Analysis - In 2015, New Zealand s Parliament was in the middle of a fierce debate to change a part of our heritage, the national flag.
But 110 years earlier, there was an argument over an even more fundamental part of NZ identity. Our name.
Musings in Māoriland was a collection of poetry by Thomas Bracken, author of NZ’s national anthem.
Photo: Supplied / Te Ara
It was 1895 and the radical liberal MP Patrick O Regan took the floor of Parliament with a proposal to ditch New Zealand in favour of a new name. Mr O Regan asked the premier if the government are in favour of changing the present inappropriate name of the colony for the more suitable one of Māoriland .
Nicolas Reid reviews Letters of Denis Glover, an archival collection published by Otago University Press
12 Dec, 2020 05:00 PM
3 minutes to read
By: Nicholas Reid Denis Glover s place in New Zealand literature is assured. Along with R.A.K. Mason, A.R.D. Fairburn and Allen Curnow, he was one of those who revitalised New Zealand poetry in the 1930s. The Magpies still takes the prize as New Zealand s most-often-reprinted poem. In founding the Caxton Press, Glover turned this country s publishing industry in a new direction, making it possible for poetry and fiction of high quality to reach a wider readership.
Denis Glover.
A tunnel is the escape route north, steep hills to the south. Everything feels a long way away. We need a reason to leave town. My father thought anything south of the Bombay Hills was the South Island. His kāinga was Pakiri, north of Auckland, with its loose-metal roads and indolent river, its cowsheds and scorching beach. Now there are better roads but many more cars. I visit the cemetery at our marae just beyond Leigh: this is our ‘meeting-place past the end of the world’ where my father waits for me. I rarely make the drive over Pakiri Hill to the valley of ghosts and fragmented memories, of disappeared buildings, of unanswered questions. The beach and the steep island in the distance – Hauturu, or Little Barrier – are contested land.