NZEDGE Society — New Zealand through the eyes of the world's media

Park’s Plinth a Triumph

A statue of revered New Zealand airman and Battle of Britain hero Sir Keith Park has been unveiled on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. The unveiling was a triumph for the veterans who…

Safety First

As of November 1, it is an offence in New Zealand to use hand-held cellphones while driving. The ban on making or receiving calls from a cellphone, texting and e-mailing is one of a…

Napier-born Dr John Hood has given his retiring Vice-Chancellor’s Oration at the University of Oxford after a five-year term. In his final address, Dr Hood reviewed the 2008-09 academic year and reflected on “aspects of…

Carbon Paw-Prints

Wellington-based eco-architects Brenda and Robert Vale, authors of Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living, include in their controversial book figures for carbon footprints of pets compared with other more…

Slump looks likely

New Zealand economist Robert Wade, a professor at the London School of Economics, predicts a further slump into global recession in 2010 or 2011. Wade, who made his name analysing East Asia’s economic…

Basically Extreme

An image of a New Zealand base-jumper against a backdrop of Kuala Lumpur’s skyline is one of the BBC’s ‘Week in Pictures’. Ninety-eight base jumpers took part in the annual International Tower Jump leaping…

Bilingual in Kansas

Auckland exchange student Fallon Simchowitz, 17, is spending a year abroad in Olathe, Kansas with a local deaf family. Simchowitz is deaf as are host family Ron and Kim Symansky and their three children. Normally, that…

Anniversary Apology

Air New Zealand will apologise to relatives of the victims of the 1979 Mt Erebus plane crash which killed all 257 on board in Antarctica during a sightseeing flight. Chief executive Rob Fyfe is…

Appreciating the green

Second generation Zimbabwean immigrant Myfanwy van Hoffen describes her move to Auckland leaving behind her citizenship, her vote, her passport and her husband, “cancer taking its too-early toll” . “I landed in a clean,…

Quietly Heralded

Tauranga-born peace campaigner Alyn Ware, 47, has been awarded what is commonly known as “the alternative Nobel prize” for “his effective and creative advocacy and initiatives over two decades to further peace education and…

Compensation comparisons

New Zealand “has some good ideas” when it comes to tort reform writes Newsweek blogger Katie Connolly, who uses this country’s government-operated Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) as an example of a system the US…

Distinguished Discourse

The New Zealand accent has been declared the most attractive and prestigious form of English outside Britain. In the BBC survey, Britons responded to an online survey rating the prestige and social attractiveness of…

Parrot’s Love Affair

Sirocco the kakapo has caused a stir in cyber space after he was captured on camera mating with the head of a British zoologist. The footage, which has received more than half a million…

Pesky Boy Inspires

Beano character Dennis the Menace was based on a New Zealand boy called Robert Fair who was a childhood friend of the cartoon character’s creator David Law, and a frequent visitor to the Law…

Our Feathered Friends

“New Zealand’s island ecology – from the kauri trees to the kiwi, the country’s emblematic bird – is unique,” writes The Independent on Sunday’s Ben Ross. “Twenty years ago, Douglas Adams – the man…

Looking at Labour

Former New Zealand Rhodes Scholar and Vice Chancellor of Waikato University Bryan Gould writes in the Guardian that “barring a miracle, and miracles seem likely to be in short supply, Labour will lose…

Still the Greatest

Adventurer Sir Edmund Hillary is the “greatest living New Zealander” according to the results of a recent Research New Zealand poll. Despite his death in January 2008, Sir Ed was named by 15…

Seoul mates

New Zealand’s trade commissioner in Seoul Graeme Solloway, who is responsible for promoting bilateral trade and investment, has been in the South Korean capital promoting technological ties between the two countries. “Both Korea and…

Great Totara Falls

Beloved New Zealand entertainer Sir Howard Morrison has died aged 74. Morrison was born in 1935 into a Rotorua family renowned for its entertainment skills. He had a singing career for more than 50…

Consonant clash

The New Zealand Geographic Board has announced the River City, Wanganui should be spelled Whanganui, after considering an application by Whanganui iwi, Te Runanga o Tupoho. This single letter has raised the ire of…

Best of both tribes

Linda White Wolf, a member of the Chickasaw Tribe from Oklahoma and host of Arizona Native News on the Pat McMahon Show on KAZ-TV, never knew about her Maori heritage until she happened to…

Letters to the Editors

“Small town” New Zealander and self-confessed letter addict, Andrew Prieditis, 30, has been published in over 60 newspapers globally in the past six weeks alone by writing ‘letters to the editor’ and supplying a…

Ancient Mystery Solved

The now extinct giant Haast’s eagle ruled the skies over New Zealand 750 years ago attacking moa from mountain perches and capable of killing small children. Because of their large size – these eagles…

Tourism by Post

Nick and Val Martin have operated the Pelorus Sound mail boat for the past four-and-a-half years transporting both mail and passengers from the mussel-farming town of Havelock out to the farthest reaches of the…

By hoki but not forever

Hoki, found in the dark Pacific depths around New Zealand, is the favourite fried meat for McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish burgers, and a fish “whose bounty it seems, is not limitless,” writes William Broad for The…

Wall Street Suggestions

“The findings of the ‘Emissions Trading Review Committee’ … is green PR gone wild,” writes the Wall Street Journal. “New Zealand already boasted one of the world’s most pristine environments before it passed cap-and-trade last…

Rescuing the Bumblebee

The short-haired bumblebee, Bombus subterraneus, was introduced to New Zealand from England between 1885 and 1906 to help pollinate crops. The bumblebee died out in the UK in 2000 because of loss of habitat and intensive…

Ace Transformer

Aeronautic machinists 23-year-olds Adam Turnbull and Dan Melling have “knocked the bastard off” and crossed the Cook Strait in a converted amphibious 1990 Toyota Town Ace van travelling the 65-km distance in nine hours…

Liquidity rules

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has “become the first authority to pass hard-and-fast rules for liquidity since the crisis”, writes The Economist in an article called ‘Lord of the Ratios’. Locally incorporated banks…

He takes the long road

Originally from Takaka, Ewan Kingston has been travelling from the UK to New Zealand by any means possible save for flying since mid-28, posting his adventures on the Ecologist site, the world’s leading environmental…

Poet Chief Farewelled

Pukerua Bay poet, playwright and author Alistair Te Ariki Campbell has died aged 84. One of the leading writers of New Zealand and the South Pacific, Campbell published more than 20 volumes of poetry…

Looking for the Lost

Veteran polar expedition leader New Zealander Rob McCallum is leading the search to find the submerged seaplane wreck which had been carrying Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen to the Arctic island of Spitsbergen in 1928….

Without Distraction

A long-term University of Otago study comparing the achievements of 900 boys and girls attending both single-sex and co-educational secondary schools has shown that boys perform better when attending single-sex schools. “These findings are consistent with the…

Strengthening Relations

New Zealand’s outgoing ambassador to Vietnam James Kember has received a medal from the Vietnamese government for his contributions to relations between the two countries. Speaking at the award presentation ceremony in Hanoi, President…

Hands Up For A Smack

New Zealanders have voted overwhelmingly to overturn a law that prohibits parents from hitting children, according to the results of a nationwide referendum, but the government says the law is working and won’t be…

Same but Different

On the eve of talks between Australian and New Zealand cabinets in Sydney last week, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Tink looks back to 1840 – when New Zealand was briefly a dependency of…

Opportunity Knocks

Napier teenager Rachel Reid, 17, has won a four-year scholarship at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University and is now able to stay in the United States to be with her younger sister Matisse, 8, when a donor becomes…

Anchor Marks the Spot

Hamilton Niwa ecologist Aleki Taumoepeau went to great lengths to retrieve a wedding band which after only three months of marriage slipped from his finger into Wellington harbour while he checked for invasive plant…

For his family

Hamilton trans-Atlantic rower Rob Hamill testified at the Khmer Rouge tribunal trial of Tuol Sleng prison camp chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, who is accused of ordering the torture and execution of Hamill’s…

Tasman Union Imminent

Flights between New Zealand and Australia will soon be as cheap as domestic flights under new efforts to streamline trans-Tasman travel. Following talks between New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Australian Prime Minister…

Harold in space

The Life Education Trust’s iconic mascot Harold the Giraffe, is set to become the first New Zealander (and giraffe) to go to space. Harold will be part of the NASA’s Mission STS-128, lead by…

Chopper Pilot Mourned

New Jersey-based pilot Aucklander Jeremy Clarke, 32, died after the tour helicopter he was flying crashed in a mid-air collision over the Hudson River. Clarke was a certified commercial helicopter pilot an flight instructor,…

Concept Muscle

Julian Dashper (1960-2009), artist, died 30 July, 49, in Auckland. Julian had “the unique perspective of attending to an internationalist art history from a distance, enabling him to devise strategies to work around his…

Clark enjoys anonymity

Head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) former Prime Minister Helen Clark, 59, has told the Dominion Post that “New Zealand is just not quite big enough for me at the moment”…

Tectonic Action

GNS Science geophysicist Dr Grant Caldwell and colleagues have reported that water deep beneath earthquake zones in New Zealand triggers tremors. Caldwell and his colleagues were able to determine how water is moving and…

Pekapeka Predecessors

New Zealand’s endangered lesser short-tailed bat descended from 20-million-year-old Australian relatives, new research has found. Scientists had long thought that the bat evolved its walking preference independently. Since the bat’s native habitat lacks predators…