Zealand History Research Articles

Sir Robert Stout: A Biography

This biography discusses the life and career of Sir Robert Stout and his influence on New Zealand's political, social and legal history. Sir Robert Stout arrived in New Zealand from Scotland at the age of 19 in 1864 and died in 1930. This book traces his early political career to his tenure of the positions of Attorney General, Premier and Minister of Education. Sir Robert Stout retired from politics in 1898. During the latter part of his career he was Chancellor of the University of New Zealand and held the position of Chief Justice from 1899 until 1926.

Being Maori in the city: indigenous everyday life in Auckland

Preface and Acknowledgements A Note on language Introduction CHAPTER I: An overview of Maori and New Zealand history CHAPTER II: Maori lives in Auckland CHAPTER III: The Marae: a symbol of continuity CHAPTER IV: Ways of life in a Maori house CHAPTER V: The whanau, past and present CHAPTER VI: A practical universe of meanings CHAPTER VII: At the heart of a politics of differentiation CONCLUSION: Interconnected places and autonomous spaces APPENDIX A: Profiles of the interviewees NOTES REFERENCES

New Zealand's Marketplace Multiculturalism: Justifying a New Approach to Citizenship

In light of biculturalism's place in New Zealand's history, any attempts to establish a state-sponsored project of multiculturalism have always been treated with suspicion and controversy. This article provides a contemporary understanding of the conceptual ambiguities found in the country's configuration of multiculturalism that governs cultural diversity through the market. As a prelude to establishing the need for a new citizenship research agenda through cosmopolitanism developed in consultation with Maori, it is argued that the strictures of New Zealand's unofficial policy of commercial multiculturalism need to be transcended before Asians and other non-European migrants to the country can contribute successfully.

The recent past as historical representation: The New Zealand film Out of the Blue (2006)

New Zealand’s cinema is comparatively young, with almost 90 per cent of its film production having occurred within the last 35 years. Significantly, within this industry, films have repeatedly turned to representations of the past, in what appears as an attempt to understand the cultural growth of a nation. An important, but often-overlooked element within historical recreations is the concept of recent history and its relevance on-screen. This will be explored in this article with a study of Robert Sarkies’s film Out of the Blue (2006), which is based on New Zealand’s worst mass shooting, the Aramoana tragedy in 1991. Historical films are made at different cultural points in a nation’s creative history. It will therefore be necessary to not only consider the depictions of history but the different cultural attitudes of the period in which a film was made. This article addresses the importance of history for cultural production, and the manner in which recreation of the past is achieved through important aspects such as mise-en-scène. Finally, this article constructs an understanding of the effect of contemporary culture on the portrayal of New Zealand history and the interrelationship of fiction and fact in establishing a popular cinema.

Tourism development in the Hot Lakes District, New Zealand c. 1900

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to provide a historical overview of tourism development in the Hot Lakes District, New Zealandc.1900.Design/methodology/approachThe paper comprises primary archival research utilising a number of sources including government records, early newspapers, archived personal recollections, guide‐books and Native Land Court records. Secondary sources include the existing written histories of the region as well as contextual literature regarding tourism, colonisation and indigenous agency.FindingsIn a remote, isolated region of the central North Island of New Zealand, missionaries and local Māori started to provide accommodation for visitors during the 1850s. These visitors were staying overnight so they could view the Pink and White Terraces. The European ideology regarding the aesthetics of landscape helped transform the region into a “wonderland” for British sensibilities, and alongside this aesthetic ideology came a commercial/economic ethic that also transformed the region. This commercial ethic was adopted with acumen by local Māori who provided the required services as well as constructing European‐style hotels at Te Wairoa in the 1870s.Originality/valueThe paper provides a historical context for the development of tourism in the region through an exploration of the provision of service‐based products by local Māori. Examining the indigenous response to the demands of tourism has been sparsely examined in New Zealand history or in tourism/hospitality literature.

The Meeting Place - Maori and Pakeha Encounters, 1642-1840; A Savage Country: The untold story of New Zealand in the 1820s

The period bookended by initial Maori-Pakeha contact at one end, and the Treaty of Waitangi and the beginning of mass Pakeha migration at the other, is an under-represented stage of New Zealand history. In his study The Meeting Place, Vincent O'Malley purports to examine 1642-1840. Likewise, in a prequel to his previous studies of New Zealand in the 1830s and the 1840s, Paul Moon's A Savage Country is confined to the 1820s. It is pleasing to see this important time of change, for both Maori and Pakeha, as the focus of further historical investigation.

The QMAP 1:250 000 Geological Map of New Zealand project

In 1994 the QMAP 1:250 000 Geological Map of New Zealand project began with compilation of the Dunedin sheet. Nearly 18 years later, publication of the Hawke's Bay sheet marks the completion of all 21 maps. The adoption of geographic information systems (GIS) software for data capture, data management and map production has not only produced high cartographic quality maps, but also built the attribute-rich, nationally consistent QMAP GIS spatial database. The project cost about NZD $24M, and the results are now being used by government, industry and research organisations across infrastructure, geological hazard, resource and environmental areas. QMAP has added significantly to general knowledge of New Zealand's geological composition and history due to new discoveries and validation of concepts. Notable advances include work on the allochthons of Northland and East Coast; rationalisation of the Taupo Volcanic Zone and East Coast stratigraphic successions; differentiation of the Torlesse basement terranes; clarification of the transition from Otago Schist to Alpine Schist; determining the complex spatial and temporal history of igneous intrusions in Fiordland and Stewart Island; and mapping Quaternary sediments by oxygen isotope stage and depositional processes.

The Long-Term Regulation of Safety Standards: The Case of the Electricity Industry in Australia and New Zealand

Throughout much of the history of the electricity industry in Australia and New Zealand the industry has been the subject of safety regulations. Although this regulation has been a constant throughout the life of the industry the organizational approach to regulation has changed over the years. Periodically in Australia and New Zealand history these questions have been raised in a political context, although notably the structure of safety regulators does not get much attention in the standard histories of the industry. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to discuss some of the general issues that have arisen in the reform of regulation in the case of electricity safety over the longer term and how it relates overall to the development of the electricity industry.

Historical Material in Maurice Gee's The Fire-Raiser

Award-winning New Zealand writer, Maurice Gee, has written five realistic novels for children, each set during a defining period in New Zealand history. This essay examines Gee’s use in The Fire-Raiser of historical material, particularly that related to Nelson Central School and its lively headmaster, F. G. Gibbs. Through his accurate reproduction of precise detail Gee vividly evokes small-town New Zealand during World War I. But Gee also adapts historical material in order to pursue his ideal of balance.Vivien van Rij is a lecturer in Victoria University's Faculty of Education, specialising in children's literature and literacy.Correspondence about this article may be directed to the author at vivien.vanrij@vuw.ac.nz

Injury epidemiology and New Zealand military forces in world war one

BackgroundDespite the large mortality burden of World War One (WW1) on New Zealand (NZ) military forces, no analysis using modern epidemiological methods has ever been conducted.AimsTo study injury-related mortality amongst...

New Zealand's First Chief Justice: The Rule of Law and the Treaty

This article builds on the contribution George Barton made on the life of Sir William Martin, New Zealand's first Chief Justice, in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. That entry indicates the keen interest George Barton had in the culture of the law including the history of the legal profession. This article seeks to show that New Zealand's first Chief Justice was a figure of major significance in New Zealand's early history, not only because of the way he pioneered the establishment of the superior courts in New Zealand and sought to adapt English procedures to the needs of the new colony, but more significantly in the way he used his legal and linguistic skills to encourage Māori towards a society based on the rule of law, and used those skills to provide New Zealand's early government with an understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi. His forceful and eloquent arguments on the rights confirmed to Māori under the Treaty, although unpopular and resented by many at the time, have become a powerful resource for Treaty historians today, and deserve greater attention by New Zealand's professional historians.

Foreigners in their Own Country? The Maori Detective in New Zealand Crime Fiction

Crime fiction is particularly relevant to the interrogation of contemporary societies, as a genre that once tended towards a quest for singular identity in order to reinforce the status quo has been gradually enlarged into a broader social enquiry. Pakeha writers using Maori as central characters is a particularly revealing choice, along with all the potential pitfalls, for the vital exercise of negotiating identities in a postcolonial context. This article analyses and juxtaposes the deployment of two Maori detectives in New Zealand crime fiction: Hoani Mata (in Valerie Grayland's series published in the 1960s) and Tito Ihaka (the main protagonist of Paul Thomas's series published in the 1990s). The examination of their modus operandi, the types of crimes they investigate, the way in which they interact with people and how colleagues view them provides a frame of reference into New Zealand and its shifting intercultural relations over almost half a century. Ultimately, our analysis of these two series set in different periods of New Zealand history, belonging to two different crime fiction subgenres (the Golden Age 'whodunnit' story and the 'hardboiled' novel), inscribes the arc of an ever-evolving society as it interrogates itself on the changing meaning and values of being a 'New Zealander'.

Are we ready? Preparedness of acute care providers for the Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand

New Zealand is hosting the Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2011. It is the largest sporting event in New Zealand's history, with around 70 000 fans estimated to visit the country...

The Scottish Contribution to New Zealand Beer: Exporters, Brewers and Anti-Prohibitionists

As counter to the narrow focus of a number of New Zealand historians on the prohibitionist activities of the Presbyterian Church, this article examines three significant Scottish contributions to the history of beer and brewing in New Zealand prior to 1940. These are: the reasons for and the nature of the disproportionate Scottish contribution to the export of British beer to New Zealand from the 1860s; the influence of leading Scottish-trained brewers such as Robert Whitson of Auckland and William Dawson of Dunedin; and links in the cause of anti-prohibition between the National Council of the Licensed Trade of New Zealand and the Edinburgh-based Anti-Prohibition Campaign Council.

Global shocks, economic growth and financial crises: 120 years of New Zealand experience

We identify the timing of currency, banking crises and sudden stops in New Zealand from 1880 to 2008 using methodologies from the international literature and consider the extent to which the empirical models in that literature can explain New Zealand's crisis history. We find that the cross-country evidence on the determinants of crises fits New Zealand experience reasonably well. A number of the risk factors that correlate with crises internationally – such as domestic imbalances, external debt, and currency mismatches – were elevated for New Zealand when the country had more frequent crises and have improved in the recent (more stable) period. However, a time-series analysis of New Zealand growth over 120 years shows that global factors – such as the US growth rate and terms of trade – explain New Zealand growth fairly well, and that crisis-dummy variables do not have substantial additional explanatory power. This suggests that having sound institutions and policies may help avoid severe domestic crises, but will not be sufficient to avoid the domestic economic impact of the global business cycle.

A question of bias? Politics, assessment and the New Zealand history curriculum

PurposeStakeholders groups in the educational community are not immune to wider socio‐political events when responding to educational concerns and the purpose of this paper is to use a case study approach to examine how questions over teaching, learning and assessment can become the focus of wider political debates. In particular, this article focuses on the New Zealand Education and Science Parliamentary Select Committee investigation into the 2004 history examination, that was set up in the wake of increasing dissonance over the place of the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand and the newly‐implemented senior secondary school standards‐based assessment system.Design/methodology/approachThe contestation of the curriculum is a highly political process that works to reproduce social class patterns and keep particular elite groups in control of the official curriculum. This paper draws on a range of documentary sources to provide a socio‐historical perspective, as well as interviews with key participants in this process.FindingsIt is argued that while the educational community’s response to this investigation was varied, all shared aims that were largely educational in orientation. Political debates however are typically polarized and in this case politicians were able to use the contested nature of the school history curriculum to manipulate this educational issue (and the media) to their own political advantage.Originality/valueThis investigation saw history education in New Zealand come under unprecedented public and political scrutiny and as such it provides a rare glimpse into the nature of history curriculum matters in New Zealand in the first decade of the twenty‐first century.

Simunovich and the Defence of Truth

APN New Zealand Limited v Simunovich Fisheries Limited was a significant Supreme Court judgment regarding the biggest defamation claim in New Zealand's legal history. The Court ruled that third party statements were inadmissible as evidence for a defence of truth, unless such statements could be independently proven to be true. This paper argues that objectively reliable third party statements, such as statements made by the judiciary, should be admissible as evidence for a defence of truth in certain cases. Where a defamatory meaning of reasonable grounds to suspect guilt is pleaded, rather than an allegation of actual guilt, reliable statements made by a third party can be highly relevant in proving the existence of reasonable grounds for suspicion. A high burden is already placed on defendants to negotiate technical pleading and evidential requirements in proving the defence of truth. Simunovich erects an unnecessary further obstacle that will prevent the submission of relevant and reliable evidence. This paper recommends that the Simunovich ruling on third party statements be amended to allow such particulars to be admitted in support of a defence of truth to an alleged defamatory meaning of reasonable grounds of suspicion.

An Analysis of New Zealand's Changing History, Policies and Approaches to Early Childhood Education

NEW ZEALAND HAS AN INTERNATIONALLY unique approach to early childhood education, which includes a bicultural early childhood curriculum, a robust infrastructure of organisation and management overseen by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, and a growing reputation for innovation in early childhood teaching and learning. This paper examines how the current model of early childhood education emerged, the policy decisions that enabled current systems to be developed, the importance of the early childhood curriculum, teacher education and professional development, and recent developments during a time of recession in New Zealand. Some recommendations for early childhood education, based on the New Zealand experience, are proposed.

From body snatchers to mind snatchers: Indigenous science fiction, postcolonialism, and Aotearoa/New Zealand history

Science fiction from or about Aotearoa/New Zealand has received little critical attention. Such oversight is even more pronounced for those science fiction works produced by Māori and Pacific Island authors. This article draws attention to the significance of the genre in Aotearoa/New Zealand, in particular the contribution made by the Indigenous writers Witi Ihimaera and Albert Wendt. A focus on Indigenous science fiction demonstrates how the genre, which evolved in the 19th century as a tool to critique imperialism, continues to do so in the hands of these First Nation authors. Science fiction by these writers consciously rethinks traditional Eurocentric epistemes in terms of subject matter (employing postcolonial historical perspectives) and technique (mixing the western genre with local Pacific forms). While Ihimaera and Wendt both employ postcolonial historical approaches, they also move beyond the binaries of the postcolonial to produce a new transnational literature.

Glazing over the Past: Thoughts on Interior Archaeology

ABSTRACTThis article examines the subject of interior archaeology as an instance where history and interior architecture matter. Interior archaeology is defined as that situation when the archaeological excavation of a building site reveals significant historic objects that determine an alteration in building design in order for these archaeological features and artifacts to be in situ and inside. The ground and historic time (phenomena that are both exterior to the building) are mediated by the new building's envelope in order to conceptually bring them inside of architecture and the temporal present. Three central city archaeological sites in New Zealand are examined in relation to the particular role that glass, as a building material, has played in constructing and mediating this theoretical context. They are: Te Aro Pā, Old Bank Arcade, and Wall Street, all of which were redesigned in order to accommodate mid-nineteenthcentury material that evidences New Zealand's colonial history: Te Aro Pā whare, Plimmer's Ark, and the Corduroy Track respectively.