New Zealand Official Yearbook 2008

Mountain building in New Zealand between about six million years ago and the present is primarily responsible for the landscape of today.

Mountain chains have been built by the folding and displacement of the earth's crust along faults, or by the flexing of crustal plates, due to sediment loading and unloading. As a result of this activity, well-preserved tilted blocks bounded by fault scarps (steep faces hundreds or even thousands of metres high) are visible in the landscape of some regions.

Ongoing movement of the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates is responsible for continued earth strain in New Zealand, and this results in periodic rupture of faults, with several of these causing major earthquakes in the last hundred years.

Erosion, enhanced by climate, has transformed the landscape, carving detailed patterns of peaks, ridges, valleys and gorges. Deposits of debris have built up to create alluvial plains, shingle fans and other constructed forms.

At the coast, waves have eaten back headlands and built beaches, spits and bars. Glaciers have carved the sea-filled valleys of Fiordland and have occupied most valleys of the South Island, many of which now have lakes held in by terminal moraines. Sea level changes accompanied the formation, and later the melting, of global glacial ice. These changes affected the erosion and the formation of rivers, and were responsible for the creation of many prominent river terraces.

Volcanic activity during the past few million years has played an important part in shaping the landscape of the central North Island. The largest volcanic outpourings of late geological times were in the region between Tongariro National Park and the Bay of Plenty coast.

The most recognisable volcanoes in New Zealand, all of which are ‘active’, include Ruapehu, Tongariro, Ngāuruhoe, White Island, and Taranaki or Egmont.

Other major volcanoes are less obvious, but have even more dramatic impacts on the landscape. These are the caldera-forming volcanoes that are now occupied by large central North Island lakes. Lakes Taupō, Rotorua and Tarawera can be thought of as upside-down volcanoes.

Small volcanic cones, such as One Tree Hill, Mt Eden and Rangitoto, are an important part of the Auckland landscape. These are dormant, but the volcanic field is still regarded as posing a significant hazard.

Living in New Zealand means living with earthquakes. There is an almost continuous belt of earthquake activity around the edge of the Pacific Ocean that affects the geological stability of many countries on the Pacific Rim, particularly New Zealand, the west coast of the United States, Chile, Peru, Japan and the Philippines.

New Zealand's level of earthquake activity is similar to that of California, but slightly lower than that of Japan. A shallow magnitude 8 earthquake occurs in New Zealand about once a century, a shallow magnitude 7 earthquake about once a decade, and a shallow magnitude 6 earthquake about once a year.

New Zealand has many earthquakes because it straddles the boundary between two of the earth's great tectonic plates – the Pacific plate in the east and the Indo-Australian plate in the west. These two plates are converging obliquely at different rates – about 30 millimetres a year in Fiordland, increasing to about 50 millimetres a year at East Cape in the North Island.

The plates converge in different ways. In the North Island and the northern South Island, the Pacific plate sinks below the Indo-Australian plate. Earthquakes originating within the subducting Pacific plate are less than 60 kilometres deep along the eastern coast and become deeper westward. In Fiordland and the region to the south, the Indo-Australian plate subducts beneath the Pacific plate, so earthquake sources are shallow in the west and become deeper eastward.

Between these two subduction zones, the crust of both plates is too buoyant to subduct, so convergence is accommodated by uplift, which has created the Southern Alps, and horizontal movement along the Alpine Fault. This has resulted in parts of Nelson and western Otago, adjacent five million years ago, now being 450 kilometres apart.

Shallow earthquakes are the most numerous and originate within the earth's crust, which has an average thickness of 35 kilometres in New Zealand. Crustal earthquakes are responsible for almost all damage to property and occur widely throughout New Zealand.

In the Taupō volcanic zone, from White Island to Ruapehu, swarms of small earthquakes of similar magnitude are common, and are associated with the area's active volcanism. Although the number of such shocks can be alarming, they rarely cause major damage.

Earthquake risk The worst disaster in New Zealand that can reasonably be expected within a generation is a 7.5 magnitude earthquake on the segment of the Wellington fault within the city. It has a 12 percent probability of occurring within the next 30 years and would affect 200,000 residential properties, from Palmerston North to Nelson, as well as roads, bridges and dams, and services such as electricity, water and sewerage.

GNS Science runs national and regional earthquake and volcano monitoring networks. A major upgrade of monitoring equipment began in 2001 with the Earthquake Commission providing core funding over 10 years. The project, known as GeoNet, is being undertaken by GNS Science on a not-for-profit basis for the national good. GeoNet equipment at sites throughout New Zealand is linked to GNS Science data centres via satellite, cellular and radio networks, permitting more rapid and reliable determinations of the location and magnitude of all significant earthquakes and volcanic activity within the New Zealand region. GeoNet information is made available to civil defence and emergency management authorities and international earthquake centres, and also underpins current and emerging research on geological hazards.

New Zealand scientists undertake a large body of research aimed at improving the understanding of, and ways to mitigate, seismic and volcanic risk in New Zealand. Mitigation measures include improved engineering design of buildings and infrastructure, better prepared communities, and better regional planning.

The GeoNet website (www.geonet.org.nz) provides public access to information about hazards, including earthquake bulletins and volcano alerts. It also provides access to fundamental datasets, such as GPS Rinex files, earthquake hypocentres and instrument waveform data. This data is freely available to the research community.

The New Zealand region is characterised by both a high density of active volcanoes and a high frequency of eruptions. Volcanic activity in the New Zealand region occurs within the North Island and offshore to the north-east in the Kermadec Islands. In the past 150 years, more people have been killed by volcanoes than by earthquakes, yet the scale and style of historically-recorded volcanic activity is dwarfed by events known to have occurred in the past 2,000 to 5,000 years.

Volcanism in New Zealand is confined to five areas in the North Island – the Bay of Islands, Whangarei, Auckland, a zone extending from White Island to Ruapehu, and Taranaki or Egmont. The area from White Island to Ruapehu is known as the Taupō Volcanic Zone and is by far the most frequently active. There are three major types of volcano in New Zealand:

The Taupō Volcanic Zone contains four frequently active cone volcanoes (Ruapehu, Tongariro, Ngāuruhoe and White Island) and two of the most productive caldera volcanoes (Taupō and Ōkataina) in the world.

Casualties Deaths due directly or indirectly to volcanic activity (and associated hydrothermal explosions) represent the biggest single source of fatalities from natural disasters in New Zealand since 1846.

Table 1.05 lists deaths in volcanic areas of New Zealand since 1846. Economic loss due to volcanism, however, has been low compared with that from earthquakes or flooding. The cost of the 1995 and 1996 eruptions of Ruapehu has been estimated at $130 million.

An assessment of the size and style of volcanic eruptions in the geologically recent past, coupled with consideration of the economic development of New Zealand, especially in the central North Island, shows that the record since 1846 represents only a fraction of the type and size of hazard posed by New Zealand volcanic activity.

Surveillance All the active volcanoes in New Zealand are monitored as part of the GeoNet project funded by the Earthquake Commission. This provides a near real-time understanding of volcanoes.

Volcanologists use three primary techniques to establish the status of an active volcano:

In a volcanic crisis, practical steps can be taken to mitigate risk and lessen the threat to life, but this requires accurate recognition of the onset of a crisis.

This recognition in turn depends on a knowledge of the background or ‘normal’ levels of seismicity, ground movement and gas flux at the volcano, coupled with real-time determination of any significant changes from normal levels of activity.

The GeoNet active volcano surveillance programme helps define these background levels.

The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 concluded that “warming of the climate system is unequivocal”. Evidence includes increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and a rising global mean sea level. The 2007 report said it is “very likely” (more than 90 percent likely) that most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is due to rising greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities. This is a stronger conclusion than in 2001 when the IPCC used the word “ikely” (more than 66 percent likely).

The Fourth Assessment Report predicted increases in global mean temperatures in the period 1990–2100 of between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees Celsius, and global mean sea level increases of between 18 and 59 centimetres. It said that even if greenhouse gas emissions cease entirely, the global average temperature will rise by another 0.6 degrees Celsius. Projected sea level changes do not include the effects of rapid dynamic changes in ice sheet flow from Greenland and Antarctica.

The report said changes could also be expected in some extreme weather and climate events, including “very likely” increases in the frequency of hot extremes, heatwaves, and heavy rainfall. What the warming climate will mean in detail for New Zealand and the South Pacific is still the subject of investigation by scientific researchers.

The report found that the most vulnerable sectors for New Zealand are natural ecosystems, water security, and coastal communities. The main impacts are:

New Zealand's weather for 2007 was marked by too much rain in many places, and record low rainfalls in some locations.

Rainfall during the year was less than 60 percent of average rainfall in parts of Marlborough, Canterbury and Central Ōtago, with some places experiencing their driest year on record. Parts of the south and east, Bay of Plenty and Wellington had one of their sunniest years on record too.

The national average temperature of 12.7 degrees Celsius during 2007 was close to normal. This was a result of some warm months being offset by some cooler months. For New Zealand as a whole, there were five warmer than normal months (March, May, July, August and December), and five cooler than normal months (January, April, June, October and November). All other months had mean temperatures close to the climatological average. May had a mean temperature of 12.4 degrees Celsius (1.7 degrees above normal) and was the warmest nationally since reliable records began in the 1860s.

In 2007 there was a swing from an El Niño to a La Niña climate pattern. The start of the year was dominated by a weakening El Niño in the equatorial Pacific. From September onwards La Niña conditions had developed in the tropical Pacific, with a noticeable increase in the frequency and strength of westerlies over New Zealand in October, and then a significant drop in windiness from November. Moderate to strong La Niña conditions had developed by the end of the year. Overall more anticyclones (highs) occurred over New Zealand.

Notable weather features in various parts of the country were: disastrous floods in Northland; drought conditions in the east of the North Island (with the exception of one storm that caused major flooding in Hawke's Bay on 17–18 July); an unprecedented swarm of tornadoes in Taranaki; destructive windstorms in Northland and in eastern New Zealand in October; and hot spells.

There were numerous heavy rainfall events during 2007, nine of which produced floods. Notable snowfall events occurred on relatively few occasions. There were 14 damaging tornado events for New Zealand during the year. Other features were early autumn and late spring hot spells, two severe hailstorms, and seven damaging electrical storms.

The pre-human environment was notable for the absence of snakes, land mammals (apart from three species of bat) and many of the flowering plant families. Whole orders and families were found only in New Zealand, including tuatara, moa and kiwi, all of the native lizards, and nearly 200 species of native earthworms.

Many remarkable plants, insects and birds evolved to fill ecological niches normally occupied by mammals. Others diversified to fill new territories created by sea-level fluctuations and land uplift.

With no mammalian predators on the ground, but avian predators everywhere, flightlessness was not a handicap, nor was size. Moa (11 species, some up to three metres tall) became extinct in pre-European times, but many other large flightless birds still remain, including kiwi, the nocturnal kākāpō (the only flightless parrot in the world) and weka (of the rail family).

Flightless insects are numerous, including many large beetles and 70 or so species of the cricket like weta, found only in New Zealand.

New Zealand, with 84 species, has the most diverse seabird fauna of any country. Nearly half of all native bird species depend on the ocean for food – the feeding zones of some extending as far south as the Antarctic continent. New Zealand's extensive coastline and many islands offer a huge range of habitat, from estuaries and mud-flats, to rocky cliffs and boulder banks.

The ocean is marvellously rich. There are well over 1,200 different species of fish in the waters around New Zealand, and as many as 15 more are discovered every year as a result of research in previously unsampled areas. There are also various species of seals, dolphins and porpoises. Twenty-nine species of whale have been recorded, and three of the largest (sperm, humpback and right) regularly migrate to New Zealand waters in spring and autumn.

The most widespread and complex type of forest in New Zealand is a podocarp (conifer) broadleaf association. It is generally found at lower altitudes and is characterised by a variety of species, a stratified canopy, and an abundance of vines and epiphytic plants.

Beech and kauri forests, by contrast, are much simpler in structure. New Zealand's beech species have close relatives in Australia and South America, and the five different types of species in New Zealand have exploited habitats from valley floor to mountain tops. Kauri, true forest giants, dominate only in the warmer climes to the north.

Some of the most specialised plants are those occupying the alpine zone. A remarkable 25 percent of all New Zealand's plants can be found above the treeline. Ninety-three percent of all alpine plants are found only in New Zealand, compared with 80 percent for the rest of the higher plant species. Snow tussock herbfields are one of the most distinctive elements in this cold, windswept environment. Remarkably long-lived, some larger specimens may be several centuries old. Like beech trees, they seed infrequently, but in profusion.

A definitive feature of New Zealand's land-based plants and animals is their degree of specialisation and narrow habitat requirements (eg takahē – tussock grasslands; blue duck – fast flowing rivers and streams), and their evolution in the absence of mammalian predators (for birds) or browsers (for plants).This specialisation, and adaptations which make New Zealand's wildlife so unique, render them extremely vulnerable to introduced predators, such as rats and cats; competitors, such as deer and possums; and loss of habitat.

The arrival of people in New Zealand heralded times of rapid change.

Introduction of exotic plants and animals (intentionally or accidentally) and modification of habitat radically affected native species' populations.

In the pre-1800 period, following the arrival and expansion of Māori, forest cover was reduced and 34 species became extinct, including moa, the adzebill and the flightless goose.

In the much shorter post-1800 period of European settlement, the forest area was further reduced to around 25 percent of the land, nine more bird species became extinct, and many more were threatened.

Since 1840, more than 80 new species of mammals, birds and fish, and more than 1,800 plant species have been introduced, in many places totally changing the landscape and ecology.

Department of Conservation – www.doc.govt.nz

Department of Internal Affairs – www.dia.govt.nz

GNS Science – www.gns.cri.nz

Industrial Research Ltd – www.irl.cri.nz

Land Information New Zealand – www.linz.govt.nz

Metservice – www.weather.co.nz

New Zealand Speleological Society – caves.org.nz

NIWA – www.niwa.cri.nz

New Zealand has a shorter human history than any other country. The precise date of settlement is a matter of debate, but current understanding is that the first arrivals came from East Polynesia in the 13th century. It was not until 1642 that Europeans became aware the country existed.

The original Polynesian settlers discovered the country on deliberate voyages of exploration, navigating by ocean currents, winds and stars. The navigator credited in some traditions with discovering New Zealand is Kupe. Some time later, the first small groups arrived from Polynesia. Now known as Māori, these tribes did not identify themselves by a collective name until the arrival of Europeans when, to mark their distinction, the name Māori, meaning ‘ordinary’, came into use.

The early settlers lived in small hunting bands. Seals and the large flightless moa bird were their main prey, until moa were hunted to extinction.

In the South Island, hunting and gathering remained the main mode of survival, but the kūmara (sweet potato) and yams the Polynesians brought with them grew well in the warmer North Island. Extensive kūmara gardens supported relatively large settlements. But even in the north, birds, fish and shellfish were important in the Māori diet. In some northern areas, larger populations put pressure on resources. The Polynesian dog and rat came with the early arrivals, but the domestic pigs and chickens of the islands did not, for reasons not fully understood.

In favourable conditions, Māori lived reasonably well. Their life expectancy was low by modern standards, but probably comparable with that of Europeans in the same era. The Māori population before European contact may have reached 100,000.

Māori passed on rich and detailed history and legends orally. Society was organised around groups that traced their descent from common ancestors. Reciting whakapapa (genealogies) was an important way to communicate knowledge. The concepts of mana (status) and utu (reciprocity) were central to the culture, and led to widespread warfare. But the violence was usually episodic. For most of the time, Māori lived not in fortified pa, but in unprotected settlements or seasonal camps.

The greatest achievements of Māori material culture were carving wood for important buildings and canoes, and fashioning stone into tools and ornaments. Warfare did not inhibit regular trade in desirable stones and foods, and was itself a means by which resources were appropriated.

In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman made the first confirmed European discovery of New Zealand. He charted the country's west coast from about Hokitika up to Cape Maria van Diemen. Subsequently, a Dutch map maker gave the name Nieuw Zeeland to the land Tasman had discovered. A surprisingly long time (127 years) passed before another European reached New Zealand.

James Cook visited New Zealand in 1769, on the first of three voyages. He circumnavigated and mapped both main islands and returned to Britain with reports about the country's inhabitants and resources.

For 50 years after Sydney was founded in 1788, New Zealand was an economic and cultural outpost of New South Wales, and most of the earliest European settlers came from Sydney. In the late 18th century, sealers and whalers began visiting, and by the early 19th century some began to settle, some to farm. During these years, New Zealand was part of a Pacific-wide trade system and New Zealand goods were sold in China.

The first European ‘town’ grew at Kororāreka when whalers began calling into the Bay of Islands for food and water. From the 1790s, Māori produced pork and potatoes for this trade. The other main area of early interaction between Māori and others was the Foveaux Strait sealing grounds. The presence of traders drew Māori to particular locations. Having a European living among them gave some tribal groups an advantage in the race to acquire European goods, especially firearms.

A Sydney chaplain, Samuel Marsden, founded the first Christian mission station in the Bay of Islands in 1814. By 1840, more than 20 stations had been established. From missionaries, Māori learnt not just about Christianity, but also about European farming techniques and trades, and how to read and write. The missionaries also transcribed the Māori language into written form. In the 1830s, French missionaries brought Catholicism to Māori.

Christianity would become important for Māori, but they were slow to convert. Muskets, traded for flax and potatoes, had a greater impact in the 1820s and 1830s than religion, and escalated killings in tribal conflicts. The Ngā Puhi tribe, led by Hongi Hika, devastated southerly tribes, and Ngāti Toa, under Te Rauparaha, attacked Ngai Tahu in the South Island. But diseases introduced by Europeans caused more fatalities than firearms did.

In the 1830s, the British Government came under increasing pressure to curb lawlessness in New Zealand to protect British traders, and to forestall the French, who also had imperial ambitions. The missionaries, for their part, wanted to protect Māori from the effects of European settlement.

In 1833, James Busby was sent to the Bay of Islands as British Resident. At Busby's instigation, northern chiefs adopted a flag in 1834 and signed a declaration of independence in 1835. Seven years after Busby's arrival, at Waitangi on 6 February 1840, William Hobson, New Zealand's first governor, invited assembled Māori chiefs to sign a treaty with the British Crown. The treaty was taken all round the country, as far south as Foveaux Strait, for signing by local chiefs, and eventually more than 500 signed.

Under the treaty, Māori ceded powers of government to Britain in return for the rights of British subjects and guaranteed possession of their lands and other ‘treasures’. In later years, differences of interpretation between the English and Māori texts complicated efforts to redress breaches of the treaty.

British sovereignty was proclaimed over New Zealand on the basis of Māori consent, though the South Island was initially claimed on the basis of discovery.

In the 19th century, the British and the French were rivals in the Pacific. The French had only minor interests in New Zealand, but the myth persists that the South Island escaped being French only because in the scramble to colonise Akaroa the British got there first. By the time the French settlers and their naval escort reached New Zealand, the whole country was securely British. Governor Hobson, learning the French were heading for Akaroa, did send Captain Stanley of the Britomart to demonstrate British sovereignty. However, there was never any chance Cook Strait would become, like the English Channel, a passage between English and French-speaking regions.

Even before the Treaty of Waitangi had been signed, the New Zealand Company, inspired by the colonial promoter Edward Gibbon Wakefield, had despatched British settlers to Wellington. In the next two years, the company also founded Wanganui, Nelson and New Plymouth. Otago was founded in 1848 and Canterbury in 1850, both by New Zealand Company affiliates. Auckland, capital of the new Crown colony, grew independently.

By the 1850s, most of the interior of the North Island had been explored by Europeans. Māori guides usually showed European explorers the way and New Zealand's first Anglican bishop, George Selwyn, travelled widely. Much of the mountainous interior of the South Island was not explored until gold miners arrived in the 1860s.

When British settlers sought self-government, the British Parliament passed the New Zealand Constitution Act of 1852, setting up a central government with an elected House of Representatives and six provincial governments. The settlers soon won the right to responsible government (with an executive supported by a majority in the elected assembly). But the governor, and through him the Colonial Office in London, retained control of ‘native’ policy.

In the 1840s, there were clashes between Māori and Pākehā (Europeans). In Marlborough's Wairau Valley in 1843, a dispute over land erupted, leading to bloodshed. The war in the north (1845–46) began when Hone Heke cut down the flagpole flying the British flag at Russell. There were also troubles in the 1840s over land in Wellington and Wanganui. In the 1850s, disputes between Māori over the sale of land to Europeans kept Taranaki in ferment.

Until the late 1850s, the government managed to purchase enough land to meet settler demands. But many Māori became increasingly reluctant to sell their land, which tribes owned collectively. The Māori King movement, under the leadership of Wiremu Tamihana, grew in part out of Māori resistance to land sales. Potatau Te Wherowhero was elected the first Māori King in 1858. The flashpoint was Taranaki. The refusal of Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake to sell land at Waitara led to war in 1860. The efforts of Māori to retain their land were depicted by the settlers as a challenge to British sovereignty.

Māori resistance was effectively crushed after Governor George Grey took war to the Waikato in 1863–64. Two chiefs, Te Kooti and Titokowaru, prolonged war through the 1860s, but by 1872 the wars over land had ended. Large areas of land were confiscated from ‘rebellious’ tribes. A Native Land Court gave land titles to individual Māori, to facilitate sales to Pākehā.

After the wars, many Māori drew back from contact with European settlers. Most lived in isolated rural communities. Māori land continued to pass into Pākehā hands, usually by sale through the Native Land Court. In the 1870s, the village of Parihaka became the centre of a peaceful protest, led by the prophet Te Whiti-o-Rongomai, against occupation of confiscated land in Taranaki. In 1881, government forces invaded Parihaka in an attempt to crush this resistance.

While progress in the North Island was held back by war, the South Island forged ahead on the proceeds of wool and gold. Sheep were turned loose on South Island grasslands, and after gold had been discovered in Otago in 1861, and then on the West Coast, settlers flooded in. Six years later, the discovery of gold at Thames boosted the town of Auckland. Wool ensured that Canterbury became the wealthiest province, and gold made Dunedin the largest town.

Towards the end of the 1860s, gold production fell and wool prices slipped. A new boost to growth came in 1870 when Colonial Treasurer Julius Vogel proposed a loans-funded programme of public works, including the building of railways, and assisted immigration.

The population increased dramatically. The 1871 Census (non-Māori) recorded a total of about 250,000; 10 years later this had grown to half a million. Vogel's policies, like those of Wakefield before him, were based on a belief that New Zealand would grow only if people and capital could be attracted. This stimulated a sense of a single nation rather than separate settlements, and led to the abolition of the provinces in 1876.

The aftermath of Vogel's borrowing was an economic depression that lasted into the 1890s. Despite a brief boom in wheat, prices for farm products sagged and the market for land became depressed. Hard times led to urban unemployment and sweated labour in industry. The country lost people through emigration, mostly to Australia.

Scarcely had depression gripped the country than future prosperity was anticipated with the first successful shipment of frozen meat to England in 1882. Exporting meat (frozen) and butter and cheese (chilled) became possible. After dealing with initial setbacks in refrigerated shipping, New Zealand became a British farm. With an economy based on agriculture, the landscape was transformed from forest to farmland.

The watershed election of 1890 put the Liberals, New Zealand's first ‘modern’ political party, into power. From 1893 to 1906, the government was headed by ‘King Dick’ Seddon. The Liberals cemented in place New Zealand's ‘family farm’ economy by subdividing large estates, buying Māori land in the North Island, and offering advances to settlers. Buoyant markets for New Zealand's farm products ensured the success of these policies. The Minister of Lands, John McKenzie, championed the family farm. Farming progressed, especially in the north, and by 1901, more than half the European population was living north of Cook Strait for the first time since the 1850s.

The Liberal Government reinforced an established pattern of State involvement in the economy and regulation of society. Its old-age pensions and workers' dwellings anticipated the welfare state. In 1893, after campaigns led by women like suffragist Kate Sheppard, New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the vote.

New Zealand's close economic ties with Britain reinforced the loyalty of New Zealanders to an empire that secured their place in the world. The loyalty found expression in the despatch of troops to fight for Britain in South Africa in 1899. A self-confident nationalism was also evident, and New Zealand declined to join the Australian Federation of 1901.

Liberal rule ended in 1912, when William Massey led the Reform Party to power, promising State leaseholders they could freehold their land.

When World War I broke out, New Zealand rallied to England's aid. Thousands of New Zealanders served, and died, overseas. The 1915 landing at Gallipoli in Turkey was a coming of age for the country and established the potent tradition of ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) – a pride in New Zealand's military achievement and its special relationship with Australia. New Zealand troops also fought and died on the Western Front.

After some prosperous years in the later 1920s, the worldwide Great Depression hit New Zealand hard. Export prices collapsed. Farmers faced difficulties over their mortgages and urban unemployment soared. Discontent erupted in riots. A coalition government, dominated by Gordon Coates, failed to lift the country out of depression.

Organised labour flexed its muscle in the 1890 maritime strike, and in the Waihi and watersider strikes of 1912–13. Setbacks on the industrial front turned the labour movement towards political action. The Labour Party, founded in 1916, made uneven gains through the 1920s, then was swept into power under Michael Joseph Savage in 1935 by an electorate disillusioned with how the conservative coalition government had handled the depression. When Savage died in 1940, Peter Fraser became prime minister.

In power, the Labour Party, aided by an economic recovery already underway when it was elected, revived the economy further by pragmatic rather than doctrinaire socialist policies. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand was taken over by the State in 1936, spending on public works increased and a State housing programme began. The Social Security Act 1938 dramatically extended the welfare state.

With the outbreak of World War II, New Zealand troops again fought overseas in support of the United Kingdom. The fall of Singapore shook New Zealanders' confidence that Britain could guarantee the country's security. During the war in the Pacific, the United States protected New Zealand against Japan. Labour remained in power through World War II and in 1945, Peter Fraser played a significant role in the conference that set up the United Nations. But the party had lost the reforming zeal of the previous decade and its electoral support ebbed after the war.

In the early 1950s, New Zealand troops fought in Korea. Later, in the 1960s, concern to keep on side with this new protector prompted the National Government of Keith Holyoake to send troops to Viet Nam, despite popular protests.

After Labour lost power in 1949, the conservative National Party ruled the country until 1984, interrupted by two single-term Labour governments, in 1957–60 and 1972–75. National Party Prime Minister Sidney Holland used the bitter 1951 waterfront strike to consolidate his power by calling a snap election.

New immigrants, still mainly British, flooded in while New Zealand remained prosperous by exporting farm products to Britain. The country's culture remained based on Britain's. In 1953, New Zealanders took pride that countryman Edmund Hillary gave Queen Elizabeth II a coronation gift by reaching the summit of Mt Everest.

Britain joined the European Economic Community in 1973. New Zealand had already diversified its export trade, but the loss of an assured market for farm products was a blow.

The first oil shock of 1973 contributed to the fall of the Labour Government in 1975, led by Norman Kirk until his death. After the second oil shock of 1978, the National Government of Robert Muldoon tried to keep New Zealand prosperous by so-called ‘think big’ industrial and energy projects, and farm subsidies. The economy faltered as the fall of oil prices in the early 1980s made these schemes unsound. Inflation and unemployment mounted.

The fourth Labour Government was elected in 1984. The Minister of Finance, Roger Douglas, was an ardent advocate of economic liberalisation. He removed most controls over the economy, privatised many State enterprises and called aspects of the welfare state into question. Many saw these measures as an assault on New Zealand's egalitarian traditions. In foreign affairs, Labour's anti-nuclear policy ruptured relations with the United States.

The National Government of 1990–99 pursued similar policies to Labour's, passing the controversial Employment Contracts Act, which opened up the labour market and diminished the power of trade unions. The Government also mounted a more sustained attack on the welfare state, most obviously by cutting benefits.

From 1996, under a new voting system (mixed member proportional representation), minority or coalition governments became the norm but National and Labour remained the major parties.

Most Māori continued to live in remote rural communities until World War II. But Māori society was dynamic. The Kotahitanga movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was evidence of Māori resilience. So were the land development work of Apirana Ngata and the revitalisation of the Māori King movement by Te Puea Herangi. In the early 1920s, Wiremu Ratana founded the Ratana Church.

Post-World War II Māori migration into the cities, together with Māori anger at their economic deprivation and concern about loss of mana (status) and continuing loss of land, pushed race relations and the place of the Treaty of Waitangi into the forefront of national life.

For many, sporting contacts with apartheid South Africa became a touchstone of race relations. During the 1981 Springbok rugby tour, New Zealand experienced divisive unrest. After the tour, attention turned to domestic race relations and to the need for New Zealanders to have a better understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Māori became more assertive. Some, alleging breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, wished to reclaim Māori sovereignty. The Waitangi Tribunal was set up in 1975 to consider their claims and to address grievances. In 1985, the tribunal was empowered to look at breaches of the treaty since 1840, rather than since 1975.

A Māori cultural renaissance, including efforts to foster the Māori language in the early 1980s, increased awareness that New Zealand society was bicultural. At the same time, more immigrants were arriving. Almost before it had been properly acknowledged that New Zealand was bicultural, it became multicultural – first in the composition of its population, more slowly in how it ran its national life. The country's new Pacific island and Asian citizens were testament to the fact that it was no longer, culturally or economically, the offshore island of Europe it had seemed to earlier generations.

Archives New Zealand – www.archives.govt.nz

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography – www.dnzb.govt.nz

History Group, Ministry for Culture and Heritage – www.nzhistory.net.nz

National Library of New Zealand – www.natlib.govt.nz

New Zealand Archaeology – www.nzarchaeology.org

New Zealand Electronic Text Centre – www.nzetc.org

Statistics New Zealand – www.stats.govt.nz

Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand – www.teara.govt.nz

Treaty of Waitangi – www.treatyofwaitangi.govt.nz

The Governor-General of New Zealand is the Crown's representative in New Zealand, and exercises the royal powers derived from statute and the general law.

The powers of the governor-general are set out in the Letters Patent 1983 and it is for the courts to decide on the limits of these powers. One of the governor-general's main constitutional functions is to arrange for the leader of the majority party in Parliament to form a government.

The Crown is part of Parliament and the governor-general's assent is required before bills can become law. However, the governor-general is required by constitutional convention and the Letters Patent, to follow the advice of ministers. In extraordinary circumstances, the governor-general can reject advice if he or she believes a government is intending to act unconstitutionally.

This is known as the reserve power. The Sovereign appoints the governor-general on the prime minister's recommendation, normally for a term of five years. Table 3.02 lists the vice-regal representatives of New Zealand since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Since 1856, New Zealand has been a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. The government cannot act effectively without Parliament, because it cannot raise or spend money without parliamentary approval. For most categories of expenditure, this approval takes the form of an annual vote of funds to the government. Parliament has to be assembled regularly and has the opportunity to hold the government to account.

Since 1996, New Zealand has had a mixed member proportional (MMP) electoral system. Voters have two votes – one electorate vote and one party vote.

Electorate votes are used to elect Members of Parliament (MPs) to represent local areas. Party votes are used to allocate extra seats to political parties so that the make-up of Parliament reflects the support for these parties across the country.

For the 2005 election, New Zealand was divided geographically into 62 general and seven Māori electorates. The political parties were subsequently allocated 52 party seats after party votes were counted, and the number of seats in Parliament increased by one to 121. Table 3.03 shows seats won by each political party since 1949, and the total number of seats available, at general elections.

Electorate boundaries are redrawn by the Representation Commission after each population census. The number of electorates can change as the population increases or decreases.

The Māori electoral option follows every census and gives people of Māori descent the opportunity to choose whether to be on the Māori, or the general, electoral roll. Once electors have chosen which roll to be on, they cannot change until the next Māori electoral option takes place.

The New Zealand electoral system is set out in the Electoral Act 1993. This Act is the only statute in New Zealand with entrenched provisions. This means that either 75 percent of MPs, or a majority of voters in a referendum of all registered voters, must agree to make changes to these provisions. Normally, a simple majority of MPs is all that is required to make changes to legislation.

The power to make laws lies at the heart of New Zealand's parliamentary system. This power is vested in the Parliament of New Zealand by the Constitution Act 1986.

Parliament consists of the Crown (normally represented by the governor-general) and an elected House of Representatives. The principal functions of Parliament are to enact laws, to supervise the government's administration, to vote for the supply of funds, to provide a government, and to redress grievances by way of petition.

The Constitution Act 1986 forbids the Crown from taxing citizens without express parliamentary approval. Under standing orders, private members are also able to initiate proposals involving expenditure or taxation. However, the government has an absolute right to veto such proposals if they would have more than a minor impact on the government's finances.

Perhaps the most important privilege of the House of Representatives is that of freedom of speech, guaranteed by the Bill of Rights 1688 and claimed by the speaker after the governor-general has confirmed office.

A session of Parliament is the period during which the house sits, usually the full parliamentary term of three years. The house meets after an election in answer to a summons from the governor-general. Sessions of Parliament are marked by a formal opening, when the government's legislative programme is described in the Speech from the Throne, read by the governor-general in the absence of the Sovereign. The session is terminated by the governor-general bringing Parliament to an end, usually just before a general election.

Unless there is a new session in the second and third years of the parliamentary term, the prime minister's statement at the start of business reviews public affairs, and outlines the government's legislative and other policy intentions for the year ahead.

The speaker, elected by the house, is the principal presiding officer. The speaker maintains order in proceedings and ensures standing orders are complied with. The speaker is assisted by the clerk of the House of Representatives, who records all proceedings of the house and of any committee of the house, and provides advice on parliamentary law and custom.

The first session of the 48th New Zealand Parliament was called following the general election on 17 September 2005, and began sitting on 7 November 2005.

Salaries and allowances of parliamentarians are set by the Remuneration Authority and are shown in table 3.04.

Role of parties Until 1993, under the first past the post (FPP) system of electoral representation, the House of Representatives was characterised by the presence of two large dominant parties, with the majority party forming the government and the minority party the opposition. This has given way to multi-party representation under the mixed member proportional (MMP) system of electoral representation, adopted after two referendums, one indicative (1992) and one binding (1993).