The New Zealand Wars: Land or Sovereignty?
I feel I post very little about history for a history student, prehaps its the tendency for blogs to contain information that will be of little use in a few days, writing history for the Internet is probably better suited to Wikipedia, indeed much of what I've written for Wikipedia is history, even those articles which were current events at the time, and are now recent history. As any good historian will tell you though, history is topical, and usefull for understanding the present. The essay bellow is written on the topic "Which issue was the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s fought over? - land or Sovereignty?" The New Zealand Wars are a topic that seems somewhat neglected in New Zealand, not for those studying history perhaps, but the civil war hardly occupies the place in New Zealands popular culture as the American Civil War does in that of the US. In James Belich's documentery series on the New Zealand wars he shows the wooden sign marking where the first gun shot was fired, commenting that the equivlent site in the US would have a huge monument. I think New Zealanders should know more about this country's civil war, over a century on we're still seeing the political ramifications of it, consider Tariana Turia's infamous 'holocaust' comments. The bellow gives my interpretation of what the wars were fought over.


Even as the New Zealand Wars were happening in there was debate over whether the war was a 'land quarrel' or over the issue of sovereignty. The origins of wars can be found in the colonial settlement of the county, the history of which gives some insight into the causes of and reasons for the eruption of conflict in the North Island in the 1860s.

Increasing British settlement of New Zealand from the 1840s led to increased economic interaction between Maori and Pakeha. Economic hinterlands around the Pakeha towns had the effect of integrating Maori into the Pakeha economy but at the same time marginalising them. Settlers were dependent on Maori for markets, primary production, and coastal and river transport while Maori were dependent on the settlers for trade. By the 1850s Maori consumed an estimated £500,000 worth of imported European goods per year, and this want for European goods was a likely motivator for land sales, which were the easiest source of cash for Maori, although they were involved in many other economic ventures, and often working for wages in the Pakeha economy. Others sold land for different reasons; to attract Pakeha to Maori areas for trade, to meet debts and to gain capital either for the development of remaining land or for arms and ammunition. From a Pakeha perspective the trade that occurred between the two groups was largely done for the benefit of settlement, for instance Governor George Grey's 'flour and sugar' policy of aid and education to Maori was focused on areas where he hoped to get land. In this pre-taxation era state funds were partly derived from profits on land transactions. Grey justified land deals where the Crown resold land at a profit on the basis that the real payment would be long term Maori prosperity, but in practice it was a mechanism for dispossession. Land sales also had the effect of allowing Maori entrepreneurs to emerge, using profit from land sales for themselves rather than their kin groups. Indeed, the outbreak of war was triggered by the sale of some Waitara land in Tarnaki to the Crown by junior Ati Awa chief Teira, against the wishes of the senior chief, Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake.

To say that the continuing Crown purchace of Maori land for European settlement was the cause of the conflicts is a simplification, at the time of the wars there was plenty of land available for settlement already in Crown ownership, including millions of acres of land around Auckland and New Plymouth, the “hot seats” of settler activity.10 The stereotype of the “fat and greedy settler” persistent in New Zealand history, has served as a scapegoat for less tangible factors. Dispossession of Maori land came less from individual settler greed, and more from the racial and national attitudes that were part of the Victorian colonial ethos. This ethos demanded that the British rule the whole of New Zealand in fact as well as in name. By the 1860s there were equal numbers of Maori and Pakeha in the country, and that growth of settlement fueled government power, becoming a practical assertion of British sovereignty. The supposed righteousness of Britain's empire building was expressed blatantly at the time, an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald and reprinted in the Daily Southern Cross in 1863 during the Taranaki war noted that the colonisation of New Zealand had been “somewhat costly” due to the existence of an “unsubdued and rebellious race” but went on to note the vital importance of British expansion, the writer even claimed that British news paper the The Times, by misdirecting public opinion on the war in New Zealand could “ruin an empire capable of greatness, of which even Rome herself offered no example”

The British Empires' representative in New Zealand was George Grey. In 1840 Grey had written a report for Lord John Russell, the new secretary of state for the colonies, showing how the amalgamation of Maori and Pakeha could be speedily effected, Maori were to be converted to Christianity, brought under British law, and employed by white settlers, while the children were to be educated in boarding schools. Lord Russell was so impressed by this theory of compulsory assimilation that he sent the report to the governors of the Australian and New Zealand colonies. After briefly serving as Governor of South Australian Grey was appointed Governor of New Zealand in 1845. During his governorship, which lasted until 1853, Grey gave the appearance of scrupulously observing the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi, and assured Maori that their rights to their land were fully recognised, as he purchaced large amounts of it for the Crown; 30 million acres in the South Island, and 3 million in the North Island, with some difficulty in Taranaki due to Maori reluctance to sell. He never had the resources to put his grandiose 'civilising' plan in practice. After war broke out in Taranaki in 1860 Grey, who had been serving as Governor of the Cape colony in South Africa, offered to return to New Zealand. As a writer for The Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle would later comment, “Governor Grey came out on a special mission, he came to set things square.” Beginning in 1861, Grey introduced in the Waikato and elsewhere what he called his 'new institutions', a system of indirect rule whereby he hoped to co-operate with local Maori. Between 1861 and 1863 he pumped reports into London alleging a wide spread Maori conspiracy to attack Auckland, with the goals of “clearing off the English” and brining in the French to take possession of the land. The reports were from dubious sources, yet the myths of empire caused London to believe Grey.

In the Taranaki and Waikato wars of 1860-1861 and 1863-1864 the principle combatants were the Maori King Movement and the forces of the British Empire.The King Movement had been founded at a meeting at Haurua in 1857 to resist the loss of land and the erosion of Maori tribal authority. The territory of the King Movement, which came to be known as “King Country” at one point encompassed nearly one sixth of the North Island. The British at first assumed the King Movement would never succeed in uniting Maori, but late saw it correctly as the “establishment of a rival kingdom, or ruling power, within the colony.” The King Movement in its origins was against war with the Pakeha settlers, its proclimation stated “Maoris, your former god was Uenuku the man eater. You have a different God now, the great God of Heaven: therefore let war cease in New Zealand among both Maoris and Pakehas.” In fact, Even the staunchest Maori opponents of British expansion were not opposed to Pakeha settlement in Aotearoa; a Ngati Ruanui spokesman told George Grey after the Taranaki war “the only land left in European hands was the town... As for the town, let it be; it is very right that there should be a market for their produce.”25 In the 1850s Tamihana had gone so far as to write “I do not desire to cast the Queen from this island, but from my piece, I am the person to overlook my piece”

The wars it seems were primarily about sovereignty. The British would not accept a situation of parity with, or inferiority to Maori simply because it did not accord with colonial expectations. The British were not satisfied with “part of the land, part of the economy, or part of the government.” There was no real British control over the Maori areas of the country in the 1860s and colonial law was exercised vary selectively in those areas.28 The Taranaki Herald lamented in 1863 that Maori had “entirely reputed all pretense of submission to the Government of her Majesty”29 Land was vitally important in the wars, but only because it served as a representation of sovereignty; as mentioned earlier settlement was an assertion of British sovereignty, likewise the Maori King Movement asserted their sovereignty over land by refusing to sell it to the crown. It wasn't the land itself that was fought over, but who would control the land.


bibliography
This essay originally contained footnotes, though foodnotes don't translate well into LiveJournal, all information comes from the sources bellow, most of the quotes are from the contempoary news paper articles, which I have provided hyperlinks for.

Belich, James, Making Peoples (Auckland, Penguin, 1996)

Belich, James, The New Zealand Wars and the victorian interpretation of racial conflict (Auckland, Auckland University Press, 1986)

Buddle, Rev. Thomas, The Maori King Movement in New Zealand (Auckland, The New Zealand Office, 1860)

Wright, Matthew, Two Peoples One Land: The New Zealand Wars (Auckland, Reed, 2006)

'Colonisation' Daily Southern Cross 2 January 1863, p.4
(originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald)

'The Native Question' The Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle 13 January 1863, p. 4

'The Maori Kingdom' Taranaki Herald, 17 January 1863, p.4

'The War in New Zealand' Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle,
7 December 1861, p. 3
(originally published in The Times, September 12 1861)

Sinclair, Keith. 'Grey, George 1812 - 1898'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography,
updated 22 June 2007
http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/default.asp?Find_Quick.asp?PersonEssay=1G21
Accessed: 17/03/08

'The Maori King Movement' Te Ara Encylopedia of New Zealand http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/MaoriNewZealanders/NgatiManiapoto/4/en
Accessed: 21/03/08