New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

50 LISTENER AUGUST 10 2019

job in the country.
Also remarkable is that the
married two-parent nuclear
family is no longer the norm.
The introduction of the
domestic purposes benefit in
1973 allowed solo parents to
keep their children, instead
of adopting them out. By
2015, more than a quarter of

households with children were

headed by a solo parent. Even

couples are choosing not to

marry – only half of children

are born to married mothers,

compared with 87% in 1968.

Parenthood is often delayed

and families are generally

small – two births per woman,

compared with more than four

in 1961.

The public acceptance

of gay relationships allows

more men and women to

openly live with members of

their own gender, and many

people choose to live on their

own. Diversity of situation

and tolerance of difference

have replaced the universal

expectation of dad, housewife-

mum and the kids.

THE “GOD OF MATERIAL

PROGRESS”

In 1939, the country’s 4d

stamp showed “the progress

of transport”, from a bullock

team to a train, a ship and

an aeroplane. When New

May 1970. Lake Manapouri turned a nation into envi-

ronmentalists. Engineers planned to tunnel under the

mountains to Doubtful Sound, raising the lake to supply a

power station. The prospect of ruining the lake to supply

a foreign-owned aluminium smelter with cheap power

enraged New Zealanders. A Save Manapouri campaign

began in 1960 and a new conservation movement was

born. Public anger grew until, in 1972, it brought down a

National Government and tinted politics green thereaf-

ter. The tunnel was built without destroying the lake. In

2002, Meridian Energy opened a second tunnel at Mana-

pouri, generating enough extra power for 64,000 homes.

It worked so sensitively that not a squawk of protest was

heard.

December 1972. Play-
ing to 30 people at
the Wynyard Tavern’s
“Folk Night” was
hardly an auspicious
debut. And as Split
Ends they would
endure further indig-
nities during their first
year, such as being
booed at the Great
Ngaruawahia Music
Festival and finishing
seventh out of eight
finalists in television’s
New Faces talent
quest. But, ultimately,
Split Enz became New
Zealand’s iconic band.
I Got You, I See Red,
Six Months in a Leaky
Boat, among others,
became huge hits and
de facto anthems.

Split

Enz’ first

concert

Petition to save Lake Manapouri presented

80 YEARS