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Don’t forget the old pioneers

The Pioneers – Makers of New Zealand, a new book by writer-publisher John McLean, reminds us of those who built New Zealand, tells how, and explains why their contribution should not be forgotten.

McLean descends from an unusual pioneering family of Scots who did a double migration, first to Nova Scotia in 1793, and then on to Waipu, in Bream Bay, Northland, in 1854.

The people behind contractors John McLean and Sons also descended from this group. This company built bridges, railways, most of Wellington’s wharves, the entire Auckland electric tramway system, as well as the early stages of the Otira Tunnel under the southern Alps, starting in 1907.

This is the third book in a trilogy that McLean has written about the New Zealand pioneers, the others being Voyages of the Pioneers to New Zealand 1839-85, and Sweat and Toil, the Building of New Zealand.

Direct quotes from pioneers bring to life his latest story of those early days, when men, sometimes couples, travelled all the way from England, Scotland, or Ireland, to get in on the ground floor of a new colony.

Attracted by the lure of wealth, cheap land that they could own, the safety of British law, and the familiarity of British culture, they, often unexpectedly, found themselves faced with the daunting task of having to clear dense native bush before they could build shelter, let along plant anything.

Sometimes the forest was so dense there was not even enough room to swing an axe.

Without government welfare, and without money to make the long trip home, mostly to nothing, most pioneers had no option but to do keep going until the hut was built and the farm planted.

In a nutshell, “no other option but carry on” is the pioneering spirit.

That early energy and determination began to fade in the children of the pioneers, at the turn of the century, prompting Lord Ranfurly to say, in 1904, that “the people of the colony were growing too fond of going to the government for everything and were raising children that were unfitted for a pioneering life”.

“The king hit to the pioneering qualities of enterprise, hard work and self-reliance came with the introduction of the welfare state by the first Labour government which took office in 1935,“ Mclean wrote.

His close look at reactions to arrival in a new land, their houses, food, cooking, drink, clothes, transport, religion, social and sporting activities, their effect on the environment, and the origin of the towns, among numerous other chapter headings, sheds light on the culture that the descendants of British early settlers have that seems invisible but which is omnipresent.

For instance, the habit of a Sunday roast that came with the pioneers had become a feature of life in Britain as the main meal of the week that was slow cooked while the family went to church, ready to be eaten when they returned home.

The forebears of the sparrows on your lawn were introduced to counter voracious caterpillars that invaded from the virgin bush to eat every blade of new sown grass.

Whiskey, beer and cigarettes, racing, cricket, rugby all came with the pioneers.

McLean shows that relations between pioneers and Maoris were mainly of mutual benefit, except for when some tribes rebelled in some areas in the 1840s and 1860s.

The military response to those rebellions led to the creation of military towns including Hamilton, Cambridge, Pirongia, and Kihikihi, numerous redoubts (settler forts) signposted as historical reminders, as well as extensive land confiscations in parts of the North Island as a consequence of insurrection.

McLean’s easy-to read third book on the New Zealand pioneers will rekindle in those of us with forebears who came here early a renewed understanding and respect that may have been sidelined as unacceptable, or which may have just drifted away with the passage of time.

The Pioneers – Makers of New Zealand, John McLean, Winter Productions, 256 pages, illustrated, is available from independent bookshops or www.trosspublishing.com

By Mike Butler

It wasn’t the Crown that repeatedly broke the Treaty of Waitangi, and $4.3-billion has been paid to “settle” grievances that had been fabricated, according to commentator Dr John Robinson.

Career scientist Robinson, who has authored a series of works on racism in New Zealand, puts a blowtorch on New Zealand’s treaty industry in his new book titled Who Really Broke the Treaty?

He has seen the inside of that industry, worked for it, and knows exactly how it functions.

You would be surprised at the scale of a massive scam that has been going on for nearly 50 years – in broad daylight, and funded by you.

How many New Zealanders understand that words uttered by the Maori King in public on January 20 this year demanded that our unified nation be dismantled and replaced by two separate parliaments based on race, Robinson wrote.

The Treaty of Waitangi, as agreed in 1840, handed the sovereignty of New Zealand to Britain. Land in Maori possession remained in Maori possession. All Maori people living in New Zealand were given British citizenship, he wrote.

That agreement gave the right to govern. British law prevailed thereafter. The absolute rule of the chiefs was gone, he wrote.

But when the Treaty of Waitangi Act created the Waitangi Tribunal, naïve politicians gave radicals free reign to twist the treaty, plunder the coffers, and try to seize control of New Zealand.

This 50-year grand scheme centres on allegations that “the Crown” (meaning you and I), broke the treaty and should pay compensation.

But if the treaty gave the government the right to govern according to the rule of law, what is it to break the treaty?

That would be action against the sovereignty of the united nation, and action taken outside the rule of law.

Robinson shows that the Crown did not breach the treaty at all, and that all breaches were done by rebellious chiefs, and here they are:

1. Mass murder of settlers by chiefs Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata at Wairau in 1843.

2. Rebellion incited by Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata in Wellington in 1846.

3. War waged by Hone Heke against the government in the north in 1845-56.

4. Rebellion at Waitara by Wiremu Kingi over the sale of the Pekapeka block in 1859.

5. The establishment of a rival Maori monarch in 1859, rebellion, and war.

During these events the Crown and the governors never broke the treaty. All actions taken were in accord with the accession of sovereignty and the assertion of British law, Robinson wrote.

Firm government action that defeated tribal rebels during the 1860s was not to break the treaty. It was to uphold the treaty, he wrote.

Land confiscations did not breach the treaty. They were a consequence of rebellion.

There were numerous efforts by the government to bring the second Maori King, Tawhiao, and his supporters, back into the New Zealand community after their defeat in 1864.

But Tawhiao continued to insist that he had “the sole right to conduct matters in [his] land from the North Cape to the southern end”.

“All treaty settlements are based on the Crown breaking the treaty. Since that is not so, all such settlements are a fraud,” Robinson wrote.

There is no justification for the continued existence of either the settlements or the Waitangi tribunal, he wrote.

If you wonder why the demands for race-based preferential treatment are ubiquitous and unrelenting, Robinson’s list of 17 institutions including the Waitangi Tribunal and the Supreme Court helps explain why.

Here’s an interesting fact Robinson has turned up.

The Government’s definition of Maori is based on the same metric as used in the “Jim Crow” laws abandoned by the United States in the 1960s.

That metric, used by nine southern states, defined as black anyone with black ancestry, even “one drop”.

The New Zealand government’s definition of Maori, as a “person of the Maori race of New Zealand and includes any descendant of such a person”, is a “one-drop” definition.

But while southern states in America used that one-drop definition to discriminate against black Americans, the New Zealand government uses it to discriminate in favour of Maori.

The perverse reality is that treaty is all about equality, yet for the past 50 years New Zealand governments have been practising racial discrimination.

Robinson shows how and when the treaty was twisted, the government gave birth to the monster that is the Waitangi Tribunal, and suggests a roadmap for ending racial division.

Early steps by the coalition government are heartening, most especially the proposed Treaty Principles Bill and the opportunity for a referendum on it.

However, doubts remain regarding the courage of the Prime Minister on race, and the presence of a tribal activist as a Minister.

The book, Who Really Broke The Treaty? by John Robinson is available here.

Book Review: The Pioneers – Makers of New Zealand

Who really broke the treaty?