Arthur Wakefield News Today

A United Nations indigenous rights expert has made a special visit to the top of the South Island to learn about the Nelson Tenths case and the Crown's breach of its legal obligations to Māori.

Book Review: Working-class militancy disrupted the New Zealand Company’s model settlement.

Book Review: Working-class militancy disrupted the New Zealand Company’s model settlement.

“I’m aware that the story is loaded, and it still inflames passion to this day, on both sides.”

Horse-Hoeing Husbandry, an 1829 book by agriculturist Jethro Tull (later adopted as the name of a British rock band) belonged to early Nelson Institute member, and later New Zealand Premier, Alfred Domett. It was found by Christopher Vine among a treasure trove of books in a Teal Valley cottage. Committee member Christopher Vine, 89, said the institute was born at sea, in the mid-Atlantic off Tenerife in the Canary Islands, in 1841. Captain Arthur Wakefield, one of Nelsons founding fathers, c...

Kaiteretere/Kaiteriteri was the first meeting place between tāngata whenua and representatives of the New Zealand Company.

Brya Ingram/Stuff The now peaceful Tua Marina River was once the site of an armed conflict between men out to arrest an alleged arsonist and a group full of men, women and children; the story widely known today is often light on detail and misunderstood. It was once called the Wairau Massacre, now it’s known as the Affray. At the time of the battle, Māori were seen as the troublemakers and the settlers, acting on the side of the law. Now, time has flipped the narrative and rewritten the scri...