THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW WERE TRUE - PART FOUR

 Part three of this series was phenomenally successful, generating four comments and only two of those were from me. Thanks for the support guys which has spurred me on to write another.

STRANGER THAN FICTION

When I was young I was fascinated by the stuffed moa in the old Wellington museum.

This was an imposing specimen and big enough to cause nightmares which I would have conjured up at the time if I hadn't been busy being regularly chased by a tiger and a lion, which the more conscientious follower would remember that I mentioned it in an older post: BEARING MY SOUL

I wonder what became of it?

At the time, the museum staff and, I guess, social studies teachers at school told us that all the moa were wiped out in New Zealand by the Maori before Pakeha settlement brought civilisation.

THIS WAS UNTRUE!

At the time, in the late 1950s and the 1960s when I was at school there wasn't a lot of New Zealand history being taught, other than what was being filtered by the nuns, brothers and priests that had an obvious Catholic bias. The dark side of colonisation and repression, and the politics behind the 'Maori Wars' (now more respectfully called the New Zealand Wars) were never discussed and the Treaty was presented as a wonderful thing that brought everyone happily together.

Most of the stories that had any sort of atrocity attached to them were presented as 'massacres' like the Wairau Massacre, and anything bad like chopping down flagpoles, eating people, razing settlements, breaking truces and stealing stock were attributable to the indigenous population  - the Maori.

The disappearance of the moa was officially attributed to wanton hunting and killing by Maori who used the bird for food, clothing, weapons and tools with no thought of conservation.

What we weren't taught though was that there were hundreds of thousands of moa in all shapes and sizes - mostly large - when the Europeans settled the country during the 1800s.

In the late 1800s, the farming settlers were being encouraged and supported by government to turn their thoughts to producing more than they needed to cater to an export market. To this end, grants were issued for higher levels of production of beef, sheep-meat, dairy products, wool and fruit and grain crops.  All was going well in this regard and the market was booming with the advent of refrigeration, and both government and the farmers were counting their chickens with glee (although poultry at that stage was not an export item).

An unfortunate consequence of bushland being converted to farmland though was that the vast flocks of moa were attracted to the luscious pastures and the bountiful wheat, corn and fruit produce being grown and they began devastating the crops, frightening livestock and, on occasion, terrorising  homesteaders. 

A very rare photograph from the 1890s showing a farmer being attacked by a moa.

To deal with the issue, soldiers who had recently returned from the Boer Wars were commissioned by the government to wipe out the marauding moa.  In addition, farmers, homesteaders and the general population were awarded bounties for every moa foot that they brought in.

A preserved moa foot that's been in my family's possession for many generations.

As far as culls go, 'The Great Moa Hunt' as it was known, was one of the most extreme instances of environmental vandalism and of course, a 100% success.  During the “adjustment",  hundreds of thousands of moa were killed and, like the dodo, totally eradicated.

By the turn of the century, with increased immigration and settlement by Europeans, and with greater communications,  the shameful cull was being discussed. The new government of the day, anxious to promote the 'clean, green' image of New Zealand was uncomfortable with any negative press so decided to suppress the 'rumours' meaning that it aggressively censored newspapers and brow-beat anyone discussing the issue. They were clever enough though to woo the owners and controllers of media which of course at the time was only print, so bribery, government placements and Queen's and subsequent King's Birthday awards carried the day.

As far as Maori were concerned, as successful land transfer deals and Acts of Parliament had effectively guaranteed that Maori were no longer in control of prime arable land where moa existed, they, by and large, were unaware of either the problem or the cull. What few Maori leaders were in the know were bribed and cajoled with government placements, Queen's and King's Birthday awards and support of the Maori Kingship movement.

All was good.

Of course there was residual awareness and scuttlebutt around that was in contention to the official outputs by government agencies, educational authorities and historians but a clever government spokesman who nowadays would be referred to as a spin doctor commissioned poets, short story writers and lyricists to come up with narratives showing that Maori ate all the moa before 'Pakeha' arrived.

This ploy was very successful and continued through to modern times.