The green green grass of home....

...apologies to Tom Jones...

As we discussed in class Pastoralism is the farming of pasture (aka grass). In New Zealand this has traditionally been in conjunction with either sheep or cattle.

Before 1882 pastoralism was associated with sheep (and mainly Merino) and the wool they produced. In farming terms this is called extensive sheep farming. The farms are large and a long way from town. The farms had their own name, 'stations' or 'runs' borrowed from their equivalent in Australia and most likely carried across with the earliest sheep farmers who came over to the South Island in the 1850's.

This was the also the origin of the term "Cockie" for farmer (Borrowed from Ockers where the Cockatiels that infested farmland especially at harvest time). This period from the 1850's was the 'wool period' when the imported Merino sheep ruled the tussock lands of the South Island, and the flat lands of the Wairarapa and Hawkes Bay. This period saw the creation of vast estates especially in the South Island.

Using the Australian model it was a simple matter of claiming land with the Provincial Government and lease-holding the land, often with the view of making it freehold as quickly as possible. Although as we will discover they did not always own all of the land they controlled. The key was liquidity and the creation of huge flocks of sheep. New Zealand's climate provided warm weather and plentiful rain, which meant plenty of grass, a few ewes and a ram did the rest. Samuel Butler doubled his money in only a few years before retiring home to GB to write his book "Erewhon" based on his experiences at his station "Mesopotamia".




The Stations needed large pools of labour, especially at shearing time. Itinerant shearing gangs travelled with the season southward (the season started in the north) to stations as they were needed. Wool could then be stored and transported to port for shipping to Britain. Wool developed a new market in coastal transportation. All of this activity created vast wealth for a favoured few and left a bitter taste in the mouths of many migrants who found land difficult to acquire in the 1870's. In the south this wealth tended to dominate local and later national politics. In 1882 this all changed.

REFRIGERATION. (1882...)

The wool period was responsible for opening up large areas of the South Island and created a new class of land owners. By the end of the 1860's most of the South Island was owned by a relatively small number of families. The Sheep stations were enormous with tens of thousands of sheep supplying vast quantities of wool, but relatively little meat. It turns out Merino meat is not very tasty. (fishy apparently?) Apart from areas of the Wairarapa and the Hawkes Bay sheep farming made little impact in the North island, due in part to the less suitable heavily forested land and the reluctance of Maori to sell their land.

The confiscations and the Land Court would in the main remove the Maori from this equation, but the forest would slow down any development. By the 1870's the growth in Britain's population and its increased earning power created a demand for better quality food from around the world, increasingly they demanded meat - fresh or frozen. Argentina had already sent shipments across the Atlantic with some success. Australia sent its first shipment in 1871, giving sheep breeders in New Zealand hope that they to could establish a new industry. The work of a few enthusiastic and entrepreneurial Otago runholders saw the first shipment of sheep meat sent to Britain in 1882.

The voyage of the 'Dunedin' in 1882 is accorded little real significance in our history certainly less than it deserves, and yet it is the watershed/tipping point in our history.Only one carcass was rejected at the end of that first voyage, and reports were very favourable. So successful was this venture that British farmers demanded that shipments be labelled as 'New Zealand Mutton'. Initially we sent only Merino and mainly mutton, but quickly adapted to British demand for lamb. This worked both ways, the British got tastier meat in small (oven size) portions, we got to send more carcasses which were worth more.

We also changed the breeds of sheep, Merino remained on some Runs producing high quality wool, while Corriedale and other breeds were producing a mix of wool and meat. In 1882 we sent 35,000 carcasses, by 1900 it was 3.5m per annum.





Butter and Cheese suddenly joined the export list. It also allowed farming to expand in the North Island. Taranaki and the Waikato especially became viable. Chew Chong established the first cooperative and suddenly Dairy Co-ops sprang up everywhere. Farmers pooled their money to establish the factory, supplied the milk and cut down Kahikatiha to box up the product.

Exporting exploded to feed the insatiable British demand. Of course Belich has considered the 1880's a period when New Zealand which had begun to spread its wings was suddenly dragged back under Britains aprons strings to become her garden albeit one that was 12,000 miles away.

The downstream effect of refrigeration lay in the new industry surrounding the killing and processing of the meat. Refrigeration led to Railways to ship the meat and Cool stores to keep the meat, under the Vogels schemes, road and rail became a necessity to transport the meat to port where it was stored. While the main trunk line connected the main centers, branch-line's were used to connect the hinterland to the ports.

In many respects refrigeration created a new demand for land, but land was still hard to find. However the 'Long Depression' which arrived in 1879 with the collapse of the Bank of Glasgow had already begun to impact with many of the stations falling into financial hardship. The new exports helped but many were to over stretched and became bankrupt. It would take the Liberals to free up land for the 'little' man.

The Colour of Money: Gold Fever

During the 19th Century gold held an incredible hold over the imaginations of people. For many it was a quick route to wealth. As a result there were massive gold rushes in various parts of the world. The first was to California in 1848, the prospectors who took part were called ‘49er’s… This was followed by the Victorian rush in the 1850’s and the Eureka Stockade insurrection that followed.

The economies of these areas grew enormously. The huge numbers of prospectors and the services they demanded created a lot of wealth (little of which actually came from finding gold). Melbourne grew from a small settlement of about 30,000 to a million i about 50 years. Gold was a quick and easy route to local, regional and national prosperity. Although the Gold was not expected to last it would provide a major kickstart to a regions economic growth, hopefully pushing it beyond the tipping point where the growth would continue....

As a result the provincial Governments were desperate to find gold somewhere within their regions. Several offered rewards to anyone who could find it. New Zealand appeared to have the geology (although that was a relatively new science) so it simply appeared to be a matter of finding it. Early discoveries of ‘colour’ were made in Nelson and the Coromandel but were unworkable.

Eventually as you know an Australian Gabriel Read discovered gold in Otago in May 1861 and the rush was on. The province exploded, prospectors arrived from all around the world, but especially from Victoria. Many were keen to escape the taxation and corruption of the Australian fields. In Otago they were taxed less and received larger claims to boot.

This was alluvial gold, which could initially be easily found by individuals. Later small groups or collectives formed to extract the gold from the riverbanks.

Eventually gold was also found in the West Coast, Nelson and again in the Coromandel. When news of the discovery on the Coromandel arrived in Auckland, the male population of the city disappeared overnight, emptying stores of pans, shovels and food. Many were disappointed to find the gold locked away in the rock.

These later discoveries were quartz based gold, which required even larger amounts of money, the days of the lone prospector were numbered. Companies formed in Christchurch, Wellington or Auckland were formed to buy the equipment needed to extract the rock and crush it. This needed water or steam power, and the giant stampers which kept Grahamstown (Thames) awake 6 days a week.

Gold remained an important export commodity for much of the century. Its importance lay in the changes it made to the physical and social fabric of New Zealand. Much of the South Island was now settled with towns spread from north to south and east to west.

Much of the island had been explored and for a time Dunedin was the country’s largest city. South island run-holders were able to expand as the population gave them a market for their meat. The miners also brought with them a belief in equality and the early ideas of mateship that were also developing in the bush frontier settlements of the north. This was especially strong on the West Coast where large numbers of Irish established themselves along with their Catholic beliefs.

In terms of importance Gold was a major export for the country through the remainder of the century. It brought tens of thousands of migrants to most of the South Island opening up areas that had previously been empty. It reinvigorated a slumping pastoral industry and created an infrastructure to support itself and affiliated industries. It helped to fund the wars in the North which in turn created a call for secession between the Islands.

The Bush Frontier - Timber

The early exploiters of resources like timber have been described by Belich as "Tasmen" a way of explaining the importance of Australia in our early industrial development. Like other forms of exploitation it was based mainly on the coastline with a high level of interaction with local Maori.. Hokianga provided a safe Harbour with an abundance of readily available timber and cooperative Maori (Ngapuhi). It should be remembered that the captain of the Boyd was lured into a trap by the promise of timber...

In terms of significance - by 1840 a third of the 2000 Europeans in New Zealand were actively involved in the timber trade.

Later the cutting of timber became an important part of opening up the interior as more Maori land became available. It was both an important part of the local economy - most of the early settlements were constructed form Kauri, and also an important export commodity.

Early timber trade centers in the north. Its based mainly around the north and especially the Hokianga. Many ships called in around New Zealand to pick up timber in ad hoc arrangements but a real 'trade' developed in the Far North. It was aimed at extracting wood for ships spars and later developed into cut wood for the Sydney building trade. Kauri was the main timber felled later as building trade in Australia and Auckland - the shift to Auckland resulted in an explosion in building for the new Capital. The Bush frontier would last well into the next century.The trade created a new type of New Zealander, the Bushman. Living on the edge of the bush (and sometimes well inside it) they were almost devoid of female company resulting in the idea of 'mateship' which was also developing in Australia.

Groups of men living for long periods in close proximity and in occupations which were extremely dangerous meant that real and long lasting friendships were created.Good manners and behaviour was expected and any who failed to follow the (often unwritten) rules would not last long in the camp.

The worst that could be said of a man was that he did not pull his weight on the job or that he was a thief or a cheat (gambling and alcohol was strictly banned in most camps). Any of these failings could mean that no-one would employ a man and he would have to leave the district and hope his reputation did not follow him to his new job.Miles Fairburn has used some examples to justify his idea of transience and lack of community. Subsequent research has seriously challenged this with many examples of 'mates' or familial groups working together for many years - sometimes for decades.

The sense of community extended to welfare, injured workers were ferried out by mates who would carry thier friend out on their shoulders or backs. If a death occurred leaving a family, the ir effects (clothes, tools etc) would be auctioned with their mates often paying well over the odds for the second-hand gear.

Timber saw the development of new technology, Pit Saws gave way to Steam and Bullocks were sometimes replaced by Bush trams (converted Traction Engines!!!)

The Timberjack was invented to assist the movemnet of the giant logs, as was the the Kauri Dam to move logs through hilly terrain, especially where the Corduroy Roads and Bullocks could not.

The Timber industry opened up new areas, assisting in the spread of farming and established many small towns in new area, especially the 70 Mile bush between Wellington and the Hawkes Bay, the Central North Island and in the Taranaki. The Sawmill that followed the workers attracted other small businesses . If the timber lasted long enough a small town could develop, sometimes it might be able to withstand the loss of the trade and continue to flourish as farming replaced the trees. ( Dannevirke or Featherston). If the timber ran out too quickly the town might not survive the loss. (Anyone remember Mauriceville?)

Vogels really cunning plan...

Vogel is an important figure in our history and yet the bread is better known than he is. He arrived as a Gold miner, was editor of the ODT and became a local politician in Otago, championing the idea of secession when southerners became irate at the idea that their taxes were paying for the northern war. Then he moved to central Government he would champion the rights of the Government over the Provinces, eventually having them abolished when they got in his way. His scheme which he proposed as Treasurer in 1869 was simple.

Borrow some money, use some of it to pay for Migrants to come to New Zealand and the rest to build the infrastructure needed to support the larger population as well as opening up more of the country to settlement. The migrants would expand the economy and generate more income, paying for both the interest and the loans themselves. Initially the scheme was received well.

Last year Freya asked why would the conservatively minded 'Continuous Ministry' support such a change? The answer was that public opinion drove them and many were businessmen who saw a quick quid in it for themselves as well. (Given the recent events the 2009 MP is remarkably like the 1870's version). Once the public began to clamour, the MP's willingly went along. However see below...

Almost universally it was seen as a way of boosting the colony and making many people rich. Vogel wanted to borrow 10m pounds but ended up lending 20m, a liability that would weigh heavily on the Government for many years. The road and rail networks were built and a lot of land opened up to settlers.Areas like the Wairarapa (70 Mile Bush) were opened up, and the population was doubled. new towns like Dannevirke appeared and prospered. The economy expanded but the Depression pushed down commodity prices so that the economy stagnated with real incomes reducing despite wages increasing. (ie Inflation was higher that wages).

The population now included a more diverse ethnicities, including the more well known Scandanavians, but also Italians and French settlers arrived.The scheme was poorly run, money was squandered, road and rail networks were not always built where they were needed - often favouring well placed politicians and their favourites. Few of the 100,000+ people were suited to the type of work expected of them, and many preferred to stay closer to towns or cities, ignoring the opportunities in the rural areas.

This created a new (but old) phenomenon, slums. An evil many settlers thought they had left behind in Europe. Older colonists viewed them as 'scum' who were a liability and a hindrance to progress, they were angry when the expected benefits - improved wages, higher land values did not always eventuate. This was not helped as the (Long) depression hit in the latter part of the decade. Politicians who had supported Vogel abandoned him, and he eventually left for London.

There he wrote a fairly prophetic book called (I think) 2000AD about a New Zealand where the heads of Government were female...(Helen must have felt vindicated!

A CMap for Migration

This is the Cmap handed out in class.

Right click to view a large version.

Site Usage 2011

Last August I gave a quick update on site usage. I have had a some nice comments recently about the information that I've put up on nzhistory.blogspot... so this last month we had 721 visitors with 610 from New Zealand. Auckland wins again with 278 visitors but I am pleased to see we had 3 visits from Kawau Island! This year the most popular pages are Missionaries and Maori Reaction, Gold Mining (again) Prophets and Parihak. What was happening on March 24 this year we hit 264 visitors. Since I started the blog we've had 24,102 visitors with 46,000 page views. Its nice to see it being used.

Using Papers Past: Wellingtons Constitution

In April 1840 the New Zealand Company Settlers issued this Constitution. What does this tell us about their view of Hobson in the Bay of Islands? Of course Hobson could ignore this.

Below is a poster about the 1852 Constitution that Grey allowed.


And in the same edition a confirmation by "local Chiefs".

Philips and Hearn on Immigration

Between I840 and 1852 (the Crown Colony period) about 27,500 people arrived in New Zealand, of whom about two-thirds came direct from the United Kingdom. The numbers were not great, but they were significant in establishing future patterns. The major explanation for this migration is the recruiting efforts of the New Zealand Company and its offshoots, the Canterbury Association and the Otago Association. Though inspired by Edward Gibbon Wakefield's vision for an ordered community, the company was a business proposition. It purchased land from Maori for on-sale to investors who were expected to come out as 'colonists'. Many of them chose not to do so, especially those who bought land in Nelson, but a few did and became significant figures in the new communities.

Of the 27,500 people who came to New Zealand in these years, about 14,000 - over half - came as assisted immigrants, their passage paid for by the Company or its successors.

In the mid- 1840s the number of such immigrants fell to a trickle as the company faced legal and financial difficulties, the Northern War broke out and there was growing pessimism about the colony's future. Then came a second wave of assisted migrants. There was an organised group from Scotland led by Free Church Presbyterians, who arrived with boatloads of Scots in Otago in 1848. Two years later the Church of England Canterbury Association brought the first four ships of English settlers to Lyttelton.

Auckland also attracted a few smaller organised groups. In 1842, amid claims that the British government had breached an understanding not to send convicts to New Zealand, 98 young boys from Parkhurst Reformatory arrived. Another 31 followed a year later, but such was the outcry that the experiment was not repeated. Also in 1842, as we have already seen, 514 people from Paisley, near Glasgow, came out to Auckland as a response to the depression in the local shawl-making industry. There were also over 400 assisted under the Poor Law Amendment Act, administered by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners.

Finally, the 1840S saw some free settlers arriving in the colony as individuals. There were some government officials, merchants and aspiring younger sons of the respectable class who came out to make a mark in the colony. Auckland attracted a number of independent immigrants from across the Tasman, including quite a few people with an Irish background.

Between 1853 and 1870 the Pakeha population rose from about 30,000 to over 250,000. Much of this increase was the result of immigration. During these years almost 250,000 people migrated to New Zealand and about 100,000 left, resulting in a net gain of almost 150,000 Probably two-thirds of the long-term migrants came direct from the United Kingdom (with the rest largely from Australia),

The provincial governments took responsibility for immigration under the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852. For the next eighteen years, until the central government began to take over immigration, most of the provinces had schemes for encouraging migrants. Usually provinces hired agents in Britain and Ireland to go out and recruit immigrants with the offer of cheap (that is, 'assisted') or free passages to New Zealand. Immigrants were seen as the key to growth and prosperity Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Nelson and Southland all had small schemes for bringing in immigrants. Otago province was more active, but unfortunately most of its records have been lost

Auckland province used a different system to attract migrants - the lure of land. Under a scheme introduced in 1858, agents in the United Kingdom had authority to grant land orders to prospective emigrants at the rate of 40 acres for every person aged eighteen or over, and 20 acres for those between five and seventeen. In the ten years of the scheme 15,516 land orders were issued, and these were probably responsible for bringing in over 40 per cent of Auckland's immigrants during these years.

Phillips and Hearn - Settlers NZ Immigrants 1800-1945

The Progress Industries

Belich has labelled the waves of migration that occurred in 1840's and 1870's as explosive.

In class, we mentioned the status of the different types of migrant. Planned settlers were those brought over in planned schemes... The NZ Company in the 1840's and the Vogel migrants in the 1870's immediately spring to mind. They were a deliberate attempt to create communities with working social systems, hence the desire for families and later single women to balance out the ratios.

Amongst these groups there were also those who paid for their passage (voyage) and were allocated cabins and better accommodation on board ship. They were also allowed to bring more luggage and were given better meals during the trip. The ships carried a lot of livestock usually sheep, pigs, poultry and sometimes cows which provided a steady stream of fresh meat, eggs and milk. Others, were Assisted passengers whose passage was paid for. They had limited allocation of luggage and existed in the Hold of the ship crammed in with little or no privacy. Their food was also limited being mainly preserved meats and biscuit (Ships bread).

The migrants who arrived sought land and the possibility of improving their station in life (their class). Initially economic growth was limited by a lack of available land especially around the NZ . Co. sites of Wellington, Nelson, Wanganui and New Plymouth. Auckland had fewer limitations while Christchurch and Dunedin established in 1848/50 had easier access to land.

Wellington and Nelson began to develop after the Hutt Valley war when the Ngati Toa stranglehold was broken. Wanganui had to wait for the end of the 1860's and the suppression of Titokowaru before they could buy land from Maori willing to sell or use the Land Court to acquire it from Maori who did not.

Economic expansion took place as the population grew. Farming initially was at a subsistence level until enough land could be broken in to create a surplus capable of being sold in local towns and cities. Tecnological advances would increase production and the development of the interior beyond the hinterland saw export industries develop beyond the timber, flax etc model.

Extensive sheep farming did not support large numbers of Yoemen farmers, but Dairying did. Sheep helped opened up the South Island and Milk Cows and farming Co-ops opened up the North Island.

Elsewhere Unplanned Immigration took place principally around Auckland where the presence of the Government meant a building boom in the 1840's. The discovery of Gold in 1860 saw a huge explosion (Belich) in immigration with tens of thousands of miners heading for the various gold fields, of Otago, the West Coast and later Thames.

Surprisingly it is Auckland an unplanned site which achieves the best growth in the first few decades of the settlement. This is primarily on the back of a boom in building due to the presence of the government and later its role as port (with two harbours) for the import and export of goods made it attractive to settlers looking for work. Readily available land also made it more attractive than the southern townships which were facing Maori opposition to settler expansion. In the 1860's the steady build up of the military to fight the King also turned Auckland into a 'little Sydney'.

Some of the first unplanned migrants had in fact been Australian Squatters who fled the drought stricken Australian grasslands for the south island. Their numbers were rapidly overtaken by the Planned settlers in Christchurch and Dunedin who also saw the potential for Sheep farming on a grand scale. Through various rorts most of the South Islands best land had been taken over by 1890.

Economic development relied on a growing population to create the local markets, provide the initiative and funding for further development and the labour to work on the newly acquired land.

NEW 2011 (taken from a Belich speech)

Progressive colonisation, my first era, was characterised by immensely fast growth. New Zealand grew, in terms of pakeha, from 2000 settlers in 1840 to half a million people by the early 1880s, in 42 years. The economic centrepiece of the progressive colonising system was something I call the progress industries. Basically, they were massive, assisted immigration schemes, frenetic public and private development of transport infrastructure, and so on. An example of the kind of leading archetype is the Vogelian rail building boom that ran at five times the rate of any other rail building in New Zealand history.

The whole thing was funded by British credit. This was extracted from London to the extent of 71 million pounds between 1840 and 1886 by New Zealand entrepreneurs who didn't ask politely, but rather whistled south Britain's spare millions, like a pack of Pied Pipers. For 71 million, of course, you should read billion in terms of contemporary social impact.

The progress industry had a number of allied extractive industries: flax, timber and most notably gold. But despite substantial gold and wool exports the New Zealand economy under progressive colonisation was a net importer of both goods and capital. Progressive colonial New Zealand was town and camp led. Settlement was led by towns and camps, not by farms. The notion that it was farm led is a retrospective myth supplied by the succeeding era, each generation writing its own history.

Progressive colonial pakeha had all the ethics of a calicivirus in their attitudes to both nature and natives. They mowed through thousand-year forests like grass; they burned hills into sheep walks where sheep could barely stagger; and they impacted massively on the indigenous Maori people who, despite a remarkable resilience and a remarkably effective resistance, were eventually marginalised.

Term 3 Economy and Politics

New Zealand 1800 1900 Part B Economy And Politics 2011 Class Version

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