New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

AUGUST 10 2019 LISTENER 35

The effect was a revolution in
our ethnicity. By 2013, more
than 11% of the population
claimed to be of Asian ethnic-
ity, and if you added up those
with Māori, Pacific, Asian and
Pacific ethnic identity, they
constituted about a third of
the population. Even those of
us with a British whakapapa

were increasingly exposed to

non-British cultural influences

• through foreign travel, by
  meeting overseas tourists or by
  eating at the numerous Asian
  food places.
  Changes in international
  relations came early. World
  War II showed up Britain’s mil-
  itary weakness in the Pacific

and we turned for protection

to the US. Some people argue

that the signing of the Anzus

pact with the US and Australia

in 1951 was among New

Zealand’s most “independ-

ent” acts. But the American

alliance, too, came under chal-

lenge. Protests against New

Zealand’s involvement in the

November 1939. For a post-
Depression nation facing war,
the six-month-long Centen-
nial Exhibition in Wellington
was a tonic. It attracted 2.6
million visitors; the country’s
population was then only
1.6 million. Some came to
grapple with their history
and identity, as organisers
intended. Even more came for
Playland, entertainment domi-
nated by a roller-coaster and

including the “world’s fattest

girl”, the 343kg Mexican Rose.

Many Māori protested against

it, which was hardly surpris-

ing given its theme of brave

British settlers – “people of the

best British colonising type”,

declared Lord Galway, the

Governor-General – overcom-

ing the odds, which included

Māori. The dramatic buildings,

dominated by a 52m-high

tower, burnt down in 1946.

March 27, 1940. His benign

photo graph hung on

thousands of walls, he was the

most loved of New Zealand’s

prime ministers. A goldminer,

flax-cutter and trade unionist,

he went on to lead the first

Labour Government as it

pulled the country out of the

Depression and introduced

the welfare state, which

gave several generations the

security and opportunities

he never had in his early life.

The Listener eulogy said many

thousands throughout the

Dominion would feel “they

have lost a personal friend”,

and those friends paid their

respects at 21 stops along

the main trunk railway line

as his body was taken from

Wellington to Auckland,

where he is buried at Bastion

Pt.

Centennial Exhibition opens

Michael Joseph

Savage dies

Fall of

Singapore

February 15, 1942. “We’re

not greatly worried at home,

because we’re well out in the

suburbs” – so said a librar-

ian to the Listener, when

questioned about fears of

Japanese invasion following

the fall of the supposedly

impregnable British bas-

tion of Singapore. Maybe

she knew something the

authorities didn’t: despite

post-Singapore alarmism, the

Japanese war machine did

not get this far. But Britain’s

failure to defend the Pacific

Rim left New Zealanders feel-

ing abandoned. It was clear,

then and postwar, that Britain

was no longer a superpower,

meaning New Zealand

was “no longer attached to

a winner”, says James Belich.

Māori, whom

we considered

“honorary Anglo-

Saxons”, were 5%

of the population.

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