TVNZ
Television New Zealand, more referred to as TVNZ, is a state-owned television network, broadcast throughout New Zealand and parts of the Pacific region. Although the network identifies as a national, part-public broadcaster, it is commercially funded. TVNZ was competition free until November 1989; this began the battle for ratings with the only real rival MediaWorks New Zealand, which operates channels Three, ThreeLife and The Edge TV. However, TVNZ still maintains a number of transmission advantages due to its long-standing relationship with the state-owned sister company Kordia. TVNZ operates playout services from its Auckland studio via Kordia's fibre and microwave network for TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2 and TVNZ Duke, with new media video services via the American-owned Brightcove, streamed on the Akamai RTMP/HLS DNS based caching network, its former channels include TVNZ Kidzone, TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U, TVNZ 7, TVNZ 6, TVNZ Sport Extra. 90% of TVNZ's revenue is from commercial activity. The remainder of its funding comes from government funding agencies.
TVNZ was created in February 1980, through the merger of Television One and South Pacific Television. Until January 1989, it was paired with Radio New Zealand as the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand; the broadcaster was based in Television One's former headquarters at the Avalon television centre in Lower Hutt, however over the course of the 1980s, operations were moved to Auckland. In 1989, TVNZ moved to a new television centre in central Auckland. Broadcasting in New Zealand was deregulated in 1989; the Labour-led government under Helen Clark from 1999 to 2008 pursued a programme of public broadcasting reforms. New Zealand's wide-ranging adoption of neoliberal policies in the mid-1980s and 1990s had large sections of the state sector privatised; as a state owned enterprise, TVNZ enjoyed enormous commercial success and paid the Crown substantial dividends. However, the commercial success had been achieved through an unabashed pursuit of ratings through populist and tabloid content, prior to the 1999 election the National-led government was evidently positioning TVNZ for commercialisation Labour-led administrations since 1999 explicitly recognised the market failures of a wholly commercial broadcasting sector and re-emphasised television's cultural and democratic functions in their policy thinking.
The Clark government's highest profile broadcasting reform to date was the restructuring of TVNZ as a Crown entity in 2003. This introduced a dual remit whereby the broadcaster had to maintain its commercial performance while implementing a new public service Charter; the TVNZ Charter would require the negotiation and reconciliation of contradictory commercial and public service imperatives. The final version of the TVNZ Charter included a range of public service objectives and expectations. However, this dual remit precluded any transformation of TVNZ into fully-fledged public service broadcaster, TVNZ's efforts to balance its pursuit of commercial performance and Charter objectives were soon being criticised. Despite some investment in local content, including new documentaries and discussion programmes, the content on TV One and TV2 remained similar to the pre-charter schedules, with a continuing high proportion of light entertainment and reality-TV shows. TVNZ continues to pay dividends to the Crown.
However, from 2006 until 2009 TVNZ received $15.11 million each year from Government to assist it with fulfilling Charter obligations. There was much debate about the initial secrecy surrounding funding allocations and the programmes supported; the allocation of $5 million toward coverage of the 2008 Olympics, the rights for which are secured by a competitive tender between broadcasters, was the most controversial. In 2009 the Government gave control of that funding to funding agency NZ On Air. NZ On Air announced the creation of the contestable "Platinum Fund" in April 2009, setting aside the $15.11 million for high quality drama and other programme types. Following the election of a National Party-led government under John Key in 2008, the Charter was abolished in favour of a return to the 1990s model of a full commercial broadcaster. There is much debate on the future of TVNZ, which focuses on the nature of public service broadcasting and its commercial role. An example was in a memo called A More Public Broadcaster written by outgoing Chief Executive Ian Fraser to the board of TVNZ in October 2005, was obtained and released by Green MP Sue Kedgley.
The memo outlined three options. These were: TV One as a non-commercial network, like ABC in Australia, charged with delivering Charter values, merging with Radio New Zealand and Māori Television TV One a semi-commercial broadcaster with no more than six minutes of advertisements an hour like SBS in Australia TV One and TV2 remaining unchanged, but two new public service channels being broadcast via digital television. TV One and TV2 are now commercial with 15 – 20 minutes of ads per hour, plus ads overplayed over programs. On 15 February 2006, a group of 31 prominent New Zealanders signed an open letter, published as a full-page newspaper advertisement, calling for
Auckland University of Technology
Auckland University of Technology is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college was granted university status. It has five faculties across three campuses in Auckland: City and South campuses, an additional three specialist locations: AUT Millennium, Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory and AUT Centre for Refugee Education. AUT enrolled more than 29,000 students in 2018, including 4,194 international students from 94 countries and 2,417 postgraduate students. AUT’s student population is diverse with a range of ethnic backgrounds including New Zealand European, Asian and Pasifika. Students represent a wide age range with 22% being aged 25–39 years and 10% being 40 or older. AUT employed 2,474 full-time equivalent staff in 2016, including both academic. Data suggests. In the 2019 World University Rankings, AUT was ranked as 301-350. AUT was founded as Auckland Technical School in 1895. Daytime classes began in 1906 and its name was changed to Auckland Technical College.
In 1913 it was renamed Seddon Memorial Technical College. In the early 1960s educational reforms resulted in the separation of secondary and tertiary teaching. For three years they co-existed on the same site, but by 1964 the secondary school had moved to a new site in Western Springs and became Western Springs College. In 1989 ATI became Auckland Institute of Technology, the current name was adopted when university status was granted in 2000. Sir Paul Reeves served as university chancellor from 2005 until his death in 2011. AUT has three campuses: City and South, the training institute, Millennium. City and North campuses offer student accommodation. AUT runs a shuttle bus service between the three campuses. City Campus spreads over several sites in the heart of central Auckland; the largest site is situated on Wellesley Street East and is home to most of the academic units and central administration, including the Vice-Chancellor's Office and research centres. The Faculties of Business and Law, Design and Creative Technologies and Society and Te Ara Poutama share this location.
Facilities of the campus include an early childhood centre, International Student Centre, printing centre, Chinese Centre, Pasifika Student Support Service, Postgraduate Centre and Te Tari Āwhina Learning Development Centre. The Central Library holds over 245,000 journals on four floors. There are cafes and bars, including the student-owned Vesbar. Training restaurants Piko Restaurant and Four Seasons Restaurant have operated commercially since 2011. There is a marae, the AUT Shop, St Paul St Art Gallery, a university bookshop, the Wellesley student apartments. AUT has completed a number of buildings, including the new WZ building designed to house the engineering, computer science and mathematics students under one roof; the first 8 levels of the 12-storey $120 million building opened in July 2018 to coincide with the start of the second academic semester. The building itself was designed to be a teaching tool, with structural components visible, ceilings left exposed for viewing and the building management systems being visible on screens for analysis by students.
Sustainability was a goal, with rain water being collected for use in the labs, occupancy sensors in the rooms to ensure that areas are not being unnecessarily lit and solar fins on the outside of the building to regulate heat from the sun and ease load on the air-conditioning system. Another recent building completion is the $98 million WG precinct. Named after the former Chancellor of the university, the Sir Paul Reeves Building hosts the School of Communication Studies; the 12 storey building was opened by Prime Minister John Key on 22 March 2013. It provides an additional learning space of about 20,000 square metres that consists of convention spaces and television studios and a motion capture and performance studio. AUT opened South Campus in 2010, it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in business and information sciences, health sciences, year 1 of law, as well as sports management and science. South Campus hosts its own library, student lounges, student information centre, course information centre, computer labs, wireless network, café.
The campus boasts astro turf courts with tennis, netball, volleyball and soccer equipment available for hire. In 2016, the University invested in the construction of the Mana Hauora Building. Construction of MH was completed in December 2016, was opened by Prime Minister Bill English in March 2017; as the largest building on campus, MH is now the new heart of the campus and incorporates a number of sustainability design features. In 2017, three awards were given in recognition of the new MH Building at the New Zealand Institute of Architects Auckland Regional Awards. North Campus is located on Akoranga Drive in Northcote; the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences and School of Education share this campus, which has park-like grounds. AUT's main sport and fitness centre is located at the campus, encompassing a gymnasium, weights room, testing equipment, golf swing clinic, indoor courts; the campus a
Māori people
The Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from eastern Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages some time between 1250 and 1300. Over several centuries in isolation, the Polynesian settlers developed a unique culture, with their own language, a rich mythology, distinctive crafts and performing arts. Early Māori formed tribal groups based on organisation. Horticulture flourished using plants; the arrival of Europeans to New Zealand, starting in the 17th century, brought enormous changes to the Māori way of life. Māori people adopted many aspects of Western society and culture. Initial relations between Māori and Europeans were amicable, with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the two cultures coexisted as part of a new British colony. Rising tensions over disputed land sales led to conflict in the 1860s. Social upheaval, decades of conflict and epidemics of introduced disease took a devastating toll on the Māori population, which fell dramatically.
By the start of the 20th century, the Māori population had begun to recover, efforts have been made to increase their standing in wider New Zealand society and achieve social justice. Traditional Māori culture has thereby enjoyed a significant revival, further bolstered by a Māori protest movement that emerged in the 1960s. In the 2013 census, there were 600,000 people in New Zealand identifying as Māori, making up 15 percent of the national population, they are the second-largest ethnic group in New Zealand, after European New Zealanders. In addition, more than 140,000 Māori live in Australia; the Māori language is spoken to some extent by about a fifth of all Māori, representing 3 per cent of the total population. Māori are active in all spheres of New Zealand culture and society, with independent representation in areas such as media and sport. Disproportionate numbers of Māori face significant economic and social obstacles, have lower life expectancies and incomes compared with other New Zealand ethnic groups.
They suffer higher levels of crime, health problems, educational under-achievement. A number of socioeconomic initiatives have been instigated with the aim of "closing the gap" between Māori and other New Zealanders. Political and economic redress for historical grievances is ongoing. In the Māori language, the word māori means "normal", "natural" or "ordinary". In legends and oral traditions, the word distinguished ordinary mortal human beings—tāngata māori—from deities and spirits. Wai māori denotes "fresh water", as opposed to salt water. There are cognate words in most Polynesian languages, all deriving from Proto-Polynesian *maqoli, which has the reconstructed meaning "true, genuine"; the spelling of "Māori" with or without the macron is inconsistent in general-interest English-language media in New Zealand, although some newspapers and websites have adopted the standard Māori-language spelling. Early visitors from Europe to New Zealand referred to the indigenous inhabitants as "New Zealanders" or as "natives".
The Māori used the term Māori to describe themselves in a pan-tribal sense. Māori people use the term tangata whenua to identify in a way that expresses their relationship with a particular area of land; the term can refer to the Māori people as a whole in relation to New Zealand as a whole. The Māori Purposes Act of 1947 required the use of the term "Māori" rather than "Native" in official usage; the Department of Native Affairs was renamed as the Department of Māori Affairs. Before 1974, the government required documented ancestry to determine the legal definition of "a Māori person". For example, bloodlines or percentage of Māori ancestry was used to determine whether a person should enroll on the general electoral roll or the separate Māori roll. In 1947, the authorities determined that a man, five-eighths Māori had improperly voted in the general parliamentary electorate of Raglan; the Māori Affairs Amendment Act 1974 changed the definition, allowing individuals to self-identify as to their cultural identity.
In matters involving financial benefits provided by the government to people of Māori ethnicity—scholarships, for example, or Waitangi Tribunal settlements—authorities require some documentation of ancestry or continuing cultural connection but no minimum "blood" requirement exists as determined by the government. The most current reliable evidence indicates that the initial settlement of New Zealand occurred around 1280 CE, at the end of the medieval warm period. Previous dating of some kiore bones at 50–150 has now been shown to have been unreliable. Māori oral history describes the arrival of ancestors from Hawaiki, in large ocean-going waka. Migration accounts vary among tribes, whose members may identify with several waka in their genealogies. In the last few decades, mitochondrial-DNA research has allowed an estimate to be made of the number of women in the founding population—between 50 and 100. Evidence fro
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. The Christchurch urban area lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula, it is home to 404,500 residents, making it New Zealand's third-most populous city behind Auckland and Wellington. The Avon River flows with an urban park located along its banks. Archaeological evidence has indicated that the Christchurch area was first settled by humans in about 1250. Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter on 31 July 1856, making it the oldest established city in New Zealand; the Canterbury Association, which settled the Canterbury Plains, named the city after Christ Church, Oxford. The new settlement was laid out in a grid pattern centred on Cathedral Square. Agriculture is the historic mainstay of Christchurch's economy; the early presence of the University of Canterbury and the heritage of the city's academic institutions in association with local businesses has fostered a number of technology-based industries.
Christchurch is one of five'gateway cities' for Antarctic exploration, hosting Antarctic support bases for several nations. The city suffered a series of earthquakes between September 2010 and early 2012, with the most destructive of them occurring at 12.51 p.m. on Tuesday, 22 February 2011, in which 185 people were killed and thousands of buildings across the city collapsed or suffered severe damage. By late 2013, 1,500 buildings in the city had been demolished, leading to an ongoing recovery and rebuilding project; the name of "Christchurch" was agreed on at the first meeting of the Canterbury Association on 27 March 1848. It was suggested by founder John Robert Godley, whose alma mater was Oxford; the Māori name Ōtautahi was adopted in the 1930s. The site was a seasonal dwelling of Ngāi Tahu chief Te Potiki Tautahi, whose main home was Port Levy on Banks Peninsula. Prior to that the Ngāi Tahu referred to the Christchurch area as Karaitiana, a transliteration of the English word Christian. Archaeological evidence found in a cave at Redcliffs in 1876 has indicated that the Christchurch area was first settled by moa-hunting tribes about 1250 CE.
These first inhabitants were thought to have been followed by the Waitaha tribe, who are said to have migrated from the East coast of the North Island in the 16th century. Following tribal warfare, the Waitaha were dispossessed by the Ngāti Māmoe tribe, they were in turn subjugated by the Ngāi Tahu tribe, who remained in control until the arrival of European settlers. Following the purchase of land at Putaringamotu by the Weller brothers, whalers of Otago and Sydney, a party of European settlers led by Herriott and McGillivray established themselves in what is now Christchurch, early in 1840, their abandoned holdings were taken over by the Deans brothers in 1843. The First Four Ships were chartered by the Canterbury Association and brought the first 792 of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton Harbour; these sailing vessels were the Randolph, Charlotte Jane, Sir George Seymour, Cressy. The Charlotte Jane was the first to arrive on 16 December 1850; the Canterbury Pilgrims had aspirations of building a city around a cathedral and college, on the model of Christ Church in Oxford.
The name "Christ Church" was decided prior to the ships' arrival, at the Association's first meeting, on 27 March 1848. The exact basis for the name is not known, it has been suggested that it is named in Dorset, England. The last explanation is the one accepted. At the request of the Deans brothers — whose farm was the earliest European settlement in the area — the river was named after the River Avon in Scotland, which rises in the Ayrshire hills near to where their grandfather's farm was located. Captain Joseph Thomas, the Canterbury Association's Chief Surveyor, surveyed the surrounding area. By December 1849 he had commissioned the construction of a road from Port Cooper Lyttelton, to Christchurch via Sumner; however this proved more difficult than expected and road construction was stopped while a steep foot and pack horse track was constructed over the hill between the port and the Heathcote valley, where access to the site of the proposed settlement could be gained. This track became known as the Bridle Path, because the path was so steep that pack horses needed to be led by the bridle.
Goods that were too heavy or bulky to be transported by pack horse over the Bridle Path were shipped by small sailing vessels some eight miles by water around the coast and up the estuary to Ferrymead. New Zealand's first public railway line, the Ferrymead Railway, opened from Ferrymead to Christchurch in 1863. Due to the difficulties in travelling over the Port Hills and the dangers associated with shipping navigating the Sumner bar, a railway tunnel was bored through the Port Hills to Lyttelton, opening in 1867. Christchurch became a city by royal charter on 31 July 1856, the first in New Zealand. Many of the city's Gothic Revival buildings by architect Benjamin Mountfort date from this period. Christchurch was the seat of provincial administration for the Province of Canterbury, abolished in 1876. Christchurch buildings were damaged by earthquakes in 1869, 1881 and 1888. In 1947, New Zealand's worst fire disaster occurred at Ballantyne's Department Store in the inner city, with 41 people killed in a blaze which razed
Two-handed manual alphabets
Several manual alphabets in use around the world employ two hands to represent some or all of the letters of an alphabet as a part of a deaf sign language. Two-handed alphabets are less widespread than one-handed manual alphabets, they may be used to represent the Cyrillic alphabet. This alphabet is used in the BANZSL group of sign languages, it has been used in British Sign Language and Auslan since at least the 19th century, in New Zealand Sign Language since the 1970s. Variations of this alphabet are used in dialects of Indo-Pakistani Sign Language. Signs may be made with the left or right hand as the dominant hand, but the roles do not switch when fingerspelling; the dominant hand acts as a pointer while the secondary hand acts as "paper". The vowels A, E, I, O and U are formed by touching each digit starting with the thumb; the letters C, D, J, K, P, Q, T, V, X, Y make the shape of the letter itself. The letters B, F, G, L, M, N, R, S, W suggest the shape of the letter; the letters G, L and R suggest only the lowercase form of the letter.
Only the letters H and Z do not have a strong relation to their position in the alphabet. Many letters appear backwards; this is not a mistake or a problem, your signing does not need to be adjusted to compensate. This is a variation on the above alphabet, modified for tactile use by those communicating with people who are deafblind; the sender holds the wrist of the receiver. The receiver's hand is relaxed, with the palm open and fingers apart; the signer uses their dominant hand like a pen to sign on the non-dominant hand of the receiver. As a beginner, you may squeeze the wrist of the receiver between words since you will spell haltingly. Once you can spell fluently put a short pause between words. AEIOU are the pads of each finger, beginning with the thumb. A BANZSL "A" is signed on the tip of the thumb B The fingers and thumb are held together to form half of the BANZSL "B" and placed on the palm C Draw your finger along the edge of the thumb and up the index finger, alternatively the direction of the sweep can be reversed D The signer forms half of the BANZSL "D" with their dominant hand and places it against the recessive hand of the receiver.
Interlace your fingers with theirs Grab all their fingers from the side Grab their fingers from the top X Half of the BANZSL "X" is signed on the index finger Y The index finger is used to sign a BANZSL "Y" on the hand of the receiver Z The side of the palm is placed on the palm of the receiver From "Deafblind Manual Alphabet", on Deafblind Information, Senses Australia: "Variations of this alphabet is used in some dialects of Indo-Pakistani Sign Language. "Other forms of manual deafblind alphabet are used around the world - eg. The Lorm Deafblind Manual Alphabet. In some countries, eg. Sweden, the one-handed alphabet used is modified by applying the shape of the letter into the hand of the person, deafblind at a different angle, making the shape easier to feel." Current Directions in Turkish Sign Language Research, p. 72, at Google Books Some signs are modeled after letters of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, others after Gaj's Latin alphabet, or stem from other sources. Royal National Institute for the Deaf Animated Fingerspelling Page British Sign Language font British Fingerspelling keyboard title at Google Books
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and second most populous urban area of New Zealand, with 418,500 residents. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the major population centre of the southern North Island, is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region, which includes the Kapiti Coast and Wairarapa, its latitude is 41°17′S, making it the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Wellington features a temperate maritime climate, is the world's windiest city by average wind speed; the Wellington urban area comprises four local authorities: Wellington City, on the peninsula between Cook Strait and Wellington Harbour, contains the central business district and about half the population. As the nation's capital since 1865, the New Zealand Government and Parliament, Supreme Court and most of the public service are based in the city. Architectural sights include the Government Building—one of the largest wooden buildings in the world—as well as the iconic Beehive.
Wellington is home to several of the largest and oldest cultural institutions in the nation such the National Archives, the National Library, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, numerous theatres. It plays host to many artistic and cultural organisations, including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Royal New Zealand Ballet. One of the world's most liveable cities, the 2016 Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranked Wellington 12th in the world. Wellington's economy is service-based, with an emphasis on finance, business services, government, it is the centre of New Zealand's film and special effects industries, a hub for information technology and innovation, with two public research universities. Wellington is one of New Zealand's chief seaports and serves both domestic and international shipping; the city is served by the third busiest airport in the country. Wellington's transport network includes train and bus lines which reach as far as the Kapiti Coast and Wairarapa, ferries connect the city to the South Island.
Wellington takes its name from Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington and victor of the Battle of Waterloo: his title comes from the town of Wellington in the English county of Somerset. It was named in November 1840 by the original settlers of the New Zealand Company on the suggestion of the directors of the same, in recognition of the Duke's strong support for the company's principles of colonisation and his "strenuous and successful defence against its enemies of the measure for colonising South Australia". One of the founders of the settlement, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, reported that the settlers "took up the views of the directors with great cordiality and the new name was at once adopted". In the Māori language, Wellington has three names. Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara refers to Wellington Harbour and means "the great harbour of Tara". In New Zealand Sign Language, the name is signed by raising the index and ring fingers of one hand, palm forward, to form a "W", shaking it from side to side twice.
The city's location close to the mouth of the narrow Cook Strait leads to its vulnerability to strong gales, leading to the city's nickname of "Windy Wellington". Legends recount that Kupe explored the district in about the 10th century; the earliest date with hard evidence for Maori living in New Zealand is about 1280. Situated near the geographic centre of the country, Wellington was well placed for trade. In 1839 it was chosen as the first major planned settlement for British immigrants coming to New Zealand; the settlement was named in honour of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington and victor of the Battle of Waterloo. European settlement began with the arrival of an advance party of the New Zealand Company on the ship Tory on 20 September 1839, followed by 150 settlers on the Aurora on 22 January 1840. Food processing plants, engineering industries, vehicle assembly and oil refineries were located in the NE which caused the main industrial growth in Hutt valley; the settlers constructed their first homes at Petone on the flat area at the mouth of the Hutt River.
When that proved swampy and flood-prone they transplanted the plans, drawn without regard for the hilly terrain. In 1865, Wellington became the capital city in place of Auckland, which William Hobson had made the capital in 1841; the New Zealand Parliament had first met in Wellington on 7 July 1862, on a temporary basis. There had been some concerns that the more populous South Island would choose to form a separate colony in the British Empire. Several Commissioners invited from Australia, chosen for their neutral status, declared that Wellington was a suitable location because of
Governor-general
Governor-general or governor general, in modern usage, is the title of an office-holder appointed to represent the monarch of a sovereign state in the governing of an independent realm. Governors-general have previously been appointed in respect of major colonial states or other territories held by either a monarchy or republic, such as French Indochina. In modern usage, the term governor-general originated in those British colonies which became self-governing within the British Empire. Before World War I, the title was used only in federated colonies in which each of the constituent colonies of these federated colonies had a governor, namely Canada and the Union of South Africa. In these cases, the Crown's representative in the federated Dominion was given the superior title of governor-general; the first exception to this rule was New Zealand, granted Dominion status in 1907, but it was not until 28 June 1917 that Arthur Foljambe, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, was appointed the first Governor-General of New Zealand.
Another non-federal state, was a Dominion for 16 years with the King's representative retaining the title of governor throughout this time. Since 2016, the title governor-general has been given to all representatives of the sovereign in independent Commonwealth realms. In these cases, the former office of colonial governor was altered to become governor-general upon independence, as the nature of the office became an independent constitutional representative of the monarch rather than a symbol of previous colonial rule. In these countries the governor-general acts as the monarch's representative, performing the ceremonial and constitutional functions of a head of state; the only other nation which uses the governor-general designation is Iran, which has no connection with any monarchy or the Commonwealth. In Iran, the provincial authority is headed by a governor general, appointed by the Minister of the Interior; until the 1920s, governors-general were British subjects, appointed on the advice of the British government, who acted as agents of the British government in each Dominion, as well as being representatives of the monarch.
As such they notionally held the prerogative powers of the monarch, held the executive power of the country to which they were assigned. The governor-general could be instructed by the colonial secretary on the exercise of some of his functions and duties, such as the use or withholding of the Royal Assent from legislation; the monarch or imperial government could overrule any governor-general, though this could be cumbersome, due to remoteness of the territories from London. The governor-general was usually the commander-in-chief of the armed forces in his or her territory and, because of the governor-general's control of the military, the post was as much a military appointment as a civil one; the governors-general are entitled to wear a unique uniform, not worn today. If of the rank of major general, equivalent or above, they were entitled to wear that military uniform. Following the Imperial Conference, subsequent issuing of the Balfour Declaration in 1926, the role and responsibilities of the governor-general began to shift, reflecting the increased independence of the Dominions.
As the sovereign came to be regarded as monarch of each territory independently, and, as such, advised only by the ministers of each country in regard to that country's national affairs, so too did the governor-general become a direct representative of the national monarch only, who no longer answered to the British government. The report resulting from the 1926 Imperial Conference stated: "...it is an essential consequence of the equality of status existing among the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations that the Governor General of a Dominion is the representative of the Crown, holding in all essential respects the same position in relation to the administration of public affairs in the Dominion as is held by His Majesty the King in Great Britain, that he is not the representative or agent of His Majesty's Government in Great Britain or of any Department of that Government." These concepts were entrenched in legislation with the enactment of the Statute of Westminster in 1931, governmental relations with the United Kingdom were placed in the hands of a British High Commissioner in each country.
In other words, the political reality of a self-governing Dominion within the British Empire with a governor-general answerable to the sovereign became clear. British interference in the Dominion was not acceptable and independent country status was displayed. Canada and New Zealand were not controlled by the United Kingdom; the monarch of these countries is in law Queen of Canada, Queen of Australia, Queen of New Zealand and only acts on the advice of the ministers in each country and is in no way influenced by the British government. Today, therefore, in former British colonies which are now independent Commonwealth realms, the governor-general is constitutionally the representative of the monarch in his or her state and may exercise the reserve powers of the monarch according to their own constitutional authority; the governor-general, however, is still appointed by the monarch and takes an oath of allegiance to the monarch of their own country. Executive authority is vested in the monarc
