1998 in New Zealand:

Other years in New Zealand

1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001

Incumbents

Regal and Vice Regal

• Head of State - Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand
• Governor-General - The Rt Hon. Sir Michael Hardie Boys

Government

The 45th New Zealand Parliament continued. Government was The National Party, led by Jenny Shipley, in coalition with New Zealand First, led by Winston Peters.

• Speaker of the House - Doug Kidd
• Prime Minister - Jenny Shipley
• Deputy Prime Minister - Winston Peters then Wyatt Creech
• Minister of Finance - Bill Birch
• Minister of Foreign Affairs - Don McKinnon

Opposition Leaders

See: Category:New Zealand Parliament, New Zealand elections

• National - Prime Minister Jenny Shipley
• Act - Richard Prebble
• New Zealand First - Winston Peters
• United New Zealand - Peter Dunne
• Labour - Helen Clark (Leader of the Opposition)
• The Alliance - Jim Anderton and Sandra Lee

Main centre leaders

• Mayor of Auckland - Les Mills then Christine Fletcher
• Mayor of Hamilton - Margaret Evans then Russell Matthew Remmington
• Mayor of Wellington - Mark Blumsky
• Mayor of Christchurch - Vicki Buck then Garry Moore
• Mayor of Dunedin - Sukhi Turner

Events

• 2 May: By-election in Taranaki-King Country after the former Prime Minister Jim Bolger resigned. Shane Ardern retained the seat for National.

Arts and literature

• Michael King wins the Robert Burns Fellowship.
• Montana New Zealand Book Awards:
  • Montana Medal: Harry Orsman (ed.), Dictionary of New Zealand English
  • Deutz Medal: Maurice Gee, Live Bodies
  • Reader's Choice: Malcolm McKinnon(ed.), New Zealand Historical Atlas
  • First Book Awards
    • Fiction: Catherine Chidgey, In a fishbone church
    • Poetry: Kapka Kassabova, All Roads Lead to the Sea
    • Non-Fiction: Genevieve Noser, Olives: The new passion

See 1998 in art, 1998 in literature, Category:1998 books

Music

See: 1998 in music

Radio and Television

• 30 August: Prime Television New Zealand begins transmission.

See: 1998 in New Zealand television, 1998 in television, List of TVNZ television programming, Category:New Zealand television, TV3 (New Zealand), Category:New Zealand television shows, Public broadcasting in New Zealand

Film

• Memory and Desire
• Saving Grace

See: Category:1998 film awards, 1998 in film, List of New Zealand feature films, Cinema of New Zealand, Category:1998 films

Internet

See: NZ Internet History

Appointments and awards

See: New Zealand Order of Merit, Order of New Zealand

• Archbishop of New Zealand
• Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, see appointments to Diocese

Sport

• See: 1998 in sports, Category:1998 in sports

Athletics

• Mark Hutchinson wins his second national title in the men's marathon, clocking 2:24:51 on October 25 in Auckland, while Bernardine Portenski claims her second in the women's championship (2:44:52).

Basketball

• the NBL was won by the Nelson Giants

Commonwealth Games

Cricket

Various Tours, New Zealand cricket team

• The Shell Trophy for 1998-99 was won by Canterbury, with Northern Districts runners-up.

Golf

New Zealand Open Category:New Zealand golfers

Horse racing

See Category:Horse racing in New Zealand, list winners.

Netball

• Silver Ferns
• National Bank Cup
• Netball World Championships

Olympic Games

• New Zealand at the 1998 Winter Olympics

Rugby league

• Auckland Warriors
• New Zealand national rugby league team
• Rugby League World Cup

Rugby Union

Category:Rugby union in New Zealand,

• Super 12 - was won by the Canterbury Crusaders who defeated the Auckland Blues 20-13 in rhe final. Season summary
• National Provincial Championship - won by Otago
• Bledisloe Cup - won 3-0 by Australia
• Tri Nations Series - won by South Africa. New Zealand came last with no wins and only 2 bonus points
• Ranfurly Shield - Waikato held the shield all season, beating Poverty Bay 121-0, King Country 76-0, Bay Of Plenty 25-18, Auckland 24-23, Southland 95-7, Nth Harbour 39-22, Northland 63-22, and Canterbury 29-23

Soccer

• The second National Summer Soccer League was won by Napier City Rovers
• The New Zealand national soccer team won the OFC Nations Cup tournament held in Australia, beating the host nation 2-0 in the final.
• Chatham Cup won by Central United of Auckland.
• New Zealand U-16 team coached by Wynton Rufer travels to unofficial U-16 World Cup in France to coincide with 1998 FIFA World Cup. Achieve mixed results (0-3 v Italy, 0-2 v Cameroon, 1-1 v Austria, 0-1 v USA, 0-1 v Israel, 1-0 v Norway)

Births

• 2 January: Somebody, description

Category:1998 births

Deaths

• 10 March: Dr C. E. Beeby, educationalist.
• 17 July: Marc Hunter, musician.
• 30 August: Toss Woollaston, painter and writer.

Category:1998 deaths

See also

• List of years in New Zealand
• Timeline of New Zealand history
• History of New Zealand
• Military history of New Zealand
• Timeline of environmental history of New Zealand
• Timeline of New Zealand's links with Antarctica

For world events and topics in 1998 not specifically related to New Zealand see: 1998