By SCOTT INGLIS
Did you know the cost of spaying a cat went up $5.18 between 1996 and 1999, but a four-roll pack of toilet paper dropped from $2.90 to $2.75 in the same period?
And believe it or not, tourism was alive and well in 1903, with 5233 visitors from overseas
painstakingly making their way across the oceans to see New Zealand. This compares with 1.56 million tourists - a record high - last year.
These and other interesting facts and figures are contained in a snapshot of Kiwi life in the New Zealand Official Yearbook 2000.
The 603-page, 23-chapter reference book is to be launched tonight in Wellington by Prime Minister Helen Clark.
This 102nd edition is the most comprehensive and recognises the new century by profiling important events and notable people of the past 100 years.
It begins by mapping out the country's geography before moving on to history and social framework, welfare, and health and safety.
The chapter on justice and law throws up some interesting facts. In 1880, there were 17,837 recorded crimes, of which more than 90 per cent were solved.
This compared with 455,552 in the year to June 30 1999, of which only 40 per cent were solved.
Notable New Zealanders profiled include writer Katherine Mansfield, Sir Richard Hadlee, Sir Edmund Hillary, some former Prime Ministers and our most successful tennis player, Anthony Wilding, who died in 1915, but not before he won the coveted Wimbledon title four times.
It also has 10 special articles covering Maori, history, population, communications, employment, the environment, the economy and transport.
