Signposts - a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Hedgehog day, when New Zealand hedgehogs wake up (courtesy of Bob Brockie)

Great news that Bob Brockie was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the recent Queen’s Birthday honours. Bob’s award is richly deserved for his eclectic achievements in science and cartooning. We celebrate especially because Bob is a long-term friend of Te Ara, writing three major biological entries in The Bush theme – Native plants and animals, Introduced animal pests and Weeds of the bush – as well as allowing us to use his cartoons to illustrate a variety of entries.

Bob is possibly unique in being a Te Ara contributor whose scientific work was quoted in Te Ara’s predecessor, the 1966 Encyclopedia of New Zealand. His PhD research on hedgehogs was then the definitive work on the subject and, almost 50 years later, he is still the acknowledged expert.

By training Bob is an ecologist, and he has mainly worked on the impact of introduced animals. In this video clip he illustrates the impact that possums have had on our native forests. As well as being an expert on possums and hedgehogs, he has an amazingly broad biological knowledge and has published scientific papers on topics as diverse as sparrows, magpies, starlings, mange mites and flax flowering patterns.

One of Bob’s most fascinating projects has been a study of road kill (animals hit by cars) throughout the North Island. Repeated surveys in 1984, 1999 and 2005 have shown dramatic changes – rabbit numbers rose, hedgehogs fell dramatically, and possum numbers rose and then declined. These results were analysed and written up in a scientific paper, but it is typical of Bob’s approach that he has repackaged the information in a number of articles so that the research results are available to a wide range of non-specialist readers.

Bob is probably best known to the general public for his regular weekly science columns in the Dominion Post, covering a wide range of topics, both local and international – the first page I look for in the paper every Monday morning. A selection of his articles were reprinted in The prehistoric boy-racer gene and other tales from modern science (Random House, 2003). One of the distinctive features of his columns is that he has forthright opinions and does not shy away from confronting non-scientific beliefs and practices that rarely get challenged in the media. Topics such as homeopathy, post-modern philosophy, iridology, organic ideology, Rudolf Steiner beliefs, alternative medicine, anti-fluoridation campaigns and the safety of genetically engineered products have come under his gaze, ensuring that readers get a critical evaluation of some of the unscientific ideas that float around.

Among his many other talents, Bob is an accomplished cartoonist, with enough self-confidence not to worry about milking sacred cows. He started providing cartoons for the Victoria University magazine Salient in 1953, and has been contributing a weekly cartoon to the National Business Review since 1975. While not a magazine I normally read, it was always a regular stop at the supermarket news stand to look up the latest Brockie cartoon. Sadly, the proprietors of the NBR seem to have got wind of this and have recently started wrapping their magazine in plastic.

Bob suggests what's going through the minds of All Blacks when the national anthem is sung (click for image credit)

Bob has been most generous in allowing Te Ara to use many of his cartoon as illustrations – and here is a selection of my favourites:

• buck-passing about leaky buildings
• pay equity
• All Blacks and the national anthem
• comparing qualifications.

Bob, we salute you as a scientist and social commentator, and look forward to more of your articles and cartoons.

Jock proudly wears his Te Ara T-shirt before the launch of our Settled Landscape theme

At Te Ara we are very pleased and proud that our own Jock Phillips became an ONZM (an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit) in the 2013 Queen’s Birthday honours. As we bask in his reflected glory, we also congratulate him on this well-deserved recognition of his services to historical research and publishing.

Many people know Jock as a historian, a familiar voice on Radio New Zealand National, a commentator on New Zealand’s war commemorations and memorials, immigration history and national identity, and the author of an accessible book on masculinity (A man’s country?). That’s quite a list already, and probably qualifies him as the nearest thing New Zealand has to a public intellectual.

Jock, a bit of a Renaissance man, has adventures of the physical, as well as intellectual kind

It’s really not possible to list all Jock’s achievements here, so I’ll concentrate on his remarkable work in publishing and promoting New Zealand history and more on the web, initially through his support of NZHistory and subsequently his leadership of Te Ara. He has tirelessly promoted the internet as a channel for serious research, and taken great pains to ensure that the sites he’s associated with have never lost their focus on their audience.

What really distinguishes Jock from us ordinary mortals is the combination of energy and attention to detail he brings to everything he does. The way Jock rushes down the room to bail up an incorrect statistic or a misplaced comma puts us in mind of the genial infinite capacity for taking pains.

Jock features several times in Te Ara, in this case with his whānau illustrating a blended family

Jock was clearly a born historian. He wrote his own obituary at the age of 14 (he read it out to the guests at his 50th birthday party). He still has a few goals to reach for – including a farm in Hawke’s Bay and a few more children – to achieve complete historical accuracy.

He’s a great guy, and we salute him.

Samoa

Afio mai, talofa lava. O le gagana e tasi e le lava.
Welcome. One language is never enough.

It is my personal shame that although I once spent a month walking round Upolo and Savai’i looking at Samoa’s wonderful churches, I have almost no knowledge of the Samoan language. This is despite the fact that it is the third most common language in New Zealand, after English and Māori. But this is Samoan language week, so I thought we should recognise the importance of Samoan culture to New Zealand and its place in Te Ara.

Te Ara has a major entry on Samoans, and has substantial coverage of Samoan history and experience in other stories such as the Pacific Islands and New Zealand, Pacific churches in New Zealand, Pacific Island health and South Pacific economic relations. There will also be extensive coverage in our forthcoming sections on sport and the creative arts.

Let’s focus on the entry on Samoans in New Zealand, which was the sixth most popular story in Te Ara last year (after History of immigration, Māori, Matariki, History and Gold and goldmining). It attracted about 40,000 visitors just to the text pages alone, not counting the accompanying images and media.

The story in those pages, written by Melani Anae, is not all comfortable reading for palagi New Zealanders. In the early years of New Zealand’s administration of Samoa there were a series of unfortunate and insensitive mistakes:

• The Talune, carrying people with influenza, was allowed to dock in Apia in 1918. The result was the deaths of one in five Samoans.
• On 28 December 1929 at least nine Samoans were shot dead by military police during a demonstration by the independence movement, the Mau.
• Samoan leaders were stripped of their titles.

Then, after Samoans had been attracted to New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s to help provide labour for the growing industries of Auckland and Wellington, regulations on immigration visas began to be enforced as the economy soured, and in 1974 came the infamous dawn raids against overstayers. Our entry includes an image of the Reverend Mua Strickson-Pua who was forced to creep through the back streets of Auckland for fear of being seen by police or taunted by bystanders. A 1982 law that restricted New Zealand citizenship to those resident in New Zealand at that time is also a cause for continuing resentment and attracted 90,000 signatures calling for its repeal in 2003. Samoans in New Zealand continue to have comparatively higher levels of unemployment and lower incomes than other New Zealanders.

Yet there are also very positive stories about the Samoan people and New Zealand. It is a credit to this country that in 2002 the Prime Minister Helen Clark apologised formally for the early events. And the experience of Samoans in settling here is a fascinating example of a people who have been able to retain their own cultural traditions, especially their Christian faith and their commitment to the aiga (family), while entering proudly into New Zealand life.

Discus thrower Beatrice Faumuina – one of the many Samoans who have greatly enriched New Zealand's cultural and sporting life (click for image credit)

The last section of our entry on the Samoan contribution to New Zealand is a hugely impressive testament to the Samoan impact on our creative arts – literature, drama, comedy, dance, painting, sculpture – and their remarkable success in major New Zealand sports. The All Blacks, Silver Ferns and New Zealand’s Olympic Games teams would be very much poorer without the enormous contribution of the Samoan community.  Just think of some names of Samoans who have greatly enriched New Zealand’s cultural and sporting life - Michael Jones, Albert Wendt, Michel Tuffery, Oscar Kightley, Bernice Mene and Beatrice Faumuina.

The 1st of June (tomorrow) is Samoan Independence Day and our entry includes an image of the day being commemorated in Porirua in 1990. Below this image you’ll find eight enthusiastic comments from Samoan people. We hope that this year the day will be celebrated not merely in memory of independence 51 years ago, but also in recognition of the talent and richness the Samoan people have brought to this country. And for my part, I hope that Te Ara’s words about Samoan culture will continue to bring knowledge and pride to the Samoan community. We recall the Samoan proverb:

‘O fānau a manu e fafaga i fugālā’au, ‘ae ‘o fānau a tagata e fafaga i ‘upu,’ which means in English: ‘The offspring of birds are fed with flower nectar, but the children of men are nurtured with words.’

Les Wright explaining some of the mining relics uncovered from excavations around the opencast mine near Reefton

It was a terrible shock to hear of the recent death of Les Wright in Pureora Forest. Les was an adopted West Coaster, and since his arrival there in 1973 he made an enormous contribution to heritage conservation through his broadcasting, writing and dedicated work behind the scenes.

When I was asked to write the regional entry on the West Coast for Te Ara about five years ago, a visit to Les was high on my priority list. I have happy memories of an afternoon spent in his home near Punakaiki as Les generously shared his experiences and answered questions while I scribbled notes.

When I asked him about distinctive West Coast artists he mentioned a number of contemporary names, then added that he had always had a soft spot for an almost unknown Czech photographer called Joseph Divis, who recorded life in mining towns in the early 20th century. I was enthralled by the images he showed me, and this was the start of a temporary obsession that was to dominate my life for about 18 months. I chased up Divis images and archives from Dunedin to Waihi. Throughout this period Les was constantly supportive through regular emails and long phone calls. When a book was eventually ready for publication Les declined to be included as a co-author, saying that he hadn’t written the text – but he had certainly provided much of the inspiration and background. We reached a compromise, with his name on the title page.

Les always had an interest in people and communities, especially mining towns. He was an excellent listener and oral historian, gathering memories from older residents who were overlooked by others. His books include accounts of the Rewanui settlement, the Powells of Charleston, the Big River quartz mine and most recently the short-lived mining settlement of Brighton. He also co-authored a history of cave exploration in New Zealand, which was an important resource for the Te Ara story on Caving.

Although Les had wide interests, the abandoned gold-mining town of Waiuta was particularly close to his heart, and he worked on different aspects of its history and conservation for over 30 years. He was a long-term supporter of the Friends of Waiuta, and had edited their newsletter since it started in 1985.

One of his recently published books, Our own fun: childhood memories of Waiuta is a delightful gem, and I know that it was a source of great satisfaction to him. It collects together memories of people who grew up in Waiuta and presents a composite view of childhood in an isolated mining town. Many of the contributors have now died, and their memories would have disappeared if Les had not painstakingly recorded their oral histories.

Les played an important role in the preservation of the West Coast’s mining heritage, but much of his work was behind the scenes. Among other things, he was a long-standing member of the West Coast Conservation Board and local file-keeper for site records for the Archaeological Association. For several years he produced West of the Alps, a local monthly tourist newspaper. In recent months he had been working on a mining heritage trail in the Nine Mile area north of Greymouth. His name was on many heritage or conservation plans for sites all over the West Coast as author, contributor or reviewer.

Les was often consulted about mining relicts uncovered during excavation of an opencast mine near Reefton. The mining company established a central site where relicts were deposited – nicknamed ‘Les’ Ironmongery’ – and he delighted in identifying and cataloguing pieces of rusty machinery. The photograph at the top of this post was taken while Les was showing a group some of the relicts that fascinated him.

Les Wright is mourned by his family and a wide circle of friends and colleagues. We remember someone with a passion for conservation and history who did so much to preserve and document the mining heritage of the West Coast.

Peter Conway of the CTU speaks at Workers' Memorial Day

On Sunday 28 April I attended a ceremony at KiwiRail’s Lower Hutt railway workshops in Moera to mark Workers’ Memorial Day. The day is an international event to commemorate workers killed and injured on the job. While New Zealanders are reminded on Anzac Day of the heavy price our people have paid in war, many are unaware of the casualties resulting from simply earning a living. The release of the Report of the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety on Tuesday 30 April has brought the issue of workplace safety sharply into focus.

According to the report, ‘there were on average 102 fatal work-related deaths [each year] between 2008 and 2010′. Each year around one in 10 New Zealand workers are harmed through an accident or work related activity. Between 500 to 800 people die prematurely each year through illnesses directly related to the workplace. These rates are high in comparison to those in many other OECD countries. (The report also acknowledges there are some problems with the reliability of data for workplace injuries in New Zealand.)

Five high-risk industries account for over half of workplace injuries and occupational illnesses: manufacturing, construction, agriculture, forestry and fisheries. These high-risk industries are notable for having high proportions of Māori and Pacific workers, and for often having higher numbers of males in their workforces.

New Zealand has a sombre history of industrial accidents. The most recent large-scale event was the Pike River disaster, with 29 workers dying in the mine explosion of 19 November 2010. Other major disasters have included:

• The Brunner mine disaster, 26 March 1896, with 65 deaths from gas following an explosion.
• Ralph’s mine explosion at Huntly, 12 September 1914, where 43 miners were killed.
• The Strongman mine disaster, 19 January 1967, with the deaths of 19 miners.
• The Christchurch Ballantyne’s fire, 18 November 1947. Forty-one dressmakers, milliners and clerical staff died, partly a result of inadequate fire-safety provisions.
• The many ship wrecks where crew have died on the job. These include the sinking of HMS Orpheus at the Manukau bar, Auckland, on 7 February 1863, with 189 naval personnel drowning.

The majority of New Zealand’s industrial deaths and injuries have been less dramatic, though equally tragic, involving individual workers going about their tasks. Workers in jobs such as demolition and sawmill work have developed illnesses from hazardous substances, including asbestos and dioxins. Historically, jobs such as labouring, factory and cleaning work have involved injuries from occupational over-use syndrome (OOS). In recent times the increase in keyboard-based computer work has brought further risks from OOS.

Workers’ Memorial Day is an international event held annually to remember the people behind the statistics. It commemorates those killed and injured at work, along with the families who must deal with the after effects. Memorial Day also draws attention to ongoing health and safety issues. The day was first held in Canada in 1984 and has since spread to many other countries. The date of 28 April was chosen as on that day in 1914 Ontario became the first province in Canada to introduce a workers’ compensation law.

In New Zealand Workers’ Memorial Day events are generally organised by unions, in particular the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) and the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU). This year memorial services were held at Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga/Mt Maunganui, Napier, Lower Hutt, Christchurch and Dunedin. The service in Auckland, organised by the CTU, focused on the 28 forestry workers who have been killed at work in the years since 2008.

A memorial to Jack Neha, a railway worker who was killed on the job in 1995

The ceremony at the Lower Hutt railway workshops included prayers, a moment of silence, and wreath-laying. There were addresses by speakers from the CTU and RMTU, a KiwiRail representative and by the local MP Chris Hipkins. Hazel Armstrong, a lawyer who has been involved for many years in workplace safety issues, spoke and launched her new book Your life for the job: New Zealand rail safety 1974–2000. Armstrong’s book looks closely at the period from 1995 to 2000, the years when 11 railway workers were killed. Armstrong argues that these casualties resulted from the extreme deregulation of the railways. It was appropriate that a highlight of the ceremony was the unveiling of a memorial to Jack Neha, a worker killed at the Gracefield shunting yards in 1995.