Wikipedia:New Zealand Wikipedians' notice board/Archive 17

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Archive of Wikipedians Notice board from 1 January 2012 to 31 August 2013

Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day did not appear on the Selected anniversaries on the front page this year because the article has two sections that are tagged refimprove, which makes it ineligible to appear. We really should try and fix this before next Waitangi day... Brian | (Talk) 21:49, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

World War I edit-a-thon

Wikimedia UK has announced their first World War I themed Editathon to be held on June 16th.

They are running this event in partnership with JISC, the UK Government's expert body on digital technologies for education and research and working closely with experts on military history from academia to improve Wikipedia articles on this really important topic. It is a start to Wikimedia UK's World War I Centenary outreach work.

One of the main themes is "Global Impact" so if anyone is interested or can help, New Zealand's contribution to WWI could be improved.

Find out more, and sign up, here: http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/World_War_I/World_War_I_Editathon

Whiteghost.ink 05:06, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

New Zealand (informally called New Zealand)

There must be a better way to do this! --Pete (talk) 23:27, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

I have BOLDly removed the "informally New Zealand" from the Realm of New Zealand. I suspect that there is not informal reference to the Realm of New Zealand. In the vernacular, the countries of the Realm are treated as separate countries rather than being part of the Realm. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 23:36, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

There is extensive discussion about this at Talk:Commonwealth realm.-gadfium 04:16, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Australian_Wikipedians'_notice_board#Limited_coverage_of_New_Zealand_on_Wikicommons

FYI. --99of9 (talk) 11:50, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

Photo question

Anyone in or near Auckland able to confirm whether this still exists, and if so get a photo of it? Orderinchaos 21:25, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

What is this ? The "Welcome to North Shore city" sign? - SimonLyall (talk) 07:31, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Yes. Sorry for not being clearer. I'm assuming it's not still there, but you'd be amazed how often things like this get left lying around just because nobody really saw a point in removing them. Orderinchaos 12:59, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Just yesterday walking through Victoria Park, Auckland, there were numerous ancient wooden hand painted signs reading "fields closed by order A.C.C". They looked about 50 years old, still perfectly useful. Ropata (talk) 05:45, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Pink and White Terraces

I'm reasonably new to any serious editing of Wikipedia and not sure this is exactly the right place to bring this up. I have been editing the Pink_and_White_Terraces article, an article I think is important to NZ history, but is in my opinion all over the place. I have made a number of edits trying to remove what I consider to be information of tenuous association to the Pink and White Terraces only to have these reverted without discussion by an editor (in England?). Some of the edits over time have stuck but most have not I am getting to the stage wher I am questioning the good faith of this revert happy editor. While this editor can berate me for making changes without discussion he does not appear to think it necessary to follow his own advice.

I suppose what I am looking for is for some others to advise on the state of the article (am I imagining it is bad), and if it needs improving what is the best way to improve it. There has been little two way discussion over the changes I have made (and been reverted) and I think some more brains on this would be useful.

Andrewgprout (talk) 06:53, 16 July 2012 (UTC)

Bob Walls

I haven't been able to find any online reference to confirm that Robert "Bob" Walls actually existed. Could someone with access to archives of The Evening Post for the 1980s please check a reference or two. Thanks.-gadfium 20:36, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

There is a painting by a Robert Walls in Te Papa - not sure if it is the same person. NealeFamily (talk) 22:17, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

this seems to be him. Right DOB. Painting is called "Birchvale farmstead" which may refer to Birchville in Upper Hutt. Stuartyeates (talk) 23:21, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Great, thanks. I've also tracked down the Women's Weekly ref, so the article seems legit.-gadfium 02:32, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

The flax question

We have ended up with two articles, Phormium tenax and Flax in New Zealand. The former is stubbish, and the latter is exclusively about the former.

The title of the latter is a misnomer. It is not about Flax at all, and doesn't even mention the significant Flax industry in the South Island. It should be called "Flaxes in New Zealand" and should incorporate the linen flax industry too. User talk:Moriori (talk) 01:08, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

I disagree. There is alreayd enough confusion between these two unrelated plants without having joint articles. Stuartyeates (talk) 01:18, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

Pardon me for butting in, are they not about the one plant, phormium tenax? Cotton is covered by one article. I think "Flax in New Zealand" should redirect to phormium tenax. Can't see any mention of real linen. Eddaido (talk) 01:28, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

Stuartyeates. Wikipedia has an article called Flax and another called Flax in New Zealand. The latter is not about Flax, the former. It is about a different plant altogether.

I did not suggest "joint articles". We need a "Flaxes in New Zealand" article dealing with the Flax and Phormium tenax histories/industries in New Zealand, with links to the existing Flax and phormium standalones

See Forestry in New Zealand. It doesn't deal with only one tree, but covers all, and links to standalones radiata pine, rimu, tōtara and matai et al. User talk:Moriori (talk) 02:04, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

Wouldn't the equivalent to Forestry in NZ, for flax, be within horticulture/agriculture in NZ?
Shouldn't an encyclopaedia use botanical names and if there's a perceived need for the use of a common name, flax or flaxes and/or harakeke, shouldn't there then be a redirect to the correct botanically named article(s)? Eddaido (talk) 10:17, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

Rambles in New Zealand

This work by John Carne Bidwill, published in 1841, includes an account of the first white man (and possibly the first man) to climb Tongariro. It's now available on en:Wikisource for reading and referencing. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 09:05, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

New category - Category:Scandals in New Zealand

See Category:Scandals in New Zealand. There may be some more stuff that could go in it. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 20:53, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

Would one put redirects into categories? Schwede66 21:07, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

It is often done so go for it I say. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 00:01, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

New Zealand civil servants

There is now a category Category:New Zealand civil servants from January 2012, as well as Category:New Zealand public servants dating from 2006. While locally the organisation was “The New Zealand Public Service” the parent category is Category:Civil servants by nationality. Should we upmerge Category:New Zealand public servants into the Category:New Zealand civil servants category? Hugo999 (talk) 13:24, 8 October 2012 (UTC)

NZ music

Simon Grigg, in a Radio NZ interview, complained that the Wikipedia coverage of NZ music is (was?) very inaccurate. He is an authority on the it so we should be a bit of a topic improvement drive. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 01:49, 20 October 2012 (UTC)

He's right, it's horrid, so many pages are unreferenced. I chatted to him on twitter and he pointed out in particular how journalists picked up on inaccurate info around Pauly Fuemena's death (I still wonder whether the final line on the death of Ian Morris should be deleted as it's not specifially verifiable). I've been cleaning up a lot of stuff over the last month and feeling rather lonely doing so, so help would be appreciated! Vickytnz (talk) 20:09, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

Oh, should point out there is the WP:NZM, but it's a bit crickets there too! Vickytnz (talk) 20:12, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

And I feel lonely trying to clear the backlog at Category:Articles with missing files. Shall we do a Contra deal? -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 01:00, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

I've excised the sentence in question as it's still unreferenced (and moved a reference for the remainder out of the lead and rewritten that paragraph to reflect the reference). Daveosaurus (talk) 05:59, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Tobacco vs smoking?

See Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2012_October_20#Category:Tobacco_in_New_Zealand. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 19:11, 20 October 2012 (UTC)

New Zealand waterfalls

The List of waterfalls by height has three New Zealand waterfalls all higher than Sutherland Falls in Fiordland:

• Browne Falls 2744 ft or 836 m; article refers to a high falls sourced from a tarn behind Elizabeth Island (one of below?), and to Helena Waterfall.
• Lake Chamberlain Falls 2297 ft or 700m
• Lake Unknown Falls 2230 ft or 680m

The last two and Helena Waterfall have no article about them. Hugo999 (talk) 12:37, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

This list of the world's highest waterfalls has Browne, Lake Unknown and Hidden (660m) and Wishbone (600m) all higher than Sutherland. The site seems to have made up their own names in some cases, based on the lake they originate from. The List of waterfalls by height seems based on this list. The citation for Lake Chamberlain Falls goes nowhere and it is not listed, nor is Helena (that I could find). DerbyCountyinNZ ^{(Talk Contribs)} 21:39, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

Comments added to Talk page of new list List of waterfalls of New Zealand Hugo999 (talk) 01:54, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

User:Offender9000

User:Offender9000 has been under scrutiny in the past for tendentious editing. He/she has recently removed a {{offtopic}} tag that I placed on Sensible Sentencing Trust without changes or discussion. Also, the changes to the Crime in New Zealand and Corruption in New Zealand articles by her/him could do with checking. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 19:01, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

The article seems to contain material which is indeed off topic, not to mention verging on self-promotion. At he very least there seems to be a rather non-encyclopedic tone to the whole article. I'd be in favour of returning the tags and having it discussed on the talk page. DerbyCountyinNZ ^{(Talk Contribs)} 21:50, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

I would strongly advise you not to waste your time with any process that won't result in him being bared from editing some/all pages. He is a true believer is this cause and has dedicated his life to it, he will outlast you. See Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Offender9000. On the other hand if you keep him busy on a few of his core articles it stops him from expanding into other areas. - SimonLyall (talk) 04:43, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Offender has in past claimed to be the author of the self-published book he insists in adding spam-links to on the pages he edits (and edit-wars against the removal of [1]). But I think his biggest problem is with BLP violations, e.g. his attitude towards Garth McVicar has caused him to turn Sensible Sentencing Trust into little more than an attack page. Daveosaurus (talk) 05:59, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Shall we get a topic ban placed on Offender9000? I have had one placed on me and they stick like faecal matter to the bed linen. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 01:23, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

In answer to Alan's question - no. Offender is hugely knowledgeable in the topic area that he is contributing. Yes, there are things that could go a lot smoother. Yes, I appreciate that he has upset quite a few other editors. I observe that he doesn't respond well to a confrontational approach (and that in itself is not one of his failings, as many of us wouldn't cope well in those circumstances; this is just an observation of mine). If you are reasonable with him, though, you can work with him - that has at least been my experience. Ok, he has strongly-held opinions, but that's what we've got a community for, so that POV can get ironed out, and in the end, we end up with an encyclopedia. All things taken together, he is an asset to Wikipedia, and a topic ban would be our collective loss. Schwede66 02:40, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Fair enough. I wish that the wiki-lawyers and wiki-stakers were as reasonable and rational as you are with my stupid topic bans. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 02:47, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

TfD

See Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion/Log/2013_January_18#Template:Infobox_New_Zealand_legislation. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 21:48, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Funding

There is no NZ chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation so we cannot get money from the FDC as far a I know. However, there is now Individual Engagement Grants which makes money available to individuals and small groups. There are strings attached of course. One idea I have is to target the universities in the main centres (Auckland Uni, Victoria Uni, Canterbury Uni and Otago Uni). We could have stalls, demonstration stands, posters, notices etc to recruit new editors. There is a commitment to setting aside time for doing it but it will be paid with the funding.

In terms of NZ related content I think we as editors are doing alright compared to other countries but we should plan for the future and to get editors working on the gaps in content and to reduce the systemic bias.

Is anyone in the main centres interested in helping me to apply for the funding and doing the actual work if we are successful? I may be able to help out in Chch depending on my own work commitments during the year. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 02:03, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

I'd be interested if others in my area, Wellington, were. NealeFamily (talk) 05:12, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

New Zealanders are welcome to join Wikimedia Australia and (from memory) it currently has one or two Kiwi members. That said, the individual grants program is probably a better bet for funding than WMAU at the moment given its funding constraints. As an Australian who dabbles in NZ topics from time to time, I agree that NZ is greatly under-represented on Wikipedia and Wiki Commons (the photo coverage of central Wellington at Wiki Commons is surprisingly sparse, for instance) so programs to improve editor recruitment have a great deal of merit. Nick-D (talk) 10:09, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Māori people

Kia ora anō. If editors could please see the discussion at Talk:Māori people#Neutrality, I'd appreciate further input. It's regarding an ongoing issue of POV edits, and hopefully we can finally get it resolved. Cheers. – Liveste (talk • edits) 12:50, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Waitangi Day

Hi everyone. A few extra eyes on Waitangi Day and Treaty of Waitangi wouldn't go amiss over the next few days as there's been a bit of silliness going on this evening. Cheers. Daveosaurus (talk) 05:36, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

Roger that. -- Patchy1 REF THIS BLP 08:21, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

Defence Force Photos

The NZ Defence force flickr stream is being imported into commons. Lots of good photos of Military people and equipment but also other things like Christchurch after the quakes. Available here - SimonLyall (talk) 11:19, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Unfortunately the bot which was used to move these photos across did a poor job of categorising them (as a random example, File:20111001 WN S1015660 0021.jpg - Flickr - NZ Defence Force.jpg was placed in the top level categories of 'Navy' and 'Parades'), so human intervention is needed to fix this up. Nick-D (talk) 23:03, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Yep, several bugs eg File:MC_09-0364-034.JPG_-_Flickr_-_NZ_Defence_Force.jpg is in the Pukaki category but is actually a photo of 'Taupo taken from Pukaki. Usually you can work out from the description of look at other photos taken at the same time which have better descriptions. - SimonLyall (talk) 00:12, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

From having manually categoriesed a large number of these images, I think that the problem is unfortunately a bit bigger than 'several bugs'. However, as you note it's pretty straightforward to fix. Nick-D (talk) 00:24, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject New Zealand places

Wikipedia:WikiProject New Zealand places (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) is inactive. Should it be redirected to Wikipedia:WikiProject New Zealand? -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 07:26, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes. DerbyCountyinNZ ^{(Talk Contribs)} 08:04, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Done. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 05:03, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Category:Parks in New Zealand by region

Category:Parks in New Zealand by region needs to be expanded for all regions. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 13:05, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

GA nom

Hi all - I'm about to nominate South Dunedin, an article I had a considerable hand it, for GA status... if there's anyone here who can add anything to improve the article, now would be a very good time! Thanks :) Grutness...wha? 04:42, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Environmental Protection Authority

Hi all. I have noticed the entry for the Environmental Protection Authority (New_Zealand) is quite out of date. I am not in a position to update it myself, but thought I ought to draw it to your collective attention. Negatron12 (talk) 04:19, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

New category being discussed

Category:Recipients_of_a_New_Zealand_Knighthood is being discussed here. Good Ol’factory ^(talk) 23:28, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Category:Locomotive Dump Sites

I want to delete Category:Locomotive Dump Sites and have a list of the sites in Rail transport in New Zealand. It is not part of a series and full articles for all the sites may never be written. Thoughts? -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 04:57, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Maintaining a list in an article would appear to make much more sense than having a category for this. Schwede66 07:50, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Can you do a CfD for it? I have a topic ban that prevents me from doing it. Cheers. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 07:56, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

I'm working on an composite article at User:Mangoe/Locomotive dumps in New Zealand and would invite assistance. Mangoe (talk) 15:04, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

Great! An article is of a far greater utility that a category in this case. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 19:05, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

I have now listed it at Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2013_April_11#Category:Locomotive_Dump_Sites. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 19:05, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

Have had a look at Mangoe's handywork. I put the category page together to act as a brief whilst putting together the pages needed. Most of the locomotive dumps started in the 1920's and 1930's, which predates your statement, and dieselization by a couple decades. Omoto Locomotive Dump was started in the 1940's using locomotives which were replaced by newer steam engines. Branxholme Locomotive Dump, which is the most famous, started in the 1920's, as did Oamaru Locomotive Dump and the dump near Westfield Railway Station. Others at Mararoa and Beaumont havnt yet been put together as research is still underway. Mention has been made of locomotivees dumped on the Bealey River and Mokihinui river pages. Several other sites are being looked at as well, and I hope to post further pages.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.224.113.104 (talk) 05:37, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

NZ education articles

I am doing a bit of a clean up of the NZ education articles. What a mess! Spam articles, bad categorisation, bad redirects, bad layout. I shouldn't be surprised. The rest of WP is like that. Just came across Ministry of Education (New Zealand) just now. It needs serious work. I have tagged it with off topic and under construction. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 07:54, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Looks like Offender9000 has been giving it some serious work already. - SimonLyall (talk) 08:29, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I did see that and her/his edits have caused the problems. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 08:46, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Judith Binney

Please see Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard#Te_Kooti, Ringatū and the reliability of works by Judith Binney. This IP editor continues to be a serial pest, adding screeds of personal opinion and essay, providing only the most vague citations for books by authors such as Binney and Richard Stowers and showing scant respect for Wikipedia policies on OR, RS and citations. Reverts of his/her edits are usually themselves reverted, throwing individual editors into an edit war. I'd really like greater vigilance of the edits of this person by all of us to ensure the integrity of the articles is preserved. BlackCab (talk) 12:21, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Category:Proposed laws of New Zealand

I created Category:Proposed laws of New Zealand and added three entries. I could not find any others. Anyone know of any suitable articles or it? -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 00:06, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Copy-edit request for List of 1888–1889 New Zealand Native football team matches

I was wondering if anyone could spend 30 minutes giving List of 1888–1889 New Zealand Native football team matches a copy-edit? There is not a huge amount of prose because it is a list, but I'd like to nominate it as a Wikipedia:Featured list candidates at some point. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks. - Shudde ^talk 11:58, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Seasons/Years in New Zealand cricket

Does anyone agree with me that “by-season” categories for New Zealand cricket from 2000-01 are useful (eg Category: 2010–11 New Zealand cricket season), but additional “by-year” categories for (some) overseas tours (eg Category:2010 in New Zealand cricket) should be deleted/upmerged. Please see current discussion at [2]. One proposal is to delete the NZ cricket seasons (eg Category:2010 in New Zealand cricket) and upmerge the contents to years in NZ sport. Hugo999 (talk) 13:25, 20 April 2013 (UTC)

List of 1888–1889 New Zealand Native football team matches nomination as Featured List candidate

I have nominated List of 1888–1889 New Zealand Native football team matches as a featured list candidate. Members of this project may be interested in the discussion, which can be viewed here. Any comments or questions would be welcomed. - Shudde ^talk 11:35, 21 April 2013 (UTC)

3 News SPAs

Recently we've had a succession of single-purpose accounts who update articles exclusively using references from 3News. Ohnoitsjamie has been blocking these accounts on sight. Please see the discussion at User_talk:Ohnoitsjamie#Looks like they're at it again.-gadfium 22:28, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

Thomas Ellison featured article candidate

I recently nominated Thomas Ellison as a Featured Article Candidate – the nomination can be viewed here. Ellison was a Māori rugby footballer who played in the late 19th century; he is probably best remembered for proposing that the New Zealand team adopt a black uniform. Sorry this is a bit late, I forgot to post a message to the project letting everyone know about the nomination. - Shudde ^talk 11:19, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

Bastion Pt Savage memorial confusion

Can anyone add more information or links to the following statement on the bastion pt wiki page? : Marae owner thomas Ahloo had experienced an attack on his marae by the Mihaka people. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.114.141.220 (talk) 18:04, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing this vandalism out. I seems it was there via a good faith reversal of previously deleted vandalism. FanN | talk 19:04, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Can anyone identify?

I uploaded this image today showing two NZ native parasitic plants which have propagated themselves on a ponga in our garden. If anyone can identify the name of the parasitic plant, I will add it to the file description. Moriori (talk) 00:03, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

The botanist in my house thinks it's Geniostoma rupestre, but says it's hard to tell from this photo. (Also it's epiphytic rather than parasitic.) Beeswaxcandle (talk) 01:16, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

NZ On Air

An editor seems very keen to create a big "Controversies and criticism" section. I've removed a most of the minor ones listed but others might want to keep an eye on the article. - SimonLyall (talk) 06:09, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

I agree that what you've recently removed seems trivial and POV, as well as, in many cases, unsourced. DerbyCountyinNZ ^{(Talk Contribs)} 07:25, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

I think some sort of admin input may be required, perhaps an Rfc? DerbyCountyinNZ ^{(Talk Contribs)} 23:05, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Some eyes on a couple of Featured nominations?

List of 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team matches is a Featured List Candidate, and Thomas Ellison a Featured Article Candidate. Both were nominated over a month ago, and have reviews from only two editors each – they're valuable and comprehensive reviews, but I don't want either nomination to fail solely because of insufficient feedback. A New Zealand perspective on both would also be really valuable; especially from anyone with a bit of knowledge of NZ history, or sporting history. If you're interested in reviewing either of these against the criteria, the reviews can be found here or here. Thanks! - Shudde ^talk 03:08, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Placename disgreement

If two New Zeelanders disagreed on the names of a geographic place, where would they turn for a definitive answer? In the UK, it's something like the HarperCollins' Times Atlas of the World, and in the US, it'd probably be the National Geographic Society or some such. Is/are there NZ equivalents for these, or would they also turn to the Times Atlas or Nat Geo publications? Say someone wanted to check whether New Zeelanders call it Bombay or Mumbai or if they say Beijing or Peking, where could we look? Chrisrus (talk) 19:06, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

The New Zealand Geographic Board is the official place. This is currently a political issue, as many places are being renamed back to their original te reo Māori names as a result of the Māori Renaissance. Stuartyeates (talk) 23:35, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! That's very helpful, for New Zeeland place names. But if I may... are there companies there that produce maps of the world and such that you all look to which we might not know about up here? Say you went to the atlas stand and map drawers at a big public library in Aukland, for example. Is it just HarperCollins and Rand McNally and other such non-New Zeeland products of non-New Zeeland places, or do you have your own map companies that we could refer to in order to find out if New Zealanders call it "Myanmar" or "Burma"? Chrisrus (talk) 05:18, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Generally speaking we let other people call themselves whatever they like; in cases of disputes that we're not directly involved in we'd probably be in line with the 'international community' which would generally mean the UN or Commonwealth of Nations community. An exception to this is the Antarctic, due to our active participation in the Antarctic Treaty System (NZ officially recognises more placenames in Antarctica than in New Zealand). All other things being equal, our recent history probably makes us more likely to recognise indigenous claims and naming than other countries might. I know of no comprehensive New Zealand list of non-New Zealand places, with the possible exception of te reo Maori wikipedia. Stuartyeates (talk) 07:54, 23 August 2013 (UTC)