Today in NZ history- 11/12/1907 - Parliamentary library escapes fire The country narrowly avoided a great library bonfire in 1907, when fire swept through Parliament Buildings in Wellington.
- 11/12/1931 - Statute of Westminster passed The British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, confirming the complete autonomy of its six Dominions. Australia and New Zealand held back from adopting this status, but in 1947 New Zealand became the last of the Dominions to do so.
- 12/12/1961 - First Golden Kiwi drawTickets went on sale for New Zealand’s new national Golden Kiwi lottery. All 250,000 tickets sold with 24 hours, with the £12,000 top prize (equivalent to around $500,000 today) four times that offered in previous lotteries.
- 13/12/1642 - First recorded European sighting of New ZealandTowards noon the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted 'a large land, uplifted high', possibly the peaks of the Paparoa Range behind Punakaiki.
- 11/12/1907 - Parliamentary library escapes fire
Category Archives: writing
Quality sportswriting in the Dom-Post
From an article about the Hurricanes rugby team’s early-season performance. These are consecutive paragraphs: The worry for Boyd was whether the rest of the side would take up the slack. Goodes has been a revelation. He got his chance, when … Continue reading
Her, him and their
From stuff.co.nz this morning: The official who let the Malaysian Government believe New Zealand was comfortable with a diplomat accused of attempted rape going home, should consider their career options, the prime minister says. I get pissed off when people … Continue reading
Posted in Language, writing
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Burnishing bullshit with buzzwords
LinkedIn is a social media site with a business focus. But while it largely eschews Facebook-type trivia, it thrives on organisational bullshit. Today I got a link request from someone I didn’t know, who clothed patent inadequacy in all the … Continue reading
Gobbledygook
A friend who works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida has sent me a wonderful example of writing from that center’s Daily News staff communication. Spaceport Innovators Today: Facilitating Disruptive Innovation Spaceport Innovators is a KSC cross-directorate open group that improves … Continue reading
Bursting into print again
My new book comes off the printing press this week. Compared to my other books it’s minimal, at 11,000 words and 40 pages. But a lot of work went into it, and not just the recent writing and layout. It’s … Continue reading
Posted in family history, Genealogy, publishing, writing
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