who wrote the national anthem of new zealand
God Defend New Zealand "God Defend New Zealand" was written as a poem in the 1870s by Irish-born, Victorian-raised immigrant Thomas Bracken of Dunedin.[1] A competition to compose music for the poem was held in 1876 by The Saturday Advertiser and judged by three prominent Melbourne musicians, with a prize of ten guineas.[2] The winner of the competition was the Tasmanian-born John Joseph Woods of Lawrence, New Zealand who composed the melody in a single sitting the evening after finding out about the competition.[3] The song was first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Princes Street, Dunedin, on Christmas Day, 1876.[2] In 1897, Prime Minister Richard Seddon presented a copy of words and music to Queen Victoria.[2]