Nephrite jade was considered more valuable than gold or silver. Nephrite jade in New Zealand is known as "pounamu" in the Māori language, and is highly valued, playing an important role in Māori culture. It is considered a "taonga", or treasure, and therefore protected under the Treaty of Waitangi. The exploitation of it is restricted to Ngai Tahu and closely monitored. The South Island of New Zealand is "Te Wai Pounamu" in Māori — "The [land of] Greenstone Water" — because that is where it occurs. Weapons and ornaments are made of it; in particular the "mere" (short club), and the
The First Series of Standardized Forms of Words with Non-standardized Variant Forms The First Series of Standardized Forms of Words with Non-standardized Variant Forms The First Series of Standardized Forms of Words with Non-standardized Variant Forms () published on December 19, 2001 and officially implemented on March 31, 2002, is a list of 338 Standard Chinese words that have variant written forms (i.e. where the same word may be written with one or more different Chinese characters with the same pronunciation, referred to as "", translated into English in the official publication as "variant forms of the same word"). In the "First Series", one of the variant written forms for each word