“The excited and dangerous state of the natives of hawkes bay”: A particular study of nineteenth century financial management

Abstract

Documentation and meticulous record-keeping are the keys to commercial efficiency and accountability in literate societies. In pre-literate societies, however, such gramocentric detail is meaningless; accountability is established through oral testimony and ritual ceremony. When, in nineteenth century New Zealand, commercial disputes arose between Maori and Europeans, the colonial courts preferred documented evidence to sworn testimony. But colonial accountants had more to offer litigious clients than just good bookkeeping systems; unresolved accounting problems of recognition and measurement allowed accountants wide discretionary powers when calculating client liability. The particular study focuses on the estate of Sir Donald McLean, a forceful colonial figure of humble origins, and the activities of his accountant who assisted him to achieve a financial and property fortune. It illustrates the impact of the gramocentric discipline of accounting on a pre-literate society in nineteenth century rural New Zealand by showing how accounting was used to acquire Maori land and contribute to an upset of the social order.