新西兰英语 411 Daily life after an earthquake

The Prime Minister announced today the name of new Governor-General. He is Lieutenant-General Jerry Mateparae. His job will start in August this year and last for five years. Jerry Mateparae began his career as a soldier in 1972 when he was 18 years

新西兰英语 194 Disaster in Samoa

A major earthquake 8.3 on the Richter scale followed by a tsunami, struck Samoa around 7am this morning. The tsunami hit the south coast of Samoa and destroyed holiday resorts and a new hospital as well as many homes. People ran to high hills but som

新西兰英语 192 Climate Change Bill

Today, the Minister for Climate Change, Nick Smith, introduced an ETS Emissions Trading Scheme bill into Parliament. This will change the ETS that the Labour government passed. Dr Smith said that it was important not to be too tough on industry becau

新西兰英语 195 Samoa needs help after tsunami

After Wednesdays terrible tsunami which killed at least 150 people in Samoa, help is needed. The country needs helicopters to find bodies in the sea and needs people to identify those bodies. Help is needed to care for the injured. The survivors need

新西兰英语 372 Memorial service for 29 miners

Today, a memorial service was held in Greymouth for the 29 miners killed in the Pike River Coal Mine. The bodies are still in the mine so families cannot hold funerals but instead this was a service to remember and honour all 29 men. The service was

新西兰英语 252 Tsunami Warning

Two hours after the 8.8 earthquake in Chile last night, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that a tsunami had started. It hit parts of Chile and moved across the Pacific. The New Zealand Civil Defence and police moved quickly to send messages on

新西兰英语 324 More babies born

Statistics New Zealand released figures of births for the year ending June 2010. The figures show that births are up by 2%. Most of that increase is in Auckland. In 1961, women had an average of 4.3 children but today women have an average of 2.2 chi

新西兰英语 369 No progress on rescuing miners

Very little progress has been made today in rescuing the trapped miners in Pike River Coal mine. The army robot with a camera on it broke down about half a km into the mine perhaps because of the water in the mine. A second army robot has arrived but

新西兰英语 201 Rugby World Cup on TV again

There has been another surprise change to which TV channel will show the Rugby World Cup in 2011. Now TVNZ, TV3 and Maori TV will all share in filming and showing the games. Maori TV will be the main channel but other channels will also have a share

新西兰英语 270 ANZAC Day

Listen to other items on ANZAC Day April 24 2009 and April 25 2008 April 25th is ANZAC Day, the day when we remember New Zealand soldiers who died in wars. April 25th, 1915 was the day when Australia and New Zealand soldiers (they were called ANZACs)

新西兰英语 464 Maori Moko used by French man

The photo of a French rugby player with a moko design on his face and back, upset many Maori. The moko is a tattoo on the face and other parts of the body. Originally, it was done with a chisel, not a needle, to make grooves in the skin. Soot from bu

新西兰英语 462 Inflation

Statistics New Zealand gave the Consumer Price Index figures (CPI) yesterday. Stats NZ staff visit 3,000 shops all around New Zealand to check prices. The figures for the June quarter show how much prices have changed since March. The CPI is up 1% fr

新西兰英语 163 Maui Gas

Last week, Shell celebrated the discovery of gas in New Zealand 40 years ago. In 1969, gas was discovered off the coast of Taranaki on the west coast of the North Island. At that time, it was one of the biggest gas discoveries in the world. Ten years

新西兰英语 276 John Key in Afghanistan

Prime Minister, John Key, has just ended a 3-day visit to Afghanistan. Helen Clark also visited Afghanistan when she was Prime Minister. We have 70 members of the SAS (Special Air Services) fighting in Kabul and 140 soldiers working in Bamiyan provin

新西兰英语 233 Protest at tennis tournament

Last week there were protests outside the Auckland womens tennis tournament. A small group of people were protesting against a 22-year old tennis player, Shahar Peer. She is from Israel and the protesters were supporters of Palestine. They wanted her

新西兰英语 160 Referendum

Maybe you received a paper in your letter box about a referendum. This is telling you about a vote in August. It is not a vote for a person. It is a vote about a question and you vote by post. The question is: Should a smack as part of good parental

新西兰英语 158 Mt Albert by-election results

As expected, David Shearer of the Labour Party, won the Mt Albert by-election yesterday. He received 63% of the vote. This was 12,615 votes. Melissa Lee of the National Party received only 3,426, the Green Party candidate received 2,418 while the ACT

新西兰英语 152 The Budget

Today, the Minister of Finance, Bill English, read the Budget in Parliament. The Budget is a plan of how much money the government has and how the government will spend it. For the last few weeks, Bill English has told us some of the things that woul

新西兰英语 151 Laws to Stop Boy Racers

Today Parliament introduced some laws which could stop boy racers from annoying other people. The problem is especially bad in Christchurch where the streets are flat. Friday and Saturday nights are their favourite times to drive fast around the city

新西兰英语 150 Maori protest against Auckland super-city

At midday today, about 6,000 Maori and other supporters held a protest march in Queen St in Auckland, in the rain. The march was called a hikoi. The hikoi was organised by a young Maori man, Ngarimu Blair, who controlled the crowd to make sure that i