新西兰英语 51 Pacific Islands Forum

The Prime Minister, Helen Clark, is attending the 39th Pacific Islands Forum. This year, it is being held on Nuie, a small Pacific island with a population of only about 1,500 people. The annual forum started in 1971 and there are now 16 member count

新西兰英语 50 Olympic Successes for NZ

Saturday was a golden day for New Zealand at the Beijing Olympics. New Zealanders won two gold medals, a silver and two bronze medals. The first medal was won by the rowing twins, Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell. This is their second Olympics go

新西兰英语 49 Snow

Many high places in New Zealand have had heavy snow falls in the last few days. Roads over mountain passes in the South Island and the Desert Road in the North Island have been closed. And there has been more snow on mountains. This should make skier

新西兰英语 57 Official Cash Rate

Today, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Alan Bollard, dropped the official cash rate by ? of 1 percent to 7.5%. This rate affects how much the banks have to pay to borrow money overnight from the Reserve Bank. If the banks pay less, they can drop

新西兰英语 35 Living Together

This news item is about co-habitation, couples who live together without being married. Our newspapers reported this week on the National Marriage Project report from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, in the United States. Why are we inter

新西兰英语 42 TVNZ Charter

This week the National Party made another statement about what they plan to do if they win the elections. They said they will keep TVNZ as public TV, but will get rid of the Charter because it is not working. The Charter was brought in by the Labour

新西兰英语 41 New Zealand Olympic Team

Its exactly a month today until the Olympic Games begin. From August 8th till the 24th, over 10,000 athletes will compete in 28 sports, mostly in Beijing. For New Zealand, it will be 100 years since we first sent athletes to an Olympic Games. Three N

新西兰英语 40 Truck Drivers Protest

Truck drivers plan to protest against the sudden increase in road user charges. They are so angry that they plan to drive into New Zealand cities and towns during rush hour in the morning, and cause a traffic jam. Thousands of trucks will enter Auckl

新西兰英语 39 Meat Industry

The agricultural company PGG Wrightson Ltd signed an agreement today with Silver Fern Farms Ltd for the two companies to join together. Silver Fern Farms is a meat processing company which kills farm animals for meat and sells the meat in NZ and over

新西兰英语 38 Waitangi Treaty Settlements

Yesterday, the government signed a bill which will give land to seven iwi (Maori tribes) in the central North Island. About 100,000 people make up these seven iwi. The land at the moment is owned by the government and includes forest. The value of th

新西兰英语 37 Winter Solstice

Yesterday was the winter solstice, the time when the sun is furthest away from us. The sun rises around 7.30 am in Auckland and 8.20 am in Dunedin because it is further south. In Auckland the sun sets at 11 minutes past 5, and in Wellington, Christch

新西兰英语 36 IVF Sex Selection

A report to the government suggested that New Zealand could allow parents to choose the sex of their children who are born using IVF (in-vitro fertilisation). This is a process where the egg from the woman is fertilised by sperm from the man outside

新西兰英语 33 Electricity

Electricity is in the news at the moment. Its the middle of winter, and some parts of New Zealand are very cold. Do we have enough electricity in this country to keep us warm this winter or in the future? For the past 43 years, the Cook Strait power

新西兰英语 32 World Food Conference

Today is the last day of the World Food Conference in Rome. New Zealand has sent 11 people to this conference, with Jim Anderton, Minister of Agriculture, as the leader of this group. Along with Jim Anderton are other politicians, a climate scientist

新西兰英语 31 Queen’s Birthday

Today is the official Queens Birthday. It is not the Queens actual birthday. That is April 21st, but every year on the first Monday in June, we honour the Queen. The Queen also honours 175 New Zealanders on this day. She makes awards to people who ha

新西兰英语 29 Three Murder Trials

During the last week, three major murder trials came to an end. The first one to end, last Wednesday, was a trial of an immigrant from Zimbabwe, George Gwase, for the murder of his niece, 10-year old Charlene, in Christchurch. He was found Not Guilty

新西兰英语 28 The Budget

Today, the Minister of Finance, Dr Michael Cullen, announced his budget. Every year, at about the same time of year, the Minister of Finance announces a budget which tells us how the Government plans to spend our tax money in the next year and in the

新西兰英语 34 Cell Phones

Do you think talking on a cell phone while driving is dangerous? What about texting or reading text messages while driving? It is amazing that some people do that but its true. Last year, a driver who was texting killed two teenage sisters and this y

新西兰英语 20 Who Owns Auckland Airport?

Who owns New Zealand railways, telephone services, electricity, city buses, airports, shipping ports and Air New Zealand? Some of these were owned by the government or local councils. Some were sold to private companies in the 1980s during the time o

新西兰英语 27 Immigration Service in Trouble

The New Zealand Immigration Service has been in the news recently, for all the wrong reasons. The head of the service, Mary Anne Thompson, resigned last week after it was found that she did not have a PhD after all. Before this job with Immigration,