1.
New Zealand Parliament
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The New Zealand Parliament is the legislative branch of New Zealand, consisting of the Queen of New Zealand and the New Zealand House of Representatives. Before 1951, there was a chamber, the New Zealand Legislative Council. The Parliament was established in 1854 and is one of the oldest continuously functioning parliaments in the world, the House of Representatives is a democratically elected body whose members are known as Members of Parliament. It usually consists of 120 MPs, though sometimes due to overhang seats. 70 MPs are elected directly in electorate seats and the remainder are filled by list MPs based on each partys share of the party vote, Māori were represented in Parliament from 1867, and in 1893 women gained the vote. New Zealand does not allow sentenced prisoners to vote, the Parliament is closely linked to the executive branch. The House of Representatives has met in the Parliament Buildings located in Wellington, Parliament funds the broadcast of its proceedings through Parliament TV, AM Network and Parliament Today. It was based on the Westminster model and had a house, called the House of Representatives. The members of the House of Representatives were elected under the first-past-the-post voting system, originally Councillors were appointed for life, but later their terms were fixed at seven years. In 1951, the Council was abolished altogether, making the New Zealand legislature unicameral, under the Constitution Act, legislative power was also conferred on New Zealands provinces, each of which had its own elected Legislative Council. These provincial legislatures were able to legislate for their provinces on most subjects, over a twenty-year period, political power was progressively centralised, and the provinces were abolished altogether in 1876. Four Māori electorates were created in 1867 during the term of the 4th Parliament, originally the New Zealand Parliament remained subordinate to the British Parliament, the supreme legislative authority for the entire British Empire. One historical speciality of the New Zealand Parliament was the country quota, from 1889 on, districts were weighted according to their urban/rural split. The country quota was in effect until it was abolished in 1945 by a mostly urban-elected Labour government, the New Zealand Parliament is sovereign with no institution able to over-ride its decisions. The ability of Parliament to act is, legally, unimpeded, for example, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 is a normal piece of legislation, it is not superior law as codified constitutions are in some other countries. The only thing Parliament is limited in its power are on some entrenched issues relating to elections and these issues require either 75% of all MPs to support the bill or a referendum on the issue. The Queen of New Zealand is one of the components of Parliament—formally called the Queen-in-Parliament and this results from the role of the monarch to sign into law the bills that have been passed by the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives was established as a house and has been the Parliaments sole chamber since 1951
2.
Nelson, New Zealand
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Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson Region. Nelson is the oldest city in the South Island and the second-oldest settled city in New Zealand, Nelson city is bordered to the west and south-west by the Tasman District Council and the north-east, east and south-east by the Marlborough District Council. The city does not include Richmond, the areas second-largest settlement, Nelson City has a population of around 50,000, making it New Zealands 12th most populous city and the geographical centre of New Zealand. When combined with the town of Richmond which has close to 14,000 residents, Nelson is well known for its thriving local arts and crafts scene, Each year, the city hosts events popular with locals and tourists alike, such as the Nelson Arts Festival. The annual Wearable Art Awards began near Nelson and a local museum, Nelson was named in honour of the Admiral Horatio Nelson who defeated both the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Many roads and public areas around the city are named after people and ships associated with that battle, inhabitants of Nelson are referred to as Nelsonians. Nelsons Māori name, Whakatū, means build, raise, or establish, in an article to The Colonist newspaper on 16 July 1867, Francis Stevens described Nelson as The Naples of the Southern Hemisphere. Today, Nelson has the nicknames of Sunny Nelson due to its high sunshine hours per year or the Top of the South because of its geographic location, settlement of Nelson began about 700 years ago by Māori. There is evidence the earliest settlements in New Zealand are around the Nelson-Marlborough regions, the earliest recorded iwi in the Nelson district are the Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Tumatakokiri, Ngāti Apa and Rangitane tribes. Raids from northern tribes in the 1820s, led by Te Rauparaha and his Ngāti Toa, soon decimated the local population, the New Zealand Company in London planned the settlement of Nelson. They intended to buy cheaply from the Māori some 200,000 acres which they planned to divide into one thousand lots, the Company earmarked future profits to finance the free passage of artisans and labourers and their families, and for the construction of public works. However, by September 1841 only about one third of the lots had sold, despite this the Colony pushed ahead, and land was surveyed by Frederick Tuckett. Three ships sailed from London under the command of Captain Arthur Wakefield, however, after some delay, Hobson allowed the Company to investigate the Tasman Bay area at the north end of the South Island. The Company selected the now occupied by Nelson City because it had the best harbour in the area. The Company secured a vague and undetermined area from the Māori for £800 that included Nelson, Waimea and this allowed the settlement to begin, but the lack of definition would prove the source of much future conflict. The three colony ships sailed into Nelson Haven during the first week of November 1841, within 18 months the Company had sent out 18 ships with 1052 men,872 women and 1384 children. However, fewer than ninety of the settlers had the capital to start as landowners, the early settlement of Nelson province included a proportion of German immigrants, who arrived on the ship Sankt Pauli and formed the nucleus of the villages of Sarau and Neudorf. These were mostly Lutheran Protestants with a number of Bavarian Catholics
3.
Hamburg
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Hamburg, officially Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, is the second largest city in Germany and the eighth largest city in the European Union. It is the second smallest German state by area and its population is over 1.7 million people, and the wider Hamburg Metropolitan Region covers more than 5.1 million inhabitants. The city is situated on the river Elbe, the official long name reflects Hamburgs history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, a city-state, and one of the 16 states of Germany. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a sovereign state. Prior to the changes in 1919, the civic republic was ruled by a class of hereditary grand burghers or Hanseaten. Though repeatedly destroyed by the Great Fire of Hamburg, the floods and military conflicts including WW2 bombing raids, the city managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe. On the river Elbe, Hamburg is a port and a global service, media, logistics and industrial hub, with headquarters and facilities of Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis, Beiersdorf. The radio and television broadcaster NDR, Europes largest printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg has been an important financial centre for centuries, and is the seat of Germanys oldest stock exchange and the worlds second oldest bank, Berenberg Bank. The city is a fast expanding tourist destination for domestic and international visitors. It ranked 16th in the world for livability in 2015, the ensemble Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2015. Hamburg is a major European science, research and education hub with several universities and institutes and its creative industries and major cultural venues include the renowned Elbphilharmonie and Laeisz concert halls, various art venues, music producers and artists. It is regarded as a haven for artists, gave birth to movements like Hamburger Schule. Hamburg is also known for theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Paulis Reeperbahn is among the best known European entertainment districts, Hamburg is on the southern point of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the north-east. It is on the River Elbe at its confluence with the Alster, the city centre is around the Binnenalster and Außenalster, both formed by damming the River Alster to create lakes. The island of Neuwerk and two neighbouring islands Scharhörn and Nigehörn, in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park, are also part of Hamburg. The neighbourhoods of Neuenfelde, Cranz, Francop and Finkenwerder are part of the Altes Land region, neugraben-Fischbek has Hamburgs highest elevation, the Hasselbrack at 116.2 metres AMSL. Hamburg has a climate, influenced by its proximity to the coast
4.
New Zealand Company
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The New Zealand Company was a 19th-century English company that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principles of systematic colonisation devised by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the New Zealand Company established settlements at Wellington, Nelson, Wanganui and Dunedin and also became involved in the settling of New Plymouth and Christchurch. It reached the peak of efficiency about 1841, encountered problems from 1843 from which it never recovered. The company indulged in many land purchases from Māori, in many cases reselling land it did not own. The company, in turn, was criticised by the Colonial Office and New Zealand Governors for its trickery. Missionaries in New Zealand were also critical of the company, fearing its activities would lead to the “conquest, britains Colonial Secretary rejected the proposal. The earliest organised attempt to colonise New Zealand came in 1825, on 5 March 1826 the ships, Lambton and Rosanna, reached Stewart Island, which Herd explored and then dismissed as a possible settlement, before sailing north to inspect land around Otago Harbour. Herd was unconvinced that area was the location and sailed instead for Te Whanganui-a-Tara. The ships then sailed up the east coast to explore prospects for trade, stopping at the Coromandel Peninsula and the Bay of Islands. In January 1827 Herd surveyed parts of the harbour at Hokianga, the price for the land was five muskets, fifty three pounds powder, four pair blankets, three hundred flints and four musket cartridge boxes. The venture had cost the New Zealand Company ₤20,000, the failure of Lambtons project came to the attention of 30-year-old aspiring politician Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who was serving three years in jail for abducting a 15-year-old heiress. Wakefields plan entailed a company buying land from the residents of Australia or New Zealand very cheaply, then selling it to speculators. The immigrants would provide the labour to break in the gentlemens lands and they would eventually be able to buy their own land, but high land prices and low rates of pay would ensure they first laboured for many years. In May 1830 Wakefield was released from prison and joined the National Colonisation Society, whose committee included Wilmot-Horton, nine MPs and three clergymen. Wakefields influence within the society grew and by the end of the year his plans for colonisation of Australasia had become the central focus of the societys pamphlets. Land in the town of Adelaide was offered at ₤1 an acre on maps showing town, in March 1836 a survey party sailed for South Australia and the first emigrants followed four months later. Wakefield claimed all credit for the establishment of the colony, but was disappointed with the outcome, instead, in late 1836, he set his sights on New Zealand, where his theories of systematic colonisation could be put into full effect. Wakefield formed the New Zealand Association, and on 22 May 1837 chaired its first meeting, which was attended by ten others including MPs Molesworth and William Hutt, and R. S
5.
Second Taranaki War
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The Second Taranaki War is a term used by some historians for the period of hostilities between Māori and the New Zealand Government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand between 1863 and 1866. The Hauhau movement became a factor for Taranaki Māori in the absence of individual Māori commanders. The style of warfare after 1863 differed markedly from that of the 1860-61 conflict, in which Māori had taken set positions, as the troops advanced, the Government built an expanding line of redoubts, behind which settlers built homes and developed farms. The effect was a creeping confiscation of almost a million acres of land, the Governments war policy was opposed by the British commander, General Duncan Cameron, who clashed with Governor Sir George Grey and offered his resignation in February 1865. He left New Zealand six months later, among the new colonial forces were specialist Forest Ranger units, which embarked on lengthy search-and-destroy missions deep into the bush. It concluded, In so far as Māori fought at all – and few did – they were defending their kainga, crops and land against military advance. The conflict in Taranaki had its roots in the First Taranaki War, neither side fulfilled the terms of the truce, leaving many of the issues unresolved. In 1861 Governor Thomas Gore Browne had promised to investigate the legitimacy of the sale of the Waitara land, in a despatch to London Grey wrote that he had failed to shake the dogged determination of Māori on the Waitara question. A great part of the race, he wrote, may be stated to be at the present moment in arms. Large numbers of them have renounced the Queens authority, and many of them declare openly that they have been so wronged that they never return under it. The great majority of them declare that if war arises from this cause, they will rise, the reasons they urge for such proceedings are. That the people of the Waitara, without having been guilty of any crime, were driven at the point of the sword from villages, houses and that a great crime had been committed against them. That through all future generations it will be told that their lands have been forcibly and unlawfully taken from them by officers appointed by the Queen of England. A month later Grey began planning to return Waitara to the Māori, but he did nothing to signal his intention and on 4 May, a week before he acted, Māori began killing British troops traversing their land. Little distinction was made between the land of rebels and Māori loyal to the government, in their eyes the fight was not against the Queens sovereignty, but a struggle for house and home. In 1862 the so-called Hauhau Movement emerged among Taranaki Māori, the movement was an extremist part of the Pai Mārire religion that was both violent and vehemently anti-Pākehā. The fragile peace that had existed in Taranaki since the truce of March 1861 was broken with two separate but related events southwest of New Plymouth. In March 1863 a group of Māori encamped on land they had seized at Tataraimaka were ousted with force by British troops in what they regarded as an act of war
6.
Consul (representative)
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A consul is distinguished from an ambassador, the latter being a representative from one head of state to another. In Classical Greece, some of the functions of the modern consul were fulfilled by a proxenos, unlike the modern position, this was a citizen of the host polity. The proxenos was usually a rich merchant who had ties with another city. The position of proxenos was often hereditary in a particular family, modern honorary consuls fulfil a function that is to a degree similar to that of the ancient Greek institution. Consuls were the highest magistrates of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, the term was revived by the Republic of Genoa, which, unlike Rome, bestowed it on various state officials, not necessarily restricted to the highest. The Consolat de mar was an institution established under the reign of Peter IV of Aragon in the fourteenth century and it was primarily a judicial body, administering maritime and commercial law as Lex Mercatoria. Although the Consolat de mar was established by the Corts General of the Crown of Aragon and this distinction between consular and diplomatic functions remains to this day. Modern consuls retain limited powers to settle disputes on ships from their country. The Consulado de mercaderes was set up in 1543 in Seville as a merchant guild to control trade with Latin America, as such, it had branches in the principal cities of the Spanish colonies. The connection of consul with trade and commercial law is retained in French, in francophone countries, a juge consulaire is a non-professional judge elected by the chamber of commerce to settle commercial disputes in the first instance. Like the term embassy, the consulate may refer not only to the office of consul. The consulate may share premises with the embassy itself, a consul of the highest rank is termed a consul-general, and his or her office a consulate-general. He or she typically has one or several deputy consuls-general, consuls, vice-consuls, consulates-general need not have their offices in the capital city, but rather could have them in the most important/appropriate cities in terms of bilateral relations. In the United States, for example, most countries have a consulate-general in New York City, consuls of various ranks may have specific legal authority for certain activities, such as notarizing documents. As such, diplomatic personnel with other responsibilities may receive consular letters patent, aside from those outlined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, there are few formal requirements outlining what a consular official must do. Nonetheless, consulates proper will be headed by consuls of various ranks, and although it is never admitted publicly, consulates, like embassies, may also gather intelligence information from the assigned country. Contrary to popular belief, although many of the staff of consulates may be career diplomats, in practice, the extension and application of consular privileges and immunities can be subject to wide discrepancies from country to country. Consulates are more numerous than diplomatic missions, such as embassies, ambassadors are posted only in a foreign nations capital
