote economic development through self-help and mutual assistance.

New Zealand contributes to the budgets of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation, and the Commonwealth Foundation. The foundation was established at the same time as the Secretariat to promote close links in the professions throughout the Commonwealth. It has sponsored official and non-official Commonwealth professional organisations and strengthened the links between administrators, engineers, lawyers, accountants, scientists, and private individuals in the different Commonwealth organisations. Like the Secretariat it has provided a focus for Commonwealth activities and a basis for extending international co-operation.

New Zealand and the Asian/Pacific Area—Since the Second World War, and particularly since 1955, there has been a noteworthy growth in New Zealand's relations with the countries of the Pacific area. New Zealand has a direct interest in the maintenance of peace and the growth of prosperity in the area. Its political and economic relations with Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan, and the countries of South-east Asia are of particular importance.

Almost half New Zealand's overseas trade is with the countries of the Pacific Basin and is growing steadily.

Private initiative, with Government assistance, has been able to develop new markets, new products, new selling processes, and new economic and commercial relationships. A pattern of regular economic consultations with our main trading partners has been developed; bilateral economic agreements have been concluded.

Aid activities have been expanded. In the early 1950s aid programmes, except for assistance to New Zealand's own Pacific territories, were largely directed towards the Indian subcontinent in the form of capital grants, which called for little direct New Zealand participation. Since the mid 1950s, technical assistance programmes have been enlarged to bring students to New Zealand and send New Zealand experts into the area. Aid activities now include New Zealand's industrial and engineering skills as well as those in the more traditional agricultural and health fields. New Zealand has become a full member of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE), a member of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and a participant in other international bodies co-ordinating aid to countries in the region.

New Zealand's overseas representation has been expanded in response to the growth in New Zealand's interests and involvements overseas. In 1955, when a New Zealand mission in Singapore was established, New Zealand had full diplomatic representation in only four countries in the Pacific area (the United States, Canada, Japan, and Australia). With the opening of posts in Santiago and Lima in 1972, the number of full diplomatic posts in the Asian/Pacific area was increased to 15. This diplomatic network enables New Zealand to assess external events in the light of this country's own interests and needs and to work directly with other countries in areas of common concern. New Zealand has also developed its political contacts with countries of the Asian and Pacific area in other important ways. Three are worthy of particular note: exchanges of visits by Heads of State and Government Ministers and Parliamentarians; participation in many regional arrangements; and the development of regular bilateral consultations.

Cultural contacts with the countries of the Pacific areas have expanded. For many years New Zealanders looked largely to Britain for cultural inspiration and experience. Today, their horizons have been broadened. New Zealand as a cultural entity is much more aware of its own Pacific area than it was 20 years ago. Professional bodies, sporting associations, private business groups, and universities have direct contacts with similar organisations in other countries of the Pacific area where 20 years ago they had links only with Britain and perhaps Australia. Tourism, the development of civil air links, and the general expansion of cultural interests have also helped bring a wider range of contacts.

New Zealand and the South Pacific—New Zealand has a long history of interest and involvement in the South Pacific. In the latter part of the 19th century Prime Minister Richard Seddon harboured ambitions of a South Pacific empire controlled by New Zealand, and as a result of pressure from Seddon the administration of the Cook Islands and Niue, which were British colonial possessions, was handed over to New Zealand in 1901. The number of New Zealand Pacific dependencies increased when, following the establishment of the League of Nations, Western Samoa, which had been occupied by New Zealand troops at the outbreak of the First World War, became a mandated territory under the administration of New Zealand. In 1925 the Tokelau Islands, part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, were ceded by the United Kingdom to New Zealand.

Despite its geographical situation, the acquisition of overseas dependencies in the South Pacific and the ethnic kinship of the Maori and the Polynesian peoples, New Zealand's present identity as a South Pacific country was slow in developing for a number of reasons. Culturally, New Zealand has been closer to Western Europe than to the Pacific. For many years almost all of New Zealand's exports went to the United Kingdom. Politically, New Zealand's outlook was oriented towards Europe and, more recently, South-east Asia. Also the Pacific Islands were, and in some cases still are, administered by other countries.

But during the 1960s there was a dramatic emergence of new nations in the South Pacific. New Zealand encouraged this development in its own territories.

In Western Samoa, which had become a United Nations Trust Territory administered by New Zealand, political and constitutional development was carried forward in accordance with the wishes of the Samoan people. This culminated in the establishment of the independent State of Western Samoa on 1 January 1962. A programme of economic and social development for the Cook Islands was formulated in 1955 and legislative assemblies for the Cook Islands and for Niue were set up in 1957. In 1962 the New Zealand Government gave these bodies full responsibility for allocating the large subsidies granted by New Zealand. In the same year, after the alternatives concerning constitutional development had been submitted to the Island assemblies, the Cooks and Niue chose full internal self-government with a continued association with New Zealand. Events thereafter moved rapidly in the Cook Islands and on 4 August 1965 the Cook Islands became a self-governing nation in free association with New Zealand.

These developments were part of a wider pattern of political evolution in the region. In 1968 Nauru became an independent republic and in 1970 both Fiji and Tonga became independent nations.

It is natural that New Zealand and its South Pacific neighbours should have become very closely associated. One important reason has been the movement of Pacific peoples into New Zealand. Cook, Niue, and Tokelau Islanders are New Zealand citizens and move freely back and forth. New Zealand's historical association with Western Samoa, which is reflected in the Treaty of Friendship signed in August 1962, has also resulted in a steady flow of immigrants from that country.

New Zealand has also played an active role in building up regional co-operation in the South Pacific. A major step in this direction was the creation of the South Pacific Forum comprising the independent and self-governing countries of the South Pacific, Fiji, Nauru, Tonga, Western Samoa, the Cook Islands together with Australia and New Zealand which, at the invitation of New Zealand, met for the first time in Wellington in August 1971. Since then meetings have been held in Canberra, Suva and Apia. The South Pacific Forum provides the opportunity for the leaders of the South Pacific states to discuss common problems, exchange information, consider priorities and plan programmes. The topics considered include such matters as regional trade, shipping, telecommunications, education, law of the sea, disaster relief, and nuclear testing.

At the Canberra session of the South Pacific Forum members agreed to establish the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation (SPEC) to deal with trade and related matters. The main purpose of the SPEC is to advise Forum members on ways of promoting regional trade and free trade among Island members and to encourage collaboration in areas such as regional transport which will assist the economic development of the Island members.

The South Pacific Commission, created in 1947 by the Canberra Agreement of which New Zealand is a signatory, is the other major regional body. It is composed of representatives of the administering powers in the Pacific—the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Australia, and New Zealand—together with Fiji, Nauru, and Western Samoa. Since its establishment the commission has done much useful work in promoting the economic and social welfare of the South Pacific peoples. It is primarily a technical assistance organisation. Its budget for 1974 is A$1,991,258. This includes voluntary contributions of A$250,000 each from Australia and New Zealand and A$50,000 from France, all of which were made in 1973. Within the South Pacific Commission the South Pacific Conference is of particular importance. The conference, which meets annually and is attended by representatives of all the countries of the region, has helped build up a sense of regional identity. The conference decides the work programme of the commission and the priorities within the work programme.

The Thirteenth South Pacific Conference, which met in Guam in September 1973, recommended that the meetings of the commission and the conference be merged. This will remove the colonial implication in the division drawn between metropolitan powers and dependent territories, and will thus bring the organisation more into conformity with political realities in the region.

The United Nations and its Specialised Agencies are also an important source of technical assistance in the South Pacific. The independent countries of the region are members of various UN bodies and the UNDP has a regional office in Western Samoa. They are also members of the Asian Development Bank and receive loans from it to promote their economic development.

The political changes in the South Pacific which began with Western Samoa's independence are continuing. Papua New Guinea became self-governing in December 1973. Niue became self-governing in free association with New Zealand on Constitution Day, 19 October 1974. It is written into the Niue Constitution Act 1974 that New Zealand will continue to be responsible for the external affairs and defence of Niue, that Niueans will remain New Zealand citizens, and that New Zealand will provide necessary economic and administrative assistance. In an exchange of letters between the New Zealand Prime Minister and the Premier of the Cook Islands in April 1973 clarifying the special relationship between the Cook Islands and New Zealand, it was agreed that there are no legal of any kind upon the freedom of the Cook Islands to make their own laws and control their own Constitution. Although New Zealand has a statutory responsibility for the external affairs and defence of the Cook Islands, it is intended that the Cook Islands be free to pursue their own policies and interests in these as well as other areas.

New Zealand continues to have responsibility for the Tokelau Islands which have expressed through their councils and fonos a wish to retain their association with New Zealand. There is a measure of self-government in the Tokelau Islands and the people are normally consulted fully before any major decisions affecting them are taken. At the request of the fonos the New Zealand Government has embarked on a pilot scheme to resettle Tokelauans in New Zealand.

New Zealand in the United Nations—If New Zealand is better known in international affairs than some other small states, this is, in some measure at least, because of New Zealand's record of active participation in the United Nations.

New Zealand's share of the United Nations' regular budget is 0.32 percent. In 1974 this meant a New Zealand contribution to the organisation of US$608,175.

United Nations Security and Peace-keeping Activities—New Zealand Governments have acted upon the conviction that it is only through the United Nations that an effective and comprehensive collective security system can eventually be developed and disarmament achieved. At San Francisco in 1945 the New Zealand Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Peter Fraser, argued forcibly but unsuccessfully to eliminate the veto and to strengthen the collective security provisions of the United Nations Charter. Within the United Nations New Zealand has sought to remove the causes which might produce the need for recourse to collective security action. Its representatives have urged that the Assembly be used for harmonising relations between nations; they have voiced the need for restraint in the pursuit of national objectives; they have consistently sought and supported responsible action in aid of an effective international organisation; and they have reiterated the need for the early adoption of a broad programme of supervised disarmament.

New Zealand was elected to the Security Council for the years 1954 and 1955, and for a second term in 1966 when membership of the Council was increased from 10 to 15.

New Zealand has also advocated adequate and timely preparations in case aggression should occur and has supported development of the United Nations' capacity for peace-keeping. New Zealand has been prepared to play its part; forces were supplied to the United Nations Force in Korea and military observers to the United Nations observer groups in Palestine, Kashmir, and Lebanon; and a civilian police unit served in Cyprus.

While recognising that the objective of developing the United Nations' potential in security and peace-keeping is a long-term one, the New Zealand Government has indicated its interest in making a practical contribution by training some New Zealand military units to take part in future United Nations peace-keeping operations.

Economic and Social Activities—In addition to this concern with international peace and security, other aspects of the work of the United Nations have attracted increased attention in recent years. Article 55 of the United Nations Charter recognises that peaceful and friendly relations among nations depend largely on conditions of economic and social progress. Advancement in these latter fields absorbs annually more and more of the United Nations' resources, and represents at least one area in which international goodwill and co-operation are being given practical expression. First the 1960s and now the 1970s have been designated as “development decades” and an international development strategy—an overall plan setting targets for development during the second decade—was adopted by the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Commemorative Session in 1970

More recent concern has focussed additionally on the problems of the environment and an international conference held in Stockholm in 1972 set up for the first time United Nations machinery to co-ordinate future world-wide activity in this important sphere.

The United Nations body with primary responsibility in the wide-ranging economic and social field is the Economic and Social Council (or ECOSOC), an elective body of 27 members, which co-ordinates the activities of the bodies active in these fields, ranging from the functional commissions and committees of the United Nations itself to the autonomous specialised agencies.

The biggest single task now facing ECOSOC is to promote and direct programmes for economic development in the less-developed countries. New Zealand had always recognised the need for this. Its interest in social and economic questions is illustrated by its membership of ECOSOC from 1947 to 1949, 1959 to 1961, and from 1971 to 1973. New Zealand in 1963 became a full regional member of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE)^*, a body of which it had previously been a non-regional member. The general trend towards closer ties with Asia further demonstrated by membership of the Asian subgroup of various international bodies such as the ILO Asian group, and the AOPU (affiliated body to the UPU) and by participation in the UNESCO Conference on Cultural Policy in Asia which was held in Jogjakarta in 1973. New Zealand has also served terms of office from time to time on the Status of Women Commission, the Technical Assistance Committee, and on the Statistical, Social, Population, Human Rights and Fiscal Commissions. New Zealand is currently serving on the Statistical Commission, the Committee on Science and Technology for Development and the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme (until December 1976).

Specialised Agencies—New Zealand is a member of all the specialised agencies, except the International Development Association, and is also a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which, though not strictly a specialised agency, exists under the aegis of the United Nations. New Zealand's contributions to the regular budgets of the agencies, which are based for the most part on a scale of assessment similar to that used in the United Nations itself, will total US $1,279,244 in 1974. New Zealand has also subscribed capital to the financial agencies.

Convinced of the value of the form of international co-operation that the agencies represent, New Zealand participates actively in their work. In the case of the technical agencies. there are direct benefits to New Zealand in membership. Membership of the Universal Postal Union, for example, is essential to facilitate the efficient international movement of mails to and from this country; and the International Telecommunication Union works to promote the most rational and efficient operation of world-wide telecommunications services. The World Meteorological Organisation is the medium for establishing a world-wide network for the rapid exchange of meteorological information, which is of particular value to remote island countries like New Zealand. In other cases. New Zealand benefits by the free interchange of knowledge and experience, and from the endeavours of the agencies to establish world-wide standards of safety, to facilitate international traffic, and to examine restrictive or discriminatory practices in these fields. The ILO is concerned with protecting the basic dignities and freedoms of the wage earner and brings together representatives of governments, employers, and workers to frame international conventions on working and living conditions.

In addition to its contributions to the regular budgets of the agencies, New Zealand gives voluntary assistance in the form of further monetary grants, the services of experts to developing countries (for example in agriculture, physiotherapy, police work, forestry, and education) and donations of equipment or commodities.

*Since renamed Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP).

In March 1973 the Government announced substantial increases (to some $27 million in 1973-74) in New Zealand multilateral aid programmes under United Nations and other auspices as part of the Labour Government's policy of progressively increasing the proportion of gross national product (GNP) allocated to aid to reach, by 1975-76, the internationally accepted target of 0.7 percent of GNP in official development assistance. In announcing this decision the Prime Minister indicated that the Government planned to play its part in leading New Zealand to the goal of 1 percent of GNP in total resource transfers, stressing that the co-operation of the general public and the business community would be required if New Zealand was to attain this target. Increases in New Zealand's multilateral contributions have included NZ$550,000 to the World Food Programme in 1973-74 as against expenditure of $235,000 in 1972-73; a 100 percent increase in New Zealand's contribution to UNICEF to $300,000; a five-fold increase in New Zealand's pledge to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (to $200,000); a greater contribution to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (from $25,000 to $45,000); and a pledge of $1.5 million for 1973-74 to the United Nations Development Programme, compared with $600,000 in 1972-73. (Details and statistics of New Zealand development assistance programmes are set out in a later part of this section headed “New Zealand's Aid and Other Resource Flows to Developing Countries”.)

New Zealand's membership of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund, and the International Finance Corporation allows this country to participate in international efforts to increase the stability of international trade and promote the economic development of the underdeveloped areas of the world. It also serves to strengthen New Zealand's own economic position by providing access to more varied sources of capital for capital projects or for balance of payments purposes.

New Zealand is also a foundation member of the Asian Development Bank, established in 1967 under the auspices of ECAFE to foster economic growth and co-operation in the Asia/Pacific region.

New Zealand has supported United Nations agency activity which will help the social and economic development of the Pacific Islands. Examples of such projects are: the work of WHO in eradicating yaws and tuberculosis; FAO's efforts to control the rhinoceros beetle which ravages much of the islands' coconut crops, and its support for a regional fisheries development agency; the establishment by UNESCO of a curriculum development unit at the University of the South Pacific; the placement in Suva of a development assistance team, backed by ECAFE and the specialised agencies.

New Zealand has in the past served on the governing bodies of FAO, UNESCO, and UPU, and was a member of the Executive Board of WHO from 1972 to 1974. Although, because of its size and limited scale of contributions, New Zealand is not likely to be elected frequently to the boards of at least the larger agencies, it can expect, over the years, to bear its share of administrative responsibility within them.

Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)—As a result of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development held in Geneva in 1964, the General Assembly agreed to hold a triennial conference on trade and development with the objective of promoting international trade, particularly between countries at different stages of development, with a view to accelerating the economic growth of developing countries. UNCTAD held its second session in New Delhi in 1968 and its third in Santiago in 1972. UNCTAD is the United Nations body generally responsible for all matters relating to trade development. It is open to all United Nations members and other states who are members of the specialised agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The conference has become a permanent organisation, with a trade and development board which conducts the affairs of the organisation between plenary conferences. New Zealand has been a member of the board since its foundation. There are also within the organisation functional committees on commodities, manufactures, finance invisibles, shipping, technology and preferences. New Zealand has been a member of most of these committees.

GATT—New Zealand has been a contracting party to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade since its inception in 1947. Although not strictly a specialised agency, the GATT has assumed some of the characteristics of one, and its activities have extended into all aspects of international trade, including more recently, measures to liberalise non-tariff barriers to agricultural trade and to provide special export opportunities for the goods of the developing countries. A major round of tariff negotiations has been initiated.

OECD—In May 1973 New Zealand was accepted into full membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD, founded in 1961 as a successor to the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, has a membership of 24 countries—19 from Europe plus the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Yugoslavia has a special status in the organisation. The main role of OECD is to promote co-operation among governments in all fields of economic and social policy. Its activities cover not only economic and monetary questions, but also agriculture, the environment, science, education, manpower, industry, and energy. An important part of OECD's activities is to assist its members to discharge, in the most effective way possible, their responsibilities towards the developing countries of the rest of the world. (See special article at pages 1064-67 of the 1973 issue of the Yearbook.)

(Further details of New Zealand's trading relations are set out in section 22, “External Trade”.)

New Zealand's Defence Policies—Since the Second World War the international scene has been clouded in large measure by the cold war. New Zealand was affected by the tensions of the period and took steps to provide for its defence in concert with its allies. As a small country with limited resources, New Zealand alone was not able to defend its extensive but isolated territory against aggression by any militarily significant power. It therefore supported efforts to give effect to the provisions of the United Nations Charter which looked to the creation of a universal system of collective security. In the meantime it accepted that it should act in concert with like-minded countries in order to strengthen its security in its own region.

Recent developments in international affairs—especially the improvement of the United States' relations with China, the cease-fire in Vietnam, the growth in the number of major power centres (multipolarity)—have led to a relaxation of tensions that has lessened the likelihood that New Zealand might be involved in war. Changes in United States policy, which now emphasises that the primary responsibility for long-term stability in Asia rests with the countries of the area, and the large reduction of the British defence presence outside Europe have given new impetus to regional initiative. The relaxation of cold war tensions has given New Zealand and other small nations greater freedom of action but it has also reinforced the requirement for closer collaboration on a regional basis. It has also meant that New Zealand's relations with the countries of South-east Asia are no longer to be regulated primarily by defence considerations.

The Labour Government elected in 1972 is anxious both to build up closer bilateral links with the countries of South-east Asia and the South Pacific, and to encourage the growth of regional cooperation. By means of staff exchanges, exercises, training programmes, and the provision of facilities, New Zealand and several of the countries in the area contribute to one another's defence capacity and preparedness. In addition, New Zealand retains its membership of multilateral regional defence groupings, the major one of which is the Five Power Defence Arrangement relating to Malaysia and Singapore.

The Five Power Defence Arrangement—New Zealand's defence association with Malaysia and Singapore began before the two countries became independent. In 1955 New Zealand agreed to contribute with Britain and Australia to a Commonwealth Strategic Reserve to be established in Malaya and Singapore. Under the terms of the Anglo-Malayan Defence Agreement (subsequently extended to Malaysia on its formation in 1963 and accepted as applying also to Singapore after the latter's change to separate existence in 1965), the United Kingdom undertook to assist in the defence of Malaya and maintained extensive forces for this purpose. In 1959 New Zealand together with Australia were associated with AMDA by an exchange of letters with the Malaysian authorities.

In line with the political and constitutional changes which had taken place in the area during the 1960s, Britain withdrew the greater part of its military forces in South-east Asia in 1971. The Anglo-Malaysia Defence Agreement was terminated in October 1971. The five countries which had co-operated in accordance with the terms of the agreement, Britain, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand, as a consequence, set up the Five Power Defence Arrangements which came into effect in November 1971.

The basis of the Five Power Defence Arrangement is not a formal treaty or agreement but a statement incorporated in the communique of the meeting of Ministers of the five powers held in London in April 1971. At that meeting the Ministers declared, in relation to the external defence of Malaysia and Singapore, “that in the event of any form of armed attack externally organised or supported or the threat of such attack against Malaysia or Singapore, their governments would immediately consult together for the purpose of deciding what measures should be taken jointly or separately in relation to such attack or threat”. The Ministers agreed to establish an Air Defence Council to provide direction to the commander of an integrated air defence system for Malaysia and Singapore, which was established on 1 September 1971; they also decided to set up a Joint Consultative Council to provide a forum for regular consultation at senior official level on matters relating to the defence arrangement.

New Zealand's military contribution to the Five Power Defence Arrangement includes one battalion, a frigate regularly stationed at Singapore, medium-range transport aircraft and helicopters, and strike aircraft periodically deployed to the area from New Zealand. Underlying New Zealand's participation in the Five Power Defence Arrangements is the belief that defence co-operation of this kind contributes significantly to the maintenance of stability and the continuation of development in the region as a whole.

The new Australian Government decided in 1973 to end its deployment of ground forces by reducing their number progressively over an 18-month period up to April 1975. The Australian Mirage squadrons, based at Butterworth in Malaysia, and the naval contribution would remain. Australia would continue its support for the Five Power Arrangement. Commenting on this decision the New Zealand Prime Minister in July 1973 said that there was no question of New Zealand forces being withdrawn in the near future. It is agreed that they will remain as long as New Zealand and its two regional partners find it mutually advantageous and desirable. The Prime Minister also said that in line with the Government's expressed wish for closer bilateral relations with South-east Asian countries, new arrangements occasioned by the Australian withdrawal would emphasise the national character of New Zealand's contribution.

In accordance with this emphasis the New Zealand forces in South-east Asia were grouped into an independent New Zealand command entitled “The New Zealand Force in South-east Asia”, on 31 January 1974.

Parallel with their assistance to Malaysia and Singapore in the defence field, New Zealand, Australia, and Britain have for some 20 years maintained defence arrangements among themselves known first as ANZAM and after 1971, following the changes in Britain's role east of the Suez as ANZUK. These arrangements have not been organisations established by formal treaty and the three countries have agreed to maintain their longstanding practice of close defence consultation and cooperation. The expression “ANZUK” however which, like ANZAM, was associated with the formerly combined command in South-east Asia is likely to fall into disuse.

SEAT—Eight governments—Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines. Thailand, and the United States—signed the South-east Asia Collective Defence Treaty, also known as the Manila Treaty, on 8 September 1974. Pakistan formally withdrew from the organisation in 1973 and France, while remaining a signatory of the Manila Treaty, has given up any role in the day-to-day co-operative activities established under it. Under the terms of the Manila Treaty, each party recognised that aggression by means of an armed attack in South-east Asia or the South-west Pacific against any of the parties or against “a protocol state” would endanger its own peace and safety, and agreed that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes. In the event of any other threat, the parties would consult on the measures to be taken for the common defence.

The South-east Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) established under the treaty is headed by a council, made up of the foreign ministers of the signatory governments, which meets annually in members' capitals. Between meetings a body known as the Council Representatives provides continuity with representation generally provided by the heads of member countries' diplomatic missions in Bangkok; New Zealand is thus represented by its Ambassador to Thailand. The organisation set up under the treaty has also undertaken activities intended to foster the security and stability of the regional member countries and to carry out, on a modest scale, projects designed to promote their economic and social development. It has, for example, sponsored research in the fields of tropical medicine, agriculture, and engineering.

Despite the advantages SEATO provided during the earlier years of its existence, it had a number of inherent weaknesses from the start (e.g., more members outside the region than within it, regional members not contiguous, varying points of view among a widely scattered membership), which gradually made it less relevant to the needs of the region as time passed. The end of the United States confrontation with China and of the military tensions that it created has accentuated the need to adapt SEATO to present-day realities.

Nevertheless, a number of SEATO countries wish to see the Manila Treaty remaining in effect at a time of major change within the region. A major review, which New Zealand fully supported, was held at the SEATO Council Meeting in September 1973 with the aim of making the organisation more relevant to the needs of the region. As a result of this review, the organisation has become more compact, military planning has ceased, and there is less emphasis on military preoccupations. Greater weight is being placed on civil security and on economic and social programmes. Opportunities for co-operative training exercises remain.

ANZUS—There is no direct threat to the security of the New Zealand homeland at present. In the unlikely event of such a threat materialising New Zealand would be able to turn for assistance to its partners in the ANZUS Pact. This tripartite security treaty between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States was signed at San Francisco on 1 September 1951 and came into force on 29 April 1952. It assured New Zealand and Australia of American support in the event of aggression in the Pacific.

The main provision of the ANZUS Pact is that each party recognises “that an armed attack in the Pacific area on any of the parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it will act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes”. In the context of the agreement, an armed attack on any of the parties is deemed to include “an armed attack on the metropolitan territory of any of the parties or on the island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific or on its armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the Pacific”.

In the absence of any foreseeable need to invoke the security provisions of the treaty, ANZUS can be seen as a durable expression of a strongly-based community of interest and attitude among the three democracies that are parties to it. The close relationship among the three countries is reflected in the informality and ease of their consultation under the ANZUS Treaty. Meetings of the Council of Ministers are generally held once a year to discuss matters of common interest.

NEW ZEALAND'S AID AND OTHER RESOURCE FLOWS TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES—New Zealand aid is designed to help foster economic and social development and raise living standards in the less affluent countries, particularly New Zealand's near neighbours in the South Pacific and South-east Asia. The determining factor in the type of aid is the needs of the recipient countries themselves.

But aid as commonly understood does not represent the entire resource flow to developing countries. New Zealand's total resource flow (the transfer of goods, services, and capital) to developing countries takes four forms: official development assistance (ODA), other (or non-concessional) official flows, private flows and grants by voluntary agencies (GVA). The internationally recognised resource flow targets, which New Zealand hopes to reach by 1975-76, are 0.7 percent of GNP (at market terms) for ODA and 1.0 percent of GNP for the total resource flow.

Only the ODA target can be regarded purely as an aid target. While ODA and GVA are both flows at concessional terms, and are both directed at promoting economic and social development no separate target exists for GVA. But such flows clearly have a development intention. The remaining non-ODA flows in the overall 1 percent target are of a commercial nature, related to investment or long-term export credits and other lending. They are included because they have potential development impact, whatever the intention or motivation of those involved.

This basic distinction is drawn because ODA is able to be directly influenced by Government policy measures to increase its volume or soften its terms, whereas the bulk of non-ODA flows for most countries are governed mainly by the opportunities arising for gainful commercial transactions.

Total Resource Flow and its Components 1973-74—For the year ended 31 March 1974 (1973-74), the estimated total flow of resources from New Zealand to developing countries was $29,095,000, comprising:

For 1972-73 the total for ODA was $21.01 million and that for the total resource flow was estimated at $32.82 million. The total resource flow included $2.7 million in private flows and $5.0 million in other official flows. In 1973-74 official development assistance amounted to 0.3 percent of estimated GNP (at market prices).

A. Official Development Assistance—Bilateral—During 1973-74 bilateral official development aid went mainly to the countries of the South Pacific ($9.4 million) and to Asia ($7.3 million).

In Asia, our major countries of concentration were Indonesia ($2,009,132), Malaysia ($1,126,684), Bangladesh ($397,364), the Republic of Vietnam ($708,803), Thailand ($835,625), the Khmer Republic ($236,881), the Philippines ($520,258), India ($178,970), the Republic of Korea ($205,010), Laos ($170,567), and Pakistan ($105,196).

In the South Pacific, the Cook Islands ($3,924,647), Niue ($1,596,800), Fiji ($687,226), Western Samoa ($1,436,786), the Tokelau Islands ($459,151), and Tonga ($426,625) received the bulk of the ODA expenditure, with a substantial amount ($432,136) being devoted mainly to the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.

The following table sets out bilateral ODA in 1973-74 by purpose and sector.

Technical co-operation or assistance relates to the provision of know-how or technical expertise, in the form of training facilities (education of students and trainees) or advisory personnel (experts and consultants).

Capital assistance provides resources to increases the stock of physical capital such as buildings, aeroplanes, equipment, materials, livestock, and so on.

Non-project assistance comprises assistance which cannot be identified directly with an investment scheme or project. The substantial budgetary support represented aid to the Cook Islands, Niue, and the Tokelau Islands with general administration, including superannuation schemes and refinancing the public debt.

In the following table bilateral ODA is shown by programme.

The programme BAAP has continued to be the main vehicle for economic aid to the Colombo Plan countries in Asia. This programme was established when the former Colombo Plan item was expanded in 1970 to include countries and territories in the South Pacific, Fiji, Tonga, and Western Samoa.

Expenditure by the Maori Affairs Department was concentrated on the Cook Islands, Niue, and the Tokelau Islands. It included technical and capital assistance as well as loans. The Ministry of Transport contributed towards regional civil aviation costs in the South Pacific.

CES and CMAP were used almost entirely for technical co-operation activities, mainly in the South Pacific, Asia, and Africa. These are New Zealand's only bilateral ODA programmes devoted specifically to the Commonwealth.

The Disaster Relief programme is flexible, liable to fluctuate from year to year, and on occasions supplemented by expenditure from other programmes. Such funds are typically called on after earthquakes, famines, floods, and other disturbances to provide food and materials to assist refugees and aid reconstruction.

The Indonesian trade credit has been renewed twice since 1970 and is sufficiently soft to qualify as ODA.

Further technical and capital assistance is provided under SAF (with expenditure in the Philippines, Thailand, and the Republic of Vietnam), SPAP (spent in Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and on regional items, particularly the University of the South Pacific in Fiji) and WSAP.

B. Official Development Assistance'Multilateral 1973-74—Of the expenditure on multilateral ODA, the largest portion represented contributions to the ordinary capital ($1,195,650), Multi-Purpose Special Fund ($411,200), and Technical Assistance Special Fund ($75,000) of the Asian Development Bank. This bank now has as members some independent South Pacific (as well as Asian) countries which New Zealand assists.

New Zealand's long association with multilateral programmes organised by the United Nations and its specialised agencies continued in 1973-74. Contributions were made to the United Nations Children's Fund ($300,000), United Nations Development Programme ($1,500,000), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ($45,000), United Nations Relief and Works Agency ($60,000), and the World Food Programme ($748,356).

Other organisations to which New Zealand contributed included the International Development Association ($1 million), South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation ($45,509), South Pacific Commission ($203,390), Asian and Pacific Council bodies ($40,626), the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation ($100,000), Asian Institute of Technology ($200,643), and the International Planned Parenthood Federation ($100,000).

C. Non-ODA Flows—The private flows consisted almost entirely of long-term export credits to developing countries, net of amortisation. This figure was based on a survey, conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of guaranteed credits, and may well be understated. No estimate of private net direct investment by New Zealand companies is available for 1973-74 but the Department of Statistics notes that the total is usually less than $1 million with most of it directed towards the South Pacific. Portfolio investment in developing countries is understood to be zero for the same year.

Another survey by the Ministry provided the estimate of grants by voluntary agencies. This item also is likely to be understated, given the difficulty of covering all agencies which meet the primary criterion of development orientation and the probable exclusion of many ad hoc activities.

Policy on Resource Flows to Developing Countries—By their actions since shortly after the end of the Second World War in extending aid through bilateral and multilateral programmes, New Zealand Governments have shown a willingness to make a contribution towards helping raise the living standards of the people in the poorer countries of the world, particularly those in Asia and the South Pacific. In formulating ODA policy and in actually giving aid, careful attention is paid to the economic and social aspirations of the developing nations themselves to ensure that our assistance contributes to the objectives and priorities of the peoples it is intended to benefit. Emphasis is placed on projects which will make a direct impact on development, will create employment opportunities and will help lift the income of a broad section of the people.

With these considerations in mind, the Government announced in March 1973 that it would make a determined effort over the next three years to reach the internationally recognised target of 0.7 percent of GNP for ODA. This will involve allocating approximately 50 percent additional resources to assistance programmes in each succeeding year to reach a required expenditure level estimated at $62 million for 1975-76. It is realised, however, that the rate at which projects are developed, inflationary trends and the availability of resources may affect the attainment of the third-year target. A particular feature of the ODA policy is a continued marked emphasis on co-operation with New Zealand's neighbours in the South Pacific. Attention is being given also to ways of stimulating the other components of the total flow of resources to developing countries.

The other major elements of the ODA policy adopted by the Government are set out below:

CONSTITUTION OF NEW ZEALAND: General—New Zealand is a sovereign independent unitary state being in form a constitutional monarchy with responsible government and a unicameral legislature.

In common with the United Kingdom, New Zealand has no single written instrument purporting to be its supreme or fundamental law. Its constitution is contained in the statutes of the Imperial and New Zealand Parliaments and the decisions of the superior courts of both jurisdictions. Some statutes have greater constitutional significance than others.

To the extent that its constitution is unwritten it is flexible, but restraints by way of conventions prevent, at least in normal circumstances, arbitrary or improper alteration of the constitution and the abuse or misuse of legislative or executive power.

Statutes such as the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 (United Kingdom) recite law which, by reason of political, legal, and social development, may appear obsolete. If the spirit of the law in such a case cannot readily be observed by the use and development of convention, the law may be repealed, cf. Constitution Amendment Act 1973 (New Zealand). On the other hand, some conventions may be translated into substantive law after a period of time. Thus, the Civil List Act 1950 provides that no person may be appointed or remain a Minister of the Crown unless concurrently, he is a member of the House of Representatives.

The fundamental canon of the constitution is that Parliament is supreme or “sovereign”. The question as to where sovereignty lies does not arise in the sense of its vesting in the people or the legislature or the monarch. Nor can it be argued, except in a very loose sense, that the legislature reflects and executes the will of the people. Reality dictates that the will of the people is expressed through the ballot box in choosing its government and legislature. That is not to say that individuals and organisations do not express their views on measures which may become law but their voice and influence is limited, if only paradoxically, by the very nature of government which the country possesses, that is, representative and responsible.

The constitutional theory of the separation of powers does not operate fully in New Zealand. The Executive Government consists of members of the legislature who are appointed by the Governor-General as Ministers of the Crown but who are, in practice, those members of the government party who are elected to the ministry by their parliamentary fellows through caucus. Strictly speaking, ministers, being members of the legislature, are thereby “responsible” to it for their actions and those of their departments. Moreover, the Executive Government, collectively, is held to be answerable in the same way for its policies and the means of implementation. However, for so long as the two-party system continues to operate in New Zealand so that one party, gaining a majority at the polls, becomes the government of the day, the quantum of responsibility will depend largely on that government's observance of the conventions surrounding the concept. The rigours of individual ministerial responsibility have been eroded to the extent that where it is a question of the appropriate Minister being in the position of respondeat superior for the acts or omissions of his officers or department, the convention that he should resign appears to have fallen into desuetude. Constitutional and political writers appear to be in favour of that convention's demise.

The Sovereign—The Queen, in right of New Zealand, is styled: “Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of New Zealand, and Her Other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith”, Royal Titles Acts 1953 and 1974.

Being a constitutional monarchy, the Sovereign's powers are defined and circumscribed, first by law and then by convention.

In the Sovereign's absence, most of the royal powers are exercised by her representative, the Governor-General, in terms of the 1852 Act and the Instructions and Letters Patent of 1917. It should be noted that the Governor-General is not a viceroy and it would therefore be possible but unlikely for him to act ultra vires. By convention, the Queen and the Governor-General avoid becoming embroiled overtly in the “politics” of government, although the Sovereign and Governor-General remain an integral part of the legislative process.

Many of the formal procedures associated with government and administration require the participation of the Queen or Governor-General, inter alia, summoning, proroguing, and dissolving Parliament; assenting to measures passed by the House so as to give them the force of law; appointing judges of the Supreme Court and senior officials of State; appointing ministries and individual Ministers; conferring knighthoods and other honours. Most of the royal functions will be performed on advice of the Executive Government and little, if any, information is available as to whether this advice has always been taken without demur within the last 70 years. To reject advice would place the Governor-General in a very difficult situation, his appointment and tenure being at the pleasure, ultimately, of the New Zealand Government. Learned writers have suggested that he would only refuse to act on advice were he reasonably certain that he could find another member of the legislature willing and able to form a government enjoying the confidence of the House or, if this were not feasible, that his rejection would be vindicated by the electorate were he to dissolve Parliament and cause a general election. To reject advice otherwise, or fail having tried the alternatives, would be to invite his own recall.

Speculation remains, of course, on whether the Governor-General would reject advice even in the circumstances outlined above. The question is to determine how much real power, active or residual, is now possessed by the Governor-General. Recent amendments to the 1852 Act have shorn the Governor-General of the legal basis of powers which have lapsed already, in great part, by operation of convention.

Nevertheless it should not be supposed that the Sovereign or the Governor-General have become constitutionally redundant. Many of the powers held and exercised by the Executive Government arise by virtue of the royal prerogative, defined by Dicey as the “residue of discretionary or arbitrary authority, which at any given time is legally left in the hands of the Crown”. While many of the prerogative powers have been superseded by statute (there is debate on whether the prerogative is thereby extinguished or continues to subsist), substantial areas remain untouched, the majority of prerogative powers being exercised by Ministers with or without reference to the Governor-General.

Although calls for its abolition are made from time to time, the Monarchy seems to be an accepted part of New Zealand's constitutional and political structure although overt involvement in the political arena whether by the Queen or the Governor-General might well have the effect of engendering substantial support for abolition.

Parliament—With the abolition of the Legislative Council (Upper House) in 1950. Parliament, for most purposes, has consisted of the Governor-General (the Queen when resident in New Zealand) and the House of Representatives. By convention, this has come to mean the House of Representatives—the Governor-General exercising only those constitutional powers which serve to confer on measures before the House and passed by it, the force of law.

The New Zealand Parliament is a creation of the United Kingdom Parliament and, unlike its creator, cannot claim to be a court of record. However, it has followed Westminster and acts as a court of equity in so far as it will hear petitions from individuals and groups. The basic rule is that the petitioner(s) must have exhausted all available legal and equitable remedies, if the subject matter of the petition if litigious.

By Act, the Parliament claims and possesses all privileges, rights, and immunities, claimed and possessed by the House of Commons as at 1 January 1865. This claim is reiterated by the Speaker to the Governor-General at the time he presents himself for confirmation in his office.

The question of parliamentary privilege escapes precise legal definition. The most that can be said is that the courts will define the ambit of the privilege and within those limits Parliament may do as it will. As yet, the matter has not been tested in a New Zealand court.

The New Zealand Parliament holds plenary power to make laws for New Zealand including those having extra-territorial effect (in this context section 49 of the New Zealand Loans Act 1953 is something of a curiosity). Plenary legislative power was not assumed until 1947 with the passing of the Statute of Westminster (Adoption) Act 1947.

Any residual doubts about the power of the New Zealand Parliament were removed with the passage of the New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act 1973 (New Zealand).

The doctrine that one Parliament cannot bind its successor operates in New Zealand. It would seem therefore that those provisions of the Electoral Act 1956 relating to: (a) the constitution and order of the Representation Commission; (b) the number of European electoral districts, their boundaries based on the total population; (c) the tolerance (5 percent) within which the Commission must work in relation to (b); (d) the age of voting (18 years since 1974); (e) the secret ballot; (f) the duration of Parliament; while expressed as being entrenched by s. 189 of the 1956 Act, in that amendment to any of the above provisions must receive a majority vote of 75 percent or receive the consent of the electors by referendum, are entrenched in a moral sense only. It would be open to any Parliament to repeal section 189 and then proceed to amend or repeal the “entrenched” provisions by ordinary legislation. The same result would be achieved by repealing the 1956 Act in toto.

Meeting, etc., of Parliament—Parliament is summoned, prorogued, or dissolved by the Governor-General and lasts for a maximum of 3 years although there have been some exceptions. The 1852 Act provided for quinquennial Parliaments but this provision was abolished by the Triennial Parliaments Act 1879 which substituted a 3-year term. Since 1881 elections have been held at 3-year intervals except that the term of the Parliament during the First World War was extended to 5 years by special legislation and that of the twenty-fourth Parliament to four by the Electoral Amendment Act 1934. The 3-year term was restored by a 1937 Amendment but the term of the twenty-sixth Parliament was extended to 5 years because of war-time conditions. The 3-year term was enacted in the Electoral Act 1956 and a referendum in 1967 favoured its continuation.

By convention, the Governor-General would accept the Prime Minister's advice to dissolve Parliament before expiry, as was done in 1951, unless the Governor-General were of the opinion that the Prime Minister no longer commanded a majority in the House and that a ministry could be formed without having to hold elections.

Until 1973, sessions (the period between summons and prorogation) usually covered the months June through to November. However, in 1974 Parliament met as early as February and sat until early November. The 1974 session lasted 119 sitting days (a record). Unless provided to the contrary, business introduced during a session and not completed at the time of prorogation, lapses and requires to be re-introduced during the next session.

House of Representatives—For all practical purposes “Parliament” is synonymous with “House of Representatives” but from the constitutional viewpoint distinctions need to be drawn.

The House comprises 87 members with 4 of the electorates being Maori. With certain exceptions, for example, the insane, inmates of penal institutions; any person not being an alien and who is 18 years of age or more may vote in a general election.

The Speaker is elected at the start of a new Parliament and presents himself to the Governor-General for confirmation. The act of claiming the rights, privileges, and immunities of the House and its members can only be described as historical re-enactment when real power has passed from the Monarchy to the Executive Government. It is customary in New Zealand, unlike the United Kingdom, for the Speaker to change according to the government of the day. The Chairman of Committees is also elected soon after the start of a new Parliament. Though he performs the same functions as those performed by his seventeenth century predecessors, the original reason for the House having a Chairman of Committees has never arisen in New Zealand, but the manner and form of the Westminster Parliament has been carried over and maintained in this regard so as to form an integral part of the procedure of the House. That is not to say that the New Zealand House is an antipodean mirror of the Westminster Commons—the differences are many but the form of both Houses is not dissimilar.

The primary functions of the House are to vote supply; pass legislation; to exercise supervision and control of the Government; to consider petitions from individuals or organisations seeking redress for alleged grievances or changes in the existing law. The Opposition may, where necessary or desirable, seek to bring down the Government by a vote of no confidence, although within context of a two-party House the chances of a successful vote in this regard would be very few.

Financial control over the Government is exercised by the House in so far as expenditure of public money must be authorised in the form of an Appropriation Act. A more detailed examination of the Estimates is carried out by the Public Expenditure Committee. However, no appropriation can be made without the recommendation of the Crown (i.e., the Government).

Most Bills are introduced by the Government as a result of decisions made in Cabinet. By convention, the procedure for passing a public Bill is: (a) on introduction, formal first reading; (b) some time after, a second reading which is a debate on the principles and policy underlying the Bill; (c) a clause-by-clause debate with the House sitting as a Committee of the Whole House; (d) the Bill is reported back to the House from the committee and later read a third time. Having passed the three readings, the Bill is printed in its final form incorporating amendments (if any) and sent to the Governor-General for the Royal Assent.

Any member may introduce a Bill. Of course, it is always open to a Government to defeat such a Bill at any stage of its progress. A practice has arisen whereby a private member's Bill will sometimes be withdrawn and substituted by a Government measure incorporating all or some of the provisions in the former Bill although it cannot be said that this is done with every Bill.

Special procedures apply to local and private Bills. A local Bill is one which proposes to affect a particular part of the country and is sought, usually, by the appropriate local authority. Each local Bill stands referred to the Local Bills Committee after its first reading. Its recommendation carries weight with both the House and the Government.

A private Bill is one which applies to a person or group of persons and is introduced after public notice, by a member by way of petition on behalf of the Bill's promoters. It may then be referred to a committee of members for consideration and report.

Delegated Legislation—With the ever-increasing complexity and volume of legislation and the range of subjects which it concerns or touches, the House cannot exercise full and proper control over subordinate legislation authorised by statute. Although all Statutory Instruments^* require to be laid before the House and are subject to review by the Statutes Revision Committee, in practice such control has not been required.

It is rare for the Government to accept amendments to legislation from the Opposition although it may sometimes do so if the amendment is constructive and does not conflict overtly with the policy considerations (if any) underlying the measure. Much of the legislation is what might be described as “departmental” in that it is sought by a Government department or agency and does not necessarily affect or reflect the political views of either the Government or the Opposition.

With the increasing load thrust on the House it has become customary for the more controversial or complex pieces of legislation to be referred for further consideration to select committees which comprise usually between seven and nine members, the Government party being in the majority. During the 1974 session, there were some 25 select committees. The aim in using these committees is that it affords a chance for the members to consider the measure in a more detailed fashion and gives individuals and organisations whose interests may be affected, should the legislation become law, an opportunity to state and have their views considered. Changes, sometimes substantial, are made to legislation as a result of this procedure. This practice of lobbying, both by groups and individuals, pervades all facets of political life. It can be argued that those who are familiar with the select committee procedure and used to advancing a particular view are in a superior position in being able to make their views known to the members individually and collectively. While issue cannot be taken with this practice provided no element of bribery or corruption enters into it, nevertheless, it can be argued that those who stand to be affected most by law, whether directly or indirectly, do not have the same opportunity to make their views and ideas known. A number of reasons might be advanced for this contention but primarily it would seem to be a case of the greater bulk of people being unaware of how “to work the system”. Although no empirical research has been done, it would be interesting to be able to isolate the extent to which the influence of lobbyists has or has not contributed towards the increasing use of select committees.

The relations of the House with its members and non-members and the relations of member with member within its precincts are contained in the Standing Orders and the rulings thereon of successive Speakers.

*Statutory Instruments include; Orders in Council, ministerial orders, proclamations, departmental instructions.

Party System—The two major political parties are Labour and National, the former comprising the Government since November 1972.

At a general election any person being qualified as an elector may offer himself for election but it seems that only those who are candidates proffered by a political party have more than a marginal chance of election. The party forming the Government is that which gains the majority of seats, not necessarily the majority of votes cast. Unlike Australia, New Zealand does not have a preferential system of voting nor does the law require everyone to vote, although each eligible elector must register as such. The convention operates that if a Government is defeated at a general election it resigns before the House meets and does not wait to be defeated on a vote in the House. The members for each party form their respective caucuses to which the policies and tactics of the party are submitted for discussion and, where necessary, decision. The discussions of caucus are never published.

Salaries, etc.—Until the making of the Wage Adjustment Regulations 1974, section 27 of the Civil List Act 1950 provided that on the recommendation of a Royal Commission the Governor-General might from time to time, by Order in Council, fix the salaries and allowances to be paid to the Prime Minister and other Ministers of the Crown or members of the Executive Council, to Parliamentary Under-Secretaries, and to the Speaker and Chairman of Committees and other members of the House of Representatives, and that a Royal Commission should be appointed for this purpose within 3 months after the date of every general election of members of Parliament. At April in the intervening years, adjustments were made on a basis matching that for the State Services Remuneration and Conditions of Employment Act 1969; the Government Statistician provided the Prime Minister with a certificate specifying the percentage movements in average weekly ordinary time earnings outside the State Services (as ascertained from the April half-yearly survey of industries in the private sector conducted by the Department of Labour) and adjustments might be made by Order in Council to the salaries of Ministers and members. The 1974 regulations suspend the operation of section 27 of the 1950 Act. The salaries and allowances of Ministers and members of Parliament are now considered and fixed by the Higher Salaries Commission established by the 1974 regulations.

The following table sets out the salaries and allowances payable from 1 April 1974. The amounts are in accordance with the recommendations of the Royal Commission upon Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances 1974.

There is an additional electorate allowance depending on classification of electorates: (a) electorates which are wholly urban, $110; (b) electorates which are substantially urban, $275; (c) electorates which are partially urban and partially rural, $625; (d) electorates which are ordinary rural, $1,100; (e) electorates which are predominantly rural, $1,380. The special additional allowance for Southern Maori electorate is $420 and for each of the other Maori electorates it is $210. The daily sessional allowance is $4 and the night allowance for members entitled thereto is $10.

In addition to the salary and allowances, members are entitled to certain travel concessions and a stamp allowance.

Former Prime Ministers receive an annual payment of $1,000 for each full year in office, with a maximum of $5,000 a year, after retirement, defeat at the polls, or when a member only. This is subject to a 2-year minimum period having been served as Prime Minister.

An amendment in 1973 to the Civil List Act provides that a defeated member of Parliament will continue to receive salary at the rate of an ordinary member for 3 months after the date of the election.

Under the Superannuation Act 1956 there is a compulsory contributory superannuation scheme for members of the House of Representatives. The scheme provides that a retiring allowance shall be payable to a member after 9 years service and the attainment of 50 years of age, and shall be calculated at the rate of one thirty-second of the basic salary for a member as at the date of his ceasing to be a member, for each year of service with a maximum of two-thirds of that basic salary, or alternatively the member may elect to take a variable retiring allowance so as to secure a level income or he may elect to receive a refund of his contributions. The annual contribution is 11 percent of an ordinary member's salary, and the Government subsidises the fund. The rate of contribution was increased by 1 percent from 1 April 1970 to provide for cost-of-living adjustments to be made to retiring allowances. In the case of a male member dying and leaving a widow surviving, she becomes entitled during her widowhood to receive an annuity of half of the retiring allowance to which her husband would have been entitled had he retired age 60 years at the time of his death, or $260 a year, whichever is the greater.

In addition to the foregoing a new member elected for the first time receives a grant of $100 which is a “once only” payment.

ADMINISTRATION AND EXECUTIVE RESPONSIBILITY—After the election of a new Parliament, it is the responsibility of the leader of the party, which is most likely to secure and retain the support of the majority of members in the House, to form a Government. Although procedures for the selection of new Ministers have varied between the two principal parties, the Prime Minister has the final responsibility for allocating portfolios. A portfolio comprises a specific field of Government activity—for instance all matters relating to education will be allocated to one Minister who is henceforth known as the Minister of Education.

A Minister may have more than one portfolio and in addition responsibility for the supervision of one or more Government departments in which the activities carried out, though important, do not rank as portfolios. Occasionally, a Minister is appointed without portfolio, as, for example, an Associate Minister of Finance. There are also Parliamentary Under-Secretaries without Ministerial rank who assist certain Ministers in the work of their portfolios; the Under-Secretaries are not members of the Executive Council or of Cabinet.

Executive Council—In the legal sense those members of Parliament who have been appointed Ministers comprise the Executive Council. The Governor-General normally presides over meetings of the Council. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of the Governor-General and the Executive Council under the present system of responsible government are set out in Royal Letters Patent and Instructions thereunder of 11 May 1917, published in the New Zealand Gazette of 24 April 1919. The Royal Powers Act 1953 provides that the statutory powers conferred on the Governor-General may be exercised either by Her Majesty the Queen in person or by the Governor-General. In the execution of the powers and authorities vested in him the Governor-General must be guided by the advice of the Executive Council; but, if in any case he sees sufficient cause to dissent from the opinion of the Council, he may act in the exercise of his powers and authorities in opposition to the opinion of the Council, reporting the matter to Her Majesty without delay, with the reasons for his so acting.

In any such case any member of the Executive Council may require that there be recorded in the minutes of the Council the grounds of any advice or opinion that he may give upon the question.

The Civil List Act 1950, in section 6, provided that no person shall be appointed a Minister or a member of the Executive Council unless he is a member of Parliament and that a person who ceases to be a member of Parliament cannot continue to be a Minister or a member of the Executive Council for more than 21 days. This gave statutory recognition for the first time to what had long been the convention.

At January 1974 the Executive Council consisted of 20 members. Two members, exclusive of the Governor-General or the presiding member, constitute a quorum.

The Governor-General receives a salary and an allowance which are determined from time to time by the Civil List Act 1950 for the salaries and expenses of his personal establishment, plus all expenditure incurred in respect of the transport to and from New Zealand and the travel within or outside New Zealand of the Governor-General and his family and staff.

Cabinet—The membership of the Executive Council and Cabinet is identical but Cabinet, unlike the Executive Council, is not a body created by any legal document. The existence of Cabinet was not recognised by statute until a passing reference was made in the Parliamentary Commissioner (Ombudsman) Act 1962.

The fact that the Juridical Acts to give legal force to certain of the decisions of Cabinet are taken by others—the Crown, the Executive Council, a Minister of the Crown or a Statutory Commission— does not diminish the power and authority of Cabinet. Cabinet is the top committee of the administrative system, with responsibility for co-ordinating the work of the various Ministers and taking those decisions which largely determine the nature of the legislation put before Parliament and the regulations which the Executive Council is asked to approve.

Cabinet discussions are informal and confidential, anonymity being maintained as to the individual advocacy or opposition to particular proposals. The Cabinet system enables general agreement to be reached on any line of action proposed by either an individual Minister or by the Government as a whole. In Parliament a Minister can be confident that his legislative or other proposals will have the unqualified support of the Government no matter what divergences of opinion may have been apparent before general agreement was reached in Cabinet. A consistent and agreed course of action on any particular issue can be determined. The work of Cabinet thus exemplifies the concept of the collective responsibility of the Government.

Cabinet is assisted in its work by some ten Cabinet committees, the membership of which includes those Ministers principally concerned with the subject matters handled by the committee. These include committees covering Policy and Priorities, Economic Affairs, Government Works, Legislation and Parliamentary Questions, Social Affairs, Honours and Appointments, and the State Services. Some of the committees are supported by inter-departmental committees of officials. All Cabinet committees have delegated authority from Cabinet to make decisions within their terms of reference.

The Cabinet Office is responsible for the servicing and co-ordination of Cabinet and its committees to ensure their smooth functioning as well as providing liaison and advice within the inter-Departmental framework. The Secretary of the Cabinet is also Clerk of the Executive Council.

Government Departments—The Minister as the political head of a department of State may in fact have several departments under his control. There are, however, some 40 different departments with separate functions in New Zealand. Each of these has a permanent head who is responsible for the work and administration of the department. He is of course responsible to the Minister in charge of the department, while he also acts as adviser to the Minister on all matters within his appointed competence. Besides ensuring that the ministerial policy and directions communicated to him are effectively put into practice, his functions as the adviser include assessing the consequences of any executive action resulting from his departmental activity, evaluating the merits and demerits, whether political, social, or financial, of various modes of action, and making suggestions for improvements and for new policy measures as derived from departmental experience in the day-to-day execution of policy.

Departments can be broadly classified according to the administrative or regulatory, developmental, or social nature of their activities. Within the first group are the servicing subgroup, such as the Legislative, Prime Minister's, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Printing Office, Crown Law, Valuation, Statistics, and Audit; the finance subgroup—Treasury, Customs, Inland Revenue; the regulatory subgroup—State Services Commission, Internal Affairs, Labour; the defence and law and order subgroup—Ministry of Defence, Justice, Crown Law, and Police; the research subgroup— Scientific and Industrial Research.

In the second group are the transport and communications subgroup, such as Ministry of Transport, Post Office, Railways, and Tourist and Publicity; the developmental—Ministry of Works and Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Lands and Survey, Forest Service, Mines, Electricity, Energy Resources, Maori Affairs, Trade and Industry; The commercial—Public Trust, Government Life Insurance, Housing Corporation, Rural Banking and Finance Corporation, and State Insurance.

The third group comprises the Education, Health, and Social Welfare Departments..

This broad division serves merely to indicate the field of the dominant activity or purpose of the particular department. Most departments have servicing, informative, and regulatory functions, and many are equally regulatory and developmental in nature.

In addition to the system of direct administration in the form of Government departments, there are other activities over which the State exercises some ultimate measure of control or ownership though divorced in varying degrees from immediate supervision. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (the central bank), and one trading bank, are entirely State-owned, although the actual administration is quite independent, subject in the case of the Reserve Bank to the proviso that it must give effect to the monetary policy of the Government, as communicated to the bank by the Minister of Finance, and to any resolution of Parliament in respect of Government monetary policy.

Further instances of this principle are shown by the National Airways Corporation, which, although owned by the State, is administratively self-contained, and by the Tourist Hotel Corporation. In certain other avenues the type of administration is in between the normal departmental form and that evident in the corporation type; of such is the National Roads Board, which, though determining policy to a large degree, yet makes use of departmental administrative structures for implementation of policy.

Some administrative organisations have also quasi-judicial functions. Examples of this class are the Price Tribunal, Transport Charges Authority, Licensing Control Commission, and Local Government Commission.

OMBUDSMEN—Since 1962 there has been an Ombudsman able to investigate, on complaint or on his own initiative, any administrative decision, recommendation, act, or omission of a Government department or related organisation as it affects any individual. The Ombudsman does not have power to reverse departmental decisions, but he may make his recommendations to the department and to the Minister, and if, in his opinion, no appropriate action is taken he may report to the Prime Minister and then to Parliament. He has very wide powers to call for documents and files. The Government cannot refuse information, except in matters relating to the security of the State or to Cabinet proceedings. Jurisdiction is being extended under the Ombudsmen Act 1975 to local authorities and certain national boards and organisations.

JUDICIARY—The hierarchy of courts in New Zealand comprises the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court, and the Magistrate's Court. Apart from these courts of general jurisdiction there are other courts dealing with specific fields. In the latter category are the Industrial Commission concerned with awards and orders governing wage determination and conditions of employment in industry; the Compensation Court dealing with workers' compensation. For further details refer to Section 8 Justice

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS—The law on elections is contained in the Electoral Act 1956. Following each population census, which is normally taken every 5 years, the boundaries of European electorates are revised. In addition, there are four Maori electoral districts, three in the North Island and one covering a portion of the North Island together with the whole of the South Island, where the Maori population is comparatively small. The Governor-General may at any time by Proclamation alter the boundaries of the Maori electoral districts, and, as in the case of European electoral districts, any alterations are to come into force at the expiry of the Parliament existing when the Proclamation is issued.

The Government Statistician is required to supply population figures to the Surveyor-General as soon as possible after the census. The population used as the basis in obtaining the quota for each European electoral district is defined in section 2 (1) of the Electoral Act 1956

The term “European population” means total population with the following exceptions:

After the population figures are supplied by the Government Statistician it is then the responsibility of the Representation Commission to define new electoral districts for Europeans. The commission is constituted by virtue of section 15 of the Electoral Act 1956 and comprises seven members. Four of these, the Surveyor-General, the Government Statistician, the Chief Electoral Officer, and the Director-General of the Post Office, are official members. Two are unofficial members, being persons nominated by the House of Representatives, one nominated to represent the Government, and one to represent the Opposition. The seventh member is appointed, on the nomination of the official and unofficial members of the commission or a majority of them, to be the chairman of the commission. The chairman and unofficial members cease to be members on the date on which the first periodical census is taken after the date of their appointment.

The European population of the South Island is divided by 25 and the quotient so obtained is the quota for the South Island. Then the European population of the North Island is divided by the quota for the South Island, and the quotient so obtained is the number of European electoral districts in the North Island. In applying the quota the commission may make an allowance by way of addition or subtraction of 5 percent of the quota to enable districts to be adjusted to meet considerations of topography, community of interest, communications, and existing electoral boundaries.

When the boundaries have been provisionally determined, maps are prepared illustrating the proposed electoral districts, and descriptions of each electoral district are published in the New Zealand Gazette. A time limit of 1 month is given during which objections to the proposed boundaries may be lodged. These objections are then considered by the Representation Commission and a final decision reached on boundaries which then define the new electoral districts.

All general elections and by-elections are held on a Saturday. Polling hours in all electorates are from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Any serviceman aged 20 years or over serving overseas is qualified to vote as an elector of the electoral district in which he last resided before he left New Zealand.

Franchise—Since September 1974, persons 18 years of age and over have had the right to vote in the election of members of the House of Representatives. (From 1893 onwards all persons aged 21 years had voting rights and the qualifying age had been lowered to 20 years in 1969.)

Registration of Electors—Registration as an elector is compulsory, although it is not compulsory to vote. To be qualified for registration as a parliamentary elector in New Zealand a person must have attained the age of 20 years and must (a) be a British subject or Irish citizen, (b) be ordinarily resident in New Zealand, (c) at some period have resided continuously in New Zealand for at least a year, and (d) except in special cases have resided continuously for 3 months or more in the electoral district in respect of which application for registration is made, and not have subsequently resided for 3 months or more in any other electoral district. Broadly speaking the qualifications restrict the right to vote to permanent residents. Persons of more than half Maori ancestry register in one of the four Maori electoral districts and persons of half Maori ancestry have the option of registering on either a European or Maori roll.

Voting at parliamentary elections is by secret ballot. In general, only those persons whose names are lawfully on the main and supplementary rolls of electors compiled prior to an election may vote at that election.

A vote is normally cast by the elector at a polling booth within his district. An elector may, however, vote as a “special voter”, either at a polling booth outside his district or by post for reasons of distant travel on polling day, sickness, etc.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT: General—Since 1876, following the abolition of the provinces, the structure of territorial local government has been based on counties, boroughs, and town districts. Since then, however, there has developed a further structure, that of special purpose authorities. In this category there are such authorities as harbour boards, pest destruction boards, and electric power boards. Together, these two groups of local authorities (territorial and special purpose) form our local government system, a system to which, however, the Local Government Act 1974 will bring some change. Before these changes are described below, a brief description of the development of the present system follows.

Boroughs—The Municipal Corporations Act 1876 provided for the incorporation of the 36 boroughs then in existence and for the creation of new boroughs. They are now governed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1954. Boroughs provide for the needs of concentrated populations and before they can be constituted there must be a population of at least 1,500 with an average density of population of at least one person per acre. A borough containing a population of 20,000 or more may be proclaimed a city, although the corporation remains unaltered. With the growth and centralisation of population the number of boroughs, despite amalgamations of adjacent boroughs, steadily increased until 1955 when the total was 146. By 30 November 1974 this figure had decreased to 136.

Counties—Counties were originally introduced by the Counties Act 1876 which has now been superseded by the Counties Act 1956. Generally they cater for the primary needs of rural areas. Initially, there were 63 counties but with increasing settlement this number increased to 129 in 1920. Since then, the number of counties has been reduced by amalgamations and mergers and at 30 November 1974 there were 105 counties, of which 104 were actively functioning, Fiord being a sparsely populated county in which the Counties Act is not wholly in force.

County Towns and County Boroughs—Prior to the Local Government Act 1974 county councils could, under the provisions of the Counties Act 1956, declare areas within counties to be county towns. To qualify, the areas concerned must have had a population of at least 200, with an average density of not less than one person to the acre or not less than 60 houses with an average density of not less than one house to 3 acres. After the constitution of a county town the county council was required to appoint a county town committee of not less than three nor more than seven members, to advise it on the administration of the county town. The county council could conduct a poll in the county town to ascertain the wishes of the electors of the county town in respect of the persons to be appointed to this committee. At 30 November 1974 there were 92 county towns in existence. The Counties Amendment Act 1968 made provision for the constitution of county boroughs. This unit of local government could be formed from an existing county town or borough or town district. It remained an integral part of the parent county, but the county borough council, which was a fully-elected body, had a statutory right to exercise some, but not all, of the powers of the county council within the district of the county borough. The minimum population required for a county borough was 1,500. At 30 November 1974 there were 12 county boroughs. Under the Local Government Act 1974, existing county boroughs became communities under the jurisdiction of district community councils, and existing county towns became communities under the jurisdiction of community councils.

Town Districts—The town district represents a form of local government intermediate between the county and the borough. It implies a certain concentration of population. There were two types of town districts—dependent and independent. Dependent town districts were subject to county control (mainly for roads) and the area of their district formed part of the district of their parent counties. Since the 1954 Municipal Corporations Act no new dependent town districts could be constituted, and on the enactment of the Local Government Act 1974 the four existing dependent town districts became community councils. Independent town districts do not form part of the county within which they are situated nor are they subject to any county council control. The Municipal Corporations Act requires the area of an independent town district be not more than 2 square miles, within which no two points are more than 4 miles distant; having a minimum population of 500 and with a density of population of not less than 1 person to the acre. The number of independent town districts at 30 November 1974 was eight.

Special-purpose Authorities—Special-purpose authorities differ from territorial authorities in that each is charged with only one major function. The need for the most efficient and economic discharge of the major function being the prime consideration, their boundaries may either extend beyond or fall within those of territorial authorities in the same geographical area. Only rarely do the boundaries coincide. Sometimes, as is the case with a number of urban fire authorities and pest destruction boards, territorial authorities themselves are also constituted as, and perform the functions of, special-purpose authorities. The more important special-purpose authorities are those administering harbours, hospitals, and the retail distribution of electricity. Others are engaged in fire fighting, water supply, urban drainage and transport, soil conservation and rivers control, pest destruction, nassella tussock control, and land drainage.

Number of Local Authorities—The number of local authorities actively functioning at 30 November 1974 was 543, made up as follows: county councils, 105; borough (including city) councils, 136; town councils (independent), 8; town councils (dependent), 4; regional authority, 1; river boards (2 boards also have the powers of land-drainage boards), 6; catchment boards, 13; catchment commissions, 4; land-drainage boards, 33; electric power boards, 39; water-supply board, 1; regional water board, 1; urban drainage boards, 4; transport board, 1; local railway board, 1; power and gas board, 1; nassella tussock boards, 2; harbour bridge authority, 1; road tunnel authority, 1; valley authority, 1; plantation board. 1; forestry corporation, 1; crematorium board, 1; wallaby board, 1; pest destruction boards (separately elected), 69; independent fire boards, 60; independent harbour boards, 17; hospital boards, 30. Borough and county councils also function as fire authorities in 231cases, as harbour boards in 8 cases, as county pest destruction boards in 37 cases, as domain boards in 407 cases, and as scenic boards in 138 cases. There are 459 independent domain boards and 129 independent scenic boards. In addition, there were 22 district councils of the National Roads Board constituted under the National Roads Act 1953. Although these district roads councils are not local authorities in the strict sense of the term they are intimately connected with certain aspects of local government, providing an advisory service to the National Roads Board concerning the roading needs and the allocation of national roading funds within their respective districts.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1974—This Act came into force on 1 December 1974 and in time will bring about some changes in the structure of local government outlined above.

Briefly, the Act provides the means for the establishment of a system of regional bodies to deal in a co-ordinated manner with all functions of a regional nature. It continues and improves the procedures of rationalisation of the local government structure in both the special purpose and territorial spheres and provides for the eventual phasing out of the existing dual system of territorial local government based on counties and boroughs. Furthermore, to encourage greater public involvement in local community affairs the Act provides for the establishment of community councils with varying degrees of authority. Finally, the responsibility for introducing and implementing the above changes lies primarily with a reconstituted and enlarged independent Local Government Commission.

Local Government Commission—The Local Government Act, which repealed the Local Government Commission Act 1967, sets up a revised Local Government Commission which is a permanent institution deemed to be a Commission of Inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1908.

The Act provides that the minimum membership of the commission shall be five, one of which shall be chairman, and at least one member must have experience in urban territorial local government and at least one other must have experience in rural territorial local government.

The principal task of the new commission will be to prepare by 31 December 1979, or as soon as possible thereafter, schemes establishing regional authorities throughout New Zealand. These authorities will be called united councils or regional councils and their nature is described in more detail below.

Allied with the task of establishing regional authorities, the commission is to ensure that united councils or regional councils or territorial authorities (a borough, city, county, district, or independent town council) undertake those functions of special purpose authorities which in the opinion of the commission, should be performed by them. For this purpose, practically all types of special-purpose authorities, except for hospital boards and education boards, have been placed within the jurisdiction of the commission. Accordingly, the commission is also empowered to provide for any function undertaken by a territorial authority which, in the commission's opinion, would be more appropriately performed by a united or regional council to be transferred.

The new commission will continue to carry out investigations, prepare reorganisation schemes, and make recommendations and reports for the purpose of ensuring that the system of local government in any local authority will best provide for the needs and well-being of its residents and the continued development of the district, that local authorities have such district boundaries and such functions and powers as will enable them to provide most effectively and economically essential or desirable local government services and facilities, that local authorities shall have such resources as will enable them to engage adequate services and to obtain and operate adequate technical facilities, plant, and equipment, and that districts shall be of such a size and nature as will promote efficient local government and avoid the necessity of uneconomic expenditure. Furthermore, the commission can ensure that any united or regional council has the power to do anything which will facilitate the discharge of any of its functions and particularly the power to undertake any function, which is regional in nature, operated by any other authority.

United and Regional Councils—Apart from the Auckland Regional Authority which has operated since 1963, the regional bodies to be established under the Act will be new to local government in this country. They will be determined by the commission and established by Order in Council giving effect to a final scheme of the commission. The commission will determine whether the governing body for each region is to be either a united council or a regional council. The essential difference between united councils and regional councils are that the former will be appointed by the constituent (territorial) authorities within the regions concerned while regional councils will be directly elected bodies. In both cases the membership of united and regional councils will be not less than 12. To obtain finance, united councils will make levies on their constituent authorities, while regional councils will have direct rating powers.

No criteria are prescribed by the Act to guide the commission in deciding whether a united council or a regional council is to be set up for a region. However, the united council concept is designed to meet the requirements of those regions where the range of functions, or the nature of the responsibilities involved, do not justify the setting up of an organisation of the scale inherent in a directly elected regional council. On this basis it is envisaged that united councils may be more prevalent in rural areas.

Functions of these authorities can be attained in several ways. First, the Act prescribes that every united council or regional council shall have two mandatory functions—that of regional planning and civil defence. Also, in the commission's scheme constituting a united or regional council the Commission may provide for it to undertake the functions of any territorial authority or special purpose authority. Furthermore, a united or regional council is empowered to undertake solely any new regional function which is not undertaken by any other local authority in its region. In this regard, the commission, by scheme, can provide that that function may be one that other local authorities are not empowered to undertake by any other statute. Besides the two mandatory functions, the Act provides that a united or regional council may undertake the functions of regional reserves, forestry, regional roading and community services. A united or regional council may enter into an agreement with a constituent authority to undertake any function of that authority where, in the opinion of either party, that function would be more effectively and economically undertaken by the regional body. Finally, united and regional councils may enter into agreements with the Crown whereby they may exercise any function or provide any service for or on behalf of the Crown.

District Councils—The Act empowers the commission when bringing down schemes affecting boroughs or counties to redesignate them as districts under the jurisdiction of “district councils”. Although district councils will represent a further type of territorial authority, eventually it is intended that the dual system of territorial local government based on county and borough will be abolished. The rationale behind this provision is that today, many territorial authorities are neither “boroughs” nor “counties” in the sense that they are neither wholly urban nor wholly rural. This provision, however, will not apply to the designations of “city” and “city council”.

The Act also provides that where, as a result of amalgamations or unions the new boundaries of the district of a district council coincide with those of a region, the district council may undertake the functions of a regional body. In this case, no united or regional council need be established for the region.

District Community Councils and Community Councils—The Act provides for the establishment of “communities” within the districts of territorial local authorities. Each community will be administered by either a “district community council” or a “community council”. These communities will not be local authorities in the true sense but will have councils of not less than 5 nor more than 12 who will be elected on a residential franchise for a 3-year term.

Except for certain reserved powers dealing with finance, staff, and planning, a district community council may exercise all the powers and functions of its parent territorial authority. Community councils, however, derive most of their powers by delegation from their territorial authority. Once again, powers dealing with finance, staff, and planning cannot be delegated.

The general idea behind communities is that they will encourage public participation in locality affairs through elected bodies who will represent and place the needs and views of their residents before their parent local authority and any government agencies or other organisations involved. Furthermore, they are intended to give a lead to and encourage community participation in the provision of community activities and amenities, and generally to foster a sense of community pride. This idea is not entirely new to local government in New Zealand. It has been successfully applied for some years in rural areas by the “county town” and “county borough” legislation. In the purely urban areas such as cities and boroughs, however, the establishment of equivalent bodies has not been provided for until the Local Government Act. Immediately the Act came into force all county boroughs were redesignated district community councils and all county towns and dependent town districts became community councils.

General Powers—Local authorities in New Zealand derive their powers from the Act under which they are constituted. In the case of territorial local authorities, the Municipal Corporations Act 1954 and the Counties Act 1956 are the main governing Acts, while united, regional, district, district community, and community councils are under the Local Government Act 1974.

There are several statutory measures which are more or less applicable to all local authorities, such as the Local Elections and Polls Act 1966 and the Local Authorities Loans Act 1956. For most harbour boards there is, in addition to the general Harbours Act, a special Act for each board which is subordinate to the general Act. Certain types of local authority—urban drainage boards, transport boards, the Auckland Regional Authority, the Auckland Harbour Bridge Authority, the Christchurch-Lyttelton Road Tunnel Authority, and the Waikato Valley Authority—derive their principal powers from special constituting Acts.

A local authority has no legislative powers beyond the authority to make bylaws within limits defined in its constituting Act, but it can promote legislation on matters which affect the government of the area under its jurisdiction and which it is not already empowered to deal with. If the subject is transient and not contentious and is approved by Government, it is usually dealt with by the inclusion of an appropriate section in the annual Local Legislation Act passed by Parliament for this purpose. If, on the other hand, the local authority seeks powers of a permanent or major nature additional to those conferred on it by general Acts it must submit to Parliament a special local Bill. The extent to which the foregoing privileges are used may be gauged from the fact that the annual Local Legislation Act usually contains 20 to 25 sections, while about 15 local Acts are passed each year.

Franchise—Under the Local Elections and Polls Act 1966, elections are held on the second Saturday in October every third year. The next triennial general elections are due in 1977. Enrolment of residential electors is compulsory. In a poll on any proposal relating to loans or rates, a rate paying qualification is necessary.

Apart from a few special-purpose authorities, some of whose members are appointed by other local authorities, by Government, or, in the case of fire authorities, by insurance interests, members of local authorities are elected triennially, any qualified elector being eligible to seek election. In general the franchise extends to all persons aged 18 years or over who either possess a rating qualification or who, being British subjects, possess a residential qualification in the district of the local authority concerned. The right to vote for members of land drainage and river boards is, however, restricted to those who possess rating qualifications. In the case of regional councils, district community councils and community councils the right to vote is limited to those who reside in the region or community'.

Voting Procedures—Generally speaking, franchise can only be exercised by personal attendance at the polling booth, but the Local Elections and Polls Act 1966 was amended in 1970 to permit county councils to use postal voting. Postal voting will also apply to those district community councils and community councils in counties. Other local authorities are able to use this method only on approval being granted by Order in Council. At the 1974 elections many counties, 8 boroughs, and 4 drainage boards used postal voting. In every such case election participation was appreciably higher than the national average. To a lesser extent use was also made of spread voting where voting is possible at polling booths over a period of up to 6 days instead of being confined to the single day.

Remuneration of Members—The remuneration of members of local authorities is governed by the statutes constituting the various types of local authorities. Most special purpose authorities pay their chairmen an annual allowance with a maximum fixed for each type of authority. The maximum payable to mayors of boroughs and cities and county council chairmen varies according to the population of the local authority. The chairman and members of a united or regional council may be paid such annual allowances as may from time to time be approved by the Minister of Finance after consultation with the Minister of Local Government.

TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING—The Town and Country Planning Act 1953 provides for the making and enforcement of regional and district planning schemes, and the detailed procedure to be followed in each case is amplified by the Town and Country Planning Regulations 1960. The Government administers the Act through the Minister of Works and Development who may delegate his authority to the Commissioner of Works..

District Planning—Every district scheme is required to have for its general purpose the development of the area to which it relates (including where necessary the replanning and reconstruction of an area already built on) in such a way as will most effectively tend to promote and safeguard the health, safety and convenience, the economic and general welfare of its inhabitants, and the amenities of every part of the area. The council of every city, borough, county, and independent town district must provide and maintain a district scheme whether or not a regional planning scheme including its district has been prepared or become operative.

This subject is further discussed in Section 13, Pattern of Development and Land Use.

POPULATION GROWTH—New Zealand's first million of population was recorded in 1908, 68 years after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. In 1952, 44 years later, the second million was reached, and the third million late in 1973.

Population has two sources of gain—natural increase (excess of births over deaths) and net migration (excess of arrivals over departures). In the early years in New Zealand, the bulk of the increase was through migration. From the late 1870s natural increase permanently displaced immigration as the chief contributor to population growth. At the census of 1881 the percentages of the total population born in New Zealand and born overseas were approximately equal (50.2 percent New Zealand born to 49.8 percent overseas born), and each succeeding census until 1961 recorded an increased proportion of New Zealand-born. Since 1961 (when the New Zealand-born made up 86 percent of the population) the proportion has fallen slightly mainly because of increased international travel and tourism. At the 1971 census 85.6 percent of the population was recorded as having been born in New Zealand.

During the present century, natural increase has accounted for over three-quarters of the growth of population. New Zealand's rate of natural increase is relatively high compared with other countries whose population is predominantly of European origin.

The natural increase rate has, in the main, closely reflected the changes in the birth rate, with a low point of 8.63 per 1,000 in 1935 and high points of 18 per 1,000 in 1947 and 1961; in the 1960s the average rate was less than 14 per 1,000. Like the low birth rate of the thirties, the fall in the birth rate in the sixties and seventies is a feature that New Zealand shares with a number of other developed countries, and notably with Australia, Canada, and the United States.

Details are given in the following table.

Migration, however, has continued to add to the population quite substantially except during depression and war periods and the recession conditions of 1968-69. Gains from external migration are shown in the following table. Movements of the armed forces are not included.

Most of the inward migration has been from the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Netherlands. In more recent years increasing numbers have come from the Pacific Islands, notably Western Samoa. A changed economic climate in the country brought a net migration loss to population for 1967, 1968, and 1969 calendar years, but a normal net inflow is again taking place.

CENSUS STATISTICS—Population statistics are based primarily on the five-yearly population census. Intercensal population estimates are based on the most recent census data available, adjusted in accordance with later figures of births, deaths, and migration. Estimates of the populations of particular localities, e.g., cities and boroughs, also take into account local economic developments, housing schemes, the numbers on school rolls, changes in boundaries, and any other factors leading to, or indicating, changes in population.

The basis adopted for the population census, and virtually throughout population statistics in New Zealand, is that of population physically present in the place of enumeration at the time of enumeration.

All references to New Zealand relate solely to geographic New Zealand, i.e., island territories are omitted except where their inclusion is specifically stated. Though Tokelau Islands are constitutionally part of New Zealand, for geographical reasons they are administered separately. The Cook Islands and Niue Island are self-governing but the islanders are New Zealand citizens.

PRESENT POPULATION—The following table gives a summary of population. A 50-year time series is given in the statistical summary towards the back of this Yearbook.

INCREASE OF POPULATION—The growth of population has been substantial in each intercensal period. The lowest rates are those of 1926-36, which included some years of economic depression, and of 1936-45, which included 6 years of international war, and of 1966-71, mainly attributable to a marked change in migration patterns.

COMPARISON WITH OTHER COUNTRIES—The annual average percentage increases of population for the period 1963-72, are given in the following table for certain selected countries.

Source: United Nations Demographic Yearbook 1972.)

INTERCENSAL RECORDS—Intercensal estimates of total population are prepared from the records of vital statistics and of external migration. The figures in the tables following have been revised in line with 1971 Census results and exclude members of New Zealand armed forces who were overseas, and also members of the armed forces of other countries who were in New Zealand.

The figures given in the preceding table are for total population inclusive of New Zealand Maoris.

The following table shows the New Zealand Maori population.

POPULATION PROJECTIONS—An indication of possible future growth of the total New Zealand population (including Maoris) up to 2001 is given by the detailed alternative projections which follow.

Projections of future population involve an element of uncertainty owing to incomplete knowledge of the factors underlying changes in fertility, mortality, and migration levels and difficulties in forecasting the future behaviour of these components of population change.

It should be understood that, as with all demographic projections prepared by the Department of Statistics, these projections are not strict forecasts or targets, but conditional forecasts based on the stated assumptions. Presentation and use of the projections, therefore, cannot be divorced from consideration of the assumptions adopted.

These projections are based on fertility assumptions relating to age-of-mother-specific birth rates as marital status data from 1971 Census of Population were not available at time of their preparation. In the department's judgment this will not significantly impair the validity and utility of the projections. A full description of the projection assumptions is contained in the footnotes to the table.

The following diagram presented on a ratio scale shows the growth of actual population from 1880 to 1974 and projections through to 2000.

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION—Detailed population statistics are compiled for each census and are published in Volume 1, Increase and Location of Population, of the Census of Population and Dwellings.

North and South Islands—In 1858 the North Island had a larger population than the South, but this position was reversed at the succeeding enumeration, and the South Island had the larger population (exclusive of NZ Maoris) at each census from 1861 to 1896. In 1901 the North Island was found to have slightly the larger total and since then has steadily increased its lead.

The following table gives the population of the North and South Islands as disclosed by each census since 1901.

The population of the North Island increased at a greater proportionate rate than that of the South Island between the 1966 and 1971 Censuses. At the 1971 Census the North Island population was 2,051,363, including 213,577 N.Z. Maoris, and the South Island population 811,268, inclusive of 13,837 N.Z. Maoris. The increase since the 1966 Census was 158,037 for the North Island and 27,675 for the South Island.

Between the 1966 and 1971 Censuses, births in the South Island numbered just over 82,000, and deaths almost 38,000, giving a net natural increase of just over 44,000. The fact that the total population increase is under 28,000 indicates a net migration outflow from the South Island during the intercensal period. This is in contrast to the 1961-66 intercensal period when a small net migration inflow of approximately 5,000 was recorded.

Statistical Areas—In the following table are shown the areas and the populations of the statistical areas at the 1971 Census and an estimate at 1 April 1974.

Statistical Divisions and Urban Areas—Statistical divisions and urban areas are statistical conceptions and not administrative units. Their purpose is to provide definite, stable, and comparable boundaries for the larger centres of population. Statistical divisions are a new concept. The basic criterion for a statistical division is a population of 75,000 or more within the area of economic and social interests of a heavily populated centre. Seven statistical divisions have been established, namely, Auckland, Hamilton, Napier-Hastings, Palmerston North, Wellington (including Hutt), Christchurch, and Dunedin. The division, like the urban area, does not have any administrative functions, but embraces areas of unified community, economic, and social interests. In addition to the central city or borough, urban areas include neighbouring boroughs and town districts and parts of counties which are regarded as suburban to the centre of population. Maps of statistical boundaries are available at Government bookshops.

Previously there were 18 statistically defined urban areas; there are now 24 urban areas. The additional areas result from splitting the Auckland, Wellington, and Hutt urban areas and adding Masterton. Adjustments of urban area boundaries have been made because of the peripheral growth of population in some of the urban centres.

The populations of statistical divisions and urban areas arc given below.

Cities and Boroughs—The population of cities and boroughs is now given.

Town Districts—The population of independent town districts—i.e., those contained in the following table—is not included with that of the county in which the town district is located.

Communities—The following table lists communities with populations of 1,000 or more at 1 April 1974. The parent county is shown in parentheses. The populations of communities (previously known as county towns or dependent town districts) are included in the administrative county populations given in a later table.

District Communities—The following table lists the populations of district communities as at 1 April 1974. The parent county is shown in parentheses. The populations of district communities (previously known as county boroughs) are included in the administrative county populations given in the following table.

Extra-county Islands and Shipboard Population—In addition to the populations quoted for administrative counties, cities and boroughs, and independent town districts, the New Zealand totals include shipboard population and persons located on islands not within the boundaries of any county. The two latter categories comprised an estimated total of 4,580 persons at 1 April 1974.

Counties—The following table gives the estimated population of individual counties at 1 April 1974 together with the approximate area of each. It should be noted that “Administrative counties” do not include boroughs or town districts independent of county control, but include town districts, district communities, and communities which form parts of counties.

Later in 1974 the county of Patangata was incorporated in that of Waipukurau, and the counties of Geraldine and Levels merged to form Strathallan. The county of Waitemata was dissolved, Orewa going to Rodney County, Glenfield to Takapuna City and the remainder forming a new City of Waitemata.