1953: Prize-Giving Speech
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Prize-Giving Speech was recorded on LP for Barney Flanagan and Other Poems (1973) but dates, I think, from poet J.K.Baxter’s The Fallen House (1953.) Baxter wrote many powerful poems to deliberately provoke and enliven New Zealand culture. Such attempts needed to be frustrated by being re-framed as a friendly Kiwiana icon. Like the song Born in the […]
Read more..February 15, 2019
1989: David Lange Resigned
By AHNZ
Today in history, 8 August, 1989, David Lange resigned as Prime Minister of New Zealand. Thus began the Palmer Interlude. According to State History, this very high IQ PM of 5 years had figured out only now that his Government, Labour 4.0, was some kind of New Right and free-market loving reformist regime! Rogernomics was […]
Read more..August 8, 2021
1941: The Greek King’s Bodyguard
By AHNZ
Today in history, 23 April, 1941, New Zealand troops formed the bodyguard to King George II of Greece. Our men safely evacuated George from Greece to Crete and on the Egypt. “KING OF GREECE ENTERTAINS NEW ZEALANDERS WHO FORMED HIS BODYGUARD IN RETREAT ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF CRETE” The thing about George (who was related […]
Read more..April 23, 2024
1885: The Club Hotel
By AHNZ
Bluff’s Club Hotel’s demolition started in April 2024 putting an end to an institution going back to the 1860s. It ceased trading in the mid-2000s. The latest owner, Bluff Oyster and Food Festival Charitable Trust purchased it in 2014 and have been let it deteriorate and be vandalised for 10 years culminating in the ability […]
Read more..April 22, 2024
1960: New Zealand PM Meets Khrushchev
By AHNZ
20 April 1960: New Zealand Prime Minister Walter Nash held talks with USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev for 6 hours in total. We were 7 months out from a General Election which would boot out Nash’s Labour 2.0 Ministry. New Zealand had had enough of Commies. Walter apparently upset Nikita a bit by mentioning how his […]
Read more..April 20, 2024
1959: Oxford Branch Closed
By AHNZ
In early 1959 the Labour 2.0 Ministry signaled that 6 under-performing government railway lines were under threat. This included Oxford Branch (est. 1875) which was duly culled on 19 April of that year. The Minister for Railways was Mick Moohan. The other lines that were to close were Ngapara, Donnelly’s Crossing, Foxton, and Waikaia. They […]
Read more..April 19, 2024
1976: Orana Park
By AHNZ
Orana Park 25 September, 1976, in Paparua County (1911-1989.) Now it’s just another part of MegaCity Christchurch. Orana always called itself a ‘Wildlife Park’ because there’s something apparently non-PC about the word ‘Zoo’. However, the founders called themselves the South Island Zoological Society. Go figure. The concept was an open range, drive-through, zoo. You could […]
Read more..April 18, 2024
2007: Holocaust Centre of New Zealand
By AHNZ
Today in history, 15 April, 2017, the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand was opened in Wellington. Various VIPs were there to listen and talk. The Governor General Anand Satyanand himself was there and in costume as politicians will be whenever appearing with an elect audience (image, left.) The HCNZ was established in 2007 and continues […]
Read more..April 15, 2024
1932: Tai Tapu Library
By AHNZ
Tai Tapu Library, South Canterbury. Without government who would build the libraries? This one was opened on 12 August 1932 and paid for with the proceeds of prize-winning daffodils grown on the property¹. And, the subscriptions of those desiring to be members. The public library itself is even older than this building. However, it was […]
Read more..April 11, 2024
1995: The Travesty of Waitangi
By AHNZ
Stuart Campbell Scott (1920-1997) was one of the last of New Zealand’s Expeditionary Generation: the adulthood generation during WW2. His contemporaries were the American “Greatest Generation,” Edmund Hillary, Robert Muldoon, Norman Kirk, Brian Gerald Barratt-Boyes, Ruth Ross, Bill Pearson, Keith Sinclair, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Their talent, intelligence, hard work, and attitudes built […]
Read more..April 4, 2024
1975: New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation Extinguished
By AHNZ
Today in New Zealand history, 1 April, 1975, Labour 3.0 abolished the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation. When a new Government takes power its primary job is to capture or destroy all the State institutions controlled by the prior Government. Television no exception. The NZBC was split into Radio NZ, TV1 and TV2 with TV1 broadcasting […]
Read more..April 1, 2024
