Traditional Games of New Zealand Children

Abstract

THIS historical study of New Zealand games was handicapped by the fact that oral reminiscence could take the investigator back only to 1870. There were very few records of games which referred to an earlier period. Nevertheless, the eighty years that could be adequately surveyed in this investigation' did provide a clear picture of historical change; of the way in which the Traditional Games of the British Isles loosely established in the New Zealand of the Nineteenth Century, were, with important exceptions, replaced by the social and recreative activities characteristic of the twentieth century. This article outlines some of these changes. It should be made clear at this point, however, that the changes mentioned, though applying to the New Zealand scene, may not apply elsewhere. A tradition of games as strong as that in the British Isles, for example, could not succumb so easily to modern influences.