Cashed Up Kiwis Trivia Quiz

Answer: Third expedition leader to reach the South Pole after Scott and Amundsen

The New Zealand $5 note featuring Sir Edmund Hillary also includes Aoraki/Mt Cook (NZ's highest peak), which Hillary regarded as one of his favourite mountains and one which he climbed before contemplating Mt Everest.

British explorer Dr Vivian Fuchs led the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE) in 1955-58. The Commonwealth-sponsored expedition successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole, on 2 March 1958. Sir Edmund Hillary led the New Zealand component of the expedition by setting up Scott Base, and creating food and fuel depots for the British crossing party (on the second part of the journey after they reached the South Pole). Then, against orders Hillary himself led a 'dash to the pole'. On 4 January 1958, he and his team were the first party to reach the South Pole overland since Scott in 1912. They were also the first to reach the Pole in motor vehicles which were principally covered tractors.

This question was thawed out and reheated for the quiz by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.

Answer: Queen Elizabeth II's coronation

Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne on 6 February 1952, after the death of her father King George VI. Her coronation took place on 2 June 1953, which was the day a London newspaper had a scoop when it broke the news of the conquest of Everest by Hillary and Tenzing. The press called the achievement a coronation gift. Hillary had only reached Kathmandu on his return journey when he heard he had been made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and Tenzing received a George Cross from the UK (he could not be knighted because he was not a British subject). However, he also received the Star of Nepal from King Tribhuvan.

This question was submitted by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1, who was in peak form writing it.

Answer: Liverpool

Catherine Wilson Malcolm, later known as Kate Sheppard, was born in Liverpool on 10 March 1848 from Scottish parents. A few years after her father's death in 1862, Kate, with her mother, Jemima, and her three younger siblings, moved to New Zealand, where Kate's eldest sister, Marie, already lived with her husband. The family arrived in New Zealand in February 1869, and settled in Christchurch, quickly adjusting to life there. In 1871, Kate married Walter Allen Sheppard, who was a member of Christchurch City Council. She became very active in various religious organizations, and later became involved in politics - which eventually led to her developing an interest in matters related to women's rights.

Liverpool, a major port on the Irish Sea, is known as the hometown of The Beatles and other high-profile rock bands; its two cathedrals are both located in Hope Street. Glasgow, though also a major port, is in Scotland.

LadyNym wrote this "fab" question while humming a Beatles' song.

Answer: Temperance

In 1885, Kate Sheppard attended (or read about) a talk by Mary Leavitt, the first round-the-world missionary for the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), who was touring New Zealand at the time, and spent two weeks in Christchurch. Leavitt's forceful speech was a life-changing experience for Sheppard, who soon afterwards established a Christchurch branch of the WCTU. Through her petitions to Parliament to prevent women's employment as barmaids and outlaw the sale of alcohol to children, Sheppard became increasingly involved in politics, realizing that women needed to be able to vote in order to have their voice heard by Parliament.

An important milestone was the foundation of the New Zealand branch of WCTU (February 1886): for the organization, women's suffrage was essential to advance their fight against the sale and consumption of alcohol and promote the general welfare of children and families. Sheppard's interest in women's suffrage, however, went beyond its practical use to the cause of temperance, and became instead closely connected to her belief in the intrinsic unfairness of any kind of discrimination. Kate's tireless efforts were eventually rewarded by the 1893 Electoral Bill, which granted full voting rights to women over the age of 21. She died in 1934, at the age of 86, after a lifetime of commitment to the cause of women's rights.

On the front of the $10 Series 7 bill, a portrait of Kate Sheppard is featured alongside a white camellia - a reminder of the white camellias that were given to members of the NZ Parliament who, in 1893, supported the Electoral Bill. The white camellia has since then become a symbol of the fight for women's suffrage.

LadyNym was proud to write a question about such an influential figure, to whom all women (not just those in New Zealand) should be grateful.

Answer: Victoria

Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor) was born April 21, 1926, in London. Her parents were the Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. After George VI's death (February 6, 1952), his widow was known as Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.

On May 29, 1926, the young Princess Elizabeth of York was baptised in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace by the Archbishop of York, Cosmo Gordon Lang. Her names of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary were after her mother, her paternal great grandmother (Alexandra of Denmark, wife of Edward VII), and her paternal grandmother (Mary of Teck, wife of George V). Early attempts at pronouncing her own name resulted in close family calling her "Lilibet". Queen Victoria was Queen Elizabeth II's paternal great-great-grandmother.

Upon her ascension to the United Kingdom throne in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II also became Queen of many Commonwealth realms, including New Zealand (NZ). The Series 7 NZ $20 banknote features the Queen.

In writing this question, Phoenix Rising's amateur genealogist psnz recalled Mark Twain's comment on family relationships: "Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you." The same applies to famous people whose family histories are very well researched.

Answer: She knighted Prime Minister Sidney Holland on this visit

While there were six previous royal visits to New Zealand, the Queen's visit in December 1953 was the first by a reigning monarch. New Zealand was very excited to see her (and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh), and they came out in their thousands to see her (waving Union Jacks, not the New Zealand flag). She arrived two days before Christmas, but the visit was marred by New Zealand's worst rail disaster on Christmas Eve, when the Wellington-Auckland express fell into the flooded Whangaehu River, in the central North Island, due to a volcanic lahar (a violent type of mud flow) washing away the bridge over the river. The Duke visited the families of the victims and the Queen mentioned the tragedy in her Christmas message broadcast from Auckland.

The Queen did knight the Prime Minister (PM) of the day, Sidney Holland, but in 1958 in Buckingham Palace after his tenure as PM finished in 1957.

This question was knighted by Phoenix Rising's JAM6430.

Answer: True

Educated at Te Aute College, Apirana Turupa Ngata (1874-1950) gained a scholarship to Canterbury University College in Christchurch (now the University of Canterbury). He studied political science and law, graduating with a BA in politics in 1893, the first Maori (indigenous New Zealander) to achieve a degree from a New Zealand University. He then went on to study at the University of Auckland, graduating with an LL.B. law degree in 1896. Ngata was the first New Zealander, Maori or Pakeha (non-Maori), to complete a double degree.

Ngata's education allowed him to practice as a lawyer before being elected to public office as a Member of the New Zealand Parliament where he served for 38 years from 1905 to 1943. The Series 7 NZ $50 banknote features Sir Apirana Ngata. Additionally, the banknote also includes two further elements significant to Sir Apirana and his family: their Porourangi Meeting House and a woven Tukutuku panel which features in it.

As Phoenix Rising's resident Kiwi, psnz learned more about his country's history in researching and writing this question.

Answer: Minister of Native Affairs

Sir Apirana Ngata was knighted in 1927. He was Minister of Native Affairs in the governments of Prime Ministers Sir Joseph Ward and George Forbes. This ministry is responsible for policy towards Maori, New Zealand's indigenous people. Since Ngata's time, the ministry has been known both as Maori Affairs and Maori Development.

Ngata was a skilled orator who worked tirelessly to improve the lot of Maori people while also retaining significant aspects of their culture. Land reforms and turning blocks of marginal Maori land into economic units were some of his initiatives. There was criticism that he was working too quickly: his department had problems keeping up with the Minister, and a subsequent inquiry revealed financial irregularities. While Ngata had ignored official regulations that he felt impeded progress, a subordinate had falsified accounts which led to Ngata's resignation as minister. Curiously, a change of government in 1935 saw many of his reforms retained, with some lasting decades. His legacy in New Zealand has continued past his 1950 death, and he is rightly honoured on the $50 banknote.

Phoenix Rising's resident Kiwi, psnz, enjoyed delving into the historical aspects of a comparatively young country.

Answer: 1900s

The front of the red New Zealand $100 note features a portrait of Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) and a depiction of his Nobel Prize medal. Rutherford was born near Nelson, at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. He showed such an aptitude for science - and physics in particular - at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand, that he was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University in England. A few years later, laboratory director Lord J.J. Thomson recommended Rutherford for a position at McGill University in Canada, where many of his breakthrough insights into nuclear physics were obtained. His Nobel Prize was awarded in 1908.

This question was directed at this quiz by Phoenix Rising's chemistry academic, Mike Master 99, who is still puzzled why Rutherford's prize was in Chemistry rather than Physics, but is in no doubt about the profound impact Rutherford's work has had on the scientific discourse of the twentieth century.

Answer: Atoms are mostly empty space

In 1909, Rutherford and his colleagues Hans Geiger (of Geiger-counter fame) and Ernest Marsden devised the experiment where alpha particles (nuclei of the Helium-4 isotope) were fired in a very narrow beam at a thin sheet of gold foil. Detectors were set up all around the gold foil. Most of the particles passed straight through the gold foil. However, some particles were scattered at various angles including a very small number rebounding almost completely. This was interpreted by Rutherford and his team as atoms being composed of mostly empty space (hence alpha particles pass through unimpeded) but contain a small nucleus at the centre, which causes alpha particles hitting that nucleus to ricochet. "Head-on" collisions resulted in the alpha particle bouncing back the way it came. These insights were seminal in the development of atomic theory and understanding the structure of atoms.

This question was sent flying into this quiz by Phoenix Rising's chemistry educator, Mike Master 99, who still spends some time each semester talking to first year university students about this experiment.