KEY POINTS:
Gordon McLauchlan has great experience in, and knowledge of, my specialist reporting area and I approached his new book The Farming of New Zealand with anticipation.
I hoped it would provide information to fill gaps in my historical knowledge of farming here, and provide a more detailed contextual
"map" in interpreting current events in relation to the past.
By and large, my hopes were agreeably met by his wide-ranging yet detailed account of agriculture from pre-European times to the present.
There is Maori horticulture; how sheep farming became such a primary force in our economic life; the rise of grain; the rabbit blight. It takes in the birth of refrigerated shipping and the great fillip it provided to our export dairy and meat trades; the exploitation of our forests and the clearing of the bush for farming; the rise of dairying; the development of our agricultural science expertise. How we were a farm for Britain, particularly in the world wars, but were traumatised by the Mother Country joining the EC.
This panoramic sweep touches on fundamental aspects of New Zealand identity, particularly Pakeha. However, there were irritating gaps that left me frustrated - gaps that would not necessarily have needed a vast number of words to help the reader understand things better.
It was almost as if the author expected readers would have a knowledge of certain historical events and did not need reminding.
A fulsome commentary on pre-European farming, the Maori feeding of early Pakeha New Zealand and the Maori adaption to European farming methods is very interesting.
But, notes McLauchlan, subsequent competition for land "and to a lesser degree, competition for markets with produce, were factors in drawing the two competing races into war".
Maori success at farming threatened some Europeans. The Maori "place" was not considered to be that of a competitor to the white settler, rather a "willing accomplice in converting his forests into the white man's farms".
Pressure from politicians, speculators and Pakeha settlers began forcing Maori off the last of their land that was most suitable for arable and pastoral farming. "Maori fought back too late, outnumbered and under-equipped against a better-organised foe, and depressed by a growing understanding of the cynical acquisitive forces ranged against them," McLauchlan writes.
This is one part I felt glossed too quickly over its subject matter. I would like to have seen more information or opinion about this vast transfer of productive resource from one race to another.
I would have liked to have known more about was the actions of Lands Minister John McKenzie in the 1890s who, says McLauchlan, broke up most of the large sheep runs and placed families on smallholdings. This dramatic move and the politics underpinning it do not get enough explanation, nor does subsequent comment about the rural- urban divide creating social and industrial tensions, and erupting in violence when politically exploited, as in the conflicts of 1913 and 1951.
More background information would have helped in sections dealing with Britain's entry into the EC - why did Britain do it, and exactly what did we lose on the trade front? An informed reader can make some assumptions based on background knowledge but others, especially younger readers, could struggle.
It is a fine book, but left me wanting more.
Vaughan Yarwood's and Arno Gasteiger's Farm is another fine addition to rural publishing, with Gasteiger's exquisite photos conveying well the dramatic beauty of the countryside, and the excitement and satisfaction rural New Zealanders get from farming.
The photos especially show the modern face of agriculture, including the young people working the land. The sections of writing were a mix of interesting human stories, descriptive passages, hard information and comment - a good blend for someone looking for contextual meat to put on the publication's beautiful photographic bones.
* The Farming of New Zealand is published by Viking
