Metrication in New Zealand
Encyclopedia
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
started metrication
Metrication
Metrication refers to the introduction and use of the SI metric system, the international standard for physical measurements. This has involved a long process of independent and systematic conversions of countries from various local systems of weights and measures. Metrication began in France in...
in 1969 with the establishment of the Metric Advisory Board (MAB) and completed metrication on 14 December 1976 .
Strategy toward Metrication
The New Zealand metric symbol, which can be seen to the right, was introduced in March 1971. In order to give metrication a human face, a baby girl whose parents agreed to cooperate was named Miss Metric. News and pictures of her progress were intermingled with press releases about the progress of metrication. By the end of 1972 the temperature scale, road sign, and measures used in the sale of such items as woolWool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
and milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
had been metricated. Only a few letters voiced outright opposition to the changeover.
Current exceptions
Although New Zealand has now completed metrication, a decreasing number of people, most often older people, use the old imperial units for birth weight and human height in day-to-day talk.The aviation industry is one of the last major users of the old imperial system: altitude and airport elevation is measured in feet, and distance and speed are still measured in nautical miles and knots respectively. All other aspects (fuel quantity, aircraft weight, runway length, etc) use metric.