Population

• Estimated Population as of 31 December: 3,762,300^[1]
• Increase since 31 December 1995: 55,600 (1.50%)
• Males per 100 Females: 97.3

Incumbents

Regal and Vice Regal

• Head of State - Elizabeth II
• Governor-General - The Rt Hon. Sir Michael Hardie Boys GNZM, GCMG, QSO^[2]

Government

The 44th New Zealand Parliament continued. Government was The National Party, led by Jim Bolger. In the New Zealand general election, 1996 National was returned to power, but had to form a coalition with the New Zealand First.

• Speaker of the House - Peter Tapsell then Doug Kidd
• Prime Minister - Jim Bolger
• Deputy Prime Minister - Don McKinnon then Winston Peters
• Minister of Finance - Bill Birch
• Minister of Foreign Affairs - Don McKinnon

Opposition Leaders

See: Category:Parliament of New Zealand, New Zealand elections

• Greens - Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rod Donald
• Act - TBD
• New Zealand First - TBD
• United Future - TBD
• M ori Party - TBD
• Labour - TBD (Leader of the Opposition)
• Progressives - TBD
• United Future - TBD

Main centre leaders

• Mayor of Auckland - Les Mills
• Mayor of Hamilton - Margaret Evans
• Mayor of Wellington - Mark Blumsky
• Mayor of Christchurch - Vicki Buck
• Mayor of Dunedin - Sukhi Turner

Events

• April: The New Zealand Tablet winds up. The weekly Catholic newspaper started publication in 1873.^[3]

Arts and literature

• Bernadette Hall wins the Robert Burns Fellowship.
• Montana New Zealand Book Awards:
  • Book of the Year/Cultural Heritage: Judith Binney, Redemption Songs - A Life of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki
  • First Book Awards
    • Fiction: Emily Perkins, Not Her Real Name
    • Poetry: James Brown, Go Round Power Please
    • Non-Fiction: Alex Frame, Salmond: Southern Jurist
• f*INK, Dunedin's weekly entertainment magazine is founded

See 1996 in art, 1996 in literature, Category:1996 books

Music

See: 1996 in music

Radio and Television

See: 1996 in New Zealand television, 1996 in television, List of TVNZ television programming, Category:New Zealand television, TV3 (New Zealand), Category:New Zealand television shows, Public broadcasting in New Zealand

• The New Zealand Government sells the Radio New Zealand commercial arm to Clear Channel creating The Radio Network

Film

• Broken English
• Chicken
• Jack Brown Genius
• Flight of the Albatross
• Someone Else's Country
• The Frighteners
• The Whole of the Moon

See: Category:1996 film awards, 1996 in film, List of New Zealand feature films, Cinema of New Zealand, Category:1996 films

Internet

See: NZ Internet History

Appointments and awards

See: New Zealand Order of Merit, Order of New Zealand

• Archbishop of New Zealand
• Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, see appointments to Diocese

Sport

Athletics

• Phil Costley wins his first national title in the men's marathon, clocking 2:20:32 on 27 October in Auckland, while Tracey Clissold claims her first in the women's championship (2:39:03).

Basketball

• The NBL was won by Auckland.

Cricket

Various Tours, New Zealand cricket team, Chappell Hadlee Trophy, Cricket World Cup

Horse racing

Harness racing

• New Zealand Trotting Cup: Il Vicolo - 2nd win^[4]
• Auckland Trotting Cup: Sharp And Telford^[5]

Thoroughbred racing

Olympic Games

• New Zealand at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Rugby league

• The Lion Red Cup was won by the Counties Manukau Heroes who beat the Waitakere City Raiders 34-22 in the grand final. Waitakere were the minor premiers.
• In their second season the Auckland Warriors placed 11th of 20 teams in the Australian National Rugby League competition. They had been in finals contention until losing their last six games.

• 5 October, New Zealand defeated Papua New Guinea 62-8
• 11 October, New Zealand defeated Papua New Guinea 64-0
• 18 October, New Zealand defeated Great Britain 17-12
• 25 October, New Zealand defeated Great Britain 18-15
• 1 November, New Zealand defeated Great Britain 32-12

Rugby union

Category:Rugby union in New Zealand, Super 14, Rugby Union World Cup, National Provincial Championship, Category:All Blacks, Bledisloe Cup, Tri Nations Series, Ranfurly Shield

• Golf: New Zealand Open, Check Category:New Zealand golfers in overseas tournaments.
• Netball: Silver Ferns, National Bank Cup

Soccer

• The National Summer Soccer League was inaugurated to replace the New Zealand National Soccer League, so there was no 1996 league champion.
• The New Zealand national soccer team placed third in the OFC Nations Cup, which this year was played as a league rather than a tournament.
• The Chatham Cup is won by Waitakere City F.C. who beat Mt Wellington 3 1 in the final.^[6]

Births

Deaths

• 31 January: Peter Tait, politician.
• 21 April: Paraone Reweti, politician.
• 7 June: Tom Puna, cricketer.
• 3 June: Ben Couch, politician.
• 3 July: Barry Crump, author.
• 10 August: Les George, rugby player and administrator.
• 26 November: Joan Hammond, opera singer.
• 17 December: Lawrie Miller, cricketer.

Category:1996 deaths

References

See also

• List of years in New Zealand
• Timeline of New Zealand history
• History of New Zealand
• Military history of New Zealand
• Timeline of the New Zealand environment
• Timeline of New Zealand's links with Antarctica

For world events and topics in 1996 not specifically related to New Zealand see: 1996