In New Zealand............
At 6 years: You must attend school.
At 10 years: You can be charged with murder or manslaughter.
At 15 years: You can get a learner's driving licence.
At 16 years: You can decide which parent you want to live with; legally consent to sex; get married with your parents' consent; buy Instant Kiwi tickets; leave school; have a gun licence.
At 16.5 years: You can join the Navy of Air Force with your parents' consent.
At 17.5 years: You can join the Army with your parents' consent but you can't be sent to war until you're 18.
At 18 years: You can bet on races; join the police; join the Army, Navy and Air Force without parents' consent; get a heavy vehicle licence; vote; stand for Parliament; make a will; change your name; operate a credit card and cheque account.
At 20 years: The law recognises you as a fully fledged adult.

Being "Sunsmart" is a big issue for New Zealanders and here's part of the reason why:-
A recent New Zealand study showed that over half the people asked for their opinion liked getting a tan, and 12% of the sample reported having been burned on the preceding weekend. And 51% said that at some time in their life they had been burned so badly they had had blisters or were in pain for two or more days. New Zealand has one of the biggest rates of skin cancer in the world. About 1000 new cases of melanoma are registered each year, with 200 deaths, over the past 30 years mortality rates have doubled for women and tripled for men.

Brocket Hall, one of Britain's finest stately homes, has always been a colourful, turbulent place. Some 200 years ago, Lady Caroline Lamb, wife of Lord Melbourne and the one-time lover of Lord Byron, shocked society when she was served up naked in a soup tureen.

Women fainted and children fled in alarm..... 200 years ago - on January 5, 1797 - when James Heatherington launched a new fashion in London. He was hauled before the Lord Mayor and warned that any repeat of the offence would bring a £50 fine. Heatherington had "appeared on a public highway wearing a tall structure having having a shining lustre and calculated to frighten timid people". And what was the structure? A top hat.

Englishman Ken Brown began in November 1996 to walk the length of New Zealand, from Bluff to Cape Reinga. Mr Brown hopes to raise £5000 (NZ $11,189) for the Royal National Institute for the Blind.
"I aim to do around 32 kilometres a day, but that's not rigid. I've been doing anything between 20 and 52km, depending on how I feel".
He was expected to arrive at Cape Reinga at the end of February. His wife will join him... when they will retrace Mr Brown's steps - but this time by car.

Brushtail possum or Trichosurus vulpecula - Introduced from Australia to New Zealand in 1837 in the hope of establishing a fur trade, this particular species of possum was chosen because of its scavenging ability and good skin quality. That soon fell by the wayside, but the nocturnal immigrant settled right in to their new home. Today there are around 70 million of the marsupials roaming our countryside, devouring an astounding 21,000 tonnes of native vegetation each night!

New Zealand gets its electric power from 38 operational power stations - 28 of them hydro-powered. Two stations are not working - Clyde, because of work on landslides, and Mercer, mothballed since 1991.

Calling all dawgs and owners: Wellington City Council has invited dog owners to make submissions on its new dog control policy. Records show that of the city's 7500 registered dogs, not one is known as Rover. The top five most popular names are Sam (166), Jessie and Max (99 each), Jess (80) and Ben (70). Least popular names are Dog (6), Cat (1), Pig (1). A Makara farmer goes 10 better - he has 10 dogs, all numbered 1 to 10. And for the record, there aren't 101 dalmatians in Wellington city - just 57....