Splendid history from Kapiti coast

Press, 15 April 1978, Page 17

Splendid history from Kapiti coast

In View of Kapiti. By Barbara Macmorran. Dunmore Press. 207 pp. Ulus., bibliography, index. $7.25. (Reviewed by Stuart Perry) The great-grand-daughter of Bishop Octavius Hadfield, Mrs Macmorran was brought up on the family farm looking across from the area north of Wellington now called the Golden Coast to Kapiti Island. Nine years ago her well organised and carefully objective biography of the Bishop, based primarily on original authorities, established his place in history. For this second major book she has had more to draw upon. Much historical work has now been done on me history and life of the coast; Mrs Macmorran is as familiar with the detail of it as she is with her early documents. As a third ingredient she can call freely on the fruits of her own lifetime of first-hand study. From these three, elements she distils a first class draught of history. Covering first the land, back to primaeval times, then Maori myth and migration, and then history from the a went of tne European, sne conjures up the developing society through consideration of various elements: transport, for example — the busy ports of a century ago, the advent of coaches, of railways, motor cars and aircraft. Each such element or aspect is dealt with faithfully, district by district or regionally as the subject requires: in a sense the author has dropped a fine grid over the coast — crossing, too. to Kapiti itself — and worked systematically over it until the details of its history have brought each area to life. Individual whalers, early settlers, missionaries and Maoris, notably Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata, appear

in the round. Some are famous figures, some “characters,” some ordinary people whose families have made their worthy contribution to the development of the area over several generations. Not only the workaday world of farming, vegetable growing and light industry is dealt with, but the light and shade of life, everything from music to water sports and marathon swims, from horse-racing to poetry, with a taniwha sighting for good measure, all rounding out the formal story of land bargaining, the

development of missionary work and economic fluctuation. Special old houses, always a source of interest in this area, receive handsome treatment. Te Rauparaha’s activities in North Island and South affected life in a

great part of New Zealand. Against this historical background he and Te Rangihaeata cease to be historical lay figures and emerge dramatically as human and understandable people — Rauparaha grumpy and unpredictable, entirely credible. There was a time when it might have been fair to shy away from a new local history: well-meaning effort and inadequate skill produced few masterpieces. By contrast, Mrs Macmorran demonstrates how expertly this detailed work can be done, and how engrossing the result can be for the casual reader. With Hadfield she ensured proper recognition of one man’s place in history: with this boox she preserves a long period of life in Hadfield’s district. The result amply justifies the years of effort.