Saturday, April 08, 2006

Good stuff


Lewis Holden has just done a pretty good guide to NZ's 37 Premiers and PM's. He indicates by colour-code which parties they are from, how their terms ended, and rates them on their sharpness and management skills, and points out nice little extras which most people forget, such as:

In 1977 after his usual quota of whiskey, Robert Muldoon accused Labour member Colin Moyle of homosexual conduct (which was then illegal), thereby causing a by-election in his electorate. In his place David Lange was elected, and succeded Muldoon as PM after Muldoon's called a "schnap"election in 1984 after too many drinks.

Walter Nash has a stadium named after him - which is right next door to Fraser Park, named after Peter Fraser.

John Ballance and George Grey have Wellington streets named after them, Sid Holland has a Lower Hutt street named afer him.

Greytown, Seddon (and Vogeltown?) were named after former Prime Ministers

Ward Island was named after Joseph Ward

Bill Massey has a university named after him - funnily enough its called Massey University.

Vogel House is named after Julius Vogel - but it is not in Vogeltown.

However all that naming stuff stopped in 1972. Pity really, we could have had garden centres, retail outlets and companies named after PM's.

Ah well, at least there's a law firm named after a PM.

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