The lost continent we sit upon is much older than first thought
16 May, 2021 10:26 PM
4 minutes to read
New Zealand s striking landscape has been shaped by volcanic activity dating back over 500 million years. Video / Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum
New Zealand s striking landscape has been shaped by volcanic activity dating back over 500 million years. Video / Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum
The sunken continent that New Zealand sits upon is much older than first thought - and has now been conclusively linked to ancient supercontinents that existed more than a billion years ago.
While scientists have known about it for decades, it s only been in recent years that Te Riu-a-Māui / Zealandia has been publicly recognised as the planet s youngest, smallest, thinnest and most submerged continent.
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With the Māori ward being included for 2022, this means Nelson has to move to a ward system. This could be a fully ward-based system or a mixed system, with a combination of candidates voted for “at large” and by ward (alongside the Māori ward). However, even in fully ward-based systems, vacancies such as mayor are always voted for “at large”. One of the major challenges will be to find the right balance of representation with the inclusion of the new Māori ward. Electoral Commission statistics from April state there are currently 1720 people on the Māori electoral roll in Nelson, compared to 38,402 on the general roll.
While Nelson MP Rachel Boyack said it was an "important step forward", National MP Nick Smith said it was wrong not to consult the community.