In recent years Matariki, the Maori New Year, has been celebrated by many New Zealanders,
Maori and non-Maori alike. It is becoming an increasingly important
part of the New Zealand calendar. Matariki in 2008 begins on 5 June.
Parliamentarians' favourite subjects appeared in cartoons. T.K. Sidey campaigned long and hard for the introduction of daylight saving in the early 1900s, and his New Zealand Local Time Bill became a hardy annual in the House.