Articles in ‘History’

The white man who figuratively held the gun for a chief to pull the trigger thus igniting the worst holocaust New Zealand in New Zealand’s history. In 1799 a ‘new dissent’ had been afoot for some several decades, the intense and radical revivalist child of ‘The Great Awakening’ that had spread throughout Christendom like a plague during the 18th century. · ‘The Great Awakening’ was the outpouring of an energetic evangelical and revitalisation…

Part 2 in a 6 part series looking at the ‘scumbuggering’ that has happened through the years in New Zealand. The Georgian England of the 1800s was a savage regime still attempting to come to grips with the sweeping social changes that had arisen as a direct result of the industrial revolution of the 1700s. A massive exodus of country folk from off the land into the newly emerging industrial cities had created a social earthquake that had…

The question hung in the air between us ‘So what drew you to the Chatham Islands in the first place? The two pairs of eyes looking back at me widened, the heads nodded together and two voices in unison replied ‘Fossilised sharks teeth’. · Kiri jumped up from her chair and disappeared into the farm house returning minutes later with an oblong box. Plonking it down on the table she reached in, pulled out a jar and unscrewing the lid tumbled the…

‘Once Were Whalers…’ is part 1 of a 6 part series looking at the ‘scumbuggery’ that has happened through the years in New Zealand. It was the era that has retrospectively been described as the Age of Discovery, a time when the commercial and imperial interests of Europe sought to expand their power through global exploratory expeditions. It was also a time when the foreign policy of the day was to weaken a nation by strangling its access to…

Situated on the picturesque Otago Peninsula perched atop a rising ridge stands the imposing and lasting monument to one man’s insistent desire to announce to the world that he had arrived, that he was someone and that he had ‘done good’. William Larnach had grown up on the rural estate of Rosemount, in the Patrick Plains of the Hunter Valley near Singleton in New South Wales, the land holding of his Scottish father John Larnach and his English…

For thousands of years, history, genealogies, stories and mythology had to be memorised by rote and gruelling repetition, then handed down in perfect oral delivery to each ensuing generation. For this mammoth task, children exhibiting the brightest and best minds within a tribe were chosen and set aside to be the bearers of the knowledge. This oral transmission prevailed in many societies the world over, ranging right across the globe and many…

A few months ago elocal brought you the little-known story of Port Waikato's 1891 earthquake. Now a local woman has done a bit of moving and shaking of her own with her history of the sleepy seaside town. Actually it's the author herself, Glennis Paton, who's been shaken up the most. The success of her newly published book, The Way We Were - Port Waikato, has taken her completely by surprise, with the initial print run quickly sold out and most…

New Zealand was first settled in the 13th century, by Maori, right? Think again. The first people living in New Zealand weren’t masons or horticulturalists, right? Think again. For every library, government department, trust and iwi that tells you their version of New Zealand history, there are just as many alternative historians asking challenging questions, not to mention the hundreds of Maori elders whose ancient lore has never been taken…

In 1963, somebody dug up evidence that man may have been in the Hawkes Bay area 4500 years ago, and instantaneously his revelation was buried. · Surely not, I hear you say to yourself, if somebody unearthed indisputable evidence, wouldn’t that be enough? Surely the entire history of this country would be rewritten, wouldn’t it? It wouldn’t. Let’s learn about some scientists who disputed the indisputable and buried the evidence. · In 1963,…