1987: Not just any year

We all know why 1987 figures so large in New Zealand's history and why 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007 are allowed to quietly fade into sporting obscurity. But 1987 was much more than just the year the All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup. It was a year that kicked off many other big stories that, like an elusive second World Cup win, remain unfinished business to this day. Mark Price looks back.

If you were asked to remember the major events of 1986 or 1988 it is a fair bet you would struggle. But not 1987. Now that was a YEAR made up of capital letters.

It was the year the stock market crashed, David Lange's Labour Government turned the country nuclear-free, Lieutenant-colonel Sitiveni Rabuka executed a coup in Fiji, Lotto was introduced, Tinker Hatfield designed the Nike Air Max, the Simpsons were invented and the term "yuppie" came to prominence to describe young upwardly mobile professionals who seemed to have little to do except pose with their BMWs.

While the young men who made up the Rugby World Cup-winning All Blacks have long since left the field of play, there are plenty of other youngsters from 1987 still playing their games at national level - Dr Don Brash and Sir Roger Douglas but two prominent examples.

And there are some events with their roots in 1987 that continue to be part of our everyday news diet - for instance:

- the weekly euphoria or anticlimax of becoming or not becoming a Lotto millionaire

- the continuing lack of confidence in the sharemarket and business leaders

- the every-so-often need to defend New Zealand's nuclear-free point of difference

- the nagging desire to return Fiji to democracy.

This week, on Tuesday, it was one month until the start of the 2011 World Cup tournament.

Here [from the files of the Otago Daily Times and various internet sites] is what was making headlines in that final month before the World Cup 24 years ago, and what happened next.

Apr 22: Members of Parliament were awaiting their first personal computers, linking up to several information databases.

Update: By November last year, 43% of MPs were twittering and 76% were using Facebook. Prime Minister John Key had 5002 "friends" and 50,081 "fans".

Apr 22: Finance Minister Roger Douglas posed for a photograph among the 3000 pigs at his Sunshine Pig Farm, in South Auckland.

Update: In 1987, New Zealand was nearing the end of three years of "Rogernomics". Ahead of Sir Roger was a falling-out with Prime Minister Lange, a knighthood, his establishment of the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers [Act New Zealand] and retirement, at the coming elections. The Sunshine Pig Farm went into receivership in 1991.

Apr 22: Trust Bank managing director Dr Don Brash announced the bank would more than treble interest rates on home ownership deposit accounts to 11% and guarantee a loan to all first home buyers. The move followed a change in government regulations.

Update: The following year, Dr Brash became governor of the Reserve Bank and, over the next 14 years kept inflation at around 3%, as directed by the Government, and lowered interest rates. In April this year he became leader of Act.

Apr 22: Reports from London described a global economy "beset with hazards", with a tumbling United States dollar.

Update: The New Zealand dollar would buy about US52c in 1987. Now it will buy US82c.

Apr 22: Ashburton was expecting its first taste of "World Cup fever" with a North-south All Black trial. The ODT's rugby writer considered All Black and north zone captain Andy Dalton would need to show "dash" in his general play to replace the incumbent hooker, Sean Fitzpatrick.

Update: Dalton was injured at practice and did not play in the World Cup. Fitzpatrick played on until 1997 and is now a motivational speaker and television rugby analyst in Britain.

Apr 22: The Otago players in the south zone side, captained by Mike Brewer, were Brent Pope, Richard Knight and Steve Hotton with Dean Kenny, Paul Turner and Rhys Ellison in the reserves. Laurie Mains was coach.

Update: No Otago player made it through to the All Blacks although Mains became All Black coach in 1992.

Apr 22: Patrons of the Otago Central Hotel at Hyde gathered to lament the pub's imminent closure.

Update: The pub is now a popular cafe and bed and breakfast on the Central Otago Rail Trail.

Apr 23: New Zealand cricket team manager KR Deas said there was "disquiet" in the team after a bomb blast near its hotel in Sri Lanka killed 150.

Update: The tour was cancelled the following day.

Apr 23: Otago Federated Farmers was concerned high freezing works prices for heavyweight lambs were tempting farmers to pull out of contracts to provide stock for the live sheep trade to the Middle East and that the trade's future could be jeopardised.

Update: Animal welfare concerns led to a government moratorium on the trade in 2003 and then tighter regulations. The trade has not resumed.

Apr 24: Four people in Otago and Southland tested positive for HIV with New Zealand having 34 cases of "full Aids". Dunedin Hospital pathologist Dr Jim Faed said the Otago region had escaped relatively lightly.

Update: New Zealand has about 180 new HIV cases each year.

Apr 24: ODT television reviewer Keith Harrison described the McPhail and Gadsby show as "the usual muddled mixture of failure and flair". "Some of these sketches are so unfunny and so clumsy that they spoil what is good in the show."

Update: In 2008, McPhail was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in recognition of services to television and theatre. He and Gadsby continue to write for theatre.

Apr 27: Members of Britain's Royal Family were issued with special kits to shield them from Aids infection if they needed medical treatment while abroad.

Update: No royal has been known to contract Aids.

Apr 27: Three hundred people attended a ratepayer meeting in Maori Hill to protest at the city's rating system based on land value.

Update: The following day, a "think-tank" proposed a new system based on a combination of capital value and a uniform annual charge - the system currently in place.

Apr 28: Countrywide Building Society offered term deposit interest of 21% for 1-3 months and the Rural Bank's "top rate" was 27%.

Update: Current term deposit rates are around 5.5% but with new concerns over inflation.