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Mr President, Mr President, members of the judiciary from near and far, other distinguished guests, people of Ngai Tahu, ladies and gentlemen, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. There has, I should admit, been a sense of unreality about, the…

Prime Minister and Mrs Bolger, Mr Speaker and Mrs Tapsell, members of the Executive Council, the Chief Justice and Lady Eichelbaum, ladies and gentlemen. E te mana tangata, e te mana whenua, o te upoko o te ika nei, tae-atu hoki ki a koutou, nga ka-ranga-…

"Engineering and its customers" is the subject for this year's Hopkins Lecture, as advertised. It has turned out, however, to be one of those iceberg subjects that hides much of its size below the surface - the hidden part turned out to be the general…

Tena koutou e kui ma. Can it really be a year ago that I had the pleasure of entertaining the League at Government House in Wellington? I thought we were having an investiture and reception. Instead we had an instant party! In fact, about six of them all…

Good evening. As the programme says, the subject matter of this presentation tonight is "Early vice-regal representation in New Zealand between 1840 and 1889, from Sir George Gipps to Colonel T. Gore Browne, from Governor Grey to Sir William Jervois":…

Lovers of the English language have been besotted with Shakespeare for 400 years now. Shakespeare was probably happy with what he experienced - being loved at first sight - but the love has lasted. Teachers still instruct their pupils: "Muse on William…

Somehow, I suspect that this isn't news: Suffrage Centennial Year is pretty much over. Come December 31st, this Cinderella Festival turns into a pumpkin, you might say. Many people have spoken and written about the year. Here are just a few of their…

Your Worship, Your Excellency the President of Ireland, Honourable Minister, gentlemen and ladies. We've rediscovered and reclaimed a lot of valuable history, this last year in New Zealand. We've remembered just how it came about that New Zealand was the…

Suffrage Centennial Year, as I'm sure you've noticed, has come in for some mockery. Necks have been observed to redden at the very idea of some of the events. But no matter. The Centennial has promoted greater awareness of the history of women in New…

Kia ora tatou. Good evening everyone. Rumour has it that I am to talk tonight about the role of the Governor-General. As a rule, of course, you shouldn't always believe what you hear. But to talk about something else would put the Friends of the Turnbull…

Mrs Buck, Mrs Shipley, Mr Norrish, Ms Ayers, teachers. I know I'm being anachronistic, but to adapt the first half of a famous quotation, gaining the franchise was indeed "one small step for women." It was not however, a giant leap for womankind. The…

Madam Mayor, Your Excellencies, gentlemen and ladies. "Pacific Island Women in Development" is a very large theme for a conference to have. There are questions it raises immediately. The first is, what is development? - what does successful development…

Graduands and partners, mums and dads, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, teachers and, just to make sure no-one gets left out, ladies and gentlemen. As soon-to-be teachers, it's possible that you graduands here this afternoon have already mentally…

Graduands and partners, mums and dads, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, teachers and, to make sure no-one gets left out, ladies and gentlemen. It's a risky business, asking for a keynote address at a graduation ceremony. After all, this sort of…

The poor old kiwi has had a bad press. When I looked up references to the kiwi, in addition to all those about the "inarticulate kiwi", invariably referring to the New Zealand male person, usually made by intellectual British females or sometimes males,…

One of my distinguished predecessors, the Viscount Cobham, finding himself in the position that I find myself in today, commenced his lecture with these words: "To be asked to give the Thomas Cawthron Memorial Lecture is a great honour, but it is an…

More years ago than I like to remember, I left school planning to be an English teacher. I didn't make it. There were a lot of things I planned to do that I didn't, but even more that I didn't plan on that I did. I spent the decade of my twenties…

Last year was the 75th anniversary of Gallipoli - that terrible battle of the First World War which New Zealanders will never forget. This year the 50th anniversary of the Battle for Crete in the Second World War will be marked by remembrance ceremonies.…

"He kororia ki te Atua He maungarongo ki runga i te mata o te whenua He whakaaro pai ki nga tangata katoa." No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. I have chosen these well-known words of Te Whiti o Rongomai, the prophet chief of Parihaka,…

Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Your Excellencies, Ministers of the Crown, Members of Parliament, Ladies and Gentlemen. Nga rangatira ma - Ngati Whatua, Tainui, Te Ati Awa E nga iwi, e nga mana, e nga reo Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. As I…

In the 1960s when Jim Bolger was milking cows on the Kahui Road near Rahotu, Paul Reeves was shepherding his flock 10 miles to the north at Okato. The fact that tonight we are both sitting here in our respective positions suggests several things: there is…

Walter Bagehot's quaintly worded book on The English Constitution is still worth reading even though it first appeared in 1867. He sets the scene with the statement that "the Crown is, according to the saying, 'the fountain of honour' but the Treasury is…

As I stand here there are two Māori sayings or whakatauki ringing in my ears. One says he kuku ki te kainga he kaka ki te haere which means a pigeon at home but a parrot abroad. The other says ka kore ano e kitea he korero e noho ki raro and even more…

When we left Wellington we were told [the] temperature at Dunedin would be 11 degrees. When we were over Christchurch they said it was minus 2 degrees. When we got here, I thought is was about minus 40 degrees. I have two particular memories of All Saints…

From the top of this hill and on a clear day you can see the straits of the Dardanelles. Chunuk Bair they call this place. It means "a hill of war" and that is exactly what it was for the New Zealand troops who battled so hard to take and hold Chunuk Bair…

Your Excellency Mr Turgut Ozal, President of the Republic of Turkey, Your Excellency Mr Safa Giray, Minister of National Defence, the Honourable Muzaffer Ecemis, Governor of Canakkale, distinguished guests from many nations. On behalf of visiting Heads of…

In 1988 the Princess Royal stayed at Government House, Wellington. At dinner, a prominent Māori seated next to her said, "When I look into your eyes I see the reflection of your ancestor, Victoria, whose agent, Hobson, signed the Treaty in 1840." The…

It's worth saying, especially to lawyers, that the Treaty of Waitangi is not solely a legal document. Claudia Orange writes that "The role of the English missionaries determined that Ngapuhi in particular would understand the Treaty as a special kind of…

Michael King tells of a Moriori ancestor, Nunuku Whenua, who, sickened by bloodshed among his people, issued an injunction which by and large was obeyed: only fight till you draw blood, then stop. To ritualise aggression and to keep disputes within…

My task is to propose a toast to The Immortal Memory . I am honoured to have that privilege. What I want to do is to put that immortal memory into a New Zealand context, New Zealand as we were at the turn of the 19th Century and New Zealand as we are…

Alexander Turnbull nearly gave his collection to Victoria University College and that may not have been a bad idea. Instead he gave it to "his Majesty The King" to be the "nucleus of a New Zealand national collection", and that was an inspired choice. I…

Māori are a Pacific people who came to Aotearoa from their traditional homeland, Hawaiiki. Aotearoa is also called New Zealand by those who came from their traditional homeland, Great Britain, in the 19th Century. But it is a profound experience for a…