Review: Auckland: The Twentieth-Century Story
Reviewed by David Veart
Author:
Paul Moon
Publisher:
Oratia Books
ISBN:
9781990042355
Date published:
05 April 2023
Pages:
360
Format:
Paperback
RRP:
$45.00
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Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, the first a name with a resonant story; the other Captain Hobson’s flattering gesture to the less than illustrious Governor General of India. Exciting, at times dysfunctional, ever changing, Auckland has covered its fertile volcanic isthmus and now reaches out into what was once its hinterland. It is my home and has been for my family since the 1840s, a length of family connection which is unusual in a city where much of the population come from elsewhere, with almost 40 per cent of us being born outside this country. This fact became very apparent to me recently while helping some of our local schools introduce the new ‘Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories’ syllabus.
Knowledge of local stories depends in part on connection, when your family has only been here a few years this history is often unknown. While Te Poutāhū, the Ministry of Education’s Curriculum Centre, has created much useful material there is room for more, especially that focussed on the local. Paul Moon’s ‘local’ history of Auckland provides a very good starting point for this. This book is a perfect primer for the city’s history. Written in a brisk accessible style, there is a wealth of material supported by an extensive bibliography and footnotes.
The book starts with a description of the centuries preceding the 20th and although brief it provides a good starting point for a wider exploration of this early period. While the book is structured decade by decade, a collection of themes develops as the narrative progresses. Transport, housing, the arts, social development, the choice of examples used are eclectic and broad.
There are stories and issues which seem as relevant today as they were when they first arrived, the way the city grew, the unplanned growth where each section, house and garden reflected the tastes of the owner rather than any being the product of some overall plan. Moon quotes the editor of the Ladies Mirror in the 1920s commenting on this; I remember a recent visitor from the US noting with some surprise that in our suburb you appeared to be able to build your front fence in any way you choose. The classic story of the Harbour Bridge; reduced in size because as a contemporary song about the bridge had it, ‘You won’t get many people travelling to and from the Shore/So instead of being an eight lane job they cut her down to four.’ A musical nod to our forward planning abilities.
There is much here to stir distant memories, Moon’s description of the use of a ‘copper’ for washing clothes resurrected a long lost childhood recollection of the annual arrival of the ‘copper stick man’ who sold the stout sticks, knob on one end with a grinning poker-work face, used to stir and move the boiling hot clothes in and out of the copper. Royal visits, my first distinct memory dates from 1953, I was three years old sitting on my father’s shoulders on an Auckland suburban street watching the Queen drive by in a very large car.
However, the book is not an exercise in nostalgia. Moon’s extensive coverage of Māori interaction with the city is one of its strongest aspects. The place of the Ngāti Whatua papakāinga at Ōrākei is a constant and often disturbing thread which weaves itself through the city’s history, the relentless seizure of the land, sewage contamination, the powerful description of the destruction and burning of the settlement and the later occupation at Bastion Point all serve to dampen any warm waves of nostalgic recollection.
And not only on the Waitemata. Also described are the effects of the city and its sewage on the people at Ihumātao, possible the oldest Māori settlement in Tāmaki Makaurau. Centuries of direct access to the rich fishery of the Manukau and local awa was cut off by the huge oxidation ponds of the Mangere sewage treatment plant. The people at Ihumātao still remember how, while surrounded by other people’s sewage, some of them still had to rely on long drops.
Moon describes Henning’s Speedway, a popular attraction in the 1920s and 30s, a place familiar from my own work. Built at Pukaki Lagoon on land leased from the Harbour Board and on an old Māori settlement, the construction destroyed the original landscape and resulted in boxes of artefacts and kōiwi, human remains being handed to the Auckland Museum.
There are lighter touches, the story of the founding of Radio Hauraki, a response to a moribund public broadcasting system which ignored the music of the growing 1960s ‘youth culture.’ I remember the farcical nautical send off of these radio pirates with young people blocking the lowering of the fishing basin lift bridge by authorities attempting to block the sailing of the Radio Hauraki broadcast vessel, Tiri. The ship sailed and as a younger Tim Shadbolt used to say when accused of being a ‘commie,’ ‘The first protest I ever took part in was in defence of private enterprise.’
The arrival of the dairy, Queen Street shopping, dance crazes and land marches, all these pass through Moon’s story of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. This is an accessible book aimed at a general audience written by a professional historian. It is not only very readable but referenced, footnoted and indexed allowing the reader to explore more fully any of the multitude of parts which pique their curiosity. A great intro to Auckland.
Reviewed by David Veart
