Incumbents

Regal and Vice Regal

• Head of State - Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand
• Governor-General - The Rt Hon. Sir Michael Hardie Boys GNZM, GCMG, QSO^[1]

Government

The 45th New Zealand Parliament continued, with the Fourth National Government in power.

• Speaker of the House - Doug Kidd
• Prime Minister - Jenny Shipley
• Deputy Prime Minister - Winston Peters then Wyatt Creech
• Minister of Finance - Bill Birch
• Minister of Foreign Affairs - Don McKinnon

Opposition Leaders

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

• National - Prime Minister Jenny Shipley
• Act - Richard Prebble
• New Zealand First - Winston Peters
• United New Zealand - Peter Dunne
• Labour - Helen Clark (Leader of the Opposition)
• The Alliance - Jim Anderton and Sandra Lee

Main centre leaders

• Mayor of Auckland - Les Mills then Christine Fletcher
• Mayor of Hamilton - Margaret Evans then Russell Matthew Remmington
• Mayor of Wellington - Mark Blumsky
• Mayor of Christchurch - Vicki Buck then Garry Moore
• Mayor of Dunedin - Sukhi Turner

Events

• 2 May By-election in Taranaki-King Country after the former Prime Minister Jim Bolger resigned. Shane Ardern retained the seat for National.
• 14 August Prime Minister Jenny Shipley sacks Winston Peters from Cabinet after a dispute over the privatisation of Wellington International Airport. Peters subsequently cancels New Zealand First's coalition agreement with National.
• New Zealand appoints a resident ambassador to Argentina and establishes an embassy in Buenos Aires.^[2]

Arts and literature

• Michael King wins the Robert Burns Fellowship.
• Montana New Zealand Book Awards:
  • Montana Medal: Harry Orsman (ed.), Dictionary of New Zealand English
  • Deutz Medal: Maurice Gee, Live Bodies
  • Reader's Choice: Malcolm McKinnon(ed.), New Zealand Historical Atlas
  • First Book Awards
    • Fiction: Catherine Chidgey, In a fishbone church
    • Poetry: Kapka Kassabova, All Roads Lead to the Sea
    • Non-Fiction: Genevieve Noser, Olives: The new passion

See 1998 in art, 1998 in literature, Category:1998 books

Music

See: 1998 in music

Radio and Television

• 30 August: Prime Television New Zealand begins transmission.

See: 1998 in New Zealand television, 1998 in television, List of TVNZ television programming, Category:New Zealand television, TV3 (New Zealand), Category:New Zealand television shows, Public broadcasting in New Zealand

Film

• Memory and Desire
• Saving Grace

See: Category:1998 film awards, 1998 in film, List of New Zealand feature films, Cinema of New Zealand, Category:1998 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

• See: 1998 in sports, Category:1998 in sports

Athletics

• Mark Hutchinson wins his second national title in the men's marathon, clocking 2:24:51 on 25 October in Auckland while Bernardine Portenski claims her second in the women's championship (2:44:52)

Basketball

• the NBL was won by the Nelson Giants

Commonwealth Games

• New Zealand at the 1998 Commonwealth Games

Cricket

Various Tours, New Zealand cricket team

• The Shell Trophy for 1998-99 was won by Canterbury, with Northern Districts runners-up.

Golf

New Zealand Open Category:New Zealand golfers

Horse racing

Harness racing

• New Zealand Trotting Cup: Christian Cullen^[3]
• Auckland Trotting Cup: Christian Cullen^[4]

Thoroughbred racing

Netball

• Silver Ferns
• National Bank Cup
• Netball World Championships

Olympic Games

• New Zealand at the 1998 Winter Olympics

Rugby league

• The Auckland Warriors finished 15th out of 20 teams in the first season of the National Rugby League premiership.^[5]
• Auckland won the National Provincial Competition by defeating Canterbury 44-8 while Waikato ended the season holding the Rugby League Cup.

• 24 April, New Zealand defeated Australia 22-16
• 9 October, New Zealand lost to Australia 12-30
• 31 October, New Zealand defeated Great Britain 22-16
• 7 November, New Zealand defeated Great Britain 36-16
• 14 November, New Zealand drew with Great Britain 23-all

Rugby Union

Category:Rugby union in New Zealand,

• Super 12 - was won by the Canterbury Crusaders who defeated the Auckland Blues 20-13 in the final. Season summary
• National Provincial Championship - won by Otago
• Bledisloe Cup - won 3-0 by Australia
• Tri Nations Series - won by South Africa. New Zealand came last with no wins and only 2 bonus points
• Ranfurly Shield - Waikato held the shield all season, beating Poverty Bay 121-0, King Country 76-0, Bay Of Plenty 25-18, Auckland 24-23, Southland 95-7, Nth Harbour 39-22, Northland 63-22, and Canterbury 29-23

Soccer

• The second National Summer Soccer League was won by Napier City Rovers
• The New Zealand national soccer team won the OFC Nations Cup tournament held in Australia, beating the host nation 2-0 in the final.
• The Chatham Cup is won by Central United who beat Dunedin Technical 5 0 in the final.^[6]
• New Zealand U-16 team coached by Wynton Rufer travels to unofficial U-16 World Cup in France to coincide with 1998 FIFA World Cup. Achieve mixed results (0-3 v Italy, 0-2 v Cameroon, 1-1 v Austria, 0-1 v USA, 0-1 v Israel, 1-0 v Norway)

Births

Category:1998 births

Deaths

• 10 March - Dr C. E. Beeby, educationalist
• 17 July - Marc Hunter, musician
• 30 August - Toss Woollaston, painter and writer

Category:1998 deaths

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 1998 not specifically related to New Zealand see: 1998

References