Monty Soutar speaking at MCH

The weekend before last I went to a history conference (Tutu te Peuhu) that was on the New Zealand Wars. One of the speakers was Monty Soutar who spoke on Ngati Porou and Kupapa... It was really good, one of the better presentations and he is repeating the speech at the Ministry of Culture and Heritage next Wednesday the 2nd. If you are at a school in Wellington try to get along... it starts at 12.15 at Radio NZ house on the Terrace. Bully your teacher into getting you there. It will be worth it.

A 3min video I shot at the conference. Muskets from the 1860's being loaded and fired.

Whalemen Tasmen and Belich (from 2010)

I thought this was a useful piece of reading - Full of (em)Belichments


The largest group of European agents of contact, ocean whalemen, is also the most elusive. They did not settle, they scarcely even sojourned, but merely visited New Zealand for a few weeks. Ocean whaling 'was the eighteenth-century equivalent of today's petroleum industry" - Moby Dallas. Initially, the only New Zealand content of the whaling industry was the vast, intelligent, gentle animals themselves: fixed to a boat by harpoons, pursued to exhaustion, lanced to death, then left to rot in rough weather, and tried or fried into oil in calm.

But whaleships, years from home, regularly needed water, to soak salt meat into edible form, as well as to drink; fresh food to keep the crew from rotting with scurvy; firewood and charcoal to cook and start the fires under the trypots until scrap whale blubber could take over; and time ashore to maintain and repair the ships. The crews also believed they desperately needed sex with women. Self-restraint, self-abuse and the Yate solution in the crowded stinking holds of whaling ships were not seen as adequate alternatives. There was also social pressure.'If they see you reading or writing,' wrote an unusually scholarly whaler, 'or know that you have not got a girl aboard, you must then be a missionary man ... a most opprobrious name.”

From 1800, ocean whaleships began to call at New Zealand harbours to obtain all these things. From the first, the various harbours of the Bay of Islands in Northland were the favoured ports of call. We shall see in the next chapter that Maori combined with nature, Governor King and the whalers to make this choice. About 50 ships visited the Bay between 1806 and 18 10.` The Anglo-American War of 1812-15, lower prices for oil, and two Maori attacks on ships stemmed the flow somewhat, but between 1815 and 1822 some 92 ships called at the Bay, mostly whalers. At one point in 1827, a dozen lay at anchor there at the same time. These numbers were dwarfed in the 1830s, when several hundred whaleships visited, each with a crew of about 30 men." Visits were seasonal, mostly between November and April. Ocean whaleships stayed only two to five weeks. But the Bay was often their first well-serviced port of call after many months at sea. Each visit was an intensive burst of contact with Maori, many months of purchasing and recreation crammed in to one.

Portuguese, Dutch, Canadian, German and Danish ocean whaleships visited New Zealand, but the main players were the British, French and Americans. Helped by a government subsidy, duties on competitors' products and the expertise of American captains who were more interested in whaling than independence, Britain held the early lead. But in the 1830s it was overtaken by the Americans, and possibly by the French as well. France featured large from 1836 to 1845. Virtually the whole French whaling fleet of about 60 ships called at New Zealand in the late 1830s, preferring Banks Peninsula to the Bay of Islands. About a hundred of their crews deserted during the 1840s, some intermarrying with Maori and forming little Franco-Maori communities at Banks Peninsula and the Bay of Plenty." The first American whaler to visit New Zealand waters came in 1797, and no fewer than 271 New England whaleships called at the Bay of Islands alone between 1833 and 1839, as against 126 British Visits.

The decline of the British industry has been attributed to its over-regulation and to an American competitive edge similar to that of Japanese over American industry today. Whatever its causes, the decline of British and the rise of French and, especially, American whaling in the 1830s has intriguing implications. ' It seems that the most numerous national category of European visitors to New Zealand before 1840 may have been American whalers, and that whalers were particularly prone to engage in sexual relations with Maori women. Maori descended from early European-Maori liaisons are quite likely to have the Stars and Stripes in their whakapapa. Certainly, the intensity and sheer numbers of ocean whaler visits compensated for their brevity; and their role in bringing Europe to Maori remains to be fully explored. The importance of French and American whalers as agents of contact has been underestimated, partly because they were ships passing in the night, but also because of the tendency to Anglicise New Zealand history.

Another shadowy but possibly important set of agents of contact were nonEuropeans. They were important less for their numbers than for what they suggested to Maori about the diversity of the world and about Europe's usual relations with it. In some cases, they were also better able than Europeans to communicate with Maori. We have seen that, from the Maori perspective, 'Cook's expedition' was more like 'Tupaia's expedition' Tupaia was succeeded by other Pacific Islanders who sojourned and even settled among Maori, as a few Maori sailors did in their home islands, reopening pan-Polynesian links that had been closed for centuries . De Surville's and Marion's expeditions contained African and Asian slaves and sailors, as did many subsequent ships, and like their white crewmates some deserted in New Zealand. Maori sometimes spared black sailors in attacks on European parties, intriguing indications of their perceptions of graduated difference.` There were Australian Aboriginal men - and at least one woman - among the sealers." A brilliant Tahitian known as Jem, after a sojourn in Sydney during which he worked for Macarthur and learned how to read and write in English, set himself up as a chief at North Cape. Jem, a classic 'transculturite', was managing European-Maori contact in the region in 1814. Like his predecessor Tupaia, he believed the Maori people were 'inferior to his own' * ` Europe has no monopoly of ethnocentrism. A Bengali 'lascar' settled in Northland about 1810, and remained there for at least ten years - the first known Indian settler. He advised Europeans in 1820 'not to appear alarmed' at anything Maori did. Like the missionaries, he believed that 'the firm and undaunted demeanour of, a white man will keep many natives at bay"' Whether he defined Bengalis as white is not dear.

Whalers, sealers, escaped convicts a -rid deserting seamen, as distinct from the small but growing minority of 'respectable' settlers such as missionaries, were consistently portrayed as agents of vice and fatal impact. They themselves mixed pragmatic acceptance of the Maori terms of economic and cultural trade with spasmodic racial contempt. Some expected recognition of superiority; to be Lord Jim among the savages. They were generally disappointed, but looked for opportunities to make their personal myths of empire true. They were not wholly pragmatic. The capitalist push behind empire pursued dreams of profit as much as profit itself. For a hundred years after 1783, Europeans dreamed of spinning New Zealand flax into gold, and risked their money and even lives on various projects for doing so. 'The subject of New Zealand flax could generate great excitement ... Hard-headed men like Simeon Lord found themselves plunging into schemes surrounded by dangers and pitfalls and spending money wildly; the language of their documents, their business agreements, and their memorials becoming more exotic as they became less realistic. There was a certain romanticism, dreams of an oily EI Dorado, about investment in whaling too - most shore-whaling stations failed to turn long-term profits. 'People,' wrote George Weller in 1837, 'are Black Whaling mad. Even sealing was viewed as a potential 'mine of wealth. George Bass, the Australian explorer, proposed in 1803 to make his fortune from a 21 -year monopoly of the export of South Island fish to Australia . Such hopes helped generate large-scale contact, which in turn generated expectations of fatal impact and empire. The pre- 1840 settlers and sojourners were significant in actual history too, bringing the things, thoughts and genes of Europe to Maori in considerable bulk. Non-Europeans, missionaries, Tasmen, Australian governors and entrepreneurs, British, American and French ocean whalemen - all were important agents of contact. But none was the most important.


Making Peoples
James Belich
Pp 137-39

Welcome to Hell....

Impact of the Ocean Whalers

The Ocean Whalers had a huge impact on New Zealand and the Maori. There could be as many as 15 ships at anchor off Kororareka, each had a crew of 20 to 50, so there might be 500 sailors ashore at any one time. Most were intent upon getting drunk and laid. They invested large amounts of money or trade goods into the local economy, paying for rum and sex. As Belich points out it was either “restraint, self abuse or the Yate solution”. Theres a book about this 'solution' I just can't remember the title at the moment.

“The missionaries were troubled by what they saw in Kororareka. Prostitution was one of the Bay's main industries and sexual favours were used in the purchase of many things, including muskets. Three-week marriages were commonly negotiated and many local women bore the tattoos of their itinerant lovers. In 1834 Edward Markham described how 30-35 whaling ships would 'come in for three weeks to the Bay and 400 [to] 500 Sailors requires as many Women, and they have been out [at sea] one year.... These young ladies go off to the Ships, and three weeks on board are spent much to their satisfaction, as they get from the Sailors a Fowling piece [shotgun],...Blankets, Gowns etc.' Another observer at the time described Kororareka as a 'Gomorrah, the scourge of the Pacific, which should be struck down by the ravages of disease for its depravity'. Its reputation as a lawless town with numerous bars and brothels saw it dubbed 'the hell-hole of the Pacific'.” (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/missionaries/kororareka)

The ships Captains also spent large amounts acquiring the fresh vegetables, meat and water that the crew would need. Almost all of this wealth made its way to the local Nga Puhi. While some was accumulated by the Ariki (Chiefs) most was distributed amongst the various Hapu and Whanau that made up the Iwi.

These Maori stood at a doorway to Europe, they filtered European goods values and technology. The distributed these goods to their whanau and gained great mana amongst their peers and their neighbours. Not only did they acquire iron tools and implements but also cloth and other desirable goods.

This meant that jealous neighbours or even kin also tried to acquire their own Pakeha. They could all see what the presence of Traders made for the Bay of Islands Nga Puhi. Hokianga Maori although related to the Nga Puhi and beneficiaries of an extensive trade in timber still viewed their relations with envy. (This would lead to their taking different sides in 1846 – but more on that later)

As well as Chiefs like Ruatara, Moehanga, Te Pahi and Hika many younger Maori journeyed to Sydney or further afield. At least one whaler had a Maori Mate (2^nd in command). They returned with their own versions of the world beyond the horizon. This was unfiltered by poor translation or particular viewpoints (Missionaries especially disliked this). They gained mana, brought back European goods and knowledge (Sea shanties to use of artillery) and many who had worked on whalers were paid in muskets. (Belich p137-8, 144-5).

The whalers also introduced disease to the local Maori, the most obvious being the STD’s that were spread amongst the ships girls. This led to a fall off in fertility. Other diseases also spread, but as has been noted New Zealand’s distance from the rest of the world had one advantage. Ships that departed for New Zealand carrying disease were at sea for at least 3 months often for 5.

Sufferers either recovered or died, either way the disease had effectively run its course by arrival time. (again I think this idea is from Belich). This didn’t make New Zealand disease free but it did for a time keep some of the old worlds worst epidemics at bay. Lesser disease did arrive and had similar effects to other Polynesian outposts. (Measles!)

Probably the greatest effect was in the trade of Muskets. Maori quickly identified the value of muskets in hunting, it was also seen as valuable in combat, but the relative scarcity did not make them truly useful just now (More to come later).

Ahoy there! The Whalers arrive...

Its funny, but Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone apparently wanted people to answer the phone by say "Ahoy there!". Funnily enough it never caught on.

Whales were highly valued for the oil that they produced, when their blubber was boiled down. The oil was useful in industry especially the factories of England but also in lighting the streets. Belich writes that Britain spent £300,000 per year on whale oil for its street lamps. Other parts of whale were also useful, bone, and baleen (the frilly teeth from baleen whales, was made into buggy whips and corsets.)

By the end of the 18th century Europe and America were running out of whales in the Atlantic. In 1792 the first Whaler arrived in the Pacific. Others quickly followed. They were looking for Right Whales and if possible Sperm Whales. Right Whales were valued because they were slow swimmers making them easier to catch and would float higher out of water making them easier to tow back to the ship. Sperm whales were harder to catch (audio) but each held a reservoir of Spermaceti oil in their head which was particularly valuable. (The reservoir was big enough for a man with a bucket to climb inside to empty!) Sperm Whales were also known as Catchalots because there was between 25 and 40 barrels of the valuable oil in the Spermaceti organ.
Whaling ships had the reputation for being rough and ready.

They (reputedly) smelt so bad you could smell them before they could be seen. When whales were sighted Whaleboats were launched and crews chased down the whales. Once harpooned the crew then endured the “Nantucket Sleigh-ride” until they exhausted whale could be harpooned again (and again) until it died. Then the whale (often with the help of less successful crews) was towed back to the ship. Whale blubber was then (flensed)cut off in huge strips which were then boiled in Try Pots giving off smoke and the dreadful stench. (think of the deception used at the end of Russell Crowe’s ‘Master and Commander’)

A whaling ship could be at sea for 2-3 years.

Whaling was dangerous. Few seamen could swim and life aboard the ship was dangerous enough let alone chasing and catching an angry whale. Moby Dick was based on a true story. The whaler 'Essex' was sunk in 1820 by an angry Sperm Whale that smashed in its side.

When they had the chance the Whaling crew wanted to let loose and have a (really) good time.
At first they called into Port Jackson to re-supply but quickly found the regulations and taxes (and corruption – early Sydney was run like a fiefdom by the Officers amongst the guards) to onerous. Luckily nearby was a tax free haven.

The Bay of Islands was already recognised as a world class anchorage. A tiny settlement Kororareka developed into what the Whalers wanted most, a safe anchorage, with plenty of food and water, cheap rum and women. From 1806 Whaling ships began to call into Kororareka. A ramshackle assortment of sheds whares and houses sprang up to service the various demands placed by Captains and Sailors alike.

The first Sojourners

Sealers began to arrive from Sydney in 1792. Traders and Merchants (like Simeon Lord) in the new colony saw the potential of the NZ coast to supply a lucrative trade in skins. Little consideration was given to the Natives of this coastline. Former convicts desperate to escape their miserable existence in Sydney cove were prepared to chance their arms. It was a precarious existence and one which was filled with the possibility of being marooned amongst, and eaten by heathen savages. By 1812 it was all but over, with the New Zealand Fur Seal almost extinct.

What was their impact on Maori? Not surprisingly it could be said to be relatively little. They exploited areas well away from the main Maori settlements even those of the Ngai Tahu. They had little to trade and often preferred to avoid contact with the cannibals who might choose to eat the seemingly worthless pakeha.

Some did become Pakeha-Maori integrating into their Maori hosts culture, accepted wives, tatooeing and cannibalism in some cases. James Caddell is an example of this.

However is some areas this was the reverse. In Southland and parts of Otago sealers did settle moving on from the sojourner to the settler - Johnny Jones being the best example.

The trade in muskets that occurred here would protect these Hapu from Te Rauaparaha in the 1830's.

Terra Incognita toTerra Nullis

Cook had beaten the French by only a few weeks. French explorer D'surville missed Cook (literally as ships in the night) and unaware of his contemporary renamed Doubtless Bay, Lauriston Bay. On his return to France, Benjamin Franklin used D'survilles notes to plan for the civilisation of New Zealand Maori. D'surville fell out with local Maori and kidnapped a chief who died on the voyage back to France. (surprisingly kidnapping a native wasn't altogether unusual). Another Frenchman, Marion Du Fresne also visited in 1772 but would end up being killed and eaten after his crew had inadvertantly broken tapu. The resulting massacre by his crew was not an unusual response. Cook returned to Britain with reports of the Countries and Peoples he had found.

These reports were read and notes made of what they offered to the Crown. Initially not much, as Britain had an enourmous empire in the Americas and was fully occupied there. Then in 1775 the Americans revolted. When it was over Britain had lost more than just their pride. Since industrialisation had begun to effect Britain, the cities had become larger, poverty had become widespread and with it crime. Prisons had been overwhelmed and in an effort to solve their problems they had exported their prisoners to Maryland and Virginia. Indentured workers were bonded to their employer for between 7 and 14 years. It had had provided a cheap labour for the American and helped solve Britains problem.With American ports closed to them, Britain looked to a temporary solution. Old retired warships and merchantmen were towed up the Thames to London and filled the Hulks with convicts.

A permanent solution was needed. Canada refused to have any, Jamaica had already turned its back on indentured whites (who suffered in the sun and had little immunity to tropical disease) for african slaves and so whites could not be used as forced labour there. (It would upset the idea of racial superiority if there were white slaves) so an expedition was sent to the Mosquito Coast to look for a suitable site for a penal colony.It was a disaster, with something like 80% of the expedition dying. (Malaria, Yellow Fever etc) and although the Government might not have cared about such a fatality rate, it would have been difficult to make such an enterpise economic, as well as difficult to recruit for (probably as popular as a posting to Iraq today) and finally humaniarians amongst the British public may not have been happy about such an arrangement.Then someone remembered Cooks detailed reports.

Analysis showed that the Maori in New Zealand might be to warlike and uncooperative about such an arrangement. But 'Botany Bay' sounded perfect and the 'wretched' people Cook described did not sound like they would provide any resistance. Joseph Bank's had grown to some importance and appears to have had some influence on the choice... except that 'Stingray Bay' (as named by Cook) was not very good as farmland. In fact while it boasted an impressive range of plants, it was effectively a swamp.As well as solving their problem with the convicts, Australia offered the possibility of a secure naval base. By now Britain and France were beginning to shape up for yet another war. There was a possibility that such a conflict could spread to the Pacific, (as both nations had commercial interests there). A base there would help secure trade routes. As a by product, the timber and flax in New Zealand might also be useful in reprovisioning a fleet.Naval ships at that time tended to go through masts and rope at a huge rate. Norfolk Island pines and New Zealand trees would make excellent masts or planking, while rope and canvas were both a product of treated flax.

In 1788 the First Fleet arrived off Botany Bay. The 780 convicts and their soldiers who arrived lacked any agricultural skills. They began to farm but failed miserably. Even a move to Sydney Cove did not dramatically improve their position. A move to trading for food with the Maori improved their situation which in the first few years was precarious. This contact with Maori increased steadily. New Zealand was now open to explorers and exploiters.

RIP Judith Binney

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10706660

In the Beginning

In the last week and a half we have looked at the origins of the Maori and the transition from Archaic to Modern cultures.
Maori arrived here from Polynesia (from last year)about 1000 years ago. They arrived in ocean going waka and for some time there may have been 2 way voyages. This ended about 1400 as the supply of Moa ended and the Kumara arrived.
This created a change in culture from Hunter-Gatherers to Agricultural. Modern Maori culture developed around the occupation and control of land. Tribalism developed around familial groups of Whana, Hapu and Iwi.

Ideas of Tapu and Utu were used as social controls.

We have also looked at the explorers and their impact on New Zealand. The most important idea attached to explorers is that they opened up New Zealand to the outside world. Maori discovered the rest of the world and its potential (within their own mindset) and Europe discovered a land that had political, military and economic potential (within their own mindset).

Of course New Zealand History doesn't start with James Cook. In fact it doesn't start with Abel Tasman. The Maori had a whole complete culture and world view before Europe "discovered" New Zealand. How the Maori got here isn't strictly part of the topic and if I stuck to the topic neither would Cook or Tasman. (our topic is NZ 1800-1900) History is fluid and you cannot understand any topic by looking at it in isolation.

Initial European interest in the Pacific was sparked by Spain's desire to find a route to the Indes in particular the Spice Islands (Today part of Indonesia). They simply sailed across the Ocean with little idea of its size. Some were lucky and with ideal winds crossed quickly, others sailed into the doldrums (Horse latitudes) and perished. It was later exploration by the Dutch, English and French which would open the South Pacific and in particular New Zealand to later adventurers.

The terms "Terra Australis" or "Terra Incognita" feature in this initial period of discovery. Europeans were convinced that there must be a land mass of similar size to Europe, Russia, China and North America . It was necessary to balance the globe otherwise it would simply tip over!

It was believed that such a land would like others create vast wealth from its natural resources. Everyone who followed the Conquistadors wanted the same luck. Of course the native people would be unaware of their mineral wealth and would gladly hand over control of these resources because of the benefits that contact with the Europeans would bring. (Western civilisation including possible enslavement, disease, loss of land, language and culture....)

A second factor was religion. The indigenous people would lack any understanding of Gods word, and would need to be converted. It was their duty to seek out and convert these heathens. It was also necessary to ensure they were converted to the "true" faith dependent upon the variety of the Christian faith which was followed. Thus Catholic and Protestant competed for the souls of the natives.

Another reason was simple curiosity. The late 18th and early 19th centuries were ones of great investigation and discovery. Europeans in paticular the French and British were searching further and further afield as they sought to open up the world. Science was breaking free of the shackles imposed by religion and superstition.Tasman arrived off the coast of New Zealand in 1642 looking for Australia. He'd managed to sail from Batavia in the Dutch East Indes along the coast of Western Australia then across the Great Australian Bight and across the sea that would later bear his name. Tasman missed Victoria and New South Wales completely! He more or less crashed into New Zealand by accident.

Having sighted the West Coast and being attacked at Murderers (Later renamed 'Golden Bay' for obvious reasons) Bay he left sighting "Giants" (through an imperfect lens perhaps?) on the Three Kings. He returned to Batavia by sailing north, Australia continued to elude him. His report when it arrived in Holland would prove that the super-continent Terra Australis did not exist. This meant that the little bit of land on his map was not Australia and needed a new name. The Mapmaker chose New Zeeland.

Maps based on those left by Tasman would be used in 1769 by James Cook who as we know travelled to Tahiti to view the transit of Venus. His secret orders sent him south to confirm that there was no super-continent (trust the British not to accept the word of Europeans!). Thus he discovered and mapped New Zealand and then crossed the Tasman Sea to at last find the east coast of Australia, that the wayward Dutchman had missed. Cook had the benefit of the H4, Harrisons new chronometer which allowed him to make some of the most accurate maps ever made. The new charts and reports of the resources in both places would lay the foundations for later exploration. He reported New Zealand was populated by a fairly civilsed, industrious, people and contained large quantities of flax and timber suitable for the needs of a navy. Australia especially the area near Botany Bay was well suited to settlement despite the "wretched" people that lived there.

The explorers had laid the groundwork for later exploitation and eventual settlement. Flax and Timber would be useful should Britain and France go to war in the Pacific - why not they'd managed to fight each other pretty much every where else!

Welcome to 2011

Welcome to Level 3 History.

Its going to be an interesting year and I am looking forward to some interesting fieldtrips... we will complete at least one to Te Papa and we are planning to spend a day in a bus looking at some sites of interest around Wellington. The big one will be the trip to the Taranaki which will be 3 and half days.