Local government and external territories. The first Europeans known to have reached New Zealand were Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman and his crew in 1642

European explorers

The first Europeans known to have reached New Zealand were Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman and his crew in 1642. Māori killed several of the crew and no Europeans returned to New Zealand until British explorer James Cook's voyage of 1768–71. Cook reached New Zealand in 1769 and mapped almost the entire coastline. Following Cook, New Zealand was visited by numerous European and North American whaling, sealing and trading ships. They traded European food and goods, especially metal tools and weapons, for Māori timber, food, artefacts and water.

In 1863 Premier Alfred Domett moved a resolution that the capital transfer to a locality in Cook Strait, apparently due to concern that the South Island might form a separate colony. Commissioners from Australia (chosen for their neutral status) advised that Wellington was suitable because of its harbour and central location, and parliament officially sat there for the first time in 1865. In 1893 the country became the first nation in the world to grant all women the right to vote.

Politics

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. Although it has no codified constitution, the Constitution Act 1986 is the principal formal statement of New Zealand's constitutional structure.

New Zealand is the only country in the world in which all the highest offices in the land have been occupied simultaneously by women: (Queen) Elizabeth II, (Governor-General) Dame Silvia Cartwright, (Prime Minister) Helen Clark, (Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives) Margaret Wilson and (Chief Justice) Dame Sian Elias were all in office between March 2005 and August 2006. New Zealand's largest listed company, Telecom New Zealand, had a woman – Theresa Gattung – as its CEO at the time.

New Zealand has traditionally worked closely with Australia, whose foreign policy followed a similar historical trend. The American influence on New Zealand was weakened by the disillusionment with the Vietnam War.

Local government and external territories

The early European settlers divided New Zealand into provinces. These were abolished in 1876 so that government could be centralised, for financial reasons. As a result, New Zealand has no separately represented subnational entities such as provinces, states or territories, apart from local government. However the spirit of the provinces lives on, and there is fierce rivalry exhibited in sporting and cultural events. Since 1876, local government has administered the various regions of New Zealand.

In 1989, the government completely reorganised local government, implementing the current two-tier structure of regional councils and territorial authorities constituted under the Local Government Act 2002. The Resource Management Act 1991 replaced the Town and Country Planning Act as the main planning legislation for local government.

New Zealand has 12 regional councils for the administration of regional environmental and transport matters and 73 territorial authorities that administer roading, sewerage, building consents, and other local matters. The territorial authorities are 16 city councils, 57 district councils, and the Chatham Islands Council.

As a major South Pacific nation, New Zealand has a close working relationship with many Pacific Island nations, and continues a political association with the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau.

Geography of New Zealand

New Zealand is made up of two main islands, the North and South Islands, and a number of smaller islands, located near the centre of the water hemisphere. The North and South Islands are separated by Cook Strait.

Biodiversity of New Zealand

Because of its long isolation from the rest of the world and its island biogeography, New Zealand has extraordinary flora and fauna.

There are four endemic species of primitive frogs. There are no snakes and there is only one venomous spider, the katipo, which is rare and restricted to coastal regions. There are many endemic species of insect, including the weta, one species of which may grow as large as a house mouse and is the heaviest insect in the world. It was long thought that New Zealand never had any non-marine native mammals, barring three species of bat (one now extinct). However in 2006 scientists discovered bones over 15 million years old from a unique, mouse-sized land mammal in the Otago region of the South Island.

The New Zealand dollar is the currency of New Zealand. It is sometimes informally known as the "Kiwi dollar".

Recent history

Historically, New Zealand enjoyed a high standard of living which relied on its strong relationship with the United Kingdom, and the resulting stable market for its commodity exports. New Zealand's economy was also built upon on a narrow range of primary products, such as wool, meat and dairy products.

Languages

The two official spoken languages are also the most widely used; English is spoken by 98% of the population and Māori by 4.1%. Samoan is the most widely spoken non-official language (2.3%), followed by French, Hindi, Yue and Northern Chinese.

Overview

Cultural links between New Zealand and the United Kingdom are maintained by a common language, sustained migration from the United Kingdom, and many young New Zealanders spending time in the United Kingdom on their "overseas experience" (OE). The music and cuisine of New Zealand are similar to that of Australia, Canada, UK, and the US, although both have distinct New Zealand and Pacific qualities.

Film industry

Although films have been made in New Zealand since the 1920s, it was only from the 1970s that New Zealand films began to be produced in significant numbers. Films such as Sleeping Dogs and Goodbye Pork Pie achieved local success and launched the careers of actors and directors including Sam Neill, Geoff Murphy and Roger Donaldson. In the early 1990s, New Zealand films such as Jane Campion's Academy Award-winning film The Piano, Lee Tamahori's Once Were Warriors and Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures began to garner international acclaim.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Jackson filmed The Lord of the Rings film trilogy in New Zealand, using mostly New Zealand crew and extras.

Sports

Sport has a major role in New Zealand's culture, with the unofficial national sport of rugby union being particularly influential. Other popular participatory sports include cricket, bowls, netball, soccer, motorsports, golf, swimming and tennis. New Zealand has strong international teams in several sports including rugby union, netball, cricket, rugby league, and softball. New Zealand also has traditionally done well in the sports of rowing, yachting and cycling. The country is internationally recognised for performing well on a medals-to-population ratio at Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games.

The flag of New Zealand is a defaced Blue Ensign with the Union Flag in the canton, and four red stars with white borders to the right. The stars represent the constellation of Crux, the Southern Cross.

New Zealand's first flag, the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand, was adopted before New Zealand became a British colony. Chosen by an assembly of Māori chiefs in 1834, the flag was of a St George's Cross with another cross in the canton containing four stars on a blue field. After the formation of the colony in 1841, British ensigns began to be used. The current flag was designed and adopted for restricted use in 1869 and became the national flag in 1902. It is the British Blue Ensign, incorporating a stylised representation of the Southern Cross showing the four brightest stars in the constellation. Each star varies slightly in size. The Union Flag in the canton recalls New Zealand's colonial ties to Britain.

The flag proportion is 1:2 and the colours are red (Pantone 186C), blue^[1] (Pantone 280C) and white. Proportion and colours are identical to the Union Flag.

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