New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

AUGUST 10 2019 LISTENER 39

boosting national wealth,

the Māori worker was often

tempted back to the marae,

so “continuous work, week

in, week out, still comes hard

to him”.

Today, more than 80% of

Māori are urban dwellers – a

complete reversal in just

half a century (though there

has been a small swing back

to rural living in the past

decade). The change has

been two-edged, how-

ever: Māori have sent the

old Pākehā monoculture

packing, and established

themselves as a potent politi-

cal and cultural force, but

urbanisation also created a

detribalised cohort no longer

in touch with te reo and the

old traditions of the land.

It was understandable that
Pākehā considered rela-
tions with Māori in positive
self-congratulatory terms, for
most had little contact with
Māori. The Māori population
was about 80,000, and most
were in rural areas, especially
in Northland and the East
Coast, far from the main

centres. Many Māori survived

in a largely self-sufficient way

and had few contacts with

the wider economy. Their

poor living conditions were

not seen by most white New

Zealanders. Māori were visible

only on ceremonial occasions

when Pākehā enjoyed their

ritual as giving distinctiveness

to a rather one-dimensional

society. Few Pākehā knew

te reo Māori. No one talked

about a bicultural society.

The origins of change were

during World War II and the

following two decades when

many Māori moved into the

city. For the first time, Pākehā

interacted daily with Māori

national off-course betting
agency, the TAB. From
10.00am on March 28,
betting was steady on the
Manawatū and Wellington
races. By the end of 1952,
there were 167 TABs,
with a weekly turnover
of £200,000. Although
the sport’s popularity has
flagged, the TAB’s turnover
from racing in the 2017-2018
year was $1.65 billion.

February 18, 1957. “The neck had been stretched

considerably, while the tongue was out of the

mouth and looked to be about nine inches long.”

Quoted in Sherwood Young’s book Guilty on the

Gallows, this comment by a constable who saw the

body after the last official hanging in New Zealand,

at Mt Eden Prison, may help to explain why capital

punishment was abolished four years later, in 1961.

The condemned man was 68-year-old Jim Bolton,

convicted of lethally poisoning his wife by putting

sheep dip in her tea for more than a year. He

protested his innocence to the end.

Last hanging

Māori were

regarded as

“honorary

whites”, who

had shown their

racial mettle on

the rugby and

battle fields.

GET

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IMA

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