新西兰英语 31 Queen’s Birthday

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Today is the official Queen’s Birthday. It is not the Queen’s actual birthday. That is April 21st, but every year on the first Monday in June, we honour the Queen.

The Queen also honours 175 New Zealanders on this day. She makes awards to people who have served this country or who have achieved something extra-ordinary with their talents. It is a way for New Zealand to say thank you and well done to those people. It is also a way to show that we are a society which believes in equality: ordinary people are given these awards for serving others or achieving.

Some of the people who are honoured today are musicians, writers, sports people, scientists, farmers, business people, health workers, teachers, people who care for the environment and those who work for the Maori, Chinese or Pacific Island community, in fact men and women from every kind of background. They are ordinary people who have done more than most of us to help others or to use their talents.

There are different kinds of awards. The top award is The Order of New Zealand. Only one person received this honour today – Sir Murray Halberg. He won the 5000m running race at the 1962 Olympics in Rome. He was an unusual winner because he has a paralysed arm. In 1963, he set up the Halberg Trust, an organisation to help disabled children. His award is because of the work he has done with disabled children.

Most of the awards are the Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) and they are mostly given for service to the community.

Friends, colleagues and others nominate people for awards. They have to write letters saying exactly why the person should receive an award. They send their letters to a special Honours committee of the Prime Minister. This committee and the Prime Minister look at all these nominations, they choose the people they think deserve an award and then send the list to the Queen for her agreement. Awards are made twice a year, on Queen’s Birthday and New Year’s Day. The Governor-General will present the awards to these people in a special function at Government House in Wellington at some later date.