A TOXIC INFLUENCE IN NEW ZEALAND SCHOOLS

July 4, 2025
, , , , , Education

New Zealand schools are compelled to “consult with iwi”. This involves “undertaking and respecting iwi’s perspectives on education, cultural values and aspirations for their children. Consultation should be ongoing and genuine, with schools ACTIVELY seeking input from iwi on curriculum, school activities and any initiatives that impact [part] Maori students”. (The term “part-Maori” is used since “Maori” are extinct, having bred themselves out of existence by preferring to breed with Europeans).

The above requirement is racist, laughable and very damaging to the education of New Zealand school students. It is racist because it singles out one of New Zealand’s several minority race groups, part-Maoris, but no others. It is laughable to ask for “iwi’s perspectives on education” and to ACTIVELY seek “input from iwi on curriculum” because the part-Maoris on these iwi committees, who are being asked for this input, are the very worst group of New Zealanders to give such advice since part-Maoris are at the very bottom of every educational statistic, topping the statistics for truancy but being consistently at the bottom of educational achievement.

Instead of dealing with the very real problem of truancy and poor literacy among part-Maoris, these iwi consultative groups are in the business of a cultural crusade against Western values, Western education and even nomenclature. They are like cultural doorkeepers, forcing changes to any notice or sign in the school that is in English only, weeding out any books from the school library that mention cannibalism or any of the other ugly traditional Maori practices, and even using their clout to change the name of any school that offend the prejudices of the tribal elite. Their contribution to the sound education of the general body of students in precisely zero, which is why a tried and tested discipline like Latin has been expunged while the new, largely made-up, Esperanto type “te reo” is given an almost godly status even though in the 21st century it is all but useless. Learning French or Mandarin would be far more use to students – both “part-Maori” and non-Maori.

A recent outrage of these cultural warriors has been to change the name of James Cook High School in Manurewa, Auckland. The school was founded in 1968 on the eve of the Bicentenary of Captain Cook’s great First Voyage of discovery in the Endeavour. It was on this voyage that he mapped New Zealand and made it known to the world. This was the first step in bringing the Stone Age tribes of New Zealand into the safety, freedom, peace, comfort and prosperity of the modern world and away from their centuries of self-destructive tribal wars and cannibalism.

For 57 years this school has built up a name for itself and a culture that has been a source of pride to its students. Its motto is “Endeavour” – a nod to Cook and a suitable word to encourage the students. However, it has recently got up the nose of the local iwi who have forced their will on to the school and compelled it to change its name to the unpronounceable and meaningless “Te Haikura a Kiwa”. No, I am not making this up. You have Auckland Grammar, Kings, Rangitoto College – and now something with four words that nobody understands either now or in the future.

The principal, Tina Filipe, is either too gutless to stand up against this act of cultural vandalism, destroying 57 years of a built-up tradition, or – even worse – she is a collaborator in this act of cultural destruction. In either event it would appear that she is quite unfit to be running a secondary school.

On her watch this school has a low Equity Index of 532, “placing it amongst schools whose students have the most socioeconomic barriers to achievement (roughly equivalent to  deciles 1 and 2 under the previous system)”. In other words, its educational achievement is one of the lowest in the country.

One would have thought that the principal of such a school would devote all of her time and effort into lifting the educational standards of this failing school instead of playing race politics and denigrating our wonderful Western heritage by going to all the trouble of changing the name of a school after it has been going for more than half a century under the name of James Cook High School. Of course, by going down the name-changing path, Tina Filipe will be diverting attention towards an extraneous matter and away from the appalling educational standards of the school that she is meant to be running. That may well be the whole point of the exercise. What sort of parents would condemn their children to be educated at such a school?

Book Review: The Pioneers – Makers of New Zealand

June 11, 2025
, , , , , Book Review

By Mike Butler on Breaking Views

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

Book Review: The Pioneers – Makers of New Zealand

May 31, 2025
, , , , , , Book Review

By Tony Orman for Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations of NZ Inc

The Pioneers – Makers of New Zealand” by John McLean, published by Tross Publishing. Price $40.

Today, there have been deliberate attempts by some self interested people to serve their personal agendas by rewriting New Zealand’s history and consequently denigrate the European colonists. As such history is in danger of being badly corrupted. 

“The Pioneer Makers of New Zealand” admirably does not seek to be judgemental but to be factual through the eyes of those 19th century pioneers.  The author has made a conscious effort to avoid any slant on history by quoting the actual words of the settlers themselves.

In adopting this approach there’s another positive spinoff in that brings to life the highs and lows of life of those settlers who sacrificed lives of comfort, indeed luxury in the UK, for an adventurous new life full of the unknown and inevitable challenges.

Historian John McLean has degrees in history and law. His forbears included early 1860 pioneers and also contractor John McLean whose firm in the late 19th century, built bridges, railways, ports, Auckland’s electric tramway system and the early stages of the Otira tunnel.

With these qualifications the author by quoting individual settlers impressions of their new land, has painted a colourful written picture of the daunting conditions and challenges the pioneers faced in setting up life in the new colony. Numerous historical photographs enhance the portrayal.

Egalitarian

Of particular note to the outdoors and recreations is that the pioneers quietly applauded in the deliberate egalitarian character of the new country. There must have been a strong underlying joy by the settlers in the freedom in escaping the strict feudal class society of Britain where the best trout and salmon fishing, pheasant and grouse shooting and deerstalking belonged to the wealthy upper class who could afford the high access fee. The plebs couldn’t afford it.

That ethos of equal opportunity for all was installed into the new colony’s parliamentary laws such the 1908 Fisheries Act where selling fishing rights was prohibited.

The “new found freedom” aspect is also relevant to the outdoors and fishing, hunting and tramping, in that it’s reflected in the spirit of those pioneers with their sense of adventure, perseverance in the face of challenges and characterised by a sense of independence and achievement even in the face of adversity..

It’s interesting to consider those qualities in the light of today’s society.  Back in those pioneering days, New Zealanders were a land-conscious outdoor people. The   New Zealander’s face was weather-beaten, the skills were muscular and families drew sustenance from the land whether hunting, fishing and/or the home vegetable patch. 

Flabby

But society is now falling prey to the weakness of an indoor nation and the flabbiness and obesity of a sedentary society. Mentally, society is at odds within itself, increasingly rent by argumentative division on several fronts, narrow minded self-interest, greed and a few other negative traits.

Author John McLean writes “The pioneer period—called for human qualities that are no longer required in the modern world—(such as) indomitable courage, resourcefulness, perseverance and endurance”. 

Pioneering was not for the faint hearted. The voyage would take five months or longer in a tightly packed, smelly and at times rat-infested ship. The settlers would arrive at a small port with limited facilities with no certainty of accommodation and even roads. New Zealand was very much in its pristine state, inhabited by a native race who tended to inter-tribal war, even cannabilism while the land was largely forested.and roadless.

Kiwi Spirit

The author by seemingly meticulous research and obvious skilful writing depicts how the pioneers coped and developed an admirable Kiwi spirit that was to earn admiration on the land, sporting field and in two World Wars.

Incidentally this is the third book in a trilogy about that John McLean has written, the other two being “Voyages of the Pioneers to New Zealand 1839-85″ and “Sweat and Toil; the Building of New Zealand.” 

“The Pioneer Makers of New Zealand” as seen largely  through the eyes of those early settlers is an intriguing and interesting read. Highly recommended.

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