Book Review Archives -

30Jun2024

Book Review: ‘Who Really Broke the Treaty?’

June 30, 2024

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The answer to the book’s title question has huge implications for New Zealand

By Roger Childs

Waikanae’s John Robinson is one of the country’s best historians. He has written more than ten books on New Zealand history covering various subjects related to the last 200 years and the present scene. They are all based on extensive research with an emphasis on primary sources and the observations of people writing at the time. He rejects Maori oral history as being unreliable, a conclusion endorsed by the great Maori writer Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck)

Basically, John Robinson says that it was Maori who broke the Treaty and he provides copious evidence to back his conclusions, which begs the question what have we got a Waitangi Tribunal for?

Set up in 1975 the Tribunal has been investigating and ruling on breaches of the Treaty by the Crown and European settlers. Maori breaches are not considered – murdering civilians, robbing goods and stock from farmers and other settlers, burning down homesteads and farm buildings, and rebelling against the government.

Personal experience

The author has first-hand experience of the dishonesty of the Tribunal. As an expert in demography (the study of population) some years ago he was asked to provide evidence linking the population decline of Maori after the signing of the Treaty to the introduction of British control and subsequent colonization. After extensive research, John Robinson could find no evidence of such a correlation, but concluded that the slaughter of thousands of women and girls in the pre-1840 inter-tribal wars meant that after 1840 there was a shortage of potential Maori mothers and a consequent decline in population numbers.

The Waitangi Tribunal would not pay him unless he changed his findings. (This also happened to academic Giselle Byrnes.) This patent dishonesty of the Tribunal set John Robinson on a path of writing books that rejected the falsification of our country’s story and set out to tell the truth about New Zealand’s History.

A dishonest and incompetent organization

In examining the breaches of the Treaty, the author highlights the many shortcomings of the Waitangi Tribunal and how it has steadily grown into a self-perpetuating racist body with the goal of dividing the country and promoting the special rights and status of part-Maori.

Robinson covers how the organization:

uses a variation of the unauthorized English “Freeman Treaty” to make decisions instead of relying on the only valid agreement: Te Tiriti o Waitangi which was written in Te Reo;
fails to acknowledge the manifold breaches of Te Tiriti by Maori:
encourages Maori groups to “find” evidence of the Crown and other authorities disadvantaging Maori:
has made judgements based on inaccurate evidence, which have given hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to tribes, and divided the nation in a New Zealand version of apartheid.

He favours the immediate closing down of the Tribunal and an end to the “Treaty industry” gravy train. He laments the fact that mainstream media support the status quo and will not objectively examine current Tribunal issues.

What lies ahead?

The author is not confident that the present National-led Coalition will turn the tide. He likes the idea of David Seymour’s proposals to enshrine three basic principles about New Zealand in our “constitution” – upholding sovereignty, furthering democracy and supporting equality for all. How could anyone not support such fundamental beliefs?

However, he is dismayed that Prime Minister Luxon is lukewarm on the ideas of having a referendum on the principles, and given a positive majority, passing legislation to embed them in our constitution.

John Robinson is concerned that most of the country’s population are complacent about the current situation – New Zealanders lack an understanding of the shared ideas that bind a nation together. The last two sentences of the book spell out what needs to happen. New Zealand must collectively wake up and turn from separatism, racism and apartheid to equality and unity. Until then, the majority will continue to be subordinate, and the possibility of racial conflict will remain.

An important book to read

Who Really Broke the Treaty is right up to date and amongst several useful appendices are the Coalition Agreements which spell out, among many policy goals, ACT’s and New Zealand First’s wishes related to dealing with the present inequality and division. National has agreed, but is currently dragging its feet on taking action.

John Robinson’s timely 158 page book is fluently written and carefully researched with supporting footnotes and a comprehensive set of references. Ask for it at your local bookshop or library and if, because of political bias, they don’t stock Tross publications, tell them it’s time to stop their boycott on the company’s many excellent books. Alternatively, you can order online at https://www.trosspublishing.com/ and purchase the book for $35, postage paid.

8Jun2024

Book Review – The British Empire; A Force for Good

June 8, 2024

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By Crispin Caldicot

Reblogged with the kind permission of The BFD

This tome represents not just a labour of love, but at nearly 600 pages a massive piece of scholarship. 101 of the territories that made up the British Empire are investigated for their fortunes, before, during and after they became British.

What makes this book stand out is that it asks questions that have not been asked, or have simply been avoided, and draws conclusions that should be uncomfortable for many. What was the American Revolutionary War really about? Could it be that the colonists were motivated by a perceived threat from Britain that slavery was going to be abolished? If so, they were correct, and successful. Their victory left them free to chase the former Indian inhabitants as far west as they desired, and maintain slavery in the name of Freedom and Democracy. As the author points out, of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, 41 including Washington and Jefferson were slave owners. As Doctor Johnson said at the time: “How is it that the loudest yelps for liberty come from the drivers of Negroes?”

Britain did of course abolish slavery and the cost to the nation in both lives and money of policing this policy through the Royal Navy was enormous. By mid-century, the squadrons dedicated to capturing the slave-traders accounted for half of all naval spending. Yet the Americans persisted – one US Congressman stated the persistence of British cruisers of the anti-slavery patrol was unwarranted and destructive to private interests. Britain however maintained the moral path and by 1890 the trade in slaves had been all but eliminated on both coasts of the African continent – though there was an incident as late as 1922 involving HMS Cornflower and 29 slaves in the Red Sea.

Britain began a ruthless disposal of its colonies, whether they wanted it or not, after World War II. There was pressure from many sources, but the case of Southern Rhodesia is illuminating in context. The nation had become highly successful, and a bread-basket for Africa. Ironically its economy boomed under sanctions, but why did the British Government insist this thriving nation be handed to a tyrannical African who rapidly turned it into a basket case? It is not wholly clear but the experience of empire building certainly did not prevent Britain from proving equally adept at chicanery and dishonour when pulling it all apart later. Rhodesia was not an atypical case.

Diligently researched, there is much to surprise and enlighten those who have any interest in history. McLean has cast a refreshing lens over the contemporary popular views that all empires are evil and Britain’s doubly so. His conclusion is that the British Empire was indeed a very positive force that enhanced the lives of millions. His book proves there is always another side – frequently hidden and/or shocking – to every story. Highly readable.

1Jun2024

Book Review – The British Empire; A Force For Good

June 1, 2024

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First published on the Breaking Views blog and written by Mike Butler. Republished here with permission.

The British Empire – a force for good, a new book, is a refreshing antidote to the current zeal for decolonisation, which encourages us to reimagine history as “a morality play in which white men are the baddies”.

Author John McLean, a writer and publisher, who has a MA in history and a Bachelor of Law from Victoria University in Wellington, and did Bar finals at Grays Inn in London, tells the stories of Britain’s 101 colonies established over 400 years, capturing the boldness and zeal of the pioneers who built the empire.

The story of the British Empire starts during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

“Her defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 gave her people pride, patriotism, and self-confidence which led them to believe that in that buccaneering age they could do great things for themselves and their country”, McLean wrote.

At that time, south and central America had already been carved up by Spain and Portugal, and Pope Alexander VI had issued a papal bull which established the Doctrine of Discovery which drew an imaginary vertical line west of the Azores that gave to Spain all land to the west of it, and to Portugal all land to the east.

Britain, which was in the Elizabethan age no longer part of the Pope’s Catholic empire, took territories in North America, claimed by proclamation by Sir Walter Raleigh, the adventurer who brought tobacco and potatoes from the new world to the English Queen.

After a failed attempt to build a colony at Cape Cod in Massachusetts, three ships carrying 105 colonists set out for Virginia, arriving on May 6, 1607.

That first colony at Jamestown was the trigger for all future British colonisation, and a variation of this basic pattern was used in New Zealand 233 years later.

The first charter to the Virginia Company outlined the basic plan for British colonisation. The British Crown never wanted to bear to cost of colonial projects so directed such efforts to private enterprise.

The monarch, who was at that time James I, assigned land rights to colonists (as sub tenants) for the creation of a settlement which could be used as a base to export commodities to Britain and to create a buffer to prevent Spanish control of the coasts of North and South America.

The Virginia Company financed the project, recruited settlers, and developed the colony which was governed by a council in London, used English law, spoke English, and operated on Christian beliefs and ethics. The monarch took a 20 percent cut of all profit.

Subsequent schemes that adapted to locations and international relations at the various times different colonies were established, refined organisation so that colonies were increasingly self-governing with international relations controlled from London and protection implied by Britain’s extensive armed forces.

British colonies were the building blocks of the British Empire, spreading the English language, customs, law, property rights, and Christianity to more than 100 locations around the globe, creating much of the developed world that we live in today.

That is one reason why McLean can write without fear of contradiction that the British Empire was a force for good.

McLean provides further evidence of this force for good in 20 pages on slavery, and on the sustained efforts Britain took, at great expense, to stamp it out.

Slavery was made illegal in Britain in 1772, the Slave Trade Act 1807 made it illegal for British ships to transport slaves, and from 1808 to 1867, Britain spent 1.8 percent of its GDP every year to seize slave ships and free slaves, McLean wrote.

Britain’s role in reducing slavery is now hardly mentioned while former British territories where slavery had existed hundreds of years ago are claiming trillions in compensation, McLean wrote.

Even more evidence of lasting benefits is the number of engineering projects that the British completed and which remain long after the Empire faded, namely railways in Canada and Uganda, bridges at Victoria Falls and Sydney Harbour, the Ganges Canal, the Hong Kong Airport, and the Otira Tunnel.

At around 600 pages, McLean’s book looks like a time-consuming read. It is easy to read with the information accessible in short chapters with each story briefly told, in a lively style, and to the point, and opiniated.

McLean covers the first 13 colonies in North America lost in the revolutionary war. He points out that this was a war over the right to retain slaves under the cover story of taxation without representation.

Canada, the Caribbean, and West Africa are discussed next. Britain was attracted by Sierra Leone’s large harbour. Freetown there was created in 1787 and settled by 400 former slaves from Britain freed in 1772.

Colonies in north, east and southern Africa are covered before moving on to the Atlantic Islands, the Mediterranean, the Middle East (the founders of Israel get a kicking), India, territories in the Indian Ocean, south-east Asia, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific.

McLean shows the extent to which independence was a disaster for many colonies. He quotes a London Times report on May 8, 2000, which said that:

“Sierra Leone was among the most developed British colonies in West Africa, whose diamond wealth provided a high standard of living. But in the past 30 years, the lure of diamonds has proved to be the country’s undoing, leading to chronic instability, a 10-year uprising, and some of the worst atrocities in Africa. It is now the poorest country in the world and comes bottom of the UN misery index. Many thousands have been mutilated by rebel fighters. The capital, Freetown, has been repeatedly looted, and most of the country’s educated people have emigrated. The diamond mines have been largely wrecked.”

Sadly, that story of armed conflict, atrocities, looting, and white flight after Britain granted independence to numerous colonies has been repeated many times. Such is the legacy of decolonisation, that “morality play in which white men are the baddies”.

The British Empire – a force for good, John McLean, Winter Productions, 594 pages, illustrated, $50 (including postage within New Zealand), available at www.trosspublishing.com or trosspub@gmail.com.

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