Philippa Mein Smith

Maternity in Dispute: New Zealand 1920-1939

In this new account of New Zealands history, Philippa Mein Smith considers the rugged and dynamic land from its break from Gondwana 80 million years ago to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Mein Smith highlights the effects of the countrys small size and isolation, from late settlement by Polynesian voyagers, very late colonization and settlement by Europeans, and the interactions that made these people Maori and Pakeha, to struggles over land, and efforts through time to manage global forces. Placing New Zealand in its global and regional context, the book reveals its links to Britain, despite being immersed in the Pacific, and part of Australasia. Distinctively, it reveals key moments contributing to the founding of the countrys national myths.

New Zealand federation commissioners in Australia: One past, two historiographies

A substantial amount of shared trans‐Tasman history has fallen between the cracks of the Australian and New Zealand historiographies, which have evolved separately. This matter is only beginning to be explored with renewed interest in comparative and transnational histories. In this article, the significance of shared episodes in the federal story is addressed. It analyses conversations between public men in 1890 and 1891, and especially during the visit by the New Zealand Federation Commission to the newly federated Australia in 1901. Four themes emerge from these conversations: ideas of Australasia and White Australia, a community of interest and fear of takeover.

Suburbia and infant death in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Adelaide

Altogether, as a place of education Adelaide falls far short of the mark; as a place of amusement it is hopeless; and as a village — well, it is tolerably clean, and comparatively healthy. Thistle Anderson (1905)

The ‘NZ’ in Anzac: different remembrance and meaning

AbstractThis article examines differences of emphasis in Australia and New Zealand in the rituals of Anzac Day, the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings on 25 April 1915. Whereas Anzac Day in New Zealand is solemn, with a focus on the laying of wreaths and services at war memorials and churches, in Australia the day is distinguished more by marches of returned servicemen, cheered by large crowds. By exploring the emphasis on different components of what are shared rituals, on the march of the veterans and the laying of wreaths, the article aims to outline and explain how and why Anzac Day is more funereal in New Zealand. It proceeds to highlight the ‘NZ’ in Anzac through a study of myth, ritual, memorialisation, heroes, and reinvention, and finds that, contrary to accepted views, the conscription debate in Australia is insufficient to account for this divergence of emphasis in Anzac formalities from 1916. Rather the article suggests that the coincidence of the South African War and Australian Federation ...Abstract This article examines differences of emphasis in Australia and New Zealand in the rituals of Anzac Day, the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings on 25 April 1915. Whereas Anzac Day in New Zealand is solemn, with a focus on the laying of wreaths and services at war memorials and churches, in Australia the day is distinguished more by marches of returned servicemen, cheered by large crowds. By exploring the emphasis on different components of what are shared rituals, on the march of the veterans and the laying of wreaths, the article aims to outline and explain how and why Anzac Day is more funereal in New Zealand. It proceeds to highlight the ‘NZ’ in Anzac through a study of myth, ritual, memorialisation, heroes, and reinvention, and finds that, contrary to accepted views, the conscription debate in Australia is insufficient to account for this divergence of emphasis in Anzac formalities from 1916. Rather the article suggests that the coincidence of the South African War and Australian Federation at the dawn of the twentieth century, different nationalisms, and political, social, and cultural disparities between the dominions provided the context for divergent scripts of remembrance and meaning enacted in Anzac Day rituals since the First World War.

The Rise and Fall of National Women's Hospital: A History

that: ‘the very design of institutional life was alienating and provided little space for the interest in individual development and wellbeing generally associated with the concept of caring for children’ (viii). Reports of inquiry in Australia and Ireland have confirmed that these ‘care’ institutions were brutalising environments and Musgrove’s study is a valuable place to start for anyone who wishes to know the history of how they became the principal form of childcare for so long.

Against All Odds: The Birth of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955-1958

When the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955–1958 advance party sailed from the Millwall Docks in November 1955, bound for the Weddell Sea, their departure was the product of five years of intensive effort on the part of Vivian Fuchs to achieve the first overland crossing of the Antarctic continent. This paper investigates the many obstacles that had to be overcome leading up to Theron sailing and explains the manner in which they were overcome by the Fuchs-Wordie-Clifford triumvirate. The British Foreign Office was particularly opposed to the expedition with the offices focus on sovereignty rather than science while an alternative proposal from Duncan Carse raised a unique set of difficulties. The withdrawal from involvement by the Scott Polar Research Institute Director, Colin Bertram, indicated further disaffection. Most important, if political and financial goals were to be met, was the need for participation by several Commonwealth countries of which New Zealand was the essential partner. Fortunately, the vigorous efforts of a few Antarctic enthusiasts in New Zealand were successful in moving their government to assert its long dormant position in the Ross Dependency. New Zealands commitment turned the tide of commonwealth apathy towards the TAE. Although the TAE preceded the IGY, events, including the dominating IGY presence of the United States, caused the two projects to become tightly interwoven. For these reasons the years leading up to the departure of Theron were as intriguing as the crossing journey itself.

Locating Australia? How students view Australia’s region

This article analyses views of Australia’s region expressed by 427 students enrolled in the pre-degree programme at the University of Tasmania over the three years from 2015 to 2017. This set of students participated in an inter-disciplinary unit titled ‘Understanding this Region’, for which the author was the unit coordinator. The results derive from an assessment task designed for this unit, which asked students to find a map that matched their understanding of this region, and to justify their choice. The article analyses students’ choices of ‘this region’ disclosed by this assignment, and thereby their perspectives on situating Australia. It considers how far students identified with the Pacific, local and oceanic connections, and how far with Asia; and the reasons they gave for their choices. The article then considers the significance of these findings, given that the Australian national curriculum emphasises the importance of engagement with Asia.Abstract This article analyses views of Australia’s region expressed by 427 students enrolled in the pre-degree programme at the University of Tasmania over the three years from 2015 to 2017. This set of students participated in an inter-disciplinary unit titled ‘Understanding this Region’, for which the author was the unit coordinator. The results derive from an assessment task designed for this unit, which asked students to find a map that matched their understanding of this region, and to justify their choice. The article analyses students’ choices of ‘this region’ disclosed by this assignment, and thereby their perspectives on situating Australia. It considers how far students identified with the Pacific, local and oceanic connections, and how far with Asia; and the reasons they gave for their choices. The article then considers the significance of these findings, given that the Australian national curriculum emphasises the importance of engagement with Asia.

The Big Smoke: New Zealand cities 1840–1920

Urban history is thin in New Zealand compared to Australia, its people preferring a rural myth of settler origins or colonialism and development. Yet cities have been dominant in New Zealand histor...

The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800–2000

This monumental book explores New Zealand’s most uncomfortable, and therefore forgotten, war on New Zealand soil, a war fought between British forces, settlers, and the Waikato tribes. Its closest comparator in Australian history is Van Diemen’s Land’s Black War. Yet this discombobulating conflict also inspired New Zealand’s first film, Rewi’s Last Stand, a silent movie in 1925 that was remade as a talkie in 1940. This Kiwi culture classic was based on the battle of Orakau of 1864, the best known episode in the Waikato War, which O’Malley argues spurred the belief that New Zealand enjoyed the best race relations in the world. From the 1970s, with the Māori revival, the Pakeha version of Orakau could no longer be sustained, as James Belich also demonstrated in his revisionist history of the New Zealand Wars (1986).

New Zealand in the League of Nations: The Beginnings of an Independent Foreign Policy, 1919–1939

the ambitious railway schemes after 1903. Maintaining credit was important but often as the means to the end of developmentalism. The Australian colonies federated later, when Labor was on the rise with an aggressively populist rhetoric. Where banks led Canadian debates on credit and development, in Australia it was politicians, civil servants and journalists and they were much more ambivalent about the City. Populist voters, like politicians, were ambivalent, suspicious of ‘the money power’ but wanting development. Conservatives, and the pastoral and financial bourgeoisie, had more common ground with the City but this was often for their own low-tax anti-Labor reasons. Dilley discusses three of the states and shows the limited role enjoyed by the federal government until 1914. When Labor achieved a federal majority in 1910, its progressive programme, emphasising land reform, became controversial but Prime Minister Fisher effectively faced the City down. As Dilley implies, the Labor programme was not much different from what the New Zealand Liberals had done after 1890 and the antipodean world hadn’t ended. Even the new Commonwealth Bank, despite King O’Malley’s rhetoric, did not tamper with the gold standard. City concerns, as Dilley says, were significant but not dominant and Labor’s radicalism was bounded. Dilley’s writing is clear and engaging, and the book is enjoyable and illuminating, prompting constant thought about the implications of his argument and of his evidence. One can ask for little more.