ONE
MAIN FEATURES OF INTERACTION - MAORI AND PAKEHA
1800-1840
The Industrial Revolution was the ultimate push behind the settlement of New Zealand by British people and capital. According to Belich, Europeans came to New Zealand for:
Flax
Timber
Whales
Seals
Sex
Souls
Europeans offered Maori a range of things and Maori selected those that they valued most highly. They adopted the function as well as the form of those they selected. This process is known as Acculturation. For example, Maori determined that large nails were the most prized item in the 1770s; iron tools in the 1790s and 1800s; guns thereafter.
The first main group of Europeans to arrive in New Zealand were Sealers at Murihiku in 1792. Between 1816 to 1826 approximately 100 sealers lived semi-permanently in and around Foveaux Strait.
The demand for whale oil then brought ocean whale men to New Zealand waters in the 1790s. They were the largest group of European agents of contact. The Bay of Islands was their favoured port of call with approximately 92 ships visiting the Bay between 1815-1822. Visits were seasonal, mainly between November and April and they lasted between two and five weeks. Each visit was an intensive burst of contact between Maori and Pakeha.
In the harbours of Northland, and at Ruapuke in Foveaux Strait vigorous trade quickly developed. By 1800, Maori in the Bay of Islands cultivated potatoes to trade with Europeans and Whalers. The Ngai Tahu cultivated potatoes for trade, and also prepared flax, and cut down trees for spars.
As news spread of European wealth, other related hapu moved to contact areas. For example, the Ngati Maniapoto moved to gain access to the west coast harbour. The Tuhoe and Arawa moved to east coast.
Ships returning to Britain from Australia, or heading to China, began to stop in the north of New Zealand for kauri spars and flax. By 1820, in order to buy tea, traders from Australia searched the Pacific for sandalwood, pearls, seal skins and spars. Many found what they wanted in New Zealand waters and land.
The first shore whaling station was established on New Zealand shores in 1827. By the 1830s several trading stations, each containing a dozen or so Europeans emerged. Timber stations appeared in Hokianga in the 1820s and spread to the Coromandel a decade later. Strong links were developed with Maori neighbours whom traders depended upon for food, protection, supplementary labour and wives.
Maori culture was generally open to innovation and many Maori were very keen to trade. They valued new products, especially the pig and potato. Metal products of the iron age such as nails, fish hooks etc were substituted for similar items made of stone.
Some chiefs lost mana through the changes triggered by European technology and contact, others gained mana. According to Belich,
'net damage to the mana of chiefs did not occur'.
As noted by Belich,
'Maori did not passively receive Europe but actively engaged with it.'
This revisionist viewpoint is in stark contrast to the view held by many early historians and contemporaries. To these groups the advent of Europeans in New Zealand resulted in a process of fatal impact for Maori. This was the notion that Maori society was at first thrown into great shock as a result of interaction with Pakeha. It became dislocated and eventually broke down. Maori were perceived as a 'dying race' suffering from the effects of European disease and war.
Price was the area were Maori remained at a real disadvantage. Maori were quick to realise that more Europeans meant that prices fell. According to Belich this was the major and enduring factor behind the desire for more settlers.
The imbalance in Europe's favour was corrected by services, especially sex. In the Bay of Islands many sailors obtained a sexual contract for the duration of their stay. Normal price of the contract was one gun for the tribe and a dress for the woman. Missionaries displayed the sex industry as an example of the moral dimension of fatal impact.
Intermediaries who were recruited from both peoples played an important role in bridging the gap between the two cultures. Various Europeans, for example, Barnet Burns, joined Maori tribes. He later published accounts about his life with Maori and performed as a Maori on stage in Britain.
According to Belich, the Maori chief Ruatara illustrated four features of engagement with Europe:
- He was a Maori agent of contact who distributed European goods and knowledge.
- He adopted what he distributed and turned it into a Maori purpose (acculturation).
- He was the first of many successful Maori sponsors of European settlement.
- He was an early mediator or middleman between Maori and Pakeha.
The most impressive chief to exploit possibilities created by European presence was undoubtedly Hongi Hika. He responded quickly and keenly when Samuel Marsden proposed to establish a mission.
In December 1814 the 'Active' arrived in New Zealand carrying Marsden and three other missionaries, as well as an assortment of presents and animals. The horse caused a sensation with Maori! Marsden arranged to site his mission at Rangihoua, under Ruatara's protection, and following his death, that of Hongi Hika's.
According to Stenson:
'with a mixture of aggression and friendship, Hongi attempted to 'pluck' the missionaries for what he could'.
Belich notes FOUR MAIN FEATURES OF INTERACTION between Maori and Pakeha in the period 1800 - 1840:
1. INTER-TRIBAL CONFLICT with European guns greatly intensified in the 1820s and 1830s.
2. ADVENT OF CHRISTIANITY, which most Maori engaged between 1830s and 1850.
3. INTER-RACIAL CONFLICT, of which there were quite a number of cases even before official British annexation in 1840.
4. DEPOPULATION THROUGH EUROPEAN DISEASE, which reduced Maori throughout the 19th century.
1. INTER-TRIBAL CONFLICT (Musket Wars)
Hongi Hika was the protector of the mission and his speciality was guns. Hongi's greatest coup was a visit to England 1820. He was accompanied by Thomas kendall (missionary). Kendall wanted to create a written Maori language.
Hongi secured a meeting with King George (IV) (4th). He was a great success and received many gifts from the King. On his return home, Hongi sold most of his presents in Sydney and brought weapons with the proceeds.
Hongi had Maori goals which he intended to pursue with Pakeha technology (a very good example of the Acculturation Theory in practice). He sought utu (revenge) on his traditional enemies. Armed with his newly acquired muskets he initiated one of the bloodiest series of conflicts in New Zealand history, the Musket Wars of the 1820s.
The Musket wars, as noted by Belich, were the largest conflicts ever fought on New Zealand soil. They killed perhaps 20,000, involved most tribes and caused substantial social and economic dislocation.
The Musket Wars were very complex. But James Belich has noted three broad phases:
- Northland impacting on Waikato
- Waikato impacting on its neighbours
- These neighbours impacting on the rest of the country
The musket wars fell far short of producing 'Fatal Impact' for Maori as a whole. As noted by
Belich:
'They began when and because some Maori had muskets and potatoes, and stopped when and because everyone had them'.
After almost a decade of conflict Hongi received a fatal wound and eventually died on
the 6th March 1828. The Musket Wars came to an end soon after.
2. ADVENT OF CHRISTIANITY (Guns and Bibles)
The establishment of the Church Missionary Society's (CMS) mission at Rangihoua owed everything to the vision and dedication of Samuel Marsden. He had a number of motives. These included:
- the desire to civilise Maori before converting them.
- he knew of Maori enthusiasm for trade and wanted to 'excite' it further.
- he intended to lead them to accept Anglicanism.
Problems existed amongst and between the first missionaries. To add to this they depended completely upon their Maori patrons for protection, food, etc.
Historians have never doubted the importance of Samuel Marsden's role. However, only with the appointment of Henry Williams did the CMS mission acquire an able leader on the spot.
Why did it take Maori so long to convert?
There are several reasons:
1. Firstly, many missionaries took years to become fluent in Maori. Language, therefore, was initially a barrier to conversion.
2. Improved Maori language grammars and translations of the New Testament became available to the Northland missions from 1827. This enabled missionaries to teach Christianity much more readily.
3. Another explanation for the delay in Maori 'conversion' was Hongi's monopoly of the missions. As a result, other groups had less access to the missionaries and may have resented them as Hongi's 'creatures'. Hongi's death, as noted by Belich, released Christianity in Northland. It also began the process which released it from Northland to the rest of the country.
Reasons why many Maori 'converted'.
Until the 1950s historians considered the establishment and discipline of the mission more important than anything else in 'converting' Maori.
In 1959, Harrison Wright transformed the study of 'conversion'. Wright argued that the most important question concerned Maori reasons for conversion. In 1828, few Maori had been baptised, however, by 1840 nearly 30,000 had been baptised.
Wright argued that the above changes were due to a series of crises which destroyed Maori confidence in their own culture and drove them to accept the Pakeha God as principal source of Pakeha wealth and power. War, Weariness and Disease were what Wright considered to be the most important factors.
Judith Binney portrayed 'conversion' as part of a process of Acculturation. A process in which Maori selectively borrowed for their own reasons, in this case, the desire to have access to Pakeha power.
Scholars have endorsed Wright's ideas that 'conversion' is the major change to be explained and that any explanation must concentrate upon Maori motives and changes in Maori society and culture.
Disease and fear were undoubtedly important, but the dynamic force at work among the Ngapuhi, the first tribe to be 'converted' was education according to Lila Hamilton.
The Papahurihia movement developed as the first synthesis of Maori and Christian ideas among the Ngapuhi (example of Acculturation).
Literacy was a major factor for many Maori 'converting' to European Christianity.
Slaves of the Ngapuhi who had been given to the missionaries became the first to accept baptism and become Christian in large numbers.
When released by Ngapuhi, these slaves became Maori prophets and teachers and spread Christian ideas in their homelands. An example of this is provided by the Ngati Porou. In January 1834, many Ngati Porou freed slaves arrived at the East Cape. By 1841, Ngati Porou were attending services in their thousands.
One of the ex-slaves, Taumata-a-Kura, with knowledge of Pakeha religion and literacy, has the best claim, according to Stenson, to be considered the pioneer evangelist (preacher).
William Colenso, a printer armed with a basic printing press worked for the missionaries. He printed 5 million pages of printed text in 6 years.
However, not all chiefs 'converted': In the Waikato and Rotorua region there were few 'converts'. The CMS was also weak on East Coast of North Island.
Inter-hapu and inter-tribal rivalry played a part in spreading religion and aiding 'conversion'. For example, when Ngapuhi became Anglican because some of their enemies became Catholic.
By 1839 there were eleven Anglican mission stations and six Wesleyan. The Roman Catholics arrived in 1838.
3. INTER-RACIAL CONFLICT (Harriet and Alligator)
Missionaries greatly condemned the brutalities perpetrated by the agents of vice (traders, sealers, whalers) upon the helpless Maori. Appointed in May 1833, British Resident James Busby's reports created a picture of extreme 'frontier chaos' in New Zealand. It is true that violent clashes did dot the history of contact before 1840. For example:
1. Boyd attack 1809.
2. Two attacks on whaling ships at Coromandel in 1815.
3. One six-man American gang was captured in 1821 and obliged to eat one another. In the words of a survivor, Americans 'tasted very much like roasted pork'.
4. Captain John Stewart - Te Rauparaha episode known as the Elizabeth Affair in 1830. Te Rauparaha, like Hongi, was given the powers of a European King by frightened Pakeha. According to Percy Smith, Te Rauparaha wanted control of Pounamu (green stone). To do this he needed to invade the South Island and defeat the Ngai Tahu and Ngati Mamoe. In 1830 Te Rauparaha made arrangements with Captain John Stewart (captain of the ship Elizabeth). In return for a cargo of flax, Stewart agreed to transport Te Rauparaha and 100 warriors south to Akaroa in Banks Peninsula. Once there, Te Rauparaha enticed the Ngai Tahu chief on board, and destroyed his village.
The main significance of this episode was that it gave support for calls for British government involvement in New Zealand in order to protect Maori from the vices of Europeans.
5. The Alligator incident in 1834 was the last major clash and the only one to involve regular troops. This involved Captain John Guard, who was taking his family on holiday to Sydney on the ship Harriet. On the way back, the Harriet was wrecked on the Taranaki coast. The Ngati Ruanui attacked the castaways. Twelve crew were killed and Betty Guard and her children taken prisoner. Captain Guard persuaded Australian Governor Richard Bourke, to take action. Guard returned backed by the powerful warship HMS Alligator and a contingent of soldiers. Betty Guard and her children were eventually released.