New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

38 LISTENER AUGUST 10 2019

May 1949. Aerial topdressing revolutionised both farming

and the New Zealand landscape. Degraded by a century of

forest clearing, overgrazing and pests such as rabbits, inac-

cessible hill country had a ruined look when the 1949 trials

dropped fertiliser on 11 Wairarapa properties. Farmers were

immediately convinced. In just 20 years, livestock numbers

doubled. Wartime pilots such as Phil Lightband gave the

industry a flying start. He says, “I go through country around

Taumarunui that I topdressed myself. It was crappy coun-

try and after three years, it was beautiful.” Environmental

concerns have

grown about nutri-

ents leaching into

waterways, causing

an increase in algal

or weed growth, and

topdressing is now

prohibited within

certain distances of

water.

off on OEs to London and we

have not had the courage to

remove the Union Jack from

our flag, but no one would

claim that our minds are still

forged by the culture of Eng-

land and Scotland. Nor would

anyone consider that “better

Britain” is our national goal.

“BEST RACE RELATIONS IN THE

WORLD”

In November 1939, the New

Zealand Centennial Exhibition

opened in Wellington. The

promotional poster showed

a Māori “maiden” with poi

standing alluringly outside the

exhibition buildings. At the

time, Māori were recognised as

providing a distinctive element

of New Zealand culture, and

there was a pride that Māori

and Pākehā had good rela-

tions. Māori, as we have noted,

were regarded as “honorary

whites”, who had shown their

racial mettle on the rugby and

battle fields. Although some

Māori leaders, such as Āpirana

Ngata and Te Puea Herangi,

took the opportunity of the

centennial to emphasise the

loss of land and culture, few

listened. The centennial was

not seen as commemorating

a treaty, unfulfilled, between

Māori and Pākehā, but as the

celebration of 100 years’ mem-

bership of the British Empire.

Takahē

rediscovered

Aerial topdressing trialled

Māori

urbanisation and

the Māori

Women’s Welfare

League

November 1948. World

scoops are rare birds for the

Listener, but we got one in

April 1949 when we pub-

lished the first photograph of

a takahē chick. Long thought

extinct, takahē had been

rediscovered the previous

year in deepest Fiordland

by Geoffrey Orbell. Armed

with only cameras and 50

yards of fishing net, Orbell

and his team were able to

find the truth behind the

rumours of “a bird the size

of a goose ... with the speed

of a racehorse”. He wrote in

the Listener, “It has not been

because it was not there – it

has been because no one

knew just where to look.”

September 1951. In the biggest

internal migration this country

has known, Māori began to

move into the towns and cities

from the late 1940s onwards.

As they arrived, organisations

such as the influential Māori

Women’s Welfare League

were set up to assist with the

social problems that came

with moving into a sometimes

strange, Pākehā world. Prin-

cess Te Puea, the league’s first

patron, expressed concern to

the Listener as early as 1950

that young Māori were being

lured by the city glamour, high

wages and freedom from tribal

controls. “I think they should be

back in the country,” she said.

Professor Ernest Beaglehole said

that although Māori labour was

March 1951. Rugby, racing

and beer used to be the

holy trinity of social life, with

racing by no means the least.

Jockeys were heroes with

huge followings, and horses –

Carbine, Phar Lap, Cardigan Bay

• became legends. The world’s
  first automatic totalisator was
  installed at Auckland’s Ellerslie
  Racecourse in 1913, and 38 years
  later, in Dannevirke and Feilding,
  we opened the world’s first

First TABs open

80 YEARS