1921: Christchurch Electric Car Fleet
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
By 1921 Christchurch had a fleet of 48 private and council electric vehicles. Every one of them paraded for this photo that year. A good city for electric cars because Canterbury is flat and had a good power supply. The local MED offered discount rates for charging batteries overnight and this encouraged more users. This […]
Read more..March 24, 2024
1848: New Edinburgh
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Today in New Zealand history, 23 March, 1848, the first colony ship for the Otago Association landed and for this it has been Otago Anniversary ever since¹. This was a sub-project of the New Zealand Company facilitated by the Wakefield family and designed to be a Scottish intentional community. The New Edinburgh project had been […]
Read more..March 23, 2024
1861: The Invasion of Otago
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Gabriel Read was done with gold in March 1861 but it wasn’t to be for the first or last time. Now aged 36, Reed made his way in March to Cust in North Canterbury for the farm hospitality of his 21yo cousin, Terry Murphy. The family connection between these Australian men was that Read’s sister […]
Read more..March 21, 2024
1988: Cyclone Bola
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Sometimes at this time of year things dry up or catch fire. Other times cyclones strike and we catch flooding the likes of which we had forgotten because of our short memories. Today in history, 7 March, 1988, Cyclone Bola came to New Zealand and hit the North Island. Taranaki and Gisborne in particular. The […]
Read more..March 6, 2024
1842: The Raupo Houses Act
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Today in history, 3 March, 1842, self-declared Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, passed the Raupo Houses Act. This placed a huge £20 tax on anyone with a ‘Maori House’ within the boundaries of what The State defined as a town. The Maori fiber house technology had been adopted and improved by the new colonists […]
Read more..March 3, 2024
1976: Final Lyttelton Wellington Ferry
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Once was a Lyttelton–Wellington ferry service. Run by the Union Steam Ship Company (1895-17 September, 1976) with the final dwindling 2 years bankrolled by The State. Somehow, the Labour 3.0 Ministry thought it was a good idea to pump $4,000,000 a year into a service that had become uneconomical. National 3.0 put an end to […]
Read more..February 20, 2024
1873: When Auckland Took Fright
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Today in history, 17 February, 1873: The Kaskowiski Hoax was perpetrated on the people of Auckland by the new editor of the Daily Southern Cross newspaper, David Luckie. New Zealand is prone to periodic Russian Scares like this. Two others by 1885 led to significant investments in harbor defense forts like the one (image, left) […]
Read more..February 17, 2024
1840: The Treaty of Poihakena
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
On 18 January 1840, William Hobson, Consul, set of for New Zealand on HMS Herald from Sydney. With him were 6 officials, 3 servants, and 4 troopers of the New South Wales mounted police. Before setting out for New Zealand, Hobson spent much time during the prior twenty-five days closeted with his superior, Governor of […]
Read more..February 15, 2024
2014: Death of Charlotte Dawson
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Charlotte Dawson was celebrity New Zealander who died aged 47 by committing suicide on 22 February, 2014. As with her very public life, the death resonated through the Kiwi psyche. It was a terrific flame out involving component parts of Social Media, celebrity, women aging, bullying, and national pride. I first met Dawson when she […]
Read more..February 12, 2024
1770: Christmas in Batavia
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Over 250 years ago now, James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour completed the circumnavigation of North Island- demonstrating it is indeed an island. It’s good to know and we South Islanders are still very grateful for it! On 9 February, 1770, an important point had to be proven. That, Nieuw Zeeland, as the Dutch […]
Read more..February 9, 2024
1819: Maori Invasion of Rotuma
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Rotuma is a small island north of Fiji with its own ethnic identity though part of Fiji. By the 1830s it had become a whaling port so English was widely spoken there. The natives were subject to Tongan invasion and civil wars, especially in the 1870s, which were only coloured by the competing Catholic and […]
Read more..February 5, 2024
1993: Bailey’s 818
By Anarchist History of New Zealand
Christchurch nightclubs Bailey’s 818 (Colombo Street) and Bailey’s Downtown emerged from the 1980s disco, pop, and ‘hair bands’ era in the year 1993. The founder, Anthony Bailey, had a background as a disco DJ and by all accounts (sources, Facebook and Old Friends Archive) knew his trade very well and was well-liked by staff and […]
Read more..January 30, 2024
