THE NEW ZEALAND OFFICIAL YEAR-BOOK, 1964

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, 1,000 miles 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, 530 statute miles to the east of Lyttelton Dating from 1842 the administrative boundaries of New Zealand, exclusive of island territories, 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, 620 statute miles north-east of the Bay of Islands, and Campbell Island, 370 statute miles south of Stewart Island.

New Zealand is also responsible for the administration of three island groups in the south-west Pacific – the Cook Islands, Niue Island, and the Tokelau Islands. These are incorporated within the boundaries of New Zealand. The principal island of the Cook Group, Rarotonga, is 1,870 statute miles north-east of Auckland, and Niue to the west of the Cook Islands is 1,550 statute miles from Auckland. Lying to the north-west of the Cook Islands are the Tokelau Islands. In all, there are 23 islands scattered over a vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean making up New Zealand's island territories. The territorial area reaches to within 8 degrees of the Equator and extends south to the Tropic of Capricorn, while in longitude it covers nearly 20 degrees (156 degrees west to 173 degrees west).

The Ross Dependency, some 1,500 statute miles 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, unless it is expressly stated that the other islands as a whole or in part are included.

New Zealand:

The total area of the foregoing groups, exclusive of the Ross Dependency, is 103,933 square miles. Elsewhere in this volume – viz, in the section on land tenure, settlement, etc. – the aggregate area of New Zealand appears as 66,390,700 acres – i.e., 103,736 square miles. The latter area does not include the Cook and associated islands or the Tokelau Islands. (Western Samoa, which had been administered as a trust territory since 1946, became an independent territory from 1 January 1962.)

The relevant Proclamations, defining from time to time the administrative area of New Zealand, are briefly referred to in Section 2.

GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES: Coastline–Since the combined length of the North and South Islands extends just over a thousand miles, and since the width of neither Island exceeds 280 miles 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.

By reason of the latter fact the coastline is, on the whole, not greatly indented; and, as a consequence, New Zealand is not well endowed with natural harbours. In the North Island, Auckland and Wellington are two safe natural harbours of which the fullest commercial use is made and the use of Tauranga harbour is expanding. On the east coast of the North Auckland Peninsula several 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 to the rugged nature of the terrain they have – with the exception of Queen Charlotte Sound – little or no commercial utility. Where vital localities have not been endowed with ideal harbours it has been necessary to improve existing facilities by dredging and by breakwater construction, etc. In this manner efficient ports, capable of accommodating overseas vessels, have been formed in Lyttelton, Otago, and Bluff Harbours. On the west coast of both Islands the strong ocean drifts and high seas cause shoaling at river mouths and harbour entrances, 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. The mountainous nature of the country makes the haulage of goods to and from the better equipped natural harbours both costly and difficult, and the construction and maintenance of further ports at various points along the coasts of both Islands has been necessary, either by dredging river mouths or by harbour-construction work.

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 650 ft 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 (8,260 ft), Ruapehu (9,175 ft), Ngauruhoe (7,515 ft), and Tongariro (6,458 ft), they do not exceed an altitude of 6,000 ft. 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 4,000 ft on the west coast of this Island.

The South Island is much more mountainous than the North, but shows fewer manifestations of recent volcanic activity. 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 (12,349 ft), while no fewer than 15 peaks exceed 10,000 ft. 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 Paparoa 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.

As might be expected, the higher mountains of the South Island have exerted a greater influence on the economic development of the country than those of the North Island. For many years the Southern Alps were an effective barrier to communication by land between the east and west coasts, while their climatic effects on the Canterbury plains and Otago plateaus determined the types of cultivation undertaken. Moreover, the existence of much elevated open country led to the development of pastoral holdings on a large scale. While the mountains in the North Island are not as high nor as extensive as those of the South Island, in the early days they effectively isolated various portions of the coastal plains and valleys. Their effect on climatic conditions, however, is considerably less, the rainfall being more evenly distributed. Owing to this more even distribution of the rainfall, and to the existence of considerable areas of lower relief, the foothills of the mountain systems were heavily wooded, and so proved a hindrance to agrarian development.

There are at least 223 named peaks of 7,500 ft 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 9,000 ft 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 18 miles and a width of 1 1/4 miles. In common with other glaciers on the eastern slope, of which the more important are the Murchison (11 miles), the Mueller (8 miles), the Godley (8 miles), and the Hooker (7 1/4 miles), its rate of flow is slow, while its terminal face is at an altitude of somewhat over 2,000 ft. 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 9 3/4 miles and 8 1/2 miles respectively, and terminal faces at altitudes of 670 ft and 690 ft.

As will be realised, these glaciers are an important tourist attraction, and as such have definite economic significance. Moreover, those glaciers on the eastern slopes which feed rivers utilised for irrigation and hydro-electric purposes are valuable in that they help to ensure a steady volume of water throughout the year.

Rivers – Of the numerous New Zealand rivers few are of sufficient length or volume to be navigable. Moreover, owing to the high relief of the country, they are mostly swift-flowing, while, as mentioned previously, nearly all are obstructed at their mouths by bars. For the purpose of internal communication, therefore, they are of little economic utility, and only in two or three isolated instances have they been thus consistently used. With improved roading conditions, however, their traffic has become negligible even in these cases.

As sources of hydro-electric power New Zealand rivers are of considerable importance, since their rapid rate of flow and dependable volume of ice-free water make them eminently suitable for this purpose. At the present time the Waikato and the Mangahao in the North Island and the Waitaki, Cobb, Clutha, and Waipori in the South are used for major hydro-electric schemes. The characteristics just mentioned are also important for purposes of irrigation, but, owing to the country's reliable rainfall, there are few areas other than in Canterbury and Otago where the rivers are so utilised.

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.

NORTH ISLAND

SOUTH ISLAND

The discovery in 1861 that the beds of numerous rivers in the South Island contained extensive deposits of alluvial gold was of considerable importance in the economic development of the country. Not only did it lead to an increase in population and in wealth, but, through the following of the numerous streams to their sources, it also led to the rapid exploration of large tracts of remote country. The exploitation of these deposits has been carried on with varying degrees of success up to the present time by both manual and mechanical means, but the amount of gold now extracted is comparatively small.

A further factor in connection with the rivers is that, owing to the very successful acclimatisation of freshwater fish, notably trout, many of them 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 those of the North Island, situated on a volcanic plateau, are of interest by reason of the neighbouring thermal activity. Owing to the excellence of their fishing, the North Island lakes possess an added tourist attraction. In both Islands the larger lakes are situated at high altitudes, and their consequent remoteness renders them unsuitable as a means of communication. In their functions as reservoirs the lakes of both Islands are of vital importance for the maintenance of the streams draining them and as a means of flood prevention. More especially is this the case where hydro-electric schemes are involved, Lakes 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.

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 been intruded into the outer crust in molten state during mountain building; some, however, may be the products of intense metamorphism of sediments.

GEOLOGICAL TIME SCALE

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 landmass. 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; it embraces 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 margin 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 the detailed landscape pattern of peaks, ridges, valleys, and gorges, and has built up alluvial plains, shingle fans, and other constructional forms; at the coast, waves have driven back the headlands, and built beaches, spits, 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.

*“New Zealand Biogeography” by Charles A Fleming. Tuatara Vol. 10, No. 2, June 1962, pp. 53–108.

Volcanic activity of the past few millions of 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, too. 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 2,000 cubic miles of molten rhyolitic magma was erupted in the form of ignimbrite, pumice, and rhyolite lava, building up the Volcanic Plateau.

The Geological Survey, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research has built up this body of geological knowledge.

Geological Maps – The geological maps show the present distribution of major rock groups in New Zealand, brought about by the events and processes that have been summarised in previous paragraphs. (These maps were originally prepared for the New Zealand Encyclopaedia.)

Older Rocks – Much of the late Cretaceous and Tertiary sedimentary rock that once must have covered a large part of the South Island has been worn off by erosion since the Kaikoura Orogeny, and the “undermass” of old rocks has been exposed.

The oldest of these rocks lie to west: Fiordland is made up mainly of metamorphic diorite, granite, and coarse schist, gneiss, and marble, with Ordovician graptolite-bearing slates in its southwest extremity; greywackes and argillites of possibly pre-Cambrian age occur in Westland and southwest Nelson, and further north in Nelson there are large areas of complexly folded Cambrian and Ordovician sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. Large granitic masses, hundreds of square miles in area, occur in Westland, Nelson, and Stewart Island.

These ancient rocks terminate with an abrupt boundary (which shows clearly even on this small-scale map) extending from Milford Sound along the western margin of the Southern Alps. This boundary is the Alpine Fault, a great fracture that divides the South Island into two areas of dissimilar geological structure: to the west of it, and in Fiordland, are the granites and other ancient rocks just described; to the east, the undermass rocks are predominantly the sedimentary and marine volcanic rocks of the New Zealand Geosyncline, and their metamorphosed forms, of later Paleozoic and Mesozoic age. From Marlborough, through Canterbury to North Otago, the map shows an almost continuous expanse of these rocks; here they are mainly sparsely fossiliferous greywackes and argillite strata of Triassic and Jurassic age. On the Western flanks of the Southern Alps, and in Otago, these sedimentary rocks merge gradually with schist and gneiss. Those of the Southern Alps show on the map as a very narrow belt, cut off by the Alpine Fault, but the southern schists form a belt some 60 miles wide extending for about 150 miles across Otago. To the south, also, this schist mass merges gradually with sedimentary rocks of the New Zealand Geosyncline, here of Permian age: these strata, mainly tuffs and tuffaceous greywackes forming a belt that stretches across Southland, are the northern limb of a major downfold or syncline; Triassic and Jurassic strata occupy its core, making up much hill country of Southland. The southern limb rocks include much marine volcanic rock, and in the core of the syncline in western Southland a belt of dunite and serpentine is intruded and is well exposed in the Olivine and Red Hill ranges.

A sequence of rocks very like that of Southland is found also in eastern Nelson; here, fossiliferous Triassic rocks and Permian sedimentary and volcanic rocks closely resembling those of Southland are found, and a belt of dunite and serpentine (the Nelson “mineral belt”) intrudes them. It has been suggested that the Nelson and Southland rocks, which terminate abruptly at the Alpine Fault and its continuation as the Wairau Fault, were originally joined, and have been displaced some 300 miles by lateral movement at the fault.

Younger Rocks – On the eastern side of the South Island, upper Cretaceous and Tertiary strata survive only as small patches, the remnants of a once fairly complete cover of younger rocks. Thick geosynclinal Cretaceous strata are found in the Clarence and Awatere Valleys of Marlborough, but elsewhere in the eastern South Island the upper Cretaceous and lower Tertiary strata are thin. They include foraminiferal limestone, greensands, sandstones, and other shell deposits formed during slow transgression by the sea. Oligocene limestone remnants mark the period of maximum transgression.

On the western side of the South Island the younger rocks are more widespread, and include some thick sequences that were formed in rapidly sinking basins. The oldest are the coal measures, mainly Eocene in age. They are overlain in some areas by thick lower Tertiary marine strata. In Southland, thick Tertiary strata occupy the Waiau Syncline, between Lake Te Anau and Foveaux Strait.

The map shows some large areas of Pleistocene to Recent terrestrial deposits in the South Island. The largest forms the Canterbury Plains, and consists of old shingle deposits of unknown thickness washed from the Southern Alps during the Pleistocene glaciation. Others occupy the Moutere depression of Nelson, and form Southland Plains, and intermontane basins, such as the McKenzie Plains, in the main mountain chains. Thick Pleistocene moraines form the main surface rocks of South Westland.

Banks Peninsula is the only large mass of young volcanic rocks in the South Island; there are smaller areas at Timaru, Oamaru, and in the Dunedin district.

Older Rocks – Unlike the South Island, the North Island has no large expanses of granite or of metamorphic rocks: the undermass rocks are almost wholly complexly folded and faulted greywackes and argillites of the New Zealand Geosyncline, predominantly Mesozoic in age.

The largest expanse of these hard rocks forms the main mountain backbone of the North Island, extending from Cook Strait to the East Cape area. Smaller areas of them are exposed between north Taranaki and Auckland; they include the richly fossiliferous strata of the Kawhia Syncline, a major downfold of the undermass rocks.

In North Auckland, deeply weathered undermass rocks, in part of Permian age, form low hill country in the east, particularly between Whangaroa and Whangarei harbours.

Younger Rocks – Over most of the North Island the older rocks are hidden by Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary sedimentary rocks and by young volcanic rocks. In some areas the younger sedimentary rocks are thin and patchy; in others they are many thousands of feet thick over hundreds of square miles. The bulk of them are poorly consolidated sandstones, and grey mudstones to which the colloquial name “papa rock” is often applied.

The main areas with thick sequences of these young strata are the Taranaki - Wanganui - Rangitikei district, and the region east of the main ranges, including most of the Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, and Wairarapa districts. In both areas intensive oil prospecting of recent years has greatly added to knowledge of the structure.

In the Taranaki - Wanganui - Rangitikei district the strata dip gently south, so that increasingly young rocks are exposed in this direction, the lower Tertiary being seen only in the north. However, recent oil bores drilled to depths of about 13,000 ft at Kapuni in Taranaki, passed through a full sequence of strata from Pleistocene through all Tertiary stages, finally reaching Eocene coal measures.

In the eastern North Island the structure of the younger rocks is much more complex than in the western area. Upper Cretaceous strata are followed by Tertiary in many sedimentary basins large and small, with many unconformities. The southern part of the region is broken by many transcurrent faults, and hard lower Cretaceous greywacke piercement bodies project from the younger rocks.

Younger rocks of South Auckland do not form such large basins as those just described. The oldest of these strata are the Eocene coal measures of the Waikato region. Upper Cretaceous strata, mainly mudstones, are the most widespread of the younger rocks of North Auckland.

Young volcanic rocks are widespread in the North Island. The largest area of them is the Central Volcanic District: north of the three great andesite volcanoes, Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro, lies the “volcanic plateau”, an expanse of some 10,000 square miles made up of several thousand cubic miles of ignimbrite, rhyolite lava, and pumice. This is one of the largest and youngest accumulations of acid volcanic rocks in the world. Most of it has been erupted in late Pliocene and Pleistocene times. The belt of most recent activity in the Central Volcanic District is known as the Taupo Volcanic Zone; it contains all this country's active volcanoes, many inactive ones, and all the geysers and boiling springs.

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 3,000 ft 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; many small scoria cones are seen at Auckland city. Late Tertiary and Quaternary basaltic eruptions in North Auckland have built lava plateaus and many young scoria cones.

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.

G.C.S.

EARTHQUAKES: Geophysical Background – Earthquakes are geographically associated with active volcanoes and with major earth movements such as mountain building; these three types of disturbance are confined, for the most part, to certain limited regions of the world. Such disturbed regions, of which New Zealand is one, are evidently the site of some kind of development affecting the outer shell of the Earth. Little is yet known about the internal processes that give rise to these geophysical disturbances, nor are the relations connecting them understood in any detail.

Formerly earthquakes were believed to be caused by volcanic activity, but it is now recognised that volcanic earthquakes are restricted to small shocks in the immediate vicinity of the volcanism. In New Zealand, tremors of this kind are experienced in the zone of active volcanism that extends from Mount Ruapehu to White Island.

In some places geological faulting at the surface gives visible evidence that a major earth movement has occurred. Occasionally movement on a fault has been observed to occur simultaneously with an earthquake in the same vicinity. New Zealand provided one of the earliest examples of this to become generally known, when movement took place on the Wairarapa Fault at the time of the great Wellington earthquake of 1855. Such events as this have led to the idea that earthquakes in general are caused by fault movements, but it has proved difficult to find convincing evidence in support of this theory. It is noteworthy that there seems to be little earthquake activity along much of the Alpine Fault, which has been traced for 300 miles from Milford Sound to Lake Rotoiti and is classed by geologists as one of the largest and most active faults in the world. The nature of the connection between earthquakes and faulting is still somewhat obscure.

The great majority of the world's earthquakes occur at depths of less than 40 miles, and in many earthquake zones there are no shocks at any greater depth. A moderate number of New Zealand earthquakes are classed as intermediate in depth, i.e., originating at between 40 miles and 190 miles deep. The two deepest New Zealand earthquakes recorded so far occurred four and a half minutes apart on 23 March 1960, with a common focus 370 miles deep under north Taranaki; this is about 80 miles shallower than the deepest earthquake known.

It is difficult to compare the degree of earthquake activity in New Zealand with that in other regions because of the many differences that arise in earthquake type and mode of occurrence. New Zealand and California are often regarded as roughly similar, with an activity very much less than, for example, Japan or Chile.

Regional Distribution – There are two separate regions of earthquake activity in New Zealand. The larger, northern region may be roughly defined as lying between latitude 36 1/2°S and 43 1/2°S. It thus includes the northern half of the South Island, and all the North Island apart from the North Auckland peninsula; but the area from Kaipara Harbour to the lower Waikato River should be excluded. The southern active region lies to the west of longitude 169 1/2°E, and incorporates Southland, western Otago, and southern Westland. Earthquakes have only occasionally been located in the parts of New Zealand lying outside these two regions.

Within the active regions the occurrence of shallow earthquakes is widely scattered. There has been a tendency, however, for the larger shallow earthquakes to lie towards the Pacific side of the northern active region and towards the Tasman side of the southern active region. Earthquakes with deeper foci are mostly confined to a narrow belt in the northern region, extending from the Bay of Plenty south-westwards to Tasman Bay.

The historical record is too brief to support a quantitative assessment of the frequency with which one might expect earthquakes to be felt at a given intensity in various parts of New Zealand. Considering the distances to which major earthquakes can be effective, in relation to the size of New Zealand, it would be imprudent to regard any part of the country as permanently exempt from the possibility of earthquake damage.

Outside the active regions there are many areas, however, where no damaging intensity has actually been experienced in historical times. Moreover, since the major shallow earthquakes on record have been rather widely distributed within the active regions, there appears to be no particular area of markedly intense seismicity.

The Hawke's Bay earthquake of 3 February 1931 resulted directly or indirectly in 255 deaths. The total of deaths that have been recorded as due to other earthquakes since 1848 is 29.

Seismological Observatory – Earthquake recorders are operated continuously at the following stations by the Seismological Observatory, Wellington: Apia and Afiamalu (Samoa); Raoul Island (Kermadecs); Suva (Fiji); Onerahi, Auckland, Karapiro, Tuai, Gisborne, Wairakei, Tarata, Tongariro, Bunnythorpe, and Wellington (North Island); Cobb, Kaimata, Gebbies Pass, Roxburgh, and Monowai (South Island); Hallett Station and Scott Base (Antarctica). The installations at the following stations include instruments for recording distant earthquakes: Afiamalu, Suva, Auckland, Wellington, Roxburgh, Hallett, Scott Base. At the Samoan and Antarctic stations preliminary readings are made locally and notified by radiogram. The analysis of records from all stations is carried out at the Observatory in Wellington.

The Observatory publishes regular reports of all significant earthquakes occurring in the New Zealand region; in a normal year there are about 200 such earthquakes, and about 100 of these are reported felt. The analysis involves using observations from stations in other countries as well as those from the local network, and the Observatory likewise contributes data to the international seismological agencies about distant earthquakes as well as large local ones. Details of tremors felt in New Zealand are supplied to the public and the press. In the study of felt earthquakes the instrumental results are augmented by “felt reports”; these are supplied by a large number of voluntary observers throughout New Zealand in response to a standard questionnaire issued by the Observatory.

Earthquake data are used by the Observatory for studying the fundamental characteristics of the Earth's crust in New Zealand, Antarctica, and the neighbouring oceanic regions, and also for contributing to geophysical knowledge of the Earth's deep interior.

Principal Earthquakes During the Year 1963 – The largest earthquake of the year, of magnitude 6.0 (Richter scale), occurred on 12 April 1963, in the Huiarau Range between Lake Taupo and Lake Waikaremoana. This earthquake was felt widely in the central parts of the North Island and caused slight damage at Minginui and Tarawera.

On 15 July a deep earthquake was felt extensively in the southern part of the North Island, and the northern part of the South Island; it originated in Southern Taranaki at a depth of 100 miles, and had a magnitude of 5.9.

Two earthquakes of exceptional interest occurred late in the year in the far north of New Zealand. Centred near Mangonui, 70 miles north of Whangarei, they are the only earthquakes known to have originated in Northland except for a series of minor shocks in the Bay of Islands in 1919. The first earthquake, of magnitude 3.2, took place on 17 November and was felt at various places out to 20 miles from Mangonui. The second was of magnitude 5.2 and took place on 23 December. This shock was felt over almost the entire peninsula north of Kaikohe and damage was done to chimneys, water tanks and house foundations over an area some ten miles across, including Peria, Oruaiti, Otangaroa and Totara North.

A number of large earthquakes took place during the year near the Kermadec Islands to the north of New Zealand, the largest having a magnitude of about 7. Several of these shocks were felt at Raoul Island during the last week of March.

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 110 places within New Zealand and 50 in Pacific islands and collected by telegraph and radio, along with measurements of winds at upper levels made at eight radar wind-measuring stations and of temperatures made at seven radiosonde stations. Daily observations are made for climatological purposes at about 180 places in New Zealand and 60 in the islands. Rainfall measurements are made at a total of about 1,400 places within New Zealand and 110 outside the country.

Detailed climatological statistics are published annually in the Meteorological Observations. Current statistics appear monthly in a climatological table included 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 60°S.

In the Australasian region there is no semipermanent anticyclone, as exists in subtropical latitudes in the Indian and eastern Pacific Oceans. Instead, a continual eastward migration of anticyclones takes place, roughly at weekly intervals. Most of the centres pass over or to the north of the North Island. The low-pressure troughs which separate successive anticyclones are associated with deep depressions centred far to the south. A period of disturbed weather accompanies the trough with a change to cold southerly or south-westerly winds as it advances north-eastwards over New Zealand. Conditions improve again with the approach of the next anticyclone from the west. While this simple progression dominates the day-to-day weather, the situation frequently becomes much more complex. The troughs are unstable systems where depressions commonly form, some of which develop into vigorous storms that travel south-eastwards across New Zealand.

The anticyclones themselves continually vary in size, intensity, and rate of movement. Their tracks are furthest north in the spring, on the average, and reach their southern limit in late summer or early autumn when most of the centres cross central or southern New Zealand. At this time of the year, too, northern and eastern districts of the North Island occasionally come under the influence of deep cyclones of tropical origin.

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.

Australia, the nearest continent, is 1,000 miles to the west; Antarctica is 1,400 miles to the south. 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 oceans, 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 southeast. 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 20 miles 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 in 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 were all obtained by the use of Dines pressure-tube anemometers at well exposed sites, mostly aerodromes.

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 13 in. in a small area of Central Otago to over 300 in. in the Southern Alps. The average for the whole country is high, but for the greater part it lies between 25 and 60 in., a range regarded as favourable for plant growth in the temperate zone. The only areas with under 25 in. 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 southern Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, and Manawatu where the average rainfall is 30–40 in. a year. Of the remainder, much valuable farm land, chiefly in northern Taranaki and Northland, has upwards of 60 in. Over a sizeable area of both Islands rainfall exceeds 100 in. 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, although its effectiveness in summer is, of course, much reduced. 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 rain can be measured on at least 150 days 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 25 in. 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 per cent of the rain days also qualify as wet days (0.10 in. 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 22 in., which occurred at Milford Sound where the mean annual rainfall is 250 in. 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 3 in. are very rare.

NORMAL MONTHLY AND ANNUAL RAINFALL (INCHES) (1921–50)

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 five 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 59°F in the far north to 54° about Cook Strait, then to 49° in the south. With increasing altitude, temperatures drop about 3° per 1,000 ft. 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 rise to the nineties 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 101° at Ashburton and – 3° at 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 15°F. For the remainder of the North Island, and east coast districts of the South Island, it is 17°–19°. Further inland it exceeds 20° in places, reaching a maximum of 25° in Central Otago where there is an approach to a continental type of climate.

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 (4 ft above the ground) has registered below 32°F only once in nearly 50 years, yet across the harbour at Whenuapai Aerodrome there are 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 10° 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 about 8,000 ft on the central plateau, but the snow line rarely descends below 2,000 ft 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 7,000 ft in summer, being slightly lower on the western side where the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers descend through heavy bush to within 1,000 ft of sea level. In inland Canterbury and Otago, where there are considerable areas of grazing lands above 1,000 ft, 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 3,000 ft.

Relative Humidity – Humidity is commonly between 70 and 80 per cent in coastal areas and about 10 per cent 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 per cent during clear nights. As the following table shows, the diurnal variation is greater than the difference between summer and winter.

Very low humidities – between 20 and 30 per cent or lower – occur at times in the lee of the Southern Alps where the Föhn effect is often very marked. In summer the hot, dry “Canterbury Norwester” 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 85°. Dull, humid spells are generally not prolonged anywhere, but their frequency shows a marked increase in the south.

Sunshine – The sunniest areas are to be found locally near Blenheim, Nelson, and Whakatane, where the average duration of bright sunshine exceeds 2,400 hours per annum. Napier and the rest of the Bay of Plenty 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 per annum, 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 per annum. 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 have 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.

Normal Seasonal Temperature Pattern – A feature of the seasonal pattern of temperature for New Zealand is the near symmetry about either the hottest summer months or the coldest winter months. In other words the summer-winter decline is an almost identical reversal of the winter-summer rise. This shows up clearly when temperatures for 100 climatological stations are averaged month by month. The first two months of the calendar year, the summer months of January and February, display the same average temperature, that of 61.3°F. This temperature is the highest average for any month, being approached by only the December average of 59.2°F. Once February is past a decline sets in, the estimated average New Zealand temperature falling by 2.5°F from February to March to give a March average of 58.8°F. Thereafter, successive inter-monthly temperature drops of 4.4°, 5.4°, 4.2°, and 1.2°F finally produce a July average of 43.6°F, which makes this month the coldest of the year. Progressing through and past July the temperature steadily rises, the increments being successively, 1.80, 3.4°, 3.8°, 3.2°, 3.4°, and 2.1°F, finally returning to the January mark of 61.3°F.

ESTIMATED NORMAL NEW ZEALAND TEMPERATURE (°F)^*

The following diagram illustrates the seasonal temperature pattern.

Brief Review of 1963:Year – Rainfall in the North Island was mainly 20 per cent below average However, in parts of central and northern Hawke's Bay it was somewhat above average. In the South Island rainfall was close to average, except in Canterbury and some adjacent areas in Marlborough and Nelson, where it was 25 per cent above average.

For the country as a whole temperatures were close to average – half a degree above in the North Island and half a degree below in the South Island. This was the first year since 1952 that temperatures had not been at least half a degree above average over the whole country; February 1963 was the end of a particularly warm spell which had commenced in October 1961.

Sunshine was mainly below average by about 100 hours. However, inland Canterbury, inland Marlborough, parts of Nelson and the Waikato-Taupo area were favoured with a surplus of up to 90 hours.

Seasonal Notes – January and February were both considerably warmer than normal. January was also drier than usual in most districts; in the Auckland provincial district dairy production was adversely affected. February was cloudy, with very low rainfall in Gisborne and Hawke's Bay. However, Nelson, Marlborough and South Canterbury received some good rains. A tropical storm crossed the North Island during 20–21 February.

In the autumn months of March to May temperatures were mainly below average. These months were also predominantly drier than normal, especially April, when rainfall was less than a quarter of the average in the Bay of Plenty and Nelson. Dairy production suffered again in the Auckland provincial district and there was also a shortage of feed and fresh water for stock in parts of Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa. April was a month with a high frequency of southerly to easterly winds and considerable rain in Canterbury, three-quarters of which fell in the three days 18–20 April.

The winter of 1963 was in marked contrast to the mild winter of 1962. Except, in Northland, temperatures were below average: in some inland districts of the South Island it was the most severe winter since 1943, causing losses of sheep. June was notable especially for the Hawke's Bay flood of the 3rd and the severe storm which caused it, with southeasterly gales in Taranaki and Cook Strait and snow in the South Island high country. July was a very cloudy month, with an unusually high frequency of winds from the east and northeast bringing excessive rain to Canterbury. An easterly storm raged over the country from 12 to 16 July, with gales in parts of the Auckland provincial district and flooding in Marlborough, Canterbury and Otago. However, lambing commenced with few losses. August was marked by an unusually high frequency of winds from a southerly quarter, with rainfall well above average in eastern districts of the South Island. These districts and Southland reported snow to low levels in the two coldest spells, 6–14 August and 18–23 August.

September and October were both warmer than average, and September was also unusually cloudy. October was exceptionally dry – rainfall was less than one-tenth of the average in several areas in the North Island and in parts of Nelson and Marlborough. Pasture growth was retarded; and at the same time many farmers in the Auckland provincial district were troubled by cattle bloat.

November and December were cooler than normal, especially in the South Island. They were also predominantly drier than average – over most of Northland December was the third successive dry month, causing poor pasture growth and a decline in dairy production. Strong gales buffeted the country from Auckland to Nelson and Marlborough on 8 November, and damage was reported in many districts.

Summary of Meteorological Observations for 1963 – The observations from which the following summary was compiled for the year 1963 were taken at 0900 hours New Zealand standard time, i.e., 2100 hours Greenwich mean time.

For 1963 the mean sea-level pressure values in millibars at 0900 hours New Zealand standard time were: Auckland 1017.0; Kelburn, Wellington 1015.1; Nelson Airport 1015.4; Hokitika 1015.7; Christchurch 1014.3; and Dunedin 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 late tenure and methods of cultivation were communal within the subtribes. Inter-tribal and intra-tribal fare was common, and as individuals they displayed exceptional courage and intelligence.

The immediate effect of European contacts on the Maoris was the outburst of a series of tribal wars waged with greater ferocity and a vastly greater loss of life than was customary in pre-European tribal engagements. The high mortality could, of course, be credited to the acquisition of a more lethal weapon, the musket. The advantage lay originally with the coastal tribes as a result of their earlier contact with Europeans, the wars continuing until all tribes were equally well armed. These wars were later followed by wars against the colonists, but after 1870 the story has been one of unbroken peace between Maoris and Europeans.

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.

Other island groups, such as the Cook Islands, Niue Island, and the Tokelau Islands, had also long been inhabited by Polynesians from various successive migrations extending over considerable periods prior to their discovery by Europeans.

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. His exploration was of necessity very cursory, for having explored only part of one coast he had no knowledge of the country's extent or shape.

There is no record of any European visit to New Zealand after Tasman's departure until Captain Cook sighted land on 6 October 1769, at Young Nick's Head, near Gisborne. On his first voyage Cook spent six months exploring the New Zealand coastline, and he completely circumnavigated the North and South Islands. His activities can be best described by saying “he found New Zealand a line on the 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 truculent Maoris. He returned to New Zealand again in 1773, in 1774, and in 1777.

Several other explorers also visited New Zealand during the latter portion of the eighteenth century, amongst whom may be mentioned M. de Surville 1769, M. Marion du Fresne 1772, Captains Vancouver and Broughton 1791, Captain Raven 1792–93, Alejandro Malaspina and Jose de Bustamente y Guerra 1793, and Lieutenant Hanson 1793.

The European discovery of many of the islands of the Cook Group was made by Captain Cook in 1773. Rarotonga and Mauke were not officially discovered for another 50 years, although there were records of earlier visits by the Bounty under the control of the mutineers in 1789 and later, in 1814, by the Cumberland. Niue Island was discovered by Cook in 1774. The first recorded discovery of the Tokelau Islands was made by Quiros in 1606. Of the remaining islands of the group, Atafu was discovered in 1765, Nukunono in 1791, and Fakaofa in the 1840s.

European Settlement and Colonisation – So far as is known, the first instance of Europeans being left in New Zealand to their own resources occurred in 1792, when Captain Raven of the Britannia landed a sealing party at Facile Harbour, on the west coast of the South Island, where they remained a little over 12 months before being called for.

In the years that followed, whaling stations sprang up along the coast, and a trade with New South Wales began not only in whale oil and seal skins, but also in flax and timber. Attracted to New Zealand were deserters from whaling vessels and escaped convicts from Australia, who, in the absence of any jurisdiction, soon became notorious for their extreme lawlessness. In 1814 Samuel Marsden, chaplain to the Governor of New South Wales, obtained permission to send two of his protégés, Kendall and Hall, to the Bay of Islands to consider the desirability of establishing a mission station. Later they returned to Sydney for Marsden, who arrived in New Zealand to preach his first sermon at the Bay of Islands on Christmas Day, 1814. Of the many admirable activities undertaken by the missionaries, their action in having the Maori language “reduced to a rational orthography” deserves special mention.

In 1825 three separate, but abortive, attempts were made to found colonies; however for some years the only settlements were those round the principal whaling stations, although a number of Europeans gradually penetrated inland and resided there permanently, many marrying Maori women.

The first body of immigrants under a definite scheme of colonisation arrived in Port Nicholson in January 1840, there to found the town of Wellington, just one week before Captain William Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands as Governor to proclaim British sovereignty (see later). These settlers were brought out from England by the New Zealand Company, whose moving spirit was Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

It was hoped that, by producing a proper balance of capitalists and artisans, self-contained communities could be successfully established. However, owing to the unsatisfactory nature of the land purchases, considerable difficulty was experienced in these initial settlements, and friction grew up not only between the settlers and the Maoris, but also between the Governor and the settlers. Before his death in 1842 Governor Hobson had transferred his capital from Russell to Auckland, but this transfer was of little assistance to the colonists, who had extended their settlements to Wanganui, New Plymouth, and Nelson.

Following the death of Hobson, the existence of the colony became precarious, for, through lack of funds and weak administration, Maori aggression became a real menace. To cope with the situation, the Colonial Office appointed Captain George Grey as Governor. Being well equipped with troops and funds, as well as being a man of vigour and perception, Grey soon restored order and won the confidence of both the settlers and the Maoris. During Grey's term two further organised settlements were made. In cooperation with the New Zealand Company the Free Church of Scotland sponsored the Dunedin Settlement of 1848, and the Church of England the Canterbury Settlement of 1850. These settlements, owing to their more favoured situations, their satisfactory land-purchase agreements, and their freedom from trouble with the Maoris, achieved a greater measure of success in carrying out the company's avowed aims.

After Grey's departure the question of relationship with the Maoris again came to the fore through the land-purchasing activities of the settlers – a situation aggravated by subsequent lack of consideration for the Maori system of land tenure. Following an incident at Waitara in the Taranaki district, where a dispute arose concerning land titles, war broke out in 1860 and lasted spasmodically till 1870. The recall of Grey did not solve the problem, as Grey, an autocrat, could not work with the elected Ministers, nor did his presence prevent the confiscation of land belonging to the Maoris, whether friendly or hostile. It was under the sympathetic administration of Sir Donald McLean as Minister for Maori Affairs that the dispute finally died down.

These hostilities were confined to the North Island; and, in the meantime, in 1861, large alluvial deposits of gold had been discovered in the South Island – leading to a tremendous influx of population and an alteration of the economic structure of the country.

No organised form of European colonisation has at any time taken place in the Cook Islands, Niue Island, or the Tokelau Islands.

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT (1870 ONWARDS) – The discovery of gold, by increasing the wealth of the South Island, allowed it 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, which it has maintained to the present day.

These factors, together with freedom from strife with the Maori population, led after 1870 to a quickening in political activities. Under the leadership of Sir Julius Vogel a policy of extensive borrowing for railway and road construction was begun. The provincial system, which really commenced in 1853, had largely outlived its usefulness; in fact, the parochialism of the provincial assemblies had frequently proved obstructive, and in consequence the system was abolished in 1875, local administration being provided for by the Counties Act and the Municipal Corporations Act of 1876.

Of great social significance was the passing in 1877 of the Education Act, making education free, compulsory, and secular, while the laying during that decade of the first cable between Australia and New Zealand was a major advance in communications. At this time party politics began to enter into the parliamentary system, and the slump conditions which prevailed in the eighties (due to a fall in the world price level) intensified the political atmosphere. By the abolition of plural voting in 1889, and the introduction of female suffrage in 1893, the way was opened for a practical expression of political convictions by all adult members of the community.

In 1891 Ballance, as Leader of the Liberal Party, became Premier, to be followed on his death in 1893 by Seddon, and during the next decade the legislative essays of this party evoked world-wide interest. The main aim of the legislation was social justice, and its principal manifestations were in land division, the establishment of the Court of Arbitration, and the introduction of old-age pensions. The policy of land division aimed at closer land settlement, and it was achieved by the compulsory subdivision of large estates, with subsequent loans to small independent farmers wishing 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.

With the commencement of the refrigerated trade in 1882, the policy of closer settlement progressed rapidly, since the production of frozen meat and dairy produce for export encouraged more intensive farming. There thus arose a new farming class which in 1911, some five years after Seddon's death, was mainly responsible for the overthrow of the Liberal regime.

The policy of the succeeding Reform Party under Massey was one favouring agricultural production. Farming interests were given constant encouragement by a series of enactments of which the extension of rural credit was typical. Three years after the advent of the Reform Party the First World War, 1914–18, broke out, leading to the formation of a Coalition Government and an Imperial commandeer of exports. War activities were marked by heavy casualty lists, in proportion to the population, and by enhanced cordiality in Imperial relations. One noteworthy outcome of the war commandeer was the precedent given for the establishment, after the war, of control boards to regulate the export of pastoral products.

Though the effects of the post-war depression during the period 1921–24 showed themselves in an increase in unemployment and slight wage reductions, no drastic legislation was necessary to stabilise economic conditions. During the following years the price level rose; and from the administrative side, the period was characterised by extensive public works expenditure, with particular attention to hydro-electric schemes and highways.

Owing to the encouragement given to farming, pastoral production constantly expanded, so that New Zealand became one of the world's greatest exporters of pastoral produce. As a consequence, her national income was extremely sensitive to price fluctuations of these products; so that, with the advent of the depression in 1930, her economic position became extremely vulnerable. In order to produce balanced budgets, both public and private, various legislative remedies were attempted. In particular, enactments were 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. With the recovery in price levels and consequent general economic revival, amendments were made to several of these Acts, removing the more stringent measures. The election of a Labour Government in 1935 led to a change in administrative policy, the preoccupation being mainly with social problems. Further amendments were made to the depression legislation, certain restrictive measures were removed, and other temporary adjustments made permanent.

The general climate of opinion and gradual maturity of outlook furnish the background in which certain distinctive trends appear in legislation passed since 1936.

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 guaranteed prices for certain primary produce, the creation of farm industry reserves, and the rationalisation of production and marketing by the establishment of boards for certain items of primary produce.

The second major influence on legislation was conditioned by the outbreak of the Second World War, 1939–45. A vast body of legislation was placed on the statute book during the war period dealing with the control of manpower and materials, stabilisation of prices, wages, and rents, conditions of employment and suspension of certain peacetime features of industrial activity, discouragement of some industries and diversion to or encouragement of other industries, provision for rehabilitation, etc.

A third 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.

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.

A fourth approach to law making resulting from maturity of outlook has been the increased participation by New Zealand in international affairs consequent on its acceptance of responsibility in the wider issues of the present era. Legislation authorising participation in United Nations activities generally and in particular emergencies, such as military service in Korea, Malaya, and elsewhere; the extension of New Zealand representation in overseas countries and with the United Nations; the greater frequency of Commonwealth consultation; extension of aid to less developed countries, e.g., participation in the Colombo Plan, all bear witness to this change in outlook.

Another influence on legislation presents some parallels to that last mentioned, but is more concerned with the domestic sphere. It is exemplified in the increasing interest taken in welfare and social development generally of both the rapidly growing Maori population and the inhabitants of New Zealand's island territories, such as the Cook Islands.

Contemporaneously with the expansion of the field of legislative interest, the economic and industrial development of the country has proceeded with marked impetus in recent years. Expansion and diversification of manufacturing and servicing industries have provided avenues of employment for the growing labour force. At the same time the basic industries of the country, those concerned with primary production, have increased output, assisted by the rapid application of technological improvements and research findings.

The history of New Zealand's island territories has been largely one of wise paternal oversight, particularly in the earlier periods, by the New Zealand Government and by the various missions established in the islands. More recently, successive Governments have in various ways encouraged the inhabitants to take an increasing share in the administration of their communities, thus paving the way for some form of self-government. Much attention has been paid to combating tropical diseases and to health problems generally; such island industries as citrus fruit and banana growing have been fostered and encouraged in various ways, with outlets being found for produce available for export. By and large, however, their economy is necessarily one of a subsistence type only, with financial and other assistance provided from Government sources for the expansion of educational facilities and opportunities, public works such as roading, conservation of water supplies by reservoir construction, communication facilities, etc.

Owing to limitations of space, the foregoing is but a brief résumé of New Zealand history. For detailed information, reference should be made to the many excellent books dealing with the subject, of which the more recent ones are listed in the Select Bibliography appearing in Appendix (c) of this Yearbook, and others in earlier issues.

SOVEREIGNTY – Following representations from Maori chiefs for protection from the prevailing turmoil and lawlessness caused by tribal warfare and the rough element around the whaling stations, the New South Wales Government appointed, in 1832, Mr James Busby as British Resident at Russell. Owing to the failure to supply him with any means of exerting authority, his appointment was largely ineffective. Finally the disorder, and the friction between the two races, became so intolerable that even the missionaries, who were opposed to annexation, made representations for British sovereignty.

On 29 January 1840, Captain William Hobson, RN, arrived at the Bay of Islands, empowered, with the consent of the Maoris, to proclaim the sovereignty of Queen Victoria over the Islands of New Zealand, and to assume the government thereof. Hobson formally read his commissions at Kororareka on 30 January 1840, and on 6 February of the same year a compact called the Treaty of Waitangi was entered into, whereby all rights and powers of sovereignty were ceded to the Queen, all territorial rights being secured to the chiefs and their tribes.

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 by Hobson 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.

With the gradual development of the country's economy, the acquisition of political and administrative experience, and the increasing desire for self-reliance in political matters, the degree of self-government became more complete. In recognition of this and of a nascent sense of nationality, 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.

As far as the island territories are concerned, the Cook Islands were proclaimed a British protectorate in 1888, and in 1901 were annexed and proclaimed part of New Zealand under the Colonial Boundaries Act 1895. Niue Island is part of the Cook Islands, though separately administered, and became part of New Zealand in 1901 with the extension of boundaries to include the Cook Islands. The Tokelau Islands were placed under the protection of Great Britain in 1877, formally annexed at the inhabitants' request in 1916, and from 1925 were administered by New Zealand at the request of the United Kingdom Government. From 1949 they became part of New Zealand by virtue of the Tokelau Islands Act 1948.

NEW ZEALAND'S INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES – Though in the nineteenth century Sir Julius Vogel and the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon had original views about the policy which Britain and New Zealand should pursue in the Pacific area – views which they announced with vigour – New Zealand did not acquire the right to conduct an independent foreign policy until the end of the First World War when the full nationhood of the “Dominions” was recognised. For some years after this, however, successive New Zealand Governments chose not to exercise this right and (pursuing a passive role in the League of Nations and refraining from establishing diplomatic relations with foreign Governments, or with other members of the Commonwealth apart from Britain) preferred to make known any views on matters of foreign affairs only to the British Government and through the confidential channels of intra-Commonwealth consultation.

Few pressures existed in the 1920s and early 1930s to impel New Zealand towards enunciating an independent foreign policy. The population was mainly British in composition and comparatively few were concerned to distinguish between New Zealand's interests and those of Britain. Nor had they much cause to do so: New Zealand had established a fruitful economic partnership with Britain, upon which country nearly all her material and cultural links were centred; and New Zealand's surest protector against dangers which it was incapable of meeting alone was the Royal Navy. It was, moreover, realised that New Zealand in her own right could make little impact on world affairs, whereas Britain was a great power capable of affecting the pattern of world events. New Zealand “foreign policy” therefore consisted chiefly in 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. A standing opportunity was provided by the system of confidential intra-Commonwealth consultation whereby Britain provided full information to the Dominions and sought their comments upon issues of international policy as they arose. In this way New Zealand tended to prefer a share of great power status to “independence” of foreign policy; this sufficed until the middle of the 1930s.

In practice, during the first 16 years after the First World War the New Zealand Government on only a few occasions thought it necessary to make significant efforts to bring about a modification of British policy. This situation resulted chiefly from the factors earlier outlined which made for an identity of interest and viewpoint between Britain and New Zealand. In part also it arose because few problems directly affecting New Zealand remained to be settled; in part it was because of a considered reluctance to give advice when the main consequences of accepting that advice fell upon Britain, not New Zealand; in part it was because New Zealand Governments tended to approach problems pragmatically rather than on grounds of principle, and were conscious of having no expert New Zealand Department organised to collect and appraise the facts on equal terms with the British Foreign Office; in part it was because New Zealand Governments, supplied by the Foreign Office with very much the same information as that on which the United Kingdom Cabinet based its judgments, viewed problems from a similar standpoint to that of the British Government. In short, most New Zealanders thought of external affairs in terms of Imperial unity and relied on British leadership of the Empire.

The emergence of an independent New Zealand foreign policy is usually held to date from 1935. Some Ministers in the new Government were deeply interested in world affairs in general, and the Government's approach was influenced by theory and principle. In particular, they held strong views on the principle of collective security and upon the League of Nations as the embodiment of that principle. In its method of championing the principles of collective security, pressing for the restoration of the authority of the League of Nations and, at a time when the United Kingdom Government was pursuing the policy which came to be known as appeasement, urging positive League action over Abyssinia, Spain, and China, the Government came to depart from the pattern of the previous 16 years: for, in addition to making its views known in confidential communications to the United Kingdom Government, it also stated them with vigour in the international forum of the Council and the Assembly of the League of Nations.

There was, however, no fundamental departure from the traditional policy of association with Britain. Moreover, the course that would be followed in the event of war was never in doubt. As early as 16 May 1938 a leading member of the Government had said, “If the Old Country is attacked, we are too … we will assist her to the fullest extent possible.” When war broke out the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. M. J. Savage, expressed New Zealand's position in terms that were as true in 1939 as they would have been in 1914:

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 and its method of implementing that policy. Even though the basic attachment of New Zealanders to Britain was little affected, the fact became manifest that Britain was no longer a power able to determine events on a world scale and that, since New Zealand interests could no longer be protected by British actions alone, it did not suffice to confine New Zealand foreign policy to occasional attempts to persuade the British Government to take note of New Zealand views. Japanese aggression and, later, the rise of Communist China forced New Zealand to face the reality of its geographical location in the Pacific and to develop an additional relationship with the only other friendly power capable of protecting New Zealand – the United States of America – with the least possible prejudice to its association with the United Kingdom. To contribute to Anglo-American harmony is therefore a major preoccupation of New Zealand foreign policy.

To be woven into any post-war policy was the now traditional New Zealand belief in the principle of collective security and international justice, especially as symbolised by, though not yet embodied in, the United Nations. This was by no means an easy task in a world where the divisions of the cold war were reflected in competing regional alliances. There had to be a place, too, for belief in the ability of international cooperation to control armaments and to eliminate poverty, disease, and other economic and social causes of international tension.

During the war years New Zealand was admitted to the councils of the Allies and was expected to advance informed views. The Government honoured its responsibility and, having established in wartime the habit of participating in the making of international decisions, accepted it as natural that New Zealand should continue to participate in the development of a post-war world order and in subsequent international consultations. To this end New Zealand established (in effect from 1943) a professional Department of External Affairs and a career foreign service, and proceeded slowly to establish diplomatic missions in countries where New Zealand's interests merited protection. In particular, New Zealand sought increasingly to make its individual contribution to fostering good relationships with its neighbours in the Pacific and to increasing the measure of security and welfare in this area.

The threat to New Zealand's security, posed by the entry of Japan into the war at a time when the United Kingdom was fully committed in Europe, brought New Zealand into the closest relations with two of her Pacific neighbours, Australia and the United States. Recognition of the need for a greater measure of collaboration with Australia resulted in the signing in 1944 of the Canberra Pact which provided machinery for continuing consultation between the two Governments. Upon the entry of Japan into the war both New Zealand and Australia looked principally to the United States for protection. Relations among the three countries thus entered a new phase. The close association of wartime found expression in peacetime in the Anzus Treaty, in which, for the first time, New Zealand and Australia entered into a treaty of alliance and mutual defence with a foreign country. While neither Australia nor New Zealand was in favour of a vindictive or onerously restrictive peace settlement with Japan, they both made clear during the negotiation of the Japanese Peace Treaty their apprehension at the possibility of future aggression in the Pacific. The Anzus Treaty, which came into force in April 1952, was designed to allay these fears at the same time as it achieved the aim of both countries to enter into a close relationship with the major Pacific power. The treaty 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 from aggression in the area.

Since the signature of the Anzus Treaty, New Zealand has become a member of another regional defence system, the South-East Asia Treaty Organisation, SEATO. In joining SEATO, a body made necessary by the failure of the Great Powers to cooperate in carrying out the security functions entrusted to them by the United Nations Charter, New Zealand demonstrated further its new awareness of the international and strategic implications of its position in the South Pacific. In 1955, the Minister of External Affairs, the Hon. T. L. Macdonald, discussing New Zealand's foreign policy, said that the only possible threat to New Zealand's security could come from Asia, and in particular from the spread of Communist power in South-East Asia. “New Zealand's foreign policy grows,” he said, “from the need to reconcile geography and history, economic fact and strategic fact. In practical terms at present this means that, without weakening the many links which bind us to Britain and the whole Atlantic community, we must increase our concern with South-East Asia.”

This regional approach implied no weakening of the belief in the pre-eminent value of collective security organised on a world basis. New Zealand continued to place special importance upon its membership of the United Nations. It has been an active participant in the work of the General Assembly, has been a member of all Councils of the Organisation, has provided troops to the United Nations Force in Korea and military observers in Palestine, Kashmir, and Lebanon, and has endeavoured to assist all efforts to attain the political and social objectives outlined in the Charter.

At the time of the formation of SEATO, New Zealand's interest in South-East Asia had already been expressed in social and economic terms. In 1950, New Zealand, along with a group of other Commonwealth countries, became a member of the Colombo Plan established to assist the countries of South-East Asia to improve their standards of living. To New Zealand, a pioneer in the field of social legislation and a country where wealth is spread throughout all levels of the population, the Colombo Plan has a special significance and contributions, large by New Zealand standards (if small when measured against the potential need), have been made to it. Despite this new concentration on South-East Asia, New Zealand continued and developed its efforts (as will be seen later) to promote action on a world scale to deal with social and economic problems.

New Zealand's geographical position and that of its island territories, the Cook, Niue and Tokelau Islands, also gives this country a direct interest in political, social, and economic developments in the South Pacific. This is reflected not only in New Zealand's membership of such regional organisations as the South Pacific Commission, but also in a wide and growing range of contacts with island people and an increased sense of involvement in their problems. The evolution of self-government and nationalism in the South Pacific reached a new stage when Western Samoa became the first independent Polynesian state on 1 January 1962. New Zealand's own colonial past and her liberal tradition of friendship for emergent peoples, together with the large number of Polynesian people who have settled in this country, mean that the islanders tend to look to New Zealand for leadership and encouragement. In particular, Western Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji already look to New Zealand as an important export market and as a source of administrative and technical assistance. Inevitably, New Zealand is going to be increasingly affected by what happens in the South Pacific region.

If, since the war, the facts of geography have had an important influence on New Zealand's attitudes towards foreign affairs, history and tradition continue nevertheless to mould its outlook. The historic links with the United Kingdom and with Western Europe and North America remain as strong as ever; and the economic links with the United Kingdom, New Zealand's best customer, remain strong. No situation is, however, constant. One of the key problems of external political and economic policy now presented to New Zealand arises out of the movement towards political and economic integration in Europe and the continuing possibility of Britain's membership of the European Economic Community. New Zealand must expand the volume and value of its exports of primary products if the standard of living of its rapidly increasing population is to be maintained and improved. In recent years it has become increasingly apparent, however, that the United Kingdom market is capable of only a limited expansion. The development of new markets in Asia and other less developed countries is hindered by low income levels as well as by consumption patterns in which the type of foodstuff exported by New Zealand does not figure prominently. New Zealand's foreign policy is likely to continue the endeavour to reconcile geography and history, economic fact and strategic fact.

Department of External Affairs — The External Affairs Act 1943 made provision for the appointment of a Minister of External Affairs charged generally with the administration of external and foreign affairs, including relations with other countries, communications with other Governments, representation abroad, and representation of other countries in New Zealand. The Act also authorised the appointment of a Secretary of External Affairs and (superseding the High Commissioner Act of 1908) dealt with the appointment of High Commissioners and of overseas representatives.

The functions of the Department were defined at its inception as follows:

The Act thus established the Ministry of External Affairs as the normal channel of communication with the Governments of other countries. As, however, the new Department was in fact still a part of the Prime Minister's Department, no change in procedure, apart from the use of the changed nomenclature, was necessary.

Dealings with overseas Governments usually involve considerable interdepartmental coordination. Since the Prime Minister's Department has always been regarded primarily as a department of coordination, an intimate relationship has existed between the two Departments. The Prime Minister has for three periods found it appropriate to assume the portfolio of External Affairs and the Departments have in any case been run as a unit. The staff is held in common and, though some officers are engaged on work peculiar to one Department, the work of the majority involves both Departments. The Secretary of External Affairs is also Permanent Head of the Prime Minister's Department. In defence matters the two Departments have been closely associated. During the war, the Permanent Head was also Secretary of the War Cabinet. In that period the responsibility of the Prime Minister's Department for defence coordination was extended and developed; in discharging this responsibility the Permanent Head is now assisted by the Defence Secretariat of the Prime Minister's Department. This Secretariat works closely with the Defence Division of the Department of External Affairs, and the head of that Division is chairman of the body which coordinates military and civilian intelligence.

In the formulation and application of external affairs policy, close association with other Government Departments is necessary. Defence planning, for example, entails close liaison with the Ministry of Defence, participation in the Colombo Plan with the Treasury and with the many Departments which supply experts and training facilities, consular questions with the Department of Labour, and legal questions with the Department of Justice. Moreover, the Department is a clearing house for a wide variety of material provided by overseas posts for other Departments. As well as fulfilling its major function of acting as a channel of communication with other Governments, the Department thus acts as a coordinating centre for other Government Departments. The Department and its network of posts overseas also perform numerous services on behalf of Departments which are without overseas representatives of their own.

In the Official Section at the end of the Yearbook the diplomatic and other New Zealand representatives overseas are listed, as well as the official representatives of other countries in New Zealand.

New Zealand in the Commonwealth — Despite the new emphasis in New Zealand's approach to international affairs resulting from its consciousness of the realities of its geographical position in the South Pacific, membership of the Commonwealth remains the central feature of its policy. Intimate association with the United Kingdom is the historical basis, and remains an important principle of New Zealand's external relations. The ties between New Zealand and the United Kingdom are embodied in the close association of the Commonwealth, membership of which has given New Zealand an international status that such a small and isolated community could not otherwise claim.

Although one of the oldest members, New Zealand, unlike some of its fellow members, did not seek to hasten the process of constitutional transition within the Commonwealth. At the Imperial Conference in 1930 the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. G. W. Forbes, stated that “We have felt that all times within recent years we have had ample scope for our national aspirations and ample freedom to carry out in their entirety such measures as have seemed to us to be desirable”. There was little interest in the adoption of the relevant provisions of the Statute of Westminster enacted in 1931 to give legal endorsement to the transformation that had taken place in the relationship between Britain and the Dominions. It was not, in fact, until 1947 that the necessary formalities were completed in New Zealand by the passing of the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act.

Since that time there have been many changes in the Commonwealth association both in constitutional respects and in numbers. Whereas at the beginning of the war there were only five members, (of whom one, South Africa, withdrew from the association in 1961), there are now 18 and it is expected that more will join within the next few years. With the entry of India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Malaysia, Ghana, Nigeria, Cyprus, Sierra Leone, Tanganyika, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda, the Commonwealth has become an entity embracing several continents and its relationships have taken on a new scope and emphasis. New Zealand, itself a country where two races live side by side, sees in the Commonwealth a special opportunity for multiracial cooperation and understanding.

New Zealand has as yet exchanged representatives with only the following members of the Commonwealth: Australia, Canada, India,^* Malaysia, and Britain.

The importance New Zealand attaches to the Commonwealth association has been given practical expression in its membership of a number of Commonwealth organisations, including the Commonwealth Air Transport Council, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Board, the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau, the Imperial War Graves Commission, the Commonwealth Institute, the Commonwealth Economic Consultative Council, the Commonwealth Scientific Office, and the Commonwealth Education Liaison Committee.

New Zealand and the South Pacific — It is not without significance that the first area of the world towards which New Zealanders developed a distinct and characteristic attitude should have been the South Pacific. This is New Zealand's immediate environment, its Polynesian peoples close kin to the New Zealand Maori, its islands nearest and most important in the lines of communication which link New Zealand with America and Europe. New Zealand is, moreover, the largest community in the area and cannot escape either a concern or a responsibility for what goes on there.

* The New Zealand High Commissioner in India is also appointed High Commissioner in Ceylon.

Within a decade of New Zealand's establishment as a British colony Bishop Selwyn had made it the base for Anglican missions in the South Pacific and Sir George Grey as Governor had begun to advocate a policy of expansion in the area. The increasing involvement of other powers and a desire to develop trade led Sir Julius Vogel in the 1870s to take up Grey's idea and to put forward various schemes for political and commercial expansion, which, however, found no favour in London. In the 1880s New Zealand joined the Australian colonies in an effort to preserve “Oceania for the Anglo-Saxons”, and soon after the movement reached its peak in the robust opposition of Richard John Seddon to the bargaining away of Samoa in 1899.

The meagre fruit of half a century's agitation was the annexation in 1901 of the Cook Islands and their inclusion within the boundaries of New Zealand. Thereafter New Zealand's interest in the South Pacific declined as its trade and its thoughts came to centre more and more on Great Britain. But though declining, the tradition was still strong enough to provide support for the Imperial Federation movement in the first decade of the twentieth century and, more practically, to inspire New Zealand on the outbreak of war in 1914 to occupy Germany's colony of Western Samoa.

At the end of the war Western Samoa, like other former German possessions, was retained by the occupying power under a League of Nations Mandate. New Zealand embarked on its new responsibility with greater enthusiasm than it had shown in the Cook Islands and much effort was devoted to solving the problems of the territory. The rate of change thus created, however, proved too rapid for the tradition-loving Samoans. In the late 1920s a series of unfortunate incidents occurred and, for some time afterwards, the pace slackened. The opening up in the late 1930s of air routes across the Pacific led New Zealand, along with other countries, to take an increased interest in some of the more remote islands in the area, but it was the outbreak of the Second World War which forcibly reminded the country of its situation.

Overnight half-forgotten islands became strategic points for the defence of New Zealand and its allies, and New Zealanders again became aware of the need to prevent them from falling into unfriendly hands. Accordingly, New Zealand joined with Australia in seeking ways to guarantee the future security of the area, and there emerged first the Canberra Pact of 1944 and later the 1947 Agreement to establish the South Pacific Commission.

Through the Commission the Governments administering territories in the South Pacific — the United States, Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, and (formerly) the Netherlands have made a concerted effort to promote the economic and social development of the area and its peoples. In the 17 years of its existence the Commission has, though working within narrow budgetary limits, done much valuable work particularly in bringing the islanders together and developing a sense of community among them. New Zealand has played a full and active part in the Commission's work and its territories have benefited along with others.

But New Zealand has not been content with promoting progress in the economic and social spheres. At the San Francisco Conference in 1945 it took a leading part in working out the trusteeship system embodied in the UN Charter and subsequently the League of Nations Mandate for Western Samoa was replaced by a trusteeship agreement. In accordance with the wishes of the Samoan people a programme of political and constitutional development was launched which continued throughout the 1950s and culminated in the establishment of the Independent State of Western Samoa on 1 January 1962. The transfer of sovereignty did not, however, terminate the close and friendly relationship which had grown up between Western Samoa and New Zealand and this was confirmed in a Treaty of Friendship between the two countries signed in August 1962. Under this New Zealand will continue to give Western Samoa assistance in the educational and other fields, and in the 1963–64 financial year this will amount to nearly £140,000.

While Western Samoa was moving rapidly towards independence the process of constitutional development was begun in New Zealand's other island territories. Following expert surveys 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 Island were set up in 1957. In 1962 the New Zealand Government decided to hand over to these bodies full responsibility for allocating the substantial subsidies granted by New Zealand each year, and later it announced a plan for the establishment of full internal self-government in the territories by 1965. This plan was communicated to the UN General Assembly at its seventeenth regular session.

The independence of Western Samoa and the progress of the remaining New Zealand territories presage a broad change in the South Pacific. Economic, social and educational development has made the peoples of the area more self-conscious and desirous of managing their own affairs. At the same time developments in New Guinea have attracted international attention, and the intensification of interest in colonial questions in the UN is likely to bring the South Pacific into yet greater prominence. In the light of these changes New Zealand has taken the lead in proposing that the organisation and functions of the South Pacific Commission be revised so as to bring its work more into line with the needs and aspirations of the islands' peoples, and to enable them to participate more directly. At the same time consultations are going on among the Governments administering territories in the South Pacific with a view to accelerating the development of the area and maintaining its stability. In these and other ways New Zealand is actively striving to fulfil its special responsibility as a Pacific country for the peace and progress of this part of the world.

New Zealand in the United Nations — It has been noted earlier that the first significant expression of an independent New Zealand foreign policy occurred in the League of Nations and was directed to supporting the principle of collective security. Support for this principle later and through the United Nations has remained a cornerstone of New Zealand's foreign policy.

The purposes which motivated the policy in 1935 were strongly held beliefs, rather than a set of principles developed from any careful assessments by a national foreign service. The beliefs were nevertheless a reflection of widely held concern over world events, a concern which the succeeding years were to reinforce. It was, therefore, perhaps understandable that at San Francisco in 1945 New Zealand should argue so forcibly, if unsuccessfully, to eliminate the veto and to strengthen the collective security provisions of the United Nations Charter.

Despite its physical isolation New Zealand has felt unable to regard with unconcern the fate of other small countries helpless to defend themselves against a powerful aggressor and thus liable to be picked off one by one.

The United Nations does not, it is true, offer a complete guarantee of New Zealand's or any other small country's security against aggression. Nor has it yet achieved agreement on disarmament; but New Zealand Governments have acted upon the conviction that the United Nations, and it alone, contains the rudiments of a universal collective security system, and that it is through the United Nations, and not through its abandonment in favour of some alternative, that an effective and comprehensive collective security system may eventually be developed and agreement on disarmament achieved.

New Zealand has recognised that this objective must be a long-term one, and that the United Nations in its present form must be buttressed by regional defensive alliances. It has not taken the view that all multilateral diplomacy must be conducted within the United Nations. In general, however, New Zealand has regarded the United Nations as the natural centre of international diplomacy unless there were, in special cases, good reasons to work outside it.

Within the United Nations the expression of this policy has taken several forms. 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 as a place 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; they have reiterated the need for the early adoption of a broad programme of supervised disarmament.

New Zealand has at the same time advocated adequate and timely preparations in case aggression should occur. When occasion has arisen New Zealand has been prepared to play its part: troops were supplied to the United Nations Force in Korea and military observers to the United Nations Observer Groups in Palestine, Kashmir, and Lebanon. New Zealand representatives in the United Nations have also strongly supported the principle that all members must bear an equitable share of the cost of international action to meet aggression, e.g., the cost of supporting the United Nations Emergency Force in the Middle East and the United Nations' operation in the Congo.

To maintain the peace is the primary purpose of the United Nations, and for New Zealand the search for effective guarantees of international peace and security continues to be the first object of membership. It is not, however, the only object, nor is a system of collective security (or disarmament) the only means of giving effect to it.

The state of economic, social, and general political relations goes far to determine the urgency of the need for a collective security system. For New Zealand, geographically isolated and with limited direct diplomatic relations, the United Nations is inevitably one of the most important forums available, not only to influence the course of international events, but also to secure the friendship and understanding of the world community. For any country, its international reputation is a valuable asset. If New Zealand is better known and commands more influence in international affairs than some other small States similarly situated, this is in some measure, at least, due to New Zealand's record of active participation in the United Nations.

Economic and Social Council — New Zealand's interest in economic and social questions — as well as the recognition by other countries that New Zealand has special experience to offer — is illustrated by its membership of the Economic and Social Council (an elective body of 18 members of the United Nations) from 1947 to 1949 and its re-election in 1958 for a further term for the period 1959 to 1961. New Zealand is a member of the Commission on International Commodity Trade, and 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 nonregional member. In the past New Zealand has also designated representatives on the Technical Assistance Committee and on the Statistical, Social, and Fiscal Commissions and the Commission on the Status of Women.

In undertaking these responsibilities New Zealand may to some extent be regarded as “taking its turn”. In few cases, however, are the considerations in favour of representation so simple. New Zealand certainly shares with others an interest in ensuring that economic and social conditions are such as to permit ordered political progress. It is concerned to ensure that, where political principles are in issue, the beliefs which New Zealanders hold as essential should be recognised and, if possible, accepted by the world community. Sometimes there are strong reasons of self-interest; the weight of advantage received, in terms of professional benefit, and the contribution made are evenly balanced in the case of technical bodies such as the Statistical Commission. On the other hand some organs which were first designed to meet the emergency of post-war conditions, such as UNICEF, have developed programmes, e.g., the supply of milk powder and fish-liver oil, which are of economic interest to New Zealand.

The biggest single task now facing the Economic and Social Council is to promote and direct programmes for economic development in underdeveloped countries. New Zealand has always recognised the need for economic development and made its contributions to the appropriate funds, e.g., the Expanded Programme for Technical Assistance and the Special Fund. It has been concerned to ensure that international programmes in this field should be effective and realistic.

At present New Zealand representatives in the United Nations are called upon to deal with questions of economic development in three different fields. One is in the Economic Committee of the General Assembly, where the economic work of the Organisation is subject to general review; the second arises out of New Zealand's membership of ECAFE. In this setting, the detailed study of development programmes is closely related to the work of the Colombo Plan, and provides a significant counterpart to New Zealand's growing political interest in Asia. Finally, as a member of the Technical Assistance Committee of the Economic and Social Council, New Zealand is associated with activities affecting the lives and welfare of a considerable proportion of the world's population.

Specialised Agencies — It is the responsibility of the Economic and Social Council under the Charter to coordinate the activities of the Specialised Agencies through consultations and recommendations. New Zealand is a member of all the Agencies except the International Development Association. As a contributor to their budgets, it is concerned to ensure that activities are not duplicated and that the Secretariats of the United Nations and of the Agencies work closely together on matters of common interest. New Zealand has also been concerned to ensure that on political and administrative matters the policies of the Agencies are adjusted to those of the United Nations. As in the case of the different organs and subsidiary bodies of the United Nations, so with the Specialised Agencies, New Zealand's reasons for membership have ranged from motives of self-interest to its conviction of the value of international cooperation. In some cases non-membership would place New Zealand at a distinct disadvantage. Membership of the Universal Postal Union is essential to facilitate the efficient international movement of mails to and from this country. Similarly the International Telecommunications Union regulates international radio, telephone, and telegraphic traffic, and the need to belong to this body is universally accepted. The World Meteorological Organisation is the medium for setting standards and encouraging the free interchange of meteorological information. Wartime experience emphasised the fact that few countries have as direct an interest in international civil aviation as New Zealand; New Zealand is closely concerned with the efforts of the International Civil Aviation Organisation to foster the planning and development of international air transport and to ensure proper standards for the development of airways, airports, and air navigation facilities.

No clear line can, however, be drawn between the “technical” Agencies and others, and some degree of technical advantage is to be derived from membership of all the Specialised Agencies. Although its own health standards are high, New Zealand has nevertheless drawn benefits, particularly in its island territories, from its membership of the World Health Organisation. Each in its own field — the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the International Labour Organisation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation, and the International Atomic Energy Agency — constitutes an important international medium for the free interchange of knowledge and experience.

On occasion the Specialised Agencies provide the forum for advancement of a New Zealand interest. The FAO has played a prominent part in the formulation of measures to encourage the establishment of a stable international market for agricultural commodities, particularly in the enunciation of principles to govern the disposal of surplus commodities. The FAO's interest in the disposal of surplus foodstuffs was increased in December 1961 when the United Nations approved the establishment of a World Food Programme to be administered jointly by FAO and the United Nations. New Zealand has been elected to the inter-Governmental Committee charged with the responsibility of supervising the Programme and in 1962 announced its intention of contributing over the next three years $75,000 in cash and $425,000 in commodities.

New Zealand's accession to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund, and the International Finance Corporation not only allows this country to participate in measures designed 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.

As well as the Commonwealth organisations mentioned earlier some regional organisations, particularly the South Pacific Commission, are of particular importance to New Zealand. Since the establishment of the Commission in 1947, New Zealand's island territories have derived much benefit from its work on fisheries, cooperatives, control of the rhinoceros beetle, and research upon filariasis.

New Zealand and the South-East Asia Collective Defence Treaty — When, in the years following 1945, it became clear that there were serious obstacles to the effective implementation of those provisions of the United Nations Charter which were designed to establish a universal system of collective security, the alternative of regional arrangements was further developed. In South-East Asia, a few years after NATO was established, the South-East Asia Collective Defence Treaty (also known as the Manila Treaty or Pact) was negotiated.

The idea of such a treaty had been canvassed during the early 1950s. In the early part of 1954, however, a number of governments became greatly concerned at the progress of the war in Indochina and the deteriorating situation in South-East Asia, and on 29 March the United States called for “united action” to resist further Communist expansion. Shortly thereafter the United Kingdom and France agreed that consideration should be given to the establishment as soon as possible of a collective security system in the area. The New Zealand Minister of External Affairs stated on 19 April that his Government welcomed this proposal and was prepared to participate.

The Geneva Agreements for Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (which were completed on 21 July 1954) were an achievement of considerable importance and value, but they fellshort of a fully guaranteed settlement. After a period of consultation eight governments — Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States — agreed to attend a conference to consider a system of collective defence for South-East Asia. On 8 September in Manila they signed the South-East Asia Collective Defence Treaty. At the same time they proclaimed the Pacific Charter, in which they set out principles on which they undertook to base their policies for the maintenance of peace and stability. The treaty was ratified by New Zealand on 19 February 1955.

The first meeting of the Council envisaged by the Treaty, comprising the Foreign Ministers of all the allied governments, was held in Bangkok in February 1955. Since then the Council has met on seven occasions: at Karachi in 1956, Canberra in 1957, Manila in 1958, Wellington in 1959, Washington in 1960, Bangkok in 1961, and Paris in 1963. The Council has overall control of the activities of the alliance. (The name “South-East Asia Treaty Organisation” was derived by analogy with NATO and CENTO: in practice it refers to the joint activity of the eight allies.)

At that first meeting the Council established a body known as the Council Representatives to carry on its functions between Council meetings. Council Representatives are generally the heads of their countries' diplomatic missions in Bangkok; New Zealand is at present represented by its Ambassador in Thailand, Sir Stephen Weir. From time to time various expert committees and study groups have been convened to give collective advice to Council Representatives.

In 1957 a Secretary-General was appointed, Mr Pote Sarasin, of Thailand. A permanent civil Secretariat was established in Bangkok, with an international staff of 43 officers, including four New Zealanders.

The Council also agreed in February 1955 that the Military Advisers to the Ministers should meet as a group to advise it on measures for common defence. Subsequently in 1957 a Military Planning Office was established in Bangkok and from 1958–60 the position of Chief of this Office was held by a New Zealander, Brigadier (now Major-General) L. W. Thornton. Joint military exercises, in which units of the sea, land, and air forces of all member countries participate are regularly organised.

SEATO is a defensive alliance. Neither in concept nor in structure is it fitted for a major role in the fields of economic, social, or cultural development, for which purpose other well-established and experienced organisations exist. But the signatories to the Manila Treaty did give explicit recognition to the fact that the security and well being of a nation depend on more than the ability to repel an aggressor. Economic and social as well as military objectives were written into the Treaty. These provisions, and the activities which have stemmed from them, reflect an awareness of the true nature of the challenge in South-East Asia. They confirm and reinforce the essentially peaceful intent of the allies, and demonstrate that the cooperation between them is based on wider considerations than the need to take steps to meet the threat of overt aggression. Accordingly SEATO has developed a range of fairly significant economic, cultural, and educational activities.

In all SEATO economic projects the principle of assistance on a bilateral basis has been followed, but projects have generally attracted support from most of the member governments.

All members have, for example, contributed to the SEATO Graduate School of Engineering which was established in Bangkok in September 1959. New Zealand has provided the Professor of Hydrology and made an annual payment of approximately £1,200 to the scholarship fund. As part of the SEATO Skilled Labour Programme New Zealand made 25 awards available annually for the training in New Zealand military establishments of service personnel from the Asian member countries. New Zealand has contributed a mobile medical unit headed by a New Zealand doctor to the Thai-SEATO Community Development Project which has been set up in North-east Thailand.

An exchange programme provides for research fellowships, post-graduate and under-graduate scholarships. In 1958 a South-East Asian Round Table enabled eminent scholars from the member countries and also India, Japan, Sarawak, and South Vietnam to meet together in Bangkok and discuss the impact of Western technology on Asian traditional cultures. In 1961 SEATO sponsored a Conference in Karachi of Heads of Universities, at which many of the problems facing higher education in South-East Asia were usefully explored. New Zealand took part in both.

The Manila Treaty speaks not only of maintaining and developing individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack but also preventing and countering “subversive activities directed from without” against the territorial integrity and political stability of member countries. With the passage of years it has become clear that the principal threat to the Treaty Area at the present time is from such indirect aggression; subversion by foreign agents developing perhaps into wide-scale insurgency. This is the problem that the allies have to face. In addition, therefore, to stepping up their economic and social development – which is the best defence against this form of offensive – member governments have found it useful and indeed necessary to take more direct measures against the danger of subversion. These are primarily a national responsibility. Council Representatives make it their business, however, to identify subversion in its various forms, to assess the nature of the threat which it poses, and to suggest ways in which that threat may be met.

Two seminars on countering Communist subversion have been held, one in Baguio in the Philippines in 1958, and one in Lahore in 1960: at both of these New Zealand was represented.

In May 1962, following a serious violation of the ceasefire in Laos by the Communist-directed Pathet Lao and in response to an invitation by the Thai Government, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand despatched forces to Thailand. Each of them made it clear that this was a precautionary move, taken in accordance with their obligations under the Manila Treaty, to enable them to come more speedily to the defence of Thailand should the need arise.

When he announced the decision of the New Zealand Government to send to Thailand a detachment of Special Air Service Troops of the New Zealand Army and transport aircraft of the RNZAF, the Prime Minister pointed out that sending even a token military contribution was a serious step for New Zealand to take. It was, nevertheless, a measure of New Zealanders' growing recognition of the responsibilities they owed towards South-East Asia, of their involvement in the affairs of South-East Asia and, ultimately, of the importance of South-East Asia for their own defence. All the nations of this part of the world, he said, must support each other militarily and economically if they were to withstand aggression and the threat of aggression, whatever form it might take.

The Special Air Service Troops were withdrawn in September 1962, and the transport aircraft in December. The Secretary-General of the United Nations was informed of their deployment in Thailand and subsequently of their withdrawal.

In January 1963 two RNZAF transport aircraft were sent to Thailand to provide air transport support for various assistance programmes under way to help develop logistic facilities in that country.

New Zealand and the Colombo Plan – Under the Colombo Plan, New Zealand, with Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, has joined with the countries of South and South-East Asia to help them improve their standards of living. The Colombo Plan is not a single plan, but a series of separate plans drawn up and administered by each country in the region; the external assistance required and made available to help implement these plans is negotiated on a bilateral basis. The Plan had its origin in, and took its name from, a meeting of Commonwealth Foreign Ministers held in January 1950 in Colombo to exchange views on world problems, particularly on the economic needs of the countries of South and South-East Asia. The meeting established a Consultative Committee to “… survey the needs, to assess the resources available and required, to focus world attention on the development problems of the area, and to provide a framework within which an international cooperative effort could be promoted to assist the countries of the area to raise their living standards”. Since then the Consultative Committee has met consecutively in Sydney, London, Colombo, Karachi, New Delhi, Ottawa, Singapore, Wellington (1956), Saigon, Seattle, Jogjakarta, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, and Melbourne. The 1963 meeting was held in Bangkok.

A foundation member of the Plan and an active participant at every meeting, New Zealand has done its utmost, within the scope of its limited resources, to make significant grants of capital and technical assistance to the countries of the area.

Capital Assistance – By 30 June 1963 New Zealand had appropriated a total of £12,144,064 for capital and technical assistance under the Colombo Plan. Of this, at 30 June 1963, £7,178,537 in capital aid had been transferred to the governments concerned or used at their request to buy equipment. Most of New Zealand's capital aid has been given in the form of direct transfers of overseas funds, but in appropriate cases it has been possible to supply equipment manufactured in New Zealand.

Among the capital aid grants negotiated or made during 1963 was £100,000 for milk tankers for the Bombay-Anand Milk Schemes to which New Zealand has already made grants totalling £193,000. Approval was also obtained for a programme including a grant of £70,000 to India for dairy schemes at Dehra Dun and Dhulia. A sum of £200,000 was remitted to Pakistan to assist in establishing a sugar mill at Jaipur Hat. Sarawak and Sabah received £14,000 during the year to establish a joint survey school and £10,000 was used to establish a chemical engineering section for the Singapore Industrial Research Unit which New Zealand established in 1962 at a cost of £30,000. A grant of £125,000 has also been set aside for an Agricultural Faculty at Khon Kaen University in North-east Thailand. A grant of £30,000 for trades training equipment for secondary schools in the Philippines was made during 1963, bringing New Zealand's total contribution to this project so far to £80,000. New Zealand has assisted regional projects in providing £61,400 for the Mekong River Development Scheme, as well as equipment for the Tonle Sap tributary project and is giving £100,000 annually for 10 years to the Indus Water Scheme in India and Pakistan.

Technical Assistance – By 30 June 1963 New Zealand had spent a total of £2,849,471 on technical assistance, and 1,345 students had come to New Zealand. The number of students studying in New Zealand at the end of June had risen to 457, the largest number ever here at any one time. At 30 June 1963 there were 45 New Zealanders on assignment overseas as experts, in many cases associated with the capital aid projects mentioned above.

Commonwealth Aid Schemes – New Zealand participates in two cooperative aid programmes for Commonwealth members. Under the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan New Zealand offers each year 15 two-year scholarships for post-graduate or undergraduate study, three administrative fellowships, and three prestige fellowships for scholars of high academic standing. The New Zealand annual contribution of £50,000 to the Special Commonwealth Aid to Africa Plan, under which Commonwealth countries outside Africa provide bilateral assistance to African members, will enable up to 80 Africans to study in New Zealand, and several New Zealand experts to work in Africa, as well as providing for small capital or equipment grants in appropriate cases.

General Aims – It is clear that, as New Zealand has assumed the international responsibilities appropriate to an independent country, its foreign policy has changed in emphasis and scope. The foundations of New Zealand's pre-war position in international affairs – its identification with Britain and its membership of the Commonwealth – have been modified and extended to meet the demands of an international situation greatly changed from that of 1939. As a country of predominantly European settlement, New Zealand retains its traditional loyalties to the United Kingdom and a sense of identity with Europe and of involvement in its destiny. As a Pacific power, it has sought security in friendship and formal defensive arrangements with Australia and the United States of America. New Zealand's growing involvement in the problems of the South Pacific region and its close ties with the island peoples are giving rise to a new recognition of the importance of the role it will have to play in this area in the future. New Zealand is in a unique position to encourage the growth of a regional consciousness in the South Pacific which is essential if the problems of the area are to be seen and tackled as a whole. At the same time it has developed its association with Asian countries. As a country concerned with the preservation of world peace and the organisation of defence against aggression it has placed prime importance upon development of the United Nations as an agency for peaceful settlement of international disputes and for the achievement of collective security. Pending the establishment of a broadly based United Nations security system, however, New Zealand has been prepared, in respect of South-East Asia, to participate in a protective grouping concerned with the defence of a single area. Moreover, while it sees aggressive Communism as the greatest threat to individual liberty at the present time, it is well aware of the powerful stirrings of other forces – the yearning for political emancipation, the antagonism to systems of racial discrimination, the demand of underprivileged countries for a greater share of the world's prosperity, for social advancement and opportunity. New Zealand's actions in the international field are designed to take account of these forces and, where possible, to assist the people of other countries in their striving for a better life. The limits of what it is able to do are those imposed by its size and capacity; its disposition is towards peaceful and friendly relations with all nations and (whatever the modifications which the needs of national security may impose) it is to that ultimate goal that its foreign policy is directed.

CONSTITUTION OF NEW ZEALAND: General – New Zealand is a monarchical State; it is also a constituent member of the Commonwealth. It is in this context that the preamble to the Royal Titles Act 1953 is significant “… whereas it is expedient that the style and titles at present appertaining to the Crown should be altered so as to reflect more clearly the existing relationships of the Members of the Commonwealth to one another and their recognition of the Crown as the Symbol of their free association and of the Sovereign as the Head of the Commonwealth …”

Constitutional elements besides that of the titular head, the Monarch, can be reviewed under the categories of legislative authority, the executive and administrative structure, and the judiciary. This division is a convenient one, even though there is no absolute line of demarcation between the three phases (e.g., legislation may and often does arise through the day-to-day experience of those responsible for administration and execution of policy, or through difficulties or anomalies made explicit in the course of dispensing justice or interpreting law). Conversely, in the exercise of the powers and functions of industrial and other tribunals, commissions, authorities, etc., both administrative and judicial elements may be discerned.

THE MONARCH – The New Zealand Parliament in the Royal Titles Act 1953 gave its assent to the use of the Royal style and titles as follows: Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Her Other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

While the seat of the Monarch is normally in the United Kingdom, the Queen is represented in New Zealand by the Governor-General appointed by the Crown on the advice of Her New Zealand Ministers. The Governor-General has, however, an official existence, even in the country to which he has been appointed, only in the absence of the Queen from that country. In the island territories the Crown is represented by the Resident Commissioner or Resident Agent. These officials carry out the constitutional functions of the Crown, but they also possess in varying degree certain executive and legislative powers, being responsible to the New Zealand Government for the administration and good government of the islands concerned.

Many powers held by the Monarch (or her representative) comprise but the means of giving effect to the public will. In New Zealand the Governor-General acts on the advice of the Ministers, which cannot constitutionally be ignored. Despite the long-term trend for powers to be assigned directly to Ministers without any necessity for vice-regal consultation, there are still many phases of Government which require Royal participation.

The Queen (in her absence the Governor-General) gives consent or approval prior to a Minister taking office or the formation of a Ministry; summons and prorogues Parliament; delivers the Speech from the Throne at the opening of a session; gives the Royal Assent to measures which have passed all stages in the House of Representatives, without which they have not the force of laws; makes appointments to most important State offices; confers knighthoods and other honours, etc.; and also provides that background of stability, continuity, and experience in many facets of government which is so desirable whenever there are sweeping changes in the dominance of political parties.

Besides those duties associated with the constitutional role, the Royal personage or representative makes an important contribution to the ceremonial life of the nation. This was particularly well illustrated during the sojourn of the Royal visitors in New Zealand in 1953–54 and in 1963. Both as the symbol of the nation and in virtue of her identification with the life and interests of her people, the Queen becomes the focus for all State occasions, as does the Governor-General in her absence.

LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY – The supreme law-making body with power to legislate for the whole country is the General Assembly, which now consists of the Governor-General and the House of Representatives, the former Legislative Council having been abolished since the close of 1950.

The powers of Parliament to make laws are legally untrammelled. This was not always so, for prior to the adoption by New Zealand of the Statute of Westminster in 1947 there was incapacity to make laws on certain matters which conflicted with United Kingdom statutes extending to New Zealand. There was also some doubt as to New Zealand's power to make laws possessing extra-territorial effect.

Although they do not limit the legal powers of Parliament as stated above, the provisions of the Electoral Act 1956 creating reserved sections in that Act are of great constitutional significance. The Act provides that certain of its sections may not be repealed except by a 75 per cent majority of the House of Representatives or following a referendum. These sections are those relating to:

This innovation is not legally effective in the sense that it does not prevent a subsequent Parliament from repealing it, since one Parliament cannot bind its successors. It should not be thought, however, that the provision is a mere gesture. It records the unanimous agreement of both parties represented in Parliament that certain provisions have a fundamental character in the system of Government and should not be altered at the whim of a bare majority. Considered in this light the provision creating reserved sections introduces something in the nature of a formal convention which could not constitutionally be ignored.

While the law-making function is the prerogative of Parliament, it must be remembered that, as in most democracies, laws are passed because of their acceptability to the majority party in Parliament – i.e., the Government party. Furthermore the initial acceptance will have probab been made in the deliberations of Cabinet.

With the increasing range and complexity of the statutory field, the multifarious concerns of a modern twentieth century government, and the necessity of conserving time for consideration of more important issues, much of the detailed procedural steps and other amplifying matter must become the subject of regulations made by Order in Council under the authority of some statute, rather than being incorporated in the statute itself. The power to make such regulations lies with the Executive Council which comprises those senior members of the majority party in Parliament who are appointed thereto, together with the Governor-General. Regulations, though originating in Cabinet and becoming effective in the formal proceedings of the Executive Council, rest fundamentally on the will of Parliament as a whole and are now subject to its supervisory jurisdiction. A general provision contained in the Regulations Amendment Act 1962 requires all such regulations to be laid before Parliament, though most empowering Acts contained a similar provision prior to that date. An amendment to the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives, also passed in 1962, enables the House or any member thereof to refer any regulation to the Statutes Revision Committee, a Select Committee of the House, which is empowered to consider the regulation and to determine whether the special attention of the House should be drawn to it on any of the following grounds: (a) That it trespasses unduly on personal rights and liberties: (b) That it appears to make some unusual or unexpected use of the powers conferred by the statute under which it is made: (c) That for any special reason its form or purport calls for elucidation.

Meeting of Parliament – Parliament is summoned, prorogued, or dissolved by Proclamation issued by the Governor-General. A session is that period between the summoning of Parliament and its prorogation. Its length varies, but it usually occupies the months from June to November. When Parliament is prorogued all the business on hand lapses, and if this is to be proceeded with in the next session it must be re-introduced.

The course of a session may be interrupted by an adjournment.

Parliamentary Privileges – While in session these include freedom of speech and freedom from arrest in civil cases, and also the right to engage in secret debate, if required, etc.

The Party System – There are two political parties represented in Parliament in New Zealand at present: National and Labour. At any general election these parties, together with any other political parties which may be desirous of so doing and also those candidates standing as independents, state their respective policies before the electors. Each party normally puts forward one candidate for each of the 80 electorates into which the country is divided. The party which wins the majority of seats, although not necessarily the majority of votes, at the general election forms the Government. The leader of the elected members of the majority party becomes the Prime Minister, who makes Ministerial appointments from elected members of his party. The leader of the minority party in Parliament becomes the Leader of the Opposition. The effectiveness of the party system relies largely on the general agreement that the majority party is to govern and the minority is to criticise – so that there is ample time allocated for debate on Government measures in Parliament. While party control is exercised by national and local organisations outside Parliament, within the latter it is maintained by the respective party Whips.

Parliamentary Procedure – The House of Representatives has its Standing Orders, which govern its procedure and which are administered by Mr Speaker in the exercise of his control of the House. Mr Speaker's rulings on interpretation of the Standing Orders are followed in a similar manner to judicial decisions in the ordinary Courts of law. The main means by which Parliament does its work is through the system of debate and Committees. The election of a Speaker is the first business of a new House after the members have been sworn. A Chairman of Committees is elected as soon afterwards as is convenient. Twenty members, inclusive of the Speaker, constitute a quorum.

Parliamentary Functions and Control – The Parliament controls the Government in power in the last resort by its power to pass a resolution of no confidence in the Government, or to reject a proposal which the Government considers so necessary that it is made a matter of confidence, and thus force the Government to resign.

Financial control is exercised by the fact that expenditure of public money must be authorised by the House of Representatives in the form of an Appropriation Act, which authorises or grants money to the Government for the purposes approved. The authority for the raising of revenue by taxation or borrowing must also be given by Parliament. The functions of Parliament are, of course, the passing of legislation and taking action to make available finances or funds as required for State expenditure, while it also controls the Government. Legislation can be initiated by any member of Parliament, but in practice almost all Bills are introduced by the Government in-power as a result of policy decisions taken in Cabinet, sometimes at the instigation of those Government Departments which will be responsible for their administration when the Bills become law. The chief exceptions are private Bills, which are designed for the particular interest or benefit of a person or body of persons, whether incorporated or not, and local Bills which relate largely to matters of local (as distinct from central) government business. The process of passing a public Bill is as follows: it receives a formal first reading on introduction, is then printed, and after some time it is given a second reading as a result of a debate on its general merits or principles. It may then be referred to one of the Select Committees, for consideration in the closest detail, before being considered by the whole House sitting in Committee. During these stages members have opportunities to suggest amendments which may be incorporated in the Bill if the majority so decide. The Bill is then reported to the House, and later read a third time, debate rarely occurs at these stages. The final stage is to send the Bill to the Governor-General for the Royal Assent and, unless provision is made for commencement on another date, it then becomes law. Bills providing for receipt of moneys, such as the Finance Bill, and expenditure of moneys, such as the Appropriation Bill, are introduced only by a Minister of the Crown, normally the Minister of Finance. No Bill involving an appropriation of public moneys or affecting the rights of the Crown can be passed without the recommendation of the Crown, which is given by Message from the Governor-General.

Duration of Parliaments – Quinquennial Parliaments, instituted under the Constitution Act, were abolished by the Triennial Parliaments Act 1879, which fixed the term at three years. General elections have been held at three-yearly intervals since 1881, with a few exceptions. The term of the nineteenth Parliament was during the First World War extended to five years by special legislation, and that of the twenty-fourth (1931–35) and subsequent Parliaments to four years under the Electoral Amendment Act 1934. By the Electoral Amendment Act 1937 the three-year term was restored, but on account of war conditions the term of the twenty-sixth Parliament was extended to four years by the Prolongation of Parliament Act 1941. The Prolongation of Parliament Act 1942 extended the term still further to one year from the termination of the war, but with a proviso for a motion to be moved in the House of Representatives each year after the year 1942 either approving the continuation of the House or fixing an earlier date for its expiry. During the 1943 session a motion in favour of dissolution was carried, and Parliament was dissolved on 30 August 1943. Since then the duration of Parliaments has been of three years, with the exception that the twenty-ninth Parliament was dissolved after the expiration of approximately 20 months. The three-year limit was reenacted in the Electoral Act 1956, this being one of the reserved provisions referred to earlier.

Number of Representatives – The number of members constituting the House of Representatives is 80 – 76 Europeans and four Maoris. They are designated “members of Parliament”. The number was originally fixed by the Constitution Act as not more than 42 and not less than 24, and the first Parliament called together in 1854 consisted of 40 members. Legislation passed in 1858 fixed the number of European members at 41; in 1860, at 53; in 1862, at 57; in 1865, at 70; in 1867, at 72; in 1870, at 74; in 1875, at 84; in 1881, at 91; in 1887, at 70; and in 1900, at 76. Since 1867 there have been four Maori representatives, and provision for this number was retained in the Electoral Act 1956. In 1952 the boundaries of the Maori electoral districts, which had remained unaltered since 1867, were changed by Proclamation so as to give a greater degree of equality of population among the four districts (in effect the Southern Maori Electoral District now includes a considerable area of the North Island).

Qualifications of Members – Under the Electoral Act 1956 every registered elector of either sex, but no other person, is qualified to be a parliamentary candidate. It is provided, however, that a person shall not be so elected who is disqualified as an elector under any of the provisions of the Act (see under “Franchise” later); or is an undischarged bankrupt; or is a contractor to the Public Service of New Zealand to whom any public money above the sum of £200 is payable, directly or indirectly (but not as a member of a registered company or incorporated body), in any one financial year. Although women have had the vote since 1893, they were not eligible as Parliamentary candidates until the passing of the Women's Parliamentary Rights Act 1919. Prior to 1936 a public servant was prohibited from being elected, but this prohibition was removed by the Political Disabilities Removal Act 1936. The present law is that if a public servant is elected to Parliament he vacates his office forthwith and he cannot resume employment in the Public Service within 12 months of ceasing to be a member of Parliament unless he had previously been a public servant for at least five years.

Salaries, etc. – Section 27 of the Civil List Act 1950 provides that on the recommendation of a Royal Commission the Governor-General may 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 shall be appointed for this purpose within three months after the date of every general election of members of Parliament.

In accordance with the recommendations contained in the report (issued in 1961) of the Royal Commission upon Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances, the Prime Minister's salary, as from 1 July 1961, was increased to £4,750 with a tax-free allowance of £1,600 for the expenses of his office and a Ministerial residence. In addition, while travelling on official business he receives £4 4s. per day to meet expenses, and by virtue of his office is entitled to free cars, secretarial assistance, and free postage. The Deputy Prime Minister's salary is £3,350 with a tax-free expense allowance of £600. The salary of each other Minister holding a portfolio is £3,150 with a tax-free expense allowance of £550, and that of each Minister without portfolio £2,500, with £450 tax-free expense allowance. Where the office of Minister of External Affairs is held by a Minister other than the Prime Minister the expense allowance is increased to £730. Any Minister not occupying a Ministerial residence receives an allowance in lieu at the rate of £300 a year. This allowance, or the assessed value of the residence where one is provided, is subject to income tax. Previously Ministers did not receive an expense allowance as such, but the Commissioner of Inland Revenue allowed a deduction from salary of £250 as an expense allowance. Ministers also receive an allowance of £4 4s. per day when travelling on official business within New Zealand, and in addition are entitled to free cars, secretarial assistance, and free postage.

The Civil List Amendment Act 1936 made provision for the appointment of Parliamentary Under-Secretaries, an innovation in executive control in New Zealand. The rate of salary attachable to such position is now £2,250, with the same house provision or allowances, and travel allowance while on official business, as for Ministers. An expense allowance of £450 is also payable. After the general election of November 1954 no appointments were made until 1960, when two Parliamentary Under-Secretaries were appointed.

The basic salary paid to members of the House of Representatives is now £1,550 a year. European members are also paid an allowance to provide for expenses incurred in connection with parliamentary duties ranging from £370 to £550 a year subject to the classification of their electorates by the Representation Commission into the four classes of (a) a wholly urban electorate, or (b) a substantially urban electorate, or (c) a partially urban and partially rural electorate, or (d) a predominantly rural electorate. An expense allowance of £675 a year is paid to the member for Southern Maori, and an expense allowance of £600 to the members representing the other three Maori Electorates. A sessional accommodation allowance is paid at the rate of £2 10s. for each day on which a member is in Wellington and attends the sittings of Parliament, or of a Select Committee of Parliament of which he is a member. The sessional accommodation allowance is not payable to any member representing a Wellington urban electorate. (For full details see Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Order 1961 and Section 3 of the Finance Act 1962.) Payment to members is subject to certain deductions for absence not due to sickness or other unavoidable cause. In addition to the salary and allowances, members are entitled to certain privileges in respect of railway and other forms of travel, a stamp allowance of £5 a month, and certain other concessions regarding telegrams and telephone services. If a member is defeated at an election he continues to receive salary only to the end of the month following the month in which the election took place.

Part V of the Superannuation Act 1947, as amended by the Superannuation Amendment Act 1955, consolidated in 1956 and amended in 1961, introduced a compulsory contributory superannuation scheme for members of the House of Representatives. The scheme now provides that a retiring allowance shall be payable to a member after nine 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 10 per cent of an ordinary member's salary, and the Government subsidises the fund by an equal amount. 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 aged 50 years at the time of his death, or £130 a year, whichever is the greater.

Both the Speaker and Chairman of Committees hold office until a dissolution and receive payment until the first meeting of a new Parliament. The Speaker's remuneration is £2,700 a year in addition to which he receives an expense allowance of £675 a year and residential quarters in Parliament House. The salary of the Chairman of Committees is £2,100 a year. In addition he receives the electoral and sessional allowances appropriate to his electorate, increased by the sum of £100, and is provided with sessional accommodation.

The Leader of the Opposition is paid a salary of £2,600 a year with an expense allowance of £550 a year. In addition, a secretary, an assistant secretary, and a typist are provided by the State, and an allowance of £215 is payable for travel outside his electorate. His stamp allowance is £12 10s. per month. In addition, the Leader of the Opposition is entitled to an official residence on the same basis as a Minister, or to an allowance of £300 a year in lieu thereof. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition receives a salary of £1,700 a year in addition to his appropriate electorate allowance and the sessional accommodation allowance where this is payable.

The Chief Whip of each party receives a salary of £1,625 a year, and the Junior Whip of each party receives a salary of £1,600 a year, together with the appropriate expense allowance in each case in accordance with the classification of his electorate and where applicable a sessional accommodation allowance.

ADMINISTRATION AND EXECUTIVE RESPONSIBILITY – After the election of a new Parliament, the Prime Minister, who is the leader of the majority party in the elected members, is given the task of selecting the members of the Executive Council (i.e., the New Ministry). Each of those members of Parliament to form the Government is normally entrusted by the Prime Minister with responsibility for administration of a specified field or aspect of government. This field is entitled a portfolio, e.g., all relevant matters relating to Customs would be allocated to one member, who is henceforth known as the Minister of Customs. He may also have other portfolios and the supervision of one or more Government Departments in which the activities carried out, though important, either do not rank as portfolios or are subsidiary aspects of the field – in these cases the Minister's responsibility will extend to being in charge of the named Department. One or other of the appointed Ministers in this way is responsible for the direction of activities and executive acts of each of the Government Departments and offices, etc., embracing the entire range of State activities. Thus arises the concept of Ministerial responsibility. Occasionally a Minister is appointed without portfolio.

Executive Council – In the legal sense those members of Parliament who have been appointed Ministers, together with the Governor-General, comprise the Executive 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.

A point of interest is that 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 1964 the Executive Council consisted of 17 members in addition to the Governor-General. Two members, exclusive of His Excellency or the presiding member, constitute a quorum.

Under the Civil List Act 1950 and its amendments, His Excellency the Governor-General receives a salary of £7,500 per annum, and an allowance of £5,500 per annum 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 – There is a close relationship between the Executive Council and the Cabinet. There are, however, significant differences in membership and functions.

The Council consists of all Ministers and is presided over by the Governor-General. Cabinet may or may not comprise all the Ministers, including a Minister without portfolio; the Governor-General is not a member. The Council is one of the instruments for giving the imprint of legal form to policy determined by Cabinet which had been recognised only by constitutional convention until legislative reference to Cabinet was made in the Parliamentary Commissioner (Ombudsman) Act 1962.

Cabinet has been described as the directing body of national policy whose nature is more easily explained by analogy than by definition. It determines the policy to be submitted to Parliament. In it is vested the supreme control of national policy within the limits of Parliamentary approval. It coordinates and delineates the activities of the several Departments of State.

The juridical acts which are necessary 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, a Statutory Commission and the like. The preliminary review of proposed policy or of current administrative developments, which takes place in the informal atmosphere of Cabinet meetings, implies both deliberative or selective and administrative procedures on the part of this body.

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. As a result the Executive Council confirmation can proceed smoothly and expeditiously. 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.

Certain questions are considered by committees of Cabinet composed of those Ministers primarily concerned. Some executive action may be undertaken by these committees within the lines of established Government policy. Their work is subject to periodical report to, and overall supervision by, the entire Cabinet. On occasions, ad hoc committees may be established to review or investigate particular questions and to present their conclusions and recommendations to Cabinet.

The Cabinet Secretariat is responsible for the servicing of Cabinet and its committees to ensure their smooth functioning. It is its purpose also to assist in the coordination and review of the work of the Departments of State.

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, External Affairs, Printing Office, Law Drafting, Valuation, Statistics, and Audit; the finance subgroup – Treasury, Customs, Inland Revenue; the regulatory subgroup – State Services Commission, Internal Affairs, Island Territories, Labour, Marine; the defence and law and order subgroup – Ministry of Defence, Justice, Crown Law, and Police; the publicity and research subgroup – Tourist and Publicity, Scientific and Industrial Research.

In the second group are the transport and communications subgroup, such as Transport, Civil Aviation, Post Office, and Railways; the developmental – Ministry of Works, Agriculture, Lands and Survey, Forest Service, Mines, Electricity, Maori Affairs, and Industries and Commerce; the commercial – Public Trust, Government Life Insurance, State Advances Corporation, and State Insurance.

The third group comprises the Education, Health, and Social Security 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 the Governor or Board of Directors is to give effect to the monetary policy of the Government, as communicated to the bank from time to time by the Minister of Finance.

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.

JUDICIARY – The hierarchy of Courts in New Zealand comprises the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court, and the Magistrates' Court. Apart from these Courts of general jurisdiction there are other Courts dealing with specific fields. In the latter category are the Court of Arbitration, concerned with awards and general orders governing wage determination and conditions of employment in industry; the Compensation Court dealing with workers' compensation; and the Land Valuation Court, which settles land valuation disputes and compensation claims where land is taken for public works. For further details refer to Section 8 (Justice) of this issue.

ELECTORAL PROVISIONS – The law on these matters is now contained in the Electoral Act 1956. Following each population census, which is normally taken every five years, New Zealand is divided anew into 76 European electorates. 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 Commission determines the number of electoral districts in the North and South Islands so that the number of districts in the North Island bears, as nearly as possible, the same proportion to the number of districts in the South Island as the European population of the North Island bears to the European population of the South Island. Once this is done the next step is to determine the population quota for electoral districts in each Island by dividing the European population of each Island by the number of districts in that Island. In applying the quota, provision exists for an allowance by way of addition or subtraction of 5 per cent of the quota where districts containing the exact quota cannot be formed consistently with consideration 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 one month is given thereafter in 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 become the new electoral districts.

In addition to determining new European electoral districts the Representation Commission is also charged with the responsibility of classifying them for the purpose of allowances as provided by section 14 of the Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Order 1959. Under this section provision is made for an allowance based on the size, topography, and transport facilities of the electorate, the nature of its roads, the distribution of its population, and all other considerations that the Commission deems relevant.

The Act provides that all general elections and by-elections shall be held on a Saturday and for both European and Maori elections to be held on the same day. Polling hours in all electorates are from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The Act provides that, if at any time Parliament is dissolved before it has been two years in existence, the main and supplementary rolls used in the previous general election, together with a further supplementary roll, may be used if in the opinion of the Chief Electoral Officer it is impracticable to print new main rolls. The same rolls, together with a further supplementary roll, are to be used for any by-election occurring before the next following general election.

Provision is made for the voting at elections and licensing polls by servicemen serving overseas, who are or will be of, or over the age of, 21 years before the date of the election or poll, whether or not registered as electors of any electoral district. Each such serviceman shall be qualified to vote as an elector of the electoral district in which he last resided before he left New Zealand.

FRANCHISE – Since the abolition of plural voting in 1889 and the introduction of women's suffrage in 1893, every person 21 years of age or over (with certain obvious exceptions) has had the right to exercise one vote and one vote only in the election of members of the House of Representatives. Some of the more important provisions of the Electoral Act 1956 are now given.

Qualification for Registration as Elector – To be qualified for registration as a parliamentary elector in New Zealand a person must have attained the age of 21 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 three months or more in the electoral district in respect of which application for registration is made, and not have subsequently resided for three months or more in any other electoral district.

The Act defines what is meant by the term “ordinarily resident”. To be ordinarily resident in New Zealand, a person must be or have been actually resident in New Zealand with the intention of residing there indefinitely. If he is absent from New Zealand he must have had, ever since he left New Zealand, an intention to return to reside there indefinitely, and (except in the case of a public servant or the wife or husband of a public servant) must not have been absent from New Zealand for more than three years.

This new requirement that an elector must be ordinarily resident in New Zealand is an important departure from the previous position. Prior to 1957 any British subject who had been in New Zealand for a year was entitled to register and to vote, even though his residence might have been of a temporary nature and although he did not associate himself with the New Zealand community. Conversely, a New Zealander absent from New Zealand for more than a year lost the right to vote. Broadly speaking, the new qualifications restrict the right to vote to permanent residents, the test laid down being similar to the legal concept of domicile.

The following persons are disqualified from registration as electors: (a) Those in respect of whom reception orders under the Mental Health Act 1911 are in force, (b) those detained pursuant to a conviction in any penal institution, and (c) those whose names are on the Corrupt Practices List for any district.

These qualifications and disqualifications apply alike to Maoris and Europeans.

Registration of Electors – A system of compulsory registration of electors has been in operation in respect of Europeans since 1924 and was introduced in respect of Maoris in 1948. Every person qualified to be registered as an elector of any district must, if he is in New Zealand, apply for registration within one month after the date on which he first becomes qualified to be registered as an elector. He must also apply for registration within three months after the issue of every Proclamation proclaiming the names and boundaries of electoral districts or within such later period as may be provided by Order in Council. Qualified electors who are outside New Zealand may apply for registration if they wish.

A European is not entitled to be registered as an elector of a Maori district and a Maori (other than a half-caste) is not entitled to be registered as an elector of a European district. A half-caste Maori may choose to be registered either for a Maori or European district, and special rules are laid down to govern a change from one to the other.

Voting at Elections – Voting at parliamentary elections is by secret ballot, a method which was first introduced in New Zealand in 1870. Recognition of the fundamental character which the secret ballot has attained in New Zealand was given in the Electoral Act 1956, which included the section providing for this method of voting among the reserved sections which may be repealed only by a 75 per cent majority vote of all the members of the House of Representatives or following a referendum.

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. The following classes of persons whose names are not on the roll are however entitled to vote:

Special Voters – 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, in the following cases:

These latter conditions replace the former classes of absentee, postal, and declaration voters, including servicemen outside New Zealand.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT – In 1876, following the abolition of the provinces, local government assumed the form it still basically retains. The Counties Act of 1876 divided the country into 63 counties, with provision for administration by elective councils having powers considerably less than those enjoyed by the Provincial Councils. In the same year the Municipal Corporations Act provided for the incorporation of the 36 boroughs then in existence and for the creation of new boroughs.

A description of the development of counties, boroughs, and town districts follows.

Counties – Counties are now constituted under the Counties Act 1956, which consolidated earlier legislation relating to counties and road districts. In general, the county organisation makes provision for the primary needs of a scattered population within a large area. With increasing settlement the original 63 counties were gradually subdivided until in 1920 the maximum of 129 was reached, although the number of councils formed and actively functioning never exceeded 126. The number of counties has been reduced by amalgamations and mergers by the Local Government Commission. At April 1963 there were 119 counties constituted, of which 117 were actively functioning, Sounds and Fiord being the two sparsely populated counties in which the Counties Act is not wholly in force. The Local Government Commission operates under the Local Government Commission Act 1961.

County councils may, under the provisions of the Counties Act 1956, declare areas within counties to be county towns. To qualify the areas concerned must have 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 three acres. After the constitution of a county town the county council is 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. Membership is restricted to electors having a ratepayer's or residential qualification in respect of property or an address within the county town, or members of the council for the riding in which the county town is sited.

Boroughs – Dealing with the needs of a concentrated population, the borough organisation is concerned with a wide range of functions of a purely local nature. With the growth and centralisation of population the number of boroughs, despite numerous amalgamations of adjacent boroughs, steadily increased until 1955 when the total was 146. In April 1963 the total was 145.

Under the Municipal Corporations Act 1954 for the constitution of a borough 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.

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 and the presence of interests which, from their purely local nature, cannot be satisfactorily met by the county organisation. In its early stages a town district usually remained subject to county control, although such control was practically confined to the main and county roads in the town district; in such circumstances it was known as a dependent town district. The Town Boards Amendment Act 1908 enabled town districts on reaching a population of more than 500 to become independent. On attaining its independence a town district becomes in all respects a separate entity, and, apart from its smaller population, is not essentially different from a borough. The constitution and powers of town districts have been brought into closer relationship to boroughs over the years, and independent town districts are now constituted under the Municipal Corporations Act 1954. The Act required that the area should not be more than 2 square miles, within which no two points are more than 4 miles distant and with a density of population of not less than one person to the acre. No new dependent town districts can be constituted. The number of town districts in April 1963 was 23 (14 independent and 9 dependent).

General Powers – Local authorities in New Zealand derive their powers from the Acts under which they are constituted, and also from special empowering Acts. In addition to legislation providing for particular types of local authority or for individual local authorities, there are several statutory measures which are more or less applicable to all local authorities, such as the Local Elections and Polls Act 1953 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 Harbour Bridge Authority, the Christchurch-Lyttelton Road Tunnel Authority, and the Waikato Valley Authority – derive their principal powers from special constituting Acts.

Local authorities have general powers of entering into contracts for any of the purposes for which they are constituted; of selling and leasing land; and of taking or purchasing any land which may be necessary or convenient for any public work.

Number of Local Authorities—The number of local authorities actively functioning at 1 April 1963 was 948 made up as follows: County councils, 117; borough (including city) councils, 145; town councils (independent), 14; town councils (dependent), 9; road boards, 3; river boards (2 boards also have the power of land-drainage boards), 10; catchment boards, 13; land-drainage boards, 38; electric power boards, 40; water-supply board, 1; urban drainage boards, 5; transport boards, 2; local railway board, 1; electric power and gas boards, 2; milk boards (including 33 where the board is a borough council), 44; nassella tussock boards, 2; harbour bridge authority, 1; road tunnel authority, 1; valley authority, 1; plantation board, 1; underground water authorities, 3; rabbit boards, 181; fire boards (including 178 where the board is a borough or county council, etc.), 238; harbour boards (including 17 where the board is a borough or county council, etc.), 39; and hospital boards, 37. In addition, there were 21 district councils of the National Roads Board constituted under the National Roads Act 1954. 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.

Administratively, boroughs and independent town districts, which are contained within the areas of the several counties, are regarded as separate entities. From an administrative point of view, therefore, the fundamental districts are counties, boroughs, and independent town districts. Upon this foundation a considerable superstructure of districts of other types has been erected. These overlapping districts may be divided into two broad classes, viz: (1) Districts formed from parts of counties, e.g., road districts; and (2) those which are composed of a group of adjacent districts of other types united for a common purpose, e.g., electric power districts.

Local Government Commission – The Local Government Commission Act 1961, which replaced the Local Government Commission Act 1953, set up a 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 Commission shall consist of a Chairman who is a barrister or solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand and two other members having a special knowledge of local government.

The functions of the Commission are 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 locality will best provide for the needs and continued development of the locality, 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, and that the provisions of the Act and of other Acts in relation to local government are effectively implemented. Reorganisation schemes may provide for the union of adjoining districts, the merger, constitution, or abolition of districts, the alteration of boundaries, the conversion of a district into one of a different kind, the transfer of functions of one local authority to another or the dissolution of a local authority.

The Act provides for the appointment of a Local Government Appeal Authority whose function is to sit as a judicial authority to determine appeals made from decisions of the Commission. Any decision finally approving a scheme of reorganisation of districts may be appealed against only by the following parties:

Franchise – The franchise in local government is a variable one, differing materially in certain respects as between urban and country districts. Prior to the passing of the Local Elections and Polls Amendment Act 1941 the county franchise was based solely on property qualification, with a differential voting power according to the value of property possessed, whereas in boroughs and town districts every adult possessing the necessary residential qualifications was entitled to be enrolled as an elector for the election of the local-governing authority. On any proposal relating to loans or rates, however, a ratepaying or a freehold qualification was, and still is, necessary.

An amendment passed in 1944 extended the franchise in counties and road districts to include a residential qualification on the same lines as for boroughs, but did not interfere with the multiple voting power conferred by a property qualification. One vote only is allowed in boroughs and town districts, but it is possible, by virtue of property qualification, to have a vote in more than one district. The 1944 amendment introduced compulsory registration of electors for boroughs and town districts, all adult persons not entitled to enrolment by virtue of a property qualification being required to make application for enrolment within a prescribed time. The Act also removed the disability which prevented persons in the employ of local authorities from becoming members thereof. The Local Elections and Polls Amendment Act 1946 provided that all general elections of local authorities were to be held on the third Wednesday in November of the year in which such elections were due, instead of in May as previously. The 1950 amendment altered this to the third Saturday in November. It also abolished the provisions of the 1946 amendment that any person could be entered on the local authority roll whose name appeared on the parliamentary roll with an address in that authority's district provided he or she had a residential qualification, and that, if not so entered, he or she could vote by declaration. The Local Elections and Polls Act 1953, which consolidated and amended previous Acts and amendments, provided that future elections were to be held on the third Saturday in November, commencing 1956, and every third year thereafter. The 1961 amendment has altered this to the second Saturday in October 1962 and on the same date in every third year thereafter. The 1953 Act also extends the compulsory enrolment of residential electors to counties and road districts in addition to boroughs and town districts (for which provision had been made in 1944). Power is also given to make regulations to give full effect to the Act. Details of the franchise as it affects each type of local district are now given.

Counties – Any person of 21 years of age and over who possesses either of the following qualifications is entitled to be enrolled on the county electors roll:

Boroughs – Any person of 21 years of age and over who possesses any of the following qualifications is entitled to enrolment:

Town Districts – The franchise is the same as for boroughs, except that for county electoral purposes in dependent town districts the county qualification is necessary.

Rabbit Districts – Where the rates of the district are based on the acreage and rateable value of land occupied by the ratepayer, the franchise is the same as that exercised for county council elections. Where the franchise is based on stock ownership, from one to five votes are allowed according to the number of stock units owned.

Other Districts – Road districts, river districts, land-drainage districts, water-supply districts, and the local railway district all have a franchise similar to that of counties except that the residential qualification applies to road districts only.

Districts composed of a grouping of districts of other types united for a common purpose have a franchise as for the component districts. Such districts are urban drainage districts, electric power districts, harbour districts, hospital districts, urban transport districts, and catchment districts. In some cases – e.g., the Auckland Metropolitan and Hutt Valley Drainage Boards – the members are appointed or elected by the territorial local authorities included in the district.

In addition to elected members, the constitution of harbour boards provided in most cases for certain nominated or appointed members (representatives of the Government, the waterfront industry, and the payers of harbour dues), but the Harbours Act 1950, which consolidated and amended previous legislation, provides that every harbour board shall now consist of members elected by the electors of constituent local authorities only.

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 who may delegate his authority to the Commissioner of Works.

Regional Planning – Regional Planning Authorities may be established under provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act 1953. As provided in the Act the authorities consist of representatives of the several councils whose districts are wholly or partly within the region. Every local authority within the region, other than the constituent councils, is entitled to be represented by at least one associate member. The Regional Planning Authority may also appoint any person who may be possessed of special knowledge, or representatives of any Department of State, to be associate members. Authorities are now operating in the four main centres and in Whangarei and Marlborough.

Finance for administration purposes is provided for by way of a maximum rate of one-fiftieth of a penny in the pound on the rateable capital value of those portions of the councils' territories inside the regional area. The Act also makes provision whereby any of the constituent councils may enter into and carry out agreements for the execution of combined works.

Regional planning schemes must be preceded by a comprehensive survey of the natural resources of the areas concerned, and of the present and potential uses and values of all lands in relation to public utilities or amenities. Regional schemes envisage the conservation and economic development of natural resources by classification of lands according to their best uses and by the coordination of all such public improvements, utilities, and amenities as are not limited to the territory of any one local authority. Every regional planning scheme is intended to be a guide to councils engaged in the preparation of district planning schemes and to public authorities and all persons in relation to conservation and development within the region. Regional schemes are required to be reviewed at intervals of not more than ten years.

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.

While a district scheme is being prepared a council may refuse its consent to the carrying out of any development that would be in contravention of the scheme and falls within the definition of a “detrimental work”, but the owner or occupier affected may appeal against such a decision to the Town and Country Planning Appeal Board. The Minister can require the council to exercise these powers where the development would or might adversely affect Government works or the public interest, and local authorities have similar rights in respect of their works. Any appeal proceedings lie against the Minister or the local authority concerned.

In the period before a district scheme becomes operative, any change of use of land that detracts or is likely to detract from the amenities of the neighbourhood is required to have the prior consent of the council. Where an application is made to the council for consent, the applicant and every person who claims to be affected by the proposed use has a right to be heard by the council and may appeal to the Appeal Board against the council's decision.

When completed and recommended by the council, copies of a district scheme are submitted to the Minister of Works and to adjoining councils and to local authorities within the area covered by the scheme for consideration, particularly in relation to their public works. When the Minister and each local authority is satisfied that all their respective public works have been properly provided for in the scheme and have certified accordingly the district scheme is publicly notified for inspection for three months. Any owner or occupier of land affected may object to any provision of the scheme, and the Minister, other local authorities, professional, business, sporting or other such organisations, may also object to the scheme on grounds of public interest. In the event of an objection not being sustained by the council the objector may appeal to the Appeal Board whose decision is final.

The Minister of Works may prepare and obtain approval for a district scheme in any case where a local authority under an obligation to prepare such a scheme fails to do so after being notified in writing. The costs and expenses incurred by the Minister are recoverable from the local authority, or they may be deducted from any moneys payable to the local authority by the Crown.

When a district scheme has been finally approved and made operative the council and all local authorities having jurisdiction in the district are bound to observe, and enforce observance of, the requirements of the scheme. The provisions of an operative regional planning scheme are also obligatory, but a constituent council has a right of appeal to the Town and Country Planning Appeal Board where a provision of a proposed or operative district scheme conflicts with the regional scheme; the Minister has, incidentally, a similar right of appeal so far as the regional scheme conflicts with the public interest.

Operative district schemes may be altered at any time, and must be reviewed when any part of the scheme has been operative and unchanged for a period of five years. In preparing, recommending, and approving a change or a review of a district scheme a council may follow either the same procedure as that for a new scheme commencing at the point where the scheme is ready to be recommended, or it may adopt an alternative procedure whereby the change or review is publicly notified for inspection by owners and occupiers of property and simultaneously submitted to the Minister, to the Regional Planning Authority, and to the local authorities within the district for their consideration and objection where necessary in the light of their respective public works and other responsibilities.

Once a district scheme has been made operative it cannot be cancelled unless it is replaced at the same time by another operative district scheme. Furthermore, once a proposed change to an operative district scheme has been publicly notified for inspection and objection by owners and occupiers of property, no development work, subdivision, or change of use of land or buildings that would conflict with the proposed change may be carried out without permission by order of the Appeal Board.

Where a district scheme is operative the local authority may take, under the Public Works Act 1928, any land in its district if in accordance with the scheme it considers it is necessary or expedient to do so for the proper development or use of the land, or for the provision or preservation of amenities, or for the improvement of areas that are too closely subdivided or are occupied by decadent buildings.

Of the 276 councils that are under statutory obligation to provide and maintain operative district schemes, 77 councils had fulfilled that obligation by the end of August 1963 and a further 44 councils had progressed beyond the stage of recommending and submitting their district schemes for consideration by the Minister of Works, adjoining councils and the local authorities within the area covered by the scheme.

GENERAL – 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 Cook Islands, Niue Island, and Tokelau Islands are constitutionally part of New Zealand, for geographical reasons they are administered separately.

Maoris are included in all population data unless the contrary is stated.

PRESENT POPULATION – The most recent census of population was taken on 18 April 1961, at which time the population of New Zealand, excluding island territories, was 2,414,984. A census of the island territories was taken on 25 September 1961.

The following table gives a summary of New Zealand population according to the latest estimates.

INCREASE OF POPULATION – Since the commencement of European settlement in New Zealand the European population has in every year shown an increase, though the rate of increase has fluctuated considerably, and the Maori population has increased continuously since 1896. Census records since 1901 are quoted in the succeeding table and include Maoris.

In no fewer than six of the 11 censuses covered by the table the figures are disturbed by the absence overseas of armed forces. Their departure and return affect intercensal increases. Numbers of armed forces personnel overseas at the respective dates were: 1901 2,500 (approx.); 1916, 44,000 (approx.); 1945, 45,381; 1951, 1,894; 1956, 2,162; and 1961, 2,559.

It will be noted that the growth of population has been substantial in each period. The lowest rates are those of 1926–36, which included some years of economic depression, and of 1936–45, which included six years of war.

COMPARISON WITH OTHER COUNTRIES – The annual average percentage increases of population during the respective intercensal periods are given in the following table for certain selected countries.

INTERCENSAL RECORDS – Intercensal statements of total population are prepared from the records of vital statistics and of external migration and are relatively accurate. Discrepancies have in fact been so slight that revisions of the intercensal figures between 1951 and 1956 and between 1956 and 1961 were not necessary.

The following population figures 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 Maoris. The following table shows the Maori population.

POPULATION PROJECTIONS – An indication of future population growth, including Maoris, in New Zealand is given by the detailed projections for the period 1965–80 and the less elaborate projections for the five-yearly points 1985–2000 set out in the following table.

Projections of future population involve an element of uncertainty owing to incomplete knowledge of the factors underlying changes in fertility, mortality, and migration levels, coupled with the difficulty of accurately forecasting the future course of the factors which are known to affect these components of population change. It should be understood, therefore, that these projections merely show the effect of the assumptions stated below the table on the future growth of the existing population. The assumptions, however, have been adopted only after careful studies of trends in the patterns of fertility, mortality, and migration and, in the light of available current information, are regarded as those most likely to produce realistic projections over the length of the projection period.

PROJECTED NEW ZEALAND POPULATION

Assumptions – The two projections are linked to actual population numbers as at 31 March 1963. The assumptions on which the more detailed projections for 1965–80 depend are as follows:

The long-term projections for 1985–2000 are linked to the earlier projections. They are based on the following assumptions:

The following diagram presented on a ratio scale shows the growth of actual population from 1880 to 1963 and projections through to 2000.

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION – Detailed population statistics are compiled for each census. Final figures for the 1961 census for statistical areas, urban areas, counties, cities, boroughs, town districts, county towns, extra-county islands, and shipping have been published in Volume 1, Increase and Location of Population, of the 1961 Population Census.

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 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, excluding Maoris, of the North and South Islands as disclosed by each census since 1901.

The natural increase of European population (i.e., excess of births over deaths) for the North Island during the 1956–61 intercensal period was 121,852, and the total net increase 159,369. For the South Island the natural increase was 50,101, and the total net increase 51,618. The population of the North Island increased at a greater proportionate rate than that of the South Island between the 1956 and 1961 censuses. Inclusive of Maoris, the North Island increase was 187,421, or 12.5 per cent, and the South Island increase 53,501, or 7.9 per cent.

At the 1961 census the North Island population was 1,684,785, inclusive of 159,946 Maoris, and the South Island population 730,199, inclusive of 7,140 Maoris.

Statistical Areas – Statistical areas are now being used in preference to provincial districts. Auckland Provincial District has been split into four areas; Northland comprises the northern counties from Mangonui to Otamatea; central Auckland, the counties from Rodney to Franklin (including islands in the Hauraki Gulf); East Coast, the area north of Wairoa; while South Auckland - Bay of Plenty comprises the remainder of the provincial district. Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, and Wellington statistical areas are the same as the provincial districts of the same names.

In the South Island only minor changes have been made in the provincial district boundaries to give better statistical areas. These are the transfer of Amuri and Cheviot counties from Nelson to Canterbury statistical area, and the transfer of all that area of Grey county north of Grey River from Nelson to Westland.

It is ultimately intended to drop statistics for provincial districts completely.

In the table following, the approximate areas and the estimated total populations as at 1 April 1963 of the statistical areas are shown.

Urban Areas – These are statistical conceptions and not administrative units. Their purpose is to provide definite, stable, and comparable boundaries for the larger centres of population. In addition to the central city or borough, they include neighbouring boroughs and town districts and parts of counties which are regarded as suburban to the centre of population.

Urban areas were defined in 1917 and, except for two additions and one deletion, remained unaltered until 1951, when a revision of boundaries was made and the new areas used in the 1951 census. From census records and maps, revised population figures were prepared on the basis of the new boundaries. In the case of European population the figures were revised for each census back to 1911, and on the basis of population including Maoris the revision was possible back to the 1926 census. The most significant change resulting from this revision was the division of the former Wellington Urban Area, plus additional areas to the north, into the two adjacent urban areas of Hutt and Wellington. The two areas in a sense form a single centre of population and it is preferable at times to treat them as such. However, the extent and pattern of development in the Hutt Valley have been such as to establish it as a centre complementary to Wellington. In Auckland the boundaries were extended considerably, but in most other cases it was found that little change was necessary. For the 1961 Census, three new urban areas were defined at Whangarei, Tauranga, and Rotorua and comparable figures have been compiled for past years.

In the period covered by the table all urban areas have consistently recorded increases in population. In the years 1956–61 Auckland had the greatest numerical growth, while Rotorua, Tauranga, and Hamilton had the highest proportionate increases.

The lowest percentage increase was recorded by Dunedin (5.7 per cent) which, with eight of the other 17 urban areas, had a percentage increase lower than the average for the 18 urban areas together.

Auckland Urban Area, with a total population of 448,365, took well over a third of the total increase in population in the 18 urban areas.

Wellington and Hutt Urban Areas together had slightly under 250,000 population.

The next table contains the estimated total population of the 18 urban areas as at 1 April 1963. The component parts of the five largest centres of population are given in detail, while for the remaining 13 areas totals only are quoted. In most of the 13 cases the urban area comprises the central city or borough plus the urban portion of the adjoining county. At 1 April 1963 the five largest urban areas had a total population of 1,083,400, this being equivalent to 42.8 per cent of the New Zealand total. The total for all urban areas at the same date was 1,529,900, or 60.4 per cent of the total population of New Zealand.

Counties – The following table gives the estimated total population of individual counties at 1 April 1963, 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 and county towns which form parts of counties.

Waitemata county, with a population of 62,600, has the largest county population, followed by Waimairi county with 46,000. Most of those counties showing considerable gains of population are adjacent to large cities.

Boroughs – Similar information as in the case of counties is now given for cities and boroughs.

Naseby, with an estimated population of 160, is the smallest borough in New Zealand, while Christchurch city, with a population of 155,200, retains its place as the city with the greatest population within city council boundaries.

Town Districts – As stated earlier, the population of independent town districts – i.e., those contained in section (a) of the following table – is not included with that of the county in which the town district is located, but the population of dependent town districts – section (b) – is included in that of the respective parent county.

County Towns – The following table lists those county towns with populations of 1,000 or more at the time of the 1961 census, giving the populations as estimated at 1 April 1963. The parent county is shown in parentheses. The populations of county towns are included in the administrative county populations given previously.

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 a total of 8,399 people as estimated at 1 April 1963.

Of the islands concerned, Waiheke, with a population of 2,060, was the only one of any size.

Urban and Rural Population – The increasing urbanisation of the New Zealand population is most clearly illustrated by the increases in urban area population, since the figures refer to the same areas at each census and are thus directly comparable. (Three additional urban areas – Whangarei, Tauranga, and Rotorua – were defined at the 1961 Census, but census records were used to compile comparable figures for these areas at previous censuses.). Population figures for individual urban areas from 1945 to 1961 are shown earlier. The population of the 18 urban areas rose from 739,243 in 1926 to 1,439,802 in 1961, an increase of 700,559, or almost 95 per cent, in 35 years. Over the same period the total population of New Zealand rose by almost 72 per cent.

The population of urban areas represents a large proportion of the total urban population, but by no means all. In the following table of urban-rural population the urban population has been defined as urban area population plus that of all boroughs, town districts, townships, and (for 1961) county towns with populations of 1,000 or over. County towns are included for 1961 but figures are not available for prior censuses. They would in most cases, before 1961, be known as townships and hence be included with the figures for such. Rural means the remainder of the population except persons on shipboard, who are omitted from the tabulation.

This definition of urban and rural population was broadly true in earlier years, but the rapid growth of the chief centres of population in recent years, with the consequent spilling over of their populations into the surrounding counties, has rendered this definition increasingly unrealistic. Many thousands of county population now live within urban areas, and it is significant that eight out of the 10 counties with the highest percentage increases of population between 1956 and 1961 were partly within urban areas. However, the table does serve to illustrate the change in emphasis from rural to urban as boroughs and cities extend their boundaries, acquire new industries, and attract additional population both from the rural districts and through overseas immigration; and small townships within the counties grow to attain borough status and become urbanised.

A longer period is covered in the following table in which, under the earlier concepts, urban population means the population in cities and boroughs, while rural population covers counties, all town districts, and extra-county islands.

Another conception of urban and rural population is presented in the next table. For this purpose urban population has been taken as that enumerated in cities, boroughs, or town districts with a minimum population of 1,000. Shipboard population is excluded. The numbers of towns making up the populations shown are given in parentheses after the populations.

Urban and rural communities are not evenly distributed. The South Island, for example, contains proportionately more rural population than does the North Island.

AGE DISTRIBUTION – The following table shows the estimated age distribution of the population at 31 December 1961 and of the mean population for the year 1961. The figures are based on the 1961 census data (as shown on pages 86–87) and brought up to date from statistics of births, ages of persons dying, and ages of persons arriving in or departing from New Zealand.