The Statistics Department has just given us the figures for how people commute to work. They gave percentages of people who drive, walk, cycle or take public transport to work. These figures come from the census in 2006. Every five years, we have a c

发表于:2019-02-03 / 阅读(71) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

In 2000, the Labour government decided to stop using the titles Sir and Dame for the people who receive our top honours. Instead these people were called Principal Companion or Distinguished Companion, which does not sound nearly so good. Now the Nat

发表于:2019-02-04 / 阅读(67) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

A number of wells providing water for Christchurch city were damaged during the September 4th earthquake. Christchurch residents are fortunate. The water that comes out of taps in peoples homes is pure and natural because it comes from under the grou

发表于:2019-02-04 / 阅读(69) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The three companies that were planning 16 indoor dairy farms in the Mackenzie country have decided not to go ahead at the moment. They said it had cost them nearly $4m already but now the Environment Ministry wants more information about the effluent

发表于:2019-02-05 / 阅读(67) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Auckland has 1.4 million people and eight councils. Cities the same size in other parts of the world have only one council. A Royal Commission of three people has had the job of deciding what to do about Aucklands seven local councils and one regiona

发表于:2019-02-06 / 阅读(55) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Tauranga City Council want to charge adults a fee to borrow books from the public library. The fee would be 50 cents for each book but would increase to 80 cents in three years time. Libraries get most of their money from rates. Everyone who owns a h

发表于:2019-02-06 / 阅读(69) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

On May 31st, a number of ships from Turkey tried to go to Gaza but were attacked by Israeli soldiers. Nine Turks were killed. Israel had blocked the port of Gaza to stop Palestinians bringing in weapons. Now the United Nations has decided to hold an

发表于:2019-02-06 / 阅读(63) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The Commonwealth Games finished last night. India will be pleased that there were no major problems from terrorism or anything else. India was second with the number of medals and this is the best result ever for India. Australia was first, well ahea

发表于:2019-02-06 / 阅读(52) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Three men who damaged the Waihopai spy base near Blenheim were found not guilty last week. The jury took just two hours to decide they were not guilty. In April 2008, these three protesters attacked the Waihopai base. They waited until it was dark th

发表于:2019-02-06 / 阅读(120) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Wanganui Collegiate is thinking about becoming a state integrated school. It has been a private Church of England high school for 150 years. Most of that time, it was a boarding school for boys only. Recently it became a co-ed school, open to girls a

发表于:2019-02-06 / 阅读(77) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Greymouth families who have lost their husbands, fathers, sons or brothers in the Pike River Coal mine, are facing more despair. It now seems unlikely that the bodies of the 29 miners will be recovered soon. Another explosion occurred yesterday and t

发表于:2019-02-06 / 阅读(129) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The World of Wearable Arts performances begin today in Wellington. There are 10 performances in the next 10 days, all sold out. The beginning of WOW the World of Wearable Arts is an interesting story. In 1987, Suzie Moncrieff, a Nelson artist and scu

发表于:2019-02-07 / 阅读(54) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The World Rowing Championships started today at Lake Karapiro on the Waikato River. This is the first time in 32 years that New Zealand has held this event. 50 countries have sent teams to compete during the eight days of the championships. There are

发表于:2019-02-07 / 阅读(57) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

There is likely to be a review of dog laws in New Zealand. Local Government Minister, Rodney Hide, believes there are too many laws for dog owners and the laws are too muddled. He thinks dog owners should have more freedom to enjoy their dogs. At the

发表于:2019-02-07 / 阅读(74) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The Minister of Transport, Steven Joyce, said yesterday that some railway lines will probably be closed. The line between Napier and Gisborne, the northern Wairarapa line and the inland Taranaki line usually have just one train a week. It is possible

发表于:2019-02-07 / 阅读(116) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The World Rowing Championships finished today after 10 very successful days. It was windy on two days but mostly the weather was good and today it was perfect. A large number of spectators attended. Today, 15,243 spectators came to see the finals and

发表于:2019-02-07 / 阅读(76) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Britain may like to find out about more our voting system in elections. Our system gives smaller political parties a chance to be part of the government. We have MMP which is one kind of proportional representation. If a party gets a proportion of th

发表于:2019-02-07 / 阅读(65) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The company which owns the Pike River Coal Mine is in receivership. This is another disaster for Greymouth. If you have not followed this news story before, click on coal under Tags to listen to other items in December and November on the Pike River

发表于:2019-02-08 / 阅读(63) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

A third explosion happened this afternoon, two days after a second explosion. By Wednesday evening, police said that all miners now must be dead. Probably they became unconscious first through carbon monoxide poisoning and would have felt nothing. It

发表于:2019-02-08 / 阅读(69) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Just two weeks ago, the Royal Commission recommended that Auckland should have one City Council for the whole of Auckland instead of eight smaller councils. See March 27th 2009. Today the government agreed that there should be just one council of 20

发表于:2019-02-08 / 阅读(62) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语