Flavour of New Zealand

01-Jan-1963
Jury service became compulsory for women though extra grounds for exemption were allowed. ²

03-Feb-1963
Two Hutt policemen shot dead in their patrol car outside a house in Lower Hutt where they had been called to a domestic disturbance. ¹

07-Feb-1963
John van Leeuwen became the first to swim Foveaux Strait in a time of 13 hours and 36 minutes. It was to be 16 years before the next successful crossing. ³

03-Jul-1963
NAC Skyliner Hastings crashes in Kaimai Ranges in New Zealand's worst air disaster to date. Twenty-three were killed. ¹

14-Jul-1963
The country's best known radio personality, Maud Basham 'Aunt Daisy', died in Wellington. Her radio career began in the 1920s and from 1937 until her death her morning shopping session was a national institution. ³

18-Jul-1963
George Wilder caught in hut near Taupo after 170 days of liberty. He led a four-man escape from Mt Eden Gaol on January 29. ¹

04-Dec-1963
Two men were killed by machine gun in Bassett Road, Remuera, during feuding by Auckland's criminal fraternity over the city's illegal drinking dens. John Gillies and Ronald Jorgensen were given life sentences for the murders. ³