Book Review: The Great War for New Zealand Waikato 1800-2000, by Vincent O’Malley

Available in bookshops nationwide

Emotion is probably something to be avoided when preparing to review a book. However, having grown up in the King Country, learning next to nothing about the New Zealand Wars, caused a considerable pang of emotion for me when reading The Great War for New Zealand Waikato 1800-2000 by Vincent O’Malley. Because the story O’Malley tells is one that provides a comprehensive understanding of the foundations of modern life in New Zealand which many Kiwis, both Māori and Pākehā, would not know they were missing.

The King Country derives from the Kīngitanga Movement, which established not only a Maori King but also a defined geographic region south of Pūniu River in the Waikato.
As defined in Wikipedia: ‘The King Country (Māori: Te Rohe Pōtae or Rohe Pōtae o Maniapoto) is a region of the western North Island of New Zealand. It extends approximately from the Kawhia Harbour and the town of Otorohanga in the north to the upper reaches of the Whanganui River in the south, and from the Hauhungaroa and Rangitoto Ranges in the east to near the Tasman Sea in the west. It comprises hill country, large parts of which are forested.

‘The term “King Country” dates from the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s, when colonial forces invaded the Waikato and forces of the Māori King Movement withdrew south of what was called the aukati, or boundary, a line of pā alongside the Pūniu River near Kihikihi. Land behind the aukati remained native territory, with Europeans warned they crossed it under threat of death.’

O’Malley answers the question of ‘Why the King Country?’ with great detail on the politics of colonial greed, the savagery of warfare and land confiscation that led to the final retreat of the many different hapū of Waikato Māori into this area as war refugees.

At the very beginning of the book, O’Malley notes that the country is currently in the middle of commemorations of the centennial of World War 1 battles fought in by New Zealanders at Gallipoli, Sinai and the Western Front. However, he argues, as many do, that these battles were not the defining of New Zealand as a nation. Rather, on ’12 July 1863 the biggest and most significant war ever fought on New Zealand shores … as British imperial troops crossed the Mangatāwhiri River and invaded Waikato.’

O’Malley later notes that ‘the Waikato War does not fit within a comfortable nation-building framework. Accordingly, our nation was born at Gallipoli not Ōrākau’. This rings true to me: I had heard of Gallipoli as a school kid in Ohakune, but not Ōrākau.

Once he has laid the foundations of his book, O’Malley then describes ‘early Waikato’ from 1800-1852, a largely peaceful and prosperous region with a ‘confident Māori world’, embracing British style commerce, including international trade, and Christianity within a framework of Māori traditional beliefs and practices.

No doubt, the different views of sovereignty and land ownership were the crucible from which war between Māori and Pākehā eventually poured with savage heat. Waikato Māori were reasonably happy to sell land for small-scale or individual settlement, while the Colonialists saw the Treaty of Waitangi as providing the means by which large tracts of land could be bought by the Government, carved up and then on-sold to settlers. And the New Zealand Constitution Act of 1852 could only have exacerbated the situation, particularly as it was designed to allow only the then minority of Pākehā the vote, an intolerable situation for Māori.

The descriptions of the subsequent battles, including bush warfare, are extensively detailed, inclusive of lists of iwi and hapū involved in each, along with complete information on the colonial regiments and militias. This creates an opportunity, particularly for Māori today, to understand the connections their ancestors may have had with particular battles and incidents.

One thing we kids in Ohakune did come away with from schooldays was an understanding that Māori had fought with huge skill, courage and, in many cases, Christian chivalry. Using contemporary material, eyewitness accounts and records, O’Malley provides us with a clear view of what lies behind this understanding. And he pulls no punches, with much of the honour belonging to Māori and much of the treachery and dishonour belonging to the Pākehā side.

The battles are meticulously described and this 600+ page book, extremely well published by Bridget Williams Books, contains superb reproduction of photographs, maps and documents.

After the battles comes the land confiscation (raupatu) which is probably what motivated the Government to invade Waikato in the first place. This is a really messy period of venality and double-dealing, which of course has a considerable impact on the late-20th Century and 21st Century New Zealand politics and economics. Some may say that Māori have been compensated, with the millions of dollars spent on settlements with iwi plus settlement back to Māori of land and public buildings, fishing rights and similar. That this isn’t a widespread view among Māori is backed up by the 2015 petition to parliament calling for a national memorial day for the victims of the New Zealand Wars, delivered by Honey Berryman of Otorohanga College.

Because I spent all of the ’70s and early ’80s away from New Zealand, my knowledge of the various mid 19th-century conflicts was from a 1950s-60s perspective – not very enlightening. Michael King’s History of New Zealand and James Belich’s The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict were very important in improving my understanding of what really are the foundations of New Zealand. The Great War for New Zealand extends that understanding greatly.

Obviously the book is a tome which could be used as a text at university level. But it should also be available in some form or another at secondary school. Bridget Williams Books are good at publishing short texts. It would be very helpful if they were to come up with a means to make this important history more accessible.

For this book not to be in the shortlist for the Royal Society of New Zealand Award for General Non-Fiction at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards is a mystery.

Reviewed by Lincoln Gould

The Great War for New Zealand Waikato 1800-2000
by Vincent O’Malley
Published by Bridget Williams Books
ISBN 9781927277577

Book Review: The Paper Trail: An Unexpected History of the World’s Greatest Invention, by Alexander Munro

Available in bookstores nationwide.

It is highly unlikely that you are reading this review on a piece of paper held in your hand. And yet, it was the invention of paper that enabled mass communication and exchange of information quickly and effectively.

Now we have the internet rapidly replacing the likes of the daily newspaper, but this book casts a thought back to where it all began. First produced over 2000 years ago in China, paper very quickly replaced bamboo as a writing surface and from then on was unstoppable in its spread throughout eastern civilisation.

But it wasn’t until 1000 years later that paper made its way in a westerly direction to what is now Iran, Iraq, then Turkey to Europe.

The movement and development of paper has been integral to the history of these regions over the last 2000 years. As a form of storing religious texts, whether they be Buddhist, as in the early centuries of paper use in China; the Koran or the Bible; as a means of distributing religious messages amongst the populace as seen in the work of Martin Luther in the 1500s, looking for an alternative to the Catholic Church, or as fuel to the French Revolution in the late 18th century. Paper has been at the centre of it all.

Even New Zealand’s very own Treaty of Waitangi has two pages in this book devoted to it. Apparently the Treaty was a very rare type of document in British imperial history, in that it was a bilingual document − Maori and English – drawn up for both sides to sign. Although as we now know, the two versions actually had two different meanings. For all that, it is considered remarkable for its time, as it attempted to come to a political settlement without going to war. The author also points out that when the Treaty was signed in 1840, the Māori had only had around 20 years of exposure to the written word, their entire means of communicating and passing on history up to that time being oral in nature.

This research undertaken for this book by the author is mind-boggling. The author has studied Chinese and lived for a time in Beijing, so it is hardly surprising that half of this book is about the invention, development and spread of paper in China, Eastern and Central Asia − the first 1000 years of paper’s history. I am not entirely sure how one makes 1000 years of paper making interesting and riveting, and I think the author also struggled − at times, I found myself nodding off. The second 1000 years is easier to digest as it has much more relevance to history that we already know about.

There has been a trend in recent years for non-fiction writers to undertake histories of items/inventions that have been crucial to the development of the world we know and live in, and write about it in a way that makes it accessible to the average reader, E=mc2 by David Bodanis being a great example. In this book, however, the detail and minutiae of his subject is at times overwhelming, to the extent that I felt the thread of many of his stories was getting lost.

My biggest criticism − the almost total lack of illustrations. In a book of 368 pages there are only seventeen illustrations. I don’t understand how a book about paper and it’s place in modern history can only have seventeen, low quality illustrations. There is whole chapter devoted to the Renaissance and the use of paper in the creation of some of the beautiful art works from that time. Any illustrations from this time? No. Any pictures of some of the beautifully and crafted Bibles of the Middle Ages? No. Or the copies of the Koran produced by the Islamic Caliphate? No. I kept wanting to see pictures of what the author was writing about.

This was disappointing for a book with so much research and information in it.

But if you have the time and want to know where paper, the development of script, binding, typography, the printing press, the concept of reading, and the disbursement of knowledge sprang from, then you will get a lot out of reading this book.

by Felicity Murray

The Paper Trail: An Unexpected History of the World’s Greatest Invention
by Alexander Munro
Published by Allen Lane
ISBN 9781846141898

Book review: The Hungry Heart by Peter Wells

This book is in stores now and is a finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards.

“In winter, the milk freezes in the pantry, and the water in the bedroom.” William Colenso.

As I write this, these words ring a truth for me and others I know – student living, not all it’s cracked up to be.

When Booksellers NZ asked me to review a book from the New Zealand Post Book Awards shortlist, I immediately jumped to the non-fiction –my favourite genre. There I saw The Hungry Heart, and vaguely recognised the name Colenso. Intrigued, I requested, and was given.

Most know William Colenso as the missionary that protested the Treaty of Waitangi (he interrupted Hone Heke as he moved forward to sign), was kicked out of the church for fathering an illegitimate (‘interracial’) son, and for causing controversy when a new high school wanted to be named after him in Napier. In The Hungry Heart, Peter Wells mentions all of these things, while piecing together and creating a truly fascinating and detailed biography of Colenso.

As a publishing student, I was pleasantly surprised to read of Colenso’s added profession as a printer. He hand-set all 356 pages of the 1837 New Testament in Maori, and printed it on a press that required two waka lashed together to reach his house in Paihia – “It must have seemed as momentous as the arrival of the Trojan Horse inside the gates of Troy.” Colenso picked up the Maori language very quickly; this helped him create printed texts for Maori, as well as helping the job he actually came to do, be a missionary.

He also managed to create huge scandals in his life, and found himself in the middle of many confrontations, some verbal, others physical. I don’t want to ruin it for you, but Colenso was all over the place.

The remarkable thing I find about this book is Peter Wells’ ability to bring Colenso back so easily to a modern, and mostly commercial, audience. While reading, Wells involves you in every aspect – as he discovers more, you discover more about Wells’ life and journey to find Colenso, and about Colenso’s life. There are constant uses of ‘let’s’ – “Let’s look a little further…” Wells doesn’t mind reminding you that you’re reading about him writing about Colenso, the subtitle Journeys with William Colenso really does fit. You’re following Wells’ journey to find Colenso, who really was on his own life journey.

In the most basic way I can say it – I thought this book was fantastic. Wells has done an amazing job of research and writing to create it, and for that I thank him.

The one downfall is the physical weight – the book is filled with stunning photography, pictures, letters, all of which are printed on a lovely glossy and heavy paper to make each page stand out. I completely understand the need for this, but when it makes my bag weigh twice as much, I’m less likely to take it as my everyday book.

The book travels through all of Colenso’s life, focusing on his life in New Zealand since this is where he spent the majority of it. This is really the time that defined him; I have no doubt Colenso would agree with that. He had some serious highs and lows throughout his life, but without all of these, would New Zealand still know who William Colenso is today?

Reviewed by Kimaya McIntosh

The Hungry Heart
by Peter Wells
Published by Vintage, Random House NZ
ISBN 9781869794743 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781869794750 (Ebook)

Book review: Rangatira by Paula Morris

This book is in stores now and is a finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards.

Paula Morris has been deservedly nominated as a finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards 2012 for Rangatira. It’s an essential read for anyone who loves historical fiction or has an interest in early colonial New Zealand.

Based on the story of Morris’s ancestor Paratene Te Manu (Ngati Wai), the historical reach of the story covers Paratene’s youth while on military campaigns with Hongi Hika in the early 1820s through to his old age in the 1880s (Paratene died in 1896), with the bulk of the narrative covering Paratene’s trip to England in 1863. Morris has done her research thoroughly, and immerses the reader in both muddy, aspiring 1880s Auckland and the grimy, poverty- and pollution-ridden cityscapes of England in 1863.

Using the device of an imagined portrait sitting with Gottfried Lindauer (who did in fact paint Paratene’s portrait, although probably from a photograph), Morris has Paratene tell of his journey to England. The journey, led by Wesleyan William Jenkins, had multiple purposes and the participants differing plans and desires; combined with language barriers and distrust amongst Māori from differing hapu and iwi, these often divergent agendas led to much of the drama that occurs.

There’s something that Morris has done with the phrasing of Paratene’s story that is very familiar; I couldn’t tell you exactly how she’s done it, but it was very easy to hear the voice of kuia and kaumatua I have listened to on marae over the years in Paratene’s voice, an odd but familiar mix of the querulous and the authoritative. If Rangatira is ever picked up for radio adaptation or an audio book – and I think it’d be great – it really needs George Henare to read it.

In 2012 New Zealand, with many Treaty of Waitangi claims, water ownership and access to the seabed and foreshore still to be resolved, the subplot of the Land Court hearings in 1886 regarding ownership of (Hauturu) Little Barrier Island is illuminating – perhaps we haven’t come as far in righting historical wrongs as we like to think. Although the Treaty of Waitangi claim to Hauturu has been since been settled, the post script to the story about the treatment of the owners in the 1890s is uncomfortable reading.

Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Rachel Moore.

Rangatira
by Paula Morris
Published by Penguin Books
ISBN  9780143565758 (Paperback) and 9781742532219 (Ebook)