We feature each fortnight Nicholas Reid's reviews and comments on new and recent books.
“THE ORIGINS OF AN EXPERIMENTAL SOCIETY – New Zealand, 1769-1860” by Erik
Olssen (Auckland University Press, $NZ 65:00)
First,
two judgments.
First The Origins of an Experimental Society is an
outstanding book. Many good historians have written histories of New Zealand,
usually giving some pages to the indigenous Maori people before moving on to
politics, controversies, wars, immigration etc. Many historians have written
about the impact on the Maori people when Pakeha arrived, and how Maori and Pakeha
adjusted [or didn’t adjust] to one another. While Erik Olssen does deal with
these things, his focus is on how European [mainly English] thinkers wanted to
apply humanitarian and “enlightenment” ways of introducing themselves to the
Maori people and, as they saw it, humanely helping the Maori people to become
aware of the modern world beyond them. This is what the “experimental society”
of the title is all about. Olssen’s book is erudite, thoroughly researched,
filled with information and – for this reader – very enlightening. I say this
as an historian.
Second, with the deepest regret, I fear that apart from academics, reviewers
and real students, very few people will read this book. Why? Because it is very
long, very detailed [as any worthwhile work of history should be] and does not
simplify. Olssen’s focus is often on the theories and ideas when late-18thcentury
and mid-19thcentury intellectuals attempted to grapple humanely with
the Maori people. Olssen explains in detail what these theories were and quotes
them copiously. I did not struggle with
reading it because – especially in the first two chapters - every page told me something new or something
that other historians had not dealt with. But most readers would probably seek
for something shorter and simpler. A pity. Be it noted (as Olssen says in his
Introduction) that The Origins of an Experimental Society is only the
first of three books which will take us through to the late nineteenth century.
The second and third books will be published later. Olssen had been working on
this project for over 25 years.
Having made my judgment, what more can I do but tell
you how The Origins of an Experimental Society is organised?
In his Introduction , Olssen says the creators of the Enlightenment [essentially French and
English philosophes and theorists of the 18th century] are central
to his thesis. Humanitarianism and
Evangelicalism grew out of this, leading to the idea that the [Maori] people of
New Zealand could be uplifted, brought into the modern world, and not
exploited. This was a radical idea inasmuch as previous European colonisation
(England taking over much of North America, Spain cruelly exploiting South and
Central America, Australia used as a dumping-ground for convicts) had regarded
indigenous peoples as their inferiors. Olssen notes that recently there has
been a generation shift so that at the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook, many pundits and activists claimed
that Cook was merely a racist and all Europeans who came to New Zealand were
merely land-grabbers. This perspective he challenges in detail.
Chapter One –
Meeting, 1769-1814 examines how Europe found the Pacific… and how Cook
was engaged in the ideas of the Enlightenment. His first voyage to New Zealand brought
with him Banks, Solander and other savants who, in scientific ways, gathered
much about botany, ornithology, astronomy, navigation and currents; and
learning much about the Maori people and their language. Cook was impressed by
the Maori people, their courage and warrior skills and especially on the east
side of the North Island where he saw Maori settlements diligently planting and
raising crops. At this point, thanks in part to the likes of Rousseau, there was the idea of the Noble
Savage. The French navigator Bougainville had “discovered” Tahiti which seemed to be Paradise on Earth because
the people were peaceful, not belligerent, and [to the delight of lecherous
sailors] their ideas of sexuality were different from those of Europe. [Neatly
ignoring that Tahitians regularly committed infanticide]. Cook at first thought
that the Maori people were similarly peaceful and in their own way “civilised”.
But he gradually learnt that while the Maori language was understood by all
Maori [allowing for dialects], there were many different cultures… and he was
appalled to discover, on his later voyage, that some Maori tribes practised
cannibalism. While he still admired the Maori people, he was more sceptical
about the Noble Savage. Even so, before his death, he was worried about the
type of Europeans who might enter into New Zealand without humanitarian
purposes. As well as examining Cook’s
views, Olssen considers many people who contributed to the humanitarian idea
and to science with regard to New Zealand. Along with this, there is the impact
of Forster and others who considered ethnology, ethnography and anthropology.
This deals with the first real interest that Europeans had in New Zealand.
Chapter
Two – Entangling 1814 – 1830 moves into the
era when Europeans began to engage with Maori and enter New Zealand. Once
again, these newcomers took some time to understand that although there was
more-or-less one Maori language, there were also many different cultures in
different parts of New Zealand. Sealers, whalers and in some cases convicts had some influence in intruding
into the land. But at the same time there were the London Missionary
Society and the [Anglican] Church
Missionary Society beginning to spread the Bible. They introduced potatoes,
grain, metal, axes, hatchets and tomahawks, all of which were welcomed,
especially in the Northern part of the North Island where Pakeha most often
landed. Maori were also interested in books… especially when a written version
of the Maori language was devised by English scholars. Many Maori also adopted
as garb the European blanket in place of traditional Maori clothing. Maori
adopted new foods and became more attuned to Pakeha customs. Pakeha gradually
understood the fluidity of Maori social relationships where rank, title, power,
authority and prestige were associated. But Pakeha never quite understood how
iwi acted as a community. Remember, of course, that this transformation was
happening mainly in the very north of the North Island.
Olssen
always reminds us of the largely humanitarian aims [most] Protestant evangelists
had. They worked on the assumption that teaching Maori crafts, the value of
work, industry, and honesty would lead to a knowledge of God. To coordinate
this endeavour, Samuel Marsden arrived with some “mechanics”, and on Christmas
Day 1814 he performed a showy service before Maori Rangatira and other
worthies. But, as Olssen says, the English men [and English women] did not
always work well together and evangelists often quarrelled so that by the 1820s
the whole mission seemed to have failed. Worse came what are generally called
“the musket wars” [although Olssen does not like the term]. Unscrupulous
gun-runners sold muskets to Maori. Hongi Hika proceeded to slaughter other iwi in
much of the Te Ika-a-Maui [North Island]… and later Te Rauparaha did likewise.
It is estimated that about 20,000 Maori were killed in these inter-tribal wars
– more than the casualties that New Zealand suffered in the First and Second
World Wars. Long gone was the idea that Maori were largely a naturally peaceful
people. Olssen speaks of the “fissiparous nature of Maori tribalism” for
the impact of the tribal wars changed completely where iwi were now located,
and how many smaller iwi were absorbed into more dominant iwi. And [like it or
not] many victorious iwi enslaved defeated iwi – in some cases eating the dead
corpses of the vanquished.
This
whole era of tribal wars burnt itself out by the late 1820s. Maori turned
toward peace and this meant that many, exhausted by destructive wars, turned
more towards Christianity. Not only had literacy spread, but far more Maori
chose to be baptised. Maori women in particular led the way. Having noted all
this, Olssen reminds us that the Maori
cultures of the South Island were not the same as the cultures of the North
Island, and notes that it was in the distant Te Waipounamu [ the South Island]
that in the South, more Maori women were likely to marry Pakeha.
Chapter
Three -Amalgamating, 1830-1840. Essentially this
long chapter deals with the way England gradually accepted the idea that New
Zealand could become part of the British Empire, leading up to the Treaty of
Waitangi. There was British fear that New Zealand could be taken over by the
French; but the French government was more interested in taking over Tahiti,
New Caledonia and other islands in the Northern part of the Pacific. Still, there were alarms when the eccentric de
Thierry proclaimed himself King of New Zealand and took over a small patch of
the North Island; and a community of French were settling in Akaroa in the
South Island. Some [Protestant] missionaries were upset by the fact that the
French Catholic Bishop Pompallier had arrived, and he was gathering many Maori
into the Catholic faith. Much later the French navigator d’Urville examined New
Zealand’s coasts in detail as part of his exploration of the Pacific [Olssen
rates him one of the greatest scientific explorers of the era].
By this stage, many iwi were becoming entrepreneurs,
trading and understanding commerce as Pakeha did. Concerned at the corruption
of the Maori people by visiting sailors and whalers, especially at Kororareka
[later known as Russell], missionaries requested a “resident” to represent
British law. Enter James Busby. He did consult with rangatira, drew up a
charter of Maori independence and devised a flag for the Rangatira –Maori
understood that a flag represented a nation as shown by the flags of the
British, French, American etc. . But Busby did not have any real legal power
over British settlers.
So
we move on to the circumstances that led to the Treaty of Waitangi with all its
ambiguity. British humanitarians feared that private companies – such as the [Wakefield]
New Zealand Company – would exploit Maori while colonising and taking over
lands. Real government was needed, Hobson was sent to work out a way of
including Maori and Pakeha under British law. [ Of course Olssen gives far, far
more detail than I am giving here – including that fact that the English-language
version of the treaty was drafted and drafted many times but only one
Maori-language version was penned… and most Maori leaders understood that the
spoken discussion was the important part of the treaty.] When Maori leaders had
signed the Treaty, Hobson said “we are now one people” and assured Maori
that they would still own their lands and would be treated under the law in the
same way as the Pakeha. Maori saw this as a guarantee that the King of England
would protect them. At this time, [probably] about 100,000 Maori lived on the
North Island and only about 1,200 on the South Island.
In
all this, Olssen frequently uses the term “the evangelistic-humanitarian
ethos”. He sees the treaty as part of this ethos. But what followed was not
always enlightening or humanitarian.
Chapter Four – Planning and Dreaming. More humane plans were made for the settlement of British people in New
Zealand. Olssen sees Wakefield, for all his flaws, as trying to create a positive
way of colonising, wherein the Maori people would be involved. For example
Wakefield and others considered the idea of “concentration” in which settlers would create towns land
farm, and in such communities there would be room for Maori. In England, there
were many theorists aware that not all settlers would be positive about the
Maori. Therefore, the theory suggested, it was necessary to have a strong
administration that could check tension between Maori and Pakeha.
In
this era, as Olssen makes clear, there were many radical ideas being adopted by
some groups and challenged by others in Britain – the Chartists seeking full suffrage
for all men of any class. Working-class people wanting to escape to a more open
society away from the unsanitary conditions of British cities. Socialists at a
time when Marx and Engels were becoming influential. The idea of New Zealand as
a possible “Better Britain” was much discussed. As settlers began to enter New
Zealand, many acclimatised European flowers and vegetables, new to Maori.
Unlike England, there was to be no “established” church. [For different
reasons, Australia, Canada, and other British possessions also accepted the
idea of having no established church.] Olssen notes that the New Zealand
Company had good intentions when, in building towns, they endorsed “Pepper Potting” as a means of
settling Maori in towns where they would gradually adopt British habits.. But
this was not to the taste of Maori. “Pepper Potting” was still used right up to
the mid-20th century, the idea being that no ghettos would be
formed. The good intentions were not fulfilled.
Once
again, Olssen reminds us that for all its many flaws, the initial colonialisation
of New Zealand was far more humane and caring for the indigenous people than
the initial colonialisation of Australia, Canada or South Africa.
Chapter Five – Settling, 1840-1853. The Treaty of Waitangi had been signed, but this was only the beginning
of many controversies. Did the Maori people interpret the treaty differently from the way the
British interpreted it? In Britain some cabinet ministers and other political
leaders suggested that the treaty was illegal.
Those who had [in England] invested in the New Zealand Company had
different views from the missionaries and other humane writers. At this time,
utilitarian and other radicals had agreed that in New Zealand there should be
equality of Christian denominations – in other words, there would be no “established”
church. Olssen comes back to this issue
a number of times, once again connecting it with the Enlightenment.
Considering how Wellington fared at this time, there
was awareness that the British government believed many of the deals made by
the [Wakefield] New Zealand Company had not been fully understood by the Maori
who had “sold” their land. Hence such
deals were judged void. Some settlers saw themselves as self-governing and it
took some years before they understood that they were now under the Crown and
its laws. Wellington was the largest settlement in the 1840s, but – even while
settlers also moved into the Hutt Valley – Wellington was geographically too
hemmed in, making it difficult to raise crops and feed the small city. Most
often, it was Maori outside Wellington who provided potatoes and other
foodstuffs to Wellingtonians. Moving on
to the main [Wakefield] New Zealand
Company settlements, Olssen looks in detail at New Plymouth and Nelson. New
Plymouth was quickly set up after six ships disembarked 920 immigrants. Different
Christian denominations made up this community. In contrast, Nelson was very
much dominated by Anglicans. In both these colonies, settlers often depended on
Maori to feed them and showing these new arrivals what plants were edible, the
right seasons for planting etc. There
were already disputes over which land was legitimately bought by the newcomers.
At this point, Olssen considers how employees
arriving in New Zealand expected to be paid fair wages by their employers. This
was inspired by the Chartists and the Radicals of England, leading towards an
assumption of egalitarianism in New Zealand. For this reason, every so often
there were small riots when wages were too meagre.
Many incomers did not understand that while the
Crown set down the law, many Maori understood that – according to the Treaty of
Waitangi – they could continue to hold by their own traditional laws and lands…
which naturally lead to misunderstanding and finally conflicts. Thus there
followed the so-called Wairau River Valley “affray”, in which iwi insisted that
their land, north of Nelson, had not been sold. Deaths followed. Many Pakeha
ignored Maori conventions and insisted that only English law was valid. In the
same decade there was the “Northern War” [a term that Olssen does not use]
where Nga Puhi and other northern iwi found themselves losing trade and other
benefits when the capital moved from Russell to Auckland. Olssen gives a very
detailed account of this war, jolting Pakeha into understanding that Maori could
be a match for the British army. As FitzRoy ceased to be governor [Olssen notes
his good points more generously than some recent historians have], so George
Grey came in. Once again, Olssen gives a very balanced account of this man.
While dealing with problems in the Hutt Valley, he also had to tame Te Rauparaha
and really bring to an end the [first
phase] of major warfare in New Zealand. He also nullified many of deals that
Anglican missionaries had made to set up their own farming estates. Grey and
others encouraged having free hospitals for Maori and [to the annoyance of some
settlers] allowing both Maori and Pakeha pupils to be taught in the same
schools. In all this, it should be remembered that at this time Maori made up
ten-to-one of the population of New Zealand. Pakeha were very much in a
minority.
Although Grey has in recent years been heavily
criticised by some historians, Olssen notes many positive things about him.
This includes Grey’s real understanding of ethnography. It is true that Grey’s Polynesian
Mythology was very simplified and bowdlerised [when it came to sexual
matters] but nevertheless it encouraged Pakeha readers to understand that Maori
myths and legends were as sophisticated as the Greek myths and legends and the
Norse sagas.
Once again, Olssen reminds us that religious
pluralism meant social co-operation and that Enlightened ideas were still very
important in shaping the nature of New Zealand.
Chapter Six – Expanding, 1848-1860 Many British who
came to New Zealand in the 1840s and 1850s brought with them negative ideas of
Maori; while Maori saw many such
newcomers as disrespectful of their traditions. Also new diseases were
introduced. Olssen quotes some writers of the age, who were now less humane and
more likely to encourage the idea of taking over land. The different settlements
brought with them different cultures and at this time shipping was most
important when travelling from one settlement to another. The [Wakefield] New
Zealand Company settlements were very different from the growing cities of
Auckland and Wellington. Wellingtonians often saw Aucklanders as uncouth
because many Australians had migrated to Auckland, as had many Irish. Many
Wellingtonians also saw Aucklanders as obsessed with making money – but at the
same time Auckland had far more connections with Maori than Wellington had.
Auckland quickly became the largest city in New Zealand.
Turning
to Dunedin and Canterbury, there were two very different settlements. Dunedin
was built by Scottish Free Church Presbyterians, diligent, hard-working and to
some extent influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment, leading to the a culture
of literacy, study and building a university and schools. But, as Olssen notes,
the Free Church Presbyterians focussed on their own people and did not
evangelise the Maori in the same way that the Wesleyans did in Otago.
Canterbury was an Anglican settlement with many of its clergy aspiring to
become land-owners and members of the gentry. The city [Christchurch] was built
around the upper-middle class. But very
soon the settlement needed workers who demanded real wages. It took some time
before pastoralism [basically raising sheep] became essential to Canterbury.
Meanwhile, it was in the North Island that varieties of sheep had first been
acclimatised – mainly in Wairarapa.
Up
to this point, New Zealand was a Crown Colony, governed by Britain… but
gradually among Pakeha there were calls to make New Zealand self-governing. With
much detail, Olssen discusses how the different regions and settlements reacted
before a New Zealand government could be set in place in 1852. When it came to
voting, most voters were more interested in local or regional issues than
national ones. Maori were allowed to vote… so long as they personally owned
farms or personally held lands. [Unlike those Maori who held things communally
under a Rangatira.] Parliament was in Auckland… where there was much pluralism.
The House of Representatives met in Auckland on May 1854. In real terms, the
Premier [Prime Minister] was now more powerful that the Governor.
It
was only by 1859 that British and other Europeans became more populous than
Maori in New Zealand – there were about 59,000 Pakeha and about 56,000 Maori. Bishop
Selwyn was diligent in encouraging Maori to become Anglican clergy to further
spread Christianity to Maori. At the same time, Maori population was in decline with less fertility and more infant
mortality. Iwi became more reluctant to sell their land. They now preserved carefully
their whakapapa in writing. If there was an English king for New Zealand, they
reckoned, then there should also be a Maori king. Kingitanga became a major
movement [though Olssen makes it clear that not all Maori joined the movement.] Especially in Taranaki, new settlers wanted
to be able to buy land from individual owners, ignoring Maori traditional communal
ownership. All this led to the Taranaki war…. at which point ends the first
part of Olssen’s planned three books. We have, in effect, reached the point
where the original idealistic hope for a land that would be led by humane and
enlightened people was wilting into the pragmatism of personal opportunism.
Olssen
is very precise in discussing – with references to what was written by savants
and academics of the 19th century -
how there began to be a better understanding of how all “races” were the
same one homo sapiens family, with many hypothesis about the connection
of the people of Asia, Europe and the eastern side of the Pacific.
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When I read my way diligently
through The Origins of an Experimental Society, 1 noted many passages
that were worth quoting. I intended to insert into this review many of the
telling things that Erik Olssen had written. But I soon realised that if I did
that, this review would be tediously long. Suffice it to say that, as well as
being a scholarly historian, Olssen also has a sharp eye on those who make glib
comments about the past – the historian [from quite a few years ago] who said
that missionaries teaching Christianity was like simply shooting bullets at
Maori and destroying their culture; the journalist who said that Wakefield’s
plans were only to keep poor people down. Yes, some missionaries were very
flawed and, yes, Wakefield’s personal life was very questionable and some of
his ideas simply did not work – but this ignored what both missionaries and
Wakefield did achieve. Olssen is also alert to the fact that recent ideas have
belittled Cook and others who achieved much. There is also a steadiness in the
way Olssen is able to bring us back to his thesis that the Enlightenment and
Humanitarian-ism made a path to the best of what New Zealand was being made.
It
is a sad fact that all history books will eventually become dated and will be
seen by future readers from a very different perspective. Many historians have
written the history of New Zealand. Ignoring New Zealand history written in the
19th and early 20th centuries, there was in 1959 Keith
Sinclair’s A History of New Zealand, and in 1960 W.H. Oliver’s The
Story of New Zealand. Both, although they were well read at the time, now
seem thin and very limited. More recently, nearly 30 years ago, there was James
Belich’s formidable double-decker Making Peoples and Paradise
Reforged, very detailed, very readable and widely admired. Close behind
came in, 2003, Michael King’s more populist The Penguin History of New
Zealand, again widely read. Most recently was published in 2024 Michael
Belgrave’s Becoming Aotearoa, more influenced by a Maori perspective
than earlier attempts to cover the whole history of New Zealand. Over the years
I have read all these books, as well as many books by historians who have dealt
with specific parts of New Zealand history [the impact upon Maori of the first
arrival of Pakeha, the New Zealand Wars of the 19th Century,
immigration, the status of women, political parties etc. etc. etc.]. But there
is something unique about Erik Olssen’s The Origins of an Experimental
Society. He reminds us that New Zealand was colonised in a very different
way from the way other countries were colonised in the same era. And he shows
how many ideas that first shaped New Zealand are still the ideas that are the
backbone of New Zealand society.
I
look forward to Olssen’s next two volumes.
