Timeline New Zealand
Return to home
Guide
to New Zealand
CIA Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nz.html
History: http://www.enzed.com/hist.html
History: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/1764/page20.html
Timeline: http://www.maf.govt.nz/MAFnet/schools/kits/ourland/timeline/timelin1.htm
Travel Docs: http://www.traveldocs.com/nz/index.htm
The Ngai Tamanuhiri tribe claim to have been the 1st
settlers on New Zealand. Young Nick's Head, 310 miles north of the
capital, Wellington, is called Te Kuri a Paoa by the Maori people, and
contains 15 sacred sites, including tribal graves and remnants of
historic villages. In 2002 New York financier John Griffin bought the
headland, as part of a 1,500-acre farm for which he paid $1.8 million
and agreed to donate some of the headland to the government to ease
tribal sensitivities.
(AP, 8/9/02)
1350
Maori ancestors arrived at New Zealand on seven
legendary canoes from Hawaiki, the mother-island of the east
Polynesians.
(NG, Aug., 1974, C. McCarry, p.196)
1500 Haast's eagle, which lived in
the mountains of New Zealand, became extinct about this time, most
likely due to habitat destruction and the extinction of its prey
species at the hands of early Polynesian settlers. Researchers in 2009
determined that the 40 pound bird was a predator and not a mere
scavenger as many had thought.
(AP, 9/11/09)
1642 Mar 12, Abel Tasman became
the 1st European to land in New Zealand. [see Nov 24, Dec 13]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1642 Nov 24, Abel Janszoon Tasman
(d.1659) discovered Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania).
(MC, 11/24/01)
1642 Dec 13, Dutch navigator and
explorer Abel Janszoon sighted present-day New Zealand. He fled after
Maori cannibals feasted on the “friendship party” he sent ashore.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.196)(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.T4)(AP,
12/13/07)
1659 Oct 10, Able Janszoon Tasman,
navigator, died at about 56. He discovered Tasmania.
(WUD, 1994 p.1455)(MC, 10/10/01)
1768 Aug 26, Capt James Cook
departed from Plymouth with Endeavour to the Pacific Ocean. Daniel
Solander and Joseph Banks accompanied Cook to catalog plants and
animals of Australia and New Zealand on the 3-year journey.
(www.artstor.org/what-is-artstor/w-html/col-endeavour-london.shtml)(SSFC,
4/19/09, Books p.J7)
1768-1771 Capt. James Cook charted the coasts of both
the north and south islands of New Zealand and Australia. Cook made his
historic voyages in colliers, slow but strong ships designed primarily
for carrying coal. His ship was named the Endeavour. Cook's voyage to
Australia kept a botanical record called the Banks Florilegium. The 738
original plates commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks was not printed until
a 100 set limited edition in 1989.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.D1)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)
1822 Welshman John Grono named
Milford Sound, South Island, after his home, Milford Haven. It was
later named a UN protected World Heritage Site.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.C5)
1835 Dec 21, HMS Beagle sailed
into Bay of Islands, New Zealand.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1835 Dec 25, Charles Darwin
celebrated Christmas in Pahia, New Zealand.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1835 Dec 30, HMS Beagle and
Charles Darwin sailed from NZ to Sydney.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1840 May 21, The Treaty of
Waitangi was signed by Maori chiefs of New Zealand and representatives
of Queen Victoria. It granted sovereignty over all New Zealand to Queen
Victoria, but only guaranteed the Maoris the land they wished to
retain. The treaty remained a source of friction to the present day.
(NG, Aug, 1974, p.197)(AP, 5/21/97)(SSFC, 11/14/04,
p.F11)
1840-1900 The dense forests that covered most of New
Zealand's Banks Peninsula, east of Christchurch on the country's east
coast, were cut for timber and burned to make way for sheep grazing.
(PacDis, Spring '94, p.3)
1844 Beginning in this year the
Ngai Tahu people lost 80% (86 million acres) of South Island.
(SFC, 10/5/96, p.A10)
1845 Mar 11, Seven hundred Maoris
led by their chief, Hone-Heke, burned the small town of Kororareka in
protest at the settlement of Maoriland by Europeans, in breach with the
1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
(HN, 3/11/99)
1858 The Maori responded to
Britain’s colonization of New Zealand by choosing a monarch of their
own.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.B7)
1861 Mar 19, Maori War in New
Zealand ended.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1863 Eliza Sinclair, a widow from
New Zealand, paid the Hawaiian monarchy $10,000 in gold for the
70-square-mile Hawaiian island of Niihau. Her son-in-law, Valdemar
Knudsen, later paid an additional 1,000 silver dollars for 50 acres
that were not included in the original deal.
(SSFC, 3/20/05, p.D10)
1871 Aug 30, Ernest Rutherford
(d.1937), physicist who discovered and named alpha, beta and gamma
radiation and was the first to achieve a man-made nuclear reaction, was
born in New Zealand.
(HN, 8/30/98)
1876 Feb 18, A direct telegraph
link was established between Britain & New Zealand.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1882 Feb 15, SS Dunedin left New
Zealand with 1st frozen meat for England.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1886 Jun 10, Mount Tarawera
erupted at Rotorua on the North Island. 155 people were killed and
several Maori and European settlement were destroyed.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, p.T5)
1887 The Maori gave Ruapehu,
Ngauruhoe and Tongariro volcanoes to the nation so that they would
remain untouched.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.T6)
1888-1912 A bottle-nosed dolphin escorted ships for 6
miles through the narrow channel into New Zealand’s Pelores Sound.
Sailors named the dolphin Pelores Jack.
(SFEC, 9/7/97, Z1 p.5)
1888-1923 Katherine Mansfield, New Zealander author:
"I do believe one ought to face facts. If you don't they get behind you
and may become terrors, nightmares, giants, horrors. As long as one
faces them one is top dog."
(AP, 6/3/97)
1893 Sep 19, New Zealand became
the first nation to grant women the right to vote.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.E4)(HN, 9/19/01)
1894 New Zealand passed the
world's first minimum wage law.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1899 Apr 23, Edith Ngaio Marsh,
Kiwi mystery writer (Black Beech & Honeydew), was born in NZ.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1901 Mar 25, Raymond Firth
(d.2002), anthropologist, was born in New Zealand. He authored “We the
Tikopia” (1936) a study of the organization of some 1,200 Tikopia
islanders of the British Solomons. He later wrote 9 more books on the
Tikopia.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A20)
1901 Jun 11, Cook Islands were
annexed & proclaimed a part of New Zealand.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1903 Mar 31, New Zealand aviator
Richard Pearse flew a self-made, bamboo-framed, mono-winged airplane in
Waitohi.
(NW, 3/17/03, p.20)
1907 Sep 26, New Zealand went from
being a colony to a dominion within the British Empire.
(AP, 9/26/07)
1907 The American Museum of
Natural History purchased a collection of 35 Maori preserved and
tattooed heads. A Maori representative in 1998 sought to bring them
back to New Zealand.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.B3)
c1914 When WW I began New Zealand
pried Western Samoa from the Germans.
(SFCM, 10/14/01, p.45)
1915 Apr 25, Australian and New
Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli in Turkey in hopes of attacking the
Central Powers from below. Allied soldiers, ANZAC, invaded the
Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey in an unsuccessful attempt to take the
Ottoman Turkish Empire out of the war. The allies were defeated in one
of the deadliest battles of the war.
(AP, 4/25/97)(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A18)(HN, 4/25/99)
1915 Dec 18, In a single night,
about 20,000 Australian and New Zealand troops slipped away from
Gallipoli, undetected by the Turks defending the peninsula.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1918 Some 1,000 pilot whales
became stranded on the Chatham Islands in the biggest recorded mass
stranding on the New Zealand coast.
(AP, 11/10/06)
1919 Jul 20, Sir Edmund Hillary,
the first man reach the summit of Mount Everest, was born in New
Zealand.
(HN, 7/20/98)
1923 Jan 9, Katherine Mansfield
(34), NZ-British writer (Dove's Nest), died.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1928 Aug 28, Janet Frame (d.2004),
author, was born in Dunedin, New Zealand.
(SFC, 1/31/04, p.A1)
1930 Apr 18, Clive Revill, actor
(Legend of Hell House), was born in Wellington, NZ.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1934 Oct 22, Donald McIntyre,
Bass-Baritone (Wotan, Hans Sachs), was born in Auckland, NZ.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1936 Mar 26, New Zealand radio
aired a parliamentary debate for the 1st time.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1938 Captain Ed. Musick of Pan Am
disappeared with 5 crew members during a survey flight from Pago Pago
to Auckland, New Zealand.
(SFEM, 2/13/00, p.38)
1939 Sep 3, Britain and France
declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland.
After Germany ignored Great Britain's ultimatum to stop the invasion of
Poland, Great Britain declares war on Germany, marking the beginning of
World War II in Europe. France follows 6 hours later quickly joined by
Australia, NZ, South Africa & Canada.
(AP, 9/3/97)(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1939 Jul 17, Paddy the Wanderer, a
stray Airedale, died. The dog had become the unofficial mascot of the
docks in Wellington, NZ. A fleet of black taxis led its funeral
procession.
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.F11)
1942 The Abel Tasman National Park
opened on the South Island.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.T7)
1943 Apr 19-1943 Apr 20, Lance
Sgt. Haane Manahi (d.1987) of New Zealand performed gallant actions
against overwhelming odds in the bloody battle for Takrouna, a
fortified citadel in Tunisia, North Africa. In 2007 the Maori trooper
was posthumously honored he 64 years after he was denied a top
gallantry award despite a commendation signed by four commanding
generals.
(AP,
3/17/07)(www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/name-004807.html)
1944 Mar 6, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa,
operatic soprano (Don Giovanni), was born in Gisborne, NZ.
(HN, 3/6/01)(MC, 3/6/02)
1947 Mar 9, Keri Hulme, New
Zealand novelist (The Bone People), was born.
(HN, 3/9/01)
1951 New Zealand did away with its
Legislative Council.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.57)
1953 May 29, Mount Everest was
conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tensing Norgay of Nepal
became the first climbers to reach the summit.
(AP, 5/29/97)
1953 Dec 24, In New Zealand a
Wellington to Auckland express train was swept away in flood and 166
people were killed.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1954 Apr 30, Jane Campion, New
Zealand film director (The Piano, A Portrait of a Lady), was born.
(HN, 4/30/01)
1954 Sep 8, SEATO (Southeast Asia
Treaty Organization), a sister organization to NATO, was created under
the Manila Pact by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, to
stop communist spread in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos).
The United States, Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the
Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand signed the mutual defense treaty.
SEATO dissolved in 1977.
(HNQ, 4/2/01)(http://tinyurl.com/hpawj)
1962 Jan 1, Samoa became
independent from New Zealand. Malietoa Tanumafili II nursed Samoa to
independence and presided as head of state jointly for 16 months and
thereafter on his own for 43 years.
(www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1842.htm)(SFCM, 10/14/01,
p.45)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.101)
1963 The Whakarewarewa Thermal
Reserve (Whaka) at Rotorua was returned to the Maori people.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, p.T5)
1965 Rarotonga of the Cook Islands
was colonized by the British but ruled until this year by New Zealand.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T6)
1966 May, In New Zealand Maori
King Koroki Te Rata Mahuta Tawhiao was buried. His daughter Te Arikinui
(35) became Queen Te Ata (d.2006), the 6th Maori sovereign.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.B7)
1968 Apr 10, A ferry boat sank in
harbor of Wellington, NZ, and 51 were killed.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/10/newsid_2924000/2924897.stm)
1969 At their peak in 1969, 68,889
combat troops from Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea,
Thailand and the Philippines were deployed in Vietnam.
(HNQ, 4/14/00)
1971 Jul 18, New Zealand and
Australia announced they would pull their troops out of Vietnam.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1973 Montana Wines introduced
grapevines to the Marlborough region of New Zealand pushing out the
garlic that had been the area’s hallmark crop.
(SFC, 4/11/08, p.F4)
1975 Dec 12, In New Zealand Robert
Muldoon (1921-1992) began serving as prime minister and continued to
July 26, 1984. His interventionist policies threatened to send the
country to the financial wall.
(WSJ, 10/9/96,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Muldoon)
1975 In New Zealand Matiu Rata
(d.1997 at 63) set up the Waitangi Tribunal to resolve Maori claims to
land lost to white settlement.
(SFC, 7/26/97,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waitangi_Tribunal)
1979 Nov 28, An Air New Zealand
DC10 en route to the South Pole crashed into Mount Erebus in
Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard.
(www.planecrashinfo.com/cvr791128.htm)
1980 Matiu Rata (d.1997 at 63)
resigned from the Labor Party and formed the Mana Motuhake Party to
represent Maori tribes. He went on to negotiate for the Maori Fisheries
Commission for fishing rights and was a pastor in the Maori-based
Ratana Church.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A24)
1982 Feb 18, Edith Ngaio Marsh
(b.1895), New Zealand detective writer, producer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngaio_Marsh)
1982 The Beehive government
building in Wellington was built.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.T4)
1983 Jul, The Tuna Task Force
(TTF) issued a draft plan of management. It contained 14
recommendations, the most important of which include the use of
catch-quotas, minimum limits on fish-size, limited-entry and further
limits on purse-seine operations. It was proposed that the plan should
come into effect at the beginning of the 1983-84 fishing season (on 1
October 1993). Because of difficulties in reaching agreement on all
aspects, this target was not achieved. Australia, New Zealand and
Iceland pioneered Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) for commercial
fisheries.
(http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/005/Y2684E/y2684e20.htm)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.97)
1984 Apr 28, Silvia A. Warner
(b.1908), New Zealand-born writer, died. Her 1958 novel “Spinster” was
made into the 1961 film “Two Loves” (also known as The Spinster)
starring Shirley MacLaine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Ashton-Warner)
1984 Jul 14, David Lange
(1942-2005) was elected prime minister of New Zealand. He served until
1989.
(WSJ, 8/15/05,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_general_election_1984)
1985 Feb, New Zealand under PM
David Lange (1942-2005) turned away nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered
warships from its ports. This led the US to abrogate its ANZUS alliance
responsibilities to new Zealand in 1986.
(SFEC, 8/2/98,
p.A23)(www.bartleby.com/65/an/AnzusTre.html)
1985 Mar 4, New Zealand floated
its currency.
(http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_business_story_skin/477448?format=html)
1985 Jul 10, French security
forces sank the Rainbow Warrior, a ship operated by Greenpeace near NZ.
Fernando Pereira, a Dutch photographer, was killed in the sinking.
(SFC, 5/7/99,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Warrior)
1985 Cloudy Bay, a New Zealand
wine maker, began exporting Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc to the US.
(SFC, 4/11/08, p.F1)
1985 Some 450 pilot whales beached
on New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island. Rescuers successfully refloated
324 of the mammals.
(AP, 11/10/06)
1986 Jun 27, US informed New
Zealand it will not defend it against attack.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1986 Witi Ihimaera, Maori writer,
authored "The Whale Rider," based on a 100-year-old story of a man who
traveled to New Zealand on the back of a whale after his canoe capsized.
(SFC, 6/16/03, p.D1)
1987 Andy Krieger sold short more
kiwis than the entire money supply of New Zealand. The kiwi collapsed
and Krieger banked his profits.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.108)
1989 New Zealand became the 1st
country to introduce inflation targets.
(Econ, 2/26/05, p.76)
1990 The biographical film “Angel
at My Table” was directed by Jane Campion. It was about Janet Frame,
the New Zealand writer who was misdiagnosed as schizophrenic.
(SFEC, 10/11/97, DB p.35)
1991 May 29, "Les Miserables"
opened at ACTEA Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1992-2001 New Zealand began pushing up its retirement
age from age 60 to 65 over a 9-year period.
(Econ, 11/19/05, p.16)
1993 The film “The Piano” starred
Anna Paquin (11), Holly Hunter and Sam Neill. Paquin won an Oscar for
her role. It was shot in New Zealand.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.C13)(SFEC, 5/10/98, Par p.18)(SFEC,
9/17/00, DB p.46)
1993 Winston Peters broke from the
National Party, the main conservative party, to lead the New Zealand
First Party.
(WSJ, 10/9/96, p.A16)
1993 Late in the year Helen Clark
became leader of the Labor Party.
(WSJ, 10/9/96, p.A16)
1993 An international competition
rated Phoenix, Az., and Christchurch, New Zealand, as the world’s best
governed cities.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.32)
1995 Sept. 25, A New Zealand
volcano, Mt. Ruapehu, erupted with ash and steam spewed 12 miles
high.
(WSJ, 9/27/95, p.A-16)
1996 Apr 22, Bill Ballantine was a
Goldman Award winner for his work in promoting marine reserves in New
Zealand.
(USAT, 4/22/96, p.4-D)
1996 Jun 17, Mount Ruapehu erupted.
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.A6)
1996 Oct 4, The government agreed
to settle the biggest land claim ever filed by indigenous Maoris. The
Ngai Tahu people would receive land and cash worth $117 million and
regain some fishing rights. The Maoris number about 12% of the
country’s 3.6 million people.
(SFC, 10/5/96, p.A10)
1996 Oct 9, A center-right
coalition of the National, United New Zealand, the Christian Coalition
and Act New Zealand was facing a center-left coalition of the Labor,
Alliance, and New Zealand First parties for the coming elections.
(WSJ, 10/9/96, p.A16)
1996 Oct 12, In New Zealand
elections voters delivered a split verdict on conservative rule. Jenny
Shipley was made prime minister and ruled for 2 years.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A16)(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.A21)
1996 New Zealand adopted a mixed
member proportional (MMP) political system. As of 2008 no party won an
absolute majority since the adoption of MMP.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.51)
1997 Jan 4, During the week
Cyclone Fergus, the worst to hit in 8 years, produced heavy rains and
wind damage along the northern coast.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A19)
1997 Sep 13 It was reported that
the government approved the release of the rabbit calcivirus to
eradicate the rabbit pest problem.
(SFC, 9/13/97, p.A20)
1998 Jan 22, Power cables began to
fail in Auckland.
(SFC, 2/26/98, p.A7)
1998 Feb 20, A 4th power cable
failed in Auckland and the city was left without power. Full service
was not expected until Mar 9.
(SFC, 2/26/98, p.A7)
1998 Dec 2, New Zealand agreed to
lease a number of F-16 fighter jets from the US that were originally
intended for Pakistan. Some $105 million was to be paid over 10 years.
The Clark government scrapped the deal following its 1999 election and
faced a US fine.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A18)(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A7)
1998 Te Papa (meaning our place in
Maori), a high-tech interactive museum, opened in Wellington, NZ.
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.F11)
1999 Sep 10, Asian-Pacific leaders
met for a summit in Auckland (City of Sails), New Zealand.
(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 11, In New Zealand the
21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) opened for its
7th annual session.
(SFC, 9/13/99, p.A14)
1999 Sep 13, In New Zealand
Asia-Pacific (APEC) leaders ended their 3-day conference and called for
the abolition of all agricultural export subsidies.
(SFC, 9/14/99, p.A14)
1999 Nov 27, In New Zealand Helen
Clark, candidate for the Labor Party, claimed victory in general
elections.
(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.A21)
1999 Peter Jackson began shooting
a series of 3 films based on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy by J.R.R.
Tolkien with $180 million in financing from New Line Cinema.
(SFC, 12/1/99, p.A24)
2000 cJan, Carol Moseley-Braun
began her tenure as US ambassador to New Zealand. Her tasks included
settling a New Zealand fine for the scrapped F-16 deal to purchase 28
fighters for $500 million.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A7)
2001 Mar, Thousands of exotic red
fire ants were discovered at Auckland Int’l. Airport after a gardener
was bitten.
(SFC, 3/31/01, p.D8)
2001 Apr 7, New Zealand was
reported to be in the midst of a severe drought following one of the
driest summers on record.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.D8)
2001 Apr 24, A Twin Otter plane
landed at the Amundsen-Scott south Pole Station to pick up Dr. Ronald
Shemenski (59), who suffered from a gall bladder attack. A C-130
Hercules from the New Zealand air force rescued 2 Americans from the
McMurdo Antarctic Base.
(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A9)(AP, 4/24/02)
2001 May 8, Prime Minister Clark
announced that the air force would be stripped of combat jets along
with sharp cuts to the navy.
(WSJ, 5/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 31, Ministers of New
Zealand and Nauru announced that they would take the Afghanistan asylum
seekers stranded in Australian waters.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A6)
2001 Oct, Tuvalu secured an
agreement with New Zealand to accept an annual quote of refugees due to
rising sea levels from global warming.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.C10)
2001 Dec 5, Sir Peter Blake (53)
of New Zealand, 2-time America’s Cup winner, was killed on the research
vessel Seamaster by gunmen at Macapa, Brazil, near the mouth of the
Amazon. 7 men were arrested 2 days later and an 8th was still sought.
The final 2 suspects were arrested Dec 9.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A2)(SFC,
12/10/01, p.A3)
2001 Researchers identified a
“skimmed milk” gene in a cow. In 2007 a biotech company in New Zealand
announced that it had bred a cow to produce low-fat milk.
(SFC, 6/2/07, p.B6)
2002 Jan 19, A tourist flight to
Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park crashed and all 6 people
aboard were killed.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.C12)
2002 Mar 31, On Australia’s
Norfolk Island Glenn McNeill (24) of New Zealand hit Janelle Patton
(29) with his car and later stabbed her "just to make sure she was
dead." McNeill was arrested in 2006 based on DNA evidence. Patton
suffered 64 separate injuries including a fractured skull and numerous
stab wounds in the attack In 2007 McNeill told police he had been
smoking cannabis when he hit Patton. On Mar 9 a jury convicted McNeill
of murder. On July 25 he was sentenced to 24 years in jail.
(AP, 8/12/02)(Econ, 7/10/04, p.38)(Reuters,
3/9/07)(AFP, 7/25/07)
2002 Jun 4, New Zealand's prime
minister apologized for mistakes her country made during its 48-year
rule over the tiny South Pacific island chain of Samoa.
(AP, 6/3/02)
2002 Jun 12, Conservationists in
New Zealand warned that Kiwis, the fluffy, flightless birds that are
New Zealand's national symbol, could be hunted to extinction by
predators within 15 years.
(AP, 6/12/02)
2002 Jun 22, The Catholic Church
in New Zealand revealed it had documented 38 cases of sexual abuse by
church officers in the past 50 years and offered victims an
"unreserved" apology.
(AP, 6/22/02)
2002 Jul 27, New Zealanders gave
Prime Minister Helen Clark a historic second term after she called
early elections to capitalize on a strong economy that pulled the
country through the global slump largely untouched.
(AP, 7/27/02)
2002 Alyn Ware of New Zealand, a
campaigner against nuclear weapons, established a network of lawmakers
worldwide to campaign against nuclear weapons at the UN.
(AP, 10/13/09)
2003 Feb 15, Tens of
thousands of New Zealanders demonstrated against a war in Iraq.
(AP, 2/16/03)
2003 Jun 6, In southern New
Zealand a twin-engine plane crashed in dense fog, killing eight people
and injuring two others.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Aug 7, In the August issue of
Foundations of Physics Letters, Peter Lynds of New Zealand claimed to
see time and motion in a new way. Lynds refutes an assumption dating
back 2,500 years, that time can be thought of in physical, definable
quantities. In essence, scientists have long assumed that motion can be
considered in frozen moments, or instants, even as time flows on.
"There isn't a precise instant underlying an object's motion," he said.
"And as its position is constantly changing over time -- and as such,
never determined -- it also doesn't have a determined position at any
time."
(AP, 8/7/03)
2003 Oct 28, Australia and New
Zealand they will start withdrawing troops from the Solomon Islands,
claiming success in a mission to restore law and order.
(AP, 10/28/03)
2003 Dec 10, Four Latvian climbers
plunged hundreds of feet to their deaths on Mount Cook, New Zealand's
highest peak.
(AP, 12/10/03)
2003 Dec 26, Kelvin Stark, a new
Zealand pilot, was killed while flying a new PAC 750XL airplane to
California. The 17-passenger plane was billed as the 1st passenger
aircraft built in New Zealand and was specially designed for skydiving.
(SFC, 12/27/03, p.A15)
2003 Dec 31, An avalanche swept
down Mount Tasman, one of New Zealand's tallest peaks, killing four
climbers and injuring two others.
(AP, 12/31/03)
2003 New Zealand swept away laws
under which prostitution was a criminal offence.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.86)
2004 Jan 29, Janet Frame (b.1924),
author, died in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her books included “Faces in the
Water” (1961). Her 3-volume autobiography was dramatized in the 1990
film "An Angel at My Table."
(SFC, 1/31/04, p.A1)(Econ, 2/14/04, p.81)
2004 Feb 8, In New Zealand some
3,400-gallons of fuel spilled in a fjord listed as a World Heritage
site. Officials the next day said the spill in Milford Sound fjord was
"eco-terrorism and economic sabotage" against the country's lucrative
tourism industry.
(AP, 2/8/04)
2004 Jul 16, New Zealand's prime
minister and media heaped vitriol on Israel over the case of two
Israelis imprisoned for passport fraud, saying there's "no doubt" the
pair are spies.
(AP, 7/17/04)
2005 Jan 1, New Zealand was
forecast for 3% annual GDP growth with a population at 4.1 million and
GDP per head at $23,930.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.91)
2005 Jun 26, Israeli Foreign
Minister Silvan Shalom released a letter saying Israel wished "to
express our regret for the activities which resulted in the arrest and
conviction of two Israeli citizens in New Zealand on criminal charges
and apologize for the involvement of Israeli citizens in such
activities." The two nations restored full diplomatic relations.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Aug 13, David Lange (b.1942),
former New Zealand prime minister (1984-1989), died in Auckland. He was
the architect of new Zealand’s anti-nuclear policy.
(WSJ, 8/15/05, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/bsgp2)
2005 Aug 30, Australia and New
Zealand lobbied the United Nations Security Council to indict
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his government in the
International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
(AP, 8/30/05)
2005 Sep 17, PM Helen Clark's
ruling Labor Party pulled slightly ahead in New Zealand's general
election, despite a surge in support for the conservative opposition.
Clark promised improved public services and limited tax breaks for
families. A new political party representing New Zealand's Maori won 4
of 7 Parliament seats set aside for indigenous people in elections
dominated by an opposition party's vow to scrap Maori privileges.
(AP, 9/17/05)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.42)
2005 Dec 17, Forty drunken Santas
rampaged through central Auckland, NZ, stealing from stores and
assaulting security guards in a protest against the commercialization
of Christmas.
(AP, 12/18/05)
2006 Feb 8, Australia and New
Zealand vowed to work to build a single economic market on the back of
strengthening trade ties, but stopped short of endorsing a single
currency.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 23, A New Zealand
teenager hacked into the University of Pennsylvania computer system.
Owen Thor Walker (18), known by his online name "AKILL," also was
linked to a network accused of infiltrating 1.3 million computers and
skimming millions of dollars from victims' bank accounts. In 2008
Walker was ordered to pay more than $11,000 in fines but avoided a
conviction so that he can help police solve computer crimes.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2006 Mar 17, A helicopter
evacuated the five conservation workers from Raoul Island, a nature
reserve in New Zealand's remote Kermadec Islands. An erupting volcano
forced the conservation team to abandon a missing colleague on the
South Pacific island. The last known eruption on Raoul Island, about
625 miles northeast of the New Zealand city of Auckland, was on Nov.
21, 1964, from a vent close to Green Lake.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 May 13, A fishing trawler
sank off New Zealand's South Island, killing three people on board and
leaving three missing in treacherous seas.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 16, A powerful magnitude
7.4 earthquake occurred deep under the South Pacific near an
uninhabited chain of islands north of New Zealand.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 24, International
peacekeepers and troops from Australia and New Zealand were headed to
East Timor to help restore order after gunbattles between disgruntled
ex-soldiers and the military killed two people and wounded nine.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 25, PM John Howard
increased Australia’s contingent to Timor-Leste to some 1,300 troops.
500 Malaysians and troops from New Zealand and Portugal were also
deployed.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.15)
2006 Jun 12, Gale force winds
battering northern New Zealand cut power to the nation's biggest city,
while heavy snow from a cold snap collapsed roofs and blanketed much of
the country's south.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Aug 15, Maori Queen Te
Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu (75), aka Te Ata, died in New Zealand.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.B7)(AP, 8/15/07)
2006 Aug 20, In New Zealand
Tuheitia Paki (51), eldest son of the late Queen Te Arikinui Dame Te
Atairangikaahu, wore his mother's feather cloak as he was named the new
Maori king in the village of Ngaruawahia.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Nov 6, Transparency
International, a watchdog group, reported that nearly three-quarters of
163 countries ranked in a new survey suffer from a perception of
serious corruption, while in nearly half it is seen as rampant.
Finland, Iceland and New Zealand ranked as the least corrupt, while
Haiti, Guinea and Myanmar ranked as most corrupt.
(AP, 11/6/06)(Econ, 11/11/06, p.69)
2006 Nov 10, In northern New
Zealand oil refinery workers helped rescue 40 beached pilot whales, but
another 37 of the whale pod died on the sandy beach.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 18, Soldiers and police
from New Zealand arrived in the Tongan capital to help restore order
after mobs demanding democratic reforms destroyed much of the capital
in unprecedented rioting that left at least eight people dead.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2007 Jan 26, Jim Anderton, New
Zealand’s agriculture minister, declared Feb. 15 "National Lamb Day.”
(AP, 1/26/07)
2007 Mar 29, In northern New
Zealand buildings were washed away, homes flooded and scores of buses
and cars trapped by raging flood waters after the equivalent of three
months of rainfall poured down in just 36 hours.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Jun 14, In Australia New
Zealand PM Helen Clark met briefly with the Dalai Lama as they both
toured Australia, where the Tibetan spiritual leader's visit has drawn
fire from China.
(AFP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 14, Fiji's military ruler
said he was expelling New Zealand's top diplomat, sending already
strained relations between the South Pacific nation and one of its
biggest neighbors spiraling even lower. Commodore Bainimarama said he
had told New Zealand High Commissioner Michael Green to leave because
the diplomat would not "stop interfering in Fiji's domestic affairs."
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Aug 22, A distributor said
Chinese-made blankets containing high levels of formaldehyde have been
recalled across Australia and New Zealand, amid rising global concern
over the safety of products from China.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Sep 19, New Zealand police
found the body of Anan Liu (27), a young Asian woman in a car outside
the home of a three-year old toddler, Qian Xun Xue, nicknamed
"Pumpkin," who was abandoned at a train station in Australia. The
father Nai Zin Xue (54), a martial arts expert and magazine publisher,
caught a flight to Los Angeles after abandoning the toddler. US
authorities launched a manhunt for Xue, who was captured nearly five
months later by six Chinese Americans near Atlanta, Georgia. In 2009 a
New Zealand jury found him guilty of his wife's murder and sentenced
him to life in prison.
(Reuters, 9/19/07)(AP, 6/19/09)(AP, 7/30/09)
2007 Sep 26, Transparency
International's 2007 index ranked Myanmar and Somalia as the most
corrupt nations. Both received the lowest score of 1.4 out of 10.
Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were ranked the least corrupt, each
scoring 9.4.
(AP, 9/26/07)
2007 Nov 8, Nordic countries again
dominated the World Economic Forum's ranking of gender-equal countries.
New Zealand squeezed into the top five and the US fell to 31st place.
Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland retained the top four spots in the
2007 Gender Gap Index released by the Swiss-based think tank.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 30, New Zealand officials
said police have questioned the suspected teenage kingpin of an
international cyber crime network accused of infiltrating 1.3 million
computers and skimming millions of dollars from victims' bank accounts.
Earlier this month, Ryan Goldstein, 21, of Ambler, Pa., was indicted in
the case. Authorities allege that the New Zealand suspect and Goldstein
were involved in crashing a University of Pennsylvania engineering
school server Feb. 23, 2006. On Feb 29 Owen Thor Walker (18) was
charged with two counts of accessing a computer for dishonest purpose,
damaging or interfering with a computer system and possessing software
for committing crime, and two counts of accessing a computer system
without authorization. In 2008 Walker pleaded guilty to 6 charges of
computer hacking.
(AP, 11/30/07)(AP, 2/29/08)(SFC, 4/2/08, p.C2)
2007 Dec 6, A New Zealand judge
sentenced two Chinese students to 18 1/2 years in prison for the ransom
kidnapping and slaying of a fellow student, saying the two fell into
"cyber sloth" and greed during their studies abroad.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2008 Jan 10, Sir Edmund Hillary
(88), the first person to stand atop the world's highest mountain, died
in New Zealand. He was remembered as a deeply driven but unassuming man
who strived to help the people of Nepal in the decades after his 1953
ascent of Mount Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 13, Two young adventurers
completed a 62-day paddle of more than 2,000 miles to become the first
people to travel from Australia to New Zealand by kayak.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 16, In New Zealand Hone
Tuwhare (86), the first Maori poet to be published in English and one
of New Zealand's most celebrated verse writers, died.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Jan 17, In New Zealand Karen
Aim (26), a Scottish tourist from the Orkney Islands, was attacked on
her way home after drinking with friends in the town of Taupo. Police
responding to reports of vandalism at a Taupo high school found her
lying in a pool of blood on a street corner. In March a 14-year-old boy
was charged with her slaying.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Jan 23, Fifteen pilot whales
died in beach strandings in southern New Zealand while rescuers
monitored progress of 15 others toward safer waters.
(AP, 1/23/08)
2008 Jan 29, Scientists in New
Zealand reported that smoking a joint is equivalent to 20 cigarettes in
terms of lung cancer risk and warned of an "epidemic" of lung cancers
linked to cannabis.
(Reuters, 1/29/08)
2008 Feb 1, Scientists in Japan
and New Zealand said they have created a "tear-free" onion using
biotechnology to switch off the gene behind the enzyme that makes us
cry.
(AFP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 8, In New Zealand a
knife-wielding woman (33), originally from Somalia, tried to hijack a
regional domestic flight, stabbing both pilots and threatening to blow
up the twin-propeller plane before she was subdued.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 17, In New Zealand 3
people were killed after a light plane and a helicopter collided in
mid-air in the coastal settlement of Paraparaumu.
(AP, 2/17/08)
2008 Feb 22, In New Zealand a key
conference on cluster bombs ended in Wellington with most of the 122
governments represented backing a draft treaty banning the deadly
weapons.
(AFP, 2/22/08)
2008 Apr 2, In New Zealand new
government population figures showed that the Asian population is
growing faster than any other ethnic group and will outnumber
indigenous Maori by 2026.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 7, China and New Zealand
signed a free-trade agreement effective October 1.
(www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-04/07/content_6596491.htm)(WSJ,
4/8/08, p.A14)
2008 Apr 15, In New Zealand 5
people were killed and three others missing after they were swept away
by a storm-swollen river in the Mangatepopo Gorge.
(AFP, 4/15/08)
2008 Jun 24, New Zealand police
charged two men in the slaying of Jae Hyeon Kim (25), a South Korean
backpacker, who disappeared five years ago during a working holiday in
New Zealand. The exact date of Kim's death remained unclear, but police
said it was likely to have been between Sep. 29 and Oct. 22, 2003.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 25, Seven indigenous
Maori tribes signed New Zealand's largest-ever settlement over
grievances arising from 19th century losses of lands, forests and
fisheries during European settlement of the country.
(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jul 4, In New Zealand morning
rush-hour traffic slowed to a crawl in most cities as truckers snarled
highways and streets with thousands of vehicles to protest higher road
taxes.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Sep 11, New Zealand cut its
benchmark interest rate half a point to 7.5% in a bid to engineer a
quick recovery from a widely expected recession.
(WSJ, 9/12/08, p.A10)
2008 Oct 12, Australia and New
Zealand gave a blanket guarantee to all bank deposits in a move likely
to raise pressure on other economies to do the same, amid a crisis of
confidence in the global financial system.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Nov 8, In New Zealand John
Key's center-right National Party swept to power on a theme of change
in elections, ending the nine year reign of Helen Clark's Labor Party.
National, with 59 seats, supported by the libertarian Act Party with 5
seats and United Future with one seat, won the 122-seat parliament.
(AFP, 11/8/08)(WSJ, 11/10/08, p.A14)
2008 Nov 16, The party
representing New Zealand's indigenous Maori people will get its first
Cabinet posts under a multiparty deal signed by PM-elect John Key to
form a center-right minority government.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 18, John Key (47) became
New Zealand's conservative new prime minister and underscored the
economy as his top priority.
(AP, 11/18/08)(Econ, 11/15/08, p.51)
2008 Christina Thompson authored
“Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story.”
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.78)
2009 Jan 15, Police in New Zealand
said they had nabbed a man who was trying to crack a bar's safe after
posting security camera footage of the act on the Internet networking
site Facebook.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 29, New Zealand’s central
bank lowered its key interest 1.5 percentage points to a record low of
3.5%, in response to a decelerating global growth outlook.
(WSJ, 1/30/09, p.A8)
2009 Apr 20, New Zealand's PM John
Key said that he wants an exit strategy before sending the country's
Special Air Service combat troops back to Afghanistan as the US has
requested.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 May 7, In New Zealand former
army reservist Jan Molenaar (51) fired a fusillade of shots from an
automatic rifle at police who arrived with a warrant to search the
house for cannabis. One officer was shot dead and two others seriously
wounded, along with a bystander. Molenaar was found dead on May 9 in
his house in the North Island city of Napier.
(AP, 5/8/09)(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 21, New Zealand police
launched an international search for Leo Gao, a businessman, and his
girlfriend, Kara Yang, who allegedly took money and ran after the
Westpac Bank in Rotorua mistakenly put 10 million New Zealand dollars
($6.1 million) into their account. The couple managed to flee the
country with about $2.3 million.
(AP, 5/21/09)(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 26, In New Zealand an
animal keeper was mauled to death by a rare white tiger at a wildlife
park in New Zealand while visitors watched in horror. South African
national Dalu Mncube was attacked after he and a colleague entered the
cage at Zion Wildlife Park on New Zealand's North Island to clean it.
(AP, 5/27/09)
2009 Aug 10, New Zealand announced
that it will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 10 to 20 percent below
1990 levels by 2020.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 21, New Zealanders voted
overwhelmingly to overturn a law that prohibits parents from hitting
children, according to the results of a nationwide referendum, but the
government said the law is working and won't be changed. In the postal
vote 87.6% of voters responded "No" to the question: "Should a smack as
part of good parental correction be a criminal offense in New Zealand?"
(AP, 8/21/09)
2009 Aug 21, Australian leader
Kevin Rudd and his trans-Tasman counterpart John Key chaired the
first-ever joint meeting of their cabinets, and said it had been a
valuable opportunity to discuss their joint challenges. They vowed
closer military ties and collaboration on climate change in the
historic meeting.
(AFP, 8/22/09)
2009 Sep 13, It was reported that
the hoki fish, harvested in the deep waters around New Zealand, had
declined substantially. Hoki, the main ingredient in McDonald’s
Fillet-O-Fish sandwich, was also used by Denny’s and Long John Silver’s
restaurants. From 1996 to 2001 some 275,000 tons were harvested by
factory trawlers. The allowed catch was reduced to 100,00 tons in 2007
and 2008.
(SSFC, 9/13/09, p.A20)
2009 Oct 13, Activists from Congo,
Rene Ngongo (48), and New Zealand, Alyn Ware (47), and an
Ethiopia-based doctor from Australia, Catherine Hamlin (85), won the
Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "alternative Nobel," for work
to protect rain forests, improve women's health and rid the world of
nuclear weapons. The honorary part of the award, without prize money,
went to Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki (73) for raising
awareness of climate change. Each will receive euro50,000 (US$74,000).
(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Nov 18, Swedish museum
officials returned the remains of five indigenous Maori people to New
Zealand as part of a broader move in Europe to repatriate remains taken
from burial grounds.
(AP, 11/18/09)
Go to www.timelinesdb.com
End of file.