John Taylor Gatto
By AHNZ
Since the Education Act (1877) was passed in New Zealand things have really been going down hill. Quote from John Taylor Gatto who died last week (25 October 2018) See also my summary of his most famous book, Dumbing Us Down (1992)
Read more..October 31, 2018
1886: The Settlers Guide to New Zealand
By AHNZ
The Settlers Guide to New Zealand from about 1886 Wouldn’t it be great to have a read? As an anarchist I’m all for migration that is market driven so people can respond to real price incentives to guide their decisions. This guide was part of a state programme helping to fuel disaster for New Zealanders […]
Read more..October 30, 2018
Lord Kitchener, 1910
By AHNZ
FEBRUARY 18, 1910. Lord Kitchener on tour in New Zealand. Seen here meeting Kiwi veterans of his African war. Old (60), white, a man, and a super celebrity. In his day it was possible to be all of these simultaneously. His star would fall in 1914, along with Churchill’s, for their Gallipoli Invasion which ANZACS got […]
Read more..October 29, 2018
1945: Government Sing-off Battle
By AHNZ
Epic Sing-off Battle in the Parliament House – Late October 1945 Certain defeat, only a few short weeks away, faced the First Labour Government. Sydney Holland was ready to win the coming election and arise as the first National Party Prime Minister. Abolishing the ‘Country Quota’ Something drastic and dastardly had to be done to […]
Read more..October 28, 2018
The Spice of Danger and wild, rough, romance
By AHNZ
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 AHNZ
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 AHNZ
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
1870: Lyttleton Burning
By AHNZ
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
Red Deer
By AHNZ
Interested to learn in my reading that Felix Wakefield joined his more famous brother in colonising New Zealand in 1854, bringing two red deer with him. Marx described E.G.Wakefield as the most notable political economist of the 1830s. The Wakefield brothers were powerful leaders, thinkers, and organisers of colonising New Zealand. Their coming prompted The […]
Read more..October 23, 2018
1972: Died Today: James K. Baxter
By AHNZ
Today in history: 22 October 1972, death of James K. Baxter. The great New Zealand poet. “One of the functions of artists in a community is to provide a healthy and permanent element of rebellion; not to become a species of civil servant. – J.K.Baxter” He might have been a fine Anarchist and certainly did […]
Read more..October 22, 2018
The Unhistoric Story, verse 5
By AHNZ
“The pilgrim dream pricked by a cold dawn died Among the chemical farmers, the fresh towns; among Miners, not husbandmen, who piercing the side Let the land’s life, found like all who had so long Bloodily or tenderly striven To rearrange the given. It was something different, something Nobody counted on. “ — Goldminer, or […]
Read more..October 18, 2018
The Unhistoric Story, verse 4
By AHNZ
“Green slashed with flags, pipeclay and boots in the bush, Christ in canoes and the musketed Maori boast; All a rubble-rattle at Time’s glacial push: Vogel and Seddon howling empire from an empty coast A vast ocean laughter Echoed unheard, and after All it was different, something Nobody counted on.” — Gun image from […]
Read more..October 17, 2018
