The Meeting Place - A New Zealand History Blog

By   Ian Pool, Emeritus Professor, University of Waikato   Vincent O’Malley has generously made space available to me for a guest-blog in his series. I should mention, even before I start, that I owe a lot to Vincent’s patient responses to my questions and other forms of help in writing my book. Marching into the specialised territory of real historians is always a challenge for those of us who are on the fringes of the discipline.   In New Zealand this is particularly true, as Aotearoa has a significant corpus of powerful historical research – focused, technical monographs on many topics; elegantly written general narratives in the best humanities’ traditions;   and broader annales- type studies. In sum, I owe a large debt to historians. Above all, historians have carefully documented the 19 th century, for example , its prime and momentous events, the key actors and their actions, the constitutional trends, the interactions of Pākehā and Māori (albeit mainly from Pākehā

Emeritus Professor Ian Pool of the National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis , University of Waikato, is an acclaimed demographer who has worked across Asia, Africa and the Pacific over many decades, including for the United Nations. Within New Zealand he is particularly known for his immense contribution to the demographic history of Māori. His work Te Iwi Maori: A New Zealand Population Past, Present, and Projected has been hugely influential since it was first published in 1991 and has been especially important in helping those of us interested in understanding the impact of colonisation on Māori to consider the demographic dimension to this story. Now, some two decades later, Professor Pool has returned to explore this theme, though with a wider focus on issues of development. Colonization and Development in New Zealand between 1769 and 1900: The Seeds of Rangiatea is published by Springer, from whose website the following synopsis is taken. This book details

Tiritiri Matangi is a 543-acre island that is today a wildlife sanctuary. Located in the Hauraki Gulf, just a few kilometres from the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, the island is a popular destination for daytrippers taking the ferry from Auckland. Besides abundant wildlife (including kiwi, kokako and takahe), the island also boasts New Zealand’s oldest working lighthouse (constructed in 1864).  Tiritiri Matangi Lighthouse The island was also the focus of a baffling and quite extraordinary Native Land Court decision in 1866, when the Māori claimants found themselves ranged against the Crown, which claimed the island on the basis of an 1841 deed of purchase. Although the court quite rightly rejected this claim (since the deed made no reference to the island), it nevertheless awarded the island to the Crown. That was despite declaring that it was ‘unable to discover the origins of the Crown’s title, or by what means the native title has been extinguished’. It did so, accord