The political parson: aspects of the career of Octavius Hadfield

Abstract

The problems of world racism have now involved New Zealand and in recent years its Government and people have been forced to re-assess critical problems of internal race-relations. The present rapid urbanisation of the Maori people has created situations which have demanded the grasping of historical perspectives, and these inevitably lead back to the Wars of the 1860’s. It is the aftermath of these wars that may seem more neglected and therefore more urgent as a field of study. The post-war years are especially and obviously pertinent to an understanding of today's problems. Yet the period 1840-1860, from annexation to the outbreak of racial war, is a key one, and promises to remain the subject of perennial contemplation by our historians. The way has been charted in Professor Sinclair's magisterial The Origins of the Maori Wars , but the study of origins never ends, as American historians of their Civil War have shown us.