Top New Zealand Resources

New Zealand Standard Time is 12 hours in advance of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Between the first Sunday in October each year and the third Sunday in March of the following year New Zealand observes Daylight Saving time which is 13 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The Chatham Islands are 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand standard and daylight times.

The judiciary consists of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, the High Court, the District Courts, and other courts and tribunals. Some Judges may sit on more than one.

New Zealand became a British colony in 1840 following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the Crown and Maori chiefs. The Crown was represented by William Hobson, who was Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand. At that time New Zealand was a dependent colony of New South Wales.

The original settlers were moa hunters, a favourite food source being the large flightless birds which were not unlike ostriches and rheas. Moa were quickly pushed to extinction, since they were not adapted to human or mammalian predation. Before the coming of humans, the moa were the prey of the harpagornis or Haast's eagle, the largest bird of prey ever recorded. Harpagornis became extinct along with its prey. The moa-hunters may have merged with later waves of Polynesians who, according to Maori tradition, arrived between 952 and 1150. Some of the Maoris called their new homeland "Aotearoa," usually translated as "land of the long white cloud."

Because many New Zealanders have to go elsewhere in the world to achieve fame and fortune, New Zealand society is keen to attribute famous people as being New Zealanders, however short their residency in New Zealand might have been. While being born in New Zealand is an absolute qualification for being identified as a New Zealander, attendance at a New Zealand school, or being a permanent resident in New Zealand when fame is initially achieved also qualifies, irrespective of national origin. This sometimes leads to famous people being identified as coming from both New Zealand and another country - often Australia, such as the pop group Crowded House, the actor Russell Crowe, and the Pavlova dessert, all of which are claimed by Aussies and Kiwis as 'theirs'. However, New Zealanders are generally proud to have disowned controversial figures such as Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Of New Zealand's four million people, roughly three million live in the North Island and one million in the South Island. These islands are among the largest in the world and the combined land area is comparable to the British Isles or the US state of Colorado. Along with Aotearoa, another Maori name for New Zealand was Niu Tireni, a transliteration of the English name.

New Zealand is a unitary state rather than a federation — regions are created by the authority of the central government, rather than the central government being created by the authority of the regions. Local government in New Zealand has only the powers conferred upon it by Parliament. These powers have traditionally been distinctly fewer than in some other countries. For example, police and education are run by central government, while the provision of low-cost housing is optional for local councils. Many of them used to control ports and gas and electricity supply, but nearly all of that was privatised in the late 20th century.

Confronted like Australia with the strategic implications of Britain's 20th-century eclipse as a world power of the first rank, New Zealand joined with Australia and the United States in the ANZUS pact in 1951, but the US suspended its defence commitments to the country in 1986 after the then Labour government banned nuclear-powered or armed ships from New Zealand ports.