EARLY NEW ZEALAND

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 96, 27 April 1929, Page 21

EARLY NEW ZEALAND

TIES WITH SOUTH AFRICA

"The Colonisation of New Zealand." By J. S. Maraia, Lecturer in His- : toryin the- Witwatersrand TJniyer- : sity. Oxford:. Tho'University Press. : In reviewing this book the '' Cape Times" remarks that it commends itself .-to the !South- African public for three main reasons. First, it is the product of a South African mind. Wo have so many national problems in this country and arc-so busy, adding to them that it-is pleasant to know that there are those amongst us who retain sufficient detachment to study the methods and conditions of colonisation in another part of the Empire and to choose such a study for .submission to the Committeo for Advanced Studies in the University of. Oxford as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Secondly, .New. Zealand is bound to South Africa by the unbroken chain of Sir George Grey's governorship of both countries: a. governorship ■ distinguished by events'which have left indelible marks upon their establishment, and which, furnished problems of admiration no less remarkable for their parallels than their contrasts. . f And thirdly,-the book bears the imprint of the Oxford/University Press, and isa handsome-volume of 384 pages, of which seven are devoted to a list of sources and 23 to an index which appears to be a model of. which that much neglected feature should be. There are numerous.notes in the letterpress, and the references are adequately documented. •-.■■■ Dr. Marais claims that the existing histories of New Zealand are polemical ratherUhan) historical," and that so far nobody has studied the settlement of that country• from the point of view of a great experiment in colonisation according to the ideas-of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, whose fame endures as one who made emigration to the colonies a popular -theme in England. Transporta- • tion and convictisin had become synonymous terms, and in 1828 New South Wales had 13,400 free-born settlers, against a population of convicts and exconvicts 'numbering 23,000. ■Wakeficldp who: had formed the Colonisation Society.in 1830, had succeeded in'getting ihis.ideas-applied to lands which were already populated or partly populated' by,, convicts, and, he looked towards New Zealand as.a place which offered' :virgin ground: for experiments on his;own particular lines, which he de- : veloped;ably and in great detail in his book, "The Art. of Colonisation.'' '. The main, interest of Dr. Marais's book is his. account of the results of Wakefield's ; experiments in those islands.. On the board of his society the latter. ;had associated, with him such famous; co-adjutors as J.. S, Mill and Grote,'Eiutpul of the "Spectator," and Colonel : Torrens.. These men attacked the Colonial Office system of free grants of- land, checked the, emigration of paupers, and educated public opinion upon the necessity for careful selection of those who Were to represent tho Mother Country overseas.- ■■■.," The/Tinies": dictum that "Emigration is a fact and colonisation a duty was-ultimately-accepted as the result of unremitting , propaganda, / and Dr. Marais'traces/: .with a perseverance which -.enlists the reader's unflagging interest,, the- history of New Zealand from: the - days. when the Church Mis-. sionary'Society; and the Colonial Office joined forces to oppose its colonisation, onward ■■> through the activities of the New Zealand' Company, the Annexation, the Pioneer-Settlements; and the Wakefield experiments; the appointment of its Governors and-Sir George Grey's substitution of order .for chaos, to the timo when Wakefield-was able to say that "considering: the inexperience of tho colonists/there have been wonderfully few instances of men who were unable to look forward.to,an ultimate and certain competence:" ; - '

In concluding the review, the "Capo Times" statesVDr. Marais has written a book which is indispensable to all students of Jand- settlement and administration, a ibook full; of special interest to those-who are engaged in the solution of similar' problems in other parts of the wprld,'. wherever, and whatever they may be. . „ ■