All Blacks Shut Out Springboks 19-0 in Tri-Nations

The All Blacks improved their chances of retaining the Tri-Nations rugby trophy by shutting out South Africa's Springboks in Capetown, 19-0. In yet another highly physcial, frantic-paced game between the two sides, the All Blacks came out on top with tries to Conrad Smith, Dan Carter, Keven Mealamu backed up by two conversions by Carter. These offset Carter's wobbly day in the goalkicking department in which he missed 7 goalkicking opportunities including 2 drop goal attempts. But it was just the day for a bad kicking game when other scoring opportunities were taken.

With games scheduled between Australia and South Africa over the next two weekends, it may come down to the final game between the All Blacks and Wallabies in Brisbane on Sept. 13 to decide the winner of the Tri-Nations, the southern hemisphere's international test rugby trophy. Current standings place the All Blacks on top with 14 points, Australia 9, and South Africa 5.

The Founding Mothers

If the first humans arrived in Aoteroa-New Zealand around 1280 – 1300 AD, how many of them were there and where did they come from?

One approach to answering this question has been to combine genetic analysis with population dynamics to work back to an origin and estimate of the numbers of women of child-bearing age to produce a Maori population estimated to number around 100,000 in the early years of European or Pakeha settlement in New Zealand in the late eighteenth century.

Whyte et al analyzed the mutational changes in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) samples, known as “the Polynesian motif”, of Maori and Polynesian individuals. The low rate of diversity between the two groups mtDNA suggests that they are close ancestrally and the time since they developed in two separate locations is relatively brief – if by brief, one means 7-8 centuries. Since the mutations studied are found generally across Polynesia, no precise island location could be pinpointed as the starting point for the migration to New Zealand.

Adopting a population growth model incorporating the sigmoid (or S curve) population growth curve, Whyte et al ran computer simulations that would result in the known estimate of a total Maori population by the time of European settlement.

From these simulations, it was estimated that approximately 190 women (within a range of 170-230) of child-bearing age were among those who were on the founding waka canoes that arrived in New Zealand around 1200 AD. These numbers may be conservative as it is likely that many of those on the first waka were related hence not potential breeding partners. Further studies are underway to adjust for these kinship factors.

Source: A Whyte, S Marshall, and G Chambers, “Human Evolution in Polynesia”, Human Biology, April 2005, vol 77 no 2, 157-177.

A Rat’s Tale – Polynesian Migration to New Zealand

Whence & when did Maori migrate to Aotearoa-New Zealand?

Since pre-European Maori society was non-literate there is no written record of arrival in Aotearoa. Oral tradition traced through whakapapa (genealogy) and archaeology provide alternative sources of evidence for first arrival and settlement, but both have their own limitations.

Maori tradition drawn from a number of tribal (iwi) histories holds that Maori arrival & settlement was the result of the voyage of a large number of waka (double-hulled voyaging canoes) over many years. These early settlers, according to oral tradition, originated from the “mythical” place, Hawaiki, now believed to be located in eastern Polynesia.

The Polynesian Triangle is bounded by Hawaii, Rapanui (Easter Island), and NZ.

Source: Kirch, On the Road of the Winds, (2000)

Early Pakeha ethnographers, S Percy Smith and Elsdon Best, synthesized accounts from different Maori iwi to create a new myth around the turn of the 20th century. A Great Fleet of Seven Canoes was said to have arrived around 1350 AD in a planned voyage of migration based upon earlier voyages of discovery by Kupe (750 AD) and others. While there were few hard facts to support such a concerted, large isolated migration, generations of New Zealand school children were taught this popular myth and it still retains a strong hold on popular belief today.

Enter the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) or kiore to the New Zealand Maori.

In the 1990s, scientific advances in radiocarbon dating techniques and genetics enabled scientists to begin tracing the origins and time of first presence of kiore in New Zealand.

The kiore, either as stowaway or cargo, sailed on the migration waka. Since the kiore cannot swim very far, there was no other way for it to travel from eastern Polynesia to New Zealand other than with humans. Given the lack of mammals in New Zealand, the kiore – along with the kuri or Maori dog – became important food sources for Maori in the following centuries and may have been deliberately taken to New Zealand to serve as food resource.

The kiore

Matisoo-Smith and Robins reported in 2004 that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis of kiore in New Zealand and across Polynesia showed that New Zealand kiore are genetically closer to Cook and Society Island kiore than those from other Polynesian island groups.

Possible Migration Paths for kiore
Source: Hutching, 2004, p. 186

A further line of inquiry has focused on radiocarbon dating of kiore bones and seeds gnawed by them from New Zealand sites. Work by Holdaway in 1996 concluded that kiore arrived in New Zealand much earlier than 1350 AD, perhaps as early as 200 BC, based on radiocarbon dating of kiore bones extracted from nesting sites of the extinct laughing owl. The earlier presence of kiore was explained as the result of accidental arrival and transitory presence in New Zealand of Polynesian voyagers.

These results were criticized for poor analytical technique as well as being inconsistent with known archaeological evidence, Maori traditional knowledge, and the accelerated clearance of forests and decline in marine and terrestrial species that pointed to a later arrival around 1300 AD.

In mid 2008, new radiocarbon dating results were reported by Wilmhurst et al that indicate kiore first arrival dates to be 1280-1300 AD. Importantly, the rat-gnawed seeds included in the sampling occurred in both the North and South Islands only after 1280 AD.

The study suggested important implications, according to Wilmhurst, namely that:

1) If rat predation of native species could only have happened after 1280 AD then the decline in those species could be occurring faster than previously assumed; and

2) Maori colonization did not occur over a protracted time period, but likely happened in a short period of such magnitude that it initiated an immediate and rapid transformation of New Zealand’s environment.

In sum, the current evidence from multiple sources – archaeological, scientific, and traditional knowledge - appears to point to first Maori colonization around 1280-1300 AD, though the pace and magnitude of colonization of New Zealand remains uncertain.

Sources:

Matisoo-Smith E, & J H Robins, “Origins and dispersals of Pacific peoples: Evidence
from mtDNA phylogenies of the Pacific rat”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 101 no 24, June 15, 2004, 9167-9172.

Holdaway, R N, “Arrival of Rats in New Zealand,” Nature, 384, 1996, 225-226.

Kirch, P V, On the Road of the Winds, University of CA Press, 2000.

Wilmhurst, J et al. “Dating the late prehistoric dispersal of Polynesians to New Zealand using the commensal Pacific Rat”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 105 no 22, June 3, 2008, 7676-7680.

The Great White Fleet – Auckland August 1908

The Great White Fleet (GWF) of the US Navy was sent on a “Show the Flag” goodwill mission around the globe in 1908/1909 by President Teddy Roosevelt. So-called because the battleships were painted white, the fleet consisted of 16 battleships and accompanying support vessels, manned by 14,000 sailors and marines. By the time the 14 month voyage ended in Hampton Roads, Virginia, on February 22, 1909, the GWF had steamed some 46,000 miles.

The centennial of the Great White Fleet’s visit to New Zealand occurs this week.

USS Connecticut

The GWF was sent off from the Jamestown Exposition, Virginia on December 16th, 1907, proceeding around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America then north to San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, California in March 1908. On July 7, under the command of Rear Admiral Sperry, the fleet sailed for Hawaii and thence to Auckland, New Zealand.

On August 9, 1908, the Great White Fleet sailed into Waitemata harbour, Auckland, creating quite a spectacle and met with great warmth by the New Zealand public. Parades and a welcoming ceremony were held in Queen Street, the main street, leading from the wharves. A large arch at the lower end of Queen Street, festooned with ferns, welcomed the fleet as did street signs expressing greetings from various towns & neighbourhoods throughout New Zealand.

Panorama of the Great White Fleet from Devonport, Auckland

USS Connecticut (2 views)



USS Minnesota, and USS Georgia

Welcome Arch in lower Queen Street

Parade on Queen Street

This early visit of the Great White Fleet helped cement a growing relationship between New Zealand and the United States, despite New Zealand’s colonial ties to Great Britain. New Zealand and American forces were to fight side by side in the Pacific theatre during World War Two.

In the mid 1980s, reflecting growing public pressure for a nuclear ban, the Fourth Labour Government barred U.S. nuclear-powered and armed warships from New Zealand ports as part of its policy favouring a nuclear-free zone in the South Pacific and because of New Zealand's opposition to the Reagan's administration's escalation of tensions with the Soviet Union.

In February 1985, a port-visit request by the United States for the USS Buchanan was refused by New Zealand.

This policy change initiated a cooling in the relationship between the two countries at the military level, but has it also affected the diplomatic, political, and economic relationships up to the present, although both countries maintain friendly, albeit at times strained, relations. This nuclear ban has been maintained by governments of both major New Zealand political parties since 1984. During a recent visit to New Zealand in late July 2008 by US Secretary of State Rice there were some indications that the U.S. position may be thawing towards New Zealand but it is not likely that the military and other relationships will undergo a major shift in the remaining months of the Bush administration.

The North Island Main Trunk Line – 1908 – 2008 – Century of Service

The North Island Main Trunk Line (NIMT), the backbone of New Zealand Railways in the North Island turns 100 years old on August 7.

The 630 kilometre line connected Wellington, the capital, at the southern tip of the North Island, to Auckland in the north, providing a land link for the first time that could provide an alternative to unpredictable and sometimes dangerous sea passage between the two main centres.

On the evening of August 7, 1908, the “Parliament Special” left Wellington on the first tripAuckland to greet the “The Great White Fleet” of the US Navy on its around the world goodwill voyage. The journey took 20 ½ between the two cities. It carried politicians and other VIPs to hours, involving several changes of locomotive, and required travel along temporary track in the middle section of the line hastily put in place by the Public Works department.

Construction of the NIMT took more than 20 years. The first sod was turned in 1885 after the Government reached agreement with the Ngati Maniapoto iwi on a right of way through the King Country, an area of the western Central North Island that had remained effectively in Maori hands after the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s.

Massive engineering challenges had to be overcome and much of the work was completed by the manual labour of gangs of workers who lived in work camps under harsh conditions.

The Waimarino plateau between Taumarunui and Taihape presented a particular challenge to engineers as the gradient exceeded the capacity of then existing locomotives to pull a train up the plateau. The solution was a masterful example of engineering design by R W Holmes in the form of the Raurimu spiral, involving three horseshoe curves, two tunnels, and a complete spiral.

Deep ravines also had to be bridged by steel viaducts at Makatote, Hapuawhenua, Mangaweka, and Makohine.

Pakeha New Zealanders were justifiably proud of the engineering feats of the NIMT and their ability to rapidly develop a railroad network in a young country incorporating the newest technology. Postcards of the type shown here were mailed in their thousands back to “Home”, Mother England, bearing messages extolling the achievements of the NIMT, the proof being displayed in the pictures.

The NIMT was officially opened in February 1909 and regular passenger service quickly grew with the time being reduced down to 14 hours for the trip. After World War Two, passenger demand eroded as road transport then air travel outcompeted rail service. Rail freight remained an important traffic on the line. By 2006, passenger service appeared to be near its end but a vociferous public response prevented the daylight Overlander service from being canceled. With the return of the railway system back into government ownership in mid 2008 after an unsuccessful 15+ year period of privatization, passenger service appears likely to continue for awhile yet.

Waiouru Railway Station, NIMT, 1909,

Mt Ruapehu (left) and Mt Ngauruhoe (right) volcano in eruption.

This post is respectfully dedicated to the men and women who built the NIMT and who have kept the line open over the past century. Nation-builders, one and all.

Financial Contagion Spreads - low amps at AMP

The fragility in New Zealand financial markets spread to Australian-owned AMP Capital NZ on Friday. An investor run on managed funds, property trusts and finance companies has spilled over onto AMP Capital's NZ Property Fund. With withdrawals exceeding new cash inflow, the property fund dropped from NZ$505 million at the end of March to $419 million on August 1. To avert a liquidity crisis, AMP Capital froze the fund, affecting 2900 investors.

In the last fortnight, funds totalling around NZ $1 billion have been frozen in Canterbury Mortgage Trust, Guardian Mortgage Trust, Totara Mortgage Trust, and an investment fund.

Should the run on non-bank financial institutions spread and intensify, the Reserve Bank may well have to explore extending its lender of last resort facilities to non-banks as the Federal Reserve as done in the U.S.

All Blacks Mana Partially Restored, 39-10 against Wallabies

The All Blacks came back with a full head of steam at Eden Park, Auckland, yesterday to convincingly trounce the Wallabies 39-10. Turning the tables on the Australians from the week before in Sydney, a re-found aggression spearheaded by AB captain Richie McCaw seemed to make all the difference along with a change in tactics. Two tries apiece by Woodcock & Nonu with Carter chiming in with 5 penalties and 2 conversions accounted for the All Black total. The All Blacks even managed a bonus point to keep them in contention for the trans-Tasman Bledisoe Cup and not yet out of the race for the Tri-Nations.

Is AB coach Graham Henry safe till the end of the year?