New Zealand’s official magician, perhaps the world’s only designated magician, has been expelled, ending nearly two decades of service. Ian Brackenbury wrote Chanel received $16,000 a year (3 and a half million forints) to promote Christchurch as a “wizard”. Watchman.
The 88-year-old magician has been employed as a paid civil servant for the past two decades by Christchurch City Council.
His job was to promote the town as a wizard, with related witchcraft activities, for $16,000 a year in New Zealand.
He earned a total of $368,000 (80 million HUF) during his two decades of service.
The man, born in England, began entertaining residents and tourists in charming costume shortly after arriving in New Zealand in 1976.
The man’s production quickly gained popularity when the city council originally tried to stop it, with locals protesting this.
In 1990, then-Prime Minister Mike Moore asked him to consider becoming a wizard in New Zealand.
The council said it sent a letter to the magician thanking him for his services in Christchurch over the past decades and informing him that his contract would be terminated.
The man says that the city has announced a new trend in local tourism and no longer fits these new ideas, so they got rid of it, but he will continue to go out to public places and talk to tourists.