Colonial consolidation
Vogel borrows enormously to build railways and bring migrants, the provinces are abolished, and a national school system arrives. Parihaka shows what non-violent resistance costs, and refrigeration quietly rewrites the economy for the next ninety years.
7 events under way between 1873 and 1889
Vogel’s public works and immigration scheme
Julius Vogel borrowed £10 million in London to build railways, roads and telegraph lines, and to bring 100,000 assisted migrants.
New Zealand connected to the world by cable
A submarine cable from Sydney landed near Nelson, cutting news from London from three months to a few hours.
Cable Bay, NelsonThe provinces are abolished
Nine provincial governments were swept away and replaced by central government plus counties and boroughs — the shape of local government for the next century.
Education Act — free, secular and compulsory
A national primary system, free and compulsory for children aged 7 to 13, and deliberately secular to sidestep sectarian argument.
The invasion of Parihaka
Te pāhuatanga o Parihaka
Some 1,600 troops marched on a village that met them with singing children and offered loaves of bread. Te Whiti and Tohu were arrested, the settlement destroyed, and no one resisted.
ParihakaFirst refrigerated cargo sails for London
The Dunedin left Port Chalmers with 4,900 frozen carcasses and arrived in London 98 days later with the cargo sound. It changed the country’s economy permanently.
Port ChalmersMount Tarawera erupts
The mountain split along 17 kilometres, buried the villages of Te Wairoa, Te Ariki and Moura, and destroyed the Pink and White Terraces.
Mount Tarawera