1998 in New Zealand

Incumbents

Regal and Vice Regal

*Head of State - Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand
*Governor-General - The Rt Hon. Sir Michael Hardie Boys GNZM, GCMG, QSO [ [http://www.gg.govt.nz/gg/former.htm] ]

Government

The 45th New Zealand Parliament continued. Government was The National Party, led by Jenny Shipley, in coalition with New Zealand First, led by Winston Peters.

*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: ,

*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.

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,

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, , TV3 (New Zealand), , Public broadcasting in New Zealand

Film

*Memory and Desire
*Saving Grace

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

Internet

See: [http://www.wlug.org.nz/NewZealandInternetHistory 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

port

* See: 1998 in sports,

Athletics

*Mark Hutchinson wins his second national title in the men's marathon, clocking 2:24:51 on October 25 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

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

Horse racing

See , list winners.

Netball

* Silver Ferns
* National Bank Cup
* Netball World Championships

Olympic Games

* New Zealand at the 1998 Winter Olympics

Rugby league

* Auckland Warriors
* New Zealand national rugby league team
* Rugby League World Cup

Rugby Union

,
* Super 12 - was won by the Canterbury Crusaders who defeated the Auckland Blues 20-13 in rhe 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

occer

* 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.
* Chatham Cup won by Central United of Auckland.
*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

Deaths

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

ee also

*List of years in New Zealand
*Timeline of New Zealand history
*History of New Zealand
*Military history of New Zealand
*Timeline of environmental history of New Zealand
*Timeline of New Zealand's links with Antarctica

"For world events and topics in 1998 not specifically related to New Zealand see": 1998