LEARNING THE ARTS OF CAPITALISM

Te Ao Hou, June 1959, Page 10

LEARNING THE ARTS OF CAPITALISM Maoris were quick to take advantage of trading opportunities after 1840. It was some years before European farming got established around Auckland and there was an eager demand for Maori-grown produce. There was a gradual influx of tribal groups into surrounding districts. By 1843 Orakei and Remuera land was being cultivated by Ngatipaoa as well as Ngatiwhatua. Groups of the Waikato tribes moved north to cultivate at Mangere, and the land given to them by Apihai te Kawau at Onehunga and Remuera. A Maori mart was established on the waterfront at Commercial View from One Tree Hill over Orakei, the last foothold of the ancient Maori in Auckland. This land came on the market after 1908 when the sales prohibition was removed. (Photo: Robin Wood)

A Maori family goes to market in Auckland in the eighteen-forties. Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library. Bay where Maori vendors, quickly adopting European practices, auctioned their produce to Europeans. By the beginning of the ‘fifties this trade was starting to blossom out. Shrewd Auckland merchants pioneered an export trade with the Californian and Victorian goldfields. Maori agriculturalists supplied most of the produce, much of it from the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Poverty Bay. Auckland became an important market town. The Waitemata and Manukau harbours were regularly cluttered with Maori vessels which brought the produce to market and returned laden with European wares. The town was flooded periodically with Maoris who displayed rare talents at bargaining, selling their produce to the highest bidder and buying their requirements at the cheapest prices. Waikato, with its fertile pockets of land, became the granary of the Province. In 1855 the Waikato tribes produced 203,120 bushels of wheat, 1,515 of oats and 600 tons of potatoes. This was valued at £105,472. Ingenious and often laborious methods were adopted to get the produce to Auckland. Fully-laden canoes shipped it down the Waipa and Waikato to the Awaroa and then up this tributary to the portage near Waiuku. The canoes were dragged across the portage to the Manukau, re-loaded and then paddled across to Onehunga. The last stage of the journey was made on foot—long lines of men and women, burdened with the kits, trekked their produce along the Manukau road to Auckland. Then after the produce had been sold and the European goods purchased—and perhaps an overnight stay at Orakei—the long journey home was commenced. Other tribes were just as industrious and frequently made visits to deal in Auckland's markets. Many individuals stayed on in Auckland to work for the Government or Europeans. Maori labour was used on the construction of the Albert Barracks and other public works. They were regularly employed as farm hands by the European gentlemen farmers. Groups of Maoris were temporarily employed during harvesting operations Some acquired knowledge of more skilled occupations like printing and shipbuilding. The more prosperous tribes even went to the extent of employing European artisans, usually by contract, to erect flour mills. Indeed, it seemed that the Maoris were rapidly adapting themselves to the European economy. The relationship appeared to be mutually beneficial and hopeful souls, Governor Gray included, considered that the problems of amalgamation (they really meant Europeanisation) were being solved peacefully. It was only wishful thinking.