New Zealand contribution to Australia

Press, 24 February 1988, Page 24

New Zealand contribution to Australia

By

ROBERT LOWE

PA Sydney Most Australians are probably unaware of the contribution New Zealanders have made to Australia over the last 200 years, according to a teacher and writer, Ms Jill Schofield. Ms Schofield is the author of a book entitled “The New Zealanders in Australia,” which is awaiting publication. The book is one of 30 in the Australian Ethnic Heritage Series, coinciding with the Australian Bicentenary. “Migration both ways has been a feature of the relationship of the two countries,” Ms Schofield said. “It is something I am trying to highlight in the book but, because of the constraints of the project, I have focused mainly on New Zealanders in Australia.” She said the New Zealand contribution had been progressive over the last 200 years. “It has had its peaks and its troughs, but it has been a fairly constant phenomenon, and that has not been recognised in Australia and by Australian historians.

“The general public are largely unaware of the history, although lately there has been a lot of media coverage on the ■less favourable side of New Zealand migration to Australia.” Ms Schofield, a secondary school teacher in-

volved in multi-cultural education, is herself an expatriate. She was born in Dunedin, first came to Australia in 1961 and now lives with her Australian husband in Melbourne. Ms Schofield said her book covered most aspects concerning New Zealanders on this side of the Tasman, including the first recorded incident of New Zealanders setting foot in Australia.

In 1793, the crew of an Australian vessel kidnapped a priest, Tuki Tahua, and a warrior, Te Hurukokoti, from the Bay of Islands. They were captured so that they could teach Norfolk Island convicts how to use the flax, something Tuki and Te Huru had little knowledge of, since it was a skill of Maori women and not men. Ms Schofield, who was helped in her research by another Melbourne-based expatriate, Ms Philippa Merchant, said her material had come from a variety of sources.

“It is not an area that has been written on before,” she said. “I did a lot of interviews and sent out questionnaires. I advertised in 60 newspapers and had a wide response from all over Australia. “For earlier material, it was a case of speaking to people about their ancestors and relatives and gleaning what I could from newspaper clippings.”