McLean descends from an unusual pioneering family of Scots who did a double migration, first to Nova Scotia in 1793, and then on to Waipu, in Bream Bay, Northland, in 1854.
The people behind contractors John McLean and Sons also descended from this group. This company built bridges, railways, most of Wellington’s wharves, the entire Auckland electric tramway system, as well as the early stages of the Otira Tunnel under the southern Alps, starting in 1907.
This is the third book in a trilogy that McLean has written about the New Zealand pioneers, the others being Voyages of the Pioneers to New Zealand 1839-85, and Sweat and Toil, the Building of New Zealand.
Direct quotes from pioneers bring to life his latest story of those early days, when men, sometimes couples, travelled all the way from England, Scotland, or Ireland, to get in on the ground floor of a new colony.
Attracted by the lure of wealth, cheap land that they could own, the safety of British law, and the familiarity of British culture, they, often unexpectedly, found themselves faced with the daunting task of having to clear dense native bush before they could build shelter, let along plant anything.
Sometimes the forest was so dense there was not even enough room to swing an axe.
Without government welfare, and without money to make the long trip home, mostly to nothing, most pioneers had no option but to do keep going until the hut was built and the farm planted.
In a nutshell, “no other option but carry on” is the pioneering spirit.
That early energy and determination began to fade in the children of the pioneers, at the turn of the century, prompting Lord Ranfurly to say, in 1904, that “the people of the colony were growing too fond of going to the government for everything and were raising children that were unfitted for a pioneering life”.
“The king hit to the pioneering qualities of enterprise, hard work and self-reliance came with the introduction of the welfare state by the first Labour government which took office in 1935,“ Mclean wrote.
His close look at reactions to arrival in a new land, their houses, food, cooking, drink, clothes, transport, religion, social and sporting activities, their effect on the environment, and the origin of the towns, among numerous other chapter headings, sheds light on the culture that the descendants of British early settlers have that seems invisible but which is omnipresent.
For instance, the habit of a Sunday roast that came with the pioneers had become a feature of life in Britain as the main meal of the week that was slow cooked while the family went to church, ready to be eaten when they returned home.
The forebears of the sparrows on your lawn were introduced to counter voracious caterpillars that invaded from the virgin bush to eat every blade of new sown grass.
Whiskey, beer and cigarettes, racing, cricket, rugby all came with the pioneers.
McLean shows that relations between pioneers and Maoris were mainly of mutual benefit, except for when some tribes rebelled in some areas in the 1840s and 1860s.
The military response to those rebellions led to the creation of military towns including Hamilton, Cambridge, Pirongia, and Kihikihi, numerous redoubts (settler forts) signposted as historical reminders, as well as extensive land confiscations in parts of the North Island as a consequence of insurrection.
McLean’s easy-to read third book on the New Zealand pioneers will rekindle in those of us with forebears who came here early a renewed understanding and respect that may have been sidelined as unacceptable, or which may have just drifted away with the passage of time.
The Pioneers – Makers of New Zealand, John McLean, Winter Productions, 256 pages, illustrated, is available from independent bookshops or www.trosspublishing.com
Direct quotes from pioneers bring to life his latest story of those early days, when men, sometimes couples, travelled all the way from England, Scotland, or Ireland, to get in on the ground floor of a new colony.
Attracted by the lure of wealth, cheap land that they could own, the safety of British law, and the familiarity of British culture, they, often unexpectedly, found themselves faced with the daunting task of having to clear dense native bush before they could build shelter, let along plant anything.
Sometimes the forest was so dense there was not even enough room to swing an axe.
Without government welfare, and without money to make the long trip home, mostly to nothing, most pioneers had no option but to do keep going until the hut was built and the farm planted.
In a nutshell, “no other option but carry on” is the pioneering spirit.
That early energy and determination began to fade in the children of the pioneers, at the turn of the century, prompting Lord Ranfurly to say, in 1904, that “the people of the colony were growing too fond of going to the government for everything and were raising children that were unfitted for a pioneering life”.
“The king hit to the pioneering qualities of enterprise, hard work and self-reliance came with the introduction of the welfare state by the first Labour government which took office in 1935,“ Mclean wrote.
His close look at reactions to arrival in a new land, their houses, food, cooking, drink, clothes, transport, religion, social and sporting activities, their effect on the environment, and the origin of the towns, among numerous other chapter headings, sheds light on the culture that the descendants of British early settlers have that seems invisible but which is omnipresent.
For instance, the habit of a Sunday roast that came with the pioneers had become a feature of life in Britain as the main meal of the week that was slow cooked while the family went to church, ready to be eaten when they returned home.
The forebears of the sparrows on your lawn were introduced to counter voracious caterpillars that invaded from the virgin bush to eat every blade of new sown grass.
Whiskey, beer and cigarettes, racing, cricket, rugby all came with the pioneers.
McLean shows that relations between pioneers and Maoris were mainly of mutual benefit, except for when some tribes rebelled in some areas in the 1840s and 1860s.
The military response to those rebellions led to the creation of military towns including Hamilton, Cambridge, Pirongia, and Kihikihi, numerous redoubts (settler forts) signposted as historical reminders, as well as extensive land confiscations in parts of the North Island as a consequence of insurrection.
McLean’s easy-to read third book on the New Zealand pioneers will rekindle in those of us with forebears who came here early a renewed understanding and respect that may have been sidelined as unacceptable, or which may have just drifted away with the passage of time.
The Pioneers – Makers of New Zealand, John McLean, Winter Productions, 256 pages, illustrated, is available from independent bookshops or www.trosspublishing.com
15 comments:
I notice that it is necessary to go to an independent bookseller or the publisher to obtain a copy of this book. Are the retail chains like Whitcoulls and Paper Plus refusing to stock it? Is that because it goes against the official narrative that the pioneers were evil?
It is indeed a great pity that these pioneers are denigrated by descendants of the aborigines who benefited then and now from the achievements of our European ancestors. We (and I mean those who proudly claim settler heritage) need to keep placing their deeds before the public and revel in our cultural chauvinism.
A Brighter Britain was what still welcomed my English parents in the 1950s/60s and the opportunity to make Godzone the best little country in the world. The UK remained battered and gloomy post-war and the sun was certainly brighter in NZ. For us children, glorious days in the garden and at the beach - Blockhouse Bay, French Bay, Green Bay, Huia, Pt Chev (all too polluted now to swim in). Not good for the pale freckly English skin admittedly
The achievements of those pioneers should never be underestimated or forgotten. We should look back with pride at what they accomplished and it's good that it's formally recorded for posterity. It's more than a shame that what they strived to create is so easily now dismissed, or ignored through complacency and political perversion. Watch and be enlightened where the latter will lead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItDFsPqDIEs
Those pioneers are the true heroes of this country . These are the buiders, who through long days relentlessly forging an infrastructure that we all benefit from today, and contrary to popular belief, Maori looked to for an improvement of life undreamed of.
The true reason for the insurrection and uprising in the central North Island tribes was the loss of power over there people by the chiefs and tribal hierarchy, a better example of the evils of tribalism you could not find.
Resent generations have lost the incentive for unselfish effort, with many happy to take and not contribute.
This attitude and the introduction of the welfare state ( socialism) has since the 1930,s just about destroyed over time a country regarded as the most enduring and successful democracies there has ever been.
In a nutshell
Selfishness, Socialism and Tribalism.
These concepts were as far away from the early pioneers thinking as they could possibly be.
Now days they totally dominate the modern world.
You can call them settlers if you like, but I prefer to call them colonists. It's time we recouped OUR language.
Irrespective of what we call them, it is good to see an interest in their trials and tribulations; they were truly remarkable people.
Boudicca, the problem is that you and your parents are being blamed foe everything that so many Maori have not achieved.
Like yours, mine were a fresh start, 100 years earlier.
At the time they were never accused their apparently now heinous crimes of colonization, but somehow this and other governments are forcing us to atone for their sins.
Nowhere else in the world that 5 generations gone are people paying like we are, both financially, and morally.
No, Mudbayripper, the welfare state is not 'socialism'. Socialism is a political paradigm applied to the governing of a country including its economy. The 'welfare state' was a paradigm that emerged from capitalist countries after WW1 and then again with a vengeance after WW2.
Sweden and the Netherlands are often cited as having the best social welfare systems on the planet and neither are 'socialist' - their economies are capitalist.
Both welfarist capitalist countries and socialist countries recognise the State's duty of care towards its citizens but only the former can afford to act accordingly - the latter weaken their economy so much that they can't keep their promises.
Leave it to non-English speakers like Yanks to equate welfarism with socialism - this is yet another example of the Americanisation of English.
Thanks Barend, l was trying to make a point, simply.
That being, the welfare state, of which we all benefit. eg state run education, health and care and support for the disabled and elderly.
Although, as you say is not exactly socialism, is akin to it and has definitely contributed to the crisis we know find ourselves in.
Agree Barend. Mudbayripper says "This attitude and the introduction of the welfare state (socialism) has since the 1930,s just about destroyed over time [this] country". Apart of the fact that this country being destroyed by 'socialism' has completely escaped me, it must be said that since the First Labour Government, there have been eleven new governments democratically elected, and none have thrown out our socialist fundamentals. That's what you get when you leave it to the great unwashed to choose our governments.
Remember that absolutely not one bit of permanent infrastructure existed in NZ before Europeans arrived - zip, nada, nothing
What you see today was done by non- Maori.
TPM want to undo everything and take NZ back to one of the most primitive undeveloped " civilizations" on the planet .
Sadly, Luxon, Willis, Swarbrick, Hipkins et al are aiding their savage uncivilized programs.
My forebears arrived in NZ on the ship "Oriental" [ marginally better accommodation than a slave trader with little room for household goods] in 1841. They were from Wales, Devon and Cornwall, very hard hit by the Industrial Revolution. Only hope - go to the far side of the earth, with NOTHING, and start all over. All they found in "New Plymouth" was a shed... Go figure. HARD SLOG dawn to dusk. Died in their 90s in 1890s as paupers and are buried in unmarked graves at TeHenui... now a wonderful garden. They are at rest. God bless them. They and others built roads BY HAND, fenced, houses of rough materials, opened schools [they were illiterate] hospitals, and built the infrastructure that was in place when 1900ish, another wave of Brits arrived. They had it easy as!!! The early pioneers, my great/great grandparents are owed SO MUCH gratitude.... by later arrivals, and all of Maoridom.
My forebears came to NZ in the 1850s . One lot were Presbyterian and the other Wesleyan . . They both hoped for something more egalitarian than jolly old England and its rigid class system.
The discussion on socialism and the welfare state is a fairly complex topic in NZ One form of socialism was Bellam'ys , C hristian democratic form which undoubtedly in the 1890s and 1930s ,influenced our social security scheme , home ownership for working class people , free education , motherhood endowments and universal superannuation .
Contrast that with the Fabian Society 's approach to socialism which American educationalist John Dewey embraced and NZ absorbed into the country through progressive education mid 1950s. This society , founded in 1884 aimed to achieve its socialist goals through legislation very slowly and steadily through ,particularly education rather than by revolution. This is for me, the explanation for why we now have a destroyed education system more intent on developing socialism than educating children into traditional educational subjects like numeracy and literacy.
I believe Dewey's socialism was much more insidious and destructive than . Bellamy's variety , which however depends on a traditional education system that taught the value of hard work and producing citizen's who were independent workers not parasitic on the state which we used to have but no longer have.
The courage and industry of the early missionaries and settlers receives far too little recognition. The missionaries were at great risk. They taught maori agriculture techniques which transformed their lives. Relatives and friends were in most cases never seen again. They left population, established communities with robust houses, churches, shops, a range of purchasable products and artisans, roads, cultivated land for bleak scrub land, or thick bush. And potentially murderous locals. locals. About the only hint of celebration of the pioneer spirit is Country Calendar where many of the same virtues of industriousness, ability and resourcefulness are regularly displayed.
Yes, I believe that books by John Mclean are not in the big bookshops - I do know that several years ago, books by Tross publishing were being removed from school libraries, so I ordered one - and my public library did get it in (surprisingly).
John Mclean did not write one word that I felt was incorrect - he gives a very good account of the TRUTH about early NZ history
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