NEW ZEALAND



New Zealand 1341
Photo by: nazmoo

CAPITAL : Wellington

FLAG : The flag has two main features: the red, white, and blue Union Jack in the upper left quarter and the four-star Southern Cross in the right half. On the blue state flag the stars are red outlined in white. On the red national flag, used by individuals or commercial institutions at sea, the stars are white.

ANTHEM : God Save the Queen and God Defend New Zealand have had equal status since 1977.

MONETARY UNIT : The New Zealand dollar ( NZ $) is a paper currency of 100 cents; it replaced the New Zealand pound on 10 July 1967. There are coins of 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents and 1 and 2 dollars, and notes of 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 dollars. NZ $1 = US $0.5555 (or US $1 = NZ $1.8) as of May 2003.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES : Metric weights and measures are used.

HOLIDAYS : New Year's Day, 1 January; Waitangi Day, 6 February; Anzac Day, 25 April; Queen's Birthday, 1st Monday in June; Labor Day, 4th Monday in October; Christmas Day, 25 December; Boxing Day, 26 December. Movable holidays are Good Friday and Easter Monday. Each province has a holiday on its own anniversary day.

TIME : 12 midnight = noon GMT.


LANGUAGES

English is the universal language, although Maori, a language of the Polynesian group, still is spoken among the Maori population and is taught in Maori schools. It is the first language of about 50,000 Maori New Zealanders and became an official language in 1987, with the right of use in courts of law and before a number of tribunals. There are Maori-language preschools, immersion primary schools, and many radio stations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alley, Roderick (ed.). New Zealand and the Pacific. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1984.

Belich, James. Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders, From Polynesian Settlement to the End of the Nineteenth Century. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996.

Bloomfield, G. T. New Zealand: A Handbook of Historical Studies. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1984.

Camilleri, Joseph A. The Australia, New Zealand, US Alliance: Regional Security in the Nuclear Age. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1987.

Chatham Islands: Heritage and Conservation. Christchurch, New Zealand: Canterbury University Press, 1996.

Gupta, S. M. The Indian Origin of New Zealand's Maori. New Delhi, India: Hindu World Publications, 1995.

Hawke, G. R. The Making of New Zealand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Hoadley, Steve. The New Zealand Foreign Affairs Handbook. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1989.

International Smoking Statistics: A Collection of Historical Data from 30 Economically Developed Countries. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Ip, Manying. Dragons on the Long White Cloud: The Making of Chinese New Zealanders. North Shore City, New Zealand: Tandem Press, 1996.

Jackson, William Keith. Historical Dictionary of New Zealand. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1996.

Johnston, Carol Morton. The Farthest Corner: New Zealand, a Twice Discovered Land. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1988.

Lealand, Geoffrey. A Foreign Egg in Our Nest?: American Popular Culture in New Zealand. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1988.

Levine, Stephen. The New Zealand Political System. Auckland: Allen and Unwin, 1979.

Maori Art and Culture. Edited by D. C. Starzecka. London: British Museum Press, 1996.

Mascarenhas, R. C. Government and the Economy in Australia and New Zealand: The Politics of Economic Policy Making. San Francisco: Austin and Winfield, 1996.

McKinnon, Malcolm. Independence and Foreign Policy: New Zealand in the World since 1935. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1993.

McLauchlan, Gordon (ed.). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Auckland: D. Bateman, 1992.

Metge, Joan. The Maoris of New Zealand. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976.

Miller, Harold Gladstone. New Zealand. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1983.

Mulgan, R. G. Democracy and Power in New Zealand: A Study of New Zealand Politics. 2d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Nga patai: Racism and Ethnic Relations in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Edited by Paul Spoonley, David Pearson, and Cluny Macpherson. Palmerston North, New Zealand: Dunmore Press, 1996.

Oddie, Graham, and Roy W. Perrett (eds.). Justice, Ethics, and New Zealand Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Rice, Geoffrey W. (ed.). The Oxford History of New Zealand. 2nd ed. Auckland; New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Sharp, A. Justice and the Maori: Maori Claims in New Zealand Political Argument in the 1980s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

The Oxford Illustrated History of New Zealand. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

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2
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11
David
Include Jan 2 in national holidays
A review of coinage deleted 5c piece and changed coin sizes

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