state to curb the exploitation of the weak. Their
ideal was a more egalitarian society. But in the
process the national government also greatly
increased its own power. Early in the century some
of the main lines of political development were set.
The Liberals aimed at a harmonious national
consensus, between country and town, worker and
employer, farmer and businessman. They suc-
ceeded for a long period but sectional interests in
the end destroyed the aim though not the reforms
the Liberals had enacted. The increase in the num-
ber of urban workers stimulated the formation of a
distinct Labour Party more narrowly identified
with their interests, and the trade unions grew
more militant. Largely based on the dairy farmers,
a more conservative opposition, the Reform Party,
evolved. Between 1912 and 1935 no one of the
three parties had a clear lead over the others. The
1920s were a period of general depression, with
falling prices for New Zealand’s farm produce. The
depression of the early 1930s was even worse. New
Zealand was utterly dependent on world prices for
its exports, and Britain, its main market, was deeply
depressed. Even so the early Labour Party’s social-
ist programme could not hope to find sufficient
support to make Labour the governing party. The
great majority of New Zealanders had no truck
with Marxist socialism or the abolition of property
rights. On the contrary, they aspired to a higher
standard of living and to owning their own land
and home. The New Zealand Labour Party there-
fore accepted socialism in theory but not in prac-
tice. These were the politics of the white New
Zealand settlers. But what of the original indigen-
ous New Zealanders, the Maoris?
The early impact of the European was cata-
strophic, as it was on the indigenous peoples of the
Americas. The new settlers sometimes acquired
land by fair means but more usually they did so by
foul. As their numbers increased so did the pres-
sure on Maori land. European settlers disrupted
traditional societies. Worst of all, they introduced
new diseases against which the indigenous people
had no defence. When the Europeans first settled
it is estimated that there were about 200,000
Maoris in New Zealand, mostly inhabiting North
Island, which was divided by warring tribes.
Possession of land by the tribe was the most
important indication of status – and it belonged to
the community as a whole and not to individuals.
In the nineteenth century, dispute over land led to
violent conflict with the settlers, the Maori wars.
Some 2,000 Maoris lost their lives. The rapid
decline of the Maori population to 42,000 by the
turn of the century was, however, due more to dis-
ease and the disruption of their traditional culture
and lives than to war.
Far away in distant London the intention
of governments towards indigenous peoples
had been benevolent. Unlike the Aborigines of
Australia, the Maoris had even received guaran-
tees by treaty intended to preserve their rights.
That compact was the Treaty of Waitangi in
1840, by which Maori chiefs ceded New Zealand
to the British Crown and in return were guaran-
teed possession of their lands, forests and fisheries
and granted the rights and privileges of British
subjects. This gave the Maoris a solid legal basis
for demanding the righting of wrongful seizures,
which has persisted to the present day. In the rela-
tions between the white settlers and their descen-
dants and the Maori people this treaty is a crucial
contract, though its interpretation in contempor-
ary conditions is certainly complex. The Maoris
thus attained rights in the nineteenth century not
enjoyed by the Aborigines until late in the twen-
tieth century. They were also granted separate
electorates and four members of parliament in- Later in the twentieth century, to preserve
their sense of identity, Maoris as well as descen-
dants of mixed race who wished to be identified
as Maori could be entered on the Maori electoral
roll on request.
The Maoris began to recover only in the twen-
tieth century after they had lost or sold most of
their lands. A leadership educated in an Anglican
school for Maoris began to emerge early in the
century and a modest measure of local self-
government was granted before the First World
War. The Maori population recovered slowly. By
1921 it numbered 56,000. Their cultural identity
was now greatly strengthened by the establish-
ment of a distinct Maori religious cult, the Ratana
Church, founded by Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana,
who had had a vision in 1918. Ratana disciples
captured all the Maori political seats in parliament