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A LAND DESPOILED: NEW ZEALAND ABOUT 1838 *
Author(s) -
CUMBERLAND KENNETH B.
Publication year - 1950
Publication title -
new zealand geographer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.335
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1745-7939
pISSN - 0028-8144
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-7939.1950.tb01279.x
Subject(s) - geography , alien , immigration , population , ethnology , history , archaeology , sociology , census , demography
Summary From 1792 destructive exploitation had been dominant. Not only were the easily available littoral resources decimated, such as seals, whales and timber stands, but the Maori people themselves were exploited and their culture and economy largely destroyed. The landing in 1840 of settlers—seeking primarily new homes—terminated a period of almost unrestrained Raubwirtschaft and marked the beginnings of constructive development at the hands of the immigrant western culture. After the close of the decade new forms were imposed on the landscape at several new and different points of landing and contact. Life and landscape changed with increasing rapidity as the European population grew. Resources and habitat values had again to be reassessed and revaluated in the light of changing human circumstances and as new skills and techniques were brought to these Pacific islands by the still‐alien culture. Europeans (of a different sort from the 1000 or so in New Zealand in 1839) soon painted marginal segments of the New Zealand canvas with another distinctive and colourful geography, significantly transforming the impression of the whole and the character of its parts.