New Zealand History – Kāpiti and Coast Independent

Historical Society Off To A Good Start

Encouraging first meeting By Roger Childs 25 people attended the opening session of the new Kapiti Historical Society on Monday […]

3 years | Kapiti Coast

A Dental Nurse in Whangamomona Part 1

(Raumati identity, Sally Ashley, recently uncovered her late mother’s recollections of her first job. She was posted to Whangamomona as […]

3 years | National Stories

Te Ati Awa / NZTA Te Reo Slip-Up

An official language By Roger Childs This happened in 1987 with the passing of the Maori Language Act. To encourage […]

3 years | Art

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Keep Vic With Pride

The university council agreed in principle to changing the name from Victoria University of Wellington to University of Wellington… Katarina […]

3 years | National Stories

A Fascinating New “Heartland” Book

Tony Orman feels that with the shift of emphasis to city living, a lot of good, Kiwi values … have […]

3 years | National Stories

The Fascinating History of Kindergartens

There was an early pre-school opened in Strasbourg in 1779, but it was Friedrich Fröbel who first established a “childrens’ […]

3 years | New Zealand

125 Years of Women’s Suffrage

Prue Hyman says you get along to plenty of exhibitions and events which celebrate our pioneer recognition of womens’ right […]

3 years | Art

Maori Land Use 4: 1850s Missionary Report

Today we finish the series on the changing pattern of Maori land use and ownership. Historian Bruce Moon has done […]

3 years | National Stories

Maori Land Use 3: Wild Claims and Realities

Today we continue the series on the changing pattern of Maori land use and ownership. Historian Bruce Moon has done […]

3 years | National Stories

New Zealand Biographies

Don’t look for your name in the New Zealand Dictionary of Biography, because you won’t be there until you are […]

3 years | National Stories

Maori Land Use 2: Selling Willingly to Europeans

Today we continue our series on the changing pattern of Maori land use, ownership and selling through time. Historian Bruce […]

3 years | National Stories

Maori Land Use 1: Pre-European Settlement

Today we begin a series on the changing pattern of Maori land use and ownership. Historian Bruce Moon has done […]

3 years | National Stories

STORY OF THE WEEK

Kāpiti Coast councillors have toured of one of Aotearoa's unique buildings, the heritage - listed Rotunda at the former Otaki Health Camp, the country’s first.

Jeremy Smith reports that the 105-year-old, eight-sided rotunda predates the Health Camp.

It wasn't actually built in Otaki, but was one of two built in Rotorua in 1915 as part of a military hospital, on the site of Rotorua’s present public hospital.

Later they were taken to Otaki for the opening of the health camp in 1931.

Full story in the main column (December 19).

100 Years Ago — and the Maori Long March begins

Māori politics was dominated by the influential MPs (and sometime Cabinet ministers) Māui Pōmare ( Waitara statue photo above) and Apirana Ngata.

The 1920's also saw the rise of Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana’s religious movement, and the emergence of Te Puea Hērangi in Waikato.

Ngata worked hard to foster Māori scholarship and education and preserve traditional arts and culture.

He convinced the government to establish a Board of Maori Ethnological Research (1923), a Maori Purposes Fund Control Board (1924) and a School of Maori Arts and Crafts in Rotorua (1927).

The Reform government also took the first, tentative steps towards settling longstanding Māori grievances.

Agreements with Te Arawa in 1922 and Ngāti Tūwharetoa in 1926 recognised their respective rights over the Rotorua lakes and Lake Taupō, and led to the establishment of trust boards with some government funding.

Commissions of inquiry which examined Ngāi Tahu grievances (1920–21) and the Waikato and Taranaki confiscations (1926–27) recommended that modest compensation be paid.