Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Abel Tasman named NZ Statenland, assuming it was connected to Staten Island near Ar-
gentina. It was subsequently named after the province of Zeeland in Tasman's Holland.
Much of the mass immigration from the 1850s to the 1870s was assisted by the provincial
and central governments, which also mounted large-scale public works schemes, especially
in the 1870s under Julius Vogel. In 1876, Vogel abolished the provinces on the grounds that
they were hampering his development efforts. The last imperial governor with substantial
power was the talented but Machiavellian George Grey, who ended his second governorship
in 1868. Thereafter, the governors (governors-general from 1917) were largely just nominal
heads of state; the head of government, the premier or prime minister, had more power. The
central government, originally weaker than the provincial governments, the imperial gov-
ernor and the Maori tribes, eventually exceeded the power of all three.
The Maori tribes did not go down without a fight, however. Indeed, their resistance was
one of the most formidable ever mounted against European expansion, comparable to that of
the Sioux and Seminole in the US. The first clash took place in 1843 in the Wairau Valley,
now a wine-growing district. A posse of settlers set out to enforce the myth of British con-
trol, but encountered the reality of Maori control. Twenty-two settlers were killed, including
Wakefield's brother, Arthur, along with about six Maori. In 1845, more serious fighting
broke out in the Bay of Islands, when Hone Heke sacked a British settlement. Heke and his
ally Kawiti baffled three British punitive expeditions, using a modern variant of the tradi-
tional
pa
fortification. Vestiges of these innovative earthworks can still be seen at
Ruapekapeka (south of Kawakawa). Governor Grey claimed victory in the north, but few
were convinced at the time. Grey had more success in the south, where he arrested the for-
midable Ngati Toa chief Te Rauparaha, who until then wielded great influence on both sides
of Cook Strait. Pakeha were able to swamp the few Maori living in the South Island, but the
fighting of the 1840s confirmed that the North Island at that time comprised a European
fringe around an independent Maori heartland.
'God's own country, but the devil's own mess.' Prime Minister Richard (King Dick) Seddon,
speaking on the source of NZ's self-proclaimed nickname 'Godzone'.
In the 1850s, settler population and aspirations grew, and fighting broke out again in
1860. The wars burned on sporadically until 1872 over much of the North Island. In the
early years, a Maori nationalist organisation, the King Movement, was the backbone of res-
