NEW ZEALAND
GEOGRAPHY
New Zealand is an amazing destination. You will enjoy a diverse landscape as spectacular glaciers, picturesque fiords, rugged mountains, vast plains, rolling hills, subtropical forests, a volcanic plateau, and miles of coastline with sandy beaches. New Zealand has been named the world’s best country by readers of Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Among the 26 reasons, you will find landscapes that “make you want to applaud”, “magnificent Maori culture” and the fact that “it really does look like Middle Earth”.
HISTORY
New Zealand is a young country with a colorful history. Archaeological findings trace the first human settlement to have occurred around 1280-1300AD; the first Maori are believed to have arrived in the late 13th century; the first European contact was made in 1642 (with the arrival of Abel Tasman) and 1769 (James Cooks’ voyage) respectively.
1840: The year the Treaty of Waitangi was signed New Zealand’s founding document, known as the Treaty of Waitangi, is an agreement between the British Crown and the some 540 Maori rangatira (chiefs). Historically, this was a controversial document because the Maori and English versions stipulated different things about land ownership rights and sovereignty. In present times, the Treaty is fully honored in legislation and court proceedings.
1845-72: The New Zealand Wars A series of land wars in the 19th century brought drastic changes to New Zealand society. Between the 1820s and 1830s, the inter-tribal Musket Wars decimated many Maori iwi (tribes) and led to a number of land ownership complications. This, along with the Treaty of Waitangi, paved the way for the New Zealand Wars – a collection of conflicts between European settlers and Maori who wanted to protect their territories. Most of the casualties during the New Zealand Wars were Maori.
1893: New Zealand gives women the right to vote
On 19 September 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing country to give women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. The Electoral Act was signed into law by then-governor Lord Glasgow and came about after years of suffrage movements and petitions. These campaigns were led by Kate Sheppard and inspired by the American-based Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
1914: World War I and The Gallipoli Campaign
It is generally agreed that the Gallipoli during the First World War fostered a sense of national identity in New Zealand and Australia. One in four New Zealand men between the ages of 20 and 45 who were sent to battle were either killed or wounded – this in turn affected many families and communities back home. In Gallipoli, there were 2,779 New Zealand casualties, as well as 8,700 Australian deaths. ANZAC Day on 25 April remembers the death of these soldiers.
1931: The Hawke’s Bay Earthquake
On 3 February 1931, the Hawke’s Bay region was struck by New Zealand’s deadliest earthquake. Napier and Hastings were hit the hardest by the 7.8 magnitude quake, which took the lives of at least 256 people – some unofficial accounts place the number at around 258. As a silver lining, the rebuild efforts transformed the Hawke’s Bay into a thriving Art Deco region.
1947: New Zealand gains independence from Britain
New Zealand stopped being a colony in 1907, when it was officially recognized as a British Empire dominion. This, however, did not make any difference to the country in terms of legal or political standing at the time, very few New Zealanders wanted full independence from Britain. While the Statute of Westminster 1931 removed London’s right to legislate for British dominions without explicit permission, New Zealand chose not to ratify the document until 1947.
1970s: The Dawn Raids
The Dawn Raids are known for being one of the darkest moments in New Zealand race relations. Between 1974 and 1976, the police began raiding the homes of suspected ‘overstayers’ – temporary workers with expired visas. This was usually done at night or in the early hours of the morning. Samoan and Tongan migrants were singled out, despite the fact that many temporary immigrants had actually come from Australia and Britain.
1985: The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
New Zealand had a well-established anti-nuclear stance by the mid 1980s. The Rainbow Warrior bombing was the first act of terrorism in New Zealand territory – and, while it was targeted at Greenpeace protests against nuclear testing,
New Zealanders took the attack personally. This ultimately led to deteriorating relations between New Zealand and France for the remainder of the 20th century. In 2015, the French intelligence agent involved in the attack made a public apology for his actions.
1993: The introduction of the MMP voting system.
A binding referendum in 1993 led New Zealand to change its voting system from the traditional first past the post (FPP) approach to the more inclusive mixed-member proportional (MMP) method. This is touted as being the most dramatic change in New Zealand’s electoral history after the women’s suffrage movement – allowing more political parties to emerge, thus enabling parliament to become more representative of the society at large.
SOCIAL CULTURE AND RELIGION
New Zealanders (informally known as Kiwis) are very friendly and welcoming. New Zealand consistently leads international quality-of-life surveys thanks to its right work-life balance. New Zealand was rated second in the world for work/life balance in HSBC’s 2015 Expat Explorer survey. Working hard and getting ahead is important to us. We’re a well-developed, well connected country with all sorts of opportunities to advance your career. New Zealanders are hard-worker but they also believe life is for living. It is really important to balance a good day’s work with time for family and friends. Kiwis really enjoy outdoors activities that make the most of the spectacular landscape.
New Zealand is nominally Christian, with Roman Catholic, Angelican and Presbyterian denominations being the largest. Other Protestant sectors and Maori Adaptations of Christianity (Ratana and Ringatu Churces) account for nearly all of the rest , although more than one third of the population does not claim any religious affiliation. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism have small but growing numbers of adherents. There is no established religion, but Anglican cathedrals are generally used for state occasions.
The majority of New Zealanders live in the North Island. The New Zealand Countryside is thinly populated, but there are many small towns with population up to 10000 and a number of provincial cities of more than 20000. Some of the smallest towns and villages have become deserted as people moved to the bigger towns and cities.
POLITICS
New Zealand has a majority of people of European origin, a significant minority of Maori, and smaller numbers of people from Pacific Islands and Asia. In the early 21st century, Asians were the fastest-growing demographic group. New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with no formal constitution, really stable politically. Prime Minister Bill English continues its actions and reforms: partial privatization of large enterprises, economic regulation of the internal market, support for innovation, improvement public services and reform of the education sector.
ECONOMY
New Zealand has an open market economy that works on free market principles and has a very export-driven competitive economy with exports accounting for about 30% of GDP. New Zealand depends heavily on international trade, especially with Australia, China, the European Union, and the United States. For many years its earnings were mainly from farm products, such as wool and dairy products. Today developments such as tourism with country’s visitors originate from Australia, United Kingdom, USA and china are growing really fast. Film production, and winemaking are also significant. With a low-inflation environment, New Zealand is the easiest place in the world to start a business and the world’s second easiest country to do business in generally (2015 World Bank). There are few restrictions on establishing, owning and operating a business here. From the 1980s, New Zealand’s economic reforms freed up the market and removed many barriers to foreign investment. The New Zealand economy reached a new milestone in the year ending June 2019, with the size of the economy breaking the $300 billion dollars mark in current price terms for the first time. It took approximately nine years for New Zealand’s economy to grow from $200 billion to $300 billion.
Services
The public-service sector is a large employer, especially in Wellington, where the head offices of government departments are located. Tourism is an important part of New Zealand’s economy. Most of the country’s visitors originate from Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and China. Since the late 1990s there has been a significant increase in the number of international students—notably from China, South Korea, Japan, India, and Saudi Arabia—studying in language schools, universities, and polytechnics, and education has thus become an important source of foreign exchange. The major ports are now Auckland, Wellington, and Lyttelton (serving Christchurch). The import and export of goods via ship has declined from a boom period following World War II, and, consequently, so has maritime employment.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Agricultural products, principally meat, dairy products, and fruits and vegetables are New Zealand’s major exports; crude oil and wood and paper products are also significant. The major imports are crude and refined oil, machinery, and vehicles. New Zealand’s chief trading partners are Australia, China, the United States, and Japan. A succession of trade agreements provided the basis of the Australia and New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (known as CER), signed in 1983. That agreement eventually eliminated duties and commodity quotas between the two countries and was seen by some as the first step toward integrating their economies. New Zealand also has a free-trade agreement with China, and Australia and New Zealand together are associated in a free-trade arrangement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).