Blythe Smart Publications

General Introduction

New Zealand is perhaps an enigma - located in one of the most remote places on the globe. It is popularly described in tourist videos as, “A jewel set in the deep blue Pacific,” containing many cultural and natural wonders and this is how many visitors perceive it.  However, the truth about this rather inaccessible country, its history, its people, and its social development, generally remains far more elusive than this.

  The first explorers to put the locality on the map were Abel Tasman a Dutchman in the 1660s, then Captain James Cook for the British Empire a century later. One of the main catalysts for settlement in Australia was the loss of the New England states at this time. New Zealand was then one of the last colonies in the 19th century, due to the distances involved, and its original settlement was linked to its already developing neighbour.

  Initially New Zealand was solely a base for whalers and a few settlers who saw potential in the swathes of rough grassland, created after the Maori burnt bush and forest. The country was of excessive beauty, and without predators a deafening chorus of birdlife rang in the air. It appeared as a sub-tropical paradise, tempered only by winds or storms from the oceans, and the presence of a volcanic fault-line along the Pacific Rim.

  It was Missionaries who started the first settlements in the extreme North, and there the Waitangi Treaty was signed with the Maori in 1840. This was a constitutional time-bomb made between Peoples with different understandings of politics and land ownership, and remains a source of extreme controversy right up until the present. The agreement was the “green light” for extensive settlement by the New Zealand Co. mainly in the North Island and in Nelson to the South, whereas European colonisation was completed with religious settlements by the Presbyterians in Dunedin and Anglicans in Christchurch.

  The Americans had fought the indigenous Indians for the prairies, and the Australians had repressed the Aborigines, and as these tracts were taken up in Aotearoa there was increased conflict with the Maori residents with matters coming to a head in the 1860s. These conflagrations involved pastoral settlers, colonial forces and Maori tribes especially in the Waikato, but in the case of New Zealand there was an outcome very different to the other two, one that in part was caused by its geographical location.

  The logistics and challenges of sending colonial troops some 12,000 miles, the physical problems contained within the country, and the greater rewards in other parts of the Empire such as India - meant the settlers never completely took the upper hand. This was a vital fact, since the Maori faction remained a strong political force up until today, and in turn this influenced the current social fabric to a considerable degree.

  During the following decade of the 1870s there was increased settlement from Britain, and journey times decreased with the introduction of steamers. However, the population never became very great and the main occupation was agriculture, with large areas given over to grazing. A number of towns also developed and modern ideas arrived including the telegraph and railroad, but fundamentally it remained “a pioneer country.”

  Many settlers began their new life in this rough, rugged landscape in sod huts or cob cottages whilst working the land. It was a place for independent, self-sufficient peoples, although as a contrast, the latest fashions arrived from Paris and architects trained in Europe built in current architectural styles. This left an enduring legacy of Classical and Gothic architecture, much of which remains unobserved by the casual visitor.

  Of these New Zealand settlers many emanated from Britain and tried to forge a “new” country in the image of the “old,” clearly a fact of some significance. They used much ingenuity to tame the challenging environment, in the absence of the greater resources found in Britain. This drive to forge a new nation left a legacy of architectural, urban and industrial sites - both familiar to the European and relevant to local conditions.

  In the early years, the land was isolated; visited only by wealthy Victorian tourists who enjoyed its unique culture and opportunities for adventurous exploration. Strong links persisted between Britain and New Zealand, which was similar in size and directly opposite on the globe. However, this link was gradually weakened as the latter became a Dominion, then a Country, whilst Britain was pressured to enter into new links with Europe. Settlement continued with the “Ten Pound Pom” in the 1950s, and the scale of isolation was reduced with mass air travel in the 1980s; but politically there was a popular movement away from Britain - in the guise of a Pacific Ocean republic.

   New Zealand in its entirety, or sometimes in part, was often described as being “more English than England,” however this is probably no longer true. In fact an Englishman visiting, or settling there, will find an unfamiliar land with different social development, climate and lighting, all embraced within a surreal rugged environment. The strength of Maori influence, a self-definition as ‘not British,’ and many Asian newcomers has created a multicultural society considerably different from America and Europe.

  In terms of the contents this produces a strange dichotomy. Many of the historic sites have their origins in British or European colonisation, but are preserved by those who no longer look to that origin, nor do they attach to it. However the first settlers were in fact ancestors of today’s inhabitants, leaving a legacy of government, architecture, industrial heritage, and transport infrastructure colonial in its inception. Of these, many remained, although others returned with their profits to England’s stucco mansions.

  As a consequence there is a Nationwide Heritage claimed by New Zealanders, but with many influences looking back to a Britain and Europe - no longer seen as “home.” In contrast, the Maori indigenous people with their strong sense of ancestry, identity and place have a much more dominant cultural influence. Such issues of culture, settlement and society are now developed - within a discussion of the significant architectural and historic sites of New Zealand, “A resplendent jewel within the Pacific.”