The Yearbook must be regarded, as a consequence, as an introductory reference work, with more specialist reference works having to be consulted for more extensive information. Achieving the correct balance of contents while keeping the Yearbook to a reasonable size and price can be a difficult process, but past acceptance of the Yearbook indicates that the department has been reasonably successful in this.
A sample survey of Yearbook subscription readership was conducted by the department during The wealth of information gathered will lead to some changes in future editions of the Yearbook. I express my appreciation to all those readers who responded to the survey. The Yearbook is prepared and edited by the Department of Statistics, but significant portions of it are contributed by other Government departments, producer boards, the Reserve Bank and other official organisations. I would like to thank all those involved in copy preparation, editing and printing of the Yearbook , with special mention of the contribution by the staff of the Government Printing Office.
Department of Statistics, Wellington, New Zealand. September The interpretation of the symbols used in the tables throughout this publication is as follows:. The conversion of the system of weights and measures used in New Zealand to metric units was substantially completed by the end of As far as possible, statistics in this issue have been converted to the metric system, but for various reasons, this has to be a gradual process extending over a number of years.
Some relationships between common British units and common SI units are shown in the following table. Measures are rounded unless otherwise indicated. New Zealand is in the south-west section of the Pacific. To the west, beyond the Tasman Sea, is Australia, kilometres away. From its position on the rim of the Pacific basin, New Zealand is a little over 10 kilometres from San Francisco and Panama and a similar distance from Tokyo and Singapore. In area There are three main islands—North, South, and Stewart separated only by relatively narrow straits—with adjacent islets and a small group called Chatham Islands, kilometres to the east of Lyttelton.
With the exception of the low-lying North Auckland peninsula, the New Zealand land mass lies along a south-westerly and north-easterly axis. Dating from the administrative boundaries of New Zealand, including the minor islands, extend from 33 degrees to 53 degrees south latitude and from degrees east longitude to degrees west longitude. The Ross Dependency, some kilometres to the south, has been under New Zealand's jurisdiction since and comprises the sector of the Antarctic continent between degrees east and degrees west longtitude, together with the islands lying between those degrees of longitude and south of latitude 60 degrees south.
The land area of the Ross Dependency is estimated at square kilometres. The nature of the coastline has provided New Zealand with numerous sites for harbours although the size of shipping capable of using them varies with the locality. The development of the natural North Island harbours of Whangarei, Auckland, Tauranga, and Wellington and the dredging and breakwater constructions at the South Island harbours of Lyttelton, Timaru, Otago, and Bluff have produced ports suitable for overseas ships. Strong ocean drifts and high seas along the west coast produce shoaling at river mouths and harbour entrances although New Plymouth is one port which has been developed to take overseas shipping.
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While artificial harbours have been built on the east coast of the North Island at Gisborne and Napier the large quantities of shingle brought down by the South Island rivers have strictly limited development in many South Island areas to small ports suitable for fishing and coastal shipping only. Mountains —The mountainous nature of New Zealand is one of its most striking physical characteristics, with less than one-quarter of the land surface lying below the m contour.
In the North Island the higher mountains occupy approximately one-tenth of the surface; but, with the exception of the four volcanic peaks of Egmont m , Ruapehu m. Ngauruhoe m , and Tongariro m , they do not exceed an altitude of m. Of these four volcanoes only the first named can be classed as dormant. Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe have been particularly active from time to time. Other volcanoes include Mount Tarawera and White Island, each of which has, upon one occasion within historical times, erupted with disastrous consequences.
Closely connected with the volcanic system are the multitudinous hot springs and geysers. The mountain system of the North Island runs generally in a south-west direction, parallel to the coast, from East Cape to Turakirae Head, and includes the following ranges from the north: Raukumara, Huiarau, Ruahine, Tararua, and Rimutaka. In the east the Moehau Range parallels the length of the Coromandel Peninsula. Mount Egmont forms the only area above m on the west coast of the island.
The South Island is much more mountainous than the North. Along almost the entire length of the island runs the massive chain known as the Southern Alps, which attains its greatest height in Mount Cook m , while 19 named peaks exceed m. To the north run the St. Arnaud and Richmond Ranges, while to the north-east are the Spenser Mountains and the Kaikoura and Seaward Kaikoura Ranges, the two latter ranges running parallel to the east coast. The south portion of the Southern Alps breaks up into a miscellany of ranges dominating the mountainous Fiord and north-western Southland regions.
There are at least named peaks of m or more in altitude. Below is a list of the peaks restricted to the four largest volcanic cones in the North Island and to mountains of a minimum height of m in the South Island. Glaciers —In keeping with the dimensions of the mountain system, New Zealand possesses, in the South Island, a glacial system of some magnitude.
Of the glaciers the largest is the Tasman, which, with others of comparable size, rises in the more elevated area surrounding Mount Cook. Flowing down the eastern slope of the range, the Tasman Glacier has a length of 29 km and a width of 1 km. In common with other glaciers, on the eastern slope, of which the more important are the Murchison 17 km , the Mueller 13 km , the Godley 13 km , and the Hooker 11 km , its rate of flow is slow, while its terminal face is at an altitude of somewhat over m.
On the western slope of the range,. At the same time the steeper slope gives them a more rapid rate of flow. The two largest of these are the Fox and the Franz Josef, with lengths of 15 km and 13 km respectively, and terminal faces at altitudes of m and m. The glaciers are fed by snow brought to the Southern Alps by the prevailing winds off the Tasman Sea. Total yearly snowfalls at the higher elevations — m vary from 3 m to 6 m. The steeper West Coast glaciers have little moraine rock debris carried on their surfaces and have shown a marked terminal retreat in recent decades.
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However, latest evidence suggests that, in response to recent cooler wetter weather, the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers are showing signs of limited growth. The large glaciers on the eastern side of the Southern Alps are mantled with moraine and show some terminal retreat.
In the North Island there are 7 relatively small glaciers on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu compared with more than in the Southern Alps. However, during the skiing season the Whakapapa Glaciers, near the Chateau Tongariro, are visited by several thousand people each week.
Rivers —New Zealand rivers, owing to the high relief of the country, are mostly swift-flowing and difficult to navigate. As sources of hydro-electric power the rivers are of considerable importance, since their rapid rate of flow and dependable volume of water make them eminently suitable for this purpose. Following is a list of the more important rivers. For purposes of uniformity, the length of a river is taken to be the distance from the mouth to the farthest point in the system, whether this should happen to bear the same name or that of an affluent, and is inclusive of the estimated course of a river flowing into and emerging from any lake in the system.
The discovery in that the beds of rivers in the South Island contained extensive deposits of alluvial gold was of considerable importance in the early economic development of the country. Many rivers are valuable for recreational activities such as swimming, canoeing, rafting, jet boating, tramping, camping, and picnicking, and with the very successful acclimatisation of freshwater fish, notably trout, rivers now provide exceptionally fine fishing. Lakes —In considering New Zealand's numerous lakes a distinction can be made, especially from the scenic viewpoint, between the lakes of the 2 islands.
Surrounded by extremely rugged country the larger lakes of the South Island are distinguished by the grandeur of their alpine settings, while some of the larger ones of the North Island, situated on a volcanic plateau, have their own particular beauty. The lakes of both islands are of vital importance as reservoirs, for the maintenance of the rivers and streams draining them and as a means of flood prevention, especially where hydro-electric schemes are involved.
A series of narrow man-made lakes have been produced in connection with hydro-electric development along some of the rivers. In Lake Benmore, New Zealand's largest artificial lake, was created.
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It lies on the Waitaki River in North Otago and covers 75 sq km in area and consists of two arms, the main arm being 30 km in length and the Ahuriri Arm 18 km in length. Some particulars of the more important lakes are given in the following table. This is a region where volcanoes are active and where the Earth's crust has long been buckling and breaking at a geologically rapid rate. The interplay, in the past, of earth movements and erosion has created the sedimentary rocks that cover almost three-quarters of New Zealand.
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Land areas that the earth movements have raised have been attacked by erosion, and the sand, mud, shingle, and other debris thus formed has been carried away to the sea, where it has accumulated in great thicknesses to form rocks such as sandstone, mudstone, greywacke, and conglomerate; the shells and other skeletons of sea creatures have accumulated to form thick layers of limestone. Many of the sedimentary rocks are in distinct layers called strata.
Earth movements have later raised them above the sea to form land, and the strata have in many places been tilted and folded by pressure. Seas have advanced and retreated over the New Zealand area many times and these sedimentary rocks represent almost every geological period since the Cambrian see Time Scale. Their age is revealed by the molluscan shells, foraminifera, and other fossils that they contain, as well as by various radioactive techniques.
As well as sedimentary rocks, and volcanic rocks of various ages, New Zealand incorporates in its complex structure schist, gneiss, marble and other metamorphic rocks , and granite, diorite, gabbro, serpentine, and other intrusive igneous rocks. Most of these metamorphic and intrusive rocks are hundreds of millions of years old.
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The metamorphic rocks were developed by the action of heat and pressure on the thick sediments up to tens of thousands of metres deposited in huge, elongated sea basins geosynclines , which continued to sink as the deposits accumulated. When these geosynclines were slowly compressed during major mountain-building episodes the deeper sediments were subjected to great pressure and shearing stress, which caused new minerals and structures to develop, changing the sediments into metamorphic rocks.
The granites and other intrusive rocks are coarsely crystalline, and are usually considered to have intruded into the outer crust in a molten state during mountain building; some, however, may be the products of an intense metamorphism of sediments. Geological History —Evidence of the earliest-known events in New Zealand's history is given by ancient rocks in Nelson, Westland, and Fiordland that were formed in the early Paleozoic era, perhaps as long as million years ago some in Westland may be older.
They include thick, geosynclinal sedimentary rocks. This suggests that a large land mass existed nearby at that time to yield the great volume of sediments, but little has been deduced about its shape or position. The history of the later part of the Paleozoic era, and the Mesozoic era, is rather better understood.
For a vast span of time from the Carboniferous period—probably until the early Cretaceous period— an extensive geosyncline occupied the New Zealand region. At first, during much of the late Paleozoic time, huge quantities of submarine lava and volcanic tuff were included in the materials that accumulated in the geosyncline, but in the later Permian and Mesozoic times the sediments were mainly sand and mud, derived probably from some land west of present New Zealand; they were compacted into hard greywacke a type of sandstone and argillite hard, dark mudstone.
In the early Cretaceous period one of the main mountain-building episodes in New Zealand's history took place. Although geosynclinal sedimentation continued through the Cretaceous period in eastern New Zealand the geosyncline elsewhere was compressed, and the sediments were intensely crumpled and broken and raised above the sea, probably forming a large, mountainous land mass. Some of the geosynclinal deposits, now exposed over much of Otago, alpine Westland, and parts of Marlborough Sounds, were metamorphosed into schist and gneiss by high temperatures and the tremendous deforming pressures to which the geosyncline was subjected.
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The time that has elapsed since the intense folding of the strata in the New Zealand geosyncline in the mid-Cretaceous period may be considered as the later geological history of this country, embracing roughly million years.