North Island

Te Ika-a-Māui (Māori)
Satellite image of the North Island
North Island (Oceania)
Geography
Location	Oceania
Coordinates	38°24′S 175°43′E / 38.4°S 175.717°E / -38.4; 175.717
Archipelago	New Zealand
Area	113,729 km2 (43,911 sq mi)
Area rank	14th
Highest elevation	2,797 m (9,177 ft)
Highest point	Mount Ruapehu
Country
New Zealand
ISO 3166-2:NZ	NZ-N
Regions	9
Territorial authorities	43
Largest city	Auckland (pop. 1,377,200)
Demographics
Population	3,366,100 (as of June 2011 estimate+)
Density	29.6 /km2 (76.7 /sq mi)

The North Island (Māori: Te Ika-a-Māui) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the slightly larger but much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is 113,729 square kilometres (43,911 sq mi) in area,^[1] making it the world's 14th-largest island. It has a population of 3,366,100 (June 2011 estimate).^[2]

Twelve cities are in the North Island: Auckland, New Plymouth, Tauranga, Gisborne, Napier, Hamilton, Hastings, Palmerston North, Rotorua, Wanganui, Whangarei and Wellington, the capital, located at the southern extremity of the island. Approximately 76% of New Zealand's population lives in the North Island.

Naming and usage[link]

Although the island has been known as the North Island for many years,^[3] the New Zealand Geographic Board has found that, along with the South Island, it has no official name. The board intends to make North Island the island's official name, along with an alternative Māori name. Although several Māori names have been used, Maori Language Commissioner Erima Henare sees Te Ika-a-Māui as the most likely choice.^[4]

In prose, the two main islands of New Zealand are called the North Island and the South Island, with the definite article. It is normal to use the preposition in rather than on, for example Hamilton is in the North Island, my mother lives in the North Island. Maps, headings, tables and adjectival expressions use North Island without "the".

Māori mythology[link]

According to Māori mythology, the North and South Islands of New Zealand arose through the actions of the demigod Māui. Māui and his brothers were fishing from their canoe (the South Island) when he caught a great fish and pulled it from the sea. While he was not looking his brothers fought over the fish and chopped it up. This great fish became the North Island and thus a Māori name for the North Island is Te Ika-a-Māui (The Fish of Māui). The mountains and valleys are believed to have been formed as a result of Māui's brothers' hacking at the fish. Until the early 20th Century, an alternative Māori name for the North Island was Aotearoa. In present Māori usage, Aotearoa is a collective name for New Zealand as a whole.

Economy[link]

The sub-national GDP of the North Island was estimated at US$102.863 billion in 2003, 79% of New Zealand's national GDP.^[5]

Ecology[link]

The North Island has an extensive flora and bird population, with numerous National Parks and other protected areas.

Regions of the North Island[link]

Nine local government regions cover the North Island and all its adjacent islands and territorial waters.

• Northland
• Auckland
• Bay of Plenty
• Gisborne
• Waikato
• Taranaki
• Manawatu-Wanganui
• Hawkes Bay
• Wellington

Cities and towns in the North Island[link]

Map of the North Island showing some of its cities

• Auckland
• Gisborne
• Hamilton
• Hastings
• Masterton
• Napier
• New Plymouth
• Palmerston North
• Rotorua
• Taupo
• Tauranga
• Wanganui
• Whangarei
• Wellington

Smaller urban areas are found on the List of towns in New Zealand, as are components of larger metropolitan area.

Geographic features[link]

• Cape Reinga
• East Cape
• Cape Palliser
• Hawke Bay
• Lake Taupo
• Mt Maunganui Beach
• Tongariro National Park
• Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu
• Waikato River
• Waipoua Kauri Forest
• Waitomo Caves
• Ninety Mile Beach

See also[link]

• List of islands of New Zealand

References[link]

External links[link]

v t e Regions of New Zealand North Island Northland Auckland¹ Waikato Bay of Plenty Gisborne¹ Hawke's Bay Taranaki Manawatu-Wanganui Wellington South Island Tasman¹ Marlborough¹ Nelson¹ West Coast Canterbury Otago Southland ¹ Unitary authorities.

Coordinates: 38°24′S 175°43′E / 38.4°S 175.717°E / -38.4; 175.717

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2011)

Dr. Julian Murray Lewis (born 26 September 1951) is a British Conservative Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for New Forest East in Hampshire since the 1997 general election.

Education[link]

Born in Swansea, Wales, Dr. Julian Lewis was educated at Dynevor School, Swansea, at Balliol College, Oxford, from which he received an MA in Philosophy and Politics in 1977, and at St Antony's College, Oxford, from which he received a DPhil in Strategic Studies in 1981.

Student activism[link]

In 1976, with secret funding from the Freedom Association, he posed as a Labour Party moderate and briefly won control of Newham North East Constituency Labour Party, in an eventually unsuccessful attempt to reverse the deselection of the local MP, Reg Prentice.^[1] Prentice himself later joined the Conservatives.^[2]

Pressure group campaigns and political research[link]

Dr Lewis was a leading opponent of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and other Left-wing organisations, throughout the 1980s. From 1981-5, he was Research Director of the Coalition for Peace through Security. From 1985, he has been Director of Policy Research Associates. In Parliament, he actively pursues the retention and renewal of the British strategic nuclear deterrent, the UK Trident programme.

With fellow Conservative John Bercow - later elected Speaker of the House of Commons - he ran an Advanced Speaking and Campaigning course for more than ten years, which trained over 600 Conservatives (including several current MPs) in campaigning and communication techniques.

From 1990 to 1996, he was a Deputy Director of the Research Department at Conservative Central Office, but resigned to campaign against Britain joining the single European currency before opposition to the euro was officially adopted by the Conservative Party.

Military writings[link]

A second edition of his book Changing Direction: British Military Planning for Post-war Strategic Defence, 1942-1947 was published in 2003 and a university paperback edition in 2008.^[3] His essay on Nuclear Disarmament versus Peace in the 21st Century^[4] won the Trench Gascoigne Prize^[5] of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in 2005.^[6] Two years later, he was awarded this prize for a second time,^[7] with an essay entitled Double-I, Double-N: A Framework for Counter-Insurgency.^[8] His 10,000-word dissertation on The Future of the British Nuclear Deterrent was selected for an award and for publication as a Seaford House Paper by the Royal College of Defence Studies of which he was a Parliamentary member in 2006.^[9] His most recent book, published in 2011, is a military biography Racing Ace - The Fights and Flights of 'Kink' Kinkead DSO DSC* DFC*, published in 2011.^[10] His critique of strategy in Afghanistan International Terrorism - The Case for Containment^[11] was published in the US military journal Joint Force Quarterly in April 2012.^[12]

Parliamentary career[link]

He contested Swansea West (UK Parliament constituency) at the 1983 general election.

As MP for New Forest East, he successfully opposed the development of a large container port at Dibden Bay, between Marchwood and Hythe, and waged other high-profile local campaigns. In Parliament, he was a Shadow Defence Minister from 2002 to 2004 and from 2005 to 2010, also serving as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2004 to 2005, and as an Opposition Whip from 2001 to 2002. Before joining the Front Bench, he was a Member of the Defence Select Committee and the Welsh Select Committee, and had also been elected to the Executive of the Conservative Party's 1922 Committee.

With the creation of the Liberal-Conservative Coalition as a result of the election of a hung parliament in 2010, the post which he had shadowed (Minister for the Armed Forces) was allocated to the Liberal Democrat Defence spokesman, Nick Harvey MP.^[13] Dr Lewis was appointed as a member of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee in September 2010.^[14] He is a Vice-Chairman of Conservative Friends of Poland.^[15]

He has been described by the Daily Telegraph as "one of the most vigorous rightwingers in the Commons" and by The Guardian as the Conservative Party's "front bench terrier".

Neo-Nazis at the Oxford Union[link]

In November 2007, Lewis resigned his life membership of the Oxford Union debating society, after 37 years, in protest at its decision to invite a Holocaust denier and the then leader of the British National Party to be speakers at one of its events.^[16]

MPs' home addresses[link]

From May to July 2008, Dr Lewis initiated and organised the successful campaign to change the Freedom of Information Act in order that a High Court ruling, obtained by a journalist on the Sunday Telegraph, that 14 MPs' home addresses should be published, could never be repeated in respect of any other Parliamentarians.^[17] More than 250 backbenchers from all parties, as well as members of the Government and the Shadow Cabinet, supported this campaign.^[18]

In March 2009, his amendment to the Political Parties and Elections Bill was carried by a majority of 59.^[19] It removed the requirement for General Election candidates to disclose their home addresses on nomination and ballot papers, and was upheld by a majority of 72 when the Bill went through the House of Lords in July 2009.^[20]

In both Houses, Labour and Conservatives were granted Free Votes on the 'Lewis Amendment', and Liberal Democrats were whipped to vote against it.

Expenses[link]

In May 2009, the Sunday Telegraph alleged that Dr Lewis had tried to claim the £6,000 cost of a wooden floor in his second home, but he maintained that: “At no stage did I claim for the flooring and it did not cost the taxpayer a penny”. A senior Commons official confirmed that, by seeking advice in advance about second home expenditure, he had acted "in accordance with best practice as recommended by this department" and that "it is not true that you attempted to claim £6000 in expenses for a wooden floor at your second home". At the end of June 2009, Dr Lewis was informed by the Conservative Party's Scrutiny Panel, after examination of his expenses claims, that "we do not require you to answer any queries about them and there is no requirement for any repayments to be made", and the Daily Telegraph's subsequent book entitled No Expenses Spared made no reference to any which Dr Lewis had claimed.

Gay rights issues[link]

In April 2010, Dr. Lewis was asked why he had opposed lowering the age of consent for homosexual relationships, eleven years earlier, in 1999. He stated that this had been because of his belief that the decision to incur any extra risk of contracting HIV should be taken on reaching the current age of majority, namely 18. He added that he had twice voted voluntarily in favour of the Civil Partnership Bill in 2004.

Student tuition fees[link]

In December 2010, Julian Lewis attacked, and was one of six Conservative MPs who voted against, Coalition proposals to increase student tuition fees from a maximum of £3,000 to a maximum of £9,000 per year, on the grounds that this would deter the less well-off from going to university.^[21]

Privatisation of the Forest Estate[link]

In 2011, he strongly opposed and was one of three Conservative MPs who voted against Coalition plans to transfer heritage forests from public ownership to trusts.^[22] The plans were later disowned by the Government and abandoned.^[23]

Voting record[link]

The following is a brief summary of Julian Lewis's voting record on high-profile issues:

Bills voted for[link]

• Civil Partnership Bill
• Military action against Iraq
• Replacing Trident

Bills voted against[link]

• Ban on fox hunting
• Reduction of the age of consent for gay men to 16
• Adoption rights for unmarried and gay couples
• Introduction of compulsory identity cards
• Removing hereditary peers from the House of Lords
• Increasing student tuition fees from a maximum of £3,000 to a maximum of £9,000 per year
• Transfer of forests to private ownership or trusts

References[link]

External links[link]

• Dr Julian Lewis MP official site
• Dr Julian Lewis MP biography at the site of the Conservative Party
• ePolitix.com - Julian Lewis
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Julian Lewis MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Julian Lewis MP
• The Public Whip - Julian Lewis MP voting record