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The Treaty and its Times: the illustrated history

by Paul Moon and Peter Biggs

HB. 480pp. 220x150. Illus. Colour

ISBN: 9780908618247

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In the connected, computerised, world-networked space age of the early twenty-first century, it’s almost impossible to imagine New Zealand life in the 1840s:
A country as big as Great Britain and four months on average by sailing ship away from Britain. No roads. No railways. The only internal transport: by huge canoes skimming through the rivers, lakes and gorges of some of the world’s most magnificent scenery.
A Maori population of perhaps a hundred thousand, devastated by twenty years of what later historians would call the Musket Wars. Inter-tribal wars that left thousands slaughtered and thousands captured as slaves; large areas — such as present-day Auckland — almost deserted by the wars, now blood-drenched massacre sites.
A new small population of three hundred Europeans, recently arrived from the other side of the world. Nearly all from Britain, and many living in what was already being called the drunken hell-hole and human cess-pit of the Pacific, in a shanty-town in New Zealand’s far north.
The moral leaders of these settlers: the Anglican and Methodist missionaries from Britain. Their promise: a new religion that talked of a trinity and a promised afterlife. Among their main imports: a written language and the ability to translate it into the spoken words and songs of Maori who had not previously known any form of writing.
A British Government, overseeing the world’s greatest Empire where a new nineteen-year-old Queen was now the head of state. London, the imperial capital: locked in debate over the very morality of bleeding its existing colonies of cheap raw materials to feed an industrial revolution that was transforming the world. An empire that had only recently abolished slavery.

Over the preceding years, four events had entwined to weave the fate of a nation:
One. A disagreement over creating the Maori written language and the decision of an English missionary to take two New Zealand Maori chiefs to England in 1820 to help in the translation. The flax-cloaked visitors were showered with money and gifts which they exchanged for the muskets that were to power the next New Zealand inter-tribal slaughter. Some other tribes then rushed to swap land, flax, dried heads and sex for even more muskets; and
Two. France sending the first of a planned migration of French citizens to New Zealand’s South Island as Britain was preparing to offer a treaty and its protective sovereignty to New Zealand’s Maori tribes. France racing to get to the new country before a treaty could be signed; and
Three. The New Zealand Company — set up by a group of British businessmen and politicians — also heading out to sea to beat the British Government’s plans. Six canvas-rigged ships already geared to sail to New Zealand to establish the first of what was promised as a semi-utopian series of company-based settlements; and
Four. A British naval captain, with no experience in government, being appointed as Governor. His prime task: in his first few days in a strange country, to write a treaty to present to the New Zealand Maori chiefs, and to have it translated into their new written language while he was ill. A diffident, unimpressive man with little concept of the difficulty of accurately translating abstract English words such as sovereignty into a language and culture that was substantially different.

Given this start, it’s almost amazing that the nation formed by these events, with still only four million people, should today be an advanced modern society — but a nation still locked in robust debate to determine the meaning of that Treaty which many today regard as New Zealand’s founding document. This book is a must for all.

  • Table of Contents

    The Waimauku and Muriwai area
    Waimauku Village, 1950s. Where you found people and places
    Chapter 1. Mâori arrive in Kaipara
    ......Ngâti Whâtua o Kaipara
    ......Te Kawerau â Maki
    Chapter 2. Getting around Kaipara in the 1820s
    ......The waka
    ......The travels of Samuel Marsden
    Chapter 3. Kauri and the destruction of the forest
    ......Kauri gum: an ancient treasure
    ......The legacy: No going back
    Chapter 4. The Europeans arrive
    ......Profile: Samuel Frost. Ararimu Valley, 1863
    ......Profile: Robert Annett. Waimauku, 1868
    ......Profile: Allan Kerr-Taylor. Waikoukou Valley, 1869
    ......Profile: Joseph Wilkins. Waikoukou Valley, 1869
    ......Profile: John Foster. Muriwai Falls, 1870
    ......Profile: Stanley Lester-Jonas. Waimauku, 1880
    ......Profile: James Fletcher. Waimauku, 1885
    ......Profile: William Morgan. Ararimu Valley, 1886
    ......Profile: William Moore. Muriwai, 1888
    Chapter 5. Flax
    Chapter 6. Kaipara’s sea of streams
    Chapter 7. The railway arrives, 1875
    ......The Waimauku station
    Chapter 8. Waimauku Village
    ......Foster’s Waimauku general store
    ......Billiards and hairdressing
    ......Bill Good’s pub
    ......The artisan
    ......The Coronation Hall / Waimauku War Memorial Hall
    ......St Martin’s, the little church with a big history
    ......Other denominations at St Martins
    ......The Waimauku Peoples’ Church
    ......The post office and the telephone exchanges
    ......Electric power
    ......Ernie Burns’ garage
    ......Cyril Tong’s bakehouse
    ......The great name change folly
    ......Gossip columns
    ......Victory bonds: Waimauku’s victory
    ......The doctor
    ......The RSA
    ......Bomber Galloway - a tragedy and a tribute
    ......The music makers
    ......Population size
    Chapter 9. The dairy factory
    Chapter 10. The evolution of Waimauku’s roads
    Chapter 11. Waimauku School
    Chapter 12. Sporting life
    Chapter 13. The Kaipara after the Treaty
    ......Wally Wikaira: a local identity in Waimauku
    Chapter 14. Farmers arriving in the 20th century
    ......Profile: The Wightmans, 1912
    ......Profile: The Houghtons, 1919
    ......Profile: The Robbs, 1937
    Chapter 15. Villages apart: Kumeu ascendant
    Chapter 16. Orchards and vineyards
    Chapter 17. Muriwai Beach
    ......Catherine Moore’s story, 1893
    ......Profile: Edwin Mitchelson. Muriwai, 1901
    ......The state of the Muriwai road
    ......Korekore pa
    ......Racing on the beach
    ......Fresh water, changing sheds and other luxuries
    ......Fishing at Muriwai Beach
    ......Muriwai House
    ......The Trans-Tasman cable
    ......Fighting in the dunes
    ......Sewage in the sand
    ......War games
    ......Surf life-saving
    ......The volunteer fire brigade
    ......Carnage on the beach, vehicles in the modern era
    ......Aftermath of the 2023 storm: Two tributes
    Chapter 18. Diary of a country kid
    Chapter 19. Endgame
    Notes