Page 60 - New Zealand: Natural Wonders North & South

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camps along the West Coast of the South Island, and conducted business with no regard for
the environment, destroying great forests and burning down sacred bushlands in order to
clear land. Sadly, the muskets they traded with the Maori only served to intensify the violence
between tribes, and soon led to brutal intertribal warfare.

But the incursion with the most far-reaching and damaging consequences resulted
from the introduction of liquor and European diseases, against which the Maori had no
immunity. Thousands died from epidemics of what would be considered minor ailments
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dramatically reduced.

Missionaries, too, traveled to the new land with hopes of spreading the doctrine of
Christianity. On Christmas Day, 1814, Reverend Samuel Marsden, aided by a friendly young
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accept Christianity, perhaps in part because they were impressed with the missionaries’ ability
to cure diseases that Maori healers could not. However, as more and more Maori embraced
Christianity, fewer aspects of the centuries-old Maori society were observed. Traditional Maori
culture began to dissolve.

Land Wars and Gold Rush

On February 6, 1840, representatives of the British Crown and various Maori chiefs signed
the Treaty of Waitangi, a key date in New Zealand’s history. In the English-language version,
the treaty grants the Maori land rights and the right of British citizenship in exchange for
ceding the sovereignty of New Zealand to the British crown. But in the Maori-language
version, the word for sovereignty is weaker, suggesting governship or the right to make the
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understandings of land rights, and the result is a controversy that continues to this day.

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short-term, this seemed to work for both parties. Because Maori lands could only be sold to
the Crown, or through the mediation of the Crown, the land could be used to entice settlers
to New Zealand, but the rights of the Maori could also be protected. But by 1858, the decline
in land sales combined with the pressure on the British government to allow more settlers
into New Zealand resulted in a dangerous imbalance. The government responded by using a
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an all-out war against the tribes of the North Island. Outnumbered, the Maori were forced to
concede over 4 million acres of the best farmland to the settlers.

While the land wars raged on—in some parts of the country until 1865—colonists continued
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part of New Zealand’s economy. The discovery of gold in the mid-1800s brought bright
new economic prospects, and a surging population, to the South Island. During the 1860s,

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