News Bite 02.02.10

• A donation of $10 million was recently gifted to the Canterbury Museum. The gift comes upon the death of a Blenheim businessman, who was known to be intensely private and unassuming with his wealth. This bequest comes within a month of the recent $1.8 million donation to the Christchurch Art Gallery by another local arts supporter, who passed away in January.
• New Zealand and India have begun negotiations for a free trade agreement, which is expected to put New Zealand in a prime situation to benefit from India's growing economy.
• Canterbury has growing input in the $32 million New Zealand Pavilion currently being constructed for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai (May-Oct). The pavilion was designed by Christchurch architecture firm Warren & Mahoney, and is expected to draw in 40,000 people a day. Last year's Kiwi stand was hand picked by local media as a "must visit" for the event's 70 million attendees. The NZ commissioner-general for the expo notes the economic significance of an event like this in consideration of the country's growing trade with China. Last's year NZ exports to China were up to $3.3 billion from $1.9 billion in 2008.
  
• Football may no longer take second seat to Rugby in Canterbury. 19,258 Cantabrians turned out to support the Wellington Pheonix football team, in their defeat over Adelaide United at AMI Stadium on Saturday night. This is over 8,000 more supporters than the crowd that showed up for the rugby final at the same stadium a couple months ago.