1952: The Otara Project
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Back in 1952 the National 1.0 Government came up with what the Americans call ‘The Projects’. In Auckland the project’s name was Otara. The plan for Otara was to create “the greatest number of houses, in the quickest time, at the cheapest cost, on the cheapest land”- Auckland’s Mayor John Luxford; 18 July, 1955 Like […]
Read more..July 19, 2022
1857: Havelock History
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Today in history, 17 July, 1857, Henry Havelock became a hero to our Victorian ancestors. The seasoned old soldier’s tactics had quelled the Indian Mutiny and taking back the town of Cawnpore. He also held out during the siege of Lucknow alongside the civilian administrator Henry Lawrence. Best of all, Havelock died on the job […]
Read more..July 17, 2022
1991: Science Alive!
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Science Alive (1991) was certainly a phenomena of the Krypton Factor Dignity Culture era of New Zealand’s history. A charity devoted to science education, its major traffic was in providing day-trip destination for primary school children. A cerebral attraction for a high IQ culture. It occupied the building that had previously been Christchurch Railway Station […]
Read more..July 15, 2022
1772: France Australe
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Today in history, 11 July, 1772, the French claimed our country for themselves as well as re-naming New Zealand as ‘France Australe’. This act of possession was performed by the officers of murdered leader of the Terra Australis Expedition, Marion du Fresne. This claim may well have stuck had Captain Cook not performed similar government […]
Read more..July 11, 2022
1967: Decimalisation
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
When New Zealand changes to ‘Aotearoa’ or pounds become dollars we are not just rearranging the deck chairs of the nation. It’s a change in our very social superstructure. That’s what happened today in history, 10 July, 1967. We left behind what McLauchlan called a “barren brown beer and baked beans world”. We moved into […]
Read more..July 10, 2022
Hairy Maclary, Wellington Zoo, and Friends
By NZB3
The famous Harvard criminologist sociologist Robert K. Merton provided a map almost 100 years ago that shows society in normal and anormic states. His paper is still famous and an excellent way to bring clarity to what’s constantly going on in New Zealand. How else to explain what has happened in the last few days […]
Read more..July 6, 2022
1912: The Death of the Liberal Party
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Today in history, 6 July, 1912, the Liberal Party finally crashed and burned after a very protracted demise. After ruling New Zealand for 22 years their goose was finally cooked. The way was open for a new leader and a new party to be in political control of the country; William Massey and Reform. Ref. […]
Read more..July 6, 2022
1966: Rotorua Meter Maid
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Local Government realised in the 1950s that it could exploit owners of parked cars for revenue. From this came the first species of Meter Maid. A curious phenomena. They were a combination of the government flirting with you and the government stealing money from you for not having your vehicle in motion. In the holiday […]
Read more..July 4, 2022
2020s: Shrinkflation
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
If AHNZ wrote about economics there’d be more than monetary inflation. But how about food inflation? Is our bread or even our biscuits anything near as high quality as our great grandparents? Is our flour, our meat, our water, our chocolate, our milk anything like what a Colonial would have had? Full of palm oil, […]
Read more..July 3, 2022
1862: First Telegraph
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Today in history, 1 July, 1862, Canterbury politicians congratulated themselves on New Zealand’s first telegraph line. They held a special public dinner, a ball, and then another dinner. As this postage stamp (image, left) commemorates, the line ran over the Port Hills from Christchurch to Lyttelton. It wasn’t long before Central Government started re-writing history […]
Read more..July 1, 2022
2012: The End of TVNZ7
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Today in television history, 30 June, 2012, the plug was pulled on TVNZ7. There were protests that this educational and informative digital channel would be pulled since it was one of the main lures to entice viewers to accept Freeview. I don’t think viewers could articulate quite why TVNZ7 (2008-12) was important to them. My […]
Read more..June 30, 2022
1939: St Andrew’s Blaketown
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
What has happened to Blaketown, Greymouth, and its Anglican Church is a study in how towns die. St Andrew’s Anglican Church (est. 1939) was the accomplishment of a congregation, including a Sunday School, achieved over many decades. Blaketown itself has a claim to being the original center and name for what became Greymouth but which […]
Read more..June 29, 2022
