From Ian Conrich at the Cntre for NZ studies:

Dear All ,

I wanted to convey the good news involving the Centre's
fundraiser on Saturday 5 April. 109 people attended, with the event
comprising music performances ranging from Maori, folk, classical,
country-blues, Polynesian drumming, and ukulele playing. It also included
readings from Fleur Adcock, Stella Duffy and Ian Wedde (programme copied below), with Stella acting as the auctioneer for an auction midway in the afternoon . The auction had 28 items and everything managed to be sold raising £1380. We also took a further £160 profit from tickets, so a total
of £1540 from the afternoon. The 2 key objectives were to raise funds and
for everyone to have an excellent afternoon. From this perspective the event was a great success and I have copied below some of the comments received by email after the event. Many thanks to everyone who gave their time to support the afternoon. It was decided that every penny raised would be spent on buying books from NZ (this was announced to the audience on the day), with the aim of plugging some of the gaps in our library. The amount is therefore just under NZ$4000 and half of this will be spent on acquiring NZ literature - including poetry and plays. Other areas on which the book
purchases will focus are war studies, history and sociology.
The very best - Ian

"Congratulations on the Fundraiser yesterday. It was excellent"
"Congratulations on a very successful venture on Saturday. It was a great
day, great performances, great food, good venue and fun. Very enjoyable"
"Many thanks for an excellent afternoon last Saturday. There were some
splendid items. It was all very enjoyable"
"a very enjoyable afternoon"
"a wonderful event"
"a wonderful event. It was huge fun"
"great fun"

AND

Dear All - Please be advised of the following 3 appointments at the Centre
for New Zealand Studies.

Lecturer in New Zealand Studies
We were delighted with the response received for this post and the high
calibre of those applying. This 0.8 one year position was offered to Jessica
Langer, who started working at the Centre last week. A major part of
Jessica's role will be to build and maintain a significant website for the
Centre, as a development of our stated outreach aims.

NZ Society Fellow in New Zealand Studies

The applications that we received for this year's award were very strong and
in the end it was felt that it was best split between two academics. Margit
Wolfsberger (University of Vienna) is currently researching at the Centre
and at a number of important archives in London. She will be with us until 5
May. The second holder of the award is Ilana Gershon (University of Indiana)
and she will be at the Centre in June. Margit's research is titled "Links
Between Austria and New Zealand: Past, Present, Future"; Illana's research
is titled "Indigenous Self-Representation and The Politics of Recognition:
Maori in Parliament". Both academics will hold their titles for the period
1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009.
Our deep thanks to the NZ Society for their generous support.
The very best - Ian