Post by Kiwi Frontline on Jun 13, 2021 4:24:56 GMT 12
COLONIZATION GAVE MAORI CAUSE FOR HOPE – Michael Bassett.
So, in the opinions of Peeni Henare and Willie Jackson, two of the weaker minds in our ministry, Paul Goldsmith MP is “ignorant” and talking “nonsense” when he says that on balance, Maori benefited from the colonization of New Zealand. According to Henare, Goldsmith who, incidentally, is a First-Class Honours graduate in history with an impressive number of well researched books to his credit, “set back the country” by stating what, on balance, should be obvious to all of us. As that sage Maori leader Sir Apirana Ngata always said, colonization of New Zealand could not have been prevented; Maori were just lucky that it was the British, and not some of the less enlightened imperialists who undertook the settlement of New Zealand. When will our ministers learn some history? And when will reporters like the Herald’s Michael Neilson who also seems hopelessly confused, join them?
Goldsmith didn’t elaborate on his reasons for making his judgement. But the first and obvious reason why British sovereignty was positive was that it quickly brought law and order to New Zealand and gave Maori cause for hope. In the thirty years before the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 warring Maori tribes had slaughtered between 40,000 and 50,000 fellow Maori, including women and children, pillaged their economies, enslaved many, and eaten some. The Musket Wars ended. Cannibalism faded, and slavery was abolished. The British had abolished the slave trade in 1807 and proscribed slavery in 1833. Historians agree that the Maori economy revived for a time in the 1840s and 1850s, and that mutually beneficial trade between Maori and Pakeha developed until it was badly affected in the Waikato, Taranaki, and to a lesser extent Tauranga in the 1860s by wars that began over land and sovereignty. For those Maori caught up in this fighting, the early 1860s were bad. But still, the colonial government killed many fewer Maori than Maori had slaughtered during the Musket Wars. Even though some confiscated land was returned, the act of confiscation seriously damaged several western tribes. It had much less impact on northern, central, southern and eastern Maori.
Law and order, equal rights with Pakeha under the Treaty, access to the right to vote ahead of many Pakeha, and an opportunity to learn to read and write, and in particular, to learn English which is the first or second language of nearly every country in the world these days, was a blessing for Maori. Only yesterday I saw that Willie Jackson was complaining that not enough English language programmes are being played on Maori TV. Well, fancy that!......
www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/colonization-gave-maori-cause-for-hope?postId=2336a58a-01c7-4674-94ed-100d58787300
So, in the opinions of Peeni Henare and Willie Jackson, two of the weaker minds in our ministry, Paul Goldsmith MP is “ignorant” and talking “nonsense” when he says that on balance, Maori benefited from the colonization of New Zealand. According to Henare, Goldsmith who, incidentally, is a First-Class Honours graduate in history with an impressive number of well researched books to his credit, “set back the country” by stating what, on balance, should be obvious to all of us. As that sage Maori leader Sir Apirana Ngata always said, colonization of New Zealand could not have been prevented; Maori were just lucky that it was the British, and not some of the less enlightened imperialists who undertook the settlement of New Zealand. When will our ministers learn some history? And when will reporters like the Herald’s Michael Neilson who also seems hopelessly confused, join them?
Goldsmith didn’t elaborate on his reasons for making his judgement. But the first and obvious reason why British sovereignty was positive was that it quickly brought law and order to New Zealand and gave Maori cause for hope. In the thirty years before the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 warring Maori tribes had slaughtered between 40,000 and 50,000 fellow Maori, including women and children, pillaged their economies, enslaved many, and eaten some. The Musket Wars ended. Cannibalism faded, and slavery was abolished. The British had abolished the slave trade in 1807 and proscribed slavery in 1833. Historians agree that the Maori economy revived for a time in the 1840s and 1850s, and that mutually beneficial trade between Maori and Pakeha developed until it was badly affected in the Waikato, Taranaki, and to a lesser extent Tauranga in the 1860s by wars that began over land and sovereignty. For those Maori caught up in this fighting, the early 1860s were bad. But still, the colonial government killed many fewer Maori than Maori had slaughtered during the Musket Wars. Even though some confiscated land was returned, the act of confiscation seriously damaged several western tribes. It had much less impact on northern, central, southern and eastern Maori.
Law and order, equal rights with Pakeha under the Treaty, access to the right to vote ahead of many Pakeha, and an opportunity to learn to read and write, and in particular, to learn English which is the first or second language of nearly every country in the world these days, was a blessing for Maori. Only yesterday I saw that Willie Jackson was complaining that not enough English language programmes are being played on Maori TV. Well, fancy that!......
www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/colonization-gave-maori-cause-for-hope?postId=2336a58a-01c7-4674-94ed-100d58787300