NZ Facts

Sunday, January 13, 2008

New Zealand Facts

• This is a very new country founded by the Maori people who were Polynesian descendents around 1000 AD. In 1642, Abel Tasman was the first European who visited NZ but he did not stay due to a misunderstanding with the Maori people during the welcome.

• It was not until 1840 that NZ became an official British colony. Captain James Cook was credited with being the first European to land on NZ around 1769.

• During the 1850’s to the 1880s, the economy boomed on the back of wool exports, gold rushes and massive oversees borrowing for development. The crash came in the 1880s when NZ experienced its Long Depression.

• The Liberals came into power and stayed until 1912 helped by a recovering economy. They were NZ’s first organized political party (later to become the National Party) and first of several governments to give NZ a reputation as the world’s social laboratory. Today politics is often the main topic of conversation among Kiwis.

• NZ became the first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893 and introduced old-age pensions in 1898.

• The early 21st century is an interesting time for NZ. Food, wine, film and literature were flowering. People began traveling here for the pub, the sports ground, the bush, the beach, the culture and its great natural environment.

• National average house prices have risen an astonishing 83% since 2001 Auckland was recently ranked as one of the world’s costly cities in terms of housing affordability.

• Rugby is the national obsession.

• New Zealand, a parliamentary democracy modeled on that of the United Kingdom, has been a self-governing British dominion since 1907.

• One in three citizens—Kiwis—lives in or around the city of Auckland. Rugby clubs with names such as Canterbury and Wellington reveal a nation peopled mostly by descendants of British settlers. The indigenous Maori constitute about 14 percent of New Zealanders; recent immigrants—primarily from Samoa and Fiji—give Auckland one of the world's largest Polynesian populations.

• Japan, Australia, and the U.S. now buy half of all exports, which include wool, mutton, lamb, beef, cheese, fish, and chemicals.

• NZ is under a Pay As You Earn tax system. Standard income tax rates are 19.5% for annual salaries up to $38K, then 33% up to $60K and 39% for all higher incomes.