20 October 2009: A Decade of Disasters

Chatham Island historians, Rhys Richards and Bill Carter, have compiled a book sourced almost entirely from the National Library's Papers Past website, the Library’s digitised newspaper collections.

"A Decade of Disasters reads more like a novel and is based on the tumultuous times for the Chatham Islands from 1866 to 1875. It was also the first time New Zealand newspapers found them a source of interest," says Rhys Richards.

"Papers Past allowed us to easily source first hand accounts from the island correspondent of the Hawkes Bay Herald," says Bill Carter "More importantly, the mass of material enabled us to deduce from style and literary quotations who the man was who had written these reports."

The book tells of the Māori and Moriori populations, drastically reduced by disease introduced from visiting ships, and a small group of sheep farmers, and what they had imposed on them by the New Zealand Government.

A penal colony of about 200 troublesome East Coast Māori were held there without trial. The reports show they proved, however, to be industrious and well behaved, in marked contrast with the motley crew of military guards who spent most of their time drinking and playing cards, as well as stealing Government property.

The book includes some of the first photographs taken by Samuel Barker in 1873, W H Rau in 1874 and Alfred Martin in 1877.

Papers Past http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz contains 1.3 million fully searchable pages of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals. The collection covers the years 1839 to 1932 and includes 52 publications. Since its re-release in September 2007, Papers Past has been visited 2.8 million times by more than 450,000 visitors.

A Decade of Disasters - background information

The 10 years from 1866 to 1875 were a tumultuous time for the Chatham Islands, and for the first time New Zealand newspapers found them a new source of interest.

The recent expansion of digitised newspaper collections by the National Library's Paper Past online facility has enabled a rapid and detailed search, most of the items were sourced from first hand accounts by the island correspondent of the Hawkes Bay Herald. Many copies of that paper no longer exist, but other newspapers copied items in part or in full.

The successive stories in A Decade of Disasters read like a novel. The Māori and Moriori populations, already drastically reduced by epidemics of disease introduced by visiting ships, and a small number of pioneer sheep farmers, had imposed on them by the New Zealand Government a penal colony for about 200 troublesome East Coast Māori who were held there without trial. They proved, however, to be industrious and well behaved, in marked contrast with the motley crew of military guards who spent most of their time drinking and playing cards, as well as stealing government property.

A major tsunami in 1868 havoc on the north coast of the island, wiping out a complete village and farm houses. It was seen as an omen by Maori who were already committed to a return to Taranaki to compete for the return of ancestral lands, in spite of active opposition by the Government.

The Hau Hau prisoners finally had enough and found Te Kooti's religious fervour a catalyst to their seizing by force an incoming ship to take them back to the East Coast. It proved a major new event and a grave embarrassment to the Government that had reduced the guard to a few men not long before as an economy measure.

Not long after, most of the Maori left for Taranaki and for the first time in 25 years the small number of Moriori surviving actually outnumbered both Maori and Europeans.

But island life also went on. Among the major events are reports of race meetings (the Chatham Island Racing Club is New Zealand's second oldest) and sports events, marriages, births and deaths.

A detailed comparison of writing style and the repetition of classical quotations has enabled the authors to identify the correspondent as John Amery, up to now known only as the compiler of the Pitt Island pioneer Frederick Hunt's Twenty-five years in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. Amery spent some years on Pitt Island and then moved to the main island where he lived in a number of different places.

As well as the newspaper stories, the book includes some of the first photographs taken by Samuel Barker in 1874, W H Rau in 1874 and Alfred Martin in 1874. It also identifies Amery as the author of a unique article that appeared in an American religious newspaper in 1864 purporting to be based on an interview with a Moriori persecuted by a Māori chief over a number of years who eventually escaped on a whaling ship.