(Continued from "Architecture")


...20 December.  The
Civic Theatre in Auckland was opened.

1936
The National Art Gallery and Museum opened in Wellington.

1940
Waitangi Meeting house opened at the time of the Centennial celebrations.  A gift from all Maori tribes.

...State Houses: Multi-storey State flats in Auckland's Greys Ave. were completed.

1975 April saw the first stage of Auckland's downtown Queen Elizabeth Square completed.

1985 In July the contract for the Aotea Centre was let by the Auckland City Council.

1998  The new National Museum and Art Gallery opened in Wellington.

oOo

Art

1841 Literature - First Public Library, part of the Port Nicholson Mechanics Institute established, followed a year later in Auckland.

1870  February.  The Otago School of Art, the first public Art school in New Zealand opened.

1888 February 17.  Auckland City Art Gallery opened.

1932  Literature-A.W. and A. Reed, originally booksellers in Dunedin became the first publishers in New Zealand.

1948 Music - The Maori Song "Now is the Hour" became a hit single for Bing Crosby.  Written in 1923 by Maewa Kaihau and Clement Scott, the first version, Po Ata rau was a Maori lyric.  During World War II Gracie Fields made it popular among the British troops.

1968  Music - Jenny McLeod, a great great great granddaughter of Patrikus and Laetitia, wrote Earth and Sky based on the Maori legend of the Creation, which had its first performance in Masterton in this year.  Later productions were in 1969 at Tauranga, in 1970 at the Auckland Festival and in 1974 in Christchurch.  In 1971  was composed for the Palmerston North Centenary.

oOo

Communication

1835 January 10.  The printing press which was to be operated by William Colenso was landed at Waimate.

1840  Newspapers. April 18.  The Zealand Gazette and Britannia Spectator was first produced at Petone by Samuel Revans on a Columbia press capable of printing 200-300 four page papers in an hour.  The operation shifted to Lambton Harbour a few months later and the name was changed to "The New Zealand Gazette and Wellington "Spectator", noted for the bias in favour of the New Zealand Company.  It folded September 1844.

1842 Newspapers.  March 12.  Charles Elliott brought out the "Examiner" at Nelson six weeks after arriving with the plant from England. This folded in January 1874.

1851  Newspapers.  February.  The first issue of the Otago Witness appeared, a powerful influence in the province for 80 years.  A later New Zealand Premier, Julius Vogel, was editor for part of 1861 before joining the Otago Daily Times.  The Witness folded in June 1932.

1852 Newspapers.  August 4.  The Taranaki Herald was first published in New Plymouth.  It was the country's oldest paper after the Lyttelton Times folded in 1935 and is still published.

1856 Newspapers.  The Wanganui Chronicle, New Zealand's second oldest surviving daily was established.

1866  Telecommunication.  The first submarine telegraph cable across Cook Strait was laid between Lyall Bay and White Bay.  This was abandoned in 1894.

1872  Telecommunication.  Auckland and Wellington were linked by telegraph line.

1876 Telecommunication.  The first trans-Tasman telegraph cable was laid and went into service between Wakapuaka (Nelson) and Sydney.  This cable also connected New Zealand with Britain, and Europe via Java, Singapore, India, Egypt, Malta, Gibraltar and Spain.

1877  Telecommunication.  Experiments with the telephone, invented the previous year, began in New Zealand.

1879 Telecommunication.  Telephone offices were established at Port Chalmers and Portobello.

1880 Telecommunication.  The Post and Telegraph Department was formed.

1881 Telecommunication.  1 October.  The first manual telephone exchange was opened in Christchurch.  Before the end of the year another exchange was opened in Auckland.

1892 Telecommunication/Women.  One of the earliest fields of commercial employment for women in New Zealand was the telephone service.  The first women exchange operators were appointed in 1892 with 12 at each of the four main exchanges.

1903 Radio/Television.  New Zealand Wireless Telegraphy Act authorised Government to establish stations to receive and transmit messages by the new discovered method of wireless telegraphy.  The Act so worded that further developments such as radio broadcasting were anticipated giving government the power to license future use of the airwaves. 

1909 Stamp vending machine invented and manufactured in New Zealand
1910  First coin operated telephone installed at Wellington Railway Station

1980's Early to mid 1980's.First Personal Computers beginning to make an appearance.  These

(Art Continued )

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