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.

Pioneer Book.jpeg

New Zealand Nonsense – 1. The Maori Race

August 20, 2024
, , , , Maori

The author of this article is John Robinson, author of the recently published book, “Who Really Broke the Treaty?” published by Tross Publishing.

“Once when Maori called me racist, I would say “No, I am not.” Then I thought a bit about
what racism is, and I realised that they were the racists. I had entered dangerous grounds, for
it did not take long to see that my country is deeply racist. I do not belong here.”

What is New Zealand? This is a country that has defined itself out of existence. It is no
longer one sovereign nation. Instead, sovereignty rests with many race-based hapu and iwi
scattered across the country, ruled by unexplained tikanga based on the ways of a past
warring tribal society.

Who are these special ones who hold the sovereignty of our lands? This is the Maori, people
whose identity is fundamental to government and laws. The definition of Maori is then basic
to any understanding of the country. Here is, written into law in 1974.

“A Maori is a person of the Maori race: and includes any descendant of such a person.” 1

Here there is a Maori race. There is no thing as a race, yet here it is written into law. So,
what is this? It is a race consisting of Maori. We are none the wiser – keeping in mind that
key words in legislation and in international treaties must have a clear, well-defined meaning,
leaving no doubt of what is implied. We are back where we started, and can go on round in
circles as long as we like, but will never get anywhere in an effort to find a clear definition of
‘Maori’ in our law. This is nonsense, but it is the basis of much New Zealand law, and of
increasingly divisions in many spheres of government.

Despite the lack of any clarity on the meaning of ‘Maori’, the above definition insists on the
inclusion of all who have any degree of ancestry. This is a wider definition of racial identity
than those of apartheid South Africa (which referred to the full blooded as black, with those
of mixed ethnicity defined as coloured), Nazi Germany (at first requiring half or more
ethnicity for a Jew), being that of the ‘Jim Crow laws’ re-establishing racial segregation in
the American South. 2 Here is the affirmation of a very wide definition of race as the basis of
a national ideology, to be written into all law.

In practice these Maori are descendants of some Polynesians who came in the 13 th century
(including now anyone with any degree of such ancestry, no matter how small). Research in
the early twentieth century by the distinguished Maori scholar (doctor, military leader, health
administrator, politician, anthropologist, and museum director) Sir Peter Buck (Te Rangi
Hiroa) identified three series of migrations to New Zealand; Buck referred to the first group
as the ‘tangata whenua’. Each new influx of settlers found numerous people living here;
many were killed so that the newcomers could possess the land, often in wars of
extermination, resulting in the practical extinction of the men, while the women and children
were absorbed by the conquerors. The first to come, according to Buck, was around the 9 th
century; later research has suggested a much earlier date for first human settlement. The
canoes bringing the ancestors to today’s Maori were probably the third of these migrations. 3

But all reports of settlers preceding the Maori have been deleted from history, with an
insistence that they only are the first people, tangata whenua’, and the ‘indigenous’ people.
That assumption is then held to support a claim that they are a special race, demanding higher
status and better treatment.

Such division by ancestry or first settlement, with race-based privileges, has been universally
condemned. This is made clear in the introduction to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which includes a powerful rebuttal of inherent differences between peoples.4

“Affirming further that all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating
superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious,
ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally
condemnable and socially unjust.”

This statement of a condemnation of superior status based on national origin or ethnic
difference and refutes the many claims of that Declaration which demand special race-based
rights for the (undefined) indigenous people. Nonsense is not unique to New Zealand.

There is no such thing as race. Humans cannot be, and should not be, divided by race. To do
so is to reverse the struggle over past centuries in opposition to division by race and the
subsequent racism, a struggle that brought equality to New Zealand when this nation was
founded.

This is the first of four short articles noting the nonsense that is driving New Zealand ever
further into apartheid, with different treatment based on race and two race based governments
and sets of law. Only a ship of fools would sit back and allow this happen.

1 Maori Affairs Amendment Act 1974
2 Robinson J 2024. Who really broke the Treaty? Tross Publishing, page 41
3 Buck P (Te Rangi Hiroa) 1938. Vikings of the sunrise. Whitcombe and Tombs, republished
as Vikings of the Pacific in 1959 by University of Chicago; Buck P (Te Rangi Hiroa) 1949.
The coming of the Maori. Reprinted 1982, Whitcoulls Ltd.; and Robinson J 2020.
Unrestrained slaughter, the Maori musket wars 1800-1840 Tross Publishing, page 9
4 United Nations 2007. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf

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