Which boundaries in particular? I am very interested in this, being a kiwi
myself. Adjacency to me means adjoining, being a separate object, but
touching the reference object, thus an island cannot be adjacent except in
a very figurative sense, as by definition an island is not adfacent to a
landmass, or it wouldn't be an island (except maybe tombolos..., eg Piha's
Lion Rock)

The official maps i've seen of NZ's regions and districts show the local
govt borders extending out to the 12mile limit with a solid line (also
shown on the maps), and thus 'adjacent islands' seems redundant if the
territorial sea is divided between the local govts, as by defining how the
line extends out to the 12mile limit (which presumably the laws do),
automatically includes all islands in the local govt area. Use of a dotted
line or such would indicate an indefinite local govt boundary at sea, but
the maps I recall had the same line symbol on land and sea. Further,
islands further than 12miles offshore (White Island, the 3 Kings, possibly
Gt Barrier) would have their own 12 mile limits, and are hardly adjacent to
fall into your definition.
Hmm..
Are some of the smaller islands official names "Rabbit islet" rather than
"rabbit island" say? That could explain the islet reference, or possibly
they are low tide elevations...?

Brendan Whyte
University of Melbourne

>
>The boundaries of a number of New Zealand local government districts are
defined
>as including "all adjacent islands and islets".  The question has arisen
about
>what the word "adjacent" means - how close does something have to be
before it
>is adjacent?  The answer I guess is a matter of judgement in each particular
>case.  Is anyone able to point me to any literature, decisions or agreements
>dealing with this issue?
>
>A related question concerns the word "islet".  How big does a rock have to
be to
>qualify as an islet?  Given that the Convention on the Law of the Sea states
>that "An island is a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water,
which
>is above water at high tide", we have probably confused the issue by
referring
>to islets as well as islands.  However comment on that issue would be
>appreciated.
>
>Thanks
>
>Donald Riezebos
> 


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