新西兰英语 176 Maori Language Week

This is Maori Language week, from July 27th to August 2nd. Every year, for the last 30 years, we have celebrated Maori Language week. This is the time to learn Te Reo Maori. You can learn 100 Maori words from the website: www.koreromaori.co.nz Maori

新西兰英语 289 Samoan Language Week

Talofa This week is Samoan Language Week. We need to remember that Samoan is the third most common language in New Zealand, after English and Maori. A large number of Samoan people live in New Zealand. We have a census every five years and the last c

新西兰英语 301 ETS price rises

Prices for petrol, electricity, and gas for cooking went up today to pay for the greenhouse gas they put into the atmosphere. Petrol went up 3 cents a litre to $1.79 a litre for unleaded petrol. Electricity and gas prices went up 3.3%. This is becaus

新西兰英语 378 Pansy Wong, MP, resigns

Listen to Nov 13th 2010 to hear about Pansy Wong resigning as Cabinet Minister. Pansy Wong has resigned from Parliament. She will not return in the new year. She has been an MP since 1996 when she became the first Asian MP in New Zealand. At that tim

新西兰英语 288 50 YEARS OF TELEVISION

50 years ago this week, television was introduced to New Zealand. Then there was only one channel available, in black and white, and New Zealanders with tv sets had to pay the government an annual licence fee of ￡4. There have been many changes sin

新西兰英语 412 Houses will be demolished

The Prime Minister said that possibly 10,000 houses will have to be demolished after the earthquake. The Head of Civil Defence thought the number was probably only 2,000. Time will tell. The important message from the Prime Minister is that the gover

新西兰英语 193 Sir Howard Morrison’s funeral

Sir Howard Morrison was buried today. He died on Thursday at the age of 74. His tangi took place at Te Papaioura Marae in Rotorua. More than 6,000 people visited the marae to view the body and share the sadness with the family. A concert was held the

新西兰英语 161 Winter Solstice 2009

Today is the shortest day and the longest night. In the Northern Hemisphere it is the Summer Solstice, when they have the longest day and the shortest night. In New Zealand, the sun rises around 8am on the shortest day and the sun sets at about 5pm.

新西兰英语 142 Gift to Auckland Art Gallery

The Auckland Art Gallery announced today that they will receive a very generous gift of 15 paintings. The gift is from Julian and Josie Robertson, an American couple who have spent some time in New Zealand for the last 30 years. They said they love N

新西兰英语 196 Gold and Oil Mining

The government will consider mining in some areas where there are national parks. The Minister for Energy and Resources, Gerry Brownlee, said that New Zealand is a country which is rich in minerals. In 2008, we exported $2 billion worth of coal, meta

新西兰英语 373 The future of coal mining

At the moment, workers at the Pike River Coal mine are using a jet machine to pump CO2 into the mine to put out the fire. Then they will put a cover over the entrance. When the mine is cool and all poisonous gases have gone, rescuers will enter the m

新西兰英语 178 Mortgage sales

More people are losing their houses because they cannot pay their mortgage. If they miss payments, the bank becomes the owner and will sell the house. Now there are about 250 mortgage sales every month. Last year there were less than 100 each month.

新西兰英语 366 MPs to lose travel perks

Now the Speaker of the House, Dr Lockwood Smith, has decided that all MPs and their partners will lose the right to have cheap international holidays. This is called a perk. Most workers do not get perks as part of their job. Most workers do not get

新西兰英语 120 Hope for paralysed people

Doctors from Otago University are planning an operation to help people who are paralysed. They plan to take nerve cells from the patients nose and put those cells into the patients spinal cord. They hope that the new nerve cells will make the old ner

新西兰英语 253 Young drivers

The government is planning to change some of the driving rules for young people. This could happen by the end by this month. Some of the changes concern young drivers. The plan is to increase the driving age from 15 to 16. We are probably the only co

新西兰英语 106 Parliament in Session

Parliament began again yesterday after the Christmas break. Two important matters made the news today from Parliament. The first matter was to put more money into the economy and provide jobs. The government is putting $500,000 in to economy for majo

新西兰英语 144 Auckland Motorway Extension

The Auckland south-western motorway now goes 13km from the airport to Mt Roskill but on Friday, another 4km to Sandringham Rd will open. This motorway is called State Highway 20 (SH20). The plan is for this motorway to continue further so that it lin

新西兰英语 323 Fishing boat sinks

Early this morning, a fishing boat sank about 700km off the coast of Dunedin. 51 men were on board. 45 men in life rafts were rescued by another fishing boat nearby but three bodies were found. An air force plane searched for three more men today but

新西兰英语 377 South Korean fishing boat sinks

A fishing boat with 42 men on board sank in cold Antarctic waters early this morning. Only 20 men were rescued, by another South Korean fishing boat. Five bodies were recovered. Another 17 men are missing. The boat was fishing for toothfish. This is

新西兰英语 368 Miners still trapped

There is still no news about the 29 miners trapped in the Pike River coal mine. The company is still testing the air quality every half hour but it is still not safe to send in a rescue team. They are also drilling a hole 150mm diameter into the tunn