TOP 10 FACTS ABOUT NEW ZEALAND

TOP 10 FACTS ABOUT New Zealand

TODAY is Waitangi Day, a public holiday in New Zealand celebrating the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on February 6, 1840, which established New Zealand as a nation and a British colony.

New Zealand is the only country with the right to put Hobbit film-related images on its money

• 1. Since the English and Maori versions of the Waitangi Treaty differ in crucial places, it has never been quite clear what it says.
  2. Sheep outnumber humans in New Zealand by a ratio of about 13 to one.
  3. The first sheep in New Zealand arrived with Captain James Cook in 1773.
  4. On January 18, 1909, brewers in New Zealand decided to abolish barmaids.
  5. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country to give votes to women but they did not have the right to stand for parliament until 1919. The city of Hamilton, New Zealand, was named after John Charles Fane Hamilton, captain of HMS Esk, who was killed in 1864 fighting the Maoris.
  6. Hamilton’s last words were “Follow me, men!”
  7. In 2009, a tuatara in New Zealand named Henry become a father for the first time at the age of 111. A tuatara is a species of reptile with no ears.
  8. New Zealand is the only country with the right to put Hobbit film-related images on its money.
  9. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman gave New Zealand its name after the Netherlands province Zeeland.