New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

56 LISTENER AUGUST 10 2019

middle-class liberals. People do

not think as strongly in class

terms.

Arguably the greatest change

is simply the increase in dif-

ferent points of view. In 1939,

there were few dissenters.

Some Māori in rural areas with

little access to the mainstream

media were unhappy about

their treatment. There were a

few intellectuals, such as Denis

Glover, who wrote famously:

In the year of Centennial

splendours,

There were fireworks and deco-

rated cars,

And pungas drooping from the

verandahs,

• But no one remembered our

failures.

When war broke out, there

were some committed pacifists

who courageously made their

views known in street gather-

ings. But there was a deep

consensus about the core value

system.

Today, the mainstream

media reflects the radical

October 20, 1987. The New Zealand stock-market crash followed

Black Monday in the United States. But New Zealand’s market

crashed deeper than any other rich country’s. The boom, fuelled

by promises of “Rogernomics” reforms with their rapid liberalisa-

tion of financial markets, proved to be fake, unsustained by the

economic fundamentals and dependent on cowboy

investment strategies and creative accounting. Despair-

ing investors lost their fictitious fortunes, and some

company directors went to jail. Businesses that were

market darlings – the longstanding and the fashionable –

disappeared, or were sold off overseas, and New Zealand’s

then-largest listed company, Brierley Investments, almost

went down with them.

There are people

proud to be

“family men”

and “gay men”;

there are ardent

All Blacks fans

and those who

ignore the game.

The big crash

June 20, 1987 When the All Blacks won the

inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987, we didn’t

think too much of it. It was a quaint, understated

tournament and the All Blacks, as expected, were

the best team – they hammered France 29-9 in the

final. It would take an agonising 24 years before

Richie McCaw became only the second captain,

after David Kirk, to hold the Webb Ellis Cup aloft,

in 2011, following a nail-biting 8-7 win over France

at Eden Park. In 2015, the All Blacks won their first

Rugby World Cup overseas, beating Australia 24-17

at Twickenham in London.

The glory of 1987 didn’t just belong to the men.

That year, the Silver Ferns triumphed in the seventh

Netball World Championships, beating Australia in

Glasgow, with no team getting within 10 points of

them. Last month, the Silver Ferns won their fifth

world championships title after defeating Australia

by one goal in the final in Liverpool, England.

’87 world cups

Clockwise from

right: the 1987

Silver Ferns,

Richie McCaw

with the Webb

Ellis Cup, the

2019 Silver Ferns

celebrate their

win in the final.

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