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The history of the 28th Māori Battalion’s D Company will be documented by Harawira Craig Pearless, Education Minister Hekia Parata and Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry have announced.

Ms Parata, who is also the Chair of the Ngārimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarship Fund Board, says the A, B, and D companies’ histories are being commissioned to complement Ngā Tama Toa, the C Company history published in 2008.

Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry has welcomed the choice of design for the French memorial at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington.

“On Armistice Day, it’s fitting the chosen design has been unveiled,” Ms Barry says.

“The memorial, Le Calligramme, was designed by the award-winning Auckland firm Patterson Associates and takes inspiration from the work of French poet Guillaume Apollinaire.

Corrections Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga and Conservation Minister Maggie Barry today signed an agreement which will see offenders engaged in conservation work and learning new skills at the same time.

Under the Good to Grow partnership between Corrections and the Department of Conservation (DOC), offenders on community sentences will help look after DOC sites, upgrade and maintain tracks and help to win the War on Weeds across the country.

Associate Health Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga says he is pleased by a new report which shows most elderly people enjoy good relationships with friends and family and have someone to give them emotional support.

The report, by the University of Auckland, is one in a series commissioned by the Ministry of Health on the health and wellbeing of older people.

“It is important that people at this stage of their lives have a strong support network around them and maintain their relationships with friends and family,” Mr Lotu-Iiga says.

New Zealand has achieved an important milestone with the first ever television co-production agreement being signed by any country with China, say Trade Minister Tim Groser and Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry.

In reaching the agreement, an amendment to the China-NZ FTA was required and marked by a signing in an exchange of letters between Mr Groser and his Chinese counterpart, Minister Gao Hucheng.

Statistics Minister Craig Foss today commemorated Armistice Day with the launch of a WW100 infographic.

“The First World War was a significant event in New Zealand’s history — it helped define us as a nation and it continues to have a lasting impact,” Mr Foss says.

“I am proud to be able to tell the story of this important event through statistics.”

The First World War - Changing the Fabric of our Nation infographic has been developed by Statistics New Zealand in partnership with the WW100 Programme Office.

The amazing range of Pacific arts in New Zealand was celebrated tonight at an award ceremony in Wellington.

Minister for Pacific Peoples Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga congratulated all the winners of the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards 2014.

“These awards acknowledge the excellence and innovation in Pacific arts in New Zealand,” says Mr Lotu-Iiga. “They are the only national awards to recognise Pacific artists across a range of art forms.