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 2009 begins on 24 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.