McAleese hails New Zealand's multiculturalism

Ireland can learn lessons about multiculturalism from New Zealand, President Mary McAleese said during a visit to the two-island nation.

Mrs McAleese is on a six-day state visit with a 41-member delegation that includes Minister for Education Mary Hanafin.

Maori tribes greeted the president with an ancient ritual as she met New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark in Wellington.

Mrs McAleese remarked on the successful integration of emigrants from Ireland and Britain as well as other cultures in the southern hemisphere country.

"Yours is an example we hope to follow now that the tide of emigration has been reversed for the first time in a century and a half," she said.

"Now, like you, we welcome many strangers to our shores, into our communities where their lived lives help anchor our prosperity, enrich our civic life and build strong bridges of human friendship between Ireland and cultures from right around the world."

She added: "Suddenly in the space of a very few years non-Irish citizens account for ten percent of our population and in the midst of change and challenge we look to New Zealand's fine record of multiculturalism and tolerance as we set ourselves the task of getting this new Ireland right for all."

The President also laid a wreath at the National War Memorial and was guest of honour at a state dinner hosted by the Governor General, Anand Satyanand.

During her state trip, the president will mark the bravery of explorers Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean who helped save the lives of 22 men stranded in the freezing Antarctic during an expedition in 1914.

The itinerary also includes visits to Dunedin, Queenstown and Auckland. It is the second visit by the president to the country - she last visited in 1998.

She will also be conferred with an honorary doctorate in laws at the University of Otago in Dunedin on Wednesday - the first Irish person to receive such an honour.