Celia Hatton

CHOIR SINGS

Thousands gather at events in New Zealand to celebrate the country's National Day.

It marked the first signing of New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840 and is an annual gathering that also gives indigenous tribes a chance to air grievances.

The current backdrop is increased tensions as the government pursues policies considered by some to be anti-Maori.

New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour, who has Maori ancestry, has been accused of trying to take back rights from the indigenous community.

This is what he said in his speech.

I'm always amazed by the myopic drone.

that colonisation and everything that's happened in our country is all bad.

The truth is that very few things are completely good or completely bad.

His comments provoked an immediate reaction.

The next day, during a dawn prayer service, when he started to address the crowd, dozens of people started booing and shouting for him to stop, with one blowing into a conch shell.

There will be so many joys up and down this country...

And maybe, just maybe, with respect for each person and their right to speak their mind and make the most of their time on earth, we will all get along just fine.

Those silent majority up and down this country who are getting a little tired of some of these antics, thank you very much and God bless.

A church leader implored the crowd to stop.

Mr Seymour dismissed the protest, saying the hecklers were muppets shouting in the dark.

But the incident is a reminder that a day to commemorate a shared history can also bring divisions and grievances out into the open.

Bernadette Keogh.

Researchers at Oxford University say cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, used by millions around the world, may be far safer than previously thought.

The results in the Lancet Journal come from trials involving more than 120,000 people.