Michael King (historian)

:Michael King was also a pseudonym used by controversial rabbi Meir Kahane Dr Michael King OBE ( - ) was a widely respected Pakeha New Zealand historian, author and biographer.

Life

Educated at Sacred Heart College in Auckland and St Patrick's College at Silverstream (Wellington), he went on to study history at Victoria University of Wellington before working as a journalist at the Waikato Times newspaper in Hamilton. He earned degrees in history at Victoria, (BA 1967) and the University of Waikato (MA 1968), and gained his Ph.D. at Waikato (1978) and D.Litt. at Victoria (1997). He was well-known for his knowledge of Maori culture and history, although not Maori himself. He was lauded for writing about New Zealanders, for New Zealanders, presenting them with themselves and their country as had never before been done. He wrote biographies of Te Puea Herangi, Whina Cooper, Frank Sargeson (1995) and Janet Frame (2000). More general works are Being Pakeha (1985), Moriori (1989), and The Penguin History of New Zealand (July 2003) which by February 2004 was into its seventh edition. In all, he wrote, co-wrote and edited more than 40 books. Michael King and his second wife Maria Jungowska were killed when their car crashed into a tree and caught fire near Maramarua, on SH2 in the north Waikato. The cause of the crash was reported by the police at the time to be a complete mystery as speed was not a factor and investigators have little idea why the car would veer off a straight road. A Coroner's inquest into the deaths determined that the accident was most likely caused by driver inattention.

Awards

He was joint winner of the 2003 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement. Throughout his career he won the Feltex Television Writers' Award (1980), Winston Churchill Fellowship (1980), Fulbright Visiting Writers' Fellowship (1988), Order of the British Empire (1988), NZ Literary Fund Award (1987 and 1989), Wattie Book Of The Year Award (1984 and 1990), NZ Book Award (non fiction) (1978) and was Burns Fellow at Otago University (1998-99). His book The Penguin History of New Zealand was overwhelmingly the Readers' Choice at the 2004 Montana NZ Book Awards.

Bibliography

- Moko: Maori Tattooing in the 20th Century (1972)
- Make it news: how to approach the media (1974)
- Face value: a study in Maori portraiture (1975)
- Te Ao hurihuri: Aspects of Maoritanga (ed.) (1975)
- Te Puea: a biography (1977)
- Tihe mauri ora: Aspects of Maoritanga (ed.) (1978)
- New Zealand: Its Land and Its People (1979)
- The Collector: A Biography of Andreas Reischek (1981

Meir Kahane

Meir David Kahane (Hebrew: מאיר דוד כהנא, Kahane being a variation on Cohen or "priest"; also known by the pseudonym Michael King) (August 1, 1932 – November 5, 1990), was an American Orthodox rabbi, author, political activist, and eventually a member of the Israeli Knesset. On both sides of the Atlantic Kahane was known for his strong political and nationalist views, most apparent in his ideal of a theocratic "Greater Israel" but also evident in his clandestine work with the mafia, FBI, and Mossad. Kahane founded two controversial movements: the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in the United States and the Kach political party in Israel. The latter was declared a racist party by the Israeli government and in 1988 removed from the Knesset, and the former was formally listed as a terrorist organization by both the FBI and the U.S. State Department.

Ideology

Kahane's overall views have been called Kahanism. Kahane adhered to the belief that there is no such thing as a Palestinian people; that in fact the people who call themselves Palestinian are a mixture of disparate and unrelated Arab clans with no claim to a distinct ethnic identity. Thus Kahane proposed the forcible deportation of all Arabs from all lands controlled by the Israeli government. In his view, evicting all Palestinians (even Israeli Arabs), was the only acceptable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Kahane also believed that Israel should become a theocracy, governed purely by orthodox Jewish law known as the Halakha. He advocated that the Israeli government should pass theocratic laws such as banning the sale of pork, outlawing Christian missionary work in Israel, and a ban on all sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews. Critics have compared this measure to Nazi Germany's Nuremberg Laws; however, supporters say Kahane was protecting Torah values and the integrity of the Jewish nation. See: Jewish view of marriage.

Early life

Kahane was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1932. He came from a family that adhered to Orthodox Judaism. His father, Rabbi Yechezkel Shraga Kahane, was born in Safed, Palestine in 1905 and studied in yeshivot in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Later he emigrated to America, where he served as rabbi of two congregations. Meir Kahane received rabbinical ordination from the Mir yeshiva in Brooklyn. He was fully conversant with the Talmud and Tanakh, and worked as a pulpit rabbi and teacher in the 1960s. Subsequently, he earned a degree in international law from New York University. As a teenager he became an admirer of Zeev Jabotinsky, who was a frequent guest in his parents' home, and joined the youth wing of Revisionist Zionism called Betar. He personally led protests against Ernest Bevin the British Foreign Secretary who opposed the foundation of Israel on the grounds that Britain should side with the Arab Muslims' aspirations for an independent state. Kahane also organized and launched public demonstrations in the US against the Soviet Union's policy of persecuting Zionist activists and curbing Jewish emigration to Israel. He was a central activist in the "Free Soviet (Russian) Jewry" movement and is widely credited with the release of the Russian refuseniks to Israel. During the 1960s, Kahane joined the FBI and worked undercover in COINTELPRO against anti-Vietnam war movements. He presented himself as Michael King, a Presbyterian journalist . Kahane founded the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in 1968, purportedly in response to threats made by the Black Panthers movement. Kahane was also in contact with Joe Colombo, head of the Colombo mafia family, and was with him in 1971 when Colombo was shot dead by the Gallo family. Kahane confirmed his connections in an interview he gave to Playboy magazine in 1972. In the 1960s Kahane was an editor of the largest Anglo-Jewish weekly, Brooklyn's The Jewish Press and was a regular correspondent for that paper until his death. He appeared often on American radio and television.

Israel

The Jewish Press Meanwhile the JDL in the U.S. continued to branch out into terrorist activities, including the bombing of several buildings; the harassment, stalking and sometimes murder of prominent members of the JDL political and intellectual opposition; and the coordination of JDL activities with the Israeli Mossad (headed in the early '70's by Yitzhak Shamir). Consequently, police pressure began to build upon Kahane, and in 1971 he decided to leave the U.S. In 1971 he emigrated from the United States to Israel (known as "making aliyah" in Judaism). He quickly moved to establish the Kach Party. In 1980 Kahane stood unsuccessfully for election to the Knesset, after which he was sentenced to six months in prison for plotting to attack the Al Aqsa mosque. In 1984 Kahane launched another election campaign, and successfully won a seat in the Israeli parliament. The Central Elections Committee had banned him from being a candidate on charges of racism, but the Israeli High Court found that the Committee did not have the legal power to do so. It is notable that at his trial Kahane refused to accept the standard oath of office for the Knesset, insisting on adding Biblical quotations to it. In a later session, the Knesset Chairman demanded that Kahane repeat his oath, which he did. Kahane's legislation proposals centered on revoking Israeli citizenship from non-Jews, and banning Jewish-Gentile marriages or sexual relations. To his detractors, Kahane defended his positions by unapologetically citing Jewish religious doctrine regarding the Jewish marriage. As his political career progressed, Kahane became isolated in the Knesset. His speeches were boycotted by Knesset members and were made to an empty parliament, except for the duty chairman. Kahane's legislation proposals (and motions of no-confidence against the Government) were all rejected by his fellow Knesset members. Kahane often called the other Knesset members "Hellenists" (in Hebrew; this is a historical term glommed from Jewish religious texts for ancient Jews who assimilated into Greek culture after Judea's occupation by Alexander the Great. Jewish religious books assert that "Hellenists" were responsible for weakening the Jewish relationship to God.) In 1987 Rabbi Kahane opened his Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea (Yeshivat Haraayon Hayehudi) in the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood of Jerusalem where he would regularly give lessons. Rabbi Avraham Toledano was the Mashgiach Ruchani, and other Rabbis included Yehuda Kroizer, the Chief Rabbi of Mitzpe Yericho, and Rabbi David Bar Hayim. In 1985 the Knesset passed an amendment to Israel's Basic Law, barring "racist" candidates from standing for election. The Committee applied it to Kahane, who appealed against the decision to the Israeli High Court. This time the Court found in favor of the Committee, declaring Kahane to be unsuitable for election. Kahane asserted that the reason for the Kach party ban was that polls showed it about to become the third largest party in Israel.

Assassination

While concluding a speech in Manhattan New York, Kahane was murdered by El Sayyid Nosair, a member of an Arab terrorist cell operating in New York in 1990. According to prosecutors, a man named Wadih el Hage purchased the .38 caliber revolver used by Nosair. El-Hage was told by a man named Mahmud Abouhalima to buy the gun. Nosair was acquitted of murder because no witness had actually seen him pull the trigger, but was convicted on gun possession charges. Nosair later stood trial as a conspirator of the blind sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. Both of them received life sentences for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, conspiracy to blow up several Brooklyn bridges, and plotting to assassinate several U.S. politicians. Nosair actually received life plus 15 years of imprisonment^{[http://www.tkb.org/CaseHome.jsp?caseid=332]}. Since it was ruled that Kahane's death was part of the total "seditious conspiracy," Nosair was later convicted of killing Kahane^{[http://www.cnn.com/US/9510/terror_trial/update/]}.

Political legacy continued

Following Kahane's death, no charismatic leader emerged to fill the void, and Kahane's radical ideology declined in popularity among Israelis. However, two small Kahanist factions later emerged: one under the name of Kach and the other Kahane chai (Hebrew: כהנא חי, literally "Kahane lives [on]"). In 1994 following the massacre in the Cave of the Patriarchs by a Kach supporter, the Israeli government declared both to be illegal terrorist organizations^{[http://web.nps.navy.mil/~library/tgp/kach.htm]^{^{[http://www.ict.org.il/inter_ter/orgdet.cfm?orgid=19]}. The U.S. State Department has also added Kach and Kahane Chai to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Providing funds or material support to these organizations remains a criminal act to this day, both in Israel and the U.S.

In autumn of 2000, after Yasser Arafat rejected an Israeli proposal to create a Palestinian state, and led his people in a violent uprising against the Jewish State, Kahane supporters spray painted graffiti on hundreds of bus shelters and bridges all across Israel. The message on each target was identical, simply reading: "Kahane Was Right".

Son killed

Meir Kahane's son, Kahane Chai leader Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, along with his wife Talya were shot dead in a Palestinian machine gun attack on December 31, 2000, as they were driving with their children from Jerusalem to their home in Kfar Tapuach. The attackers later commented that they were targeting random Israeli settlers, and 'got lucky' by hitting Binyamin Kahane.

Publications

- (Partially under pseudonym Michael King; with Joseph Churba) The Jewish Stake in Vietnam, Crossroads, 1967

- Never Again! A Program for Survival, Pyramid Books, 1972

- Time to Go Home, Nash, 1972.

- Letters from Prison, Jewish Identity Center, 1974

- Our Challenge: The Chosen Land, Chilton, 1974

- The Story of the Jewish Defense League, Chilton, 1975, 2nd edition, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane, (Brooklyn, NY), 2000

- Why Be Jewish? Intermarriage, Assimilation, and Alienation, Stein & Day, 1977

- Listen, Vanessa, I Am a Zionist, Institute of the Authentic Jewish Idea, 1978

- They Must Go, Grosset & Dunlop, 1981

- Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews, Lyle Stuart, 1987

- Israel: Revolution or Referendum, Barricade Books (Secaucus, NJ), 1990

- Or ha-ra'yon, English title: The Jewish Idea, n.p. (Jerusalem), 1992, translated from the Hebrew by Raphael Blumberg, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1996

- On Jews and Judaism: Selected Articles 1961–1990, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1993

- Perush ha-Makabi: al Sefer Devarim, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1993, 1995

- Perush ha-Makabi: al Sefer Shemu'el u-Nevi'im rishonim, Institute for Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1994

- Listen World, Listen Jew, 3rd edition, Institute for the Publication of the Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane (Jerusalem), 1995

- Kohen ve-navi: osef ma'amarim, ha-Makhon le-hotsa'at kitve ha-Rav Kahana (Jerusalem), 2000

Also author of Numbers 23:9: "... lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations," I. Block, 1970s. Contributor—sometimes under pseudonym Michael King—to periodicals, including New York Times. Editor of Jewish Press, 1968.

External links

- [http://kahane.org/ Kahane Website]

- [http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=455 Official Knesset Site]

- [http://www.kahane.org/biography.html Biography of Meir Kahane by his Followers]

- [http://www.adl.org/extremism/jdl%5Fchron.asp Kahane and the Jewish Defense League by the Anti-Defamation League]

- [http://library.nps.navy.mil/home/tgp/kach.htm "Terrorist Group" Profiles of Kach and Kahane Chai]

- [http://www.ict.org.il/inter_ter/orgdet.cfm?orgid=19 International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism: Kach and Kahane Chai]

- [http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/terrorists/elsayid_nosair/index.html?sect=22 Crime Library article on Kahane: His killing starts Islamic violence]

- [http://www.kcholmim.org/uncomfortable.html Rabbi Kahane's book Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews, complete edition]

- [http://hameir.org/books/revolution.html Kahane, Israel: Revolution or Referendum?]

- [http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0799/9907081.html Report on Kahane by the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs (NGO of former U.S. State Department foreign officers)]

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Pakeha
Pākehā is a word used in New Zealand to describe European New Zealanders, (those of predominantly European descent).

The word

The word Pākehā (or Pakeha) originated in the Māori language and has become part of everyday New Zealand English. Its derivation remains not entirely clear, but its present usage originated after the sustained arrival of Europeans in New Zealand in the late 18th century. Most likely it derives from either of the words pākehakeha or pakepakehā, referring to imaginary, fair-skinned beings. Some have claimed that the word is a Maori transliteration of "bugger ya" or derives from Maori words for flea (keha) or for pig (poaka), and therefore expresses derogatory implications, but there is little or no etymological or linguistic support for these notions.

Pakeha sometimes appears pluralised in English as Pakehas, but in Maori, the plural is Pākehā: pronouns or definite articles indicate pluralisation. Pakeha is also appearing more frequently as the accepted plural in English.

Meaning

Common alternate designations for pākehā in New Zealand include "New Zealand Europeans" or "European New Zealanders" and sometimes "Caucasian New Zealanders" or "White New Zealanders". The term 'white' may have somewhat vulgar connotations, and seldom occurs. Some early European settlers who lived among the Maori became known as Pakeha Māori.

The word sometimes applies more narrowly to just New Zealanders of British or Anglo/Celtic descent. Sometimes it applies more widely to include non-Māori other than those of European descent. A trend exists to apply the term only to New Zealand-born persons of predominantly European descent, but acceptance of this notion remains still far from universal.

European New Zealanders vary in their attitude toward the word "pākehā" as applied to themelves. Some embrace it wholeheartedly as a sign of their New Zealandness, in contrast to the Europeaness of their forebears. Others object to the word, claiming it to be derogatory or to carry implications of being an outsider, though not to the same extent as the word gaijin in Japan. Those who ignore ethnic distinctions prefer to identify all New Zealand citizens only as New Zealanders.

Historian Judith Binney calls herself a Pākehā and says, "I think it is the most simple and practical term. It is a name given to us by Māori. It has no pejorative associations like people think it does—it's a descriptive term. I think it's nice to have a name the people who live here gave you, because that's what I am".

Cultural identity

Many Pākehā do not readily identify a Pākehā culture. While Maori culture has achieved wide recognition, Pakeha culture tends to be taken for granted as the norm.

Recognised aspects of Pākehā culture often receive the label of "Kiwiana". This includes icons such as the Chesdale Cheese men and the game of rugby. New Zealand culture is an amalgam of cultures, traditionally Pākehā and Māori, but more recently from all over the world.

Michael King, a leading writer on Pakeha identity, discussed the concept in his books Being Pakeha (1985) and Being Pakeha now (1999).

References

- [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10331290 Interview with Judith Binney], New Zealand Herald, 18 June 2005.

External links

- [http://maorinews.com/writings/papers/other/pakeha.htm Further article about the word at Maorinews.com]

- [http://www.kiwianatown.co.nz/ Otorohanga: Kiwiana Town]

- [http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~sarah/content/kiwiana.html Sarah Henderson's Guide to Kiwiana]

category: New Zealand society
category: Maori words

New Zealand

New Zealand or Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Cloud, is a country of two large islands and many smaller islands in the south-western Pacific Ocean. New Zealand is notable for its isolation, being separated from Australia on the northwest by the Tasman Sea, some 2,000 km wide. The closest neighbours to the north are New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga. The population of New Zealand is mostly of European descent, with the indigenous Māori as the largest minority. Non-Māori Polynesian and Asian peoples are also significant minorities, especially in the cities.

Officially, Elizabeth II is the Queen of New Zealand and is represented in the country by a non-political Governor-General; though the Queen has no real political influence. Political power is held by the Prime Minister who is leader of the Government in the democratically elected Parliament of New Zealand. The monarch's Realm of New Zealand also includes the Cook Islands and Niue, which are entirely self-governing; Tokelau, which is moving towards self-government, and New Zealand's claim in Antarctica.

History

New Zealand is one of the most recently settled major land masses. Polynesian settlers arrived in their waka some time between 800 and 600 years ago to establish the indigenous Māori culture. Settlement of the Chatham Islands to the south-east of New Zealand produced the Moriori people but it is disputed whether they moved there from New Zealand or elsewhere in Polynesia. Most of New Zealand was divided into tribal territories called rohe, resources within which were controlled by an iwi ('tribe'). Usually no two iwi had overlapping rohe. Māori adapted to eating the local marine resources, flora and fauna for food, hunting the giant flightless moa (which soon became extinct), and ate the Polynesian Rat and kumara (sweet potato), which they introduced to the country.

The first Europeans known to reach New Zealand were led by Abel Janszoon Tasman, who sailed up the west coast of the South and North islands in 1642. He named it Staten Landt, believing it to be part of the land Jacob Le Maire had discovered in 1616 off the coast of Chile. Staten Landt appeared on Tasman's first maps of New Zealand, but this was changed by Dutch cartographers to Nova Zeelandia, after the Dutch province of Zeeland, some time after Hendrik Brouwer proved the South American land to be an island in 1643. The Latin Nova Zeelandia became Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch. Lieutenant James Cook subsequently called the archipelago New Zealand, although the names he chose for the North and South islands were rejected, and the main three islands became known as North, Middle and South, with the Middle Island being later called the South Island. Cook began extensive surveys of the islands in 1769, leading to European whaling expeditions and eventually significant European colonisation. From as early as the 1780s, Māori had encounters with European sealers and whalers. Acquisition of muskets by those iwi in close contact with European visitors destabilised the existing balance of power between Māori tribes and there was a temporary but intense period of bloody inter-tribal warfare, known as the Musket Wars, that only ceased when all iwi were so armed.

Concern about the exploitation of Māori by Europeans, Church Missionary Society lobbying and French interest in the region led the British to annex New Zealand by Royal Proclamation in January 1840. To legitimise the British annexation, Lieutenant Governor William Hobson had been dispatched in 1839; he hurriedly negotiated the Treaty of Waitangi with northern iwi on his arrival. The Treaty was signed in February, and in recent years it has come to be seen as the founding document of New Zealand. The Māori translation of the treaty promised the Māori tribes "tino rangatiratanga" would be preserved in return for cedeing kawanatanga, which the English versions translates as "chieftainship" for "sovereignty"; the real meanings are now disputed. Disputes over land sales and sovereignty caused the New Zealand land wars which took place between 1845 and 1872. In 1975 the Treaty of Waitangi Act established the Waitangi Tribunal, charged with hearing claims of Crown violations of the Treaty of Waitangi dating back to 1840. Some Māori tribes and the Moriori never signed the treaty.

Although New Zealand was initially administered as a part of the Australian colony of New South Wales, it became a colony in its own right in 1841. European settlement progressed more rapidly than anyone anticipated, and settlers soon outnumbered Māori. Self-government was granted to the settler population in 1852. The first capital of New Zealand was Kororareka (known today as Russell) but shortly afterwards moved to Auckland. There were political concerns following the discovery of gold in Central Otago in 1861 that the South Island would form a separate colony. So in 1865 the capital was offically moved to the more central city of Wellington. New Zealand was involved in a Constitutional Convention in March 1891 in Sydney, New South Wales, along with the then-colonies of Australia. This was to consider a potential constitution for the proposed federation between the then-British Colonies of Australasia. New Zealand lost interest in joining Australia in a federation following this convention.

New Zealand became an independent dominion on 26 September 1907 by royal proclamation. Full independence was granted by the United Kingdom Parliament with the Statute of Westminster in 1931; it was taken up upon the Statute's adoption by the New Zealand Parliament in 1947. Since then New Zealand has been a sovereign constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations.

Politics

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. Under the New Zealand Royal Titles Act (1953), Queen Elizabeth II is Queen of New Zealand and is represented as head of state by the Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright.

The New Zealand Parliament has only one chamber, the House of Representatives which usually seats 120 members of Parliament. Parliamentary elections are every three years under a form of proportional representation called Mixed Member Proportional (MMP). The 2005 General Election created an 'overhang' of one extra seat (occupied by the Māori Party), due to that party winning more seats in constituencies than its proportional entitlement.

There is no single written constitution; however, the Constitution Act (1986) is the principal formal statement of New Zealand's constitutional structure. The Governor-General has the power to appoint and dismiss Prime Ministers and to dissolve Parliament. The Governor-General also chairs the Executive Council which is a formal committee consisting of all ministers of the Crown. Members of the Executive Council are required to be members of Parliament, and most are also in Cabinet. Cabinet is the most senior policy-making body and is led by the Prime Minister who is also the Parliamentary leader of the governing party or coalition.

The current Prime Minister is Helen Clark of the Labour Party. She has served two complete terms as Prime Minister and has begun her third. On 17 October 2005 she announced that she had come to a complex arrangement that guaranteed the support of enough parties for her Labour-led coalition to govern. The core of the coalition is a cabinet consisting of Labour Party ministers and Jim Anderton, the Progressive Party's only MP. In addition to the parties represented in cabinet the leaders of New Zealand First and United Future are to be appointed as Ministers outside Cabinet. An arrangement of this kind has never been attempted before in New Zealand.

A further arrangement has been made with the Green Party, which has given a commitment not to vote against the government on confidence and supply. This commitment assures the government of a majority of seven MPs on confidence.

The Leader of the Opposition is National Party leader Don Brash who was formerly Governor of the Reserve Bank. Also in opposition are the Māori Party and ACT New Zealand.

The highest court in New Zealand is the Supreme Court of New Zealand. The Supreme Court was established in 2004 following the passage of the Supreme Court Act in 2003. The Act abolished the option to appeal Court of Appeal rulings to the Privy Council in London. The current Chief Justice is Dame Sian Elias. New Zealand's judicary also has a High Court which deals with serious criminal offences and civil matters, and a Court of Appeal, as well as subordinate courts.

Foreign relations and military

New Zealand maintains a strong profile on environmental protection, human rights and free trade, particularly for agriculture.

New Zealand is a member of the following geo-political organisations: APEC, Commonwealth of Nations, OECD and the United Nations. It has signed up to a number of free trade agreements, of which the most important is Closer Economic Relations with Australia.

For its first hundred years, New Zealand followed Britain's lead on foreign policy. "Where she goes, we go, where she stands, we stand", said Prime Minister Michael Savage, in declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939. However, Britain's inability to protect New Zealand from Japanese aggression in World War II led New Zealand to come under the influence of the United States of America for the generation following the war. New Zealand has traditionally also worked closely with Australia, whose foreign policy followed a similar historical trend. In turn, many Pacific Islands such as Western Samoa have looked to New Zealand's lead. The American influence on New Zealand was weakened by the disappointment with the Vietnam War, the nuclear danger presented by the Cold War, the Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by France and by disagreements over environmental and agricultural trade issues.

New Zealand is a party to the ANZUS security treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States. In 1984 New Zealand refused nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships access to its ports. In 1986 the United States announced that it was suspending its treaty security obligations to New Zealand pending the restoration of port access. The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act of 1987 prohibits the stationing of nuclear weapons on the territory of New Zealand and the entry into New Zealand waters of nuclear armed or propelled ships. This legislation remains a source of contention and the basis for the United States' continued suspension of treaty obligations to New Zealand.

In addition to the various wars between Iwi, and between the British, settlers and Iwi, New Zealand has fought in the Boer War, World War I, (sustaining the highest casualties per head of population of any combatant nation), World War II, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency (and committed troops, fighters and bombers to the subsequent confrontation with Indonesia), the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the Afghanistan War and has briefly sent a unit of army engineers to help with rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure.

The New Zealand military has three branches: the New Zealand Army, the Royal New Zealand Navy, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force. New Zealand considers its own national defence needs to be modest; it dismantled its air combat capability in 2001. New Zealand has contributed forces to recent regional and global peacekeeping missions, including those in Cyprus, Somalia, Bosnia, the Sinai, Angola, Cambodia, the Iran/Iraq border, Bougainville and East Timor.

Local government and external territories

East Timor

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 its local government. The spirit of the provinces however still 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.

Today New Zealand has 12 regional councils for the administration of environmental and transport matters and 74 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 County Council. Four of the territorial councils (one city and three districts) and the Chatham Islands County Council also perform the functions of a regional council and thus are known as unitary authorities. Territorial authority districts are not subdivisions of regional council districts, and a few of them straddle regional council boundaries.

Regions are (asterisks denote unitary authorities): Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne
- , Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu-Wanganui, Wellington, Marlborough
- , Nelson
- , Tasman
- , West Coast, Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands
- .

As a major South Pacific nation, New Zealand has a close working relationship with many of the smaller Pacific Island nations, and continues a political association with the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau. New Zealand operates Scott Base in its Antarctic territory, the Ross Dependency. Other countries also use Christchurch to support their Antarctic bases and the city is sometimes known as the "Gateway to Antarctica".

Geography

Ross Dependency are visible in the centre of the North Island. The Southern Alps and the rain shadow they create are clearly visible on the South Island]]

New Zealand comprises two main islands (simply called the North and South Islands in English, or usually Te-Ika-a-Maui and Te Wai Pounamu in Māori) and a number of smaller islands. The total land area of New Zealand, 268,680 km², is a little less than that of Japan and a little more than the United Kingdom. The country extends more than 1600 km along its main, north-north-east axis. The most significant of the smaller inhabited islands of New Zealand include Stewart Island/Rakiura, Waiheke Island, an island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, Great Barrier Island, east of the Hauraki Gulf and the Chatham Islands, named Rekohu by Moriori. The country has extensive marine resources, with the fifth largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world covering over 4 million km², more than 15 times its land area.

The South Island is the largest land mass, and is divided along its length by the Southern Alps, the highest peak of which is Aoraki/Mount Cook, at 3,754 metres (12,316 feet). There are 18 peaks of more than 3,000 metres in the South Island. The North Island is less mountainous than the South, but is marked by volcanism. The tallest North Island mountain, Mount Ruapehu (2,797 metres), is an active cone volcano. The dramatic and varied landscape of New Zealand has made it a popular location for the production of television programmes and films, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Lord of the Rings

The usual climate throughout the country is mild, mostly cool temperate to warm temperate, with temperatures rarely falling below 0°C or rising above 30°C. Conditions vary from wet and cold on the West Coast of the South Island to dry and continental in the Mackenzie Basin of inland Canterbury and subtropical in Northland. Of the main cities, Christchurch is the driest, receiving only some 640 millimetres of rain per year. Auckland, the wettest, receives a little less than three times that amount.

Flora and fauna

Northland
Because of its long isolation from the rest of the world, and its island biogeography New Zealand has extraordinary flora and fauna. About 80 percent of the New Zealand flora only occurs in New Zealand, including more than 40 endemic genera. The main two types of forest have been dominated by podocarps including the giant kauri and southern beech. The remaining vegetation types in New Zealand are grassland of grass and tussock, usually associated with the subalpine areas, and the low shrublands between grasslands and forests.

Until the arrival of the first humans, 80% of the land was forested and, barring two species of bat, there were no non-marine mammals at all. Instead, New Zealand's forests were inhabited by a diverse range of birds including the flightless Moa which is now extinct, the Kiwi, Kakapo, and Takahē which are all endangered due to human actions. Unique birds capable of flight include the Haast's eagle which was the world's largest bird of prey before it became extinct and the large parrots the Kaka and Kea. Reptiles present in New Zealand include skinks and geckos and the Tuatara. There are no snakes but there are many species of insects— including the weta which may grow as large as a House Mouse.

Economy

House Mouse

New Zealand has a thriving, modern, developed economy. The country has a high standard of living, ranking 19th on the 2005 Human Development Index and 15th of The Economists 2005 world-wide quality-of-life index. Since 1984 successive governments have engaged in major macroeconomic restructuring, transforming New Zealand from a highly protectionist and regulated economy to a liberalised free-trade economy. During the late 1980s, the New Zealand Government sold a number of major trading enterprises, including its telecommunications company, railway network, a number of radio stations and two financial institutions in a series of asset sales. Although the New Zealand Government continues to own a number of significant businesses, collectively known as State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), they are operated through arms-length shareholding arrangements as stand-alone businesses that are required to operate profitably, just like any privately owned enterprise.

Unfortunately, due in part to the sudden transition to a market economy, an economic bubble developed in the New Zealand stock market starting in 1984. This burst in October 1987 and the total value of the market halved within a year (it has still to recover this lost value). The effect of this bubble was a period of poor economic growth which lasted until the mid 90s. It also led the government to begin a programme of massive immigration to boost GDP. However, since 1999 New Zealand has enjoyed a period of relatively strong and sustained growth, and contained inflationary pressures.

The current New Zealand government's economic objectives are centred around moving from being ranked among the lower end of the OECD countries to regaining a higher placing again, pursuing free-trade agreements, "closing the gaps" between ethnic groups, and building a "knowledge economy." In 2004 it began discussing free trade with China, one of the first countries to do so.

New Zealand is heavily dependent on trade—particularly in agricultural products—to drive growth, and it has been affected by global economic slowdowns and slumps in commodity prices. Since agricultural exports are highly sensitive to currency values and a large percentage of consumer goods are imported, any changes in the value of the New Zealand dollar has a strong impact on the economy. Its primary export industries are agriculture, horticulture, fishing, forestry and information technology. There are also substantial tourism and export education industries. The film and wine industries are considered to be up-and-coming.

Demographics

New Zealand has a population of about 4.1 million. About 70% of the population are whites of European descent. New Zealanders of Anglo-Celtic ancestry are known as Pākeha - this term is used variously and some Māori use it to refer to all non-Māori New Zealanders. A large proportion of white New Zealanders are of Scottish ancestry. Māori people are the second largest ethnic group (the percentage of the population of full or part-Māori ancestry is 14.7%; those who checked only Māori are 7.9%). Between the 1996 and 2001 censuses, the number of people of Asian origin (6.6%) overtook the number of people of Pacific Island origin (6.5%) (note that the census allowed multiple ethnic affiliations). Virtually all Māori are of mixed heritage (Māori/Pākeha), but a large portion of them marked themselves as Māori-only on the Census. New Zealand is positive about immigration and is committed to increasing its population by approx 1% per annum. At present migrants from the UK constitute the largest single group (30%) but new migrants are drawn from many nations, increasingly from East Asia.

Christianity is the predominant religion in New Zealand, although nearly 40% of the population has no religious affiliation. The main Christian denominations are Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Roman Catholicism and Methodism. There are also significant numbers who identify themselves with Pentecostal and Baptist churches and with the Mormon church. The New Zealand-based Ratana church has many adherents among Māori. According to census figures, other significant minority religions include Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.

Culture

IslamNew Zealand has a diverse contemporary culture with influences from British, the Māori,and other European immigrants and most recently Polynesian cultures. There were many people from Scotland amongst the early British settlers and elements of their culture persist; New Zealand is said to have more bagpipe bands than Scotland. Cultural links between New Zealand and the UK are maintained by a common language, sustained migration from the UK and the fact that many young New Zealanders spend time in the UK on their "overseas experience (OE)".

Pre-European contact Māori culture had no metal tools, relying on stone and wood. Modern Māori do not live a traditional lifestyle. Elements of Māori culture survive and the Government actively promotes it to all New Zealanders. Use of the Māori language (Te Reo Māori) as a living, community language remained only in a few remote areas in the post war years but it is currently going through a renaissance; with generous state support for Māori language medium schools and a Māori language television channel.

New Zealand's landscape has appeared in a number of television programmes and films. In particular, the television series Hercules and Xena were filmed around Auckland, and the film Heavenly Creatures in Christchurch. The television series The Tribe is set and filmed in New Zealand as well. Director Peter Jackson shot the epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy in various locations around the country, taking advantage of the spectacular and relatively unspoiled landscapes, and Mount Taranaki was used as a stand-in for Mount Fuji in The Last Samurai. The latest of such major international films to be released are King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Sport

New Zealand's most popular sports are rugby union, cricket, netball, lawn bowling, soccer (the most popular sport amongst children) and rugby league. Also popular are golf, tennis, cycling and a variety of water sports, particularly sailing, whitewater kayaking, Surf Lifesaving and rowing. In the latter, New Zealand enjoyed an extraordinary Magic 45 minutes when winning four successive gold medals at the 2005 world championships. Snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding are also popular. Equestrian sportsmen and sportswomen make their mark in the world (Mark Todd being chosen international "Horseman of the Century"), and all the way down to the juniors at pony club level.

Olympic Games
The country is internationally recognised as achieving extremely well on a medals-to-population ratio at Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. See, for example, New Zealand Olympic medallists and New Zealand at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Rugby
Rugby as a sport is closely linked to New Zealand's national identity. The national rugby team is called the All Blacks and has the best winning record of any national team in the world, including being the inaugural winners of the World Cup in 1987. The style of name has been followed in naming the national team in several other sports. For instance, the nation's basketball team is known as the Tall Blacks. New Zealand is to host the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup. New Zealand's national sporting colours are not the colours of its flag, but are black and white (silver). The silver fern is a national emblem worn by New Zealanders representing their country in sport. The haka—a traditional Māori challenge—is often performed at sporting events. The All Blacks traditionally perform a haka before the start of international matches.

Yachting, America's Cup
New Zealand is one of the leading nations in world yachting, especially open water long distance or around the world races. Round-the-world yachtsman, Sir Peter Blake was something of a national hero before his untimely death at the hands of river pirates while on an environmental exploration trip on the Amazon. In inshore yachting, Auckland hosted the last two America's Cup regattas (2000 and 2003). In 2000, Team New Zealand successfully defended the trophy they had won in 1995 in San Diego, which made them the only team in the history of the Cup to successfully defend a challenge other than a United States team, but in 2003 they lost to a team headed by Ernesto Bertarelli of Switzerland, whose Alinghi syndicate was skippered by Russell Coutts, the former skipper of Team New Zealand.

Team New Zealand will compete for the America's Cup at the next regatta in Valencia in 2007. The team manager is Grant Dalton.

Public holidays

Statutory Holidays
(These holidays are legislated by several Acts of Parliament, such as the Holidays Act. New Zealand Statutes can be viewed at [http://www.legislation.govt.nz/browse_vw.asp?content-set=pal_statutes legislation.govt.nz])

There are also Provincial Anniversary Days to celebrate the founding days or landing days of the first colonists of the various colonial provinces. The actual observance of Anniversary days can vary even within each province due to local custom, convenience or the proximity of seasonal events or other holidays. This may differ from the historical observance day, and may be several weeks from the historic date of the events being commemorated. A full list of Anniversary days is listed in the article Holidays in New Zealand.

International rankings

- UN Human Development Index (HDI), 2005: 19th out of 177 behind Norway; United Nations Development Programme (pdf) [http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/pdf/HDR05_complete.pdf]

- Quality of Life Index, 2005: 15th out of 111 behind Ireland; The Economist Intelligence Unit (pdf) [http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf]

- Environmental Sustainability Index, 2005: 14th (out of 146) behind Finland; Yale University Center for Environmental Law and Policy & Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (pdf) [http://www.yale.edu/esi/ESI2005_Main_Report.pdf]

- Index of Economic Freedom, 2005: 5th= (out of 155) behind Hong Kong; Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal [http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/]

- GDP Ranking, 2005: 25th out of 111 behind Luxembourg; The Economist Intelligence Unit (pdf) [http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf]

- Transparency International 2005: 2nd= (out of 159) behind Iceland on its list of least corrupt countries in the world. [http://ww1.transparency.org/cpi/2005/cpi2005_infocus.html#cpi]

See also

Notes
McGlone, S.M. and Wilmshurst, J.M. 1999. Dating initial Māori environmental impact in New Zealand. Quaternary International 59:5 - 16

Ministry for the Environment. 2005. Offshore Options: Managing Environmental Effects in New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone.
[http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/water/offshore-options-jun05/html/page3.html Introduction]

Allan, H.H. 1982. Indigenous Tracheophyta - Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledons, Flora of New Zealand Volume I. Botany Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research

External links

- [http://www.teara.govt.nz/ Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand]

- [http://webdirectory.natlib.govt.nz/index.htm Te Puna Web Directory ] - A directory to New Zealand web sites

- [http://www.mch.govt.nz/ Ministry for Culture and Heritage] - includes information on flag, anthems and coat of arms.

- [http://www.govt.nz/ New Zealand Government Portal]

- [http://www.nzte.govt.nz/ New Zealand Trade and Enterprise] - New Zealand's trade and economic development agency.

- [http://wikitravel.org/en/article/New_Zealand Wikitravel] - New Zealand travel guide.

- [http://www.metservice.co.nz/ New Zealand weather]

- [http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/ NZHistory.net.nz New Zealand history website]

- [http://www.stats.govt.nz/ Statistics New Zealand] - Official statistics.

- [http://www.newzealand.com/ Tourism New Zealand]

- [http://www.astronomy.net.nz/ Astronomy in New Zealand] The guide to astronomy in New Zealand

- [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ New Zealand Herald] - New Zealand newspaper online
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Category:Island nations
Category:Members of the Commonwealth of Nations
Category:Former British colonies
Category:Monarchies
Category:Oceanic countries
Category:Polynesia

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zh-min-nan:Aotearoa

ko:뉴질랜드

ms:New Zealand

ja:ニュージーランド

simple:New Zealand

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Author

An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. This can be short or long, fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, technical or literature. In particular, the word is used to refer to a person doing it for pay (as a profession).

Role in critical theory

One key issue in literary theory is the relationship between the meaning of a literary text and its author's conscious intent.

- The phrase "Death of the Author" was popularized by Roland Barthes in his 1968 essay with the same name. It is used to convey the idea that texts have meaning and an independent existence outside that intended by the author, depending on the context and reader.

- The death of the author is in self-conscious opposition to the New Criticism, a literary critical movement popular in England and America in the first half of the 20th century. According to this movement, the author's intent is assumed to be quite clear to the author and it becomes the critic's task to understand this intent.

See also

- novelist

- writer

- Lists of authors

- List of novelists

Category:Media occupations
Category:Literary criticism

ja:作家

Biographer
Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography.

Some notable authors of biographies

- A. N. Wilson - England

- Alanna Nash, (born 1950), United States

- Alfred Ainger, (1837-1904) - Charles Lamb

- Alison Weir - "popular" history

- Amanda Foreman, (born 1968) - Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire

- Andrew Robinson, (born 1957) - Satyajit Ray and Rabindranath Tagore

- Antonia Fraser, (born 1932) - Mary, Queen of Scots, Oliver Cromwell

- Barbara Levick, (born 1932) - English; specialising in Roman emperors

- Brenda Maddox

- Carl Sandburg, (1878-1967) - Abraham Lincoln

- Douglas S. Freeman, (1886-1953) - Robert E. Lee, George Washington

- Edward Klein, author of The Truth About Hillary

- Ellis Amburn, (born 1933), United States

- Michael Schumacher, "Dharma Lion: A Biography of Allen Ginsberg."

- Henry Salt, (1851-1939) - English authority on Shelley, Richard Jefferies and Henry David Thoreau

- Hesketh Pearson

- Irving Stone, (1903-1989)

- James Boswell, (1740-1795) - Samuel Johnson

- James Parton, (1822-1891) - Horace Greeley, Aaron Burr, Andrew Jackson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Voltaire

- Jean Overton Fuller - writer of verse and several biographies, including agents of S.O.E

- Kirit Shelat - India

- Leonie Frieda, UK - Catherine de' Medici

- Lytton Strachey, (1880-1932) - English

- Martin Gilbert, England - Winston Churchill

- Merle Miller, (1919-1986) - Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson (U.S. Presidents)

- Michael Holroyd, (born 1935)

- Nirad C. Chaudhuri, (1897-1999) - Clive of India, Max Muller

- Patrick White. (1912-1990) - Australia

- Peter Guralnick, (born 1943) - music industry writer

- Robert Lacey - England

- Roger Lewis - Anthony Burgess

- Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, (1762-1837) - English writers

- Theodore White - United States

- Thomas DiLorenzo - Abraham Lincoln

- Vincent Brome, (1910-2004) - various writers

- William Fitzstephen, (died 1190) - Thomas a Becket

- Simon Sebag Montefiore (1965- ), Potemkin, Stalin

Some notable autobiographers

- Frank McCourt, (born 1930) - United States - Pulitzer Prize Winner

- Henry Cockburn, (1779-1854) - Scottish

- Lee Iacocca, (born 1924) - United States

- Nirad C. Chaudhuri, (1897-1999) - The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian

See also

- Lists of authors

- :Category:Biographers

If you add any authors to this list, please also consider adding them to the A-Z list of authors.

Biographers

Auckland

Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area in New Zealand. It is a conurbation, made up of the cities of Auckland, Waitakere, Manukau and North Shore. In Māori it bears the name Tāmaki Makau Rau or Ākarana.

Auckland lies between the Hauraki Gulf of the Pacific Ocean to the east, the low Hunua Ranges to the south-east, Manukau Harbour to the south-west, and the Waitakere Ranges and smaller ranges to the west and north-west. The central part of the urban area occupies a narrow isthmus between Manukau and Waitemata harbours (and is one of the few cities in the world to have two harbours, as well as having sea ports to each coast - Tasman and Pacific).

History

Māori settlers
The area, Tamaki Makau Rau (isthmus of one thousand lovers), now known as Auckland, was first settled by Māori people around 1350. The region was valued for its rich and fertile land. Māori constructed terraced pa (fortified villages) on the volcanic peaks. Māori population is estimated to have peaked at 20,000 in the region in pre-settlement times, a figure which would later qualify in New Zealand as a city. Earthworks are still evident today around some of the larger volcanoes such as; Mount Albert, Mount Eden and One Tree Hill.

The isthmus, at around 8km from coast to coast - with Mount Eden and One Tree Hill placed along the line of the narrowest point, led to the area having great strategic qualities. The isthmus also has the highly productive soils providing agricultural opportunities, and the two harbours (Waitemata to the East and Manukau to the West) providing diverse kai moana (seafood).

Ngāti Whātua and Tainui were the main tribes traditionally living in the area. The arrival of Europeans, using guns as one of many trade commodities, changed the balances of power between Iwi with the inevitable result of armed conflict. European settlement caused Maori numbers in what is now central Auckland city to be greatly reduced due to; inter-iwi warfare, new diseases (especially smallpox and tuberculosis), and the common ills experienced by indigenous peoples of colonisation. There was a period of migrations of both Europeans and Māori. One of the initial appeals of the area to Europeans being it was virtually uninhabited.

Āpihai Te Kawau (c. 1760 - 1869), leader of the Ngati Taou Hapu, was a good friend of Samuel Marsden. Over a 10 month period of 1821 - 1822, he took a principle part in the 1,000 mile Amiowhenua expedition. This series of battles raged through much of central and southern North Island. It ended when Te Kawau's Ngāti Whātua forces, uniting with the Taranaki they were embattled with, to jointly defend the Tainui Matakitaki pa from Hongi Hika's Nga Puhi forces.

By 1840 Te Kawau had become the paramount chief of Ngāti Whātua. Cautious of reprisals from the Nga Puhi defeated at Matakitaki, Te Kawau found it most convenient to offer Governor Hobson land around the present central city. He and six other chiefs travelled the Bay of Islands to make the offer and signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 20th March.

Ngāti Whātua would certainly have expected from English colonialism increased security and trading benefits. This would include greater access via the quickly developed port facilities for the lucrative trade in produce grown in Tainui's fertile Waikato and Hauraki Plains for the Australian prison colonies and Sydney market. The sale price for the initial 3,000 acres (12 km²) was for cash and goods to the value of £341.

As Māori population declined for nearly a century, so did the quantity of land held by Ngāti Whātua. Within 20 years, 40% of their lands were lost, some through government land confiscation. At close to the lowest level of population, Ngāti Whātua land holding was reduced to a few acres at Orakei, land which Te Kawau had declared "a last stand".

Birth of Auckland
After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in February 1840 the new Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, had the task of choosing a capital for the colony. At the time Kororareka, now called Old Russell, in the Bay of Islands, served as the effective capital. However, Kororareka's geographical position made it very remote, inaccessible and off-centre from the rest of the New Zealand archipelago, and the town had a notorious reputation for drunkenness and immorality.

Bay of Islands
Even in 1840 Port Nicholson (now the location of Wellington) probably seemed the obvious choice for an administrative capital. Centrally situated at the south of the North Island, close to the South Island, and growing fast, it had a lot to commend it. But the New Zealand Company and the Wakefield brothers had founded and continued to dominate Port Nicholson. Furthermore, it already had a bad reputation with the Māori for unscrupulous or even illegal occupation of land.

On the initial recommendation of the missionary Henry Williams, supported by the Surveyor General, Felton Mathew, and the offer of land from Ngāti Whātua, Hobson selected the south side of Waitemata Harbour as his future capital. The Chief Magistrate, Captain William Cornwallis Symonds, soon purchased the further land from Ngāti Whātua, and a foundation ceremony took place at 1pm on 18 September 1840, probably on the higher ground at the top end of present-day Queen Street. Hobson named the new settlement in honour of George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, a patron and friend of his. The New Zealand Government Gazette announced the royal approval of the name on 26 November 1842.

From the outset a steady flow of new arrivals from within New Zealand and from overseas came to the new capital. Initially settlers from New South Wales predominated, but the first immigrant ships sailing directly from Britain started to arrive as early as 1842. From early times the eastern side of the settlement remained reserved for government officials while mechanics and artisans, the so-called "unofficial" settlers, congregated on the western side. This social division still persists in modern Auckland.

Eventually Port Nicholson became the capital and, now known as Wellington, remains so today. The advantages of a central position became even more obvious as the South Island grew in prosperity with the discovery of gold in Otago, and with the development of sheep farming and refrigeration, especially refrigerated ships which allowed chilled meat to be safely shipped to Britain. Parliament met for the first time in Wellington in 1862. In 1868 Government House moved there too.

Growth of Auckland

Government House
Auckland formed a base for Governor George Grey's operations against the rebel Maori King Movement in the early 1860s. Grey's modus operandi involved opening up the Waikato and King Country by building roads, most notably Great South Road, (a large part of which now forms State Highway 1). This enabled rapid movement, not only of soldiers, but also civilian settlers. It also enabled the extension of Pakeha influence and law to the South Auckland region.

During the mid 19th century, European settlement of New Zealand was predominantly in the South Island. Auckland however gradually became the commercial capital. Market gardens were planted on the outskirts, while kauri tree logging and gum digging opened up the Waitakere Ranges.

A Russian scare at the end of the century caused coastal guns to be bought and fortifications built, notably at Devonport and on Waiheke Island, where they can still be seen.

By 1900 Auckland was the largest New Zealand city.

In World War II the city was overflown by a Japanese seaplane, chased ineffectually by a Royal New Zealand Air Force De Havilland Tiger Moth.

In the 1950s the Auckland Harbour Bridge was constructed, linking North Shore with the city.

As flying boat services from Mechanics Bay and Hobsonville by aircraft such as the Short Solent and Short Sunderland were replaced by landplanes, an airport was opened at Mangere, supplanting earlier airfields at Ardmore and Whenuapai.

Whenuapai
Following the initiative of Michael Joseph Savage's New Zealand Labour Party large numbers of state houses were constructed through the late 1930s, '40s and '50s, usually on quarter-acre (1,000 m²) sections - a tradition that survives despite frequent subdivision. Auckland is a largely suburban city: although it has not much more than a seventh of the population of London, it sprawls over a considerably larger area - a fact that serves to make public transport by Auckland's rail and bus systems unpopular and uneconomic.

All four electrical power cables supplying the Central Business District failed on 20 February 1998, causing the 1998 Auckland power crisis. It took five weeks before an emergency overhead cable was completed to restore the power supply to the Central Business District. For much of that time, about 60,000 of the 74,000 people who worked in the area, worked from home or from relocated offices in the suburbs. Many of the 6,000 apartment dwellers in the area had to find alternative accommodation.

Geography and climate
Volcanoes
1998 Auckland power crisisAuckland straddles the volcanoes of the Auckland Volcanic Field. The 50 volcanic vents in the field take the form of cones, lakes, lagoons, islands and depressions. Some of the cones have been partly or completely quarried away. The volcanoes are all individually extinct although the volcanic field itself is merely dormant. The most recent and by far the largest volcano, Rangitoto Island, formed within the last 1000 years. 'Rangi' means 'sky' and 'toto' means 'blood', which indicates it was named by Maori who had witnessed its eruption. Its size, its symmetry, its position guarding the entrance to Waitemata Harbour and its visibility from many parts of the Auckland region make it Auckland's most iconic natural feature. Rangitoto is eerily quiet as almost no birds and insects have settled on the island because of the rich acidic soil and type of flora that has adapted to grow out of the black broken rocky soil.

Isthmus and harbours
Waitemata Harbour
Auckland lies on and around an isthmus, less than two km wide at its narrowest point between Mangere Inlet and Tamaki River. There are two harbours in the Auckland urban area surrounding this isthmus, Waitemata Harbour to the north, which opens east to the Hauraki Gulf, and Manukau Harbour to the south, which opens west to the Tasman Sea.

Bridges span both of these harbours, Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitemata Harbour and Mangere Bridge on Manukau Harbour.

Climate
Auckland has a warm-temperate climate, with warm, humid summers and cool but damp and lengthy winters. January temperatures average 21-24 °C (February and March are typically warmer than January, however), and July maximum temperatures average 14-16 °C. High levels of rainfall occur almost year-round (over 1100 mm per year), especially in winter. Climatic conditions vary in different parts of the city owing to geography such as hills, trees and ocean wind currents. Snow has never been recorded in Auckland, (although a heavy hailstorm in the 1950s was mistaken for snow by many residents), unlike some South island cities which may get snow most years. It has snowed north of Auckland at Kaikohe.

People

- See also: Culture of New Zealand

Cultures
Auckland serves as a home to many cultures. The majority of inhabitants (roughly 60%) claim European — predominantly British — descent, but substantial Maori and Pacific Island communities exist as well. Auckland has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world. Comparably-sized communities of people of East Asian origin also live in Auckland, due to New Zealand's world-leading level of immigration, which flows primarily into Auckland. Ethnic groups from all corners of the world have a presence in Auckland, making it by far the country's most cosmopolitan city. It is estimated that over fourteen people from other countries immigrate to Auckland every day.

Religion

Like the rest of the country, more than half of Aucklanders are nominally Christian, but less than 10% regularly attend church and almost 40% profess no religious affiliation (2001 census figures). The main denominations are Anglican, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic. Pentecostal and charismatic churches are the fastest growing. The charismatic and fundamentalist Destiny Church, headquartered in Auckland, has gained headlines because of its political activities. A higher percentage of Polynesian immigrants are regular churchgoers than other Aucklanders, although church attendance drops off in second or third generation Polynesian Aucklanders. Other immigrant cultures have added to the religious diversity of the city, bringing traditions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. There is also a small, long-established Jewish community. There is an even smaller Rationalist group. Western Central Auckland, particularly Mount Roskill, has been labelled the 'Bible Belt'.

Social perceptions
Aucklanders are viewed with varying degrees of dislike by some New Zealanders living outside Auckland. One perception of Aucklanders is that they are rich latte-sipping yuppies, with trendy but impractical political views. Some claim jokingly that Aucklanders think that "New Zealand stops at the Bombay Hills", the Bombay Hills forming the Auckland region's southern boundary. Some people living south of the hills agree with the statement, but regard "true" New Zealand as lying south, not north, of the hills. The word Jafa was coined as an insulting nickname for Aucklanders, but Aucklanders have robbed the word of its sting by enthusiastically embracing it.

See the Jafa article for more on outsiders' attitudes.

There are stereotypes about residents in some parts of Auckland. These stereotypes can be a badge of honour, or an insult, depending on how they are used, and by whom.

- Westies - people living in the western suburbs of Auckland (particularly those of Waitakere City), from Henderson to the Waitakere Ranges. As a derogatory term, "westie" is similar to bogan, trailer trash or chav.

- South Aucklanders - people who live at the southern end of the city; the term is predominantly used to refer to a low socio-economic group with a high unemployment rate and a large population of Pacific Islanders, although there are quite a few affluent areas in South Auckland.

- East Aucklanders - residents in the eastern suburbs of the Auckland isthmus, including a large Asian (Chinese) population in Howick and surrounding areas.

- Shoreboy/girl - someone from the North Shore. Generally percieved as 'spoilt rich kids' since the area is quite affluent. The term is somewhat analogous to the stereotype of the Valley girl in Los Angeles, though not as extreme.

Lifestyle

Attractive aspects of Auckland life are its mild climate, plentiful employment and educational opportunities, and numerous leisure facilities. For quality of life, Auckland currently ranks 8th equal behind Zurich and Geneva in a survey of the world's top 55 cities. (Link: [http://www.citymayors.com/features/quality_survey.html Mercer Consulting quality of life survey])

Leisure
Geneva
Auckland is popularly known as the "City of Sails" because the harbour is usually dotted with hundreds of yachts. The Viaduct Basin hosted two America's Cup challenges, and its cafes, restaurants, and clubs add to Auckland's vibrant nightlife. High Street, Queen Street, Ponsonby Road, and Karangahape Road are also very popular with urban socialites. Newmarket and Parnell are upmarket shopping centres. Otara's and Avondale's famous fleamarkets and Victoria Park Market are a colourful alternative shopping experience.

Waitemata Harbour has popular beaches at Mission Bay, Devonport, Takapuna, Long Bay and Maraetai, and the west coast has popular surf spots at Piha and Muriwai. Many Auckland beaches are patrolled by Surf Lifesaving clubs which are part of the Surf Lifesaving Northern Region.

Pleasant ferry trips go to Devonport, Waiheke Island and Rangitoto Island. Pleasant picnic spots are at Auckland Domain, Albert Park, One Tree Hill Domain and Western Springs. Auckland has its fair share of rugby and cricket grounds (notably Eden Park), and venues for motorsports, tennis, badminton, swimming, soccer, rugby league, and many other sports.

Every year in March, an 8.4km (5.2 mile) fun-run known as "Round the Bays" starts in the city and goes along the waterfront to the suburb of St Heliers. It attracts many tens of thousands of people and has been an annual event since 1972.

The Auckland Town Hall and Aotea Centre host conferences and cultural events such as theatre, kapa haka, and opera. Many national treasures are displayed at the Auckland Art Gallery, such as the work of Colin McCahon. Other significant cultural artefacts reside at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the National Maritime Museum, and the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT). Exotic creatures can be observed at the Auckland Zoo and Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World. Movies and rock concerts (notably, the "Big Day Out") are also well patronised.

Work
Big Day Out]]
Every business day, many professional workers commute from all points of the city to downtown Auckland. Most major international corporations have an Auckland office. The most expensive office space is around lower Queen Street and the Viaduct Basin. A large proportion of the technical and trades workforce is based in the industrial zones of South Auckland.

Housing
The most common residence of Aucklanders is a bungalow on a "quarter acre" (1,000 m²), with the resulting large urban sprawl and reliance on motor vehicles. The regional council is trying to curb this trend, with housing density strategies such as more townhouses and apartments, and prohibiting subdivision of properties on the city fringes.

Transport
quarter acre

Road and rail
Auckland has a significant traffic congestion problem. An extensive motorway network, planned decades ago during the height of the road building era, remains incomplete as of 2005. It is unlikely that this original plan will every be built in its entirety, however a number of crucial gaps do exist in the current network. Since 2001, several motorway construction projects began in and around the central motorway junction ("Spaghetti Junction"), while new routes are underway in the southwest of the city and along the upper harbour. Transport funding favours roads over public transport in Auckland, and indeed in New Zealand, and the planned motorway network is large for a city of Auckland's size.

The Britomart Transport Centre which opened in July 2003 is a central interconnection point for buses, trains and ferries. During its planning period it provoked much controversy spanning multiple mayoral terms.

During the 2001-2004 term the mayors of Auckland City and Manukau, John Banks and Sir Barry Curtis respectively, strongly advocated a proposal for an Eastern Transport Corridor, essentially a new motorway. Vociferous campaigners both supported and opposed the NZ$4 billion proposal throughout the term. John Banks subsequently lost the 2004 local body election, chiefly due to public opposition to the proposed motorway. The newly-elected Auckland City Council has a clear centre-left majority, and new Deputy Mayor Bruce Hucker announced in early November 2004 a major change in direction for Auckland City.

Bus services provide the bulk of public transport, with commuter trains offering a limited service. However, recent investment in train services resulted in increased patronage of these services. The investment has focused on upgrading and refurbishing the current rolling stock and railway stations. Investment in new rail infrastructure remains limited, but there are signs this is changing. A recent project to double-track the western rail line, completed at a cost of NZD$23.2 million, has increased the frequency of train services on this line. Plans for light rail, mooted over the years, seem unlikely to proceed. The local government elections in September 2004 centred largely around candidates' policies on public transport, with the incumbent Auckland City mayor John Banks promoting the "Eastern Corridor" motorway plan, and his main rivals (former Auckland City mayor Christine Fletcher and businessman Dick Hubbard – the eventual winner) supporting public transport alternatives like light rail and improving existing bus and rail services.

Auckland City Council has prepared plans for an underground railway connecting the Britomart Transport Centre to the western railway line. However due to the significant costs associated with a project of this size, and the prevailing attitudes towards public transport, it may be some time before the project begins. Increased population density around transport corridors and sustained inflated petrol prices may combine to make this project more attractive in the medium term. Also, recent patronage jumps in response to remedial improvements to the existing diesel powered rail network have resulted in greater support for plans for electrification, signal upgrades, station improvements and network expansion.

Airports
Auckland International Airport, New Zealand's largest airport, lies beside Manukau Harbour, in the southern suburb of Mangere, which is part of Manukau. It is a major base for Air New Zealand. Ongoing negotiations concern the development of a second airport at Whenuapai, a RNZAF airbase in Waitakere, to the northwest of the Auckland conurbation. As the air force is signalled to move to Ohakea base near Palmerston North, the feasibility of an international airport north of the city is being explored. Many private flights use the smaller airfie}}