The Spice of Danger and wild, rough, romance
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Many New Zealand towns started out as whaling stations. Riverton, which I visited and absorbed last week, was such a town. The clever thing they did was to transition to farming the land so that when the 20-odd years of whale fishery expired they would be able to go on. State (Nz) bureaucrat to the […]
Read more..October 27, 2018
Meghan & Harry
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
The New Zealand Royal Family is coming to town next week. Two of them anyway. I wrote the following a year ago and it’s subject to a little update. According to the news I try not to watch, Prince Harry has taken an American fiancée. I wonder how much Meghan Markle Inc. paid for this […]
Read more..October 26, 2018
No shortage of Coquettish Wenches
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Reverend Johann Wohlers was a German Missionary, a Lutheran, in the early days of what would become Southland. He was not the first. Many Missionaries of various denominations competed to market their particular brand of Christianity to the New Zealanders. In my opinion it was the Wesleyans/Methodists who seem to have cornered the New Zealand market […]
Read more..October 25, 2018
Lyttleton Burning
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Today in history: Poor old Lyttleton ablaze; 24th October 1870! Two thirds of Lyttelton destroyed. What hard times these were! Perhaps worst of all, Fox and Vogal are in power The Gold Rush is done, Agricultural prices low, immigration down, and Canterbury top-soil is being lost out to sea by violent winds on the now […]
Read more..October 24, 2018
George Grey, Premier
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Sir George Grey as Premier: 13 Oct 1877–8 Oct 1879 Most focus is on Grey’s earlier period as Governor, let’s consider his busy couple of years when he humbled himself down to the rank of Premier/Prime Minister. In 1867 The Empire decided he was done as Governor so Grey returned to enter British politics but […]
Read more..October 14, 2018
K’plah and ka pai
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
New Zealand culture appears in a surprising amount of science fiction. For example, I always have assumed that whoever created the Star Trek aliens based it on an Honour Culture drawing heavily and directly from Maori culture and language. eg. K’plah in Klingon and ‘ka pai’ in Maori mean the same thing — Image ref […]
Read more..October 12, 2018
Bye bye Google+
By Gekko
So Google+ is officially shutting down. This is a shame, as it was certainly one of the better quality social platforms in terms of both audience and content even though (and perhaps because) it never attracted a mainstream audience. Google has a history of creating a product, getting people to use it and then unceremoniously […]
Read more..October 11, 2018
Lyttleton Gaol
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
One of my awakening moments of Anarchist History was this realisation that early New Zealanders so swiftly adopted the recourse to incarcerating those deemed criminal or insane. The speed and ostentation with which this was done is staggering and the priority outranks other public buildings you’d think would come first. (Michelle Foucout for the win, […]
Read more..October 11, 2018
Firemen, 1932
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Christchurch fire fighter drill, 1932. Illustrating the social and physical fact that men are better suited to this job! In 2018, and for a few years either side, our society entertains the social fiction that women are as capable of being a ‘fire person’ as this crew… “The photo showing fire fighters becoming proficient in […]
Read more..October 10, 2018
Israel attacked NZ to get to Lorde?
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
A bit of populist SJW signalling is part of what celebrities do when their star is falling. This week it has been Taylor Swift desperately seeking a bump from some political signalling… Taylor Swift has spoken out politically for the first time, publicly endorsing two Democrats for the upcoming US mid-term elections. The 28-year-old says […]
Read more..October 10, 2018
Bluff Courthouse
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Probably this is the building Joseph Ward opened in 1900 as the new Customs House and Court House combined. The Liberals, especially Ward, loved creating fancy buildings to their own honour (eg consider Dunedin’s Railway Station.) And this was his home town and his triumphant return to parliament. However, by 1938 there was an unsuccessful […]
Read more..October 9, 2018
Report With Soundings
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Malborough celebrated her centenary in on 1 November 1959. On that day this historic documentary, Report With Soundings, was aired on all the NZBC radio stations nationally. Later, it was released on this LP which History Always Repeats noticed listed on Trade Me this week. Old NZBC staple, Basil Clarke, the creator, may have been on […]
Read more..October 8, 2018
