The candidate’s response to the second part of essay question could include:
Conflict continued sporadically but failed to successfully assert sovereignty through force of arms.
A skirmish at Allen’s Hill, above Omata, on 2 October 1863 involved members of the 57th Regiment, the Taranaki Mounted Volunteers and the Taranaki Rifle Volunteers. After the fighting at Allen’s Hill, the Māori built several pa on the Kaitake range, inland from Oakura. They were driven out of the area by troops and militia in March 1864 and a redoubt was built to protect local military settlers.
Te Ua Haumene’s failed to successfully contain the Pai Marie movement within its early focus on peace. While his message for Māori was the ‘triumph of righteousness’ over the military forces that were opposing their attempts to assert their sovereignty over their land, the involvement of some of his followers in the death of missionary Carl von Volkner saw many Pakeha regard his movement as far from peaceful.
After the death of Te Ua in 1866, Pai Mārire continued as the faith of the Kīngitanga. Matutaera, the second Māori king, had been rebaptised by Te Ua in August 1864 as Tāwhiao (bind the world). Tāwhiao took these teachings back to the King Country.
After the collapse of his attempts to assert sovereignty Titokowaru remained in Ngati Maru country until 1871, when he reoccupied his old territories, building villages at Omutarangi and Taikatu, and, subsequently, at Okaiawa, where his new meeting house was named Te Aroha Kainga. He came to a tacit understanding with the government that neither would molest the other; organised a highly successful commercial enterprise selling cocksfoot grass-seed to settlers and making £3,000 a year, and established an increasingly close alliance with Te Whiti and Tohu Kakahi at Parihaka. It was almost certainly Titokowaru's military reputation which protected central Taranaki as an independent Māori state through most of the 1870s.
By 1878 Pakeha fear of Titokowaru had faded sufficiently for creeping confiscation to begin again. At first Titokowaru did not actively oppose the surveys, and accepted government payments to the value of at least £900. By 1879 Titokowaru had joined with Te Whiti –o-Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi and was orchestrating a campaign of active but non-violent resistance: the removal of survey parties and their gear, the ploughing-up of disputed land, and eventually the overloading of government resources through the peaceful acceptance of mass arrest at Parihaka.
The New Zealand Settlements Act 1863 enabled the confiscation of land from ‘rebels’. Actually, all land appropriated under the act was in practice made available for Pākehā settlers. No serious effort was made to compensate ‘loyal’ or non-combatant Māori.
By 1865, 2 million acres (809,000 hectares) – the whole of the western projection of the North Island, from Pukearuhe in the north to the Waitōtara River in the south – had been seized, at least on paper
The Native Lands Act of 1862 was instrumental in the setting up of Land Courts to determine individual title to land previously held by communal interests. These courts removed land from Māori control more effectively than confiscation
Bryce ordered the arrest of Parihaka’s leaders. In the following days, he ordered the destruction of the village and the dispersal of the bulk of its inhabitants. The soldiers then systematically wrecked the settlement, and Māori tradition speaks of brutality and rape.
Te Whiti and Tohu were arrested in 1881 and exiled and imprisoned until 1883. In their absence, Parihaka was rebuilt and the ploughing campaigns continued into the 1890s. The imprisonment of Parihaka protesters without trial also continued until the late 1890s.
Te Whiti was charged with ‘wickedly, maliciously, and seditiously contriving and intending to disturb the peace’. Held without trial, he was not released until 1883, when he returned to the ruined Parihaka settlement. Te Whiti and Tohu continued to lead peaceful Māori protest, and Te Whiti was imprisoned again for six months in 1886.
Long promised reserves were eventually set aside for Māori owners, but most were placed in public trust and let to settlers on terms over which the Māori owners had no control. In 1892, the West Coast Settlement Reserves Act brought in a system of renewable leases to settlers on over 200 000 acres of Māori land. Māori persisted with the ploughing campaigns in protest at the Act. In 1897, 92 Māori were arrested for ploughing in protest at delays in resolving the grievances over the Native Trustee’s management of these leases.
The presses were banned from the field of action by Bryce. They were ambivalent about the government’s actions, but the great majority of colonists were reportedly in favour. Te Whiti and Tohu were detained without trial for 16 months. The government managed to suppress all official documents relating to these events, and their publication in New Zealand was delayed until 1883 and 1884. Some prisoners were held for up to 18 years without trial. Bryce and others were in time shown up as heavy-handed and fanatical.
In the absence of the leadership, Parihaka fell away and ceased to pose a threat to the government. Parihaka was destroyed for a time as a viable village. It never regained its full strength. Parihaka and other Taranaki villages lost most of their land to the confiscations.
Te Whiti and Tohu died in 1907 within a few months of each other. The white albatross feather, which Te Whiti’s followers adopted as a symbol protecting the mana of the Parihaka settlement, remains an enduring emblem among Te Ati Awa.
Topic Two: Essay Three
Describe the changes that took place in the gold industry in the North and South Islands between 1858 and 1900.
Evaluate the impact of these changes on the economic and social lives of people in both North and South islands until 1900.
The candidate’s response to the first part of the essay question could include:
From the beginnings of Pākehā settlement, there was a search for gold. The discovery of gold was encouraged by governments and dreamed of by individuals hoping to better themselves. Gold was valuable and portable, and it gave hope of wealth and vast profits. As an export, it would pay for imports.
There were rumours of gold in New Zealand as early as the 1820s, but it is usually accepted that the first gold discovery by a European was near Coromandel in 1852. There were later discoveries in Golden Bay (1856), Otago (1861), Marlborough (1864), and the West Coast of the South Island (1864). Significant rushes occurred only on the Coromandel Peninsula, the West Coast, and Otago.
The discovery by Gabriel Read in Otago sparked the first major rush in New Zealand. Gabriel’s Gully instantly became a canvas town. This was followed by the rush to Dunstan, which was sparked by the discovery made by Irishman Christopher Reilly and American Horatio Hartley.
The discovery of gold substantially and very quickly altered the course of New Zealand’s colonial history. The main period of extraction was from 1861 to 1865 in Otago, but there were also sustained periods of extraction in Nelson / Marlborough, Thames / Coromandel / Hauraki, and the West Coast of the South Island.
A full 194, 000 settlers came to New Zealand in the 1860s, largely to find gold or to make money as part of the huge support industry of publicans, theatre managers, store keepers, dancing girls, bankers, etc that followed the miners.
Exploitation of gold was done by private enterprise but regulated by government.
Most migrants in this period were male, unmarried, and young. This led to a significant gender imbalance on the goldfields in the South Island. The migrants were very multicultural. The Irish influx into Presbyterian Otago was described as “the new inequity”.
The search for gold was a worldwide phenomenon. Many of New Zealand’s gold miners had mined in California, Victoria, and New South Wales. When they left New Zealand, many of the miners went on to Queensland, Western Australia, or South Africa. The miners that stayed moved into other employment such as service industries, farming and coalmining.
The gold rush brought Chinese and non-British Europeans to New Zealand in large numbers for the first time.
The method of gold mining changed depending on the region in which the gold was being mined. In Otago and the West Coast of the South Island, the gold was extracted through the washing of alluvial gravels, silts and sand with simple cradles and sluice boxes (individuals). Little capital was required for this small-scale mining, and those involved shared in the returns. Methods changed to extracting gold with hydraulic sluicing systems using water races, pipes and hoses (groups), and then with massive dredges that worked whole river beds (companies).
On the Hauraki fields, the method of extraction was to crush gold-bearing quartz. This was no place for the individual miner. Local and overseas investors formed companies to raise the capital needed. Most of the gold that was found after 1870 was extracted by companies who paid the individual miners to work for them.
Many Otago miners believed that there must be a mother lode – a hard rock source of gold at the start of the river. At Skipper’s Canyon, Bendigo and Macetown, rich veins were found and worked. Otago’s schist held quartz reefs that contained gold. Rivers and glaciers had ground away at it over thousands of years, so there was often higher concentration on gold beneath the rivers and glaciers. There was no mother lode.
The price of gold rose steadily, and the methods of recovering it became more efficient, reworking the earlier gold fields was economic. Gold production continued after 1870 at an influential level, though there were no more successful ‘rushes’.
Quartz mining was important to the end of the century and beyond, providing about half the gold. It was revived after 1889 with the use of cyanide for extraction, which enabled the mining of low grade gold ore near Waihi.
In the decade 1890–99, the value of gold exports totaled just over £10 million; by 1900, the total value of gold produced in and exported from New Zealand was over 56 million, a quarter from quartz mines and the remainder alluvial gold.
The candidate’s response to the second part of the essay question could include:
Gold is not a sustainable industry; and since New Zealand had relatively small resources of ore, the industry could not become the basis of long-term economic activity. This was particularly so for the alluvial goldfields stage. During the 1860s, gold production from these fields had a dramatic but short-lived impact on New Zealand’s export earnings. In this decade, export income from gold exceeded that of all other export products, including wool. The second stage of the industry provided a smaller but steadier source of export earnings for the remainder of the century.
The income from gold sales had a dramatic impact on national earnings, but the effect was even more intense in the regions where gold was mined, especially in the South Island alluvial goldfields.
It stimulated development of a financial infrastructure. Banks – the Bank of New Zealand and the Bank of New South Wales did well as a result of the gold rushes.
It stimulated the beginnings of manufacturing (soap, beer, brick manufacture, etc) and later engineering with the dredging boom of the late 1890s.
Gold was a “boom and bust” industry, an unstable economic activity. Historians debate the importance of the gold rush to New Zealand’s history. Some argue that the impact of the gold rushes was relatively limited because they were very concentrated in terms of time and location. Most miners who came to New Zealand left again. Others, like Belich, disagree. They point out that right around the Pacific gold-mining rim, there was a drop-off and that a large group of gold miners and members of the support industry stayed in New Zealand. Their values and aspirations were very important in the shaping of New Zealand society.
A few lucky prospectors become rich out of gold, but others perished in winter floods and sharp snowstorms. Others developed scurvy because of their poor diets, which were often just tea and flour.
The discovery of gold opened up previously unsettled areas for settlement. It led to the rapid establishment of transport routes. At the peak of the West Coast gold rush, in 1867, there were about 29 000 people on the West Coast, which was around 12 per cent of New Zealand’s Pākehā population. Surveyors quickly followed the miners into new areas for settlement.
Gold led to major demographic changes in New Zealand in terms of gender, ethnicity, and location. It led to extensive male migration.
Many of the migrants who came for gold brought positive attitudes to hard work and versatile skills. They brought a different culture to many of the settlers with an emphasis on alcohol and gambling.
At times, the goldfields were lawless. There were murders, fights and claim-jumping. Most of the problems were associated with alcohol. At Christmas 1865, Hokitika’s 72 pubs were packed with drunken miners. Illegal liquor suppliers were common.
Gold contributed significantly to the economic and political dominance of the South Island during the second half of the nineteenth century. It can be argued that gold was one of the key factors in the emergence of ‘Middle Island Ascendancy’. It led to further rivalry between the provinces. The Canterbury provincial council offered £1 000 to anyone who found gold within the Canterbury province.
Gold also provided an incentive for foreign investors to put money into the New Zealand economy, including the Vogel Plan.
The miners needed shelter, clothes, alcohol, entertainment, food and equipment; and entrepreneurs supplied them with these. The entrepreneurs usually made more money than the miners.
Surveyors quickly followed the gold seekers to map the land and government administration also followed.
Lawlessness was largely prevented under the Gold Fields Act of 1858, which followed Australian precedents.
Most of the gold went overseas, mainly to mints in Melbourne, but much of the money that was paid for it went back into the New Zealand economy. The capital created by gold led to economic expansion in the 1870s. Gold created a sense of optimism about New Zealand’s future at a time when the North Island was experiencing considerable racial tension and war.
In 1865, Chinese, mainly from the Guangdong province, were invited to rework the Otago goldfields. They were very meticulous. They were the first large group of non-European migrants to come to New Zealand. They were the subjects of overt racism that culminated in a poll tax being introduced in 1881 to discourage migration. They lived in their own settlements, such as the Lawrence Chinese Camp. Most hoped to earn enough money to return to China, but many died in New Zealand. Large groups were disinterred to be buried back in China, but the boat carrying their bodies sank off the Hokianga in 1902.
Economic benefits of gold were variable. Dunedin had grown and prospered because of gold, but many of the townships that had sprung up when gold had been discovered declined with the absence of gold as miners moved on to the next place where gold was discovered.
Gold allowed women a range of economic activities. Not only were women employed as barmaids, entertainers and prostitutes, but a number of women became successful business women, running boarding houses and public houses. At one stage, all the hotels in Queenstown were run by women.
The influx of young single men helped shape a male – oriented culture that Jock Phillips describes in ‘A Man’s Country’. Miles Fairburn argues that the frontier society and the transitory nature of gold mining resulted in an ‘atomised’ society.
Candidates could argue that the gold industry increased the social problem of alcohol abuse, a problem that was to become one of the most important social issues of the later part of the 19th century.
While alluvial mining saw the emergence of men moving from place to place in pursuit of the illusory dream of wealth, men working in the quartz gold industry in the Coromandel were employed by the mining companies. The promise of regular employment enabled many of these men to settle down and marry.
Many of the miners who came to this country were skilled and literate men. They believed in self-improvement and set up Mechanics’ Institutes and Athenaeums and Libraries wherever they went.
Generally, the miners made New Zealand into a more dynamic and egalitarian society. The miners’ uncontrolled entry to this country, their disorderly behaviour and their pursuit of material advancement undermined any vestment of the older Wakefield settlements with their concentration on rank and respectability.
Topic Two: Essay Four
Describe the changes that took place in the development of New Zealand’s economy between 1840 and 1900.
Evaluate the influence of these changes on the political and social structures of New Zealand by the end of the nineteenth century.
The candidate’s response to the first part of the essay question could include:
The New Zealand economy was reliant on exports and imports but, until the 1880s, its exports were made up of a narrow range of primary products – wool, gold, and timber and this dependency led to a ‘boom and bust’ economy
Alluvial gold, timber, seals, flax, kauri gum, and whales (shore-based) were resources that were quickly depleted.
The dependence on exporting / importing made the New Zealand economy susceptible to overseas trends.
Until the late nineteenth century, many internal markets were often inaccessible due to a lack of safe harbours or rugged terrain.
New Zealand was so far away from its main overseas markets. Many potential export items were perishable. This distance made it very difficult to attract private investment.
New Zealand lacked trading relationships with other countries. It was reliant on Britain and the Australian colonies for goods and capital investment.
After 1840 government expenditure was vital for the development of the colonial economy.
From 1840 – 1860 Māori dominated the economy, particularly in the north of New Zealand where emerging settlements like Auckland were reliant on Māori to supply them with food.
Confiscation of productive land from Māori diminished the effectiveness of the Māori economy and allowed the Pakeha economy to develop and flourish. Establishment of Native Land Courts expedited the alienation of land from Māori control.
Wool was a key player in the developing economy. The development of pastoralism saw the value of wool as a commodity become significant in shaping the economy.
Timber declined in its importance to the economy as exploitation of this natural resource proved to be non-sustainable.
Gum was in demand for use in a number of industries, in particular in the manufacture of oil varnishes.
The discovery of gold led to a ‘gold rush’ which caused the stimulation of the national economy and the local economy of regions such as Otago, the West Coast and Auckland.
Within New Zealand there was often a local focus on economic development, rather than a national one. This was particularly so at the height of the Provincial politics era.
The Vogel Scheme resulted in rapid and significant development of the national infrastructure as bridges, railways, harbours, roads and telegraph lines were built. Further progress was made towards a national economy due to developments in transport and communications.
The increase in population through the Vogel Scheme also stimulated the economy. It created a temporary but significant domestic market: food for workforce, housing for immigrants, construction materials developed
From 1879 exports earned less, a reduction in borrowed capital restricted development, much of the economy was stagnant or contracting, and times were tough for many people. There was also some net migration loss. New Zealand was already burdened with overseas debts incurred in the 1870s. New Zealand imports exceeded exports by value 1872–85 (except 1880).
Wool continued to be purchased in Britain but the price New Zealand received for it dropped considerably.
Overseas demand for timber and kauri gum was erratic, and New Zealand’s production of gold was shrinking.
1882–83 was the last boom season for New Zealand wheat exports.
The dependence on a few staple exports led to balance-of-payment problems until refrigeration began to have an impact. Refrigeration helped bring greater prosperity by 1900.
Land speculation was reduced after the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank in 1878. British lending in New Zealand continued erratically 1878–85, and was halted by the collapse of the Auckland boom.
The South Island, dependent on wool and gold, was affected first by the economic downturn. Rural people were often affected before urban people, but in the country people could survive through subsistence living.
Places with diverse economic activity were slower to be affected. There was steady development in the Wellington province until 1885, based on railways and farming, and a property and timber-processing boom in the Auckland province 1875–85 where Māori land was available for purchase.
Urban manufacturing continued to grow, though more slowly after about 1886.
Bankruptcy rate increased, especially among big businesses and Auckland merchants once the effects of the ‘Depression’ reached the north.
Considerable social distress followed – swaggers were common, sweated labour of women and children, unemployment (up to 10% of the male workforce) especially in winter. There were falling marriage and birth rates, higher crime rates, and juvenile delinquency, prostitution, increased desertion of wives by husbands, increased male drinking and violence, poor housing, and health problems all seemed to be on the increase.
Contraction of credit, the borrowed capital on which the boom of the 1870s had been based. Private investors withdrew and some large estates crashed. Investors seemed to lose confidence in New Zealand.
There was a huge public debt of over £40 million in 1887. GDP declined in seven of the 17 years from 1879 to 1895. Most of the export prices fell considerably. There was reduced government spending especially on public works, and increased unemployment.
The cost of living in New Zealand fell, as did the cost of some imports, but working class wages dropped proportionately more and led to difficulties.
Migration to Australia exceeded immigration during the Depression leading to population loss.
Not everyone was poorly off during the ‘Depression’. Those with no debt or manageable debt found their income reduced but also their living costs. Some well-off people, especially pastoralists, remained affluent, eg, William ‘Ready Money’ Robinson in Cheviot, North Canterbury.
The balance of the population and economic activity began to shift from south to north.
The new products that refrigeration allowed led to increased dependence on the British market.
Acquisition of land from Māori, bush clearing and refrigeration all encouraged growth in the number of small farms.
The time taken to travel within NZ was reducing all the time. There was increased application of mechanisation and technology to farming and the processing of farm produce, which sometimes threatened farm labour.
Banks found themselves in financial difficulties. Due to the defaults on loan repayments, banks had no choice but to foreclose and take over material assets, which they did not want. In this way the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) became the largest landowner in the country. The bank itself was in great difficulty in the 1880s because the value of the properties against which it had lent money had fallen so much.
Historian Gary Hawke argued that there wasn’t a ‘depression’, instead there was a recession, as there was little fall in real income. Other historians suggest that the problems and concerns of the period do suggest a depression rather than a more temporary recession, using the issues of bankruptcy, unemployment, out-migration, sweating to support their argument.
The Liberal government actively worked to create a shift from extensive pastoralism to intensive pastoralism. Over 3,000,000 acres was removed from Māori control to allow the development of the small farmer in response to refrigeration.
The interventionist policies of the Liberal government and the growth of a prosperous lower-middle class in Britain resulted in a much stronger economy through the last decade of the 19th century. Refrigeration was able to take advantage of British prosperity and by 1900 the ‘protein bridge’ enriched both this country and Britain.
