Preserving the brownies' portion : a history of voluntary nature conservation organisations in New Zealand 1888-1935

Abstract

The systematic colonisation of New Zealand by Europeans from 1840 onwards led to rapid changes of the natural environment. Inhabited until then by relatively small numbers of Polynesians, New Zealand's insular biogeography made it particularly susceptible to the impact of an advanced western technology and economy. Within less than 50 years of the declaration of British sovereignty, the first organised nature conservation groups had emerged. In contrast to other studies of nature conservation in New Zealand, this thesis examines the succession of small voluntary groups dedicated to the preservation of scenery and protection of wildlife between 1888 and 1935. These groups played an important role in raising public awareness of the values of nature conservation in the face of the dominant views of settler society which was predicated upon the subjugation and exploitation of nature.

The first two chapters examine the wider intellectual climate within which the groups arose. Chapter One discusses the key idea which militated against conservation, centering around the doctrine of progress. The second chapter examines the ideas which led to the growing conservation consciousness which was an international phenomenon at the end of the nineteenth century. The influence of romanticism and developments in science promoted by the Darwinian revolution emerge as key factors.

The remaining chapters focus on the efforts of individual groups, beginning with the Dunedin and Suburban Reserves Conservation Society. Chapter Four examines the most successful of the nineteenth-century groups, the Taranaki Scenery Preservation Society. The widening of the movement is covered in Chapter Five, which documents the efforts of groups in Auckland, Christchurch, Nelson, Wanganui, and Wellington, though information on all of these is sparse. Chapter Six focuses on an important but unsuccessful campaign to protect lowland forests in the Rai Valley, Marlborough, a conflict which illustrates the difficulties the movement faced. Hitherto best-known of the early groups, Harry Ell's Summit Road Association is discussed in Chapter Seven.

The final three chapters examine groups which aspired, with varying degrees of success, to be national in scope and which were more scientific in their orientation. The evolving philosophical framework of nature conservation in New Zealand is central to Chapter Eight, which examines the contribution of the first Forest and Bird Protection Society. Members of this Society included the key conservation thinkers of the time, among them Leonard Cockayne, Harry Ell, George Malcolm Thomson, Herbert Guthrie-Smith, and the first notable woman conservationist, Blanche Baughan. Chapter Nine examines the role of the New Zealand Forestry League, which played an important role in the promotion of the New Zealand Forest Service. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the early years of the first of the modem nature conservation groups, the Native Bird Protection Society, known since 1935 as the Forest and Bird Protection Society.