Scottishness and Irishness in New Zealand since 1840 9781526118776

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ANGELA McCARTHY

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general editor John M. MacKenzie When the ‘Studies in Imperialism’ series was founded more than twenty-five years ago, emphasis was laid upon the conviction that ‘imperialism as a cultural phenomenon had as significant an effect on the dominant as on the subordinate societies’. With more than eighty books published, this remains the prime concern of the series. Cross-disciplinary work has indeed appeared covering the full spectrum of cultural phenomena, as well as examining aspects of gender and sex, frontiers and law, science and the environment, language and literature, migration and patriotic societies, and much else. Moreover, the series has always wished to present comparative work on European and American imperialism, and particularly welcomes the submission of books in these areas. The fascination with imperialism, in all its aspects, shows no sign of abating, and this series will continue to lead the way in encouraging the widest possible range of studies in the field. ‘Studies in Imperialism’ is fully organic in its development, always seeking to be at the cutting edge, responding to the latest interests of scholars and the needs of this ever-expanding area of scholarship.

Scottishness and Irishness in New Zealand since 1840

SELECTED TITLES AVAILABLE IN THE SERIES BORDERS AND CONFLICT IN SOUTH ASIA Lucy P. Chester SCOTLAND, THE CARIBBEAN AND THE ATLANTIC WORLD Douglas Hamilton MISSIONARIES AND THEIR MEDICINE David Hardiman EMIGRATION FROM SCOTLAND BETWEEN THE WARS Marjory Harper MUSEUMS AND EMPIRE

John M. MacKenzie

THE SCOTS IN SOUTH AFRICA John M. MacKenzie IRELAND, INDIA AND EMPIRE

Kate O’Malley

ENDING BRITISH RULE IN AFRICA Carol Polsgrove

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CHOCOLATE, WOMEN AND EMPIRE

Emma Robertson

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Scottishness and Irishness in New Zealand since 1840 Angela McCarthy

MANCHESTER

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Manchester

Copyright © Angela McCarthy 2011 The right of Angela McCarthy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Published by MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS ALTRINCHAM STREET, MANCHESTER M1 7JA, UK www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 978 0 7190 7761 6 hardback First published 2011 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Typeset in 10/12 Trump Mediaeval by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong

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In Loving Memory of Murphy McCarthy (Woodhelven Mera) 29 October 1998 - 9 January 2009

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CONTENTS

Illustrations — page viii Tables — page x Acknowledgements — page xi Abbreviations — page xiii Editorial notes — page xiv General editor’s introduction — page xv Introduction

1

1 Irishness and Scottishness in the diaspora

11

2 Categories of identity

29

3 Language and accent

63

4 Material tokens of ethnicity

88

5 Religion, politics, and history

117

6 National characteristics

150

7 Impressions of New Zealand and Maori

174

Conclusion

205

Appendix — 212 Bibliography — 213 Index — 232

[ vii ]

I L L U S T R AT I O N S

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1 ‘Scotland on the Rampage – Beware of Parritch and Whuskey!’ N.Z. Observer and Free Lance, 19 March 1898, p. 12, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand

page 30

2 ‘Scandinavian Scotch’: Shetland Island farmers, Campbell Island, c. 1904, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, 1/4-054553-G

45

3 ‘A legal authority’: depiction of an Irish accent, The Makomako, 1 April 1876, Collection of the Otago Settlers Museum

67

4 ‘Footlight favourites of the Gaelic Society’: The Scots language, Collection of the Otago Settlers Museum, AG-79, p. 22

80

5 St Andrew’s Day dinner for the Dunedin Burns Club, 30 Nov. 1898, Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago

89

6 The author’s mother preparing to do the Highland Fling, Auckland, 1958, author’s private collection

93

7 Caledonian Society of Wellington, fourth annual concert, 12 July 1889, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, Eph-B-Music-1889-01-spread

94

8 Dancers at the Irish National Feis, Kilbirnie, Wellington, 1986, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, EP/1986/5281/18-F

97

9 St Patrick’s Day Sports Festival, Wellington, 1912, Canterbury Times/Barton photograph Bishop collection, Canterbury Museum, 1923.53.38

98

10 Members of the Grand Orange Lodge of New Zealand, Stratford, c. 1910, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, 1/1-012292-G

117

11 Funeral procession, Hokitika, 8 March 1868, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, Non-ATL-0077

129

12 Malcolm Evans, Star turn, c. 1975–78, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, B-124-027

133

13 Robert Burns on the cover of The N.Z. Scotsman magazine, 1927, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand

141

[ viii ]

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ILLUSTRATIONS

14 The Gaelic Society’s choir, 1899, Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, AG-542/7

143

15 Thomas Scott, ‘Dunedin fights back against the big freeze’, The Dominion Post, 18 Aug. 2004, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, DX-025-021

157

16 ‘British pluck and Irish wit’, New Zealand Poster Collection: The Te Kooti Trail (1927) [Type 3], Hayward Collection, New Zealand Film Archive Nga– Kaitiaki O Nga– Taonga Whitia– hua

166

17 ‘Inside the sty’, Land and Sea, 12 Jan. 1889, Collection of the Otago Settlers Museum

168

18 The Campbells are comin’ (c. 1901–12), Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, C-109-029

192

19 Ashley W. Smith, [Winston Peters], MG Business – Mercantile Gazette, 20 Aug. 2001, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, DX-023-044

193

20 A Scottish missionary coming ashore confronted by warring Maori, 1868, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, B-088-016

197

[ ix ]

TA B L E S

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1 Percentage of Scottish-born in New Zealand provinces, 1871–86. (Source: Census of New Zealand) 2 Scots and Irish in New Zealand as percentage of total population and non-New Zealand-born population, 1858–1971 (Source: Figures calculated from New Zealand Population Census)

[x]

page 153

212

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Research for this book began while completing other projects during my tenure as the 2005 J. D. Stout Research Fellow in New Zealand Studies at the Stout Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, and as Visiting Scholar at the School of Social and Cultural Studies, which I am grateful to Brigitte Bönisch-Brednich for organising. Further progress was made after I moved to the University of Hull where the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences provided essential ongoing travel funding. The book was finally completed at the University of Otago. I am much obliged to the British Academy for awarding the project a Small Research Grant (SG-40172) and am grateful to John M. MacKenzie for incorporating this book into his enviable Studies in Imperialism series at Manchester University Press. Various individuals have responded to my past and present appeals for personal testimonies from Irish and Scottish migrants and I would like to thank the following for generously sharing their private archives: Reg Brown, Professor Michael J. Crozier, Douglas Duncan, Alice Gemming, Sandra Gilpin, Barbara Holt, Moore Fisher Johnston, Jenny Langford, Joan Leonard, Lorna Ross, Leone Shaw, May Tapp, and numerous others who submitted material not eventually used in this study. I am also deeply grateful to Malcolm Evans, Tom Scott, and Ashley Smith, who all kindly provided permission for their cartoons to appear in this book. Acquisition of the images appeared courtesy of funding from the Department of History’s Research Committee and I am also grateful to specialists in New Zealand history at Otago – Tony Ballantyne, John Stenhouse, and Angela Wanhalla – who discussed aspects of this book with me or pointed me in the direction of relevant sources. Numerous archives were consulted throughout New Zealand and several individuals were especially helpful. Both Seán Brosnahan and Jill Haley at the Otago Settlers Museum provided good leads to little-used sources. At the Hocken Collections Anna Blackman, Ali Clarke, and other staff were extremely helpful and speedily delivered documents. The New Zealand Film Archive in Wellington was a particularly relaxing place in which to work and I am especially thankful to Kristen Wineera for her assistance there. Permission to consult and reproduce material from lunatic asylum records held at Auckland and Dunedin was kindly provided by Maggie Mackenzie of the Auckland District Health Board and Sonia Hand and her predecessor Morva Wood of the Otago District Health Board. Again, provision of these records was speedily delivered and my thanks in particular to staff at the Dunedin Regional Office of Archives New Zealand (Andrew, Lois, Peter, Sharon, and Vivienne). I am also obliged to staff at Archives New Zealand regional offices at Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. My thanks also to staff at the Beaglehole Room at Victoria University of Wellington who made available rare items of Scottish poetry. Swift and knowledgeable assistance was also

[ xi ]

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

given by staff at the Auckland Museum Library, Alexander Turnbull Library, Canterbury Library, and Canterbury Museum. Throughout my period of research and writing this book I have benefited from the friendship and support of numerous individuals. In Wellington, colleagues and visiting fellows at the Stout Research Centre assisted in numerous ways while the Bod’s (now Murphy’s) Friday night regulars provided relentless and riotous entertainment. In particular, Richard Hill and Art Pomeroy kindly provided me with lodging and transportation during subsequent visits. Thanks guys. In Hull on return visits, Nick Evans was similarly generous with offers of accommodation and transport, as was Philip Stenning, who also suggested me as a speaker for Keele’s Forum for Ethnicity, Migration, and Marginalisation (though he has perhaps not forgiven me for influencing his acquisition of two kittens instead of one!). I am also enormously grateful for the vigorous and relentless support provided to me over the years by the most influential scholars in the field of Scottish and Irish migration: Tom Devine, David Fitzpatrick, John MacKenzie, Don MacRaild, and Eric Richards. As always, my mother and grandmother have been steadfast in their love and support during exceptionally difficult times. This time the book is dedicated to Murphy Smurfy, the most wonderful of munchkins, who sadly and suddenly relocated to Rainbow Bridge in early 2009. Her ducks and dives around the pylons and trees, communicative barks while training and playing, snoring and twitching while sleeping, nudges for food and attention, and sloppy licks and deep sighs, among numerous other quirky characteristics, are heartbreakingly missed. Thank you for the days my little munchkins punchkins. Angela McCarthy University of Otago

[ xii ]

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A B B R E V I AT I O N S

ACDA AJHR ANZ ARO ANZ CRO ANZ DRO ANZ WRO ATL AWMML BAIQ CCL CM HC HCL NZFA OSM PRONI

Auckland Catholic Diocesan Archives Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives Archives New Zealand Auckland Regional Office Archives New Zealand Christchurch Regional Office Archives New Zealand Dunedin Regional Office Archives New Zealand Wellington Regional Office Alexander Turnbull Library Auckland War Memorial Museum Library British Assisted Immigrant Questionnaires (Ministry of Culture and Heritage) Christchurch City Libraries Canterbury Museum Hocken Collections Hamilton City Libraries New Zealand Film Archive Nga– Kaitiaki O Nga– Taonga Whitia– hua Otago Settlers Museum Public Record Office of Northern Ireland

[ xiii ]

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EDITORIAL NOTES

Extracts from documents have been reproduced with minimal editorial excisions, but, where undertaken, editing adheres to the following conventions: italicised letters in parentheses are editorial additions; non-italicised letters in parentheses are letters or words that probably appeared in the original document but are missing due to rips or stains; italicised letters without parentheses are an original slip of the pen.

[ xiv ]

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GENERAL EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

People who emigrated from Britain to the United States and the colonial territories of white settlement in the British Empire came from four nations, not one. Many would have identified themselves as Irish, Scottish, English and Welsh rather than British. Some would have subdivided these identities further, into northern or southern Irish (long before there was a geographical border to demarcate such a distinction), into Highlands, Islands, Lowlands, Borders in Scotland, into northern and southern Welsh, and into various geographical versions of Englishness, including specific counties like Cornwall. But such subdivisions were not only geographic: they were also sometimes linguistic (Irish and Scottish forms of Gaelic, the separate Scots language, Welsh, and even English dialects); they were often religious (Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican and various forms of so-called ‘non-conformity’); they were certainly cultural, a category that includes literature, song, and musical instruments, historical icons, architectural and domestic traditions, as well as culinary distinctions and diet; and there were also issues of educational methods and attainments. Additionally, there were questions of kin, of clans in the Scottish case, and of geographical affiliation, with attendant networks of friends and acquaintances in all cases. Such aspects of ethnic identities began to interact on board emigrant ships where, invariably, people from different backgrounds within the UK mingled, noting the distinctive characteristics of each other’s culture as they did so. To that they added matters of physical appearance and supposedly stereotypical character traits. The more literate among them often recorded these, as a source of curiosity, wonder, laughter and anxiety, in shipboard diaries or in letters home. Once they had landed at their destinations, such markers of ethnic origin certainly did not disappear overnight. Questions of their continuation have become important in the studies of such emigration flows and consequently of the manner in which they contributed to the European-formed national identities of countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and even South Africa. The manner in which different ethnicities may have interacted with indigenous peoples in various ways has also become a significant source of study. Some of these issues have occasionally been studied in terms of specific identities (such as the Scots). The great strength of Angela McCarthy’s book is that she examines both Irish and Scottish identities in New Zealand in comparative mode. But there are other strengths too. McCarthy sets her work into an already extensive historiography looking at work on identities in the United States and in other ‘dominions’ of the British Empire, as well as exhibiting an easy familiarity with the different component parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Moreover, she uses an extraordinary range of primary sources to build up her analyses, including shipboard diaries, letters,

[ xv ]

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GENERAL EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

reminiscences and oral interviews, spanning the period from the earliest days of ‘pakeha’ (immigrant) New Zealand in the 1840s right down to the 1950s. She also examines the various issues of identity listed in the first paragraph above as well as the important question of relations with the Maori people. But identities do not die with the first generation of migrants. They live on into second and third generations and even beyond. Why this happens constitutes one of the great questions of Canadian, Australian and New Zealand social and cultural history. In some cases, the markers of identity are naturally continuous – family names, place names, religion (even with the onward march of agnosticism and atheism). In others, they are cultural lifestyle choices. In the latter instance it is even possible to identify revivals in more modern times, as with (in the Scottish case) Highland Games, Burns suppers, pipe bands, clan societies, even at times efforts to reconnect with the Gaelic language. Some historians see this as ‘bogus’, but that is to belittle the social and cultural affiliations that people choose to adopt in order to express themselves and connect both with their pasts (however ‘mythic’, which is just another way of expressing deeply felt truths) and with people of like interests. The efforts of people to link themselves to former times through family and genealogical history (such a growing field in recent times), the study of history, even if only of its iconic moments, represent deep psychological and cultural needs. Suggesting that they are somehow spurious represents the ‘de haut en bas’ attitude of the elite scholar, disconnected from the real world. Other historians like to pursue their own fantasy of ‘integration’, the ‘melting pot’, but the reality is much more complex. Some aspects of integration do of course occur, but it is a fascinating fact that identities become layered and complex among people who have relocated to other parts of the world. It is the work of the historian to understand and to explain these complexities, not to reject them, and Angela McCarthy displays admirable tenacity in doing so. Other scholars should be able to build on her work. John M. MacKenzie

[ xvi ]

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Introduction

On 27 June 1863, David Carr, a farm labourer from Forfarshire, made his way to Dundee to connect with a steamer bound for London. Following a ‘last adew to the Tay and its flowery Banks’, David mused longingly, ‘I took a last look at the receding forms of the hills of my Native Land and thought will I ever again see thee my own my Native Land and those dear Friends I leave behind’.1 At Gravesend David connected with the Lancashire Witch bound for Lyttelton. A year earlier, William Smith, travelling from Greenock to Port Chalmers, departed with an urgent ‘Hurrah for “Bonnie Scotland”.’2 Tender thoughts of Ireland also prompted those leaving its shores to reflect fondly on their homeland. Among them was Thomas Warnock who in 1878 wrote from the Lady Jocelyn on his way from Belfast to Auckland, ‘Oh fair was the day we sailed away from dear old Erin’s Isle’.3 Five years later Andrew Campbell documented his journey from Drumsoo Station to Belfast before taking a steamboat to Glasgow, observing, ‘In the providence of God it was my lot to leave my Dear Friends & happy home at Aughagaskin [Aghagaskin] Co Derry Ireland which I confess was the severest task ever I was called to perform before but I thank God who strenghtened me it was not even so hard as I had dreaded it would be.’4 A week later, aboard the Trevelyan as it edged further from the west coast of Scotland bound for Port Chalmers, Andrew wrote wistfully, ‘we are just loosing sight of Waterford the last point of Ireland that we shall see & I mently exclaimed Isle of Beauty fare thee well’.5 Some historians of the Irish and Scottish diasporas link such moving declarations to the dominant cultural motif of exile which was associated with emigration throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Kerby Miller’s influential assessment of Irish emigration to North America, for instance, his analysis centres on the widely held sense of exile shared by the Irish in the United States after the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s which prompted nationalist fervour.6 Equally for the Scottish diaspora, ‘emigration as expulsion’ is a ubiquitous theme of scholarly accounts, as evidenced most recently in Marjory Harper’s overview, although in the Scottish case, migration was more usually associated with a lack of economic opportunities, rather than as in Ireland, where mass emigration was seen as a damning indictment of British government policy.7 [1]

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840

The articulation of loneliness and loss, as well as other symptoms, also appears in the historiography of nineteenth-century New Zealand. In his provocative The Ideal Society and its Enemies, historian Miles Fairburn argues that New Zealand’s social organisation was ‘gravely deficient’. In Fairburn’s depiction of settler society, ‘Community structures were few and weak and the forces of social isolation were many and powerful. Bondlessness was central to colonial life.’8 A significant cause of this atomisation, Fairburn maintains, was that ‘most colonists . . . had already severed their links with place, family, friends, community in the great uprooting that led them to New Zealand’.9 This thesis is shared by others. In their collection of extracts from the writings of European women in nineteenth-century New Zealand, Frances Porter and Charlotte Macdonald claim that migration was ‘inherently destabilising’, that ‘family ties were to be shrugged off, or were no longer there . . . It was a place to establish new connections,’ and that there was a ‘lack of society’.10 Recent studies of the Irish and the Scots in New Zealand have provided an alternative portrait to these depictions of exile and atomisation by pointing to the prevalence of social networks for migrants, both before and after arrival.11 Yet despite the existence of such robust informal (and formal) networks, it has recently been claimed that migrants from Ireland in arguably the most Irish part of New Zealand (the West Coast of the South Island) lacked a sense of ethnic identity. This situation arose, according to Lyndon Fraser, due to a dearth of discrimination. As he puts it, the ‘absence of entrenched anti-Irish élites militated against the rise of sectarian animosities and the development of a strong ethnic consciousness’.12 In Fraser’s outlook, then, ethnic consciousness seemingly resembles Anthony P. Cohen’s description that ‘ethnic identity is a politicized cultural identity’.13 Yet, as John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith remind us, ‘there is no necessary connection between ethnicity and conflict’.14 Fraser’s stance echoes assumptions that Scottish migrants assimilated quickly in their new environments because they were not discriminated against and therefore had little need to assert their ethnicity. As Tom Devine contends, Scots in the United States were voluntary migrants ‘on the make’ and therefore had no need to resort to exile narratives or voice their ethnic identity for defensive purposes, whereas the Irish, he claims, did so. According to Devine, Scots in the United States ‘may have paid lip service to their identity . . . but they no longer required it, and haven’t needed it since’.15 For Irish migrants, by contrast, their cultural institutions served a dual purpose, not only allowing their identity to be proclaimed, but also to actively pursue political objectives. Yet Devine’s interpretation of identity, [2]

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INTRODUCTION

focusing largely on its external and practical political applications, seems a rather narrow reading. Just because Scots do not fit a defensive diaspora Irish model of identity does not imply that Scottishness was irrelevant among the Scots abroad. Unlike the political agenda of many Irish cultural organisations, Scots had no campaigns abroad for an independent Scotland. So although Scottish identity was, like Irish identity, visible, it was a positive rather than defensive posture. By contrast with these interpretations, this book argues that discrimination, even when experienced, was not a precondition for the ethnic consciousness felt by and ascribed to the Irish and Scots in New Zealand. Rather, most aspects of their ethnic identities were positively constructed and articulated. The book also contends that overarching narratives of exile, while intimately associated with emigration from the sending societies, had little significance in the development of Irish and Scottish ethnic identities in New Zealand. This has implications for analyses of ethnicity and ethnic identities in contemporary society which often link ethnicity with a minority status leading to victimhood and competing victim status.16

Ethnic and national identities Contemporary interest surrounding issues of ethnic identities is vibrant. In countries such as New Zealand, descendants of European settlers are seeking their ethnic origins, spurred on in part by factors such as an ongoing interest in indigenous genealogies, the burgeoning appeal of family history societies, and the booming financial benefits of marketing ethnicities abroad as exemplified by music and theme pubs. The Irish and the Scots are two of the most seductive and energetic ethnic groups in this regard. Yet some consider such lingering attachments spurious. As David Fitzpatrick, the leading historian of Irish migration, has stated, for ‘various reasons an Irish identity has so far proved more marketable than Britishness. Never before has Irishness been so important, and so useful, for those claiming association with the Irish Diaspora. And never before has it been more bogus.’ Why bogus? Several factors play a part in Fitzpatrick’s claim, prime among them extensive intermarriage which enabled ‘descendants of mixed ancestry to select one of several plausible Old-World nationalities’. What factors, political and psychological, Fitzpatrick queries, ‘caused so many . . . to claim certain nationalities of origin, but not others?’17 While current interest in ethnic identities is built upon complex issues of memory and contemporary concerns, scholars also face challenges when exploring these identities in the past. Despite recent [3]

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840

investigation, the standard trope of New Zealand society is to emphasise its British and Pakeha character, overarching categorisations which subsume divergent individual and collective ethnic affiliations. Such an outlook, warns Donald Akenson in his influential study of the Irish in New Zealand, ‘systematically denies the complexity of the nineteenth and early twentieth century Pakeha culture’.18 This labelling, however, frequently arises from a focus on official sources or from public figures. The thoughts and feelings of groups and individuals are rarely considered. What, though, is meant by an ethnic identity? Many models citing key ingredients of ethnic identities have been constructed and a useful formulation is that devised by Anthony D. Smith, containing six main aspects of an ethnic identity: a collective proper name; myth of common ancestry; shared historical memories; one or more elements of a common culture; an association with a specific homeland; and a sense of solidarity.19 Such elements are certainly evident when examining the Scots and the Irish in New Zealand but their applicability is generally dependent upon the type of source examined. Smith’s model, for instance, appears to have been based largely on a public and associational definition of ethnic identity, rather than a private, individual one. This book therefore gives priority to the varied manifestations of ethnic identity that emerge in dissimilar sources. In adopting such an approach, this book acknowledges the existence and continuity of visible signs of ethnic affiliation, what has been termed a ‘constellation of symbols, rituals, and rhetoric’.20 The book also incorporates ethnic identities in terms of formal associations with fellow expatriates and group affiliations in the new homeland, the varied networks, associations, and communities identified in Don Handelman’s typology of the organisational dimensions of ethnicity.21 In the Irish context, this includes brief consideration of such associations as the Orange Order and Hibernians, but attention is also given to less explored Irish societies such as the Maoriland Irish Society, the Ulster Society of Otago, and the New Zealand Irish Society. For Scots, meanwhile, consideration is given to well-known associations including the Gaelic Society, Caledonian Societies, and Burns Clubs, as well as a range of other Scottish clubs including the Wellington Scots Club, Pahiatua and District Scottish Society, and the Clan Mackay Society of New Zealand. So, while the book incorporates these collective aspects of identity it also builds more explicitly on research engaging with the values, feelings, ideas, and emotions of individuals and groups, the so-called internal states of mind.22 In other words, ethnicity and ethnic identities are about ethnic and cultural essences as well as processes (practices) and relationships (interactions).23 [4]

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INTRODUCTION

In addressing ethnic identities, then, this book explores the aspects that insiders and outsiders perceived as distinctive of Scottish and Irish (Catholic and Protestant) ethnicities in New Zealand. These approaches are merged because in one sense identity is a matter of self-identification, of an individual or group, formed of strong personal attachments and also consciously constructed in the pursuit of various objectives. Yet an ethnic identity also emerges from the perception of others and is often formulated when two or more groups are contrasted. While both approaches are incorporated in this book, it is mindful of Herbert J. Gans’ caution that ‘neither the practice of ethnic culture nor participation in ethnic organizations were essential to being and feeling ethnic’.24 Identities can also change as individual or collective circumstances alter. Indeed, an individual’s sense of their ethnicity is important, as the case of Elvis Presley reveals. In 2004, following the apparent discovery that Elvis Presley possessed Scottish roots, the Tartan TV website unambiguously declared, ‘The King is Scottish.’25 Various quips were quickly coined, including MacElvis and All Shoogled Up (shoogled being the Scots word for shook).26 A new clan cloth promptly appeared, sparking one headline, ‘Who needs blue suede shoes with a Presley of Lonmay tartan?’27 In Presley’s case an ethnic identity was enforced on an individual who had no awareness of being Scottish. Indeed, in 1960 when Presley spent two hours at Prestwick Airport in Scotland on his way home from military service in Germany he made no reference to any Scottish heritage.28 Acknowledging that he might have Scottish roots is one thing; asserting that ‘The King is Scottish’ is another. The example of Elvis Presley therefore demonstrates the necessity for a conceptualisation of ethnic identity that at least incorporates the selfidentification of individuals, be they migrants or descendants, rather than simply having ethnicity imposed. As sociologist David McCrone indicates, ‘Perhaps too much attention is paid to the identity labels that people are “forced” to wear, and not enough on how they select and actively present themselves to others.’29 Admittedly, an ethnic identity is but one of many identities that individuals and groups can hold. As Linda Colley noted perceptively in her influential book Britons, ‘Identities are not like hats. Human beings can and do put on several at a time.’30 While identities have multiple and fluid meanings, as a concept it is not only a sense of what is intrinsically felt, but is shaped and determined by the wider environment. Migrants could also hold a range of multiple identities, though it is their various ethnic identities rather than other identities that are explored in this book. In examining these features, however, it is not claimed that individuals led their lives or constructed their [5]

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840

day-to-day actions through the lens of ethnicity. Rather, ethnicity is situational. In other words, ‘we do not routinely proceed through our day perceiving everything through the self-conscious prism of our ethnicity’.31 Also important in conceptualisations of ethnic identity are the claims of the multigenerational descent group. According to one commentator, ‘ethnic consciousness based on genealogy seems a false consciousness in Scotland’.32 Yet ethnicity is synonymous with descent.33 As such, this book endeavours, where possible, to incorporate the identity of the multigenerational descent group as well as the migrant born.

Methodology and chapter outline According to sociologist Rogers Brubaker, ethnicity only exists through perceptions, interpretations, and representations.34 This book therefore examines the distinctive aspects, mixed and complex, that insiders and outsiders perceived as characteristic of Irish and Scottish identities in New Zealand. When, how, and why did Irish and Scots identify themselves and others in ethnic terms? What characteristics did the Irish and the Scots attribute to themselves and what traits did others assign to them? Did these traits change over time and if so how? Why did they arise at specific times? To address these questions, a range of written, verbal, and visual sources are deployed. They embrace insider and outsider accounts, official and associational records, and individual testimonies. Among the evidence consulted are personal testimonies (incorporating hundreds of letters, shipboard journals, memoirs, and interviews), official immigration files, parliamentary debates, nominated immigration records, maritime ephemera, ethnic presses, society records, lunatic asylum casebooks, family histories, poetry and novels, and film and documentary. Such a combination promises an unusually varied approach to the vexed problem of identifying and characterising ethnicity for it incorporates commentary across class and gender. In addition, by spanning a wide time period, the study goes beyond a simple focus on those institutions and events when Irishness and Scottishness was to the fore in generating negative or defensive commentary. Moreover, similar sources are used for both groups thus ensuring that the comparisons are systematic rather than impressionistic. Following an historiographical survey of the literature relating to Irishness and Scottishness abroad, Chapter 2 sets out to document the various broad classifications in which the Irish and Scots were connected with home. These categories embraced the national, the [6]

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INTRODUCTION

regional, the county, and the local. In other words, a sense of being Irish or Scottish is explored, along with identifications such as Highlander, Lowlander, Northern Irish, and Southern Irish. Britishness is also considered. Apart from broad categories connecting migrants to their homelands, the chapter also considers New Zealand identities. In Chapter 3 the issue of language and accent is examined. While sources in the Irish, Ulster Scots, Scottish Gaelic, and Scots languages have not been utilised in this study, documents written in English reveal considerable insight into these elements of the linguistic identities of Irish and Scottish migrants. As well as language, the accents of the Irish and Scots are also explored. Chapter 4 examines the material tokens of Irish and Scottish ethnicity, traversing a range of elements including music, festivals, food and drink, and dress. It examines whether these elements were attributed to the various local and regional identifiers outlined in Chapter 2 or whether they were instead perceived as pertinent to the entire national group. As Anthony P. Cohen has reflected, ‘we suppose it [Scottishness] to be in language and lore, in law and tradition, in literature, history, music, cuisine, landscape, sport, in humour, in dress and in self-differentiation from the English. But is there good reason to suppose that any of these are perceived and weighted alike by Scots, especially given their commitment to local, ethnic, religious, class and partisan differences, and the pronounced heterogeneity of Scottish society?’35 We might well ask the same question of those abroad. Religious and political identities were also important aspects of Scottishness and Irishness and Chapter 5 grapples with these aspects in New Zealand. While sectarianism in relation to the Irish is given due attention, the chapter also points to the curiosity and dismay arising from differences between Scottish and English forms of church service and the occasional consternation directed towards Irish Catholics. Meanwhile, by drawing on the records of the ethnic press and ethnic associations, the chapter also explores the extent to which Irish identity was conceptualised in political terms while Scottish identity was cultural. For centuries, a range of national characteristics have been associated with the Irish and the Scots and the sixth chapter sets out to examine these aspects among migrants and their descendants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Clannishness, frugality, stupidity, and violence are examined alongside warmth, humour, and courage. The national characteristics levied at other groups are also briefly considered to place such impressions in a broader context. Much [7]

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of what is discussed throughout this chapter and the book may be perceived as stereotyping, that is the beliefs, positive and negative, sentimentalised and degraded, that individuals hold about the characteristics of other groups. Stereotypes are not only a way in which individuals and groups categorise the world, but they can imply superiority, enable defining of boundaries, and justify access to resources.36 Views of New Zealand and its indigenous Maori population are further ways in which Irish and Scottish migrants conveyed aspects of their identities and Chapter 7 examines these issues. Was New Zealand and its Maori population depicted in exotic terms or was familiarity stressed instead? Can a unifying portrait of Maori be discerned or were impressions more nuanced? Were Irish and Scottish impressions of Maori shaped by their experiences of colonisation by England? Missing throughout this book are the impressions Maori had of Scottish and Irish migrants. That such an approach is needed is evident from the expression of displeasure ‘with all the men of Scotland’ voiced in 1856 by Matiaha Tiramorehu and Tame Haereroa.37 Maori, then, with their own distinctive sub-groupings, displayed some awareness of cultural distinctions between the various migrant groups that arrived in New Zealand, and the investigation of Maori-language sources and interviews with Maori may well extend and refine the findings that appear in this book.38 Also missing, though to a lesser extent, are impressions of English migrants towards the Irish and the Scots in New Zealand, and the expressions of English ethnicity. The absence of the English in a comparative work of this nature is due to several reasons, including an inability to trace comparable sources, particularly of the ethnic societies and the ethnic press. The broader secondary literature on English migration also pales by comparison with work on the Irish and the Scots. Also significant is that the English were the predominant ethnic group in New Zealand. In the Census for 1886, for instance, there were a recorded 125,657 English-born in New Zealand, compared with 54,810 Scots and 51,408 Irish. So comparing the minority Irish and Scots seemed a more appropriate methodological approach, given the general consistency of these breakdowns over time, particularly from 1867 until the early twentieth century (see Appendix). In the final analysis, the book endeavours to make a modest contribution to the field of ethnicity, an area of study that is important in helping ‘the historian to understand and to explain how people, especially ordinary people, felt and behaved’.39 [8]

INTRODUCTION

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Notes 1 Shipboard journal of David Carr, extract dated 27 June 1863, pp. 1–2, CM, Folder 88, 1993.67. 2 Shipboard diary of William Smith, 1862, ATL, MS-Papers-3609. 3 ‘Roar ye billows roar’, in Shipboard diary of Thomas Warnock, p. 74, ATL, MS-Papers7232-1. 4 Shipboard journal of Andrew Campbell, extract dated 24 Sept. 1883, CM, Folder 70, 94/85. Drumsoo Station is presumably in County Fermanagh. 5 Ibid., extract dated 1 Oct. 1883, p. 12, CM. 6 Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (New York, 1985). 7 Marjory Harper, Adventurers and Exiles: The Great Scottish Exodus (London, 2003), p. 32. 8 Miles Fairburn, The Ideal Society and its Enemies: The Foundations of Modern New Zealand Society, 1850–1900 (Auckland, 1989), p. 11. 9 Ibid., p. 94. 10 Frances Porter and Charlotte Macdonald (eds), ‘My Hand Will Write What My Heart Dictates’: The Unsettled Lives of Women in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand as Revealed to Sisters, Family, and Friends (Auckland, 1996), pp. 3, 386–7, 6. 11 See, most especially, Angela McCarthy, Irish Migrants in New Zealand, 1840–1937: ‘The Desired Haven’ (Woodbridge, 2005); ‘“Bands of fellowship”: the role of personal relationships and social networks among Irish migrants in New Zealand, 1861–1911’, in Enda Delaney and Donald M. MacRaild (eds), Irish Migration, Networks and Ethnic Identities since 1750 (London and New York, 2007), pp. 190– 209, and ‘Personal accounts of leaving Scotland, 1921–1954’, Scottish Historical Review, 83:2, no. 216 (2004), pp. 196–215; and Lyndon Fraser, ‘Irish women’s networks on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, 1864–1922’, Women’s History Review, 15:3 (2006), pp. 459–75. 12 Lyndon Fraser, Castles of Gold: A History of New Zealand’s West Coast Irish (Dunedin, 2007), p. 78. 13 Anthony P. Cohen, ‘Culture as identity: an anthropologist’s view’, New Literary History, 24 (1993), p. 199. 14 John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith (eds), Ethnicity (Oxford and New York, 1996), p. 3. 15 T. M. Devine, ‘Scotland’s exiles can follow Irish lead’, The Scotsman, 27 Oct. 2001. 16 John Downing and Charles Husband, Representing ‘Race’: Racisms, Ethnicities and Media (London, 2005), p. 13. 17 D. Fitzpatrick, ‘Battle in the books 5: how Irish was the diaspora from Ireland?’, British Association of Irish Studies Newsletter, No. 25 (Jan. 2001). 18 Donald Harman Akenson, Half the World from Home: Perspectives on the Irish in New Zealand, 1860–1950 (Wellington, 1990), p. 196. 19 Anthony D. Smith, National Identity (London, 1991), p. 21. 20 Kathleen Neils Conzen, David A. Gerber, Ewa Morawska, George E. Pozzetta, and Rudolph J. Vecoli, ‘The invention of ethnicity: a perspective from the U.S.A.’, Journal of American Ethnic History, 12:1 (1992), p. 28. 21 Don Handelman, ‘The organization of ethnicity’, Ethnic Groups, 1 (1977), pp. 187–200. 22 Angela McCarthy (ed.), A Global Clan: Scottish Migrant Networks and Identities since the Eighteenth Century (London, 2006). 23 See Colin Kidd, British Identities before Nationalism: Ethnicity and Nationhood in the Atlantic World, 1600–1800 (Cambridge, 1999), p. 5. 24 Herbert J. Gans, ‘Symbolic ethnicity: the future of ethnic groups and cultures in America’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2:1 (1979), p. 14. 25 www.tartan.tv/Web/Site/NewSite/Directory/Genealogy/Elvis-Presley-is-Scottish.asp [last accessed 31 March 2006]. 26 http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2004/03/24/story939819480.asp; www.rockandmetal.com/elvispresley3.html [last accessed 31 March 2006].

[9]

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 27 http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=193&id=405892004 [last accessed 31 March 2006]. Lonmay in Aberdeenshire is the alleged birthplace of Presley’s ancestors. 28 For an account of this see Peter Guralnick, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (Boston, 1999). For a contemporary report of Elvis at Prestwick Airport see www.nls.uk/scotlandspages/timeline/1960.html [last accessed 27 April 2009]. 29 David McCrone, ‘Who do you say you are? Making sense of national identities in modern Britain’, Ethnicities, 2:3 (2002), p. 316. 30 Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837 (London, 1996; 1st edn 1992), p. 6. 31 Downing and Husband, Representing ‘Race’, p. 18. 32 T. C. Smout, ‘Perspectives on the Scottish identity’, Scottish Affairs, 6 (1994), p. 107. 33 As Don Akenson puts it, ‘the concept of ethnicity allows one to escape from merely studying immigrants (usually called the “first generation”) and to trace cultural continuities and modifications over later generations (at minimum through the second and third)’. See Half the World from Home, p. 30. 34 Rogers Brubaker, ‘Ethnicity without groups’, in Stephen May, Tariq Modood, and Judith Squires (eds), Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Minority Rights (Cambridge, 2004), p. 59. 35 Anthony P. Cohen, ‘Peripheral vision: nationalism, national identity and the objective correlative in Scotland’, in Anthony P. Cohen (ed.), Signifying Identities: Anthropological Perspectives on Boundaries and Contested Values (London and New York, 2000), p. 150. 36 Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism (London and Sterling, 2002, 2nd edn), p. 25. 37 OSM. I am grateful to Seán Brosnahan for this reference. 38 For an example of such an approach, see Lachlan Paterson’s examination of Maorilanguage newspapers in Colonial Discourses: Niupepa Mäori, 1855–1863 (Dunedin, 2006). 39 Akenson, Half the World from Home, p. 203.

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CHAPTER 1

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Irishness and Scottishness in the diaspora

Between 1815 and 1930, central and western Europe experienced unprecedented mobility with an estimated 60 million people leaving for overseas shores.1 Among those leading the charge, per head of population, were Ireland and Scotland. Indeed, throughout the nineteenth century Ireland consistently topped the league table of emigration from Europe while Scotland did so in the inter-war period.2 Despite these similarities, there are striking differences between the two flows. Whereas around four million departed Ireland during the nineteenth century, an estimated two million left Scotland. By the twentieth century these figures replicated each other with about two million leaving Scotland and the island of Ireland. Further differences can be perceived across time with the countries to which these migrants gravitated. Whereas North America and Australasia attracted large numbers throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Irish migrants increasingly travelled to Britain rather than abroad.3 The demographic profile of both flows also varied with Irish migrants typically young, single, of rural origin and gender parity, whereas the Scots were more likely to be married, from urban-industrial areas, and with a larger proportion of male migrants. Within the broader historiography, scholars have posited a range of reasons for migration from Ireland and Scotland. Quite apart from the explosive impact of the famine in the mid-nineteenth century, other factors, including poor harvests, crop failures, collapsing farm prices, demographic pressure, and the poor performance of the Irish economy, all contributed to the decision to leave.4 In the twentieth century increasing unemployment, economic crises, and the limited opportunity of manufacturing jobs are cited as key factors along with a rigid social structure which restricted opportunities for upward mobility and strengthened the imperative to leave.5 As well as so-called ‘push’ factors at home, the attractions of destinations abroad were also [ 11 ]

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considerable and included employment opportunities overseas, the lure of land, good wages, a better lifestyle, the information and advice provided by friends and family, and the availability of official assistance. Historians have also proffered divergent explanations for Irish women’s migration, including women’s desires to improve their opportunities for employment and marriage abroad.6 A blending of both motives suggests that Irish women pursued economic gains in order to enhance their marriage prospects.7 More personal reasons have also been advanced, derived largely from exploration of personal testimonies such as letters and interviews.8 Scottish migration, by contrast, has been portrayed as a paradox, a conundrum arising from the departure of significant numbers of Scots during a seminal period of dynamic economic transformation. Indeed, the pronounced structural change brought about by the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries meant that by 1850 Scotland was the world’s second most industrial nation. As such, Scottish migrants increasingly left urban districts compared with migrants from other predominantly agricultural economies. Additionally, immigration into Scotland was proceeding apace, particularly from Ireland.9 The paradox, then, is considered a profound puzzle not just for scholars of Scottish migration, but for those endeavouring to explain motives for migration more broadly. In addressing this apparent paradox, T. M. Devine endeavoured to explain the exodus by pointing to the historical continuity of Scottish migration, the high rates of internal migration which extended to migration abroad, Scotland’s low wage economy, and the transport revolution.10 Yet other factors were also influential, including colonisation schemes, land grants, and the activities of emigration agents.11 Personal networks were also critical with evidence that the Scots, like other nationalities undergoing profound migration, had robust formal and informal networks which provided intending migrants with advice and information.12 As with other migrant groups, a range of personal factors also proved influential.13 But is Scottish emigration a paradox? If we focus on statistics for the key period of mass European emigration, the nineteenth century, possibly not, for we need to consider the position of England, the most industrial country in the world in the mid-nineteenth century, in the emigration league table. The available statistics reveal that prior to 1891 England appeared among the top five countries supplying migrants and its rate of population loss was not wildly dissimilar from Scotland’s.14 So with the top two industrial countries perched near the top of an emigration league table can a paradox be asserted? Possibly [ 12 ]

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it can if we incorporate the flow of around 441,000 Scots to England until 1891.15 Yet without statistics for the English flow to Scotland, this must be tentative. Second, the paradox assumes that Scots in the immediate decades after the mid-nineteenth century would be content residing in the world’s second most industrial country. But what of the more personal reasons individuals had for moving, and how influential were critical problems such as overcrowding in urban districts, associated with Scotland’s booming industrialisation and urbanisation, in prompting Scots to seek a better lifestyle elsewhere? The paradox of Scottish emigration might therefore be refined along two lines. First, in terms of comparative rates of emigration per head of population, Scottish emigration becomes a paradox in the period around 1891 at which time its rate of emigration was more than double that of England’s, and continues into the twentieth century. Perhaps more appropriately for the earlier timeframe, however, is that the paradox of Scottish emigration is more pertinently directed at the social composition of the outflow in which a disproportionate amount of Scots were skilled or semi-skilled compared with a stronger flow of labourers from England.16 If explanations for migration based on homeland conditions still preoccupy scholars, assessing why some destinations were chosen over others also commands consideration. Those endeavouring to explain the attractions of New Zealand throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have often highlighted the images of New Zealand which hailed it as an Arcadia, a better Britain. This ‘Pakeha prospectus’, as James Belich terms it in his commanding first-volume synthesis of New Zealand’s history, exerted ‘powerful myths and prophecies’ which ‘prised’ migrants out of their homelands.17 Others have emphasised the robust involvement of personal networks in the process of migration.18 Still others have stressed various schemes of assisted and nominated migration which enabled vast numbers of migrants to relocate to New Zealand.19 The lures of gold, military recruitment, and land grants have also been identified.20 The manner in which the Irish and the Scots left home and the stories surrounding their collective departures have played a decisive role in the construction of their ethnic identities abroad. As Kerby Miller’s hotly debated thesis argues, Irish Catholics ‘approached their departures and their experiences in North America with an outlook which characterized emigration as exile . . . both the exile motif and the worldview which sustained it ensured the survival of Irish identity and nationalism in the New World’.21 In similar terms Marjory Harper has suggested that for Highlanders and Lowlanders, ‘The construction of a Scottish identity overseas was shaped by the emigrants’ [ 13 ]

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background.’ Yet, unlike the Irish, ‘the interpretation of Scottish emigration as an unwilling and self-conscious diaspora – which belonged primarily to a traumatic era in west Highland emigration – came to be misleadingly applied to the entire Scottish exodus’.22 In what ways then have Irish and Scottish migrants and their sense of Irishness and Scottishness been examined in studies of the diaspora?

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Historiography of views of Irishness and Scottishness In the early twenty-first century two books asked prominent individuals to reflect on what it meant to be Scottish or Irish.23 Summarising the accounts, it was claimed that both ‘show concern about the modern maladies of drug abuse, social inequality and exclusion, the corrosive effects of a materialistic culture, and issues of racism and multiculturalism’.24 The divergences, meanwhile, encapsulated aspects of national character, with the Irish demonstrating confidence and vigour versus supposed Scottish deprecation and lack of self-confidence.25 Alleged national characteristics of both the Irish and the Scots also appear in Richard Weight’s Patriots, an exploration of national identity in Britain after 1940: by the mid-twentieth century, the Southern Irish were seen as backward, untrustworthy and violent; the Northern Irish were thought to be taciturn and uncompromising, but loyal and industrious at the same time; the Scots were considered to be dour and tight-fisted but hardworking, well educated and outward-looking; the Welsh were more insular but as a romantic, idealistic and Godly people, they were seen as the moral conscience of the nation. The English were Britain’s pragmatists: private and individualistic with a love of eccentricity, traits which were tempered by a sense of decency, fair play and tolerance towards others.26

These apparent national traits have a long history. As Murray Pittock indicates in his examination of the Scots and Irish in literature, initial dehumanising portrayals of the Irish and the Scots saw the Scots as disloyal and the Irish as childish.27 While Irish Catholics and Protestants were lumped into a single Hibernian stereotype, Highlanders were differentiated and viewed as charming, angry, volatile, immature, and unreliable.28 Such explorations, however, are based on the representations of those residing in Scotland and Ireland. The self-representations of what it means to be Irish or Scottish outside the homelands, by contrast, offer alternative insight. This is because, as David Fitzpatrick stresses, assertion of popular mentality is twisted when propagated by those who have achieved prominence. So too would self-perceptions among ‘the plain people’ at home be distorted due to familiarity. More insightful, [ 14 ]

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Fitzpatrick recommends, is to monitor the mentality of migrants as this approach escapes ‘much of the imbalance and distortion of home-bound assessments’.29 While this book attempts to make an important addition to the Irish and Scots in New Zealand by focusing on their ethnic identities, it is also situated in the broader international literature surrounding the representations of Irishness and Scottishness around the globe. The remainder of this chapter focuses on those studies concerned with exploring representations of Irish and Scottish ethnic identities, rather than endeavouring to engage with the myriad brief glimpses contained in broader studies. While such a survey is therefore not exhaustive, it reveals that much of the historiography for the Irish has focused on national character, while for the Scots it has been their symbolic identity and associational culture that has attracted attention. Irishness The most extensive consideration of the ways the Irish and Irishness have been represented abroad emerges in studies concerned with the depiction of the Irish in cartoons or the press, with the divergent emphases and interpretations of the authors resulting in competing interpretations. L. Perry Curtis, for instance, focused on the representation of the Irish, mainly through a study of Irish faces in Victorian political cartoons. Curtis not only sought to compare the Irish in cartoons before and after 1860, but also to evaluate the representations of the Irish with the English, and to contrast cartoons with photographs. His overarching argument highlighted the gradual simianisation (defined as the representation of the Irish as apelike) of the Irish in nineteenth-century English periodicals which saw ‘Paddy’ transformed ‘from a drunken and relatively harmless peasant into a dangerous ape-man or simianized agitator’.30 Curtis pinpointed the 1860s as the pivotal decade in this transformation which he attributed to ‘the convergence of deep, powerful emotions about the nature of man, the security of property, and the preservation of privilege’.31 Within a few years Sheridan Gilley attacked Curtis’ thesis by challenging the view that anti-Irish hostility was racially motivated. Part of the problem, according to Gilley, surrounded the difficulty in applying Curtis’ ‘theory to Irish immigrants in England’.32 To reach an understanding of the views held about the Irish by the majority of people in Britain, Gilley therefore utilised sources such as ballads and broadsheets circulating in England. This approach, he insisted, revealed a positive image of a good-natured Paddy who was generous, hospitable, and courageous in battle, though Gilley also acknowledged that there were negative aspects when Paddy’s hospitality led to [ 15 ]

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drunkenness, and Paddy’s courage proved quick-tempered and violent. In sum, as Gilley claimed, ‘if they were despised as drunken and disloyal, ignorant and illiterate, as wife-beaters and child-beaters, as priests, publicans and prostitutes, short-lived and reckless of life, violent, intolerant and superstitious, they were also extolled for their conviviality, generosity, industry, chastity, piety and patience in suffering’.33 A further key point Gilley made concerns Irish involvement in Paddy’s creation: ‘“Paddy” was not so much an Irish or English creation as a joint production of both nations.’34 Gilley’s main thrust, then, was to argue that the English disliked the Irish, not because of race, but because the Irish rejected English values.35 D. G. Paz, meanwhile, tackled both Curtis’ and Gilley’s focus on the well-educated and scientific class and argued instead that to understand what the working classes thought, cheap gutter periodicals require analysis because cheap fiction reflects rather than moulds attitudes.36 Paz’s analysis of such periodicals suggested that working- and lower-middle-class visions of Catholics and Irish were ambiguous, with the view of Catholicism in the periodicals revealing a mixture of hostility and admiration. And, while the stories and articles with Catholic themes were generally unfavourable, they were not, as Paz stressed, ‘uniformly unfavorable’.37 As well as ‘a lurid depiction of Roman Catholic doctrine, discipline, and worship’, there was also a benign view of Catholicism particularly characterised by kind abbots and honourable priests.38 Yet rarely was there a linkage of Irishness and Catholicism.39 Paz also argued that the depiction of the Irish in the periodicals was more mixed and represented in cultural not racial terms.40 He also suggested that four themes are apparent in the image of the Irish, including the wild Irishman and the stage-Irishman who was feckless, comical, blundering, lazy, thick, naïve, and superstitious.41 Moreover, Paz asserted that the gutter press was replete with ethnic and cultural stereotypes for all groups, not just the Irish.42 Here, then, we need to be aware of the benefits of comparative history. By taking into account the representations of other groups, the Irish are not as exceptional as might first be thought in these images. Paz also indicated that the stereotypes in relation to the Irish were not consistent and Irish stories in the gutter press faded round the mid-1850s.43 A compromise for these debates was seemingly reached with the publication in 2004 of Michael de Nie’s work, The Eternal Paddy: Irish Identity and the British Press, 1798–1882. De Nie’s main concern was to examine the representation and evolution of British ideas of Ireland in the British press between 1798 and 1882. In doing so he scrutinised more than 90 London and local newspapers during four key periods which revolved around four pivotal events: the rising of [ 16 ]

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1798; the famine (1845–52); the fenians (1867–70); and the land war (1879–82). De Nie pointed out that much of the scholarship concerned with the representation of the Irish had focused on race (Curtis) and religion (Gilley and Foster).44 For de Nie, however, ‘British conceptions of Irish identity were always a combination of ethnicity, religion, and class. In British eyes, the eternal Paddy was forever a Celt, a Catholic, and a peasant.’45 And these elements of Irishness, de Nie contended, remained constant throughout the nineteenth century.46 A focus on key events is found in Aidan Arrowsmith’s assessment that the cultural image of the Irish is a barometer of British anxiety at significant social and political moments.47 As Arrowsmith succinctly summarises, the Irish denoted religious and political subversion, social barbarity, moral laxity, and wild sexuality.48 Yet Irishness has transformed over time, now signifying comfort and nostalgia towards family and home, with the Irish in Britain considered geographically, linguistically, culturally, and ethnically similar to the English.49 In the United States, scholars have also sought to explore the representation of the Irish through various sources. Richard Stivers, for instance, argues that in the early nineteenth century the Irish were depicted as habitual drunkards brutalised by alcohol.50 By the later nineteenth century, however, this image had transformed into a positive image of the ‘happy drunk’ Irishman who was harmless and livened up parties.51 According to Stivers, ‘Drinking now made one more Irish . . . by differentiating the Irish from other ethnic groups.’52 A further important work is that of Dale T. Knobel’s Paddy and the Republic: Ethnicity and Nationalism in Antebellum America which appeared in 1986. Essentially, Knobel sought to explain how popular images of the Irish evolved through language. His study therefore focused on how the Irish were mentioned in newspapers rather than how often. In other words, what words were used in connection with the Irish most often?53 According to Knobel, the Irish were initially described by their intrinsic characteristics, while from the 1840s to 1850s emphasis was redirected to an extrinsic stereotype.54 Knobel also argued that by the 1870s and 1880s racialised stereotyping was ‘taking on a gentler comic quality’.55 For scholars who have moved beyond a concentration on visual images and the press, our understanding of Irishness has deepened beyond a focus on national characteristics. David Fitzpatrick’s utilisation of personal letters exchanged between Ireland and Australia explored Irish culture, including networks, marriage, religion, work, education, home life, recreation, and conversation. While acknowledging that such aspects were ‘not restricted to Irish settlers in the New World’, Fitzpatrick argues ‘that the emphasis given to them was [ 17 ]

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also distinctively Irish’.56 Nationalism, however, was ‘One element of self-conscious Irishness strikingly absent’.57 Margaret Mulrooney’s study of the domestic world of a mainly Ulster Catholic community employed by du Pont in the United States, meanwhile, identified a number of distinctly Irish practices, including waking the dead, displaying crucifixes, drinking whiskey, and naming children after saints.58 It was, though, a ‘new cultural identity . . . one that fused elements of their ethnoreligious heritage with critical components of American national character’.59 Twentieth-century conceptualisations of Irishness, meanwhile, have utilised questionnaires and interviews to gain an understanding of ethnic consciousness. Reginald Byron’s Irish America is particularly instructive in this regard, revealing what the multigenerational descent group considers to be the national character of the Irish. For those in the United States, traits associated with Irishness included being humorous, argumentative, friendly, generous, caring, family-centred, and melancholy.60 The most extensive study of the representations of the Irish in New Zealand, meanwhile, draws on a range of sources to argue that a ‘unique set of perceptions and stereotypes pertaining to the Irish character’ in New Zealand existed between 1868 and 1918.61 According to Alitia Lynch, British stereotypes and situations encountered in New Zealand contributed to the perceptions levied at the Irish.62 Generally Lynch focuses on national characteristics attributed to the Irish and assesses these according to particular circumstances. As such, she suggests that the irresponsible, unruly, disorderly, and reckless behaviour attributed to the Irish in the 1860s was combined with positive traits such as being loyal, brave, and funloving, a contrast attributed to the substantial number of Irish goldminers.63 Lynch furthermore claims that all Irish were portrayed as Catholic after arrival.64 Meanwhile, her analysis of two novels, Moonshine and No Remittance, leads Lynch to suggest that ‘there is no singular Irish character’.65 Despite claims that ‘The Irish were not only distinctive in their dress, brogue and customs, but many practised an alien and despised religion’,66 we never gain a sense of exactly what this material culture constituted. Much is also made of the distinctive religious practices of Irish Catholics, though again few examples are provided of what this actually constitutes.67 It is just such elements that this book seeks to explore. This book also incorporates, unlike much of the work already cited, the sense of ethnicity felt by Irish Protestants. Scottishness As with the Irish, English representations of the Scots were also negative, with cartoons portraying the Scots as hairy savages and [ 18 ]

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money-grubbers. The apparent clannishness and cronyism practised by Scots were also disparaged.68 In more recent times, a query put to English students generated the summation that Scots were a ‘bagpipeplaying, whisky-drinking rather mean bunch who ate haggis and celebrated Hogmanay with rare relish’.69 Further abroad, these national characteristics have been amplified in comparative context. According to one commentator on the Scots in Canada, ‘The effect of alcohol on different races is as remarkable as it is invariable. An Englishman becomes haughty; a Swede sad; an Irishman sentimental; a Russian fraternal; a German melodious. A Scotchman always becomes militant.’70 Scots in New Zealand, meanwhile, have been portrayed as humourless, puritanical, and canny.71 According to Richard Finlay, a range of seemingly positive characteristics, such as thriftiness, respectability, independence, temperance, and a strong work ethic, were readily adopted as ‘intrinsically Scottish’.72 Scottish involvement in Empire is also seen by Finlay as giving greater opportunity to display other alleged Scottish national characteristics, including martial valour, entrepreneurial dynamism, missionary endeavour, and administrative talent.73 The tendency of Scots to network also prompted Finlay’s claim that ‘the clannishness of the Scots in the Empire tends to suggest that their Scottishness was of paramount importance’.74 Yet unlike studies of the representations of the Irish abroad, most consideration of Scottishness has focused less on such alleged national characteristics and more on symbolic identity, with Scots using ‘rural, Highland and historic symbols to represent the essence of the nation’.75 As such, emphasis on the tartan, kilt, and pipes, known variously as Tartanism, Highlandisation, or the Balmoralisation of Scottishness, have been to the fore. It is a trope that has also been associated with a range of alleged Scottish traits, including patriotism, nobility, romanticism, and Jacobitism.76 A further dominant conceptualisation of Scottishness is that of the Kailyard School, a literary movement which emphasised nostalgia, sentimental parochialism, narrow-mindedness, domesticity, and sentimentality as the national attributes in Scotland.77 Clydesideism is the third main trope associated with Scottishness, with descriptors such as socialist, poor, violent, oppressed, and alcoholic.78 Consideration of a British identity is also important in any exploration of Scottishness. According to T. C. Smout, ‘a powerful sense of being Scottish has gone hand in hand with a powerful sense of being British for centuries’.79 By contrast, Richard Finlay sees the survival of the Scottish language, vibrancy of Presbyterianism, and popular culture as indicative of visions of Scottish and regional identity being [ 19 ]

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untouched by notions of Britishness in the eighteenth century.80 Instead, it was only with the experience of the Second World War that a ‘more homogenous sense of British identity’ was cemented.81 In advancing claims of Britishness among Scots abroad, most evidence draws on toasts at Scottish Society events or occasions when Britishness was linked to royalty.82 This book, therefore, generally finds support for John MacKenzie’s contention that the British Empire, rather than ‘creating an overall national identity [Britishness] . . . enabled the sub-nationalism of the United Kingdom to survive and flourish’.83 This sub-nationalism, entailing ‘a Scots cultural awakening from the end of the nineteenth century was reflected throughout the Empire in the founding of Caledonian societies, the building of memorials, the erection of statues . . . and the organization of Highland games and pipe band competitions’.84 What, therefore, does the historiography of the Scots abroad reveal about Scottishness? A key consideration of Scottishness, apart from homeland conceptualisations of identity, is the way such identities were expressed at sea. Drawing on shipboard journals, Malcolm Prentis has looked at the experiences of Scots during their voyages to Australia between 1821 and 1897. His study identified a range of items, including porridge, glengarry bonnets, tartan, Scotch reels, and anniversaries such as New Year, as being distinctively Scottish.85 Importantly, as Prentis argued of those Scots at sea, ‘their degree of national self-awareness remained largely constant’.86 There is a sense, though, as contained in the broader historiography, that once in Australia, Scots assimilated quickly.87 Cliff Cumming, however, challenges this interpretation, suggesting that Scots ‘deliberately sought to maintain their identity, asserting their national distinctiveness’.88 This sense of Scottishness is particularly evident in Leigh Straw’s assessment of Scottish identity at Swan River, Western Australia. Examining those Scots who arrived between 1829 and 1850, Straw emphasises that Scottishness was influential in the work environment, with Scots preferring to employ their fellow ethnics, work with them, and authorise them to tend to their affairs.89 Although regional origins were important in such connections, Scots associated with one another beyond this immediate link. It was, therefore, their overarching Scottishness as much as local ties that bound them together.90 Straw also explores a number of other spheres in which a personal Scottish identity is apparent. Among the topics considered are the naming of homes, landholdings, public houses, and animals after Scottish connections; clothing; songs; drink; reading; and return trips. A number of key points emerge. Straw links the naming of landscape to broader ideas about colonisation and ownership and concludes that [ 20 ]

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the Scots ‘possessed the land by naming it’.91 The names of Scottish historical heroes, meanwhile, appeared in the horse industry. Yet, Straw claims that Scots were not alone in these practices, with Irish, English, and Welsh settlers also adopting similar naming practices.92 In light of this Straw asserts that ‘British migrants as a whole expressed their own cultural identities publicly in similar ways as Scottish migrants.’93 Perhaps, but the evidence presented fails to endorse this conclusion, for seemingly distinctive aspects of Scottishness stand out. As Straw indicates, the Scottish names given to horses were more nationalistic than other ethnicities, while Scottish clothing was distinctive with tartan and glengarrys.94 Some Highland Scots expressed pleasure at encountering those speaking Gaelic.95 Is there similar evidence that clothing and language conveyed an ethnic identity for English migrants? Straw’s final chapter returns to the issue of the dual allegiance of Scottishness and Britishness. She considers Britishness evident among Scots in their interaction with other ethnics, use of the term North Britain, and support for causes such as the Indian Mutiny.96 The strongest aspect of Britishness, however, was, she contends, their attitude towards Aborigines, with Straw concluding that Scots exhibited the overarching British assumption of cultural superiority and desire to civilise.97 These conclusions are not entirely convincing, however. While the book contains examples of Scots reinforcing their Scottishness, there is no similar evidence that they articulated their identity as a British one. In South Africa, meanwhile, John MacKenzie contends that the Scots saw themselves as different from the Irish and the English, and had layered or multiple identities. A key point made by MacKenzie is that these migrants emphasised a national Scottish identity beyond their more local attachments.98 The most extended discussion of Scottishness in South Africa is found in his chapter on identity which looks in part at the South African Scot, a periodical founded in 1905 to celebrate the achievements of Scots and emphasise their distinctive contribution and constructive relations with other ethnicities. It contained articles on Scottish heroes, famous South African Scots, obituaries of notable Scots, letters from Scotland, reports on a range of events, and advertisements highlighting Scottish connections.99 The Caledonian Society is also examined and its social and charitable functions highlighted. By the First World War there were at least 40 Caledonian Societies in existence in southern Africa. The range of Scottish societies eventually federated in 1918.100 Magazines, military units adhering to Scottish forms, and the naming of places, businesses, and individuals are also seen as expressions of Scottishness.101 Such [ 21 ]

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markers of identity, MacKenzie claims, appealed to Afrikaners as a reaction against the English and anglicisation and enabled Scots to sympathise with Afrikaners.102 But, MacKenzie stresses, efforts to ensure familiarity, such as the naming of the landscape, should not detract from the knowledge that such naming was a symbol of possession by whites and dispossession of blacks.103 The historiography of the Scots in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is less sustained, but in Highland Heritage anthropologist Celeste Ray explores the heritage movement of Scots and their descendants in the American South since the 1960s. Derived from nine years of fieldwork, Ray incorporates participation and observation at community events together with interviews and oral histories from Scottish societies, re-enactment groups, and country dance groups. This methodology generated a number of findings, including the Scottish identity of southern Scottish-Americans focusing on the lost cause of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Indeed, for Scots and southerners their military stereotypes are related to ‘cataclysmic military defeats’.104 As Ray highlights, the popularity of the Scottish heritage movement in the South is connected to the southern regional identity by drawing on ‘parallel mythologies’. By claiming Scottish origins, southern Scots assert that their identity is a continuous tradition from Scotland rather than deriving from the Civil War.105 Aspects of Scottishness were also addressed in Transatlantic Scots, an edited collection covering the United States and Canada, which included Jonathan Dembling’s examination of Scottish music and dance in Cape Breton, which, despite evolution over time, is being claimed by some in Scotland as ‘more authentically Scottish than their own’.106 Michael Vance also explored the triumph of Scottishness in Nova Scotia, an aspect earlier explored by Ian McKay, who stressed that prior to 1930, ‘we search high and low for the signs which today mark the Scots, and by extension the Nova Scotian: we look for the tartans, kilts, bagpipes, haggis and mods, and for the most part they are not to be found’.107 Tartanism, according to McKay, only emerged in the 1930s. Vance also provided an exploration of organised Scottishness in Canada.108 Scottish societies Indeed, the forum that has attracted the most attention in connection with Scottish identity globally is the formation of Scottish societies, including St Andrews Societies and Gaelic Societies, as well as Burns Clubs and Caledonian Societies, the latter two being more inclusive in New Zealand with their members derived from other ethnicities as well as Scots. Yet while some societies had an identifier back to [ 22 ]

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the homeland, such as the Lewis Society in North America, others emphasised the destination, such as the Marrickville Scottish in Australia.109 As Cliff Cumming has summarised it, ‘the formation of these national organisations by Scots was to help maintain a sense of ethnic identity’.110 Organised Scottishness, however, also had other objectives, as evidenced in Vance’s exploration of Canada, where ‘expressions of Scottishness found in Canada . . . are embedded in a history of ethnic, class, and imperial power relations’.111 Ancestry, meanwhile, has been highlighted as a major element of Scottish societies in the United States given the dominance of clan societies.112 Among those Scottish societies commanding the attention of scholars in diverse destinations is the St Andrew’s Society. In Canada, for instance, Gillian Leitch has written about the St Andrew’s Society of Montreal, founded in 1835. Her analysis, focusing on the years 1835 to 1850, asserts that the Society did not just enable expression of a Scottish identity but also of a British identity. Evidence for this claim rests largely on the presence of representatives from other ethnic groups at the St Andrew’s Day dinner and toasts offered that connected Scotland to the larger British Empire.113 Leitch also indicates that the St Andrew’s Society, along with other clubs in Montreal, was not explicitly political. Nevertheless, she does suggest that the Society was aligned with ‘a loyal and conservative political identity’, an argument resting on the linkage of the St Andrew’s Society membership with the conservative cause in Canada.114 The main aim of the Society, though, was its charitable function. As Leitch indicates, this was not just a measure to aid Scots in distress but could be viewed as a way in which the Society controlled new members of its community and guarded the image of the Society presented to the public in Montreal.115 As with associational culture elsewhere, the Society also offered an avenue for companionship. The social and political dimensions of another St Andrew’s Society are similarly emphasised in Elizabeth Buettner’s examination of the celebration of St Andrew’s Day in late imperial India. Unlike the poor attendance at the dinner in Scotland, however, the turnout overseas was considerable. In 1911 in Edinburgh, for instance, just 90 diners attended compared with 300–400 who assembled in Calcutta and London.116 The material culture of Scottishness was also to the forefront on the day with Scottish flags, thistles, heather, haggis, military bands, reels, and bagpipes all in evidence.117 Non-Scots also participated in the celebrations, apparently leading to an emphasis on shared Britishness.118 In England, meanwhile, the Scots Society of St Andrew, Hull, founded in 1910, has received investigation. Unlike studies of the St [ 23 ]

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Andrew’s Society elsewhere, no explicit sense of Britishness was discernible. Scottish events, by contrast, were significant in the earlier years of the Society’s formation, while later years were characterised by a blend of Scottish and general interest. This, however, generated opposition from some quarters, with calls in 1960 for an evening of Scottish song, a haggis night, a trip to Scotland, and screening of a Scottish travel film. Such requests were presumably in response to the general events, such as a quiz, whist drive, and gardening talk, held in the preceding years.119 The Scottishness of the Society, however, was also striking in its symbolic dimension at major events incorporating the display of tartan, the St Andrew’s Cross, and Lion Rampant.120 Like other countries, Australia also contained a plethora of Scottish societies but they were newly formed independent clubs rather than a branch of a central organisation, as in Canada. Internal conflict was therefore seen as more prevalent in Australia.121 By contrast with the focus on St Andrew’s Societies at other destinations, in New Zealand the main Scottish associations receiving attention are the Caledonian and Gaelic Societies, together with the Burns Club. Elliott Campbell, for instance, sought to explore the organised and visible expressions of Scottish identity in Dunedin and Christchurch through Caledonian Societies and the cult of Robert Burns. He claimed that the conflation of a Scottish and British identity was a strong feature of the societies, but provided no evidence for this contention.122 Jessie Annabell, meanwhile, examined the Caledonian Societies and Presbyterian church at Wanganui and Rangitikei between 1880 and 1918 to explore aspects of Scottish identity. She highlighted the varieties of Scottishness and its masculine focus and explored features such as tartan, concerts, the pipes, and Caledonian games. Her overall conclusion was that Scottishness in Caledonian Societies and the church did not incorporate a political nationalism.123 More recently, Tanja Bueltmann sought to explore associational culture as well as informal and formal networks and Scottish cultural practices in New Zealand between 1850 and 1930. She points to the transition of these associations from charitable endeavours to cultural pursuits to an emphasis on ethnicity.124 Also acknowledged is the diverse forms of Scottishness emanating from the societies, the Gaelic Society being more inclined to prioritise cultural interests than Caledonian Societies.125 This focus on associational culture, however, provides an important but limited view of Scottishness: that confined to public and group gatherings. Although also attempting to incorporate personal expressions of Scottishness by analysing personal letters, [ 24 ]

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Bueltmann points out that the ‘significant drawback of the evidence presented is its unspecific nature: what is its Scottish dimension? . . . which of the discerned patterns are particular to Scots?’126 These questions are never answered satisfactorily and this book therefore seeks to engage with that specific issue by examining, through personal testimonies as well as other sources, those aspects that insiders and outsiders explicitly perceived as examples of Scottishness and Irishness.

Notes 1 Dudley Baines, Emigration from Europe, 1815–1930 (Basingstoke, 1991), p. 7. 2 See the tables in ibid., p. 10. 3 Enda Delaney, Demography, State and Society: Irish Migration to Britain, 1921–1971 (Liverpool, 2000). 4 David Fitzpatrick, Irish Emigration, 1801–1921 (Dundalk, 1984). 5 Enda Delaney, Irish Emigration since 1921 (Dublin, 2002), pp. 20–32. 6 Hasia R. Diner, Erin’s Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century (Baltimore, 1983); Janet A. Nolan, Ourselves Alone: Women’s Emigration from Ireland, 1885–1920 (Lexington, 1989). 7 Kerby A. Miller, David N. Doyle, and Patricia Kelleher, ‘“For love and liberty”: Irish women, migration, and domesticity in Ireland and America, 1815–1920’, in Patrick O’Sullivan (ed.), Irish Women and Irish Migration (London, 1995), p. 53. 8 David Fitzpatrick, Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia (Cork, 1995); Angela McCarthy, Personal Narratives of Irish and Scottish Migration, 1921–65: ‘For Spirit and Adventure’ (Manchester, 2007), and Irish Migrants in New Zealand, 1840–1937: ‘The Desired Haven’ (Woodbridge, 2005). 9 These aspects can be found in T. M. Devine, ‘The paradox of Scottish emigration’, in T. M. Devine (ed.), Scottish Emigration and Scottish Society: Proceedings of the Scottish Historical Studies Seminar, University of Strathclyde, 1990–91 (Edinburgh, 1992), pp. 1–15, and R. H. Campbell, ‘Scotland’, in R. A. Cage (ed.), The Scots Abroad: Labour, Capital, Enterprise, 1750 –1914 (London, 1985), pp. 1–28. 10 Devine, ‘The paradox of Scottish emigration’, pp. 4–13. 11 Marjory Harper, Adventurers and Exiles: The Great Scottish Exodus (London, 2003). 12 Angela McCarthy (ed.), A Global Clan: Scottish Migrant Networks and Identities since the Eighteenth Century (London, 2006); ‘Personal accounts of leaving Scotland, 1921–1954’, Scottish Historical Review, 83:2, no. 216 (2004), pp. 196–215. 13 Angela McCarthy, ‘Personal letters, oral testimony, and Scottish migration to New Zealand in the 1950s: the case of Lorna Carter’, Immigrants and Minorities, 23:1 (2005), pp. 59–79. 14 See Baines, Emigration from Europe, table 3, p. 10. 15 Michael Flinn (ed.), Scottish Population History from the 17th Century to the 1930s (Cambridge, 1977), p. 442. 16 Devine, ‘The paradox of Scottish emigration’, p. 3. 17 James Belich, Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders from Polynesian Settlement to the end of the Nineteenth Century (Auckland, 1996), p. 279 and ch. 12 more generally. 18 See, for instance, McCarthy, ‘Personal accounts of leaving Scotland’, pp. 196–215, and ‘“Bands of fellowship”: the role of personal relationships and social networks among Irish migrants in New Zealand, 1861–1911’, in Enda Delaney and Donald M. MacRaild (eds), Irish Migration, Networks and Ethnic Identities since 1750 (London and New York, 2007), pp. 190–209. 19 W. D. Borrie, Immigration to New Zealand, 1854 –1938 (Canberra, 1991); Megan Hutching, Long Journey for Sevenpence: Assisted Immigration to New Zealand from the United Kingdom, 1947–1975 (Wellington, 1999).

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 20 For syntheses of these various explanations see Angela McCarthy, ‘Migration and ethnic identities in the nineteenth century’, in Giselle Byrnes (ed.), The New Oxford History of New Zealand (Melbourne, 2009), pp. 173–95. Also see Jock Phillips and Terry Hearn, Settlers: New Zealand Immigrants from England, Ireland and Scotland (Auckland, 2008). 21 Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (New York, 1985), p. 8. 22 Harper, Adventurers and Exiles, p. 327. 23 Tom Devine and Paddy Logue (eds), Being Scottish: Personal Reflections on Scottish Identity Today (Edinburgh, 2002); Paddy Logue (ed.), Being Irish: Personal Reflections on Irish Identity Today (Dublin, 2000). 24 Devine and Logue, Being Scottish, p. 298. 25 Ibid., pp. 299–300. 26 Richard Weight, Patriots: National Identity in Britain, 1940–2000 (Basingstoke and Oxford, 2002), p. 9. 27 Murray G. H. Pittock, Celtic Identity and the British Image (Manchester and New York, 1999), pp. 27, 29. 28 Ibid., pp. 49, 27. 29 David Fitzpatrick, ‘“That beloved country, that no place else resembles”: connotations of Irishness in Irish-Australasian letters, 1841–1915’, Irish Historical Studies, 27:108 (1991), p. 326. 30 L. Perry Curtis, Apes and Angels: The Irishman in Victorian Caricature (Devon, 1971), p. vii. 31 Ibid., p. 104. 32 Sheridan Gilley, ‘English attitudes to the Irish in England, 1780–1900’, in Colin Holmes (ed.), Immigrants and Minorities in British Society (London, 1978), p. 88. 33 Ibid., p. 88. 34 Ibid., p. 84. 35 Ibid., p. 93. 36 D. G. Paz, ‘Anti-Catholicism, anti-Irish stereotyping, and anti-Celtic racism in mid-Victorian working-class periodicals’, Albion, 18:4 (1986), pp. 602–3. 37 Ibid., pp. 604, 609. 38 Ibid., p. 607. 39 Ibid., p. 604. 40 Ibid., p. 604. 41 Ibid., pp. 610–11. 42 Ibid., p. 609. 43 Ibid., p. 616. 44 Michael de Nie, The Eternal Paddy: Irish Identity and the British Press, 1798 –1882 (Madison, 2004), p. 5. 45 Ibid., p. 5. 46 Ibid., p. 275. 47 Aidan Arrowsmith, ‘The significance of Irishness’, Irish Studies Review, 14:2 (2006), p. 164. 48 Ibid., p. 163. 49 Ibid., pp. 163–4. 50 Richard Stivers, Hair of the Dog: Irish Drinking and its American Stereotype (New York and London, 2000, rev. edn), p. 177. 51 Ibid., p. 180. 52 Ibid., pp. 136–7. 53 Dale T. Knobel, Paddy and the Republic: Ethnicity and Nationality in Antebellum America (Middletown, 1986), p. xvi. 54 Ibid., p. 75. 55 Ibid., p. 181. 56 Fitzpatrick, ‘That beloved country’, p. 350. 57 Ibid., p. 331.

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IRISHNESS AND SCOTTISHNESS IN THE DIASPORA 58 Margaret M. Mulrooney, Black Powder, White Lace: The du Pont Irish and Cultural Identity in Nineteenth-Century America (Hanover and London, 2002), p. 210. 59 Ibid., p. 5. 60 Reginald Byron, Irish America (Oxford, 1999), p. 231. 61 Alitia Lynch, ‘“Drunken, dissipated, and immoral”: perceptions of Irish immigrants to New Zealand, 1868–1918’ (MA, University of Auckland, 1997), p. ii. 62 Ibid., p. 27. 63 Ibid., p. 42. 64 Ibid., p. 72. 65 Ibid., p. 136. 66 Ibid., p. 22. 67 Ibid., p. 33. 68 David Stenhouse, On the Make: How the Scots Took Over London (Edinburgh and London, 2004), pp. 183–4, 185, 192. 69 Ibid., p. 199. 70 John Kenneth Galbraith, The Scotch (Cambridge, Mass., 1964), p. 119. 71 Tom Brooking, ‘Sharing out the haggis: the special Scottish contribution to New Zealand history’, in Tom Brooking and Jennie Coleman (eds), The Heather and the Fern: Scottish Migration and New Zealand Settlement (Dunedin, 2003), p. 49. 72 Richard J. Finlay, ‘The rise and fall of popular imperialism in Scotland, 1850–1950’, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 113:1 (1997), p. 15. 73 Ibid., p. 13. 74 Richard Finlay, ‘Caledonia or North Britain? Scottish identity in the eighteenth century’, in Dauvit Broun, R. J. Finlay, and Michael Lynch (eds), Image and Identity: The Making and Re-making of Scotland through the Ages (Edinburgh, 1998), p. 150. 75 Finlay, ‘The rise and fall of popular imperialism’, p. 15. 76 John Corbett, Language and Scottish Literature (Edinburgh, 1997), p. 186. 77 Cairns Craig, ‘Myths against history: tartanry and kailyard in 19th-century Scottish literature’, in Colin McArthur (ed.), Scotch Reels: Scotland in Cinema and Television (London, 1982), p. 11. 78 Corbett, Language and Scottish Literature, p. 187. 79 T. C. Smout, ‘Perspectives on the Scottish identity’, Scottish Affairs, 6 (1994), p. 112. 80 Finlay, ‘Caledonia or North Britain?’, p. 151. 81 Finlay, ‘The rise and fall of popular imperialism’, p. 20. 82 Gillian I. Leitch, ‘Scottish identity and British loyalty in early-nineteenth-century Montreal’, in Peter E. Rider and Heather McNabb (eds), A Kingdom of the Mind: How the Scots Helped Make Canada (Montreal and Kingston, 2006), p. 217; Elliott Campbell, ‘Scottish identity in Dunedin and Christchurch to c. 1920: an application of the new “British” history to New Zealand’ (MA, University of Canterbury, 2001), p. 102. 83 John M. MacKenzie, ‘Empire and national identities: the case of Scotland’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser., 8 (1998), p. 230. 84 John M. MacKenzie, ‘Essay and reflection: on Scotland and the Empire’, International History Review, 15:4 (1993), p. 737. 85 Malcolm Prentis, ‘Haggis on the high seas: shipboard experiences of Scottish emigrants to Australia, 1821–1897’, Australian Historical Studies, 36:124 (2004), pp. 299–302. 86 Ibid., p. 311. 87 This point is made in Cliff Cumming, ‘Scottish national identity in an Australian colony’, Scottish Historical Review, 72:1, 193 (1993), p. 22. 88 Ibid., p. 22. 89 Leigh S. L. Straw, A Semblance of Scotland: Scottish Identity in Colonial Western Australia (Glasgow, 2006), ch. 3. 90 Ibid., p. 103.

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91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107

108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121

122 123 124 125 126

Ibid., p. 112. Ibid., pp. 113–15. Ibid., p. 196. Ibid., pp. 115, 122. Ibid., p. 136. Ibid., pp. 175–87. Ibid., p. 188. John M. MacKenzie with Nigel R. Dalziel, The Scots in South Africa: Ethnicity, Identity, Gender and Race, 1772–1914 (Manchester, 2007), p. 15. Ibid., pp. 248–51. Ibid., pp. 242–8. Ibid., pp. 240–1. Ibid., p. 241. Ibid., p. 152. Celeste Ray, Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South (Chapel Hill and London, 2001), pp. 18, 160. Ibid., pp. 182–4. Jonathan Dembling, ‘You play it as you would sing it: Cape Breton, Scottishness, and the means of cultural production’, in Celeste Ray (ed.), Transatlantic Scots (Tuscaloosa, 2005), p. 180. Michael Vance, ‘Powerful pathos: the triumph of Scottishness in Nova Scotia’, in Ray (ed.), Transatlantic Scots, pp. 156–79; Ian McKay, ‘Tartanism triumphant: the construction of Scottishness in Nova Scotia, 1933–1954’, Acadiensis, 21:2 (1992), p. 14. Michael Vance, ‘A brief history of organized Scottishness in Canada’, in Ray (ed.), Transatlantic Scots, pp. 96–119. Angela McCarthy, ‘Scottish national identities among inter-war migrants in North America and Australasia’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 34:2 (2006), pp. 211–13, 208. Cumming, ‘Scottish national identity’, p. 29. Vance, ‘A brief history’, pp. 104, 108. Celeste Ray, ‘Scottish immigration and ethnic organization in the United States’, in Ray (ed.), Transatlantic Scots, pp. 68, 69. Leitch, ‘Scottish identity and British loyalty’, pp. 215, 217–18. Ibid., p. 216. Ibid., 218–20. Elizabeth Buettner, ‘Haggis in the Raj: private and public celebrations of Scottishness in late imperial India’, Scottish Historical Review, 81:2, 212 (2002), p. 222. Ibid., pp. 225–7. Ibid., pp. 231–5. Angela McCarthy, ‘The Scots’ society of St Andrew, Hull, 1910 –2001: immigrant, ethnic and transnational association’, Immigrants and Minorities, 25:3 (2007), p. 224. Ibid., p. 225. Kim Sullivan, ‘Scottish associational culture in early Victoria, Australia: an Antipodean reading of a global phenomenon’, in Tanja Bueltmann, Andrew Hinson, and Graeme Morton (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Markham, Ont., 2009), p. 155. Campbell, ‘Scottish identity in Dunedin and Christchurch’, p. 73. Jessie M. Annabell, ‘“Caledonia, stern and wild”: Scottish identity in Wanganui and Rangitikei, 1880–1918’ (MA, Massey University, 1995). Tanja Bueltmann, ‘“Brither Scots shoulder tae shoulder”: ethnic identity, culture and associationism among the Scots in New Zealand to 1930’ (PhD, Victoria University of Wellington, 2008), pp. 90–1, 95. Ibid., p. 115. Ibid., p. 64.

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CHAPTER 2

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Categories of identity

On 19 March 1898 a cartoon appeared in the N.Z. Observer and Free Lance caricaturing a gathering of ‘The alleged Hielan’ laddies of Auckland’ (Figure 1). The main thrust of the caricature was to poke fun at those non-Scots and non-Highland Scots who donned the kilt at Auckland’s bowling green. Among those portrayed were the South British team, comprising Glasgow-born Thomas Peacock and Belfastborn James Kirker, respectively the chairman and manager of the South British Insurance Company in New Zealand.1 Also represented were a Shortland Street Scot and an ‘Anglo-Continental Scot’. The infamous journalist George Main, renowned as the gossip columnist ‘Mercutio’, was also depicted. Various quips were made in connection with those represented, including one directed at Eagleton who was asked ‘how the devil do you make yourself out to be a Scotchman, whoever saw a Scotchman with hair like that’. The reference is presumably to English-born Alexander Edward Eagleton who trained as a hairdresser before becoming a councillor for the Napier Borough Council. This chapter explores the varied identities held by the Scots and the Irish in New Zealand assessing, firstly, the broadest level of identification at the national level, before considering regional and county origins. It then turns to look at local attachments to specific places in the homelands. Quite apart from identifying with their varied Irish and Scottish origins, other identities such as British and New Zealander are also examined. While the chapter breaks down these identities into several categories, it is acknowledged that multiple identities can be held at the same time, as a number of examples demonstrate. Examining categories of identity is important, for within Scottish historiography there is an overarching assumption of concentric loyalties in which ‘a powerful sense of being Scottish has gone hand in hand with a powerful sense of being British for centuries’.2 Not all, [ 29 ]

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Figure 1 ‘Scotland on the Rampage – Beware of Parritch and Whuskey!’ N.Z. Observer and Free Lance, 19 March 1898

however, are convinced by such a broad assertion. Richard Finlay, for instance, argues that for eighteenth-century Scots, national and regional identities were untouched by notions of Britishness.3 Finlay’s contention is substantiated for many nineteenth- and twentieth-century Scottish migrants in New Zealand, as this book will show. Indeed, the issue of dual allegiance is problematic on at least two fronts. First, the evidence for such an assumption is generally confined to the elites, the public arena, or questionnaires conducted in twentieth-century Scotland. What the ordinary Scot thought and felt, at a public and private level, in earlier centuries has yet to be measured. Second, assessment based solely on homeland perceptions by insiders and outsiders runs the risk of contamination. As David Fitzpatrick has indicated in a study of correspondence exchanged between Ireland and Australia, monitoring the mentality of those outside Ireland avoids ‘much of the imbalance and distortion of home-bound assessments’.4 To establish a more measured view of identities, then, we should embrace perspectives beyond the point of origin. Despite the benefit of such an approach, even this methodology is prone to difficulties. In the New Zealand context, for instance, scholars [ 30 ]

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CATEGORIES OF IDENTITY

have tended to merge the country’s assorted ethnic elements under a broad ‘Pakeha’ (non-Maori) label, while the Scots and Irish Protestants have often been subsumed as British. In part, these categorisations are an outcome of an emphasis on elites and newspaper accounts. They are also a consequence of scholars adopting a modern-day bicultural vision of New Zealand’s past which ‘systematically denies the complexity of the nineteenth and early twentieth century Pakeha culture’.5 This chapter, and the book as a whole, seeks to recover that complexity. It has furthermore been asserted in the wider migration historiography ‘that the masses of immigrants brought no sense of nationality to America with them, only local identities and allegiances’.6 Similar claims have been made for the Irish in the United States.7 In his investigation of the Scots abroad, Eric Richards likewise emphasises these regional attachments, though also allows room for a broader national identity, arguing that Highlanders and Islanders saw themselves as family first, then from a district, then as Highlanders or Islanders, then as Scots or British.8 This conceptualisation, however, neglects to recognise that certain of these identities may have been expressed at different times and for different purposes. Meanwhile, imperial historian John MacKenzie contends that while regional identities were significant for the Scots at home, it was through Empire that they ‘discovered themselves to be Scots rather than Aberdonians or Glaswegians or peoples from the Borders. Scots, in a sense, discovered the concept of Scotland while overseas.’9 In what ways, then, did the Scots and the Irish in New Zealand categorise themselves?

Ethnic identities at the national level At sea Analysis of shipboard journals indicates that an overarching conception of Scottishness certainly existed to the general exclusion of Britishness. This is an important point for it indicates that Scottish migrants, even if unaware of their Scottish identity at home, discovered Scottishness during their transition to New Zealand, rather than having it appear after their settlement abroad. Indeed, claims of being Scottish appeared in many guises during the passage to New Zealand, articulated both by Scots and by those of other ethnicities. As well as passengers, ships and crew were also designated as Scottish, perhaps unsurprising given the strong Scottish tradition of shipbuilding and seafaring.10 For instance, Polly Evans, travelling on the Blue Jacket in 1866, found ‘our Captain was a very nice Gentleman an Irish Gentleman & the Doctor Scotch’.11 William Harold Munro noted of his vessel in 1876, ‘The captain and the mates are all scotch, [ 31 ]

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and so is the ship – which is the “Calypso of Aberdeen”.’12 He further observed, ‘Among the sailors are Scotchmen, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Norwegians Danes and Swedes. So you see we have a mixture. Of course [erased: we] they can all speak English more or less’.13 Travelling in the early 1880s Scotsman John Smith noticed that the ‘Captain is Scotch’, while that same decade fellow native Jean McCarlie declared that the steward is ‘a Dutchman, the most of the crew all Scotch’.14 In the mid-twentieth century Mae Palmer reported of the Master of Arms, ‘He is the ship’s policeman and a Scotchman’.15 Some migrants such as William Herries MacLean, born in England, adopted a more rigorous identification, linking crew with particular locations in the homeland. As he claimed in 1863, ‘On the right is the starboard watch consisting of 10 men, chiefly English and Scotchmen’, before becoming more specific: ‘Captain Williams is a native of Dumfries . . . the 1st Mate is a Mr Hunter from Dundee . . . Next are the Petty Officers – the Boatswain (Bo’sn) whose name is Smith from Caithness’.16 There could, however, be some confusion – and antagonism – over the national origins of the crew. When a dispute between the cook and butcher broke out in 1861 on board the Matoaka, Peter Thomson documented that the Captain’s investigation ‘found the Butcher had called the Cook an (Irish) __ which was a complete misapplication, for on the Captain making the query, the Cook turned out, to be “a gude Scot” (a native of Auld reekie, born in the Fishmarket Close.)’.17 The prevalence of crew from Britain was seen as a drawback by some diarists such as Scotsman David Miller, who concluded of his passage on the Jura in 1862, ‘It is no good job for a Foreignor being on A ship when the crew is all Scotch or English men’.18 As with the crew, the majority of passengers to New Zealand were also Scottish, English, or Irish, though occasionally a smattering of others were identified. Englishman William Herries MacLean, for instance, passed comment on English, Irish, Scottish, German, French Canadians, Prussians, and American passengers who voyaged with him on the Prince of Wales in 1863. This catalogue of ethnics prompted him to acknowledge, ‘I don’t know of a single Welshman’. MacLean also divulged the various nicknames levied at the single male passengers on board the Prince of Wales: ‘The Hyena is a tall Irishman who is nearly always grinning’.19 Non-Britons were also identified by Joshua Charlesworth of England during his voyage in 1879 on the Euterpe. As he explained, the 176 passengers comprised ‘all classes and came chiefly from England though there were a few Scotch & Irish, & foreigners on board’.20 Clearly those from Scotland and Ireland were not considered foreigners in this case, unlike those from continental Europe. [ 32 ]

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Most commentary from Scottish and Irish shipboard diarists about their fellow passengers, however, focused exclusively on others from Britain and Ireland. This is unsurprising given that the majority of migrants to New Zealand came from England, Scotland, and Ireland, either indirect, often via Australia, or direct. Among those commenting on their fellow passengers was Dugald McLaren of Perthshire, who noticed of his 1864 voyage on the William Miles, ‘About teun irshermen on board and A bout fiften englishemen’. McLaren later extended this observation by remarking, ‘there is not many Englishmen nor iresh men they are all mostly Scoth men & all very Dasent men’.21 Jane Findlayson, a 25-year-old from Perth, emphasised the British Isles origins of her fellow travellers the following decade: ‘we are all into seperate messes, there are eight in our mess, four Scotch, three Irish, one English they are all agreeable clean girls’.22 These single women were among 27 Irish, 17 Scottish, and 10 English females older than 15 years of age voyaging from Clyde to Otago on board the Oamaru.23 Irishman James McKee similarly sung the praises of the male and female passengers in his class on the Dunloe in 1880: ‘The Ladies of the 2nd Cabin are all very pleasant. Three of them are English & one Scotch . . . there are two English & two Scotch Gentlemen & I & them get along first class.’24 Bethia Mawhinney, meanwhile, simply observed in 1887 that ‘Our mess were all Scotch’.25 Specific individuals rather than overarching groups of nationals were also referred to. According to Scotswoman Hannah Ormond in 1858, ‘Mother got a young Scotchman in the 2nd Cabin to make us tea and we all had a little of it.’26 The Ormonds also utilised the services of other ethnicities for, as Hannah disclosed, ‘we got an old Irish woman to wash out our cabin’.27 More common, however, was the naming of specific individuals in regard to their national origins. Englishman John Matthew Taylor, for instance, remarked in 1840, ‘There are two very respectable girls, Scotch, the Miss MacCallums going to their parents in the neighbourhood of Sidney.’28 William Laing, meanwhile, mentioned Scots, together with other ethnics, during his 1859 voyage. Having noted that Mr and Mrs Broderick were ‘english’, he further added, ‘then there is the parson and his wife, with three children . . . Scotch “Free Church”’ and ‘Mr Murdoch . . . I can tell you nothing about him he is Scotch’.29 Scotsman George Robertson similarly remarked in 1870, ‘In the cabin we have a Mr & Mrs Griffith and nine of a family, they are Irish. Mrs Mander and four daughters, English’.30 Meanwhile, in 1878, John Forsyth Menzies noticed that ‘Fraser, a Scotchman, got his feet badly sunburnt yesterday’.31 The following year, Agnes Cunnigham Christie happily claimed to have ‘danced with Mr Wilkie who [erased: h] is a [ 33 ]

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1st classes he is Scotch and dances beautifully’. Less impressive, according to Agnes, was ‘Mr Chiene who is half Scotch and oh! so conceited’.32 Fellow ethnic Agnes MacGregor was also unimpressed with one of her own when she wrote in 1881: ‘I thought Mr McGaw was a very sentimental, stupid sort of person, but I see that he is about the most sensible and lively of the company, and very scotchy, (if that is a word) which I like’.33 Irish migrants also wrote of their fellow passengers by name, including 29-year-old Derry ploughman Andrew Campbell, who lamented in 1883 that ‘a Scotchman Duncan Broody by name & a shipbuilder to trade died’ and ‘has left a wife & three small children to mourn his loss in Glasgow’.34 A few days later the fatalities continued, with Campbell bleakly noting the death of ‘a young man named forsythe from Scotland who was takeing a voyage for his health he being in consumption’.35 Origins in Ireland were also perceived by Irish and other migrants but, unlike the Scots, individual names were less inclined to be mentioned, which may indicate that Irish migrants were less likely to have interacted with passengers of different ethnicities, particularly when their circumstances fetched disapproving comment. Englishman John Matthew Taylor, for instance, condemned the Irish contingent on board his 1840 passage: ‘There are about 150 dirty Irish Emigrants on board so that the decks are never clean’.36 He was therefore full of praise for the cook in his dealings with the Irish: ‘It is fine to see him manage the continual importunities of the Irish emigrants’.37 Interestingly, the Irish-born also tended to refer in broad national terms to their counterparts, rather than specify names, perhaps a reflection of the Catholic–Protestant divisions among the Irish. For example, Andrew Carbery of Youghal, County Cork, praised a fellow Irishman in the 1860s: ‘an other character also offered us much amusement, a tall lanky Colonial Irishman one of our Guides, who acted several characters for us immitating McCready, Brock, Mario and Russell &c’.38 Other remarks were less than complimentary. As Protestant Irishman Matthew Moriarty bluntly complained in 1878, ‘you are shoved aside by a young fellow . . . watch him hurry back, to the single men’s quarters and you will find he is an Irishman’.39 Death at sea also prompted commentary as Moriarty revealed: ‘Another sad death, the only son of an Irishman who has three girls’.40 Apart from shipboard journals, letters exchanged between New Zealand and Ireland also highlight the sense of a broad national identity as Irish. Margaret Kilpatrick, a Presbyterian from Balleer, County Armagh, for instance, firmly declared herself in 1862 to be an ‘Irish woman’.41 Margaret also highlighted her son’s origins after the family’s arrival in Auckland in 1862: ‘They Captain on board ship used to [ 34 ]

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send down porter to me and say it was for they mother of “that fine little Irish man”’.42 This sense of inclusiveness was shared by John Gilmore, a Unitarian from the Ards Peninsula in County Down. Reflecting on passengers who had died during the Bebington’s voyage to New Zealand in 1876, he admitted it was ‘very hard when our fellow passengers and country men were going overboard so often . . . But strange to say they that died were Irish’.43 These extracts, together with those of Protestant correspondents from provinces other than Ulster, clearly indicate that Irish Protestants had no hesitation in viewing themselves as Irish.44 This mirrors Patrick O’Farrell’s findings from the letters of Irish Protestants in Australia, the writers being ‘firmly and intensely Irish and proud of it’.45 Such conclusions are unsurprising given that identification with Britain or Ulster by Protestants in the north is a relatively recent phenomenon, being more frequently exhibited after the onset of the ‘Troubles’.46 Evidence from other sources, however, reveals that on occasion Ulster Protestants segregated Irish Catholics by alluding to them as ‘Irish’.47 Overall, though, Ulster Protestants going to New Zealand did not perceive themselves as Scots-Irish or Scotch-Irish, labels adopted by descendants of early Irish arrivals in the United States. Nor did they regard themselves as Ulster Scots, an identity that has emerged within Northern Ireland more recently. It is clear, then, that at sea and upon their immediate arrival, migrants of all ethnicities in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were aware of their broad national identity. The acknowledgement given to nationalities at sea was not only due to knowledge of differences circulating in their homelands in advance of their departures, but also to their encounters with diverse groups during the voyage to New Zealand, discussed in later chapters. That shipboard journals were frequently sent home, or sections copied later to personal letters that were then sent back, indicates that diarists were also endeavouring to comfort home readers by highlighting their association with others from their homeland. It was also likely to be a strategy of reassuring home correspondents that migration half the world away had not severed the strong ties to home, at either the family or national level. After settlement Explicit mention of specific broad nationalities continued after settlement in New Zealand, again conveying a sense that New Zealand, half the world from home, had an air of familiarity about it. Indeed, by 1858, the Census recorded just under 8,000 Scots and approximately 4,500 Irish as resident in New Zealand. The letters of the Deans family, sent from Wellington and Canterbury in the 1840s and 1850s, [ 35 ]

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are revealing in this regard for, despite its apparent English Anglican character, Canterbury had a strong contingent of Scots settle there. This resulted in efforts by pioneering Scots to extend a helping hand to those newly arrived from home. As John Deans informed more than a decade after his arrival of another Scot, ‘I will be glad to do anything I can for him, should he do so, as a countryman.’48 Indeed, John Deans’ letters indicate his employment of individuals from his native shore: ‘The couple we got after they left are Scotch people and they are very good servants’.49 The work prowess of the Scots was further amplified by Deans the following decade: ‘All sorts of produce is high, and with a few good Scotch labourers farming would pay well.’50 Another Scot settled not far from John Deans was Ebenezer Hay, who in 1847 wrote from Pigeon Bay revealing, ‘thare is A family of veray Deasent Scoch people has charge of the place and Cattle’.51 Hay also referred to the Scottish nationality of a helpmeet: ‘I engaged another Scoch Girl in Place of Barbra at 35£ a year so if we have no Rent to pay it goes in wages’.52 From Wanganui in 1843, Jessie Campbell observed that ‘we have only one young lady in Wanganui and she is engaged to be married on her 15th birthday (in March) to Dr. Allison, he is Scotch’.53 These examples from the earliest decades of organised European settlement in New Zealand demonstrate that a sense of being Scottish was evident from the outset and that simply being Scottish without the existence of more intimate prior association was enough. A further and little used source for examining the national origins of the Scots and the Irish in New Zealand are lunatic asylum records. Records for Dunedin’s public asylums, for instance, frequently categorised patients in connection with their ethnicity. For Scottish migrants, such labelling was matter-of-fact, with Daniel noted to be ‘Scotch with red complexion’, William, ‘A Scotch man 32 years of age’, and Allan, ‘a Shepherd, a Scotchman’.54 For Irish migrants, however, these generic labels were more likely to be derogatory, focusing on the alleged physical features of patients, including Bridget, ‘a rather scraggy Irish woman’ and Daniel, ‘a tall strong stupid looking Irishman’.55 Other Irish patients were viewed more positively, including Catholic labourers Patrick, a ‘powerfully built Irish man’ and John, ‘a fairly intelligent old Irishman but is incoherent’, and Ellen, ‘a tall strong but anaemic young Irishwoman’.56 Several were listed in such terms as being a ‘native of Ireland’, or ‘a young Irishwoman’57 without further comment. These classifications, appearing mainly from the late 1870s until the mid-1880s, reflect developments in anthropology and science during the nineteenth century which ‘suggested that superior and inferior races could be distinguished by physical appearance’.58 [ 36 ]

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While Scottish migrants, in sources contained in this study, were more inclined to refer to the broad Scottish identity of their compatriots, Irish migrants tended to mention other Irish in connection with specific places of origin (discussed below) rather than with their country of birth. An exception emerges from Irish religious personnel in New Zealand, including Mother Cecilia M. Maher who, in 1850, noted after her arrival at Auckland, ‘the emigrants are generally Irish so we had a most affectionate welcome’.59 The Fencible component of Auckland’s early population, heavily infused with Irish soldiers, also generated comment: ‘there are numbers of Irish in the regiment quartered here some of ladies and daughters come to us for instruction’.60 Indeed, by 1858 there were 2,774 Irish supplying 15.26 per cent of Auckland’s population, compared with 9.28 per cent Scots.61 Contrasts between Auckland and Ireland in relation to rates of pay also provoked comment on national identities: ‘we have not begun to build as yet. The labourers & tradesmen are so expensive. I often wish we had some of our poor Irish tradesmen who get no work at home, here you have to thank them for their services and pay them enormously 12 or 15 s per day’.62 A year later Sr Mary Cecilia noted of the French Bishop Pompallier, ‘if we neglect any thing he [bishop] says provokingly “I thought the Irish were the best farmers in the world”’.63 Reflecting on Mr Weld’s letter to the Bishop she declared, ‘he says there are thousands of poor Irish with their families no catholic teaching but good Protestant Schools!!!’64 Two decades later, with Bishop Thomas Croke’s arrival in Auckland, Sr Aubert revealed, ‘Bishop Croke is a grand prelate whom I think is a very saintly man and very Irish. He is always preaching the faith of St Patrick and the Gospel of Erin to us.’65 Croke himself mused on his flock, ‘People mostly Irish. Primitive and very good.’66 Clearly Aubert’s and Croke’s conceptualisations of what being Irish meant differed considerably! Irish Protestant clergy also received commentary on their origins. While a study of Dublin-born Moore Richard Neligan, Anglican Bishop of Auckland between 1903 and 1910, did not explore his sense of ethnicity, associates certainly emphasised his Irishness. ‘He is a typical Irishman, with all the Irish humour and bonhomie’, reported a New Zealand paper in 1902.67 Following Neligan’s death in 1922, acquaintances continued to emphasise his Irish birth. According to George Cruickshank, ‘he was too strong a man for some, too typical an Irishman for others’.68 Apart from contemporary documents, another source conveying a sense of national identity is film, with The Grasscutter (1988), the ‘first New Zealand-set film to dramatise the Irish “troubles”’, grittily portraying Irish Protestant loyalist politics as well as offering some [ 37 ]

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insight into the confused nature of national identities.69 Aware he is being tracked by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), terrorist turned informer Brian Deeds (Ian McElhinney) turns to Goodman (William Johnson), a British representative in New Zealand. Goodman, however, insists he needs to check the veracity of Deeds’ claim of being a ‘supergrass’, prompting a disgusted Deeds to retort, ‘You bastard English are all the same’. A similar phrase is later levied at Goodman by Detective Inspector Cross (Marshall Napier) after the former refuses to divulge why Deeds is being targeted. ‘If you turn out to be the duplicitous Pommy bastard I think you are’, Cross threatens, ‘I’m going to get you.’ In these scenes both Protestant loyalist terrorists and foreign individuals perceive the British as responsible for the situation. Another exchange between police colleagues in relation to Deeds is similarly revealing about his national identity: Det. Sgt Harris (Temuera Morrison): He’s not English, he’s Irish. Det. Inspector Cross: You said he was a Pom. Det. Sgt Harris: Northern Irish. Still Pomgolia isn’t it?

Such dialogue intriguingly conveys foreign confusion about the identity of Deeds, who is at once considered Irish (from living in Northern Ireland) and a Pom (presumably due to British rule in Northern Ireland). The complexity of ethnic and national identities in Northern Ireland has also puzzled some film commentators.70 Despite depicting the UVF terrorists in the film as Irish, Protestants in Northern Ireland were more likely to ascribe to an overarching sense of Britishness rather than a self-identity as Irish. As a survey conducted in 1986 revealed, two years before The Grasscutter was released, 65 per cent of Protestants labelled themselves British, 14 per cent of Ulster origin, and 11 per cent Northern Irish. Only 3 per cent of Protestants in Northern Ireland claimed an Irish identity.71 These varied examples demonstrate the propensity of Irish and Scottish migrants to articulate, in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an overarching identity as Irish or Scottish. For the Scots this is intriguing as scholars have generally tended to date this trend to the twentieth century with enhanced aims to secure an independent Scotland. This finding indicates that scholars of national identity within Scotland need to revisit their assumptions and examine more closely the sense of being Scottish held by those in Scotland who remained at home. For both the Scots and the Irish in New Zealand, emphasising an overarching ethnic origin was of particular benefit when encountering others from their homeland who might be relied upon to provide emotional and practical support. An emphasis on their homeland was also useful in reducing the perceived differences [ 38 ]

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between migrants from the same country but from different regions and classes.

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Regional origins In his recent book comparing the Irish in Australia with those in the United States, Malcolm Campbell has highlighted the gradual transition from ‘old localisms’ to the forging of ‘an Irish national identity’.72 Despite this shift throughout the Irish diaspora, regional and local attachments remained strong. These ‘old localisms’ are certainly evident in the historiography of identities within Ireland and Scotland which acknowledges the regional distinctions that existed. At its broadest level this incorporated, for Scotland, acknowledgment of Highland, Lowland, and Island identities. In Ireland, on the other hand, broad regional differences generally sought to distinguish the north of Ireland from the south. Scots The official records of New Zealand’s immigration department capture the diversity of these regional origins, particularly communications dating from the 1870s when an influential scheme of assisted and nominated migration operated. Indeed, during the 1870s around onequarter (24,895) of the 100,263 recorded assisted and nominated newcomers to New Zealand were from Ireland; 16,711 were from Scotland.73 According to one commentator in 1872, reflecting on the distinctive regional origins of Scottish migrants, ‘It is well known, the Highlanders and Islanders have proved themselves industrious colonists in Canada, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward’s Island, and it is certain their brethren proposed to be introduced here would prove no less industrious. The Islanders, if settled upon the coast, would soon resort to their usual occupation of catching and curing fish, at which they are most expert’.74 Regional divides were frequently proffered in connection with occupational skills, not only reflecting homeland divisions, but designed to appeal to emigration authorities concerned at bringing industrious migrants to New Zealand: ‘The Highlanders are well known to be good labourers and farm servants: the Islanders excel as fishermen, sailors, and crofters.’75 In 1873, divisions in Scotland were again apparent, this time with the west and east of the country being contrasted: ‘Things are entirely different in almost every respect in the West Highlands and Islands from what they are in Aberdeenshire. There is a different race, a different language, and labour on an entirely different footing.’76 This comment endorses the sense of the Highlands and Islands as a place where [ 39 ]

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people were considered to be of Celtic origin, Gaelic-speaking, and crofters. Differences were also emphasised to explain the diverse emigration tactics needed to encourage migration from the Highlands and Islands to New Zealand. That the Highlands and Islands encountered special obstacles was evident in 1875: ‘It seems to me that emigrants from Scotland must mainly be procured from the Northwest Highlands and Western Highlands, such as Skye, Lewis, Barra, &c.; and, as I have already said, a very considerable number may be had from the Shetland Island, Fair Island, &c., although the poverty of the people and their remoteness are obstacles which need special privileges to overcome.’77 These distinctions, found among the official immigration records, reflect the knowledge of emigration agents working in the homelands who were vitally aware of such regional differences. Indeed, since the later fourteenth century, Highlanders were set apart from their Lowland counterparts according to dress, language, customs, and social structure.78 Such differences were also emphasised in order to explain the difficulties emigration agents encountered in trying to encourage migration to New Zealand from certain districts even when financial assistance was available. The consequences of such information meant that emigration authorities could contemplate altering their publicity and promotion campaigns in ways that would reflect knowledge of such differences. It is noteworthy, however, that divisions between Highlanders arising from social status, class, and geographic origins were overlooked. Instead, Highlanders were represented as ‘internally cohesive’.79 Possibly this reflects a lack of knowledge among those making such comments, but categorising everyone as Highlanders also simplified matters. Regional origins for Scottish migrants appear rarely in asylum records. Indeed, the only Dunedin example so far located concerns Daniel, an elderly married farmer, who was reported to be ‘a typical high spirited old highlander and when taxed with being too lively he says “too much highland blood in me”’.80 Lowland and Island identifiers are absent. Individual migrants were more alert to the regional differences found among the Scots and, as with most sources, the area most distinguished was the Highlands. Jessie Campbell, for instance, made several comments on Highlanders travelling with her on board the Blenheim in 1840, often documenting what the ship’s crew thought of the Highlanders: ‘Captain Gray and the doctor complaining woefully of the filth of the Highland emigrants, they say they could not have believed it possible for human beings to be do dirty in their habits’. With fever a constant threat throughout the passage, Jessie declared, [ 40 ]

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‘poor as I am no consideration on earth would tempt me to trust my little family in a ship with Highland emigrants if I still had the voyage before me’.81 And just before the ship’s arrival at Wellington she rued, ‘Our party will not give the New Zealanders a high opinion of Highland beauty; I never saw so many very plain looking.’82 Towards the end of the following decade, William Laing reported in his diary, ‘allow me to introduce to your notice another Cabin passgr “Mr Menzies” from the west highlands, where his father has a large sheep farm or estate. He goes out with plenty of the yellow metal in his pocket, with which he is to start sheep farming in N.Z.’83 Other Highlanders so identified at sea included Isabella Wallace’s comment in 1863 on ‘a fine little Highland boy’.84 Even after arrival, such distinctions were evident: ‘In one part of the block Turakina, the first settlers were mostly Highlanders, and they settled there somewhat closer together, from half a mile to a mile apart.’85 Again, these examples acknowledge the perception by Scots and others of the distinctiveness of Highlanders that was transported to New Zealand in the nineteenth century. This emphasis meant that certain areas of New Zealand which were settled with a strong proportion of Highlanders were intimately linked with a Highland character, including Waipu, Turakina, Whare Flat, and the McRae country in the Hokonuis. Such distinctions were seemingly less apparent in the twentieth century, in part due to the absence of groups of Highlanders arriving in New Zealand. Highlanders in New Zealand were also set apart in Scottish poetry. Particularly extensive mention of the Highlands was made by Andrew Kinross in 1897 in his ‘Poem for the Highland Society of Southland’: Together in this southern land we Highlanders now meet, To show that for our native land our hearts still warmly beat; ... We know good men are sometimes born upon the lowland plains, Though southern ears may not enjoy the bagpipes’ pleasant strains. ... Then here’s to Scotland’s Highland hills where once we used to roam, And here’s to Southland’s newer land where now we have our home; May love of them unite our hearts wherever we may be – May they remain as in the past the freest of the free. Then fill the bagpipes, blow them loud, true Highland hearts to cheer. No music like them e’er is heard upon this earthly sphere; And fill the glass with Scotland’s drink in which we pledge each friend, May Highlanders such blessings know until the world shall end.86

Another Kinross poem, penned the following year for the Gaelic Society of New Zealand, again reinforced the Highland dimension, [ 41 ]

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referring to kinsmen who ‘had to clear/To leave a place for sheep and deer’ only to find: But here in this fair southern land The Highlanders, with willing hand, May find a pleasant peaceful home, From which he’ll never need to roam.87

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Lowlanders were not exempt from Kinross’ poetry, though it is the Highlanders who are acclaimed: And we shall show the Lowland men that they are welcome here, To clasp our hands, and join with us in sharing Highland cheer. ... That Highland arms are just as strong and Highland hearts as bold As when they drove the Romans back in famous days of old.88

Robert Francis was another poet who linked Highland and Lowland attachments: O come we frae the Hielands wi’ their heather-purpled Bens Wi’ burnies brattlin’ at their feet an’ bonnie windin’ glens; Or come we frae the Lowland pairts, frae Stirling, Falkirk, Ayr, We thank oor God that liberty has been its native air.89

Even those not born in Scotland articulated their Highland attachments, including New Zealand-born J. Maclennan: ‘The blood of the Highlander flows in my veins/ . . . A Highlander born on the tussocky plains’.90 Why was the Highland element emphasised over other regional differences in the poetry composed by Scots in New Zealand? For some, such as Glasgow-born Andrew Kinross, it arose as a result of deliberately penning a poem for a Highland or Gaelic Society. For others, it reflected their origins, by birth or blood, in the Highlands. And still for others it reflected the locale in which they were writing. Regardless of the reasons, the consequence of this focus ensured the ongoing distinction of the Highlands and Highlanders in the literature composed by Scots and others in New Zealand. Intriguingly, as the following chapters will show, Highlanders were generally linked only by their language rather than other aspects such as dress, food, and characteristics, which were attributed broadly as Scottish rather than levied to particular regions. How, though, did the Irish compare in respect of regional identities? Irish Irish migrants were less inclined than their Scottish counterparts to comment on regional origins, but when they did so it was usually with reference to distinguishing the northernmost province of Ireland. The [ 42 ]

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north was referred to as the ‘North of Ireland’ rather than ‘Ulster’ in personal letters, once again mirroring the tendency of fellow migrants across the Tasman Sea.91 As John Gilmore wrote of the Katikati settlement of Ulster Protestants organised in the mid-1870s by George Vesey Stewart: ‘there is a Large settlement of North of Ireland people about from 10 to 25 miles from here. The are called Stewarts settlers’.92 Elizabeth Aitkin Dempster, meanwhile, happily recounted the presence of her Irish compatriots making the journey in 1883: ‘There is only five of us from the North of Ireland. We are very great friends’, and then she proceeded to name them.93 The distinction of the northern part of Ireland is also evident from those admitted to the Dunedin public asylum, including ‘A short squat looking man (North of Ireland)’.94 Similar distinctions were made at the Auckland asylum, though there the assistant medical superintendent, Alexander McKelvey of County Tyrone, mentioned the location in connection with migrant delusions rather than with their physique. As such, Mary Jane, 36 years in New Zealand and in her mid-50s, ‘states that she is at present in Ireland . . . has no recollection of anything except that she lives in the north of Ireland’.95 Thomas, 68 years of age, ‘says he is in Auckland and again that he is in Dungannon in the north of Ireland’.96 Ulster, by contrast, appeared in official correspondence, with Albert Ottywell, Canterbury’s London-based emigration agent, indicating that ‘we might take a few good Ulster families’.97 That correspondents from the north of Ireland differentiated Irish migrants from the south is also evidenced by Alice Gilmore’s comment in 1876 on her fellow passengers on the Bebington, who she believed were mainly ‘South of Ireland the roughest & worst class of people I am sure ever come here before & nearly all R. C’.98 A breakdown of those travelling shows that 46 out of 68 Irish male and female assisted migrants voyaging on the Bebington were recorded as being from the south of Ireland, though their religious faith is not noted.99 It is possibly instructive that Alice did not incorporate Catholics from Ulster in her critique, or refer to her southern counterparts as ‘Irish’. William Clarke of County Tyrone was another who separated those from the south, commenting in 1879: ‘All the blackguards from the South of Ireland let loose last night after we had gone to bed; singing songs, crowing, bleating and imitating animal sounds. Kept this up for a couple of hours in spite of remonstrances. However they keep modest during the day because they are in the minority.’100 As such, while southern Ireland and the Lowlands of Scotland (and migrants from those areas) were set apart, it was the north of Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland and their peoples that drew the most commentary. For the Irish, the north of Ireland was singled out in official [ 43 ]

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immigration records because migrants from there were generally considered superior newcomers to New Zealand, while the focus on Highlanders arose in relation to deliberate attempts to encourage their migration to New Zealand.

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County origins County affiliations were also occasionally connected to the Scots and Irish in New Zealand. Among those Scots who were equated with specific counties were ‘a Mr Marjoribanks of Lanarkshire’ and ‘a mere sneak(?) from Perthshire who is the master of the single women’s end’.101 Others, such as John Dawson of the village of Blackford, lamented the lack of local ties in 1879: ‘I don’t know any one on board who comes from Perthshire – there may be some but I don’t know them. How well I could enjoy a talk with anyone about the old familiar scenes.’102 The Hays also commented on the county connections of acquaintances, observing in 1839 that they had engaged a girl to clean their cabin and ‘cleen our shoos’. They furthermore observed, ‘she apers to be A loveley creature she is A native of Ayrshair and is going out with out A single aquantince going with her’.103 After arrival in New Zealand, such connections continued to be mentioned. As Ebenezer Hay informed his parents in 1852, ‘I have two scotch servents from Perthshire and one Scotch female Servant living with me besides Anne’.104 Elaborating on this help some years later, Ebenezer noted, ‘I have Two men David McMillin from Ayrshire at 60£ Per anun David McGregor from Pairthshire 45£ a year and in Barbras place Ann Boag from Pairthshire 35£ a year and Sarah White a halfcast Girl at £18 a year’.105 Official immigration correspondence also distinguished county origins, with those from Shetland (Figure 2) perceived as ‘Scandinavian Scotch, without much of the Celtic element, and that they speak English and not Gaelic’.106 The casebooks of patients committed to lunatic asylums also throw some light on their county origins. At times this incorporated a country of origin but occasionally more detailed information about specific counties or council districts were provided. Thus, at Dunedin it was noted of a 44-year-old engineer, ‘Patient is a native of Lanarkshire’.107 From Auckland it was reported that a 45-year-old Scottish fireman ‘says he is a son of the Duke of Sutherland and is heir to the throne of Scotland, he is going home by Frisco to be crowned in Edinburgh Castle’.108 Likewise, in Dunedin, Andrew, ‘a typical [word illegible] Fifer . . . Thinks he is the King of Fife’.109 Among those commenting on the county origins of Irish migrants at sea was Matthew Moriarty, born in Kerry, who during his journey [ 44 ]

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Figure 2 ‘Scandinavian Scotch’: Shetland Island farmers, Campbell Island, c. 1904

in 1878 emphasised the entertainment value of migrants from Kerry: ‘2 Kerry men play flute and dance splendidly’; ‘Kerry men turn up and amuse us, 5 of them’; ‘I play flute for Kerry men to dance’.110 The assisted passenger registers reveal that seven men from Kerry made the journey on the Northern Monarch.111 Andrew Campbell, meanwhile, reported, ‘I have had breakfast on deck with a young man from Co. Antrim James Hill by name’, while another family from the same county was also noted: ‘another Child a little boy was born on board this morning his pearants are from Co. Antrim their name is Cane’.112 While the Canes presumably travelled unassisted, James Hill is recorded in assisted passenger registers as a 20-year-old ploughman from Antrim.113 That County Antrim was the county from which most Ulster migrants to New Zealand sprang from during the period 1870–90 made encounters with those from the county a potentially more common experience.114 Thomas Warnock also came across others from that county during his voyage in 1878: ‘The walkers name is Douglas from Co Antrim.’115 These divisions also reflect the tendency in Irish society to connect individuals with particular counties. Again, such connections were mentioned after settlement, even among seemingly isolated goldminers. Patrick Treanor, for instance, [ 45 ]

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could not contain his excitement upon learning in 1876 that a Monaghan acquaintance was in New Zealand: ‘I never had the pleasure of meeting one from the county of Monaghan since I left it. Was I not delited when I herd that you were at the thames’.116 David McCullough, who had been in New Zealand since 1876, wrote home in 1898 to his parents from Cascade Creek noting, ‘There are a good many County Down people here’.117 Those who spent time in lunatic asylums also mentioned county links, including 58-year-old Margaret, an unmarried servant from County Clare who had spent 40 years in New Zealand, who ‘imagines her father still alive and has a grand palace in Co. Clare Ireland and has armies of servants’.118 Further south in Dunedin, an Irishman in his 60s, when ‘Asked where he was born, replied, “County Clare the rottenest county in Ireland”.’119 Other patients included ‘A short sturdy old Irishman, a native of Kerry’ and ‘A tall elderly Irishman from Co Clare’.120 That such identifiers continued to be made decades after arrival testifies to the occasional importance of county connections for migrants. Those external to the ethnic group were less likely to comment on county connections, possibly due to a lack of knowledge of such origins.

Specific places At sea Much more extensive for both the Scots and the Irish, however, were comments remarking upon an individual’s precise place of origin. Scottish migrants were particularly prolific in mentioning specific places. As well as commenting on those from the Highlands, Jessie Campbell also reported on her ‘Skye maid’ and migrants from Paisley who made the journey from Greenock to Wellington in 1840: ‘the few Paisley emigrants keep themselves cleaner and are more easily managed [than the Highlanders]’; ‘A Paisley women delivered of a daughter’.121 Early comments in the late 1850s through to the early 1860s from a range of migrants at sea simply contained references to those from specific areas, including Mrs Menzies, ‘a housekeeper in Stirling & then at Minto House’, ‘Miss Mackenzie from Edinburgh’, and Mr McAlister from Glasgow.122 In 1863, Isabella Wallace rued, ‘There was a lad today found guilty of stealing . . . I pity his parents if it comes to their ears. His father is station master at East Linton and most respectably connected.’123 In 1876 William Munro also observed, ‘I was speaking to one of the sailors last night, who belongs to Wick, named Mackenzie. He knew the Macphersons. When he goes to Auld Reekie, which he visits very often he lives with a Mrs Waters in St Patrick Square.’124 [ 46 ]

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The linkage of local origins together with an individual’s occupation was just as widespread in later decades. William Munro mentioned those from Aberdeen several times in his shipboard journal, including one comment when the trades of those identified were discussed. According to Munro, writing in 1876, ‘Smith is going to try [erased: fro] for a reporter’s place. He belongs to Halifax in Yorkshire. Adam is comes from Edinburgh, and is something in the brewing line, while Bremner, who is an Aberdonian is going out to do whatever he can get.’125 John Greenfield of Scotland similarly linked specific Scottish origins with the trades they were intended for abroad during his journey in 1908: ‘The two young men in berths 5 & 6 are joiners bound for Wellington, one is from Aberdeen, and the other from Cumberland. They are respectable enough fellows, but strongly socialistic.’126 Greenfield also reported that ‘The occupant of berth 4 is a very quiet and reserved young man, who hails from the Shetland Islands, he never speaks to us, unless to answer a question. He rises in the morning and seeks his own company, and we never see him again until bedtime, when he turns in, as quietly as he turns out. He is going in for farming with his uncle at Palmerston.’127 Linkage of place and trade also featured in John Smith’s journal maintained in 1880: ‘In single men’s place is an old Perth Farmer, a gardener from Rutherglen and his brother a joiner in second cabin is Watt. A Mr Duncan in the saloon and one sailor; but he is no credit to Scotland.’128 John Smith observed a number of fellow passengers, pinpointing origin and trade including ‘a native of Fife’, ‘a draper from Southsea, Portsmouth’ and ‘a young couple, English, not long married, from Yorkshire. Then a failed Irish grocer wife and two weans’, together with ‘one Cockney family named Sly and another one called Smith from Bradford, Yorkshire. But the other names I’ve never got. Some of the Irish seem well to do.’129 This emphasis on occupations is suggestive not only of the importance of various workers for New Zealand, but also indicative that during certain periods, work in the homelands could not be found in some trades. Death at sea was a further event which prompted reflection on migrant origins. As Peter Thomson lamented in 1862, ‘Even in this out of the way part of the world Death has found us & taken away another child belonging to a family named Henderson from Scotland near Kinross’.130 The following year Isabella Wallace rued, ‘Our ship is again made a death chamber; it is Mr Johnstone’s child, of Bathgate’, while that same year David Carr wrote, ‘After Dinner another Child was droped into the sea. It was the first Scotch Child, and came from Dundee with us’.131 Most Irish shipboard diarists also specified the local area of origin of their fellow expatriates, as several examples from the period of [ 47 ]

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assisted migration demonstrate. In 1878 Moriarty noted, ‘Cabin passangers are a family from Kingstown, Gladstones . . . A young fellow called Elliot from Kingstown 6 of our sailors are from Kingstown, best sailors on board as to position.’132 He also noted that the doctor’s assistant ‘is a Ballymena man and a great friend of Cochranes, he & I are good friends’.133 So too did Moriarty mention, ‘The Peelers name is Glacken from Donegal and an Irishman brings our milk, an old man from Belfast.’134 Minnie Williams of Ballymena, meanwhile, pointed to the assistance provided by a fellow Irish migrant in 1881: ‘Some of the passengers busy washing. An Irish woman (Mrs Patterson) does ours for us. She comes from Killrats [Kilraghts] near Ballymena.’135 An entertaining Irish migrant on Andrew Campbell’s voyage in 1883 prompted Campbell’s revelation that ‘there is one fellow in our apartment from Scibereen [Skibbereen] in Co Cork he keeps the lot of us in amusement. He is evermore quarrelling with some one sometimes when he is in bed they have him up half a dozen times in one night. & he scolds & curses them in Irish, his name is Con Driscol, every row he gets inta I think on big Sam & Scibereen.’136 Again, religious personnel were also connected to specific places of origin: ‘Sr M Scholastica a native of Cork a nice young S Sister whose family came to the Colonies some years since Sr M Agnes is from Dungarvan a good sister also’.137 Such clarifications, linking names and places, were vital for those writing home, for correspondents in Ireland and Scotland would be aware of numerous individuals similarly named; by providing a link to a specific place, identification of an individual was considerably narrowed. More broadly, it demonstrates the geographical knowledge migrants had of their homelands. After arrival As with the voyage out, even after arrival migrants continued to mention encounters with migrants from specific places of origin at home. For both the Irish and the Scots, these could be fleeting meetings or enduring connections. They also tended to have three main functions, including socialising, supplying accommodation and employment opportunities, and occasionally providing for marital chances. For Scots, these networks could encompass both a shared identity based on a common homeland origin and more intimate associations. For the Irish, however, these networks were more likely to be based on deeply rooted attachments to particular people and places in Ireland rather than a broad sense of being Irish. James McIlrath, for instance, wrote reassuringly in 1872 from Southbridge to his family at Balloo in County Down: [ 48 ]

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Do not suppose for a moment that we are in a wild uncivilised place. No. Only for the look of the Contry when we go to a cattle show or any other gathering one almost forgets but that he is in Ireland. I was at one on Thursday last and there was any amount of people we all know such as WJ Alexander Cousin Robert W Cooper W Ledgerwood Lemons Brot[hers] D Moorhead M Moorhead J Hewett W Gebbie D McClure and Family from old Robert clarks T Tompson Drumreagh beside many others.138

A primary function of these family and neighbourhood connections was in facilitating social events in the New World. As James McIlrath reported in 1862, of neighbour William James Alexander: ‘We are the same as Brothers when we get together. We can enjoy a good chat and the Discource is generally about scenes at Home’.139 Given that more than half of Canterbury’s assisted Irish migrants between 1855 and 1876 were from Ulster, with County Down providing 13.5 per cent,140 it was not surprising that James and Hamilton McIlrath should frequently encounter familiar faces from their home neighbourhood. The constant mention of meeting acquaintances from home was seemingly intended to reassure recipients that the colony was civil and familiar. Scotsman Archibald McCallum also benefited from Glaswegian connections in Dunedin. As he informed his brother in 1860: ‘Mr. McFarlane and I are working to the same man and boarding with one Peter McLauchlan from Bailli[e]ston, who came out in the same ship with us. There are five of the passengers in the same house so we are all well acquainted. When we are joking with one another I can never mind that I am sixteen thousand miles away from home.’141 In 1863, meanwhile, Alexander Campbell recounted a gathering at Matakana: ‘It was a little reunion of Saltcoats friends and we had many a talk over old times about Saltcoats.’142 Second, these expatriate connections aided newcomers by providing them with access to two crucial requirements upon arrival: accommodation and employment. Two lengthy extracts from Andrew Gilmore and James McIlrath demonstrate the way in which employment was offered. In suggesting that his brother Robert’s family would ‘get more civilised & I Believe Better connected’, Andrew elaborated: Therefore I would Gaurantee you a job for 6 or 12 Months at ordinary wages. I also think that we might go in together as partners & keep the thing in a Larger scale than working seperate. It takes more capital than I have got to pay men & push new Branches of the Trade ahead & wait for a return Especially when you have to show them How to do it & spend as much time a[s] you could do it yourself . . . If you do come or thinks of coming Let me know & [erased: we] I will make an Effort to Be in Auckland or have some one There to meet you.143

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James McIlrath, meanwhile, sought the recommendation of his parents for a housekeeper from the Killinchy locality in County Down:

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Would you let me know if you know of any young Woeman or girl that would like to come here Willing to milk & so. There is no rough work here like at home. I would pay all expences from she left home and make this a home for Her too. I would give from Twenty to £25 per year.144

While Andrew Gilmore’s vigorous attempt to lure his eldest brother and his family to New Zealand was unsuccessful, subsequent letters in the McIlrath series reveal that Maggie Auld, a local Killinchy girl, accepted James’ offer of employment. Ebenezer Hay, an early Scottish migrant to New Zealand, was particularly adept at commenting on a range of connections, especially those working for him. He therefore mentioned in 1850, ‘I have 2 Scoch servent men One from Sallachan near Ballanbrae [Ballantrae]. Hais father has that farm. McMillin Is his name. He has 60£ Per anum and found. The other is from the Cavs of Gouvie [Carse of Gowrie]. He has 50£ and found’. Another was ‘a scochman from Stirling’. Hay also mentioned ‘John Gebbie from Galston’ and ‘Robert Donaldson from Leath’.145 William Deans also remarked on a range of contacts, including ‘Mr. Strang from Glasgow who you know’ and ‘a very decent carpenter here of the name of Wilson, from Kilmarnock’.146 His brother John, during his voyage to New Zealand in 1852, also noted, ‘Met Mr. Scott from Paisley and he introduced me to Mr. Cochrane of the same place.’147 Scotswoman Jessie Campbell was particularly effusive when discussing the specific origins of fellow Scots that she knew. Her servant was among those attracting attention: ‘My Skye servant has got married, she was so plain looking I thought I was sure to have her for some time. Her husband is a smart goodlooking young man who came out in the Blenheim from Skye.’148 Another helpmeet was also mentioned: ‘I have a young girl from Arbroath whom I brought down here with me, altho’ inexperienced I thought she would be obedient, once here she found out her own value. I can assure you I have enough to do with her, she neither can nor will work’.149 Other acquaintances of Jessie Campbell included an itinerant magistrate, who ‘is about 30 years of age, very polished in manner, was born in Edinburgh’, Major Richmond, ‘is Scotch from Ayrshire’, and ‘My old acquaintance Miss Butler is married to a Mr. Barton from Sutherlandshire.’150 Indeed, by 1848 there were 22 male and 12 female Scots recorded as resident in Wanganui, outnumbering the 4 natives of Ireland, but less than the 66 English-born.151

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A third function of the strength and endurance of expatriate kin and neighbourhood networks in the colony was to facilitate ethnic marriage opportunities. The mention of occupations as well as ethnicity, however, implicitly indicated the importance of class. With Irishmen outnumbering Irishwomen in New Zealand throughout the nineteenth century,152 Irishwomen’s chances of finding an Irish match, if they so desired, were greatly enhanced. An even ratio of Irishmen and Irishwomen in Tauranga in the 1870s must have made Irish unions there particularly common, including that of Alice Gilmore as reported by her brother Andrew: Alice has shifted from us and left John and I to cook for ourselves. She prefers the Company of a strange man. She got married in January last to a Mr James Fenton. He is a carrier. He came here from Sydney New South Wales, Australia about 5 years ago. Him and I have been intimate friends since we knew one another. He left County Antrim about the year 1859 near Randalstown – only a boy then. He holds an ordinary position. He has 8 draught horses, 2 saddle horses, keeps 5 horse waggons and three horse drays on the road. Has a store and butcher shop 45 miles up Country – small block.153

Likewise, James McIlrath’s family would have been delighted to learn of his match to ‘Agness Mathews from near Comber. James Anderson publican of Comber is her uncle’.154 Not all migrants were fortunate to have such robust networks. According to William Clarke in 1879, ‘The cook, here, is an Old Countryman, in fact a neighbour of our own at home. He is Henry [word illegible] Rogers of Glassmullagh . . . He says that I am the first person he has met here with whom he was acquainted in Ireland.’155 Clarke, placing his own origins near Bessy Bell Hill and Beltany School in County Tyrone, was presumably referring to Rogers’ origins in Fermanagh as a neighbouring area. Those in the twentieth century also encountered others from home, though expressed surprise at having done so, particularly when such meetings occurred in remote locations. Commenting on his wife’s sighting of an old schoolfriend of hers at a sports meeting at Tokirima in the central North Island, Carl Smith exclaimed, ‘It is more than remarkable, however, that in a very tiny settlement in the back of beyond in New Zealand a person from Scotland should find a close neighbour and schoolmate.’156 When his wife’s friend introduced other Scots accompanying her, he continued, ‘As they all came from Edinburgh and we found that we had many friends in common it was a most exciting afternoon.’157

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Britishness/Empire Scots Much has been made by scholars in Scotland of the dual allegiance of Scots as being Scottish and British, and of Irish Protestants ‘leading the way in embracing a pan-British identity that replaced Old World regional and national identities’.158 There is little in the sources consulted for this study, however, that conveys an explicit sense of Britishness among Scottish or Irish Protestant migrants in New Zealand. This echoes J. M. Bumsted’s findings for the Scots in Canada where he noted ‘the paucity of the use of the term “British” to refer to customs, culture or the nationality of one’s friends and neighbours’.159 Instead, the most prevalent source in which Britishness emerges is poetry. As Hugh Smith put it: We are brothers, sisters, lovers, Born and bound to rise or fall, ’Tis British blood that fires us, Warms and cheers the hearts of all.160

In similar tones Andrew Kinross implored: Gather Britons of all classes, Of every age and each degree, Kindly wives and cheerful lasses, Come all the Highland games to see.161

Other poets also pointed to the British origins of Scots, with John Liddell Kelly musing, ‘So from the grand old British tree we sprang’,162 while William Hogg encouraged, ‘Let us all rejoice that Britain/Is the land that gave us birth’.163 In poetry and other sources, exhortations of being British were most frequently proclaimed during times of war, as evident from a Caledonian Society announcement in 1899: ‘War had been declared, and as patriotic Britons they ought to recognise the fact. They were not there as Englishmen, Scotchmen, or Irishmen, but as Britishers. England’s interests were their interests, and her ills their ills, and that meant that what was good or bad for England must interest them.’164 In this instance, war was supposed to overcome more lingering national identifiers. In a poem about General Gordon, which included reference to the battle of Omdurman, Kinross declared that ‘Britain’s mighty dead are praised’.165 Meanwhile, the return of troops from Sudan prompted Kinross to prophesise, ‘British friends will welcome us with cheers’.166 British and Highlanders were also linked in Hugh Smith’s poem ‘British pluck’, which recounts the story of the Calcutta piper of the Gordon Highlanders who in 1897 was shot in both legs but continued to play: [ 52 ]

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Long may the pibroch awake the Highland glen And warm the blood of Scottish Highlandmen; Fill clans with pride and British foes with fear, When bonnets wave and kilted Scots are near.167

Royalty was the other main arena which prompted declarations of Britishness. As Hugh Smith queried in his poem on Queen Elizabeth, the consort of George VI, ‘Where is the Scot that would not die for thee,/O’er all the earth? In every clime or scene’. Smith further declared, ‘And none of all the bravest, best and free/Could be more loyal than the Scot to thee’.168 The Wellington Caledonian Society, addressing the Duke and Duchess of York in 1927, also asserted their feelings of attachment and devotion to the King and loyalty to the throne. At the same time they stated: ‘it is a source of profound gratification and pride to all Scots that you have chosen for your Consort so worthy a daughter of our native land’.169 The British Empire was the third avenue in which Britishness was connected with Scots, especially their contribution to it. As emphasised by the Taranaki Provincial Scottish Society, the ‘British Empire stood where it was to-day – the greatest power on earth – because Scotchmen had done a great part of the building’.170 The British Empire was also invoked in dealings with other ethnic societies, as revealed from the Taranaki Provincial Scottish Society in 1913, in an effort to unite different ethnic groups: ‘to our friends of the Sister Isle of Erin we offer a “cead mille-failthe,” as we do honour to the green flag of the Emerald Isle, and which, with our own glorious “Lion Rampant” conjoined – (Applause) – we have the conquering trion flag of the British Empire, which makes us brothers all’.171 Britain’s links to New Zealand were also emphasised, with Kinross considering the colony ‘Britain’s glorious land’,172 while John Barr declared, ‘There’s not a snugger bit of land/Beneath the British crown.’173 Also apparent is the idea that there were certain types of British. According to the Scottish ethnic press, ‘A steady diet of generations of porridge and haggis, of Shorter Catechism and Spartanic Living, have evolved a type of Britisher with brawn and brain, force and enterprise.’174 Yet not all commentary on the Scottish connection with Empire was positive, as is evident in a letter sent to Lloyd George from Scots in New Zealand regarding the land policy that the British government intended applying to Scotland: ‘the wonder is, that thousands of Scottish descendants are not filled with implacable hatred to the British Crown and Constitution’.175 A good deal more research is required before claims of a widespread sense of dual identity for the migrant Scots can be invoked. [ 53 ]

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Irish Termed the ‘invisible’ Irish in much of the historiography of the Irish diaspora,176 a good deal of focus on Irish Protestants centres on their participation in Orange Lodges. Yet, more recent work is integrating the experiences of Irish Protestants with those of their Catholic counterparts around the world.177 In connection with New Zealand, ‘There is considerable evidence to suggest that New Zealand’s Protestants adhered to Irish and Ulster identities, rather than the undifferentiated “British” outlook’. Over time, however, it is suggested that ‘Protestant Irish identity strongly emphasised British and imperialist themes.’178 There is, however, no sense of this development in the sources consulted for this study. While Irish Protestant – and Scottish – attitudes to Empire might be perceived as an affirmation of Britishness, explicit declarations of being British are thin on the ground. As with the Scots, then, more investigation is therefore required into this field of enquiry. Irish Catholic commentary on Britain and the Empire, however, appears and is frequently aggressive. Robert Spillane, who appeared before a Military Appeal Board in New Zealand during the First World War, stressed his plans to return to Ireland due to interests there and ongoing remittances. More importantly, he emphasised that he was not a British subject and refused to fight for Britain.179 At times, England was set apart from Britain: ‘We of the Irish race in this Dominion must be wary; we must be ever watchful as our brethren in America are . . . We do not love England, and never shall while her imperial might is mainly activated by religious bigotry towards our race everywhere.’180 Yet Irish discontent in New Zealand was perceived by some – primarily the New Zealand-born, as indicated by Irish nationalists – to be perplexing: ‘To the New Zealander, living under the British flag, with free institutions, self-government, and Britain ever-ready to supply loans to develop his industries, Irish discontent under the same flag is rather puzzling. But if Britain has been a fairy God-mother to New Zealand, she has been a haughty step-mother to Ireland, and a cruel one at that.’181 By the mid-1930s, however, another Irish periodical was stressing the happy coexistence of various ethnicities: ‘Here in New Zealand we are a happy family of British peoples. We have not suffered from the divisions existing in the Old Lands.’182 The Irish Tribune also stressed, ‘In stead of being more British than the Britishers’ we should be full New Zealanders and get on with New Zealand’s business. There would be less of the domination of affairs by the hidden threat. The stereotyped New Zealander should disappear and be replaced by one more individualistic in his national outlook.’183 Other elements in [ 54 ]

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the twentieth century also seemingly contributed to the dilution of consciousness of an ethnic heritage and a stress on ‘wider British and European reference points’. Among such factors were education; the dominance of European myths; and an emphasis on renowned figures being British.184 Discussions of Britishness or being British were therefore more likely to emerge in relation to specific international events. In part, the types of sources utilised for this study may explain this absence, with a sense of Britishness more likely to emerge in the press and from the elite.

New Zealander Among historians of New Zealand, debate surrounds the construction of a New Zealand identity. Little evidence has been unearthed, however, of those born in Ireland or Scotland expressing a sense of a New Zealand identity, although a memoir by twentieth-century migrant Carl Smith reported, ‘Like true Scots, our hackles rose if anybody said anything bad about Scotland, but we found that we were equally up in arms if any stranger dared to run down New Zealand – in other words we were more than half way towards becoming dinkum Kiwis.’185 The testimonies of Scottish migrants assisted to New Zealand in the mid-twentieth century also include some insight into this issue. Their memories are of interest, for their sense of ethnic identity was not a factor listed for consideration in their questionnaires. Rather, the comments they made were spontaneously noted. Some contemplated becoming a New Zealander, including David Gilchrist of Sandyhills, Glasgow: ‘I have never had the urge to go back to Scotland and I may even become naturalised some day.’186 Yet others declared an overwhelming sense of being a New Zealander, irrespective of obtaining citizenship. According to Janet Clarke, a Presbyterian from Hawick who arrived in 1956, ‘I feel like a New Zealander now and have no desire to live permanently in the U.K.’187 More expressive was Harold Armstrong of Selkirk, who announced, ‘after 30 years in Kiwiland we consider ourselves to be [erased: be] New Zealanders. We never obtained NZ. citizenship because we believed UK residents becoming permanent NZ’s residents obtain citizenship automatically.’188 By contrast, most commentary on a New Zealand identity in the nineteenth century arose in regard to those born in New Zealand, such as Scotswoman Jessie Campbell’s comment in 1843 on her two children whom she regarded as ‘The two little New Zealanders’.189 In similar tones, Irish-born Daniel Archibald, writing from Wellington to County Derry in 1893, revealed how ‘I do not believe that these [ 55 ]

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young New Zealand[ers] of mine have the least patriotism or love of country, like their father they talk of home and the old country, and nothing would please them better than to take a trip and see you. They hardly know what an Aunt or an Uncle is, as for a cousin that is out of the question.’190 There is little evidence then that Irish or Scottish migrants in the nineteenth century saw themselves as New Zealanders. This contrasts with the situation in Canada, where it has been suggested that ‘One notable feature of emigrant letters is how quickly people called themselves Canadians.’191 Despite the emphasis on a colonial identity for those born in New Zealand, others linked those of Scottish or Irish descent back to the homeland. The continuation (or not) of these elements down through the generations still requires study, with an illuminating insight dating from 1943 when the English High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in New Zealand reported on the 95th anniversary of the first settlers at Otago: If I were asked what represents the soul of Scotland, I could not answer better than by the reply which was given many years ago to a relative of mine in New Zealand by an old Scottish farmer. My relative asked him how long the traditions that your people bring from home last in a new country, and the old settler replied, ‘The porridge and the heather and the psalms of David last to the third generation as a sustenance for body and spirit.’192

Despite this, there is little evidence in New Zealand of hyphenated identities such as Irish-American and Irish-Australian. A few examples can, however, be found such as the ‘Irish-New Zealander’ born at Thames in 1935.193 Historian Michael King’s meditation on issues of identity also prompted his conclusion that his family ‘were New Zealanders, but Irish New Zealanders’.194 Instead, there may be more likelihood of those born in New Zealand of Irish or Scottish descent attaching themselves to local identities. Father William Mahoney, the son of County Cork migrants, considered himself first and foremost a New Zealander, but more particularly an Aucklander. He stated, ‘The honour of being the first New Zealand born priest is, to be sure, a chance one: but that fact will only tend to make me the more proud of, my native country, and especially Auckland’.195 That same year the Freeman’s Journal reported on the son of Mr Darby who went ‘Home with Father Mahoney, with the intention of joining the priesthood, but after a year’s study, changed his mind and entered the medical profession. We understand he is practicing in the North of Ireland, and is likely to make a name in his profession worthy of an Aucklander’.196 [ 56 ]

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The migrant-born, by contrast, were seemingly less inclined, at least in the evidence consulted for this study, to identify with particular New Zealand regional or local identities. Rather, for most of the migrant-born, their primary expression of identity remained connected to their place of birth in the homeland and those commenting on them also linked them to their home countries. It was, then, the emphasis of the colonial-born on their identity as New Zealanders and occasionally their dual identity which led to the development of a sense of New Zealand identity.

Notes 1 I am grateful to Russell Stone for identifying Peacock and Kirker for me. 2 T. C. Smout, ‘Perspectives on the Scottish identity’, Scottish Affairs, 6 (1994), p. 112. 3 Richard J. Finlay, ‘Caledonia or North Britain? Scottish identity in the eighteenth century’, in Dauvit Broun, R. J. Finlay, and Michael Lynch (eds), Image and Identity: The Making and Re-making of Scotland through the Ages (Edinburgh, 1998), p. 151. 4 David Fitzpatrick, ‘“That beloved country, that no place else resembles”: connotations of Irishness in Irish-Australasian letters, 1841–1915’, Irish Historical Studies, 27:108 (1991), p. 326. 5 Donald Harman Akenson, Half the World from Home: Perspectives on the Irish in New Zealand, 1860–1950 (Wellington, 1990), p. 196. 6 Kathleen Neils Conzen, David A. Gerber, Ewa Morawska, George E. Pozzetta, and Rudolph J. Vecoli, ‘The invention of ethnicity: a perspective from the U.S.A’, Journal of American Ethnic History, 12:1 (1992), p. 9. 7 Margaret M. Mulrooney, Black Powder, White Lace: The du Pont Irish and Cultural Identity in Ninteenth-Century America (Hanover and London, 2002), p. 77. 8 Eric Richards, ‘The last of the clan and other Highland emigrants’, in Tom Brooking and Jennie Coleman (eds), The Heather and the Fern: Scottish Migration and New Zealand Settlement (Dunedin, 2003), p. 33. 9 John MacKenzie, ‘The British World and the complexities of Anglicisation: the Scots in Southern Africa in the nineteenth century’, in Kate Darian-Smith, Patricia Grimshaw and Stuart Macintyre (eds), Britishness Abroad: Transnational Movements and Imperial Cultures (Melbourne, 2007), p. 111. 10 Michael S. Moss and John R. Hume, Workshop of the British Empire: Engineering and Shipbuilding in the West of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1977). 11 Shipboard diary of Polly Evans, 1866, ATL, MS-Papers-0586. 12 Shipboard journal of William Harold Munro, 1876, p. 4, CCL, Arch 215. 13 Ibid., extract dated 17 Oct. 1876, p. 95, CCL. 14 Shipboard diary of John Smith, extract dated 24 Nov. 1880, p. 26, ATL, MS-1958; Shipboard diary of Jean McCarlie, 1881, ATL, MS-Papers-7031. 15 Mae Palmer, At the Bows Looking Forward: The Voyage to NZ by the Palmer Family in 1951, on Board the SS Atlantis, as Described by Mae Palmer in Letters to her Parents in Paisley, Scotland (New Zealand, ?1998), 19 April 1951, entry for ‘Saturday afternoon’. 16 Shipboard diary of William Herries MacLean, 9 June 1863, p. 54, ATL, 89–136. 17 Shipboard journal of Peter Thomson, 17 Dec. 1861, CCL, Arch 796. 18 Shipboard diary of David Miller, 1862, p. 17, ATL, MS-Papers-4849. 19 Shipboard diary of William Herries MacLean, 27 May and 23 April 1863, pp. 48 and 33, ATL. 20 Shipboard diary of Joshua Charlesworth, 1879, ATL, MS-Papers-4564.

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 21 Shipboard diary of Dugald McLaren, extracts dated 10 and 28 Aug. 1864, pp. 46 and 70, ATL, MSX-2904. 22 Shipboard diary of Jane Findlayson, 1876, ATL, MS-Papers-1678. 23 See IM 15/278, ANZ WRO. 24 Shipboard diary of James McKee, 9 Nov. 1880, p. 12, ATL, MS-Papers-4204. 25 Shipboard diary of Bethia Mawhinney, Oct. 1887, p. 2, ATL, MS-Group-0475. 26 Shipboard diary of Hannah Ormond, 18 Sept. 1858, p. 3, ATL, MS-1747-8. 27 Ibid., 23 Sept. 1858, p. 4. 28 Shipboard diary of John Matthew Taylor, 27 Dec. 1840, p. 24, ATL, MS-Group-0881. 29 Shipboard journal of William Laing, 27 Nov. 1859, CM, Folder 44, 76/49. 30 Shipboard diary of George Stephen Robertson, 1870, p. 3, ATL, MS-Papers-5591. 31 Shipboard journal of John Forsyth Menzies, 6 Dec. 1878, CM, 91/85. 32 Shipboard diary of Agnes Cunningham Christie, 1879, ATL, MS-Papers-3891. 33 Shipboard diary of Agnes MacGregor, 1881, ATL, MS-Papers-4275. 34 Shipboard journal of Andrew Campbell, 6 Dec. 1883, pp. 68–9, CM, Folder 70, 94/85. Andrew Campbell’s details can be found in the passenger list for the Trevelyan in IM 15/448, ANZ WRO. 35 Ibid., 12 Dec. 1883, pp. 74 –5. 36 Shipboard diary of John Matthew Taylor, 8 Nov. 1840, p. 10. 37 Ibid., 2 Dec. 1840, p. 13. 38 Journal of Andrew Thomas Carbery, 1863–65, ATL, MS-Papers-2310, p. 35. 39 Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 19 Dec. 1878, CM, Folder 51, 73/67. 40 Ibid., 14 Jan. 1879. 41 Margaret Kilpatrick (Auckland) to her brother Thomas Reid (Armagh), 25 Nov. 1862, PRONI, D/3014/3/3/1. All extracts that follow from collections held at PRONI are reproduced by permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, PRONI. 42 Ibid., 25 Nov. 1862. 43 John Gilmore (Auckland) to his parents (Co. Down), 16 Sept. 1876, PRONI, T/1611/2. 44 See Angela McCarthy, Irish Migrants in New Zealand, 1840 –1937: ‘The Desired Haven’ (Woodbridge, 2005). 45 Patrick O’Farrell, Letters from Irish Australia, 1825–1929 (Kensington, 1984), p. 5. See also Fitzpatrick, ‘That beloved country’, p. 333. 46 See John Whyte, Interpreting Northern Ireland (Oxford, 1991). 47 See Alasdair Galbraith, ‘The invisible Irish? Re-discovering the Irish Protestant tradition in colonial New Zealand’, in Lyndon Fraser (ed.), A Distant Shore: Irish Migration and New Zealand Settlement (Dunedin, 2000), p. 48. 48 John Deans to his father, 10 Dec. 1853, in John Deans, Pioneers of Canterbury: Deans Letters, 1840 –1854 (Dunedin and Wellington, [1937]), p. 264. 49 John Deans to his father, 28 Sept. 1845, in ibid., p. 91. 50 John Deans to his father, 6 July 1853, in ibid., p. 255. 51 Ebenezer Hay (Pigeon Bay) to Mr and Mrs Orr (Ayrshire), 16 Sept. 1847, CM, ARC 1990.8, 1/12. 52 Ebenezer Hay (Pigeon Bay) to Robert Hay (Ayrshire), 27 April 1858, CM, ARC 1990.8, 1/17. 53 Letters of Jessie Campbell, 17 Oct. 1843, p. 27, ATL, qMS-0369. 54 Dunedin Lunatic Asylum Medical Casebook (1877–1913), ANZ DRO, DAHI/ D264/19956/39, folio 524; Casebook (1900–1), DAHI/D264/19956/53, folio 3445; Casebook (1891–92), DAHI/D264/19956/43, folio 2527. 55 Dunedin Lunatic Asylum and Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1863–1920), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D265/19556/1, Case 117; Dunedin Lunatic Asylum Medical Casebook (1877–1913), DAHI/D265/19956/39, Case 377. 56 Seacliff Asylum Medical Casebook (1885–1915), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/40, Case 106; Dunedin Lunatic Asylum and Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1863–1920), DAHI/D265/19556/1, Case 214; Dunedin Lunatic Asylum Medical Casebook (1877–1913), DAHI/D265/19956/39, Case 152. 57 Seacliff Asylum Medical Casebook (1885–1915), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/40, Cases 130 and 166.

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CATEGORIES OF IDENTITY 58 Oonagh Walsh, ‘“The designs of providence”: race, religion and Irish insanity’, in Joseph Melling and Bill Forsythe (eds), Insanity, Institutions and Society, 1800 –1914: A Social History of Madness in Comparative Perspective (London, 1999), p. 235. 59 Letter to Rt Revd Dr Haly, 1850, in Letters of Mother Cecilia M. Maher and others from the Archives of the Sisters of Mercy, Auckland, ACDA, POM 35-1/3. 60 Letter dated 3 May 1850 in ibid., ACDA, POM 35-1/5. 61 Statistics for New Zealand for 1858 (Auckland, 1859), No. 3. English migrants supplied 30.8% of Auckland’s population. 62 Letter dated 24 July 1854 in Letters of Mother Cecilia M. Maher, ACDA, POM 35-1/2. 63 Sr Mary Cecilia to Mr M. Catherine, 17 Oct. 1855, in Original Letters of Mother Cecilia Maher, 1854–64, vol. 2, item 4, ACDA. 64 Ibid., vol. 2, item 7, ACDA. 65 Sr Mary Jos Aubert to Revd Fr Yardin, 20 Jan. 1871, in Letters of Sr M. Joseph Aubert to Marist Fathers, 1869–71, ACDA, INT 1-8/5. 66 Croke’s Record of Events, 1870–73, 6 March, p. 5, ACDA, CRO 1–2. 67 J. S. G. Cameron, ‘The episcopate of Moore Richard Neligan, Bishop of Auckland, 1903–1910’ (S.Th. thesis, St John’s College, 1973), p. 17. 68 Address given at Diocesan High School speech day, 1922, in The First Fifty Years, pp. 20–1. Cited in ibid., p. 201. 69 Helen Martin and Sam Edwards, New Zealand Film, 1912–1996 (Oxford and Auckland, 1997), p. 142. 70 Ian Conrich, for example, refers to the characters as Irish in ‘Global pressure and the political state: New Zealand’s cinema of crisis’, Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities, 24:2&3 (2005), pp. 10–11, 12–13, as do Martin and Edwards, New Zealand Film, p. 142. 71 Whyte, Interpreting Northern Ireland, p. 69. 72 Malcolm Campbell, Ireland’s New Worlds: Immigrants, Politics, and Society in the United States and Australia, 1815–1922 (Madison, 2008), p. 20. 73 AJHR, 1880, D-3, p. 4, Immigration Returns. 74 AJHR, 1872, D-No.1, p. 48, Enclosure 1 in No. 42, A. G. Allan to J. Vogel, 29 May 1872. 75 AJHR, 1872, Enclosure 2 in No. 42, p. 49, Petition to Reeves. 76 AJHR, 1873, D2, p. 38, Enclosure 3 in No. 36, Rev. P. Barclay to Dr Featherston, 10 January 1873. 77 AJHR, 1875, D2, p. 36, Enclosure in No. 62, Quarterly Report, July–September 1874. 78 T. M. Devine, Clanship to Crofters’ War: The Social Transformation of the Scottish Highlands (Manchester and New York, 1994), p. 1. 79 See Charles W. J. Withers, Urban Highlanders: Highland-Lowland Migration and Urban Gaelic Culture, 1700–1900 (East Linton, 1998), pp. 237, 15. 80 Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1896–97), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/48, Case 3008. 81 Shipboard journal of Jessie Campbell in Basil Greenhill and Ann Giffard, Women Under Sail: Letters and Journals Concerning Eight Women Travelling or Working in Sailing Vessels between 1829 and 1949 (Newton Abbot, 1970), p. 55. 82 Ibid., p. 71. 83 Shipboard journal of William Laing, 2 Dec. 1859, CM. 84 Shipboard diary of Isabella Ritchie Wallace, 28 Aug. 1863, p. 10, ATL, MS-Group0776. 85 Memoir of Alexander MacDonald, 1904, p. 29, ATL, MS-Papers-6628. 86 Andrew Kinross, ‘Poem for Highland society of Southland’, 12 Nov. 1897, in Andrew Kinross, My Life and Lays (Invercargill, 1899), pp. 111–12. 87 [No title – poem for the Gaelic Society of New Zealand 1898], in ibid., p. 114. 88 ‘Poem for second annual gathering of the Highland society of Southland’, 30 Sept. 1898, in ibid., p. 115.

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 89 ‘We’re Scots’, in Robert Francis, A New Zealand Harp (London, n.d.), p. 95. 90 J. Maclennan, ‘From Dunedin to Dingwall’, in J. Maclennan, Neptune’s Toll and Other Verses (Christchurch, Wellington, and Dunedin, c. 1907), pp. 12–13. 91 Fitzpatrick, ‘That beloved country’, p. 329. 92 John Gilmore (Auckland) to his parents (Co. Down), 16 Sept. 1876. All letters in the Gilmore sequence not attributed to PRONI were kindly provided by Alice Gemming. 93 Shipboard diary of Elizabeth Aitkin Dempster, extract dated 25 April 1883, ATL, MS-Papers-4162. Dempster does not appear in the passenger list of assisted migrants on the Rangitiki, but female migrants from Antrim, Armagh, Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone, and Derry are recorded among the 71 assisted Irishwomen making the voyage. See IM 15/431, ANZ WRO. 94 Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1900), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/52, Case 3381. 95 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Case Books (1900–3), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/9, folio 36. 96 Ibid., folio 259. 97 Albert Ottywell to John Marshman, 26 Jan. 1864, ANZ CRO, CH 287, ICPS 906/1864. 98 Alice Gilmore (Auckland) to her brother and sister (Co. Down), 1876. 99 See IM 15/263, ANZ WRO. 100 Shipboard journal of William Clarke, 11 July 1879, courtesy of Professor Michael J. Crozier. 101 Shipboard diary of John Murray, 24 Dec. 1839, ATL, 89–084; Shipboard diary of Isabella Ritchie Wallace, 31 July 1863, p. 5, ATL. 102 Shipboard diary of John Dawson, 1879, ATL, MS-Papers-4460. The assisted passenger list for the voyage of the Nelson from Clyde to Otago shows just 2 male migrants from Perth out of a total of 59 male Scots. 103 Ebenezer and Agnes Hay (Bengal Merchant) to Mr and Mrs Orr (Annandale), 29 Oct. 1839, CM, ARC 1990.8, 1/2. 104 Ebenezer Hay (Pigeon Bay) to his parents (Midbuiston), 5 Jan. 1852, CM, ARC 1990.8, 1/14. 105 Ebenezer Hay (Pigeon Bay) to his brother (Midbuiston), 24 July 1858, CM, ARC 1990.8, 1/18. 106 AJHR, 1872, D-No 1A II, Letters from the Agent-General, Enclosure 3 in No. 4, Notes of a Visit to Skye by Revd Barclay, p. 8. 107 Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1899–1900), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/ 51, Case 3341. 108 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Case Books (1903–6), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/10, folio 45. 109 Dunedin Lunatic Asylum and Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1863–c. 1920), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D265/19556/1, Case 108. 110 Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 2, 4 and 7 Nov. 1878, CM. 111 See IM 15/338, ANZ WRO. 112 Shipboard journal of Andrew Campbell, 1 Oct. 1883, pp. 13–14; 28 Dec. 1883, p. 84, CM. 113 See IM 15/448, ANZ WRO. 114 See New Zealand-wide figures taken from McCarthy, Irish Migrants in New Zealand, table 1.2, p. 58. 115 Shipboard diary of Thomas Warnock, 3 July 1878, p. 44, ATL, MS-Papers-7232-1. 116 Patrick Treanor (Wanganui) to his cousin Patrick Treanor (Thames), 21 Sept. 1876, courtesy of Leone Shaw. 117 David McCullough (Cascade Creek) to his parents (Moneyreagh, Co. Down), 1 June 1898, courtesy of Moore Fisher Johnston and Sandra Gilpin. 118 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Case Books (1903–6), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/10, folio 137. 119 Dunedin Lunatic Asylum and Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1863–c. 1920), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D265/19556/1, Case 21.

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CATEGORIES OF IDENTITY 120 Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1897–98), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/49, Cases 3079 and 3095. 121 Greenhill and Giffard, Women Under Sail, pp. 64, 52, 60. 122 Shipboard diary of Hannah Ormond, 6 Oct. 1858, p. 7, ATL; Shipboard diary of Isabella Ritchie Wallace, 24 Sept. 1863, p. 14, ATL; Shipboard journal of William Laing, 2 Dec. 1859, CM; Shipboard diary of William Herries MacLean, 1863, p. 1, ATL. 123 Shipboard diary of Isabella Ritchie Wallace, 31 Oct. 1863, p. 19, ATL. 124 Shipboard journal of William Harold Munro, 8 Sept. 1876, p. 28, CCL. 125 Ibid., 14 Sept. 1876, p. 41. Other references appear for 2 Sept. 1876, p. 18, and 7 Sept. 1876, p. 25. 126 Shipboard diary of John Greenfield, 18 Sept. 1908, p. 2, ATL, MS-Papers-6422. 127 Ibid., 18 Sept. 1908, p. 2. 128 Shipboard diary of John Smith, 24 Nov. 1880, p. 26. 129 Ibid., 24 Nov. 1880, p. 25. 130 Shipboard journal of Peter Thomson, 27 Jan. 1862, CCL. 131 Shipboard diary of Isabella Ritchie Wallace, 12 Oct. 1863, p. 16, ATL; Shipboard journal of David Carr, 22 Aug. 1863, p. 33, CM. 132 Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 17 Nov. 1878, CM. 133 Ibid., 13 Jan. 1879. 134 Ibid., 1 Feb. 1879. 135 Shipboard diary of Minnie Williams, 1881, p. 5, ATL, MS-Papers-2035. 136 Shipboard journal of Andrew Campbell, 25 Oct. 1883, p. 31, CM. Cornelius Driscoll was recorded as a 22-year-old ploughman from Cork. See passenger list of Trevelyan in IM 15/448, ANZ WRO. 137 Letter to Revd Mr Catherine, Nov. 1869, in Letters of Mother Cecilia M. Maher and others from the Archives of the Sisters of Mercy, Auckland, ACDA, POM 35–3/10. 138 James McIlrath (Canterbury) to his family (Co. Down), 21 Dec. 1872, Courtesy of Jenny Langford. 139 Ibid., 8 Sept. 1862. 140 Calculated from tables 7 and 8 in R. H. Silcock, ‘Immigration into Canterbury under the provincial government’ (MA, University of Canterbury, 1964), p. 191. 141 Archibald McCallum (Dunedin) to his brother, 23 Sept. 1860, pp. 10–11, OSM, C177. 142 Alexander Campbell (Matakana) to James, 23 March 1863, pp. 96–7, AWMML, MS 50. 143 Andrew Gilmore (Tauranga) to his family (Co. Down), 24 March 1881, PRONI, T/1611/5. 144 James McIlrath (Canterbury) to his family (Co. Down), 26 Aug. 1875. 145 Ebenezer Hay (Pigeon Bay) to his parents (Midbuiston), 19 Jan. 1850, CM, ARC 1993.62, 2/3. 146 William Deans, 4 April 1841, p. 35 and 18 Oct. 1841, p. 40, in Deans, Pioneers of Canterbury. 147 John Deans, 23 Feb. 1852, in ibid., p. 298. 148 Jessie Campbell (Petone) to Isabella, 8 Nov. 1841, p. 3, ATL, qMS-0369. 149 Jessie Campbell (Wanganui) to Isabella, 9 Sept. 1845, p. 43, ATL. 150 Ibid., 17 Oct. 1843, pp. 30, 31, 34. 151 See table 5 in Statistics of New Zealand for the Crown Colony Period, 1840 –1852 (1954), p. 13. 152 The 1868 Census shows that Irishwomen supplied 34.38% of New Zealand’s Irish population while Irishmen contributed 65.62%. By 1891 the gap had closed somewhat, with Irishwomen contributing 46.12% and Irishmen 53.88% of the Irish population in New Zealand. 153 Andrew Gilmore (Tauranga) to his brother Robert Gilmore (Co. Down), 1878. 154 James McIlrath (Canterbury) to his brother William McIlrath (Co. Down), 5 Sept. 1869. 155 Shipboard journal of William Clarke, Thurs [sic: Tues] 30 Sept. 1879. 156 Carl V. Smith, ‘Memories of a great-grandfather’ (unpublished), courtesy of Douglas Duncan, Book Two, p. 124.

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 157 Ibid., p. 125. 158 Galbraith, ‘The invisible Irish?’, p. 37. 159 J. M. Bumsted, ‘Scottishness and Britishness in Canada, 1790–1914’, in Marjory Harper and Michael E. Vance (eds), Myth, Migration and the Making of Memory: Scotia and Nova Scotia, c. 1700 –1990 (Halifax, 1999), p. 102. 160 ‘Our motto’, in Berta Sinclair (ed.), The Poetical Works of Hugh Smith (The Bard of Inangahua) (Papanui, n.d.), p. 274. 161 Kinross, ‘A New Year’s lay – 1886’, in My Life and Lays, p. 81. 162 John Liddell Kelly, ‘Prologue to “Britannia and her daughters”’ – Britons and British, in John Liddell Kelly, Heather and Fern: Songs of Scotland and Maoriland (Wellington, 1902), p. 124. 163 William Hogg, ‘No III Britain’s march. a song’, in William Hogg, Lays and Rhymes, Descriptive, Legendary, Historical, Local, and Lyrical (Nelson, 1875), p. 313. 164 Caledonian Society of Otago Minute Book, 13 Oct. 1899, p. 28, HC, MS 1045/8. 165 Andrew Kinross, ‘On General Gordon’, in My Life and Lays, p. 80. 166 ‘On the return of the troops from the Soudar’, in ibid., p. 80. 167 Hugh Smith, ‘British pluck’ (1897 Calcutta piper of Gordon Highlanders shot in both legs but kept playing), in Sinclair (ed.), The Poetical Works of Hugh Smith, p. 61. 168 ‘Queen Elizabeth’, in ibid., p. 252. 169 The N.Z. Scotsman, 1:7 (7 March 1927), p. 16, ATL, Serials Collection, Per NZ SCO. The Auckland War Memorial Museum Library also holds copies of The N.Z. Scotsman. 170 The New Zealand Scot, 1:4 (20 Feb. 1913), p. 19, ATL, Serials Collection, fPer NZ SCO. 171 Ibid., 1:8 (20 June 1913), p. 22. 172 Andrew Kinross, ‘The old land and the new’, in My Life and Lays, p. 79. 173 John Barr, ‘Otago goes ahead, my boys’, in John Barr, Poems and Songs, Descriptive and Satirical (Edinburgh, 1861), p. 212. 174 The New Zealand Scot, 1:8 (20 June 1913), p. 23. 175 Ibid., 1:12 (20 Oct. 1913), p. 3. 176 Donald Harman Akenson, The Irish Diaspora: A Primer (Belfast, 1996), pp. 252–3. 177 For New Zealand see Brad Patterson (ed.), Ulster–New Zealand Migration and Cultural Transfers (Dublin, 2005). 178 Galbraith, ‘The invisible Irish?’, pp. 47–8. 179 Green Ray, 1:7 (1 June 1917), pp. 119–20, ATL, Per GRE. 180 Ibid., 1:8 (1 June 1918), p. 131. 181 ‘Irish race and world war’, Green Ray, 1:12 (1 Nov. 1917), p. 206. 182 Tribune, 17 March 1936, AWMML, DU436.12. 183 Ibid., 21 Nov. 1935, p. 6. 184 Michael King, Being Pakeha: An Encounter with New Zealand and the Maori Renaissance (Auckland, 1985), p. 182. 185 Smith, ‘Memories of a great-grandfather’, Book Two, p. 61. 186 David Gilchrist, BAIQ 099. 187 Janet Clarke, BAIQ 042. 188 Harold Armstrong, BAIQ 007. 189 Jessie Campbell (Wanganui) to Isabella, 17 Oct. 1843, p. 35, ATL. 190 Daniel Archibald (Wellington) to his uncle Mark Gault (Ballyavelin, Co. Londonderry), 13 Aug. 1893, courtesy of Barbara H. Holt. 191 Edward J. Cowan, ‘The myth of Scotch Canada’, in Harper and Vance (eds), Myth, Migration and the Making of Memory, p. 64. 192 ‘Province of Otago Anniversary Celebrations’ from Otago Daily Times, 24 March 1943, in Post-war Migration Policy of New Zealand, the National Archives of the UK: Public Record Office, DO 35/1319, p. 107. 193 Tribune, 21 Nov. 1935, p. 6. 194 King, Being Pakeha, p. 29. 195 Freeman’s Journal, 6:278 (21 Nov. 1884), p. 10, ACDA. 196 Ibid., 6:269 (24 Oct. 1884), p. 10.

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CHAPTER 3

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Language and accent

Scholars concerned with examining the ethnic identities of migrants have pointed to the importance of language as a key component in formulating a sense of belonging, though migrants can still consider themselves part of a particular ethnic group despite not necessarily sharing a distinctive language.1 Yet language has also been analysed in terms of its abandonment as migrants seek to adjust to their new homelands. In relation to Irish Catholics in the United States, for instance, their ‘pastors advocated language abandonment both at home and abroad’.2 Other scholars have sought to determine whether language use among ethnic groups was a private affair, confined to the family and deployed at specific times and places, rather than enabling connection to the wider ethnic group.3 Within studies of Irish migration, consideration of language issues in a sustained way is largely absent from the historiography. As J. J. Lee has recently surmised, ‘The mechanics and psychology of language acquisition, language loss, language abandonment, and language denial are among the most fascinating of all human experiences, which still require much research in the case of Ireland itself and the Irish abroad.’4 An exception is Dymphna Lonergan’s exploration of the Irish language in Australia and its influence on Australian English. In her book, a chapter on the Irish language as deployed in popular literature indicates that Irish characters mainly served a comic purpose, while a study of several Irish words and phrases used in Australian writing classifies them according to interjections or terms of abuse and endearment. Lonergan also points to connections between the Irish language and politics.5 While the main sources for her investigation are newspapers, poetry and novels, we also catch glimpses of the Irish language in other sources written in the English language, including shipboard journals. Yet as David Fitzpatrick has reported, ‘Gaelic, admittedly, was a vernacular tongue which few had learned to write’.6 More [ 63 ]

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840

readily discerned in a good deal of source material is the influence of Irish and local accents on the spelling and grammar found in the Englishlanguage documents of migrants. The historiography of the Irish language in New Zealand is similarly thin. This is surprising in light of linguist Laurie Bauer’s assertion that ‘The Irish influence, however, seems to have been greatly underestimated . . . The data presented . . . suggests that the influence was probably far greater.’7 Nor has the Gaelic language spoken by Scottish migrants received sustained attention, except to note the declining use of Gaelic. This is surprising given the existence of diverse printed material in the Gaelic language such as religious texts, song books, newspapers, fiction, poetry, grammars, dictionaries, and periodicals.8 In contrast, scholars have directed their attention to the Scots language in New Zealand, particularly to try and ascertain the influence of that language on New Zealand English.9 According to Laurie Bauer, a Scottish influence cannot be presumed, as other influences were at play, including the use of similar words and expressions in northern England, indirect influence from North America, and the evolution of language.10 Other scholars, however, have contended ‘that the influence of varieties of English from Scotland was indirect but important’.11 Interest in the Scots language in New Zealand mirrors studies in Australia where Graham Tulloch has focused on the distinctive Scots vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar contained in novels and poetry, as well as emphasising familiarity with spoken Scots.12 In emphasising the importance of the works of Robert Burns and Walter Scott, Tulloch points out ‘that by the 1830s any person who was literate in English in Australia could not be totally ignorant of Scots in its written form’.13 Unlike many other explorations, this chapter does not attempt to identify the influence of the Scottish and Irish languages and local accents on the spelling and grammar found in the English-language documents of migrants. Rather, its central concern is to highlight the range of sources from which we can obtain some insight into the use of and attitudes towards the Irish and Scottish languages and accents in New Zealand.

Irish accent In 1870 during his passage to Dunedin, Scotsman George Stephen Robertson observed, ‘There are a good many specimens of the raal Irish amongst them and Paddy’s brogue is very distinguishable. They seem all a very happy and contented lot.’14 Voyaging in 1877, Bessie

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LANGUAGE AND ACCENT

Prouten, probably from England, noted, ‘There are several girls going out to be married; the Irish some of them are a queer lot. It’s fun to hear them talk, cannot understand half they say.’15 Although being difficult to understand, the Irish brogue was also mentioned positively after settlement, with Mrs Godley remarking of Mrs Fitzgerald in Canterbury in 1850, ‘Her brogue very strong but the pleasantest I ever heard . . . we like both her and her husband very much.’16 In similar terms, Matthew Francis Moriarty found the Irish accent a delight during his journey to New Zealand, particularly when contrasted with Cockney: ‘We have an old Irish friend Mrs. Fitzgibbon who comes over to sit with us very often and her dear Irish brogue is quite a relief after the tiresome cockney “how how”’.17 For some migrants, their brogue was accompanied by ‘many of the old Irish sayings’.18 Indeed, one female admitted to Dunedin’s public asylum in 1881, ‘occasionally makes loud coarse remarks to passers by when spoken to readily falls into choice Irish’.19 Historian Michael King also recalled the accents of the religious personnel who educated him.20 In the biography of horse-breeder Sir Patrick Hogan, whose father arrived in New Zealand just before the First World War, it was claimed that ‘His father’s Irish accent had never been diluted from the time he had first arrived’.21 An Irish accent therefore remained a consistent identifier of Irishness in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While most commentary in the sources consulted emphasises a generic Irish brogue, the accents of migrants from Ireland were also occasionally connected to particular counties or regions of origin. Again, according to Mrs Godley in 1851: Mr. Watson talks with a tremendous Carlow brogue, which amused me very much; the simplest things sound so funny when they are said so, and he had staying with him a young lady cousin, just come out from Ireland, direct, with a still worse one; and to hear him laughing at her was inimitable. My husband said hers is a very vulgar one, but I am not yet a connoisseur on the subject[.]22

Good-natured curiosity was often directed towards the Irish brogue by those of other ethnicities, although examples exist of Irish migrants from the north of Ireland commenting less favourably on the accents of those Irish hailing from the south of Ireland. For Matthew Francis Moriarty, born at Kerry and the second son of the rector at Killaghtee, County Donegal, ‘Kerry men make a row about food, one to be put in chains. There are about a dozen and they get up a fight every day. Their brogue is something extraordinary, scarcely intelligable.’23 Early in the twentieth century Alexander McKelvey, a

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medical practitioner from County Tyrone, observed that an 83-yearold patient confined at the Auckland asylum, ‘Talks in a rambling incoherent manner with a marked South Irish accent about his life in Ireland some fifty years ago and tells stories about making “poteen” and dealing in horses’.24 In making such distinctions, migrants from the north of Ireland implicitly highlighted the differences of their cultural background and accent, which scholars have grouped into three main categories: Ulster Scots, South Ulster English, and Mid Ulster English.25 Criticisms and taunts towards those who spoke with an Irish accent were also encountered, with Trudie Lloyd recalling of her childhood in New Zealand, after arrival in 1926, being teased ‘about our clothes and the way we spoke’.26 Apart from northern Irish migrants commenting on their southern counterparts, educated Catholics also referred to the brogue of their fellow Irish Catholics, sometimes despairingly. A lengthy example emerges from a Catholic nun travelling to New Zealand in the midnineteenth century: there is an Irish woman & her son on board they afford us great amusement, Doctor Devereux has paid their passage to the Cape, the child is about 5 years of age & both seem to have come from the wildest part of Ireland, they speak such shocking english & with such an accent that I fear poor Ireland shall be disgraced – the child’s name is Paddy, I will soon give you a specimen of their conversational powers.27

The following day the nun wrote a phonetic version of the child’s conversation with his mother: ‘Mommy, fot is that bell for – For the Nung’s dinner (nuns) & fot’s the second bell for – For the priesht’s (priest’s) athan who towld you all that Mommy’.28 This attempted reproduction of the Irish brogue is found in numerous sources and appears to have several functions, including that of entertainment and discrimination, and as a method to depict those of social class. One such source is ‘Paddy Doyle’s lament’, apparently dating back to the military settler days in Taranaki, in which an Irishman in Otago was ‘collared’ to be ‘A Government soldjer . . . To go up and fight the wild Mowrees’. As the lament later specifies, ‘But barrack life, sure it don’t shuit me,/Oi’m ordered round camp like a dog;/Do me best Oi niver can plaze them,/For they’re eternally sthoppin’ me grog!’29 Cartoons in New Zealand also endeavoured to mockingly reproduce the Irish way of speaking English, and in doing so poke fun at supposed Irish stupidity, as evident from Figure 3. New Zealand cinema also contains examples of the mocking of an Irish brogue, with the earliest portrayal of an Irish character dating to the 1927 film The Te Kooti Trail. Played by the fair-haired and stocky [ 66 ]

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Figure 3 ‘A legal authority’: depiction of an Irish accent, The Makomako, 1 April 1876

J. Tennant, the Irish character Barney O’Halloran appears in patchwork trousers earnestly smoking a small clay pipe. The main expression of Barney’s ethnicity consistently conveyed in the film was his use of Hiberno-English, the Irish way of speaking English. Two examples will suffice to demonstrate the way in which the subtitles attempt to provide a linguistic flavour of Barney’s pronunciation and grammar: ‘’Tis all the more shame to ye Liftinant, roidin’ a hoss whin ye can rin loike the virry devil!’; ‘If ye paid as much heed to foightin’ as ye do to yer stummick, ye’d be a grand sowljer, Jools!’ The published serial upon which the film was based further amplifies this with a number of references to Cromwell, which serve to politicise the Irishman: ‘Come on, ye kin av Cromwell, till we make black angels av yez all’; ‘May the curse that clings to Cromwell rist for iver on that half-caste baste that plugged me.’30 Such statements, however, are missing from the film. While this is possibly due to the restrictions associated with subtitling, other aspects suggest that producer Rudall Hayward [ 67 ]

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deliberately transformed Barney from a political and heroic – if still stereotyped – character to a stereotyped comic Irishman. To take one example, Barney has a taste for liquor, depicted in the film but not in the newspaper serial. As Barney announces while obtaining rum rations from Maori in advance of the pursuit of Te Kooti, ‘Mind ye, I ain’t skeered av the job – Oi’m jist needin’ av a little liquid encouragemint’. The attempted phonetic reproduction of the Irish brogue in the film seemingly served two purposes: to convey that Barney was indeed Irish, but also to entertain audiences. The reproduction of accent continued to be a key component in New Zealand cinema for representing Irish migrants. Where more contemporary films differ from their earlier counterparts, however, is in the greater tendency to incorporate either southern or northern Irish accents. In the 2005 film River Queen, for instance, the accents are generic northern and southern Irish but there is little use of exaggerated Hiberno-English, as depicted in earlier films, suggesting a transition of the Irish character in New Zealand films from a comic to a dramatic figure. The Grasscutter (1988), meanwhile, is rich in its inclusion of northern Irish accents, made all the more realistic by a cast of actors from Northern Ireland, including Ian McElhinney and Terence Cooper (the latter having already been resident in New Zealand for a decade before the film’s production). There is little evidence, however, of a tendency for Irish characters in New Zealand films to speak the Irish language, probably because most audiences would fail to understand without the provision of subtitles in English.

Irish language Indeed, speakers of the Irish language were rarely mentioned in the sources consulted for this book. A few brief examples, however, indicate that some Irish arrived in New Zealand with very little knowledge of English. The case files of patients admitted to lunatic asylums in New Zealand provide a few glimpses of this aspect of an Irish ethnic identity. According to the casebooks of Dunedin’s public asylums, an Irishwoman was noted as being ‘Totally unable to hold any conversation. Talks Irish chiefly. Occasional[l]y speaks a little English. Has been talking energetically to the pictures on the walls.’31 Of another, from Ballybaan in County Galway, it was said, ‘Her English imperfect. Speaks Irish Gaelic.’32 These brief notations reinforce suggestions that in Ireland bilingualism in English was primarily functional.33 Nevertheless, Irish speakers in Ireland declined, though efforts were made by nationalists and especially the Gaelic League to ensure the language [ 68 ]

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continued.34 In 1922 efforts were also made through the education system to preserve the language.35 Such attempts meant that some migrants from Ireland would have possessed knowledge of the language in the twentieth century. To take just one example, when renowned horse-breeder Sir Patrick Hogan’s father returned to Ireland in 1968, more than 50 years after his departure, he met his brother Paddy and ‘the words flowed in English and Gaelic – Tom, the brothers were astonished to discover, had found that he could still speak Irish fluently’.36 Seemingly more prevalent, however, was the knowledge and application of individual words or phrases in the Irish language. In 1888, for instance, the first Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, John Joseph Grimes, was welcomed with triumphal arches inscribed with ‘Cead mille failthe to our new Prelate’ and ‘Erin go Bragh’.37 Similar phrases were evident in the Gaelic column (with accompanying translation) which appeared in the twentieth-century ethnic press publications Green Ray and Tribune. The latter also instigated a ‘Lessons in Irish’ page which provided guidance on the phonetic pronunciation of Irish words. For example, directions were given that the Irish word ‘stol’ meaning ‘stool’ was pronounced ‘stole’.38 The neglect of studies of the Irish language in New Zealand is likely due to at least six reasons. First, there is recognition that despite efforts by the Irish Free State to renew the language in the early twentieth century, after the famine the Irish language entered a period of decline, exacerbated by emigration and a public attitude which perceived the language as backward.39 This general lack of interest then is related to the changing dynamic in the homeland where Irish retreated north and west ‘away from the main economic centers and into the sea and oblivion’.40 Quite apart from the decline of the language at home, English was the language of progress, and migrants therefore made use of it for practical purposes. Second, there is an assumption of linguistic homogeneity among New Zealand’s early migrants, given that the majority, hailing from Britain and Ireland, had knowledge of the English language. Third, the Irish language was primarily an oral language among migrants and rarely features in documentary sources. As identified for Scottish Gaelic, however, examples of the Irish language presumably exist in respect of religious texts, song books, and periodicals which have not yet received analysis.41 Fourth, the arrival of the Irish in New Zealand was later than for other destinations and a sizeable proportion were Protestant Irish. Fifth, where such sources are extant, scholars have not the expertise to analyse them. Sixth, most attention surrounding the issue of language has been directed at those migrant groups [ 69 ]

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who arrived in New Zealand from continental Europe and Asia, including investigation of their print culture.42 From the twentieth century on these newcomers also had to cope with the colloquial character of English as spoken in New Zealand as well as difficulties in translation.43

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Ulster Scots A similar dynamic surrounds the use of Ulster Scots (or Ullans), a language found in certain areas in the north of Ireland. As well as the importance of English as the language of progress, other explanations for the neglect of Ulster Scots might lie with the lack of recognition it has received. Indeed, it is only since 1990 that official acknowledgement and public funding was given to the Ulster Scots language.44 Competing interpretations as to whether Ulster Scots is a distinct language or an implant from Scotland have also contributed to debates about it. That its speakers ‘were taught in school to consider their native speech to be a rural or uneducated variety of English’ also presumably played a role.45 While most discussion about the Ulster Scots language has centred on the vernacular poetry of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially that of the weaver poets in Ulster, some glimpses appear in sources relating to migrants abroad. For Mrs Godley, writing from Canterbury in 1851, ‘to me, brogue is brogue, excepting that in the North of Ireland the people seem to speak almost pure Scotch’.46 Her reference to this way of speaking is intriguing, for it is suggestive of the language of Ulster Scots. Extensive examination of accounts from migrants might therefore throw further light on the use of Ulster Scots, as might records emanating from Ulster societies worldwide. For instance, according to the Ulster Society of Otago in 1958, ‘members spent a happy hour or so recalling and exchanging Ulster sayings, phrases and words. These recollections stimulated the memory and the quaint idioms of the Ulster speech set a few minds thinking long.’47 Indeed, since 1951 a resurgence of interest in Ulster Scots back home has resulted in the creation in 1960 of an Ulster Dialect Archive.48

Scots Gaelic By contrast with evidence about the Irish and Ulster Scots languages, more references appeared in sources utilised in this study of Scottish Gaelic being spoken in New Zealand. This might be explained in two ways. First, many examples relate to large groups of Gaelic-speaking [ 70 ]

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Scots who travelled to New Zealand. Second, the Scots established ethnic societies, specifically the Gaelic Society, which encouraged the maintenance of the language. Within the wider historiography of the Scots abroad, the Gaelic language has also attracted a good deal of discussion, such as the Gaelicspeaking settlement at Glengarry in Canada.49 The general thrust of such studies, however, points to the decline of the use of Gaelic among Scottish settlers.50 Yet this emphasis generally fails to take account of the source material utilised for such conclusions. Gaelic was, for instance, primarily an oral language among migrants and therefore rarely features in documentary sources. This point was made quite vigorously by Alexander MacDonald in his memoir when contrasting Gaelic with the Maori language. He was particularly appreciative of missionaries for putting the Maori language in a ‘phonetic system of spelling’. As he continued: There are only 14 letters of our alphabet used in writing Maori, each letter having a distinct sound, so that any one who can speak Maori, and can read or write at all, can write and read the language correctly. Compare this with the uncouth system of spelling of my own native language, Gaelic. A man might speak that language correctly, and yet not be able to read or write a word of it so as to be understood.51

The most common reference to the Gaelic language in New Zealand, in the sources consulted for this study, was in connection with Highland migrants. Of particular importance was the publication in Gaelic of tracts promoting emigration to New Zealand from the Highlands.52 As emphasised by emigration agents, the production of propaganda in Gaelic was viewed as essential for disseminating information about New Zealand. In 1872, for instance, it was recommended that an agent be ‘supplied with Gaelic tracts for distribution among the people of these northern counties’.53 The Revd Peter Barclay also noted that ‘During this time I brought out the tract in Gaelic, and caused it to be sent to all agencies in Gaelic districts. It will, I think, do good, especially in meeting the absurd statements of certain American agents in regard to New Zealand cannibalism.’54 By 1876 a reported 22,000 copies of Barclay’s pamphlet had been circulated.55 It is difficult, however, to ascertain how much influence such literature had. As well as Gaelic literature, the importance of a Gaelic-speaking agent was also highlighted during this decade of intense assisted migration: ‘A Highlander’s Society has lately been formed here, the object of which is to promote the emigration of their countrymen by means of assisted passages. In order to carry out the project [ 71 ]

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successfully, the society respectfully solicits of the Colonial Government the appointment of an agent who is conversant with the Gaelic language’.56 Marjory Harper has also highlighted the importance of Gaelic for Scottish agents promoting Canada as a destination, a feature of their activities that differed from the strategies of agents in Ireland.57 Quite apart from the importance of Gaelic in attracting Highland migrants to New Zealand, evidence also exists from shipboard journals of Gaelic being spoken during the passage to New Zealand. Recalling his father’s life, Dugald Poppelwell reported how his mother Catherine McLachlan of Inverness had arrived in 1840 by the Blenheim, ‘one of the ships which brought the Highland pioneers to Wellington’. Poppelwell’s mother ‘was the only one on board the “Blenheim” who could speak English fluently, and had on many occasions to act as interpreter for those who at that time had only “the Gaelic”’.58 Jessie Campbell, who made the same voyage, also commented on the ship’s captain attempting to use Gaelic: ‘Capt Gray takes a great deal of trouble in obliging the emigrants to keep their places in order, he drives them on deck in good weather with a small cane in his hand calling “_ _ _” the only Gaelic word he can say.’59 More than twenty years later, Mrs Isabella Bonthron, travelling in 1863 on the Helenslee, observed: A great many of the passengers come from the Highlands and Gaelic is much spoken on board. A good number seem to be shepherds, both from the North and South of Scotland. One day I was agreeably surprised to hear that Guila tongue spoken in all its freshness and could not help going up to the young Shepherd lad from whom I heard it and making some enquiries as to where he had come from and found he was familiar with every place there I knew. I have watched him with much interest and would be glad to think he proved a worthy sample of the braw braw lads.60

Evidence also shows that the Gaelic language continued to be maintained after settlement in the colony, demonstrating that Highlanders did not immediately abandon their language in favour of English, though some were bilingual. As Dugald Poppelwell recollected of the 1840 Highlanders who arrived at Wellington: ‘The Maoris could not for some time make out the new arrivals, who all spoke Gaelic among themselves. They had heard French and English, but the new lingo puzzled them.’61 Jessie Campbell also reported on the difficulty a helpmeet from Skye had in speaking English and the implications that had for Jessie’s expected retention of her assistance: ‘I hope to have her for some time as she does not speak good English there is not so much [ 72 ]

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chance of her getting a husband.’62 Further glimpses can be found in connection with certain occupational groups in New Zealand such as at the Mackenzie country, where it was noted, ‘In those days the shepherds were all Highlanders and they used to talk Gaelic amongst themselves.’63 Some brief insight about the use of Scottish Gaelic can also be gleaned from the casebooks of those migrants admitted to New Zealand’s lunatic asylums. A number of Scots were, for instance, recorded as speaking Gaelic, including John who ‘Says he can only curse in Gaelic’.64 Of another migrant, Isabella, it was recorded: ‘Highland – speaks a little English’.65 An 80-year-old hailing originally from near Campbeltown in Ayrshire was also observed to be ‘continually talking. Sometimes Gaelic. Sometimes senseless English’.66 Such notations reveal the importance medical officials gave to what patients said and did in attempts to explain their admission. Family historians also allude to Gaelic being spoken by their ancestors, with one recollecting that ‘Many of the Scottish folk spoke the Gaelic among themselves and even went so far as to tramp over the hills to Dunedin on the Sabbath to enjoy a service conducted in their own tongue.’ This echoes developments at home which included the importance of Gaelic for urban Highlanders worshipping, Gaelic translations of the Bible, and the accompanying rise in linguistic assertiveness brought about by the 1872 Education Act.67 Family memory of Gaelic being spoken at home and in the wider community was also perhaps generated by regret at its decline. In other words, it was not viewed as a language to be despised, but to be celebrated. Scottish poets in New Zealand were particularly inclined to allude to the Gaelic language, including Andrew Kinross, who in a series of poems emphasised the Gaelic language and its musical flavour. In 1897, in a poem for the Highland Society of Southland, Kinross linked Gaelic music and language: ‘No other language speaks to us like the old Gaelic tongue/In which the glory of the past by many bards is sung.’68 The following year he penned a poem for the second annual gathering of the Highland Society of Southland in which he proclaimed: ‘And bards shall sing the good old songs we heard when we were young,/And Highland hearts shall warmly glow to hear the Highland tongue’.69 That same year, 1898, also saw Kinross devise a poem for the Gaelic Society of New Zealand in which he asserted, ‘We come to hear the Gaelic tongue/That thrills our hearts whenever sung’.70 Kinross also alleged, ‘though different in name/The Highland heart and Gaelic tongue are everywhere the same’.71 While Kinross used English to refer to the Gaelic language, Dugald Ferguson went so far as to incorporate a Gaelic phrase in one of his poems: ‘Gaeldach gualin a chiele.’72 [ 73 ]

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New Zealand fiction also contains an appreciation of the Gaelic language as a powerful signifier of identity among Highland Scots. As with poetry, however, the Gaelic-speaking tendencies of a book’s characters were conveyed in English.73 Some writers also alluded to the differences between Highland and Lowland speech, including Georgina McDonald who, in Grand Hills for Sheep, wrote of Agnes, at the pier at Gravesend, for whom ‘the voices of these strangers, most of them Lowlanders, grated and rasped on her ears, accustomed to the soft Highland speech’.74 As with the Irish language, Scottish Gaelic was also covered in a Gaelic page, instituted in 1925, in the periodical The New Zealand Scot, though it was discontinued with the publication’s reincarnation as The N.Z. Scotsman two years later. Nevertheless, reviews of books in respect of both the Gaelic and Scots languages appeared in the new publication, with the Scots Gaelic Studies magazine considered ‘of great interest and value to teachers of Gaelic, and to all who are interested in the “Mother of the Tongues”’.75 Scottish societies were another avenue through which efforts were made to nourish the Gaelic language among the migrant and younger generation. As the Caledonian Society of Otago observed in the early 1900s, links between the Gaelic Society, Burns Club, and Caledonian Society in Dunedin ‘might unite in helping to keep alive the strong bond of sympathy and sentiment that bound Scotsmen together by taking some steps to have the Gaelic language taught in Dunedin . . . There were many Highlanders who could speak the language freely, but the young people had no opportunity of learning it’.76 The President of Wellington’s Gaelic Society also emphasised in 1930 ‘the importance of instructing the children in the language and traditions of their fathers’.77 While the speaking of Gaelic declined among Scots in New Zealand, greater acknowledgement is required of the language’s importance for some Scots, especially Highlanders for whom Gaelic was a way of demonstrating a Highland rather than broad Scottish origin. In this sense Scottish Gaelic played a greater role in defining a particular region of Scotland than the Irish language did for migrants from Ireland. For the Irish, it was the southern versus northern brogue that proved more significant in determining particular origins.

The Scots language: self-speaking While Gaelic has attracted some attention by historians in studies of the Scots abroad, the Scots language has attracted little investigation. This neglect is not simply the result of a focus on Gaelic-speaking [ 74 ]

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migrants, but also a reflection of the disregard the Scots language has received in Scotland. At least four factors have contributed to this situation. First, after the 1707 Union, Scots as a language was reclassified as a ‘provincial dialect’, though many scholars still argue for its status as a language. Second, from the 1840s onwards English became more widely used as a consequence of the state inspection of schools and insistence on the use of English. Third, there was no standardised Scots.78 Fourth, Scots was never considered an appropriate medium for the mass media.79 That the Scots language, like Gaelic, was not a very useful means of communication in the wider world also played a part. Yet, as with Highland migrants, language was an important element of the ethnic identification of Lowland Scots and many sources document the significance of language among Scots wishing to powerfully assert their origins. Intriguingly, examples exist not just from the twentieth century when a resurgence in the use of Scots took place, but also in the nineteenth century. Such examples pepper a range of sources, revealing a number of references to those speaking Scots as well as the occasional attempt to reproduce the dialect. In some other cases examples exist of diarists using their native tongue, mostly in conjunction with English. Among shipboard diarists commenting on the use of language was William Laing. Noting the whistling of wind through the rigging in 1859, Laing observed, ‘There is a Scotch word more expressive of the sound if I could spell it properly, that is “Loughing”’.80 Laing also commented that shooting a bird was difficult due to ‘flying up and down in the air like boys when they play at “See Saw” or as it is called in Scotland “Coup ag the ladle”.’81 Laing furthermore noted: The above is set to a Sing Song Sort of an air belonging to a Song called ‘calledonia’ I think it goes thus Sair Sair was my heart When I parted we my Jane.82

Apart from William Laing, others utilising Scots included John Jack, who at the end of 1883 wished ‘A gude New Year to one an aw’.83 Jean McCarlie also combined the English and Scots language in 1881, observing, ‘My “guid man” brought me a cup of tea so I stayed in bed till after breakfast’.84 By the twentieth century the use of language at sea was intricately connected with a specific local area in Scotland, which infers an ability to converse in Scots. Writing from the ship Remuera, Mary Gibson of Bannockburn, north of Falkirk, Stirlingshire, took extreme delight in puzzling her fellow passengers by speaking Scots. Indeed, [ 75 ]

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the novelty of aspects of Scottish culture for other ethnicities seems to have prompted some Scots to powerfully emphasise this particular element of their national identity: I like a talk with Mrs Connell & a Mrs McRae. They come from Glasgow & theres a Miss Murray an elderly lady from Edinburgh. So they all understand me alright. An Australian likes to torment me because he doesn’t know what I say in Scotch, so I just give them all the more Scotch. The German Jew couldn’t see how I knew English & yet was Scotch. I think he got mixed up because the English don’t understand Scotch & yet I understand them in English.85

Mary also noted that one of the engineers was from Glasgow and revealed, ‘I like to meet him as they get a good laugh at him & I speaking Scotch’.86 Mary Gibson’s account exposes the divides in Scottish society, in that her compatriots on board, being from districts close to her origins and familiar with the Scots she spoke, could understand her. Moreover, the transition to the New World by ship, undertaken with other ethnic groups, clearly provoked an awareness of being different. Language in Mary’s account served to provoke curiosity rather than disgruntlement by others unable to understand her. While the Gaelic language and kilts are often associated with the Highlands, developments in the nineteenth century saw the appropriation by Lowlanders of Highland symbols.87 It is no surprise, then, that Mae Palmer, writing to her parents at Paisley during a stopover in Perth, Western Australia, on the way to New Zealand in 1951, described how ‘The boys were wearing their kilts of course, and various scotch people stopped to speak to us and wish us luck. One rather wealthy looking woman, kissed me goodbye and said she was thrilled to see the boys and hear the scotch tongue again.’88 Examples of the use of the Scots language also exist after arrival, even in disputes such as that between medical doctors Turnbull and Campbell, who settled in Canterbury. As was recollected, ‘Dr Turnbull wrote some verses in Scotch and had them printed on a sheet of paper about half the size of one page of the “Star.” These were distributed and hung up in various places of business in the city.’ Among the lines were the following: Hoot noo, Brither Saw-bones, nae doot yet are sair, Noo that the staff of the hospital kens ye nae mair. They gied ye in fairness; ilka shadow o’ a doot, ’Twas yer ain doy’t blunders that bowled ye clean oot.89

Assisted migrant Lorna Carter also discussed language in connection with Scottish migrants she met in New Zealand. In April 1953 [ 76 ]

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she wrote home to Oban telling how: ‘I met a wee Scotsman frae Edinburgh here . . . Mrs McLenna was listening to him and couldn’t make out half of what he was saying.’90 Although Lorna seemingly did not speak or write Scots to any great extent, her letters contain snippets of Scots and Gaelic. Among the Scots phrases she uses are a ‘rare day’, a ‘dreep on my nose’, and ‘blether’.91 The Scots language was also important in some ethnic societies, including Clan Mackay, which established a Jessie Mackay cup in order to perpetuate Jessie’s memory as a writer of poetry in Scots. This created difficulties in some years such as 1947 when there was doubt among competitors as to the correct pronunciation of words in Jessie’s poems, with some adopting the Scots form of words written in English. It was therefore decided that there should be strict adherence to the author’s version.92 The following year such difficulties prompted an acknowledgement that ‘Owing to the incapacity of the judges in the matter of the Scots dialect, her best poems had been avoided in recent years.’93 Two years later there were so few entries that the Council elected to select a poem in English but with Highland sentiments.94 Ethnic societies in New Zealand also demonstrated an awareness of the state of the language back in Scotland. In the Caledonian Society minutes, for instance, it was recorded that Gavin Spence, ‘Speaking on the Scottish dialect, he deprecated the fact that in the higher circles of Scottish society the dialect was tabooed, in the great middle classes it was pretended not to be understood, and in the working class was used freely only while they were in their working clothes.’95

Others speaking Scots As well as their own use of snippets of Scots, some shipboard diarists commented on others using the language. George Stephen Robertson reported in 1870, for instance, on Mr Woodside saying to him, ‘eh man, but this is something awful. If I had kent, I would nae hae left home’.96 Robertson also noted that queasy passengers in steerage ‘chaff each other’, one of whom ‘shouted up tonight “Ou Captain, they are a’lying doon here like a parcel o’swine, sick and I’m the only one nae sick.”’97 William Smith similarly reproduced the Scots tongue used by a fellow traveller in 1862: ‘It is amusing to hear an old man, a saddler at this sort of weather. He has not slept for the last five nights afraid he will lose his two hundred pounds worth of leather he has on board. Viz hech surs it is hard tae sae what this nicht will come tae a hae £200 pounds on baird en gin a lose that hech surs. He would make a saint laugh.’98 [ 77 ]

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Apart from reproducing examples of the Scottish language, shipboard diarists also mentioned the use of the vernacular being spoken by others. George Robertson, for instance, revealed of the Captain in 1870: ‘I thought I would split laughing at him the last two or three nights. He speaks such splendid broad Scotch.’99 Agnes Christie in 1879, meanwhile, told that ‘S.P. was teaching us Welsh. I tried to make F.O. read a scotch poem but he couldn’t.’100 John Elder Moultray discussed his shipmates in 1883, importantly noting that Scots was also spoken by some Highlanders: ‘I call these three the Trio as they are all from the Highlands although the lowland scoth is the tongue spoken by the 3 of them.’101 The comment is intriguing as most Highlanders have been categorised as speaking either Gaelic or English. This example may therefore indicate that these Highland migrants had spent time working in the Lowlands in a region where Scots was spoken, or that some Lowlanders had moved to the Highlands. Other migrants were appalled at the use of the Scots language, particularly when contrasted with that of English. According to Jessie Campbell in 1843 from Wanganui, ‘The broad Scotch sounds so horrid where most of our own society is English and all speak so well.’102 Alexander Campbell at Matakana also supplied an opinion on the Scots spoken by his landlord, William Armour: ‘He talks very broad Scotch and many a good laugh we have with him. He thought Providence had tean away his bit cow and calf as a kind of check on him for being sae proud about the way he was getting on with his bit laun.’103 Alexander also commented on the local medic: ‘I expect the old Doctor will tell the Governor his mind if his dander gets up as he is as quick as powder, and can send his Fifeshire gibberish from him like thunder.’104 It was also noted of a young Scottish labourer confined at the Auckland asylum that he ‘Talks in a broken Scotch dialect’.105 Family historians also point to the speech of their ancestors, including John Berry’s report on his grandmother who ‘had quite a lot of Scottish expressions in her speech’.106 As with references to Scottish Gaelic, novels also provide some indication of migrants speaking the Scots language. Bannerman Kaye’s novel Haromi: A New Zealand Story, for instance, contains several examples, including an episode in chapel where it was noted of the congregation, ‘When they stood up to sing the eighth psalm in the old Scotch version the stranger was quite astonished at the volume of sound’.107 Attempts to reproduce the Scots language also appear in the novel through the character of Robert Agnew, a Scottish shepherd. When asked how long he had been in New Zealand, Agnew replied, ‘Five-and-forty year, an’ I’m nearly as fond o’t as o’ the auld country. It minds me aften o’ the bonnie hillside whaur I rin aboot [ 78 ]

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as a laddie. But we’ll be late for the kirk gin we dinna gang faster.’108 An unpublished novel set in colonial Otago also depicted the key character ‘relapsing into his own native Doric in which he could give better & more tender expression to his feelings, he said in the softest of tones, – “Oh Jeannie, A’ can thole’t nae langer. ’Am in meeserie day an’ nicht. It maun oot. Ye ken fine a’ like ye, lassie, an’ that’s the lang an’ short o’t fu a like tae be wi’ ye an’ gyang wi’ ye. Me hert winna let me say Miss Farquhar, A’ wud feel a’ houp wise gane fin’ a’ spam that unco far awa’ name.”’109 A number of poets also used the Scots language in their poetry, while Hugh Smith, looking around the ‘Scottish faces, Hanging round on every wall’ of the Early Settlers Museum, fancied he heard them ‘speaking/In the dear auld Doric tongue’.110 The Scots language also appeared in poetry in the ethnic press throughout the twentieth century. Among poems reproduced were ‘Tae the exiles far awa’, provoking the editor to comment, ‘we are hardly “exiles” in New Zealand, but the perusal of her poem is a pleasure which we cannot soon forget’.111 A tale in Scots was also published in 1913112 and saving the vernacular was considered vital.113 As with Tulloch’s exploration of the Scots language used in verse in Australia, the Scots language in New Zealand is often mixed with English. As such, ‘The writer’s sentiments are reinforced by a few well known and strategically placed Scots terms and phrases’.114 Such tactics are also evident among those other ethnic groups appropriating the Scots language. As David Kennedy reported of his time in Christchurch in the 1870s, ‘Scotchmen have become largely part and parcel of the community. This is shown by the way English people playfully introduce quaint Scottish words and phrases into their conversation.’115 No hint here of such appropriation being aggressive. By contrast with portrayals of Irish migrants, less effort is made to convey the flavour of a Scottish brogue in early New Zealand cinema but intriguingly there is evidence of the Scots language in an early feature film, The Bush Cinderella (1928): ‘Andrew Cameron had tried to bring up his orphaned niece in strict accordance with “The Guid Book”’. A Scotsman, Andrew Henderson, is also a central character in The Wagon and the Star (1936). Alas, only 19 minutes of the film seemingly survives, fragments of footage having been found under a house in Wellington 50 years after its production.116 The surviving script of the central character’s dialogue, however, depicts Henderson’s speech as being infused with Scottish elements: ‘What’s the matter wi’ it? . . . ye ken . . . aye . . . mebbe’.117 Similar representations were made in cartoons about the Scots, as Figure 4 indicates. [ 79 ]

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840

Figure 4 ‘Footlight favourites of the Gaelic Society’: The Scots language

Accent and way of speaking English The Scottish way of speaking English seemingly attracted little attention in nineteenth-century sources, although Jessie Campbell did observe during her 1840 voyage from Greenock to Wellington that ‘Dr Campbell may be a good doctor but you would never think so from [ 80 ]

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LANGUAGE AND ACCENT

his manner, he speaks with such a Highland accent and expresses himself so ill you would think he had not spoken English till he was at least twenty.’118 Jessie intriguingly points to a discernible Highland accent, while more than 100 years later Mae Palmer highlighted the Glaswegian brogue of a Scotswoman encountered after her arrival at Wellington in 1951: ‘met a Mrs Black . . . She came from Glasgow 15 years ago . . . Although Mrs Black has been here all that time she has a broader Glasgow accent than I have’.119 Mae’s account may have been intended to reassure home readers that her own accent would not disappear. Apart from diverse accents within Scotland, the syntax of speaking English would also have differed, shaped in this regard by the Gaelic and Scots languages.120 More often, though, accents were considered generic, as historian Michael King concluded of his grandmother who ‘was a Scot in accent only (although that accent grew stronger with age)’.121 For some of these migrants their accents were an advantage. As migrant Carl Smith put it in his unpublished memoirs, ‘It is also true that over the years there has been a large scale of immigration and it is natural that immigrants bring with them their local accent. (A very well-known business head in London when asked why he still maintained a broad Scottish accent replied “It’s my biggest asset”.)’122 Yet for others a Scottish accent was a liability, as Harold Armstrong, who moved to New Zealand from Selkirk in 1963, explained: ‘The fact that I personally had a strong Scottish accent and my wife a liberal Northumbrian droll [drawl] combined with her original London accent was most confusing for the local residents many never having met overseas people until then.’ His eldest child, meanwhile, ‘was mocked when she started school because of her slight Scottish accent’.123 Jack McFadzean also recounted difficulties arising from his accent when he was a youngster. Having been asked to read from a book at school shortly after his arrival in the mid-1920s, Jack recounted, ‘Then the trouble started, step by step, or rather word by word the teacher would pull me up and try to get me to pronounce a word in a different manner. I must have had a very pronounced Scottish accent, and the teacher was determined to make me speak as a New Zealander.’124 The brogue of young Scots and Irish migrants marked them as different in a negative way and frequently this external pressure led to their speech being modified.125 The accent of those born in New Zealand, however, troubled some migrants. As Jessie Campbell explained in 1842 of her offspring, ‘they are taught by Miss King an Irish lady who came here with her brother. She is an old maid and very capable of doing them justice . . . My children will speak a queer lingo half English, half Scotch, half [ 81 ]

SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840

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Irish.’126 While the accent of Jessie’s children may have been altered by other influences, for some descendants their Scottish accents persisted. A particularly intriguing episode in relation to the Scottish accent appears in Lorna Carter’s letters. Encountering a second-generation Scot in 1953, Lorna told her parents: He turns & says ‘You’re not Scottish’!! He spoke with an east coast accent – and I said ‘I am too’ so out he comes with the priceless remark ‘Whit have yet done we y’re accent then!?’ Well I nearly died and laughed even more when the man doing the record said the old boy was born in Dunedin & had never been out of N.Z!! His folks came from Fife and here he was complete with accent.127

Such a situation may indeed have been influenced by the strong Scottish settlement of Dunedin and the ongoing migration of Scots to that city. These issues relating to the way of speaking of the descent group also appear in cinematic representations of the Scots in New Zealand. The internationally acclaimed film The Piano (1993), for instance, revolved around the multigenerational Scottish ethnic group in nineteenth-century New Zealand including that of Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill). Although clearly of Scottish origin from his name, his family relationship to Aunt Morag (Kerry Walker), and his arranged marriage with a fellow ethnic, Sam Neill, by speaking with a New Zealand accent, has prompted some commentators to assume his character is English-born.128 By contrast, Stewart’s wife Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) (through voiceover as she was mute) and her illegitimate daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) were both distinguished by their Scottish accents, although typical Scots-language words such as bonnie, aye, and blether are missing. In one scene, when Flora tells Aunt Morag of how her parents allegedly met and where they married, the screenplay stipulates of Flora ‘(Her Scottish accent becoming thick and expressive.)’.129 While the screenplay fails to supply the exact Scottish origins of the characters, a subsequent novel connects them to Aberdeen.130 Nevertheless, for some viewers the characters’ Scottish origins were unclear, prompting the director, Jane Campion, to later explain, ‘She is coming from Scotland. You probably noticed the accents of the characters. You make me think I probably should have had the name of the country appear at the beginning.’131 Unlike depictions of Irish migrants in New Zealand cinema, however, a Scottish accent was not in early years emphasised for humorous reasons, and subtitles do not reflect the Scottish way of speaking English. Instead, historical as well as more recent cinematic depictions portrayed Scots as dour. For the Irish, however, accent in earlier representations was an extension of the wit and humour for which the [ 82 ]

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LANGUAGE AND ACCENT

Irish were typecast. Despite the significance of the English language, the vernacular languages of the Scots and the Irish remained important for some migrants as recourse to various sources demonstrates. Language and accent, then, remained central identifiers for some Scottish and Irish migrants in New Zealand. It was the Gaelic and Scots language, however, which appears most strikingly in the sources consulted for this study, indicating the diversity of this aspect of Scottishness in New Zealand. By contrast, the Irish language featured less readily, but was influential in the manner in which some Irish migrants spoke English. Indeed, it was the northern–southern divide that was most prominent in relation to the accent of Irish migrants in New Zealand. For both the Irish and the Scots, however, use of their vernacular languages waned. Despite attracting alarm in some quarters, little could be done to stem the decline. The general absence of the Irish language in the source materials deployed in this study does not mean, however, that it was not spoken in New Zealand. It may simply be that Irish was confined to a more private arena than Scottish Gaelic which found public expression in ethnic societies specifically catering to the Gaelic tongue. How did material tokens of ethnicity compare?

Notes 1 John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith (eds), Ethnicity (Oxford and New York, 1996), pp. 6–7. 2 J. J. Lee, ‘Interpreting Irish America’, in J. J. Lee and Marion R. Casey (eds), Making the Irish American: History and Heritage of the Irish in the United States (New York and London, 2006), p. 27. 3 Mary C. Waters, Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1990), pp. 116–17. 4 Lee, ‘Interpreting Irish America’, p. 28. 5 Dymphna Lonergan, Sounds Irish: The Irish Language in Australia (Adelaide, 2004). 6 David Fitzpatrick, ‘“That beloved country, that no place else resembles”: connotations of Irishness in Irish-Australasian letters, 1841–1915’, Irish Historical Studies, 27:108 (1991), p. 347. 7 Laurie Bauer, ‘The dialectal origins of New Zealand English’, in Allan Bell and Koenraad Kuiper (eds), New Zealand English (Wellington, 2000), p. 50. 8 Tom Brooking, ‘Sharing out the haggis: the special Scottish contribution to New Zealand history’, in Tom Brooking and Jennie Coleman (eds), The Heather and the Fern: Scottish Migration and New Zealand Settlement (Dunedin, 2003), pp. 53 – 4. See also Jennie Coleman, ‘Gaelic (Scots)’, in Penny Griffith, Keith Maslen, and Ross Harvey (eds), Book and Print in New Zealand: A Guide to Print Culture in Aotearoa (Wellington, 1997), pp. 287–91. 9 Laurie Bauer, ‘Attempting to trace Scottish influence on New Zealand English’, in Edgar W. Schneider (ed.), Englishes Around the World, vol. 2: Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Australasia (Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 1997), p. 259; Peter Trudgill, Margaret MaClagan, and Gillian Lewis, ‘Linguistic archaeology: the Scottish input to New Zealand English phonology’, Journal of English Linguistics, 31:2 (2003), p. 122.

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 10 Bauer, ‘Attempting to trace Scottish influence on New Zealand English’, in Schneider (ed.), Englishes Around the World, p. 259. 11 Trudgill, MaClagan, and Lewis, ‘Linguistic archaeology’, p. 122. 12 Graham Tulloch, ‘Scots as a literary language in Australia’, in Schneider (ed.), Englishes Around the World, pp. 319–34. 13 Ibid., p. 319. 14 Shipboard diary of George Stephen Robertson, 1870, p. 16, ATL, MS-Papers-5591. 15 Shipboard journal of Bessie Prouten, 1877, in Frances Porter and Charlotte Macdonald (eds), ‘My Hand Will Write What My Heart Dictates’: The Unsettled Lives of Women in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand as Revealed to Sisters, Family and Friends (Auckland, 1996), p. 71. 16 Charlotte Godley (Wellington), 20 June 1850, extract dated 27 July 1850, in John R. Godley (ed.), Letters from Early New Zealand by Charlotte Godley, 1850 –1854 (Christchurch, 1951), p. 82. 17 Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 5 Jan. 1879, CM, Folder 51, 73/67. 18 Murray A. Boyd, From Donegal to Blackguard’s Corner (Kaikoura, 1992), p. 197. 19 Dunedin Lunatic Asylum and Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1863–c. 1920), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D265/19556/1, Case 199. 20 Michael King, Being Pakeha: An Encounter with New Zealand and the Maori Renaissance (Auckland, 1985), p. 28. 21 Dianne Haworth, Give a Man a Horse: The Remarkable Story of Sir Patrick Hogan (Auckland, 2007), p. 30. 22 Charlotte Godley (Lyttelton), 18 Nov. 1851, in Godley (ed.), Letters from Early New Zealand, p. 266. 23 Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 9 Nov. 1878, CM. 24 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Case Books (1900–3), ANZ ARO, YCAA, 1048/9, Case 255. 25 John Harris, ‘English in the north of Ireland’, in Peter Trudgill (ed.), Language in the British Isles (Cambridge, 1984), p. 116. 26 Interview with Trudie Lloyd by Judith Fyfe, recorded 20 April 1990, in ATL OHC, Women’s Division Federated Farmers of NZ (Inc) Oral History Project, OHC-0115. 27 Sr M. Philomena shipboard journal, 2 Oct. [1850], Pompallier Papers, ACDA. 28 Ibid., 3 Oct. [1850]. 29 James Cowan, ‘The bush poet: some old New Zealand songs’, Canterbury Times, 24 Sept. 1913. Transcript kindly provided by Moira Smith. 30 Frank H. Bodle Scrapbook, NZFA, D3712 M00012. 31 Dunedin Lunatic Asylum and Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1863–c. 1920), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D265/19556/1, Case 130. For other instances of the Irish language or accent see 1, Cases 106, 255, and Seacliff Asylum Medical Casebook (1885–1915), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/40, Case 49. For a Welsh example see the woman who is ‘Welsh & rattles off a torrent of what is possibly that language’, 1, Case 178. 32 Dunedin Lunatic Asylum Medical Casebook (1877–1913), ANZ DRO, DAHI/ D264/19956/39, Case 204. 33 Cathair Ó Dochartaigh, ‘The Irish language’, in Donald MacAulay (ed.), The Celtic Languages (Cambridge, 1993), p. 24. 34 Ibid., p. 25. 35 Ibid., p. 25. 36 Haworth, Give a Man a Horse, p. 59. 37 The Catholic Times, 4 Feb. 1888, p. 19, ACDA. 38 Tribune, 14 March 1935, p. 14, AWMML, DU436.12. 39 Eileen Reilly, ‘Modern Ireland: an introductory survey’, in Lee and Casey (eds), Making the Irish American, p. 95. 40 Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine, The Extinction of the World’s Languages (New York, 2000), p. 136.

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LANGUAGE AND ACCENT 41 Coleman, ‘Gaelic (Scots)’, pp. 287–91. 42 Discussion of the Irish language, for instance, is absent in Griffith, Maslen, and Harvey (eds), Book and Print in New Zealand. 43 Brigitte Bönisch-Brednich, Keeping a Low Profile: An Oral History of German Immigration to New Zealand (Wellington, 2002). 44 Liam McIlvanney, ‘Across the narrow sea: the language, literature and politics of Ulster Scots’, in Liam McIlvanney and Ray Ryan (eds), Ireland and Scotland: Culture and Society, 1700–2000 (Dublin, 2005), pp. 207–8. 45 Michael Montgomery, ‘The rediscovery of the Ulster Scots language’, in Edgar W. Schneider (ed.), Englishes Around the World, vol. 1: General Studies, British Isles, North America (Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 1997), p. 213. 46 Charlotte Godley (Canterbury), 18 Nov. 1851, in Godley (ed.), Letters from Early New Zealand, p. 266. 47 Ulster Society of Otago Inc. Minute Book, 7 Aug. 1958, HC, AG-239-2, p. 167. 48 McIlvanney, ‘Across the narrow sea’, p. 210. 49 Marianne McLean, The People of Glengarry: Highlanders in Transition, 1745–1820 (Montreal and Kingston, 1991). 50 Brooking, ‘Sharing out the haggis’, pp. 53–4. 51 Memoir of Alexander MacDonald, 1904, pp. 8–9, ATL, MS-Papers-6628. 52 For a study of Gaelic emigration literature in the 1840s see Sheila M. Kidd, ‘Caraid nan Gaidheal and “Friend of emigration”: Gaelic emigration literature of the 1840s’, Scottish Historical Review, 81:1 (2002), pp. 52–69. 53 AJHR, 1872, Sub-Enclosure 1 in No. 42, p. 48. 54 AJHR, 1873, D-2D, p. 13, Enclosure 1 in No. 36, Barclay to AG, 19 Sept. 1872. 55 AJHR, 1876, D-2, Enclosure in No. 31, Rev. P. Barclay to AG, 7 Jan. 1876. 56 AJHR, 1872, D-No. 1, p. 48, Enclosure 1 in No. 42, A. G. Allan to J. Vogel, 29 May 1872. 57 Marjory Harper, ‘Enticing the emigrant: Canadian agents in Ireland and Scotland, c. 1870– c. 1920’, Scottish Historical Review, 83:1 (2004), pp. 47–8. 58 Dugald Poppelwell, ‘A pioneer story’, p. 2, AWMML, MS 1269. 59 Basil Greenhill and Ann Giffard, Women Under Sail: Letters and Journals Concerning Eight Women Travelling or Working in Sailing Vessels between 1829 and 1949 (Newton Abbot, 1970), p. 62. 60 Shipboard journal of Mrs Isabella Bonthron, 1863, OSM, C011-1, p. 5. 61 Poppelwell, ‘A pioneer story’, p. 2. 62 Jessie Campbell (Wanganui) to Isabella, 9 March 1843, p. 18, ATL, qMS-0369. As Jessie reiterated to her mother on 27 June 1843, p. 22, ‘Since January I have had a Skye girl who came out in the Blenheim, I am counted fortunate in having her, she is honest and sober, milks the cows, is strong and not likely to marry in a hurry as she does not speak good English.’ 63 Canterbury Pilgrims and Early Settlers Scrapbook, 1923–35, vol. 2, p. 139, CCL. 64 Dunedin Lunatic Asylum and Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1863–c. 1920), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D265/19556/1, Case 572. 65 Ibid., Case 3. 66 Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1890–91), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/42, Case 2385. 67 Donald MacAulay, ‘The Scottish Gaelic language’, in MacAulay (ed.), The Celtic Languages, p. 145; Ewen A. Cameron, ‘Embracing the past: the Highlands in nineteenth century Scotland’, in Dauvit Broun, R. J. Finlay, and Michael Lynch (eds), Image and Identity: The Making and Remaking of Scotland through the Ages (Edinburgh, 1998), pp. 202, 206. 68 Andrew Kinross, ‘Poem for Highland Society of Southland’ 12 Nov. 1897, in Andrew Kinross, My Life and Lays (Invercargill, 1899), p. 111. 69 Andrew Kinross, ‘Poem for second annual gathering of the Highland Society of Southland’ 30 Sept. 1898, in ibid., p. 115. 70 Andrew Kinross, [No title – poem for Gaelic Society of New Zealand 1898], in ibid., p. 114.

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 71 Andrew Kinross, ‘Poem for second annual gathering of the Highland Society of Southland’ 30 Sept. 1898, in ibid., p. 115. 72 The phrase is translated as ‘Highlanders, shoulders together.’ See Dugald Ferguson, Poems of the Heart (Dunedin, 1897), p. 72. 73 Georgina McDonald, Grand Hills for Sheep (n.p., 1949), p. 95. 74 Ibid., p. 22. 75 The N.Z. Scotsman, 1:7 (7 March 1927), p. 8, ATL, Serials Collection, Per NZ SCO. 76 Caledonian Society of Otago Minute Book, c. 1904, p. 140, HC, MS 1045/8. 77 Minutes, 10 May 1930, p. 8, in Comunn Gaidhealach Wellington Minute Books, ATL, MSX-3055-3061/1. 78 The five Scots dialects are Insular (Orkney and Shetland), Northern (north-east, Caithness, Angus, and Mearns), Southern (most of the border region), Central (Glasgow, Stirling, Perth, and Edinburgh), and Ulster (Antrim, Donegal, and Down). I am grateful to Dauvit Horsbroch for this information. 79 I am grateful to Dauvit Horsbroch for discussing this with me. 80 Shipboard journal of William Laing, 8 Dec. 1859, CM, Folder 44, 76/49. 81 Ibid., 19 Dec. 1859. 82 Ibid., 26 Dec. 1859. 83 Shipboard diary of John Jack, 1883, ATL, MS-1074. 84 Shipboard diary of Jean McCarlie, 1881, ATL, MS-Papers-7031. 85 Shipboard journal of Mary Gibson, 1938. Extract dated 24 May 1938. Courtesy of May Tapp. 86 Ibid., 30 April 1938. 87 For discussion of this see T. M. Devine, The Scottish Nation, 1700 –2000 (London, 1999), esp. pp. 292–3. 88 Mae Palmer, At the Bows Looking Forward: The Voyage to NZ by the Palmer Family in 1951, on Board the SS Atlantis, as Described by Mae Palmer in Letters to her Parents in Paisley, Scotland (New Zealand: ?1998), 24 May 1951. 89 Canterbury Pilgrims, vol. 2, p. 130. 90 Lorna Carter (Wellington) to her parents (Oban), 10 April 1953, courtesy of Lorna Ross. 91 Ibid., 25 Dec. 1951, 23 May 1953. These phrases mean a great day, a drip, and a gossip. 92 Clan Mackay Society of New Zealand Minute Book, 3 Sep. 1947, HC, Misc-MS1433, p. 137. 93 Ibid., 12 Feb. 1948, HC, Misc-MS-1433, p. 143. Other factors dictating the poems included in the competition were their length and difficulty as alleged of ‘Strathnaver no more’. See p. 103, 28 April 1945. 94 Ibid., 31 July 1950, HC, Misc-MS-1433. 95 Caledonian Society of Otago Minute Book, c. 1904, p. 142, HC, MS 1045/8. 96 Shipboard diary of George Stephen Robertson, 1870, p. 38, ATL. 97 Ibid., p. 1. 98 Shipboard diary of William Smith, 1862, p. 8, ATL, MS-Papers-3609. 99 Shipboard diary of George Stephen Robertson, 1870, p. 9, ATL. 100 Shipboard diary of Agnes Cunningham Christie, 1879, ATL, MS-Papers-3891. 101 Shipboard journal of John Elder Moultray, 22 Sept. 1883, OSM, C-0209, Part II. 102 Jessie Campbell (Wanganui) to Isabella, 9 March 1843, p. 16, ATL. 103 Alexander Campbell (Sweet Hope) to his father and mother, 19 Jan. 1863, AWMML, MS 50, p. 94. 104 Alexander Campbell (Matakana) to James, 29 Sept. 1864, AWMML, MS 50, p. 156. 105 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Case Books (1908–10), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/11, Case 107. 106 John Berry, From Orkney to Invercargill: The Story of the Brass Family (Dunedin, 1984), p. 31. 107 Bannerman Kaye, Haromi: A New Zealand Story (London, 1900), p. 11. 108 Ibid., p. 9. 109 Novel in colonial Otago, HC, MS-0469, pp. 24–5.

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LANGUAGE AND ACCENT 110 ‘The early settlers of Otago’, in Berta Sinclair (ed.), The Poetical Works of Hugh Smith (The Bard of Inangahua) (Papanui, n.d.), p. 220. 111 The New Zealand Scot, 1:7 (20 May 1913), p. 2, ATL, Serials Collection, fPer NZ SCO. 112 Ibid., 1:6 (20 April 1913), p. 27. 113 The N.Z. Scotsman, 1:4 (7 June 1927), p. 143. 114 Tulloch, ‘Scots as a literary language’, pp. 325, 329. 115 David Kennedy Junior, Kennedy’s Colonial Travel: A Narrative of a Four Years’ Tour through Australia, New Zealand, Canada, &c (London, 1876), p. 203. 116 Helen Martin and Sam Edwards, New Zealand Film, 1912–1996 (Oxford and Auckland, 1997), p. 48. 117 Transcript of John Peake dialogue, NZFA. 118 Greenhill and Giffard, Women Under Sail, p. 69. 119 Palmer, At the Bows Looking Forward, 5 June 1951. 120 For analysis of English as spoken in the Highlands and Islands see Cynthia Shuken, ‘Highland and Island English’, in Trudgill (ed.), Language in the British Isles, pp. 152–66. 121 King, Being Pakeha, p. 16. 122 Carl V. Smith, ‘Memories of a great-grandfather’ (unpublished), courtesy of Douglas Duncan, Book Two, p. 218. 123 Harold Armstrong, BAIQ 007. 124 Jack McFadzean, A Scottish Kiwi & A Soldier at War (n.p., 1999), pp. 20–1. 125 For further examples in other destinations see Angela McCarthy, Personal Narratives of Irish and Scottish Migration, 1921–65: ‘For Spirit and Adventure’ (Manchester, 2007), pp. 188–9. 126 Jessie Campbell (Wanganui) to her brother, 8 May 1842, p. 8, ATL. 127 Lorna Carter (Wellington) to her parents (Oban), 3 Nov. 1953. 128 Andrew L. Urban, ‘Piano’s good companions’, 1993, in Virginia Wright Wexman (ed.), Jane Campion Interviews (Jackson, 1999), p. 147. Although the film is unclear about Alisdair Stewart’s origins, the novel fleshes out his background. See Jane Campion and Kate Pullinger, The Piano: A Novel (London, 1994), pp. 71–6. 129 Jane Campion, The Piano (London, 1993), p. 31. 130 Campion and Pullinger, The Piano, p. 15. Meanwhile, John Izod, ‘The Piano, the animus, and colonial experience’, in Harriet Margolis (ed.), Jane Campion’s The Piano (Cambridge, 2000), p. 87, states that Ada hails from Glasgow. 131 Vincent Ostria and Thierry Jousse, ‘The Piano: interview with Jane Campion’, 1993, in Wexman (ed.), Jane Campion Interviews, p. 126.

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CHAPTER 4

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Material tokens of ethnicity

In the poem ‘The haggis’, composed by Robert Francis, a Scottish poet in New Zealand, several ethnic groups were linked to particular national foods, including the English with plum pudding and roast beef; the Welsh with leeks; the Irish with potatoes; the Spanish with garlic; the French with ‘froggies an’ slimy, crawly snails’; the Italians with olives; and the Germans with sausages. No dish, however, could match that of the Scots: ‘but we Scotsmen hae the chief/O’ a’ the dishes ever made, an’ that’s the ane we hail’.1 The haggis, and associated Scottish foods, are also evident in the St Andrew’s Day menu for the Dunedin Burns Club in 1898 (Figure 5). In a chapter on cultural practices in her influential book Ethnic Options, Mary C. Waters utilised interviews with descendants of Catholic groups in the United States to explore cultural practices that can be viewed as ethnic, including food.2 A particular concern in that chapter was the extent to which customs such as weddings and funerals were due to the family influence or whether they were indeed ethnic. Waters found there was little disparity between diverse groups ‘but people thought that there were differences’.3 While acknowledging that such practices may only be confined to certain members of a family or ethnic group, this chapter explores the material tokens of ethnic identity for the Irish and the Scots in New Zealand that they or others perceived as Irish or Scottish. As we saw in Chapter 2, some aspects of the national, regional, county, and local identities of Irish and Scottish migrants also referred to the particular cultural elements of these identities (such as Highlandism and tartan) and it is these aspects that are explored at length in this chapter. Were the cultural elements of food, music, dress, and festivals attributed to the various local and regional identifiers of the homeland or were these elements perceived as pertinent to the entire national group?

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MATERIAL TOKENS OF ETHNICITY

Figure 5 St Andrew’s Day dinner for the Dunedin Burns Club, 30 Nov. 1898

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Dancing and music Scottish Apart from language, as we saw in the preceding chapter, another form of identity among Scottish migrants travelling to New Zealand was music, with bagpipes frequently mentioned. During his voyage in 1858, Daniel Brown reported on the ‘Dancing and playing of bagpipes’.4 Isabella Bonthron also commented on pipes stirring dancing on board ship in 1863: ‘There is generally a dance on board every night to the music of the bagpipes’.5 Bonthron also reported the death of a two-and-a-halfyear-old child at sea who ‘used to run about the liveliest and most merry of all the little ones, and when the bagpipes were played by the highland pipers on board she would jump and clap her little hands so gleefully’.6 According to a variety of reports from Angus McKay a decade later, ‘A brave highlander cheers us with his bagpipes’; ‘Fiddle and bagpipes going’; ‘Some pass the time reading, playing cards, the fiddle, bagpipes etc.’7 The following year, 1874, William Irvine, who voyaged from Glasgow, documented that ‘There is singing & dancing on deck every evening, there being two fiddles bagpipes & concertinas to accompany.’8 While they may have been a novelty occasionally, the constant noise from the pipes or the doubt surrounding a piper’s prowess may have been too much for some, as John Jack alluded to in 1883: ‘Mr McEwen had a pair of Bagpipes but as they were in a case in the hold, they were not available (perhaps it is just as well).’9 Despite a strong connection to the Highlands, bagpipes seemingly traversed ethnic boundaries at sea, with passengers, perhaps through boredom, willing to engage with its tunes. The pipes, then, were both an expression of identity, and a form of entertainment. Other instruments played by Scottish migrants were also noted, as George Robertson revealed in 1870: ‘We have got a very good piper on board, a very good fiddler and, likewise, a concertina and accordion player.’10 Thomas Keir’s journey in 1863, however, was made with a second-rate fiddler: ‘some of the scotch people had two or three reels but the music was not very good, the fiddler was an Irishman not well acquainted with the Scotch music’.11 James Harrison similarly mentioned during his voyage to Otago in 1878 that ‘We got the fiddlers to come down last night and they gave us a fine lot of Scotch music and dances’.12 Bethia Mawhinney, meanwhile, alluded in 1887 to the universally bonding environment generated by music on board ship: Two Scotch girls among us play the melodion and one or two among the Irish girls, the concertina. After tea as we were sitting on deck watching the moon rise one of the girls who had been playing, struck up a

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familiar Scotch reel . . . After we were tired we sat and sang Scotch songs. The Matron is very fond of them, and indeed all the English are.13

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Poets in New Zealand also reflected on the attraction of the pipes, including Robert Francis, who dismissed a number of instruments in favour of the bagpipes: Nae man in his senses wud e’er think tae fash His lungs or his fingers wi’ siccan like trash; Wha langs for guid music tae stir heart an’ brain, Will shout for the bagpipes wi’ micht an’ wi’ main.14

Glaswegian-born poet Andrew Kinross highlighted the martial strains of the bagpipes, but in this poem, addressed to the Highland Society of Southland, the pipes were explicitly linked with a Highland identity: ‘We love to hear the martial strains when loud the bagpipes swell,/That led our ancestors to fight, who conquered or who fell’.15 Dress and music, meanwhile, were linked in Kinross’ poem for the second annual gathering of the Highland Society of Southland: ‘And now we have a Highland band, the best in all the land,/When pipes shall play, and tartans wave, then everything is grand’.16 Dugald Ferguson, on the other hand, explicitly linked the bagpipes with a national consciousness of being Scottish, rather than specifically being attached to the Highlands: ‘When Scotland’s pipe sounds in my ears/My heart with martial joy it cheers’.17 This is also evident in feature films in New Zealand. Captured in the surviving footage of The Wagon and the Star (1936), for instance, is an early demonstration of Scottish cultural expression through Highland dancing and the skirl of bagpipes, though the actual event was the Tuatapere sports, in which Scottish forms of identity were played out at local events. The pipes were also used in feature films to connect Scottish descendants with their heritage. As the screenplay for An Angel at My Table (1990) stipulates, ‘Suddenly the sound of bagpipe music can be heard from outside the shed . . . Dad, in his kilt and old suit-coat, is striding up and down in the snow outside the shed, playing his bagpipes.’18 This replicates Janet Frame’s autobiography which sets out her father’s Scottish ethnicity: ‘Dad, sometimes striding up and down in the snow (he insisted that you had to stride up and down while you played the bagpipes), played his bagpipe tunes – “The Cock o’ the North” or “The Flowers of the Forest” or others from his book of bagpipe music.’19 Janet’s paternal grandfather, however, was from the Clyde Valley and her father, born in New Zealand, heard stories of the old country, participated in piping and dancing events, and knew the work of Scottish poets in New Zealand.20 Janet’s childhood was also, as her biographer Michael King reveals, ‘soaked in transplanted Scottish culture’.21 [ 91 ]

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While these forms of Scottishness seemingly support Herbert J. Gans’ theory of symbolic ethnicity among the third generation as a leisuretime activity, they contradict his contention that ‘the symbols third generation ethnics use to express their identity are more visible than the ethnic cultures and organizations of the first and second generation ethnics’.22 Janet’s father, among the second-generation group, was seemingly more inclined than Janet to express visible forms of Scottishness. Scottish dancing was also documented, often to the bagpipes, as George Hepburn noted at an 1855 marriage: ‘Plenty of dancing in the barn to the bagpipes.’23 In 1887 Jane Deans noted that ‘Mr Wilkin and I opened the ball with a Scotch reel’.24 And for the Southland Celtic Society gathering in 1895 poet Andrew Kinross penned: ‘Here we need no foreign dance,/Come from Germany or France –/Every Highlander must feel/Nothing beats strathspey or reel.’25 Again, Kinross explicitly linked these forms of dance with the Highlands. Mary Gibson of Bannockburn, Stirling, who sailed to New Zealand in April 1938 on board the vessel Remuera, kept a journal which she sent to her father John Gibson, a coal miner, upon arrival at Auckland. In it she provided a proud demonstration of Scottish dancing: ‘I was telling them they’ve never played a Scotch dance yet. I don’t think they can play them but we will see if they can do anything like that by the time we go off. Mrs Connell & I were doing patronella, Highland Schottiche etc on our own often to let some of the Ausies & N.Zs see how we dance.’26 Mae Palmer was another who documented her voyage to New Zealand. In 1951 she noted, ‘We went to a concert given by the Scotch people on board. We had pipes, Scottish country dancing, Scotch songs, an accordion player and a harmonica band. Also a little sketch on the Broon family. We did enjoy it and so did the English folk too.’27 Once in New Zealand, Scottish country dancing was generally found within various Scottish societies until they formed independently (Figure 6).28 Songs were also connected with national origins. As an early migrant to Otago in the 1840s noticed, ‘in the fine tropical evenings, the entire body of passengers being on deck, sometimes they practised church-music, sometimes Scotch songs were sung’.29 William Irvine in 1874 also observed, ‘This evening a grand concert was held on the quarter deck & consisted of songs recitations etc from celebrated Glasgow characters.’30 Even more nostalgically he noted: ‘At night there was a kind of concert on board singing dancing, reciting etc. My thoughts flew back to Jamaica or Argyle Sts. on a Saturday night.’31 According to John Menzies, who voyaged in 1878, ‘Two or three of the young Scotchmen on board sang a few songs very well today.’32 Indeed, [ 92 ]

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Figure 6 The author’s mother preparing to do the Highland Fling, Auckland, 1958

singing Scottish songs also allegedly preoccupied John Anderson, who settled initially at Lyttelton and then close to the river Avon. Although a tricky individual to locate, it was said ‘the smoke from his smithy was an indication of where John Anderson was to be found, and as one drew near one could hear the ring of his anvil while he kept time with some Scotch airs which he sung right merrily from day to day’.33 That such elements were passed through the generations is also evident from the history of the Bruce family. David Bruce junior’s daughter reported that ‘At night before we went to bed he would often sing old Scottish songs and play his violin, having heard his own father do the same when he was young.’34 Of his father, also David Bruce, it was recalled that after arrival in New Zealand he ‘learnt to play the fiddle and the bagpipes while tending the sheep on the lonely hills and glens. Members of his own family mentioned the times he took down the fiddle after a long hard day’s work on the Greendale farm and played traditional Highland tunes and hymns till well into the night.’35 Scottish music and dancing were also connected with formal societies such as the Caledonian Society. Figure 7, for instance, depicts the fourth annual concert, held in 1889, of Wellington’s Caledonian Society. Displaying a Scottish bagpiper on the front cover, the Society also drew on Scottish images for the back cover which depicts another kilted Scot surrounded by the lyrics to Robert Burns’ ‘Auld lang syne’. [ 93 ]

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Figure 7 Caledonian Society of Wellington, fourth annual concert, 12 July 1889

The names of particular songs sung were also occasionally mentioned by migrants and demonstrated a Scottish character. According to one migrant, ‘The captain sent for me to go up to the cabin to play them a selection of music on the English concertina. The captain sang “Annie Laurie” to my instrument. Of course he is a Scotsman.’36 Jane Findlayson, meanwhile, attested in 1876 that ‘the songs were enjoyed most were such as “I’m a scotchman born” and “Auld Lang Syre”, these put us in mind of home’.37 Thomas Keir also noted ‘a group of scotch singing Auld Lang Syne, finished of with “God Save the Queen”’.38 Among the concert songs listed by George Robertson in 1870 during his trip from Glasgow to Dunedin were a mixture of Scottish and Irish tunes: ‘Braes o’Mar’, ‘A drap mair’, ‘Irishman’s home’, ‘Lad born in Kyle’, ‘Caledonia’, ‘My nannie’s awa’, ‘My ain bonnie laddie’, ‘Annie Laurie’, and ‘Jessie the flower o’Dublin’.39 And according to W. G. Mackenzie on board the Orari in 1880, ‘the men were rehearsing some instrumental (?) music, with which they edified us whilst at tea. They always come aft to muster at 8 Bells (8 P.M) to the tune of “Highland Laddie” – and finish up with “Auld Lang Syne”’.40 During an 1883 concert at sea, ‘“Bonnie Scotland” was sung first and carried our thoughts back to many a pleasant nicht we had [ 94 ]

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spent by the “ingle side” in the land we soon softly singing “Annie Laurie” Then “The Blue Bells of Scotland”’.41 A concert the following night generated the observation that ‘It was easy to see that the mess was composed of the Scotch element’ with songs such as ‘Weel hae nane but Highland Bonnets here’ and ‘A Guid New Year’.42 Music was also a key element to exemplify Scottishness in the film The Piano set in nineteenth-century New Zealand. In an interview, composer Michael Nyman explained, ‘Since Ada was from Scotland, it was logical to use Scottish folk and popular songs as the basis for our music. Once I hit on that idea the whole thing fell into place. It’s as though I’ve been writing the music of another composer who happened to live in Scotland, then New Zealand in the mid 1850s.’ Music was especially vital in the film given that the lead character Ada was mute. According to Nyman, ‘Since Ada doesn’t speak, the piano music doesn’t simply have the usual expressive role but becomes a substitute for her voice. The sound of the piano becomes her character, her mood, her expressions, her unspoken dialogue.’43 As director Jane Campion also explained, ‘Michael Nyman decided to use Scottish airs, pieces which Ada could have heard in her country and which go well with her personality.’44 ‘Flowers of the forest’ and ‘Bonnie Jean’ were among the sources used for Nyman’s compositions. Despite attempting to convey a Scottish flavour, Nyman’s transformation of the original melodies is criticised as inauthentic for the period.45 Irish Commenting on the music of various nationalities during his voyage in 1863, Englishman William Herries MacLean observed, ‘The tunes were English, Scotch and Irish. The representatives of the three countries each gave us a turn.’46 Yet, by contrast with Scottish migrants, music was only occasionally mentioned in connection with Irish migrants bound for New Zealand. Glaswegian James Harrison described a visit he and his wife made to passengers during their voyage in 1878 where they heard ‘irish song in Real Hibernian’.47 Mostly, however, commentary on Irish songs from non-Irish passengers generated humour or scathing commentary, though generally there was no mention of nationalist or loyalist overtones. A concert conducted during Bethia Mawhinney’s transit to New Zealand in 1887, for instance, saw a passenger sing ‘one song – to Mrs. Quin – a queer old Irish wife (for whom he had proposed three cheers at the same time as the others were cheered). It was Irish of course, and very funny.’48 By contrast, Scotsman John Elder Moultray reported in 1883 on his fellow passengers in which: [ 95 ]

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One of them an Irishman had a long peculiar shaped tube concein which he had the assurance to call a fog-horn. In answer to the enquiry as to how I had liked his music during the night I replied that different People had different tastes but as for myself I considered a pig screaming under a gate in conjunction with a flock of Geese in full cry as something sublimely celestial in comparison with his effort. Instead of being offended he took it as a high compliment.49

These observations were from the non-Irish. By contrast, the Irish tended to report favourably on the music of their compatriots, including Irishman James McKee, who in 1880 reflected, ‘We had a very good night in our own cabin. The Stewart & cook were down & we had any amount of songs but the Irish ones always carries the sway.’50 Irish migrants also wrote of their musical prowess. Matthew Moriarty, for instance, observed in 1878 that ‘2 Kerry men play flute and dance splendidly’ and ‘I play flute for Kerry men to dance.’51 And during her voyage in 1914, Eleanor D’Arcy reported, ‘one of the items was a good selection of Irish airs which an old Gent (whose Parents were Irish) enjoyed greatly. He & his wife are returning to New Zealand.’52 Derryman Andrew Campbell, by contrast, tended to highlight Scottish songs during a concert in 1883 which ‘reminded me of happy days & nights at home there was the prairie flower. Craigie lee. bonie doon. the boatie row. a lang sine’.53 As well as being played at sea, Irish music also found an audience in New Zealand. As the Herald reported in 1869, the children at a local Auckland orphanage ‘sang a number of simple and home-sounding melodies with correctness and harmonious effect, which made us almost forget we were in a school so far from the Emerald Isle’.54 Irish music took a prominent role in various festivals in New Zealand. Resplendent at a St Patrick’s Day concert at the Auckland Town Hall in 1935, for instance, was the ‘music, ballads and dances of Ireland’.55 That same year, the Tribune drew parallels between the Irish and the Scots: ‘Like their brother Scots, the Irish never weary of national dancing’.56 And, as a more recent image shows (Figure 8), Irish dancing continues to be practised in New Zealand. For some commentators, Irish music had a particular political and emotional aspect: ‘our national music has thriven and flourished in misfortune, and it is more dear to us because it is the child of persecution’.57 Other reports noted migrants ‘singing the old Irish songs’ such as ‘Irish Eyes are Smiling’, ‘Galway Bay’, ‘Isle of Innesfree’, ‘Dear Little Shamrock’ and ‘Danny Boy’.58 Irish music also had a particular poignancy for individuals during the festive season, as evidenced during the return of Sir Patrick Hogan’s father, Tom, to Ireland in 1968 where his relatives ‘were enchanted to learn more of their “down under” [ 96 ]

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Figure 8 Dancers at the Irish National Feis, Kilbirnie, Wellington, 1986

relatives from their New Zealand visitor – the poignancy of Tom’s Christmas Day ritual in Cambridge where he would lock himself away in his room to listen to Irish music’.59

Irish festivals As Alison Clarke has indicated in her engaging study of holiday seasons in New Zealand, the celebration of Christmas was generally seen to be an English rather than Scottish or Irish celebration.60 This is aptly demonstrated by Alexander Campbell, who in 1866 wrote from Matakana, north of Auckland, observing that: Scotch people carry their national example to the Colonies in respect to Christmas day. It has never been the custom there to notice it as different from any other week day; one the other hand Englishmen hail it as one of the greatest eras of the year, some few as a day of fasting and prayer, but the bulk of them as a day of feasting. I think they are rather an example to the Scotch, in principle, as to Christmas being hailed as the great day of the year.61

By contrast, Irish migrants were more likely to commemorate St Patrick’s Day (Figure 9) and the ‘Glorious Twelfth’. Joseph Allen, for instance, made the following account of the celebration of Ireland’s [ 97 ]

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Figure 9 St Patrick’s Day Sports Festival, Wellington, 1912

patron saint at sea in 1874: ‘Irish passengers trimmed in their best on deck or with green flavouring glass of grog. Lime juice and rum served out to every adult passenger who chose to take it.’62 While mention of St Patrick’s Day occurs occasionally in the historiography of the Irish diaspora, the major work is Mike Cronin and Daryl Adair’s history of the feast day of Ireland’s saint as commemorated in Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia. While arguing that observance of the day varied according to time and place, Cronin and Adair also highlight the festival’s multiple dimensions, including solidarity and dissent, and trace its evolution ‘from an ethnic and religious celebration of the Irish patron saint, to a largely secular and commercial holiday’.63 Their exploration, however, is focused on street parades and overlooks New Zealand as one of the countries among the Irish diaspora. While a major study of St Patrick’s Day in New Zealand still awaits its historian, a pioneering study of the day as commemorated in Auckland between 1868 and 1899 demonstrates the ‘mutual tolerance and general acceptance’ that residents of Auckland directed towards the day’s events.64 The day generally began with Mass, followed by a parade, before a range of activities were pursued. Typical festivities included songs, plays, competitions, excursions, excess drinking, and [ 98 ]

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conflict.65 Material culture is also evident, as was noted retrospectively in 1850 at Auckland: ‘The walls were tastefully adorned with green boughs and banners used on the festival of Ireland’s patron saint.’66 Although contemporary celebrations of St Patrick’s Day generally result in the Irish and the non-Irish donning green clothing, one celebration of the feast day of Ireland’s patron saint at sea in 1883 was an occasion for the expression of all national days: ‘St Patricks day which was observed by all of us The Irish all wore green the English red, white, & blue Germans Balack, white, & blue, & the Scotch Their coulours w[erased: h]e have some Danish I wore no colour but wished for a Shamrock.’67 A number of factors, however, contributed to the waning of St Patrick’s Day celebrations in New Zealand, including poor organisation and a downturn in the numbers of new arrivals from Ireland. An adverse climate also dampened enthusiasm in some years. As Bishop Croke noted in 1873, ‘This day P. day) is very bad, and the children cannot have their procession. It is a sore disappointment to us all.’68 Thirty years later, the Catholic Tablet rued the possible intervention of Scots in commemorating the feast day of Ireland’s patron saint: St. Patrick’s Day is approaching, but as yet no move has been made in the way of holding a fitting celebration. At the last meeting of the directors of the Caledonian Society mention was made of holding a sports gathering on that day. It will not be very flattering to the Irishmen of South Canterbury if a Scottish Society steps in to celebrate their national festival, especially when their own Association fell through for want of enthusiastic support.69

While St Patrick’s Day at Gisborne in 1935 consisted of orchestral items, Irish airs, and the flying of the Irish national flag,70 the following year the Tribune reflected ruefully on earlier commemorations which were characterised by ‘dinners, family gatherings, and not one, but several national concerts’. Despite the waning interest, the paper asserted that ‘the name of St. Patrick has been a symbol and a guiding light which has carried them through black periods of persecution and torment’.71 While St Patrick’s Day was generally perceived in positive terms, accounts of the commemoration of the ‘Glorious Twelfth’ (celebrated annually on 12 July by Orangemen recalling the victory of the Protestant William of Orange over the Catholic James II and VII at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690) tended to focus on the negative aspects of widespread drinking and aggression. Among the few accounts discovered in this study was Scotsman William Runciman’s testimony from on board the Hermione on 12 July 1881: ‘After I closed last night [ 99 ]

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I went on deck and there a sight presented itself in the form of a few Orangemen almost mortal drunk over th[e] celebration of the famous 12th July.’72 The most extensive discussion of the day’s commemorations, however, was found in Thomas Warnock’s shipboard journal, maintained during his voyage in 1878 on the Lady Jocelyn. Emphasising the Irish dimension of the commemoration, Warnock observed the day before the event that ‘There is any amount of surmising what the people are doing at home & where all the arches are being put up & where the Orangemen will walk in the morrow & talking of the fine day the spent last twelfth. The Englishmen dont seem to know the meaning of it at all.’73 The following day Warnock wrote comprehensively about the day’s activities: although in bed I could hear the miniature drums (tin cans Etc) getting beaten with [word illegible] by a few boys & a tin whistle accompanying the music. In my cabin two flutes (one half a note higher than the other) kept up a most horrible noise for about two hours which amazed me very much. I requested some of them to give over but they seemed to think the more the merrier. One old man who was two years in the American war received a medal & displayed it very conspicuously on his breast trimmed with orange ribbon & quite a lot of men wore pieces of orange ribbon in their button hole during the day. And some of them wore a better set of clothes than usual. The Rev Wm Johnston stood four bottles of brandy to the Orangemen on board & they met in our Cabin to drink. There was only about a dozen present although there was more on board.74

Warnock went on to describe the boozing party in the cabin ‘& afterwards we had [word illegible] battle between two Belfast men. After one of them who was was very drunk got knocked down the third time he refused to get up but said he would settle it in the morning.’75 Reflecting further on the event, Warnock observed, ‘We had a pugilistic encounter between two Belfast men after which one of them cried like a child & said he wasn’t the others match.’76 The commemoration of St Patrick’s Day and the Glorious Twelfth, then, were very much public demonstrations at sea and in the new land. They therefore contradict Mary Waters’ claim that festivals perceived as ethnic were often tied to family traditions and family celebrations.77 The festival of Halloween was also celebrated publicly, as Irishman John McDowell noted in 1876: ‘It is now 18 years since I knew anything about a hallow Ene untill now as in America nothing of the thing is thought of. But to-night the Scotch & North of Irish turn to their ancient customs, could not let it pass without celebrating and their “Auld Hallow Een”’.78 Transformations in the celebration [ 100 ]

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of such ceremonies, however, took place. As noted by Hawera’s Scottish Society in 1929, ‘Customs change with the skies, and the festival that we Scots call Hallowe’en is, in the Antipodes, a very different ceremony from that described by Burns.’ Elaborating on this difference, it was noted that in New Zealand the festival centred on the involvement of children, whereas during Burns’ era the focus was on courting couples.79 How did the Scottish celebration of New Year compare?

New Year If migrants from Scotland and Northern Ireland were seen to share the festivity of Halloween, New Year was the festive occasion which set Scots apart from their fellow migrants. Alison Clarke has provided an illuminating overview of the festival as a day that routinely incorporated music, singing and dancing, fireworks, alcohol, first footing, pranks, picnics, and sports.80 Clarke points out that despite being a Scottish holiday it was readily adopted by most New Zealanders and took on a New Zealand dimension by being linked to the great outdoors.81 Clarke’s assessment, however, focuses on commemoration of New Year once migrants were settled in New Zealand. But how was the day celebrated by those at sea? Evidence from numerous shipboard journals certainly attests to commemoration of the day. According to John Murray, who travelled on the Bengal Merchant in 1839/40, ‘The usual ceremonies of old Scotland on New Year day were upheld in all their variety and the day was spent with much gaiety.’82 Some migrants reflected before the night’s events, including Margaret Peace, who in 1864 was voyaging from Newfoundland to Auckland: ‘Last night of the year or Hogmanay as we say in Scotland . . . Am thinking of various things in connection with the past year. My own dear old Scottish home – the land of my birth and the land we have left behind us.’83 Peter Thomson also felt nostalgic in 1861: ‘When I think how happy all the folks at home will be to night, I feel inclined to be a little miserable; but yet, why should I! let me hope for the best.’84 The next day he simply ‘Wished the Mess a happy “New Year”’.85 Shetlander T. P. Hughson meanwhile recounted the appearance of New Year in 1879 when ‘the most of us scotchmen got into a circle and joining hands we sang auld lang sine. I may also add that they were a good many of us scotties’.86 One of the most extensive accounts of New Year festivities at sea identified in this study emerged from William Laing, who travelled to New Zealand in 1859 on the Bulworth. As he anticipated: [ 101 ]

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This night over most parts of “Scotland” will be spent in conviviality. Friends will be wishing each other well, and that they may live to see many an old year die and the birth of many a new. I trust you will also be seated among friends enjoying yourself, and when you hear the solemn tones of the bells tolling forth a requiem for the old and a welcome to the new born year, I know that amidst the shaking of hands, and the drinking of health, you will not forget me though I be so far away tossing upon the billows of the ocean.

He then noted, ‘I do not hear much word of “Hogmanay” but I think I will manage to get a bottle of Brandy to hold it with’.87 The next day Laing described events of the evening of 31 December 1859: a good few of us kept out of bed untill twelve oclock. We had some porter and ale over which we laughed and joked & sung a song until eight bells which is twelve oclock then there was a shaking of hands & a wishing of each other a happy new year . . . I managed to get a bottle of Brandy in a quiet way, which I produced at 12 oclock and gave some of them a new years dram but I took good care to leave plenty in the bottle to drink your health at half past five.88

William Laing had clearly anticipated the time when his kinsfolk in Scotland would be bringing in the New Year, for having awoken at 5am, he continued to reflect, ‘and I am sitting here (all alone) in person but my thoughts are over the water . . . now [erased: that] I can hear the city clocks of Aberdeen pealling forth the hour of midnight. I have my cup all ready, your good health then I wish’.89 G. Proudfoot was another who reflected on the events of New Year. As he wrote on New Year’s Day in 1856: Last night there was much noise & drinking going on ‘bringing in the New Year’. As soon as it was 12 oclock the ships’ bell was violently rung by the mate on watch. Instantly was raised a hearty three times three by the people below which we again responded in the same manner by the watch on Deck. Then commenced the shaking of hands & the ‘happy new year’. Those went to bed were quite disturbed by the noise made on the occasion. My father & some others have been to dinner [word illegible] with the Captain & had reel [?adullichan] to the music of the bagpipes.90

Although not an occasion generally celebrated by Irish and English migrants, some did comment on New Year during their voyage to New Zealand. According to Protestant Donegal migrant Matthew Francis Moriarty in 1879, ‘We had a Happy New Years day and you may guess I knew well the good prayers offered for us by those whose prayers were answered for themselves in Killaghtee.’91 Englishman Andrew [ 102 ]

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Fuller Carey, meanwhile, did not comment on his participation in festivities but instead set forth his fear of the proceedings for New Year’s Day in 1882 based on the way Christmas Eve had been celebrated at sea: ‘New Years day is an important day for the Scotch & the Captain & crew being Scotch it is feared lest they may keep up (as they call it) New Years day – I only pray that they will abstain from liquor if they do proclaim it a holiday as I dread to think of another edition of last nights proceedings.’92 For one Irishman on his way to New Zealand, New Year celebrations occurred on land at South Africa. As Andrew Campbell put it: ‘after dinner a few of my shipmates & I went to the Caledonian Sports. I have seen some gatherings at home, but never in my life did I see any like this. The Newyear seems to be agreat time for amusement hear. I have seen the Champion of the World hear. a Scotchman Donald Deney.’93 Campbell added, ‘Went to the Caledonian Sports, great amusements & verry large gathering. Donald Deney seems to be a great attraction wherever he go. They Scotchmen ralley round him, as they used to do with Wallace or Bruce of old’.94 At sea in 1879 Peter McIntyre of Perth conveyed ‘a guid new year ta ane an awa’. He also rued: There wisna much whisky gawn here for they would not sell it so nobody was drunk but at night there was a soiree concert and ball among the men. There was no women present. First there were pasteries and tea then singing then a glass of whisky or a glass of lemonade was given to each then singing again when we would up with Auld Lang Syne then three cheers for absent friends then the ball started. We had a fiddler. There was not a woman there but I think it was one of the best balls ever I saw.95

Once in New Zealand, as Clarke has documented, the celebration of New Year continued. It was found by some, such as Begg, to be odd: ‘The first New Year that we passed we thought it strange to have it in the middle of summer. It did not feel like New Year at all; however we kept it all the same as in the old country we kept it a holiday’.96 Archibald McDonald linked food with New Year celebrations when he noted: This being Hogmanay, we had no less than shortbread baked in the galley oven . . . The following morning being New Year’s Day, 1848, a few went a-footing with a little rum and shortbread, but as this was no means general the morning passed quietly away till noon, at which time all the adults were served with a glass of rum, which they carefully preserved until night, when commenced a mock feast amongst a great number of the emigrants in imitation of the vulgar custom at

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home. The night, however, passed away pleasantly enough with drinking and singing.97

With the dawning of 1861, Archibald McCallum was able to report that ‘On New Year’s Day I was very jolly and drank the health of all absent friends.’98 Reflecting on his first New Year’s Day, experienced five or six weeks after arriving in New Zealand in 1859, James McKerrow pointed to the ‘warm night sunshine and strawberries and cream . . . poor substitute for the dark night with the hail battering on the windows, the sung warm cosy room, the bright cheerful fire, the re-union of friends around the table, the crisp oak cakes and ham, the buttered toast, the currant bun and the other fine things that make up a good scotch tea’.99

Food and drink The connection of food with the celebration of important festivals and events has been identified by Waters in her study of the descent group in the United States.100 For the Irish this involved the linkage of corned beef and cabbage with St Patrick’s Day celebrations.101 Yet, focusing on an earlier time period, Hasia Diner’s comparative exploration of the foodways of the Irish, Italians, and Jews in their homelands and in America, highlighted the ‘narrow diet and general disinterest in foodways’ among the Irish and the absence of food in articulations of Irish identity at home and in America.102 This absence abroad was, Diner argues, due to their pre-migration culture as well as their experiences of migration and settlement.103 Fundamentally, she concludes that the famine’s ‘legacy made it impossible for them to create a distinctive Irish food in America. Part of their memory was forever fused with memories of hunger.’104 Panikos Panayi identifies a similar situation among the Irish in Britain but attributes it to the lack of Irish food being distinctive.105 The manifest absence of Irish food mentioned in the sources consulted for this study is similarly striking, though John Cardwell ‘had Irish Stew for dinner yesterday or as they call it here Sea Pie’.106 Irish alcohol was also only occasionally mentioned, with Matthew Francis Moriarty referring to Jameson’s whiskey: ‘Bill and his brother Steeve came down at tea and we talked of old Ireland and Bill provided a wee drop of John Jemison.’107 Indeed, whisky was a mainstay for those at sea and included both Scotch and Irish versions, as John Jack observed in 1883: ‘We finished with a tumbler of toddy made of Irish whisky, the supply of Scotch having been finished, but it was not nearly so well relished, the flavour [ 104 ]

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being so different from the latter.’108 Thomas Keir also noted in 1863, ‘Baked a currant loaf for our New Year and got some whisky from the purser at 3/-.’109 The importance of such beverages was put to poetry by Andrew Kinross, who linked various alcoholic beverages with certain ethnic groups including the French with wine and the German with beer. As for his own ethnic group, Kinross focused on whisky: ‘For the Scotchman has whisky as water of life,/To brighten his leisure, and to cheer him in strife’.110 By contrast with the Irish, a range of foodways were associated with Scottish migrants and, as Margaret Bennett indicated in her study of Gaelic settlers in Quebec, ‘in cooking and baking according to traditional “Scotch” recipes, they assert a form of ethnic and cultural identity easily recognised by all members of the community, both inside and outside the group’.111 This cultural retention, Bennett emphasises, was evident in both the preparation and the presentation of food.112 As the following accounts demonstrate, Scottish migrants travelling to New Zealand shared the preoccupation with their distinctive fare as exhibited by Gaels in Quebec and their counterparts voyaging to Australia.113 Oatmeal was a particularly important item of Scottish cuisine, being ‘embedded in the mentality of the Scots as an identification mark’.114 According to John McLay, who voyaged to Otago in 1849: ‘Jones said he did not think a Scotchman would ever be pleased without oatmeal’.115 Its importance was due to its contribution to two main foods among Scots: oatcakes and porridge. As was observed during the voyage of the Rust brothers, ‘Margot Clow, a fellow passenger, from Perthshire, made a few Oat cakes for us, and we toasted them, took part of them to our tea, very delighted to have them, as they made us think we were at home. There being several English men in our mess, they did not care much for the bannocks, so we had them.’116 A similar account was provided by A. Boyes, who in 1849 on board the Mariner revealed, ‘A table divided the Scotch from the English therefore them and us had many a chat, they not liking the Oat and meal which was part of our rations and we not caring for the pickles. They agreed to give us the oatmeal, we giving them the pickled of which they were very fond.’117 In similar terms William Runciman reported in 1881, ‘The mess next to us are comprised of English people and like their friends they dont care much for oatmeal so we got their share’, allowing his mess to have porridge and oatcakes more frequently.118 Fictional writings also linked the Scots with oatcakes, as evident in Georgina McDonald’s novel Grand Hills for Sheep, where the character of Madeline observes of tourists from the North Island [ 105 ]

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dining at Macrae’s Scots tea-rooms: ‘Did you note that what pleased them most was they’re North Islanders and it seemed fitting to them that in a Scots province they should be served oatcakes and girdlescones.’119 From Wellington in 1840 William Deans also noted that ‘Another thing peculiarly Scotch is a girdle, and English people passing here are quite taken with the bread we bake.’120 Early accounts from Otago echoed the importance of Scottish baking: ‘We have no need of bakers, every one bakes for himself.’ Discussing dampers made in New Zealand, the writer concluded, ‘I prefer it far before the bread the bakers make in Scotland’.121 The comment indicates that certain adaptations to food were made in New Zealand, due in part to environmental conditions confronted in the new land. Yet such difficulties were also encountered during the voyage, as Thomas Reid explained: Cooking, beyond what is done by the ship is not an easy matter; a small frying or stew pan would have been very handy. We had some strange messes to avoid eating the biscuits. What would some of our honest Scotch folk that can always get plenty of flour, think of a mixture of flour, thick pea-soup and steeped biscuits, baked into scones and without baking soda.122

The importance of oatmeal for porridge surfaced regularly both at sea and on land. According to Agnes Hay in 1841, ‘our food is porach an milk broth and potatos Te bisect and scon’.123 Edwin Hodder also noted the importance of porridge during the voyage in 1862: ‘Breakfast was the mainstay of our existence, and generally consisted of a pot of bergou each-a farinaccous dish, known by the Scotch as “porridge”, and by the English as “chicken’s food” -reckoned by all to be wholesome, but not highly esteemed as a relish.’124 Isabella Ritchie Wallace, meanwhile, reported in 1863 that ‘Sometimes we get a little porridge’.125 During her voyage in 1887 Bethia Mawhinney concluded, ‘The porridge is excellent – but one misses the milk.’126 Even those born in England commented on the explicit link between the Scots and porridge. As William Herries MacLean observed in 1863, ‘I often get some porridge for breakfast. I have got quite a Scotchman in this respect.’127 Porridge continued to be associated with the Scots into the twentieth century, with George Fairlie Moore recounting his identification of being Scottish due to his way of eating porridge: ‘Observing Bob and me putting salt in our porridge, the Millionaire made a remark, the first I have heard, and it was, “You’re Scotch! I know by the salt.”’128 Carl Smith also reminisced of the 1920s, ‘I also carried a billy full of oatmeal and water, which was a most refreshing drink in hot weather although sacrilege to a Scot who is accustomed to having his porridge [ 106 ]

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cooked!’129 Porridge was also the staple food in poet Andrew Kinross’ ode, ‘Porridge for ever’. The poem arose from an alleged claim made in Parliament by the politician George Grey ‘that Sir Robert Stout [the New Zealand premier] told the House where he was brought up people lived chiefly on oatmeal’ and that ‘the porridge had given Sir Robert high notions’. With the Stout government’s proposal to increase duties on articles of diet, Kinross declared: On oatmeal an’ whisky oor faithers were reared, Whause claymores an’ bagpipes by foemen were feared; ... Let bannocks an’ porridge for ever prevail As they did in the past in the land of the Gael.130

Apart from porridge, haggis was also a key dish mentioned in connection with Scottish migrants in New Zealand. During Jessie Campbell’s voyage from Greenock to Wellington in 1840 she noted, ‘when a sheep is killed my Skye maid is employed to make the haggis, and very good she makes it’. It was clearly a success, for two days later Jessie observed, ‘Capt Gray very angry at Skye woman for refusing to make haggis on Sunday.’131 Thomas Keir also reported on the use of haggis at sea during his 1863–64 voyage: ‘Had a scotch Haggis cooked in the flagin for dinner.’132 Jean McCarlie was another reporting on the dish, for in 1881 she wrote, ‘One of the sheep was killed today. Mrs. Muir and I were wandering if the cook could make Scotch haggis as we could enjoy a piece of one.’133 She then wrote, ‘We had real Scotch haggis for dinner today – preserved in tins and it was quite a treat.’134 From Canterbury in 1887 Jane Deans recalled her prowess at cooking haggis: ‘We had dinner afterwards in the drawing-room – a real Scotch one, though I only remember haggis being specially requested by the bridegroom. I used to pride myself that I could make a few Scotch dishes nicely, and that was one.’135 Broth and stews were also mentioned in connection with national origins. Jean McCarlie in 1881, ‘Enjoyed a nice dinner of Scotch broth and stewed rabbit.’136 Different cooking styles were also reported upon, as Scottish draper Archibald Clark observed during his voyage on the Thames in 1849 from Gravesend to Auckland: ‘The English passengers do not join us in this as they do not like soup with barley. They use their barley and rice with their meat and in puddings cooked in various ways according to their own taste.’137 While regional dietary variations among the Scots are generally not observed, an Immigration Commissioners’ reporting on the voyage of the Clarence in 1875 was alert to this when they issued ‘regret that the authorities at home did not take some precautionary means towards providing [ 107 ]

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for the change of diet of such people as those that came from Shetland, whose principal food is fish. In the case of Scandinavians being transmitted, a very large quantity of fish is put on board, which to a great degree obviates a complete change of diet, as has been in the case of the Shetland people now arrived.’138 Once in New Zealand differences in food also attracted the attention of migrants. According to John Deans from Canterbury in 1843: ‘We have plenty of very good fish in the port; they are very easy caught, but I don’t see any of them exactly the same as those at home . . . We can have splendid shooting, although there is no grouse, hares nor partridges there are as fine wild ducks as ever I saw in Scotland.’139 Despite such changes it was reckoned the following century that, ‘the people of New Zealand, the Scots especially, could render no greater service to the coming generation than to introduce into our homes those simple but invaluable foods which made the Scots the healthiest and most hardy race the world has seen’.140 Indeed it is the apparent resilience of traditional Scottish cooking that is most striking, despite some alterations to the method of cooking. Yet why was there such a strong link between Scottish migrants and their foodways, compared with the Irish? The most likely explanation seems to be that of distinctiveness, with the range of food attributed to the Scots seemingly more unusual and generating greater comparisons than Irish food.

Dress While Scottish dress was discussed less extensively than food, again a range of items feature. Headwear included ‘Glengarry caps’ sought by William Deans in 1840,141 while he also wrote, ‘I have a package of Scotch bonnets for Lyon’.142 Kirkcaldy-born George Hepburn, meanwhile, anticipated ‘tartans and shawls’ two years after his arrival in Otago and also requested ‘six dozen each blue Kilmarnock bonnets, Glengarry ditto, and blue caps with fronts’.143 For Margaret McCallum travelling in 1882, the voyage prompted her admission, ‘I at last decided to make a Liliputian, tam o’shanter so made a crimson one with a navy blue top, wrapped it up in four pieces of paper & presented it at the dinner table.’144 Glaswegian James Harrison similarly commented on the headwear lost by his daughter during their voyage to Dunedin in 1878 on the Invercargill: ‘Little Jeanie Lost her Tam O Shanter Bonnet to day it Blew right away out into the Ocean. We were all very sorry about it for they were much Admired so much so that they were the only ones of that Kind when we came on Board But there was some of the young Woman got the Lend of one for a [ 108 ]

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Pattern and now while i write there is any amount of them’.145 A glengarry bonnet donning the head of Duncan Cameron was also mentioned in the novel Haromi.146 Casting off forms of Scottish clothing in some regions of New Zealand, however, seemingly occurred more readily than alteration to the Scottish diet. As Marianne Williams explained to home readers in 1828 from the warm Bay of Islands, ‘To add to all this I must not omit to thank you for the bonnet and hats, which will relieve the children from many a perspiration beneath a Scotch woollen cap.’147 As Margaret Maynard has noted in an important book on dress in colonial Australia, ‘It is tempting to regard clothing as primarily utilitarian, but dress functions on many levels and serves a number of purposes that extend beyond this’, including power relations, sexual difference, and notions of morality and social stratification.148 Kilts can be analysed in such ways as Katie Pickles’ assessment of its utility in New Zealand demonstrates. It was, she indicates, ‘a visible fabric of colonisation as Ma– ori traded land for blankets’ and was worn by prominent politicians.149 But in time it has been appropriated by schoolgirls, enjoying ‘a status far beyond its appeal to or impact on one ethnic grouping’.150 The appropriation of the kilt by others is also found elsewhere, including in India where Sikh and Gurkha regiments adopted Highland dress and pipe bands.151 Indeed, the kilt, ‘a fine and virile garment’, featured prominently among Scots in New Zealand in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.152 It was, however, predominantly connected with the Highlands. As Thomas Keir noted in 1864, ‘In the evening Murray Robertson was dressed in the Highland Costume with sword etc. and went through an act with good success’.153 Even when without kilts, passengers endeavoured to replicate the Scottish dress. At a ball at sea in 1880 Peter McIntyre from Perth reported, ‘men dressed themselves as women and highlandmen with blankets for kilts and every other sort of character you could mention and marched round the decks playing to tin cans and whistles and then wound up with dancing’.154 Highlanders in New Zealand were also set apart in Scottish poetry, and were linked in particular to their dress. John Blair, for instance, connected Highlanders to ‘kilts and feather bonnets’.155 Alan Clyde, meanwhile, claimed to have ‘passed the golden hours with joy –/A roving, kilted, Highland boy’.156 Andrew Kinross referred to ‘the kilt and plaid by many heroes worn,/That often on the battlefield by bloody swords were torn’.157 Visual assertions of this form of Scottishness are also evident among the younger generation in the twentieth century. Mae Palmer described the commotion caused by her sons wearing kilts during their [ 109 ]

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voyage to New Zealand in 1951 on board the Atlantis: ‘George and Norman are in their glory exploring. They are causing quite a stir in their kilts. Most folks turn and look after them or speak.’158 Though typically offering a retrospective view of the past and containing elements of confession, moral instruction, and self-justification, autobiographies provide further insightful snippets into explorations of ethnicity. One such work is that of Jack McFadzean, who predominantly recounts his experiences as a soldier during the Second World War. Jack was born in Glasgow and his memoirs contain elements of his sense of Scottishness which revolved around his kilt. During the voyage out on the Ionic in 1926, Jack participated in a fancy dress parade which involved ‘my kilts, plus my brand new long hairy sporran’.159 Recounting his family’s arrival at Wellington, Jack wrote, ‘a lot of people stared at us as though we were from a different planet . . . I wore my best clothes which of course was my kilts complete with my new hairy sporran!’160 His attire caused even greater uproar at school: ‘When playtime came the boys surrounded me, teasing and egging me on, and trying to pull at my sporran or kilt till it developed into a fight’. At lunchtime at home Jack declared he was not returning to school in his kilt.161 He still, however, donned it for church services: ‘The whole family would trot off to St Jame’s Presbyterian Church every Sunday, I of course, in my best clothes – my kilts! At the time I often wondered why everyone seemed to know me, the old ladies would make such a fuss of me. Looking back I realise it wasn’t me they liked, it was my kilts!’162 Indeed, such was the popularity of kilts that in 1921, when 20 sets of kilts were presented to the Caledonian Society by a Glasgow firm, ‘The world-wide popularity of the Scottish National dress was adequately demonstrated by the fact that eight of the sets were pillaged in transit.’163 Like kilts, tartan was also mentioned in both centuries and was another aspect expressly confined to Scots. As Jessie Campbell noted during her 1840 passage from Greenock to Wellington, ‘Boys have got their tartan surtouts on’.164 According to John Jack in 1883, ‘Wells, Berkley & I had a game of cribbage to pass the time during the evening & we had to get a Scotch tartan plaid spread over the table to keep the cards on the table.’165 Andrew Kinross stated in a poem for the Gaelic Society of New Zealand, composed in 1898, ‘We come to se the tartans wave,/That cover hearts both true and brave.’166 The Rust brothers, meanwhile, conveyed how ‘We are badly off for tartans in the piece, smallwears, laces and cotton reels’.167 As drapers, they were especially interested in clothing and sought the remittance of clothing from home:

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If you could put in some flash looking shawls, at a low rate, we could sell a great many of them; cheap tartan shawls, bright colours in demand. The tartan in piece is for dresses for young and old; Royal Stuart, Victoria, Albert, Grant, Fraser, Grey Mc.Pherson, or any such like patterns, would suit the taste I think. Clothing is very bad so many jobs, I will have difficulty with mine; any fancy goods do well; Glasgow muslins, window curtaons, undressed hollands, bonnet ribbons, 3 to 31/2 yards lengths are the best. If this is in time for the Jan. ship, it will pay handsomely; silk, lisle, plain and fancy gloves pay well. Cheap but fashionable bonnets in demand.168

That the use of tartan went beyond a link with the Highlands was expressed in the twentieth century when in 1927 there was a call for Caledonian and Scottish Societies, together with Burns Clubs, to create a National Federation of Scots organisations: ‘We suggest that as far as possible all delegates will wear the Garb of the Auld Gaul which should tend to create a distinct National atmosphere.’169 The importance of tartan was also fulsomely articulated in The N.Z. Scotsman along with aspects of Scottishness such as the pipes and heather. In 1928, however, the pre-eminence of tartan was stressed: ‘There are three things which every Scot holds sacred, and for which his soul longs when he is exiled in distant lands – the bagpipes, the heather, and the tartan’; of these the ‘cloth of the clans remains the dearest of all’.170 Tartan also featured as an element of Scottishness in the film The Piano, where the screenplay stipulated: ‘Behind the woman is her daughter, a girl of 10 in Scottish dress.’171 The importance of costume in aiding an actor’s performance was highlighted by its star Holly Hunter who played Ada: The costumes helped me tremendously: the incongruity of having a woman in a really laced-up corset, huge hoop skirts, petticoats, pantaloons, bodice and chemise trying to gracefully manoeuvre her way through the bush, was a real physical manifestation of Ada. That’s what women of that period dealt with, that’s how they developed: there was an obvious physical fragility – and yet strength and stamina, as well as grace, were required to wear those clothes.172

A range of elements, then, remained connected to aspects of Irishness and Scottishness in New Zealand and generally equated to the entire ethnic group rather than distinct regions, though there were some exceptions such as the association between Shetlanders and fish. Two particular components – that of religious and political identity – were also frequently connected to Irish and Scottish migrants and it is these issues to which we now turn.

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Notes 1 Robert Francis, ‘The haggis’, in Robert Francis, A New Zealand Harp (London, n.d.), p. 85. 2 Mary C. Waters, Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1990), p. 116. 3 Ibid., p. 124. 4 Shipboard journal of Daniel Brown, 22 Jan. 1858, OSM, C172. 5 Shipboard journal of Mrs Isabella Bonthron, 15 July 1863, OSM, C011-1, p. 7. 6 Ibid., 1863, p. 9. 7 Shipboard diary of Angus Robert McKay, 1873, ATL, MS-Papers-2231. 8 Shipboard diary of William Torrance Irvine, 1874, ATL, MS-Papers-3875. 9 Shipboard diary of John Jack, 1883, ATL, MS-1074. 10 Shipboard diary of George Stephen Robertson, 1870, ATL, MS-Papers-5591, p. 3. 11 Shipboard journal of Thomas Keir, 2 Dec. 1863, CM, ARC 1900.22, transcript courtesy of Ian and Bev. 12 Shipboard journal of James Harrison, 20 Aug. 1878, OSM, C152. 13 Shipboard diary of Bethia Mawhinney, 29 Oct. 1887, ATL, MS-Group-0475, p. 5. 14 Robert Francis, ‘The bagpipes’, in A New Zealand Harp, p. 59. 15 Andrew Kinross, ‘Poem for Highland Society of Southland’, 12 Nov. 1897, in Andrew Kinross, My Life and Lays (Invercargill, 1899), p. 111. 16 ‘Poem for second annual gathering of the Highland Society of Southland’, 30 Sept. 1898, in ibid., p. 115. 17 Dugald Ferguson, ‘On the bagpipes’, in Dugald Ferguson, Poems of the Heart (Dunedin, 1897), pp. 88. 18 Laura Jones, An Angel at My Table: The Screenplay. From the Three Volume Autobiography of Janet Frame (Auckland, 1990), p. 2. 19 Janet Frame, To the Is-Land: Autobiography 1 (London, 1987), pp. 21–2. See also pp. 23, 25, 60. 20 Michael King, Wrestling with the Angel: A Life of Janet Frame (Auckland, 2000), pp. 12–13. 21 Ibid., p. 11. 22 Herbert J. Gans, ‘Symbolic ethnicity: the future of ethnic groups and cultures in America’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2:1 (1979), pp. 9, 1. 23 William Downie Stewart (ed.), The Journal of George Hepburn on his Voyage from Scotland to Otago in 1850 . . . with Extracts from his Letters Written from Otago (Dunedin, 1934), p. 156, extract dated 15 May 1855. 24 Jane Deans, Letters to my Grandchildren (Christchurch, 1923; reprinted 1971), 16 Dec. 1887, p. 77. 25 Kinross, ‘Poem recited at the first annual gathering of the Southland Celtic Society, held at Forest Hill on 1st November, 1895’, in My Life and Lays, p. 104. 26 Shipboard journal of Mary Gibson, 1938. Extract dated 25 May 1938. Courtesy of May Tapp. 27 Mae Palmer, At the Bows Looking Forward: The Voyage to NZ by the Palmer Family in 1951, on Board the SS Atlantis, as Described by Mae Palmer in Letters to her Parents in Paisley, Scotland (New Zealand, ?1998), letter dated 24 May 1951, entry for Tuesday 11pm. The Broon family refers to a Glaswegian family which appeared in a cartoon comic strip published in the Sunday Post newspaper. 28 Margaret D. Laidlaw and Margaret M. Hutchison, A History of Scottish Country Dancing in New Zealand (Dunedin, 1995), pp. 3–4. 29 Hocken Library, Letters from Otago, 1848–1849 (Dunedin, 1978), p. 11. 30 Shipboard diary of William Torrance Irvine, 1874, ATL. 31 Ibid. 32 Shipboard journal of John Forsyth Menzies, 18 Dec. 1878, CM, 91/85. 33 Canterbury Pilgrims and Early Settlers Scrapbook, 1923–35, vol. 2, p. 233, CCL. 34 Robert Bruce, Greendale Genesis: The Bruce Family History. Sutherland to Canterbury, 1877–1984 (?Upper Hutt, 1996), p. 37.

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MATERIAL TOKENS OF ETHNICITY 35 Ibid., p. 7. It is intriguing in this case that David Bruce learned, rather than brought with him, knowledge of Scottish music. For some migrants, then, elements of their ethnic identity developed after their settlement abroad. 36 Canterbury Pilgrims and Early Settlers Scrapbook, 1923–35, vol. 1, p. 13, CCL. 37 Shipboard diary of Jane Findlayson, 1876, ATL, MS-Papers-1678. 38 Shipboard journal of Thomas Keir, 1 Dec. 1863, CM. 39 Shipboard diary of George Stephen Robertson, 1870, ATL, p. 61. 40 Shipboard diary of W. G. Mackenzie, 27 April 1880, ATL, MS-1187, p. 64. 41 Shipboard journal of John Elder Moultray, 20 Aug. 1883, OSM, C-0209, Part I. 42 Ibid., 21 Aug. 1883. 43 Jane Campion, The Piano (London, 1993), p. 150. 44 Thomas Bourguignon and Michel Ciment, ‘Interview with Jane Campion: more barbarian than aesthete’, 1993, in Virginia Wright Wexman (ed.), Jane Campion Interviews (Jackson, 1999), p. 106. 45 Claudia Gorbman, ‘Music in The Piano’, in Harriet Margolis (ed.), Jane Campion’s The Piano (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 42–58. See also Pwyll ap Siôn, The Music of Michael Nyman: Texts, Contexts and Intertexts (Ashgate, 2007), pp. 181–96. 46 Shipboard diary of William Herries MacLean, 27 Feb. 1863, ATL, 89–136, p. 3. 47 Shipboard journal of James Harrison, 25 Sept. 1878, OSM, C152. 48 Shipboard diary of Bethia Mawhinney, Friday 25 Nov. 1887, ATL, p. 14. 49 Shipboard journal of John Elder Moultray, 22 Aug. 1883, OSM, Part I. 50 Shipboard diary of James McKee, 9 Nov. 1880, ATL, MS-Papers-4204, p. 12. 51 Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 2 Nov. and 7 Nov. 1878, CM, Folder 51, 73/67. 52 Shipboard diary of Eleanor D’Arcy, 1914, ATL, MS-0662. 53 Shipboard journal of Andrew Campbell, 24 Oct. 1883, p. 28, CM, Folder 70, 94/85. 54 Dr McDonald’s Letter and Cutting Book, 1868–69, ACDA, POM 23–4, p. 53. 55 Tribune, 1:3 (18 April 1935), p. 8, AWMML, DU436.12. 56 Ibid., 1:2 (14 March 1935), p. 6. 57 Ibid., 1:3 (18 April 1935), p. 2. 58 Murray A. Boyd, From Donegal to Blackguard’s Corner (Kaikoura, 1992), pp. 150, 315. 59 Dianne Haworth, Give a Man a Horse: The Remarkable Story of Sir Patrick Hogan (Auckland, 2007), p. 61. 60 Alison Clarke, Holiday Seasons: Christmas, New Year and Easter in NineteenthCentury New Zealand (Auckland, 2007), p. 23. 61 Alexander Campbell (Matakana) to James, 25 Dec. 1866, AWMML, MS 50, p. 198. 62 Shipboard journal of Joseph Allen, 1874, OSM, C201, transcript courtesy of Seán Brosnahan. 63 Mike Cronin and Daryl Adair, The Wearing of the Green: A History of St Patrick’s Day (London and New York, 2002), pp. xxi, xvi, 252. 64 Margaret King, ‘St Patrick’s Day, Auckland 1868–1899’ (MA, University of Auckland, 1994), p. 94. 65 Ibid., ch. 3. 66 Mother M. Cecilia Maher to Bishop Haly, 15 May 1850. Quoted in E. R. Simmons, In Cruce Salus: A History of the Diocese of Auckland, 1848–1980 (Auckland, 1982), p. 13. 67 Shipboard diary of Elizabeth Aitken Dempster, 17 March 1883, ATL, MS-Papers4162. 68 Croke’s Record of Events, 17 March 1873, p. 31, ACDA, CRO 1–2. 69 Tablet, 22 Jan. 1903, p. 5. 70 Tribune, 1:3 (18 April 1935), p. 4. 71 Ibid., 2:2 (17 March 1936), p. 2. 72 Shipboard diary of William Runciman, 1881, p. 23, ATL, MS-Papers-1414. 73 Shipboard diary of Thomas Warnock, 11 July 1878, p. 50, ATL, MS-Papers-7232-1. 74 Ibid., 12 July 1878, pp. 50–1. 75 Ibid., 12 July 1878, pp. 51–2.

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 76 77 78 79 80 82 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120

Ibid., 12 July 1878, p. 55. Waters, Ethnic Options, p. 123. Shipboard diary of John McDowell, 1876, ATL, MS-Papers-6172. The N.Z. Scotsman, 3:33 (15 Nov. 1929), p. 667. Clarke, Holiday Seasons, ch. 2. Ibid., p. 118. Shipboard diary of John Murray, 1 Jan. 1840, ATL, 89-084. Shipboard diary of Margaret Peace, 31 Dec. 1864, p. 6, ATL, MS-Papers-4159. Shipboard journal of Peter Thomson, 31 Dec. 1861, CCL. Ibid., 1 Jan. 1862. Shipboard diary of T. P. Hughson, 31 Dec. 1879, p. 10, ATL, MS-Papers-4182. Shipboard journal of William Laing, 31 Dec. 1859, CM, Folder 44, 76/49. Ibid., 1 Jan. 1860. Ibid., 1 Jan. 1860. Shipboard journal of G. McR. Proudfoot, 1 Jan. 1856, OSM, M-048. Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 1 Jan. 1879, CM. Shipboard journal of Andrew Fuller Carey, 25 Dec. 1882, p. 21, CM, Folder 41, 1900.41. Shipboard journal of Andrew Campbell, 1 Jan. 1884, p. 89, CM. Ibid., 2 Jan. 1884, p. 90, CM. Shipboard journal of Peter McIntyre, 1 Jan. 1880, OSM, C068, pp. 10–11. Begg: Papers relating to Somerville and Reminiscences of Somerville, HC, AG-846/01. Shipboard journal of Archibald McDonald, Dec. 1847–Jan. 1848, OSM, C062, p. 7. Archibald McCallum (Dunedin) to his brother, 28 Feb. 1861, OSM, C177, p. 24. James McKerrow Reminiscences (1899), OSM, C069, p. 8. Waters, Ethnic Options, p. 118. Ibid., p. 123. Hasia R. Diner, Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration (Cambridge and London, 2001), pp. 97, 112. Ibid., p. 115. Ibid., p. 145. Panikos Panayi, Spicing up Britain: The Multicultural History of British Food (London, 2008), p. 43. Shipboard diary of John Cardwell, 1881, ATL, qMS-0391, p. 15. Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 25 Dec. 1878, CM. Shipboard diary of John Jack, 1883, ATL. Shipboard journal of Thomas Keir, 31 Dec. 1863, CM. Kinross, ‘The water of life’, in My Life and Lays, p. 91. Margaret Bennett, Oatmeal and the Catechism: Scottish Gaelic Settlers in Quebec (Edinburgh, 2003), p. 174. Ibid., p. 191. Malcom Prentis, ‘Haggis on the high seas: shipboard experiences of Scottish emigrants to Australia, 1821–1897’, Australian Historical Studies, 36:124 (2004), p. 299. Alexander Fenton, Scottish Life and Society: The Food of the Scots. A Compendium of Scottish Ethnology, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 2007), p. 263. John McLay, Reminiscences, OSM, C070, p. 52. John and Joseph Rust, ‘A copy of the diary of John and Joseph Rust’, 24 May 1852, AWMML, MS 664, p. 7. Shipboard diary of A. Boyes Snr, HC, Misc-MS-0232. Shipboard diary of William Runciman, 1881, ATL, p. 11. Porridge was also mentioned in the shipboard diaries of John Smith, 11 Oct. 1880, ATL, MS-1958, and Hannah Ormond, Tuesday 2 Nov. 1858, p. 17, ATL, MS-1747–8. Georgina McDonald, Grand Hills for Sheep (n.p., 1949), p. 127. Scones are also mentioned on pp. 100–1 and 129. William Deans (Port Nicholson) to his father (Kilmarnock), 29 March 1840, in John Deans, Pioneers of Canterbury: Deans Letters, 1840–1854 (Dunedin and Wellington, [1937]), p. 25.

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MATERIAL TOKENS OF ETHNICITY 121 Hocken Library, Letters from Otago, p. 16. 122 Transcript of Thomas Reid’s shipboard journal on the Robert Henderson, Glasgow to Bluff, 1862, Wallace Early Settlers Museum, Riverton. www.yesteryears.co.nz/ shipping/diaries/thomasreid.html [last accessed 13 April 2009]. 123 Agnes Hay (Petone) to her father Thomas Orr (Annandale), 20 Feb. 1841, CM, ARC 1990.8, 1/5. 124 Shipboard journal of Edwin Hodder, 1862, online at www.yesteryears.co.nz/ shipping/diaries/johnblank1858.html [last accessed 13 April 2009]. 125 Shipboard diary of Isabella Ritchie Wallace, 30 Sept. 1863, p. 14, ATL, MS-Group-0776. 126 Shipboard diary of Bethia Mawhinney, 3 Nov. 1887, p. 7, ATL. 127 Shipboard diary of William Herries MacLean, 3 June 1863, p. 52, ATL, 89–136. 128 George Fairlie Moore, ‘Diary of a travelling Scotsman’, 4 Feb. 1902, AWMML, MS 97/3, p. 238. 129 Carl V. Smith, ‘Memories of a great-grandfather’ (unpublished), courtesy of Douglas Duncan, Book Two, p. 56. 130 Kinross, ‘Porridge for ever’, in My Life and Lays, p. 86. 131 Basil Greenhill and Ann Giffard, Women Under Sail: Letters and Journals Concerning Eight Women Travelling or Working in Sailing Vessels between 1829 and 1949 (Newton Abbot, 1970), p. 64. 132 Shipboard journal of Thomas Keir, 7 Jan. 1864, CM. 133 Shipboard diary of Jean McCarlie, 1881, ATL, MS-Papers-7031. 134 Ibid., 1881, ATL. 135 Jane Deans, 16 Dec. 1887, in Deans, Letters to my Grandchildren, p. 42. 136 Shipboard diary of Jean McCarlie, 1881, ATL. 137 Shipboard journal of Archibald Clark on his voyage from Gravesend to Auckland in 1849, courtesy of Don MacKay. 138 AJHR, 1875, D-3, p. 43, Enclosure in No. 69, Immigration Commissioners’ Report on Clarence, 10 Jan. 1875. 139 John Deans (Port Nicholson) to Gavin Brackenridge, 16 Jan. 1843, in Deans, Pioneers of Canterbury, p. 57. 140 The New Zealand Scot, 1:7 (20 May 1913), p. 3. 141 William Deans (Port Nicholson) to his father (Kilmarnock), 30 Oct. 1840, in Deans, Pioneers of Canterbury, p. 30. 142 John Deans (Riccarton) to D. M. Laurie, 18 Feb. 1853, in ibid., p. 243. 143 Stewart (ed.), The Journal of George Hepburn, p. 122, extract dated 28 Oct. 1852. 144 Shipboard journal of Margaret McCallum, 26 June 1882, OSM, C144, p. 8. 145 Shipboard journal of James Harrison, 18 Aug. 1878, OSM, C152. 146 Bannerman Kaye, Haromi: A New Zealand Story (London, 1900), p. 145. 147 Alison Drummond and L. R. Drummond, At Home in New Zealand: An Illustrated History of Everyday Things before 1865 (Auckland, 1967), p. 114. 148 Margaret Maynard, Fashioned from Penury: Dress as Cultural Practice in Colonial Australia (Cambridge, 1994), p. 2. 149 Katie Pickles, ‘Kilts as costumes: identity, resistance and tradition’, in Bronwyn Labrum, Fiona McKergow, and Stephanie Gibson (eds), Looking Flash: Clothing in Aotearoa New Zealand (Auckland, 2007), p. 43. 150 Ibid., p. 58. 151 Heather Streets, Martial Races: The Military, Race and Masculinity in Birtish Imperial Culture, 1857–1914 (Manchester, 2004), p. 142. 152 Otago Scottish Annual (Dunedin, 1938), p. 5, ATL, Serials Collection, Per OTA. 153 Shipboard journal of Thomas Keir, 1 Jan. 1864, CM. 154 Shipboard journal of Peter McIntyre, 11 March 1880, OSM, p. 31. 155 John Blair, ‘The alarm’, in John Blair, Lays of the Old Identities and Other Pieces Suitable for Recitations and Readings (Dunedin, 1889), p. 99. 156 Alan Clyde, ‘To a Highland lake’, in Alan Clyde, Te Kooti and Other Poems (Dunedin, 1872), p. 35. 157 Kinross, ‘Poem for Highland Society of Southland’, in My Life and Lays, p. 111.

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 158 Palmer, At the Bows Looking Forward, letter dated 18 April 1951, entry for 1 o’clock Thursday. 159 Jack McFadzean, A Scottish Kiwi & A Soldier at War (n.p., 1998), p. 16. 160 Ibid., p. 18. 161 Ibid., p. 20. 162 Ibid., p. 22. 163 Caledonian Society of Otago, 59th Annual Report, 27 Oct. 1921, HC, MS-1045/6. 164 Greenhill and Giffard, Women Under Sail, p. 60. 165 Shipboard diary of John Jack, 1883, ATL. 166 Kinross, [No title – poem for Gaelic Society of New Zealand 1898], in My Life and Lays, p. 114. 167 John and Joseph Rust (Auckland) to Mr Largie (Montrose), 10 Sept. 1852, AWMML. 168 Ibid. 169 The N.Z. Scotsman, 1:1 (7 March 1927), p. 30, ATL, Serials Collection, Per NZ SCO. 170 Ibid., 2:20 (15 Oct. 1928), p. 239. 171 Campion, The Piano, p. 12. 172 Ibid., p. 149.

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CHAPTER 5

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Religion, politics, and history

From 1842 onwards, a number of Orange Order Lodges were established throughout New Zealand, with the Grand Lodge for New Zealand only constituted in 1867 (Figure 10). A religious and political secret society found throughout the Irish diaspora, the Orange Order ‘was about more than violence and marching; it was also a centre of sociability

Figure 10 Members of the Grand Orange Lodge of New Zealand, Stratford, c. 1910

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and camaraderie’.1 Membership of the Lodge varied throughout the world. In some places, such as in Scotland and northern England, it was a distinctive Ulster import, while elsewhere it became ‘a panProtestant club’ whose members were of ethnicities other than Irish.2 In New Zealand, the ethnic profile of the Order remains to be established.3 Hibernians, by contrast, were predominantly Irish Catholic and seen as a mirror organisation of Orangeism. As Patrick Coleman has indicated, ‘The Catholic Church in New Zealand also had its own institutionalized form of sectarianism’, which included the Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society.4 While sectarian issues never erupted or persisted in New Zealand to the degree found in other parts of the Irish diaspora, tensions did surround religious belief in New Zealand and at certain times imploded dramatically. This chapter begins by considering the ways in which the religious beliefs of Irish and Scottish migrants reflected their homeland origins. It then moves onto explore the ethnic societies established by the Irish and the Scots, arguing that political issues preoccupied a number of Irish societies in New Zealand, while the range of Scottish societies established were predominantly cultural in their emphasis.

Religion at sea Within the wider historiography of religion in New Zealand, debate surrounds the extent to which migrants maintained religious beliefs. On one side of the debate are scholars who emphasise the ‘“secular New Zealand”, “lapsed masses” and “bad religion” theses’, while on the other are those who contend that too much has been made of the secularisation thesis.5 Much of the dispute has centred on statistical evidence citing church attendance or the declining demographics of denominational affiliation contained in the published Census data. Such evidence, however, fails to capture the ebbs and flows of belief or the appreciation that migrants may have held spiritual beliefs but chose not to practice them in the fashion of Sunday church attendance. Furthermore, the broad ethnic identities of migrants in New Zealand have often been classified according to religious beliefs along the lines of the Irish being Catholic, the Scots Presbyterian, and the English Anglican. The reality is more complex. Irish migrants, for instance, were not solely Catholic but composed of numerous strands of Protestantism. As Bethia Mawhinney observed of one passenger during her voyage to New Zealand in 1887, ‘An Irish girl – a Protestant who sleeps in one corner’.6 Scots, meanwhile, not only had a range of affiliations within Presbyterian but also had a number of other competing attachments, including Episcopalianism and Catholicism. While less [ 118 ]

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work has been undertaken for the religious leanings of English migrants, they were similarly found in various denominations. The continuity of religious belief, or its decline, did not simply occur once migrants arrived in New Zealand. Instead, tensions and more often curiosity about differences existed during the voyage out. Examining the religious beliefs and practices of migrants at sea therefore provides an entry into the spiritual world of the Irish and Scots bound for New Zealand. Moreover, if the assumption that the secularising character of the Old World was transferred to the New World is correct, evidence should be seen during the transitional period at sea. Just as significantly for this book, in what ways did those at sea link aspects of Irishness and Scottishness to religion? During the voyage to New Zealand, the most frequent religious divisions were articulated in relation to church services. As Robert Graham noted in 1842, ‘The Dr. officiated to day in the forenoon in the English style, and Mr. McNair the person appointed to be schoolmaster officiated in the afternoon after Scotch sistem’.7 A greater range of services was evident by 1870, with George Robertson succinctly observing during his voyage from Glasgow to Dunedin, ‘Mr Griffiths in the saloon read the English service and short sermon; Captain Logan in the single women’s compartment, the Scotch Presbyterian service; Mr Woodside in the married men’s compartment, the Independent service, and the Doctor in the single men’s compartment, the irish Presbyterian service.’8 In similar terms Derryman Andrew Campbell explained in 1883: we have three Churches on Ship board now. There is the pb. The Ep. & the RC, but I am happy to see our beloved presbyterians are getting the strongest & the more respectable looking. The first few Sabbaths not many of us knew that there was a presbyterian meeting church being announced by ringing the bell. We all flocked to it unconcious that there was any other but now when it is known abroad we can sell our strength & it is very gratifying. Four Venerable & Pious Scotchmen conducted our meeting. One Mr Shaw is precentor.9

Interestingly, the divisions within these denominations attracted minimal attention. There is little sense, for instance, of the repercussions arising from the Disruption in 1843 of the Church of Scotland.10 The use of the phrase ‘Scotch’ service or the lumping together of all Presbyterians suggests instead that internal divisions within Presbyterianism were of less concern at sea than emphasising familiarity and that this arose because of the distinctive ‘English’ service. Divisions within the Church of England, such as the high church movement,11 were also seemingly absent from shipboard diaries, possibly [ 119 ]

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because most comment about the ‘English’ service arose from Scottish migrants more familiar with Presbyterian forms of worship. English and Scots service Among those noting the undertaking of the English service was Robert Graham, who departed Greenock for Auckland in 1842, a year before the Disruption of the Church of Scotland, on board the Jane Gifford. His observation indicates that respect rather than puzzlement characterised passenger responses towards worship in these early years of settlement: ‘The Doctor officiated to-day in the English style. The whole of the passengers paid great attention to the solemn service’.12 In 1876 on the Calypso William Harold Munro noticed, ‘A psalm was sung then a prayer read from the Church of England service – the English portion of the passengers responding at every two or three lines.’13 Two years later during his trip from Belfast to Auckland on the Lady Jocelyn, Irishman Thomas Warnock concluded, ‘The cabin passengers all seem to be episcopals as they know the service’.14 That same year John Forsyth Menzies participated in ‘divine service this forenoon in the English style’.15 And Bethia Mawhinney, who left Edinburgh in 1887, wrote, ‘After the muster we had Service – English Church Morning Prayer’.16 Only one Scot – Dundee-born John Jack – remarked positively rather than perfunctorily on the English service, marvelling in 1883 at ‘The beautiful service of the English Church’.17 Apart from these broad observations, most Scots expressed puzzlement or disdain towards the English service. According to Thomas Keir, travelling in 1863, ‘the captain read prayers in the english stile’ and it was ‘The first time ever I heard the english service but I did not think much of it.’18 As Keir further observed in a remark suggestive of a national characteristic, ‘it is the custom of the English Church, and I am afraid that custom goes a good length with them’.19 While not detailed, Keir’s comment suggests a rigid reliance on the Book of Common Prayer for Anglicans, while Presbyterians practised a more flexible, non-liturgical form of worship.20 Dugald McLaren, meanwhile, expressed puzzlement with the Church of England service during his transit from Perthshire to Canterbury in 1864 and seemingly emphasised individual Presbyterian reliance on the Bible rather than interpretation by an Anglican priest: ‘Servies is done. I was not at it. I canot understand it and I think that wone is as well to read their own Bible.’21 Divergent Presbyterian and Episcopalian services were also noted by George Grant in 1877: ‘There was an English service in the saloon conducted by a friend of the Captain. None of the dissenting parties were blessed. Had a Presbyterian service at 6.0pm which I do hope was blessed.’22 As for William Runciman in 1881, ‘The first Lords Day [ 120 ]

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the Captain had no services but one of the passengers, a Mr. Gregory held the English Service himself, in the 3rd. Cabin with what passengers were there but it was a very formal and uninteresting affair to any of us scotch folks. At night Mr. Whytock held his meeting and it was enjoyed by all of us’.23 Andrew Campbell was also bemused when attending service in 1883: ‘I realy thought we were going to have a Presbyterian meeting but it passed off with rather an Episcople Aspect’.24 Similar comments continued into the early twentieth century. Travelling from Glasgow to Wellington in 1908, John Greenfield stated, ‘I attended divine service . . . and in the Episcopalian style. I can’t say I enjoyed it, I could not understand the service at all, it was so entirely different to what I am used to.’25 Greenfield further noted, ‘I did not go to the English Church service in the forenoon, but attended a Methodist meeting in the 3rd saloon in the evening . . . There is nothing I miss more than the Sabbaths we all enjoyed at Home. Very few seem to recognise it as a day apart from all the rest.’26 One migrant who did convey his participation in the appropriate observance of the day was Derryman Andrew Campbell, who in 1883 wrote, ‘after Church I joined a few aged Scotchmen on the Forecastle, where we read our Bibles & sung Hymns & rested the Sabbath day according to the scriptures’.27 Such distinctions continued into the twentieth century, with Jean Chisholm noting from the ship Remuera in 1918, ‘WEnt as before to English Church Service which I can never understand. It seems to consist entirely of “Glory be to the Father” etc. and “Amens” Never a sermon or anything else to interest one. All this amuses Mr, and Mrs, Halliday greatly. They are Scots like ourselves’.28 Apart from Jean Chisholm’s comment, these shipboard diarists passed little remark on what the differences were that they perceived between the ‘English’ and Presbyterian services. Presumably, however, despite their internal wrangling, Presbyterians would have been troubled by hierarchical Anglican church governance and its class-bound character, the emphasis given to the Book of Common Prayer, and issues of ritualism.29 By contrast, many Presbyterians believed the church should be independent from the state, and there was also greater flexibility around such issues as ‘non-liturgical worship and emotional preaching of conversion’.30 In the shipboard journals consulted for this study, we receive only brief glimpses of the contrasting ‘Scotch service’. Aware of the popular preacher Thomas Guthrie, who would die in 1873, George Robertson noted three years earlier, ‘The Captain read the Scotch service most impressively and gave us one of Dr Guthrie’s sermons and did it too in a manner which would put to shame many of our [ 121 ]

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ministers.’31 Meanwhile, a service attended by Bethia Mawhinney in 1887 was considered ‘very home-like’.32 She also noted a service being conducted by ‘an independent minister from Girvan’.33 The Scots service also provoked comment from English-born travellers. According to William Herries MacLean, probably of Scottish descent, ‘It was conducted on the Scotch style. Every one looked pleased.’34 There is also only brief evidence of evangelical worship. In a reference to two members of a non-denominational evangelical youth society founded in Maine in 1881, John Greenfield described finding in third class in 1908 ‘two Christian Endeavourers . . . busy singing over all the hymns I was so used to at home, and it made me heart rejoice just to join them. It seemed such a long time since I heard those hymns, that I cannot describe how they thrilled me, it was like an oasis in a vast desert.’35 Two years earlier there were 67,000 youth-led Christian Endeavour societies worldwide, with four million members.36 Catholics Catholic migrants were also subjected to comment from other religious groups, with some remarks professing sadness that denominations had to worship separately. Reflecting on a Catholic service in 1865, Scotswoman Margaret Peace rued, ‘what a pity we cannot worship together’.37 It was, however, generally the manner in which Catholics conducted their worship that generated most comment, presumably arising from the consequences of the Devotional Revolution, a thesis which argues that Irish Catholics became more devout following the Great Famine. According to this thesis, there was growth in church attendance, an increase in religious personnel, and the widespread observance of devotional practices.38 With the Devotional Revolution at its height in the mid- to late nineteenth century, together with increasing proportions of Irish Catholics migrating to New Zealand, it is not surprising that the religious practices of Irish Catholics attracted commentary from fellow passengers. Scotswoman Jane Findlayson, a 25-year-old domestic servant from Perth travelling to Port Chalmers on the Oamaru in 1876 with 27 assisted Irishwomen, seemed especially bemused by the Catholic style of worship: ‘There are a lot of Roman Catholics besides us. We are amused and astonished at their mode of prayers. They are on their knees for nearly an hour saying their rosary and counting their beads they are truly like the Pharasies of old making much ado about their prayers. They are nice honest girls amongst them and others will steal before your eyes’.39 Fanny Horrell, born in England and voyaging to Canterbury in 1878, similarly commented: ‘My mess mates are all English girls and respectable, but there are some queer looking [ 122 ]

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characters here. I don’t think I should be very comfortable if I had to mess with some of them. There a great many Irish Roman Catholics. They do make a fuss over their prayers, saying “Mother Mary of God pray for us.”’40 Much religious fervour among Irish Catholics evidently arose as a result of fear and apprehension generated by storms encountered throughout the duration of the voyage, a predicament acknowledged by some. As Englishman John Matthew Taylor noted in 1841: ‘Emigrants as usual are a fright – praying etc etc – . . . very few were in bed but most of them were on their knees muttering their aves [Ave Maria] & frightened out of their wits’.41 While Taylor did not distinguish the gender of the migrants, a quarter of a century later Polly Evans connected Irish religious practices with Irishwomen, but also noted that Scottish females were just as disturbed by storms: ‘the Irish & Scotch Girls were rushing up stairs some in their Night Dress & some with their Blankets round them Poor thing were frightened & some of the Irish Girls lit a Wax candle & prayed to it’.42 The all-night gales and a wave swamping the Hydaspes in 1869 similarly prompted Emma Hodder to note, ‘the Irish fell on their knees and the others wept’.43 Apart from storms, death also generated commentary on Catholic passengers. Some migrants, such as John Matthew Taylor, expressed surprise at the absence of seemingly customary Irish Catholic mourning associated with a death in 1840: ‘Child committed to the deep with the same absence of feeling as marked the previous burial – I must say I was surprised at this as the Irish generally make a great outcry & lamentation over their dead – The body of the Jew was if possible thrown over with much more indecent haste’.44 Other commentators remarked on the practices that mourning Catholics desired be fulfilled. In 1879 Matthew Moriarty wrote: A child died to-day, this is our first death. It belonged to Ireland (McGarth). Its father wished a coffin made. This is contrary to rules as a canvas bag is the thing with a weight as it sinks immediately. The Captain allowed it, so a young man read service (a Roman Catholic) and the coffin perforated to sink was allowed to slip off a board through a port hole but it did not sink but followed on and on out of sight, probably for the albatrosses to pick to pieces.45

Englishman Thomas Dacre in 1873 provided a more heart-rending account, which focused less on Catholic practices, but demonstrated the interaction of passengers of all creeds. Indeed, the death of children at sea may have helped lessen pre-existing tensions between ethnic and religious groups: [ 123 ]

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Again this afternoon I have to record another death, an infant six weeks old belonging to the Irish family that was left behind with us at Plymouth, and this child was born there. Interred it at 10.30am. Captain read the short funeral service while the body hung tied up in canvas and weighted by the ship side and suspended by a small string which the 1st. Mate held in his hand . . . With a knife and these words ‘We commit this body to the Deep’ he cut the string and the body sinks down. It was a very solemn service for us who had never seen the like before.46

Despite the influence of Ireland’s Devotional Revolution, it was not simply Catholics but also Protestants in Ireland who became ‘more and more religious’ during the nineteenth century.47 Yet the religious practices of Irish Protestants did not attract commentary among shipboard diarists, at least in the sources in this study, though their participation in Anglican and Presbyterian forms of worship were presumably encapsulated in references to English and Scottish services. Lack of observance A key debate in studies of religious belief surrounds the secularisation of society, and just as there is evidence of religious practices being maintained at sea, so too are there examples of a lack of observance. The way in which some migrants failed to maintain the Sabbath at sea generated annoyance and disgust from some migrants, including Dugald McLaren, who in 1864 claimed, ‘it is terible to hear how they keep the Sabbath day. The English ther was wone plaid on the Conesternea this night all kinds of tunes. It is not nise to hear them’.48 Scottish migrants also attracted derision from their own, with Thomas Keir that same year reflecting, ‘In the afternoon the Scotch had a meeting on the deck. But oh! how different from the quite (?quiet) Sunday in Scotland, whistling, singing, gambling & pu..shing going on all within the small compass of a vessel’.49 Presumably the small confines of the ship for weeks on end generated or at least exacerbated different habits to the homeland. Episcopalians similarly despaired at the withering signs of observance among their own, with Margaret Peace offering an explanation in 1865: ‘Our people [a]re falling off from service very much, perhaps the officiating clergyman [b]eing a Presbyterian does not read the Church of England service with proper [?u]nction or perhaps the old adar of spite keeps them from the worship of God.’50 Matthew Francis Moriarty, son of the rector of Killaghtee in County Donegal, also commented on the haphazard maintenance of religious practices, noting of one migrant: ‘He’s another Englishman who confesses he was not in his church for 2 years.’51 Moriarty also resignedly observed in 1878, ‘only 2 Scotch boys came to say catacism. There are no protestant boys of that age and not [ 124 ]

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one English boy came’.52 Moriarty, who would be ordained in 1888, expressed particular revulsion that: the English men would not come because I was an Irishman; so I came away more than ever disgusted with the ignorant heathens. A few young men from North of Ireland and a Tralee man asked me to take a bible class. I am to do so yet we must do so on the sly, so we could not honour God this little. I am come to this conclusion from close personal observation that no Englishman or woman on board this ship is a [blank space] where Christianity interferes with the stomach.53

Ethnic divides between Irish and English therefore counted more than denominational similarities in this case, revealing, in the eyes of one Irish Protestant, a lack of distinction between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants by some English. Five years later, Derryman Andrew Campbell cast doubt on the beliefs of Protestant passengers: ‘although the greater part of the passengers are protestants they dont appear to be at all religious’.54 Yet it was not just those who were considered ambivalent towards their religious practices who received criticism. Those who were devoted to their religious duties were also subject to attack. As John Hemery noted in 1839, ‘It is astonishing how much more attentive these people are to religious duties than the same body of English would be not that I think theirs is true religion. From all I have seen and more particularly among the better classes in Scotland religion prevails only under the cloak of the greatest hypocrisy.’55 The main contrasts relating to religion found in shipboard journals, then, is the distinction between Scottish and English styles of services, which overlooked the divisions found within the Church of England and Church of Scotland. While little attention has been given in this chapter to specific religious practices, further research would undoubtedly illuminate this fascinating area of study. Irish Catholic migrants, while being the subject of discussion from other migrants who commented on their religious practices, were less inclined to write themselves about their belief. As for the key question concerning the observance or not of religious practices, evidence from shipboard diaries provides a mixed conclusion. While signs certainly exist that some migrants chose not to participate in religious gatherings, other migrants heartily and fervently did so.

Religion in New Zealand What, though, can be said about religious faith after arrival in New Zealand? Was faith ‘the most common context for affirmation of cultural continuity in a menacing environment’, as David Fitzpatrick [ 125 ]

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has claimed of Irish migrants in Australia?56 That their belief was important for Irish Catholics has been established in studies of the diaspora and it also proved important in New Zealand where the Irish were the major suppliers of the Catholic faith. As one commentator remarked in 1885, ‘Sweep the Irish people from the colonies and Catholicism is no longer there’.57 Commentary also stressed that Irish Catholics in New Zealand ‘are merged in the different nationalities scattered through this vast country, where Catholics are in a miserable minority’.58 Distinct efforts to cater to Irish Catholic belief in New Zealand were therefore made by the Catholic church, including the provision of Irish priests. While it has been claimed that most Catholics were Irish, not all Irish were Catholics.59 Protestant Irishman John M. Abbott recounted in 1884 from Tuakau the range of denominational choices open to his brother and himself: ‘County very nice wooded hill a splendid large river a mile distant 3 churches English Presbyterian & Methodist. Hug & I go to the latter.’60 Indeed, the range of denominations available for Irish Protestants in New Zealand has been considered elsewhere, with an inadequate infrastructure being a prime reason for the attendance of the Irish at denominational services other than the one they were raised with. Others elected not to attend alternative services so as to perhaps not have their faith tainted and also because of the disapproval some denominations attracted.61 As the Unitarian James McIlrath confided from Canterbury to his family in County Down in 1873, ‘Now this Southbridge is a Nice little Town with one English Church and one Scoctch or Presbeterian but by the way there is no Uniterian (Hush) it is a thing never mentioned here’.62 Scottish migrants were also strongly connected with their religious practices in New Zealand, predominantly Presbyterian. In the early days, the lack of facilities was noted but did not apparently deter those determined to maintain their practices. As Bishop Selwyn noted in his dairy, ‘I walked over to Pigeon Bay (from Akaroa) where I found some Scottish settlers of the right sort, living in great comfort by their own exertions, and above all keeping up their religious principles and usages, though far from any ministerial assistance.’63 One of those ‘Scottish settlers of the right sort’ was presumably Ebenezer Hay, who in 1859 stressed, as did shipboard diarists, the preference for the Scottish service: ‘we all like the scoch way of Prasing our God much Better than the English form’.64 Religious observance was certainly seen as a Scottish trait in the twentieth century by Carl V. Smith, who in his memoirs noted of the Beaton family, ‘The latter were a Scottish family – “Old Man” Beaton being a typical Scot, very kind and a great believer in Sunday observance.’65 [ 126 ]

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Sectarianism While analysis of religious belief has attracted the attention of scholars in New Zealand, as yet there is no study of religion in lunatic asylums.66 This arena is particularly deserving of analysis given the influence of science in the medical field, and the social and cultural differences shaping the assessment of Catholic Irish patients by Protestant doctors. There is also evidence contained in asylum casebooks referring to religious beliefs and practices, as well as the issue of sectarianism. In Dunedin, for instance, it was alleged that a Catholic patient ‘conceived an antipathy against [name removed], a Protestant Irishman in the same yard, but has never assaulted him’.67 Indeed, both Protestants and Catholics commented on the discrimination they allegedly encountered. At Auckland, Susan, a 57-year-old milk vendor born in Galway, ‘as a rule talks on religious subjects and speaks in a devotional tone but frequently breaks out into coarse and obscene abuse, is very bitter about England “persecuting” Irish Roman Catholics’.68 Rose Ann, a 50-year-old unwed cook, ‘says the ladies who live in her street are a low lot and annoy her because she is a Roman Catholic’.69 Meanwhile, Gisborne-born Ruth, ‘Says she thinks she will be hanged because she is a Catholic’.70 Catholics were also accused of being persecutors. According to Londonderry-born John: ‘He says he has numerous enemies because of his religion, that the Roman Catholics persecute him in every possible way, and have had him committed as insane through spite.’71 George from Kings County also ‘Believes he is persecuted by Roman Catholics’.72 Scotsman Alexander, meanwhile, ‘Is under the delusion that the Roman Catholics wish to take his life – meaning to do so by sticking their spears through his body’.73 Officials often attributed these mental disorders to ‘delusions of persecution’, as in the case of Jane, a Wesleyan from Moneymore, County Londonderry, who ‘has delusions of persecution. She says the Roman Catholics used to annoy and persecute her and the Roman Catholic clergymen used to cut the children into pieces.’74 Such alleged harassment also went beyond nationality. Englishwoman Elizabeth, for instance, ‘is afraid that some people are going to kill or injure her because she is a Protestant’.75 Quite apart from these broad statements about Catholic–Protestant disputes, claims and accusations were also made about asylum patients holding Fenian or Orange affiliations. Patrick, a 33-year-old labourer born at Moira, County Down, ‘Stated he was St Patrick, inventor of electricity and hundreds of other patents which the English people had robbed him of’. He furthermore alleged, ‘that he was a Fenian and imported rifles from U.S.A., to start a rebellion against the [ 127 ]

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English Taxpayers, the Government discovered his plot and banished him to work in the colonies’.76 Meanwhile, acquaintances of a Tipperary patient alleged ‘he is a Fenian and a whore and a bastard’.77 Similar allegations were made against patients in the Dunedin asylum. As one Catholic inmate originally from Fermanagh claimed in early 1894, many of his fellow patients suggested ‘that I have committed offences against the queen and belong to several Fenian Societies – It is a fraud to say so and a lie – they must be a bit affected in the head or they would not talk that way’.78 Another inmate made similar accusations against her husband, ‘the Irish Draper’. As she berated in a letter to her husband in 1905, ‘you are nothing to me so don’t dare to ever come to see me any more, not ever you Blazon rotten old liar of an Irish Fenian, Brazon looking Irish Fenian’.79 Patients born in New Zealand were also quick to levy accusations against the Irish (as well as Highland Scots, as the following example suggests): ‘He states that the Fenians & the Gaelic Society have been persecuting him holding him down & trying to make him take fits. He says that they tried to strap him says he will have revenge on them yet. Says that he knows them by sight & would attack the first one he meets.’80 Another patient also claimed ‘his brains are destroyed by poison which he got on the coast given by Fenians’.81 Orangemen were also accused of poisoning, with an acquaintance of an 80-year-old Catholic gumdigger from Waterford grumbling that ‘he is noisy at night, that he complains of the Grand Master of the Orange Lodge who is trying to poison and otherwise injure him’.82 Another migrant, ‘A short stoutly built Irishman’, claimed ‘he has been expelled from the orange lodge at Queenstown though he knows little of the members of the lodge and never belong to it’.83 According to a migrant from Ballyhaise, Cavan, ‘He says he comes from the north of Ireland & that he belong a long a longed to a lodge a body a lodge there – an orange lodge.’84 While bearing in mind the difficulties associated with casebook analyses and the disturbed minds of some patients, these testimonies, emerging in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, are suggestive of a subterranean sectarianism suffusing settler society or at least the perception of it. While more work is needed in this area, perhaps such cases can be viewed as accurate indicators of simmering sectarian tension which exploded in the early 1920s with the sedition trial of Bishop Liston.85 Indeed, sectarianism is an issue that has attracted much attention in studies of the Irish diaspora and, though acknowledged in the New Zealand context, the overall impression is that a relatively benign religious atmosphere existed. This is not to say that incidences of sectarian brawls were non-existent, but where [ 128 ]

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they took place they were mainly sporadic outbreaks of hostility between Orange and Green factions, with the most infamous of these tensions taking place on the West Coast in the 1860s and in Timaru in 1879.86 According to William Smith’s recollections, composed in the early twentieth century: there was a lot of trouble on the West Coast with the Fenians in sympathy with a movement of the sort in Ireland. It started first in Hokitika, and soon spread all over the Coast. At Hokitika they held a mock-funeral of certain martyrs that had been hanged for the cause at home . . . The authorities stopped them by shutting the cemetery gates and then there was trouble. A great number of loyal diggers were sworn in, drilled, and served with arms and ammunition. It had a steadying effect, and the trouble soon fisselled out.87

Patrick Lysaght’s pencil drawing (Figure 11) depicts the mock funeral procession at Hokitika, led by Catholic priest Father William Larkin, to commemorate the executions in England of the ‘Manchester Martyrs’. Other demonstrations also took place but, as Lyndon Fraser has argued, they were transitory ‘and never led to enduring ethnic alignments on the goldfields’.88 Nevertheless, sectarian tensions also arose in New Zealand during visits by itinerant preachers such as the

Figure 11 Funeral procession, Hokitika, 8 March 1868

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Catholic priest Patrick Hennebery and the Catholic turned Protestant Charles Chiniquy. Yet if individuals like Chiniquy inflamed antiCatholicism, so too could Catholics emphasise anti-Catholicism for their own ends. Bishop Patrick Moran’s catch-cry of anti-Catholicism, for instance, was ‘used to justify his demands for a subsidy for Catholic schools’.89 Fears about sectarian trouble also surrounded the proposed settlement at Katikati of Orangemen from Ulster, organised by George Vesey Stewart. As the Agent General expressed in 1873: It must, however, be clearly understood that the settlement is in no way to be connected with any party organization. I do not object to emigrants being bound together by a common religious belief. Such a tie, as witness the settlements of Otago and Canterbury, is often most efficacious in laying the foundations of a contented, orderly, successful, and wellconducted community. But the organization to which Mr. Stewart refers is one, I believe, which does not confine itself to the adoption of a religious belief, but is also based on hostility to the followers of another creed.90

In his memoirs, Bernard Conlon reflected on the Stewart settlement at Katikati, which then prompted contemplation about politics: The fact that there was the odd Orangeman among my fellow workers from time to time only made a papist and republican like myself feel that I wasn’t as far from home as I really was, for just like the Irish in Britain today we were all Irish Paddies out here in the eyes of the old settler families. Anyhow, Tom and I continued as we had done in Sessia [magaroll] and Lisduff. We both kept in touch with events in Ireland but we never got into arguments about them . . . we seldom discussed politics – except perhaps the New Zealand variety.91

Conlon also remarked: One of the things I most objected to in both New Zealand and Australian politics was very like what I had set my face against in Ireland, all the signs and symbols of British imperial rule. Both countries had the Union Jack as part of their national flag; they had a Governor-General appointed by the King of England; they had a Royal Navy and a Royal Air Force, all ready to fight for king and empire in time of war. Everything seemed to run by Brigadier-General This or Colonel That – retired soldiers from the war years, the Honourable or Right Honourable So-and-So, DSOs and OBEs, and there was a general devotion to British royalty, as obsequious as anything I had seen among the most loyal Orangemen at home.92

Irish Protestant loyalist politics feature most grittily in The Grasscutter, labelled the ‘first New Zealand-set film to dramatise the Irish “troubles”’.93 Released in 1988, five years before the beginning [ 130 ]

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of the Northern Ireland peace process, The Grasscutter tells the story of an Ulster Volunteer Force terrorist turned informer or ‘supergrass’ Brian Deeds (Ian McElhinney). With instructions to ‘all go and live in the sun or you can die in Belfast’, Deeds and his family relocate to New Zealand with the aid of the British government, his evidence having sent 23 loyalists to jail. Deeds’ new life, however, is violently disrupted with the arrival in New Zealand, under the guise of supporters for an Irish rugby tour, of UVF terrorists, including Deeds’ brother-in-law Jack Macready (Terence Cooper) and son Billy (Martin Maguire), both intent on wreaking revenge. Bomb explosions, graphic shootouts, and gripping car chases follow, culminating in a brutal bloodbath in the pristine location of Queenstown, far removed from the bleak urban setting of Belfast. While previous commentators have noted the contrasting landscapes and focused on issues of global terrorism and international political tension in relation to the film,94 The Grasscutter is also of interest for its portrayal of the conflict in Northern Ireland, albeit dramatically simplified. So what do viewers learn of the troubles in Northern Ireland from The Grasscutter? In Deeds’ words, the UVF was ‘another illegal organisation. They’re Protestants. They kill Catholics.’ In a later scene Deeds confesses to his girlfriend Hannah Carpenter (Judy McIntosh), ‘I was with them some of the times they killed people because I killed Catholics too.’ In response to Hannah’s disbelief surrounding his participation in such acts, Deeds explains fervently, ‘If you believed everything you had was about to be snatched away from you, about to be swamped, everything you and your father and your forefathers had spent all their lives working for and then you were able to identify the people who were responsible, I assure you, shooting them comes easy.’ This statement provides the film’s only explanation for violence in the north. When Hannah queries why he informed, Deeds responds: Things we did, I did, mistakes we made, things you find out about people. I grew up around Macready. He was a hero, he was a big hero. And I was with him one night and I watched when he butchered a fella, father of nine kids. I saw him keep this fella alive for two hours begging and screaming to be killed and I realised that what we claimed we were doing for our people and they claimed they were doing for theirs some men were doing it just for fun.

Deeds further adds, ‘I talked because Macready, the big hero, raped his own sister.’ That sister was Deeds’ ex-wife, Claire (Frances Barber). Apart from these comments there is little else in The Grasscutter to explain the historical complexity of Northern Ireland’s political [ 131 ]

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situation or to contextualise the proliferation of violence.95 In this regard, The Grasscutter resembles American portrayals of Northern Ireland which ‘used aspects of the Northern Ireland crisis to provide “back story” for otherwise conventional thrillers’.96 As some commentators have asserted, ‘any probing into the deeper issues of the Irish struggle is eschewed in favour of car and plane chases showing off the wonderful Southern Alps and lake scenery’.97 Nevertheless, The Grasscutter is especially important for focusing on loyalist paramilitary violence as most screen portrayals of the Northern Ireland situation engage with nationalist and republican culture.98 It also replicates elements of the few films that engage with depictions of loyalists, specifically portraying them as ‘demonized or decontextualized’, in other words possessing ‘a disturbing pathology’.99 This is most aptly conveyed through the character of Jack Macready, who is not only a bloodthirsty terrorist but an incestuous rapist. Despite exposing the divisions and strains within the UVF, a sense of alleged community among the loyalists is also stressed. As Claire tells Deeds in relation to their son Billy, who returned to Belfast: ‘I wouldn’t expect a man who betrayed his roots to try and understand somebody trying to rediscover theirs . . . He came from the community, a loyal, caring community which is more than he ever found here or ever got from you. He had to go back.’

Irish politics As we can see from the above examples, sectarian issues were intimately tied to political as well as religious concerns, and Irish migrants in New Zealand remained alert to political events in their homeland. So too did their descendants. In the mid-1970s, for instance, a cartoon (Figure 12) appeared, in which the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Robert Muldoon, sings a song encouraging those from ‘Ulster’s fiery hue’ with a past of ‘bigotry and hate’ to migrate to New Zealand. Muldoon, the grandson of migrants from Ulster, had suggested that New Zealand should welcome refugees from Ulster’s Troubles. A Catholic, however, was the Minister of Immigration at the time and rejected five Protestant applicants who had been involved in anti-IRA activities.100 A good deal of discussion about Irish politics appears in the records of Irish ethnic associations and the Irish ethnic press (the Green Ray and Tribune) rather than in personal testimonies. Indeed, mention in the latter only rarely appeared.101 Although the personal letters of Irish migrants tended to remain silent on Irish political matters, some glimpses of individual opinions can also be found in the ethnic [ 132 ]

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Figure 12 Malcolm Evans, Star turn, c. 1975–8

press. The Green Ray, for instance, contained a letter from Tim Brosnan, who was detained for refusing to become a soldier. As Brosnan’s letter specified, ‘I said I was an Irishman, a Sinn Feiner, and refused to fight for a country that had prosecuted and murdered my country and my people for hundreds of years, and who were doing so to-day.’ He continued, reflecting on his wife’s leanings: ‘I thank God that my good wife is looking at it in the same light as I am, for she, too, is a Sinn Feiner, and she would sooner see me go to gaol for years, or suffer death than don an English uniform.’102 Another incident related to the Cody brothers, Patrick and John, of Riversdale, Southland, who were objectors to military service because of ‘the atrocities committed by the troops in Ireland, and Ireland’s enslaved condition’.103 First published in 1916, the Green Ray was decidedly republican, ‘being strictly non-sectarian, but intensely Irish National’.104 As Seán Brosnahan has argued in his analysis of the Green Ray, its ‘mission was the shaming of the “shoneens” and the promotion of Sinn Féin’.105 A prime focus of the Green Ray was to regularly recount stories in connection with key political figures such as James Connolly, Robert Emmet, Patrick Pearse, and Wolfe Tone. Historical and contemporary events reported on included the massacre of Bachelor’s Walk and Roger [ 133 ]

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Casement’s last speech from the dock.106 The periodical also sought to engage with colonial ambivalence and uncertainty: ‘Many New Zealanders who admit that Ireland’s demands for Home Rule is reasonable, fail to understand why any section of the Irish people should desire a Republic. This is a colonial viewpoint, and is understandable as such; but Ireland is not a colony. Ireland was an independent nation with a distinct language and civilization of her own before volcanic action had thrown up New Zealand from the bottom of the South Pacific.’107 Appearing in the mid-1930s, the Tribune was another Irish ethnic newspaper which engaged with Irish political affairs, while acknowledging the diverse views held by colonials: ‘Auckland Irishmen, like Englishmen and Scotsmen, hold varying views as to the political activities in the motherland of their race.’108 Like the Green Ray, the Tribune reported on key events including the Act of Union, Gladstone’s Land Act, and the Parnell Commission.109 The paper also incorporated articles about nationalists, including a transcript of Robert Emmet’s speech from the dock: I acted as an Irishman, determined on delivering his country from the yoke of an unrelenting tyranny and the more galling yoke of a domestic faction . . . I wished to prove to France and to the world that Irishmen deserved to be assisted; that they were indignant at slavery, and ready to assert the independence and liberty of their country.110

Echoes of Emmet’s speech could be found in the pages of the Tribune, which noted in March 1935 ‘the long struggle of the majority of the Irish people for self-determination, free from interference from outside the four shores of Ireland’.111 A few months later it was reported that ‘The principle embodied in the Irish movement today is the principle of Ireland ruled by Irishmen alone.’112 And, again, a few months later this was reiterated: ‘the most important question before the Irish people to-day is the political unity of the country’.113 Backing up its assertions, the Tribune reported the speeches of Irish politicians, including Eamon de Valera’s communication to the League of Nations Assembly on the Free State’s attitude in the ItaloAbyssinian crisis: The Irish nation has no imperialistic ambitions. Although a mothercountry, we covet no colonies and have no dominions. Our sole claim is that the ancestral home of our people, unmistakably delimited by the ocean, should belong to us. We claim the right to order our own life in our own way and select our own Governmental institutions without interference.114

The following year the emphasis continued. On St Patrick’s Day a discussion of Irish patriotism stated that ‘Genuine and intense [ 134 ]

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patriotism is perhaps best exemplified by the Irishman . . . Seven centuries of foreign rule, suffering, persecution and woe have all failed to extinguish it – rather they have strengthened it and purified it . . . Probably Thomas Davis was one of the brightest and truest amongst Irish patriots.’115 The following month the paper reflected on how the events of the 1916 Rising were portrayed in New Zealand: Like most events in Ireland, and in Irish history, it received the attention of an utterly hostile press. The messages cabled to us concerning the rebellion were designed to inflame the people of this Dominion with hatred of Ireland. In most instances the designs were successful, and a wave of indignation and horror swept the land . . . We do not claim to be wiser than those people of ‘Six Counties’ who are temporarily on the ‘wrong side,’ but we believe that when they cease to be influenced by alien propaganda, they will see eye to eye with us.116

And, again, the following month a call was made for Irishmen of all beliefs and political positions to unite in the interests of a united Ireland: At the present time Ireland is split into two parts, not by the will of Irishmen, but by the will of Englishmen. Who gave Englishmen this right to dismember Ireland? . . . The Irishman refuses to accept this partition of his country as final . . . When it comes to the question of nationality, Irishmen know no difference of creed . . . Religion has never been an obstacle in the way of the patriot. Irishmen of all classes and creeds must not think that their work is finished until they can say that Ireland is one and undivided. They must put aside all petty differences, and unite in the service of their nation.117

The Irish ethnic press in New Zealand, then, took an unambiguous stance on the issue of a united Ireland and made the tenor of the periodical explicitly political. The poetry of Irish authors, such as Padraic Pearse, also appeared in the pages of the Green Ray and the Tribune (with its ‘From the Irish poets’ page) but, as will be seen, Irish literary figures did not appear in the pages of the Irish ethnic press as readily as Scottish authors featured in the Scottish ethnic press in New Zealand. Irish ethnic societies The main contrast between the Tribune and the Green Ray, however, was the latter’s provision of a voice for Irish associations in New Zealand. Indeed, an examination of Irish societies in New Zealand, whose activities were frequently reported on in the ethnic press, [ 135 ]

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further demonstrates their engagement with political affairs relating to Ireland and shows that cultural elements were often deployed for political objectives. This is demonstrated by the Robert Emmet Dunedin Branch of the Maoriland Irish Society, ‘an Irish National non-sectarian body’ which ‘has for its objects the freedom of the Homeland of the Gael, the fostering of a great National spirit among the Irish of New Zealand, and the fostering and expansion of Irish ideas, ideals, music, literature, language, customs, pastimes, and industries’.118 As J. T. Sullivan put it in his presidential address: ‘The Association is necessarily political, but only so far as the affairs of Ireland are concerned at home and abroad. We have nothing, for instance, to do with the domestic politics of New Zealand, except in one possible case – where they may effect our Irish comrades in these islands.’119 In other words, it was stressed that just ‘because we are loyal and devoted sons and daughters of these sunny isles, we are not going to forget the dear little isle on the ocean’s rim – the land our fathers and mothers came from’.120 In pursuing their aims, discussion of Irish literary luminaries was often eschewed and Society lectures were frequently political in tone. The Thomas Davis Branch of the Maoriland Society in Wellington, for instance, provided a lecture on Ireland’s famines and rebellions, including one in 1918 which emphasised, ‘The evictions, the hangings, the pitch-cappings, the jailings, the robberies and murders’.121 Meanwhile, the Robert Emmet Dunedin Branch of the Maoriland Irish Society asserted that ‘Everyone must become acquainted with the Irish National Anthem . . . classes for Irish history, Irish National movements (past and present), elementary lessons in the Irish language, will be taken up as soon as a class is formed’.122 Membership of many Irish societies was also broader than some Scottish associations but possessed a political proviso. As claimed of the Robert Emmet Dunedin Branch of the Maoriland Irish Society: ‘All Irish exiles and their children or their children’s children, born in these islands, are eligible for membership, provided they recognise Ireland’s sovereign right to free nationhood.’123 They stipulated that ‘The Shoneen Irish, the anti-Irish, and the Westminster types of Irishmen would be out of place in our guild. We stand for Ireland for the Irish and an Irish Ireland.’124 In an intriguing exception of the Tribune’s reporting of association events, it was reported of the revival of the Irish National Society in 1935, that the ‘Chair being taken by a Catholic priest, while the Master of Ceremonies for the evening was a staunch Protestant and a patriotic Irishman.’125 Inaugurated in 1947, membership of the Ulster Society of Otago similarly adopted a broader membership remit for those with Ulster [ 136 ]

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connections. Members could be either born in the nine counties or domiciled there for more than seven years, be of direct Ulster descent, or be married to a member.126 While its membership in the first year of its existence reached 115, 30 years later there were only 10 financial members.127 By 1983 the Society was wound up.128 Its demise reflected the declining membership of branches elsewhere in the country. In 1976, for instance, Ashburton disbanded having only six members. That same year, Hawera had only 12 members, while Wellington’s membership had dropped from 60 to 28. By contrast, numbers at Auckland and Invercargill were healthier, with 148 and 137 respectively.129 As with earlier Irish nationalist societies, the Ulster Society of Otago claimed to be ‘non-sectarian and non-political’. There was, however, a political tinge to the Society in its decision that ‘The objects of the Association shall be to uphold the constitutional position of Northern Ireland within the British Commonwealth of Nations’.130 These objectives were spelled out more fully in 1949 with the Society’s intention to ‘uphold the constitutional position of Northern Ireland within the British Commonwealth of Nations, to promote the welfare and prosperity of Northern Ireland, and to promote loyalty to the Crown. The Society shall be non-sectarian and shall not take part in party politics except as may be necessary to promote the interests of Northern Ireland.’131 Beyond these objectives, the Society sought to provide opportunities for Ulster men and women in Otago to meet and befriend one another; to assist future immigrants from Ulster; and to lend a hand to kinsmen in need.132 It also sought ‘close relations with Northern Ireland and its people’.133 Later in the twentieth century, the objectives of other Irish societies still had a political dimension. The intention of the New Zealand Irish Society, incorporated in 1973, was to: promote Irish interests at all levels; preserve a non-sectarian character; support the reunification of the Irish Nation; render aid and succour to victims of economic, religious, or political discrimination in Ireland; make known in New Zealand and organise support for a campaign for civil liberties in Ireland; uphold and defend Ireland when attacked in the press; make known and foster knowledge of Irish history, culture, language; and create a social atmosphere and goodwill among the Irish.134 By contrast, the Hamilton Irish Club listed among their ‘offences’ anyone discussing politics or singing any party song, or mentioning religion that in any way leads to argument.135 That such ‘offences’ were listed, however, demonstrates the political character associated with forms of Irishness in Irish associational culture in New Zealand. [ 137 ]

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Scottish history Compared with the political tenor of the Irish ethnic press and Irish societies, sources relating to the Scots in New Zealand convey little Scottish concern with political matters. An exception in New Zealand cinema appears incidentally in Sons for the Return Home (1979), where the central female character Sarah (Fiona Lindsay) is introduced to viewers in what appears to be a central London pub. In the context of a discussion about exploitation, a comic exchange takes place between a nationalist Scot and an Englishman (speaking Mockney): Scot: Home Rule for Scotland! Englishman: Cor blimey, here we go. McDonald’s squeezed his bagpipes. Get your bleedin’ kilt out and go and colonise the Orkney Islands. Scot: Piss off, Sassenach.

This altercation seemingly reflects sustained efforts during the 1970s for Scottish devolution, culminating in 1979’s referendum which despite the majority ‘yes’ vote could not be implemented as less than a third of the electorate voted.136 Scots in New Zealand, however, were not depicted as having any explicit concerns with contemporary homeland politics. Instead, their focus on political issues such as Scottish independence harked back to an earlier time, centring on individuals such as William Wallace, a focus reflecting developments at home.137 Wallace was also the most frequently referenced Scottish historical figure in the poetry written by Scots in New Zealand, more often than not celebrating the independence secured for Scotland from the Wars of Independence. John Barr, born in Paisley, migrated to Otago in 1852 and in the tradition of Burns typically wrote in Lowland Scots. In 1861 he published his thoughts on Wallace’s patriotism and death: Let rivers roll for Scotia’s tears, The pent-up grief of bygone years, For mighty Wallace slain ... shades of departed heroes wake, The hero sinks in crimson lake, And mighty Wallace dies ... Pale Scotia mourned in sable weed, The tyrant’s cruel, ruthless deed, But soon her robe was changed; Unto her cause the beams return, And reeking red ran Bannockburn, Great Wallace was avenged.138

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Andrew Kinross was another Scottish poet in New Zealand captivated by the legacy of Wallace, as evident from two poems, both titled ‘Patriotism’, published in 1899:

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Oh! Wallace, chief of all the patriot band That ever for their country made a stand Against the tyranny of foreign foes, Whilst blood within one Scottish patriot flows, So long thy noble name shall be adored.139

In another poem of the same title Kinross heralds Wallace above all other Scottish heroes: But chief of all the great and brave Who ever filled a patriot’s grave Wallace is dearest still to me – He died to set my country free.140

Among other patriots found in the poetry of Scots in New Zealand was Robert Bruce, and, on several occasions, Wallace and Bruce were linked, endorsing Scottish claims for nationhood. John Barr, for instance, published in 1861: ‘I see great Wallace take the field,/Whose mighty heart would never yield’. The drama of the poem unfolds with Barr attesting, ‘My bosom burns, my pulse beats high,/I hear the Bruce’s battle cry/On glorious Bannockburn’. Barr then envisages seeing the ‘Scottish banner wave,/The Lion red, flag of the brave’.141 Robert Francis was another Scottish poet exhorting the ‘High valour of brave Wallace, doughty Bruce’.142 According to Angus Cameron Robertson in 1927: ‘Here Bruce and Wallace raised the men/With warlike kilt and keen claymore’.143 And in ‘The Gaelic tongue’ Robertson writes of ‘the land where Wallace bled’ to set captives free and ‘Where Bruce his Highland clansmen led/To snap the chains of slavery!’144 As the nineteenth century drew to a close Andrew Kinross linked both Wallace and Burns, along with Pym and Hampden: ‘For freedom Bruce and Wallace fought, brave Pym and Hampden, too,/Have shown how nobly patriots strive for all our race to view’.145 Kinross was seemingly influenced by an upbringing on Scottish historic figures, for, as he acknowledged in the preface to his poetry, ‘My favourite heroes were Wallace and Hampden’.146 William Hogg also connected a host of other figures to Wallace and Bruce, including Burns, Scott, Campbell, Pollok, Wilson, McNiel, Knox, Chalmers, Blair, Smith, and Watt.147 Hugh Smith, meanwhile, chose to link Wallace and Bruce with references to historical events such as Bannockburn and the wounding of the piper at Dargai.148 Other historical localities to feature in the poetry included Largs, [ 139 ]

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Loncarty, and Bannockburn, as well as Bothwellbridge, Airdsmoss, and Drumglog.149 The other major figure linked to Wallace and Bruce, however, was Robert Burns. For example, in his published collection dating from 1861, John Barr wrote: They sang o’ Wallace, Burns, and Bruce Till ilka board dirl’d in the house; They sang o’ Scotia’s fertile vales, Her heath-clad hills and windin’ dales, Her battlefields for Freedom fought, That ne’er was sold and ne’er was bought; Wi’ mony mair I dinna min’– At last they joined in ‘Auld Lang Syne.’ Immortal Burns! though now in dust, Thy name survives thy mortal crust.150

Robert Francis, meanwhile, dedicated a poem to the Chieftain of the St Andrews Society of Invercargill, and linked Wallace, Bruce, and Burns: O land of Wallace, land of Bruce, O land of Robert Burns, Land of the thistle, heather, spruce, To thee each Scotsman turns.151

Indeed, the most significant Scottish literary figure appearing in a range of New Zealand sources was Robert Burns. Penning a homage on the anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth, Angus Cameron Robertson, the honorary bard of the Gaelic Society of New Zealand and a member of the Burns Club, declared the influence of Burns abroad: From land of the heather, the mountain, and flood, We gather together, the young and the hoary, To honour the poet of Scotia’s blood, Whose songs shall forever grow brighter in glory.152

While the poetry of Scots in New Zealand contained references to historical personages in Scotland, most mention was found in the Scottish ethnic press published in New Zealand. Appearing between 1912 and 1933, the periodical comprised The New Zealand Scot which was later named The Scottish New Zealander (1925–26) and then The New Zealand Scotsman & Caledonian (1927–33). Indeed, the depiction of Scottish history in the ethnic press sets it apart from the manifestations of Scottishness evident in other sources such as personal correspondence and shipboard journals. In part this was to ensure continuing identification with Scotland among the multigenerational descent group. As one report in 1928 put it, ‘We [ 140 ]

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must see to it that our children are embued with the spirit of Scotland; with a love of Scots history, of Scots song and story, of Scots literature and tradition, and of the Scots vernacular.’153 To achieve this it was felt that the best method was to connect history with individuals; ‘the history of the king is the history of the nation’.154 Indeed, despite some articles on the Clearances, most features focused on individuals, including Mary Queen of Scots, Flora Macdonald, William Wallace, David Livingstone, and Robert Burns (Figure 13). Walter Scott was also hailed as a figure of influence for New Zealand’s multigenerational descent group. As attested in 1913, ‘Scott was an “Ideal Man,” and I should like to see every young colonial Scot in New Zealand to have the same high standards of honour that he had.’155

Figure 13 Robert Burns on the cover of The N.Z. Scotsman magazine, 1927

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Other prominent Scottish figures in New Zealand were discussed, including John McKenzie and Norman McLeod. According to its critics, however, the problem with the dissemination of Scottish history and other subjects in the periodicals concerned their accuracy. As one report put it, the speeches of leading Scots in New Zealand about ‘Scots history and Scots literature was wonderful and weird’. To demonstrate their point the critic noted that the St Andrew’s Cross had been called the ‘blue cross of Scotland’ and the Rampant Lion the national flag of Scotland. Such incidents, it was heatedly claimed, ‘are a reproach to Scotsmen and an insult to Scotland’.156 While the Scottish ethnic press shared some features of the Irish ethnic press, such as recipes, book reviews, and language lessons, the most significant contrast concerned the political tenor of the Irish ethnic press. This contrast can also be discerned when considering the ethnic associations of the Irish and Scots in New Zealand. Scottish societies While Irish societies frequently articulated political aims and objectives, Scottish societies were predominantly cultural in their intent. The Dannevirke Highland Society, for instance, maintained that its monthly socials ‘are of a most social character and thoroughly Scotch, and are the means of keeping up the old Scotch element amongst Scotch residents and their families’.157 In the mid-1920s the Gisborne Scottish and Caledonian Society aimed to: foster national sentiment; promote good fellowship among the Scottish community; encourage the study of Scottish music, literature, and dancing; and endeavour to give information to newly arrived Scots.158 Meanwhile, the Wellington Scots Club, which formed in 1926, met monthly and claimed that ‘The programmes submitted are all of Scots character. The dances are the real thing, and, as membership is confined to those of Scots birth and descent (and this is insisted upon), the Club is “Scots” in every sense of the word.’159 Even those Scottish associations formed later in the twentieth century took a cultural slant, such as the Pahiatua and Districts Scottish Society. Incorporated in 1958, the Society sought the following: cultivation and knowledge of the records and traditions of the history of Scotland; the promotion of Scottish music, literature, and songs; and the encouragement of Scottish dancing and wearing of the Highland dress.160 Scottish-language societies adopted similar cultural aims, although there was a greater focus on the regional dimension of their identity. This was especially the case with the linkage of the Gaelic language with Highlanders. The Gaelic Society of New Zealand, for instance, sought with its formation in 1881 ‘to foster and perpetuate the [ 142 ]

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Figure 14 The Gaelic Society’s choir, 1899

Gaelic Language, to encourage the cultivation of Gaelic literature and music, to establish branch societies throughout the colony of New Zealand, to generally take cognisance of all matters which may be considered of special interest to Highlanders’.161 Part of this perpetuation of Gaelic involved the Society’s choir, pictured in Figure 14, who sung songs in Gaelic. The image also depicts other aspects of Scottish and Highland identity, including the kilt, pipes, tartan, and Scottish flags. Wellington’s Gaelic Society pursued similar aims, providing lectures on Highland themes such as traits in the Highland character, Highland poets, and Highland regiments. Such was its focus on its Highland character that a query in 1949 concerning widening its membership criteria beyond Highlanders and those of Highland descent was answered, ‘the club would be in danger of losing its identity’.162 Clan societies were also a further component of Scottish societies in New Zealand. The Clan Mackay Society of New Zealand, for instance, formed in Wellington in 1937 and by the following year had 66 members.163 In 1949 membership had declined to 56, sparking a membership drive which involved sending letters to all Mackays on Wellington’s electoral roll.164 This resulted in 10 new members taking the Society’s active membership to 65.165 It was noted, however, [ 143 ]

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840

that there were 200 Mackays in the Wellington/Hutt region who were not members.166 The Clan Mackay Society of New Zealand felt in 1938 that social evenings should feature talks on famous and notable Mackays or septs of Mackays.167 As claimed in 1949, ‘These socials provide a grand opportunity for clansfolk to meet together, and to contribute towards the maintaining in this country of Scottish sentiment and culture.’168 While clan associations also echoed elements of other Scottish ethnic associations, they differed by having a strong leaning towards genealogical aspects. This is evident from the proposed constitution of the Shetland Society which in 1995 sought fellowship with people interested in Shetland in order to foster interest in the traditions and activities of the Shetland past, and promote interest in family history and ancestry.169 Two further societies in New Zealand with a Scottish ethnic character, but whose membership was not confined to Scots, were Caledonian Societies and Burns Clubs. These associations have received analysis by scholars, pointing out that their membership was more inclusive than other societies. The Burns Club, for instance, extended membership to all admirers of Burns’ works.170 Caledonian Societies in New Zealand also appeared to be open to allcomers.171 In her assessment of the Burns and Caledonian Societies, Tanja Bueltmann has portrayed them as being outward and inclusive, which enabled them to be a vehicle for both integration and identity. This, she indicates, differed from other Scottish societies, including the Gaelic Society, which were more inward and exclusive and predominantly a vehicle for identity rather than integration.172 Regardless of such differences, Scottish societies throughout New Zealand adopted a cultural emphasis, and in this respect remained significantly different from Irish ethnic organisations which more readily adopted a political stance. While these Scottish societies elsewhere in the diaspora pursued literary and cultural aims, the New Zealand scene (and that of Australia) differed from Canada where, through St Andrew’s Societies, a philanthropic focus was prioritised. This charitable dimension, it has been suggested, was not just a measure to aid Scots in distress but was a way to control new members and guard the image of the Society presented to the wider public.173 The differences between Australasia and Canada are perhaps attributable to greater hardships being encountered in Canada which was settled earlier than Australasia.174 Despite the occasional divisions between religious and political beliefs among New Zealand’s various ethnic groups, there is a sense in which deliberate efforts were made to ensure that rivalries from home were [ 144 ]

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not transported abroad. As politician John Sheehan stated, ‘one of the grandest lessons which the colonies are teaching to the mother country is that contained in the forbearance and tolerance shown by the English, Irish and Scottish colonists towards each other, and in the forgetfulness of national and religious prejudice’.175 Or, as the Scottish-born poet Andrew Kinross echoed in similar tones:

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Let English, Scotch, and Irish join upon New Zealand’s strand, And show that over all the earth there is no freer land.176

Notes 1 Donald M. MacRaild, Faith, Fraternity and Fighting: The Orange Order and Irish Migrants in Northern England, c. 1850 –1920 (Liverpool, 2005), p. 3. 2 Ibid., p. 293. 3 Rory Sweetman, ‘Towards a history of Orangeism in New Zealand’, in Brad Patterson (ed.), Ulster–New Zealand Migration and Cultural Transfers (Dublin, 2006), p. 163. 4 P. J. Coleman, ‘Transplanted Irish institutions: Orangeism and Hibernianism in New Zealand, 1877–1910’ (MA, University of Canterbury, 1993), pp. 113–14. See also Rory Sweetman, Faith and Fraternalism: A History of the Hibernian Society in New Zealand, 1869–2000 (Wellington, 2002). 5 For a summary of this debate see John Stenhouse, ‘Religion and society’, in Giselle Byrnes (ed.), The New Oxford History of New Zealand (Melbourne, 2009), ch. 14. 6 Shipboard diary of Bethia Mawhinney, 16 Nov. 1887, p. 11, ATL, MS-Group-0475. 7 Shipboard diary of Robert Graham, 1842, p. 3, ATL, qMS-0870. 8 Shipboard diary of George Stephen Robertson, 1870, p. 27, ATL, MS-Papers-5591. 9 Shipboard journal of Andrew Campbell, 5 Nov. 1883, p. 39, CM, Folder 70, 94/85. 10 See, for instance, Keith Robbins, ‘Religion and community in Scotland and Wales since 1800’, in Sheridan Gilley and W. J. Sheils (eds), A History of Religion in Britain: Practice and Belief from Pre-Roman Times to the Present (Oxford and Cambridge, 1994), p. 367. 11 Edward Norman, ‘Church and state since 1800’, in Gilley and Sheils (eds), A History of Religion, p. 280. 12 Shipboard diary of Robert Graham, 1842, p. 1, ATL. 13 Shipboard journal of William Harold Munro, Monday 28 Aug. 1876, p. 11, CCL, Arch 215. 14 Shipboard diary of Thomas Warnock, 26 May 1878, p. 12, ATL, MS-Papers-7232-1. 15 Shipboard journal of John Forsyth Menzies, 1 Dec. 1878, CM, 91/85. 16 Shipboard diary of Bethia Mawhinney, 30 Oct. 1887, p. 6, ATL. 17 Shipboard diary of John Jack, 1883, ATL, MS-1074. 18 Shipboard journal of Thomas Keir, 29 Nov. 1863, CM, ARC 1900.22, transcript courtesy of Ian and Bev Boyd. 19 Ibid., 17 Jan. 1864. 20 Sheridan Gilley, ‘The Church of England in the nineteenth century’, in Gilley and Sheils (eds), A History of Religion in Britain, p. 293. 21 Shipboard diary of Dugald McLaren, 23 July 1864, p. 20, ATL, MSX-2904. 22 Shipboard diary of George Grant, 10 June 1877, p. 2, ATL, MS-7148. 23 Shipboard diary of William Runciman, 1881, p. 5, ATL, MS-Papers-1414. 24 Shipboard journal of Andrew Campbell, 1 Oct. 1883, p. 16, CM. 25 Shipboard diary of John Greenfield, 27 Sept. 1908, p. 5, ATL, MS-Papers-6422. 26 Ibid., 5 Oct. 1908, p. 6. 27 Shipboard journal of Andrew Campbell, 15 Oct. 1883, p. 22, CM. 28 Shipboard journal of Jean Chisholm, 30 March 1918, p. 9, New Zealand National Maritime Museum, 910.45 CHI.

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29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67

Gilley, ‘The Church of England’, pp. 292–3. Robbins, ‘Religion and community’, p. 366; Gilley, ‘The Church of England’, p. 293. Shipboard diary of George Stephen Robertson, 1870, p. 5, ATL. Shipboard diary of Bethia Mawhinney, Sunday 6 Nov. 1887, p. 7, ATL. Ibid., Sunday 27 Nov. 1887, p. 14. Shipboard diary of William Herries MacLean, 22 March 1863, p. 14, ATL, 89-136. Shipboard diary of John Greenfield, 27 Sept. 1908, p. 6, ATL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_People’s_Society_of_Christian_Endeavour. Shipboard diary of Margaret Peace, 22 Jan. 1865, p. 26, ATL, MS-Papers-4159. Emmet Larkin, ‘The devotional revolution in Ireland, 1850–1875’, American Historical Review, 77 (1972), pp. 625–52, reprinted in Emmet Larkin, The Historical Dimensions of Irish Catholicism (Dublin, 1997), pp. 57–89. Shipboard diary of Jane Findlayson, 1876, ATL, MS-Papers-1678. Jane Findlayson’s entry on the passenger list for the Oamaru can be found in ANZ WRO, IM 15/278. Cited in Lyndon Fraser, To Tara via Holyhead: Irish Catholic Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century Christchurch (Auckland, 1997), p. 59. Shipboard diary of John Matthew Taylor, 13 March 1841, p. 47, ATL, MS-Group-0881. Shipboard diary of Polly Evans, 1866, ATL, MS-Papers-0586. Shipboard diary of Emma Hodder, 1869, ATL, MS-Papers-1192. Shipboard diary of John Matthew Taylor, 25 Dec. 1840, p. 22, ATL. Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 4 Jan. 1879, CM, Folder 51, 73/67. Shipboard journal of Thomas Dacre, 30 July 1873, CM, ARC 1994.19. Donald Harman Akenson, Small Differences: Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants, 1815–1922 (Kingston, Ont., 1988), p. 142. Shipboard diary of Dugald McLaren, 28 Aug. 1864, p. 70, ATL. Shipboard journal of Thomas Keir, 17 Jan. 1864, CM. Shipboard diary of Margaret Peace, Saturday 8 April 1865, p. 64, ATL. Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 21 Dec. 1878, CM. Ibid., 29 Dec. 1878. Ibid., 15 Dec. 1878. Shipboard journal of Andrew Campbell, 10 Oct. 1883, p. 18, CM. Shipboard diary of John Hemery, 5 Nov. 1839, p. 3, ATL, MS-Papers-4384. David Fitzpatrick, ‘“That beloved country, that no place else resembles”: connotations of Irishness in Irish-Australasian letters, 1841–1915’, Irish Historical Studies, 27:108 (1991), p. 336. New Zealand Freeman’s Journal, 7 Aug. 1885, p. 11, ACDA. P. E. Hurley, ‘Some reasons why Catholics lose the faith in New Zealand’, Irish Ecclesiastical Record 3rd Series, 8 (1887). I am grateful to Kevin Molloy for this reference. Donald Harman Akenson, Half the World from Home: Perspectives on the Irish in New Zealand, 1860 –1950 (Wellington, 1990), pp. 65–6. John M. Abbott (Tuakau) to Robert Murray, 29 April 1884, quoted with the permission of The Board of The National Library of Ireland, MS 27994. See Angela McCarthy, Irish Migrants in New Zealand, 1840 –1937: ‘The Desired Haven’ (Woodbridge, 2005), pp. 243–5. James McIlrath (Canterbury) to his family (Co. Down), 27 June 1873, courtesy of Jenny Langford. Canterbury Pilgrims and Early Settlers Scrapbook, 1923 –35, vol. 2, p. 313, CCL. Ebenezer Hay (Pigeon Bay) to Robert Hay (Midbuiston), 14 May 1859, CM, ARC 1990.8, 1/19. Carl V. Smith, ‘Memories of a great-grandfather’ (unpublished), courtesy of Douglas Duncan, Book Two, p. 148. This situation is being rectified by postgraduate research: Elspeth Knewstubb, ‘Gender, religion, and the medicalization of madness in New Zealand: a study of Ashburn Hall, 1882–1910’ (MA, University of Otago, forthcoming). Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1893–94), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/45, Case 2648.

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RELIGION, POLITICS, AND HISTORY 68 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Casebook (1900–3), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/9, Case 361. 69 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Casebook (1903–6), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/10, Case 49. 70 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Casebook (1908–10), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/11, Case 116. 71 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Casebook (1908–10), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/11, Case 274. 72 Dunedin Lunatic Asylum Medical Casebook (1877–1913), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/39, Case 113. 73 Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1890–91), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/ 42, Case 2407. 74 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Casebook (1908–10), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/11, Case 376. 75 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Casebook (1903–6), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/10, Case 272. 76 Ibid., Case 258. 77 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Casebook (1908–10), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/11, Case 337. 78 Letter to T. King, 16 March 1894, in Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1893–94), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/45, Case 2711. 79 Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1892–93), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/44, Case 2571. 80 Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1890–91), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/42, Case 2389. 81 Dunedin Lunatic Asylum and Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1863–1920), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D265/19956/1, Case 280. 82 Auckland Carrington Hospital Files, Committed Patient Casebook (1903–6), ANZ ARO, YCAA 1048/10, Case 53. 83 Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1890–91), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/42, Case 2360. 84 Seacliff Hospital Medical Casebook (1893–94), ANZ DRO, DAHI/D264/19956/45, Case 2644. 85 See Rory Sweetman, Bishop in the Dock: The Sedition Trial of James Liston (Auckland, 1997). 86 Richard P. Davis, Irish Issues in New Zealand Politics, 1868–1922 (Dunedin, 1974), esp. pp. 11–24; Seán G. Brosnahan, ‘The “battle of the borough” and the “saige o Timaru”: sectarian riot in colonial Canterbury’, New Zealand Journal of History, 28:1 (1994), pp. 41–59. 87 William Smith, ‘Reminiscences of a long and active life by an old colonist’, 1911, AWMML, MS 1236, p. 35. 88 Lyndon Fraser, Castles of Gold: A History of New Zealand’s West Coast Irish (Dunedin, 2007), p. 142. 89 Hugh M. Laracy, ‘The life and context of Bishop Patrick Moran’ (MA, Victoria University of Wellington, 1964), p. 67. 90 AJHR, 1874, D-1, No. 12, Vogel to AG, 21 Oct. 1873. 91 The Travels of Bernard Conlon Sessiamagaroll to San Francisco, New York, New Zealand and New South Wales, Recorded as a memoir by his son Proinsias Ó Conluain (O Neill Country Historical Society: Dungannon, 2004), pp. 21–2. 92 Ibid., p. 32. 93 Helen Martin and Sam Edwards, New Zealand Film, 1912–1996 (Oxford and Auckland, 1997), p. 142. 94 Ian Conrich, ‘Global pressure and the political state: New Zealand’s cinema of crisis’, Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities, 24:2&3 (2005), pp. 8–18. 95 Martin McLoone, Irish Film: The Emergence of a Contemporary Cinema (London, 2000), p. 66. 96 Ibid., p. 65.

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 97 Martin and Edwards, New Zealand Film, p. 142. 98 Brian McIlroy, Shooting to Kill: Filmmaking and the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland (Richmond, 2001; rev. edn), p. 11. See also Jennifer Cornell, ‘Walking with beasts: Gary Mitchell and the representation of Ulster Loyalism’, Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, 29:2 (2003), pp. 27–34; McLoone, Irish Film, p. 79. 99 McIlroy, Shooting to Kill, pp. 117, 119. 100 www.teara.govt.nz/en/irish/4/5 [last accessed 6 Oct. 2009]. 101 See McCarthy, Irish Migrants in New Zealand, p. 213. 102 The Green Ray: A Review of Current Affairs, Literature, Art, Industry and a Magazine of Irish National Thought, 2:2 (1 Jan. 1918), p. 37, ATL, Per GRE. 103 Ibid., 1:9 (1 Sept. 1917), p. 165. 104 Ibid., 1:12 (1 Nov. 1917), p. 201. 105 Seán Brosnahan, ‘“Shaming the shoneens”: the Green Ray and the Maoriland Irish society in Dunedin, 1916–22’, in Lyndon Fraser (ed.), A Distant Shore: Irish Migration and New Zealand Settlement (Dunedin, 2000), p. 123. 106 See for instance Green Ray, 2:5 (1 April 1918), pp. 88–9 and 2:5 (1 April 1918), p. 112. 107 Ibid., 1:12 (1 Nov. 1917), p. 206. 108 Tribune, 1:3 (18 April 1935), p. 7, AWMML, DU436.12. 109 Ibid., 1:4 (23 May 1935), p. 6. 110 Ibid., 1:2 (14 March 1935), p. 9. 111 Ibid., p. 1. 112 Ibid., 1:6 (25 July 1935), p. 9. 113 Ibid., 1:8 (26 Sept. 1935), p. 8. 114 Ibid., 1:10 (21 Nov. 1935), p. 2. 115 Ibid., 2:2 (17 March 1936), p. 7. 116 Ibid., 2:3 (23 April 1936), p. 1. 117 Ibid., 2:4 (28 May 1936), p. 2. 118 Green Ray, 1:10 (1 Oct. 1917), p. 197. 119 Ibid., p. 197. 120 Ibid., 2:5 (1 April 1918), p. 86. 121 Ibid., p. 86. 122 Ibid., 1:10 (1 Oct. 1917), p. 198. 123 Ibid., p. 197. 124 Ibid., p. 197. 125 Tribune, 1:3 (18 April 1935), p. 7. 126 ‘Rules’, p. 1, in Ulster Society of Otago Inc. Minute Book, 16 June 1947, HC, AG-239-1. 127 Ulster Society of Otago Inc. Minute Book, 4 Sept. 1947, p. 13, HC, AG-239-1; and 4 May 1977, p. 80. 128 Ibid., 7 May 1983, p. 106, HC, AG-239-3. 129 Ibid., 23 Oct. 1976, p. 83, HC, AG-239-3. 130 Ibid., 16 June 1947, p. 4, HC, AG-239-1. 131 ‘Constitution and Rules of the Ulster Association of Otago, Incorporated’, 1949, p. 1, in Ulster Society of Otago Inc. Minute Book, HC, AG-239-3. 132 Ulster Society of Otago Inc. Minute Book, 8 May 1947, p. 1, HC, AG-239-1. 133 Ibid., pp. 1–2, HC, AG-239-3. 134 New Zealand Irish Society Inc., ANZ ARO, BBNZ/5181/6383/42577. 135 ‘Rules’, p. 7, Hamilton Irish Club Inc., 1962– 80, ANZ ARO, BAYT/10438/Box 69/1962/68, part 1. 136 See T. M. Devine, The Scottish Nation, 1700–2000 (London, 1999), pp. 586–90. 137 Graeme Morton, Unionist Nationalism: Governing Urban Scotland, 1830–1860 (East Linton, 1999). 138 John Barr, ‘Let rivers roll for Scotia’s tears’, in John Barr, Poems and Songs, Descriptive and Satirical (Edinburgh, 1861), pp. 75–7. 139 Andrew Kinross, ‘Patriotism’, in Andrew Kinross, My Life and Lays (Invercargill, 1899), p. 63.

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RELIGION, POLITICS, AND HISTORY 140 Kinross, ‘Patriotism’, p. 88. 141 Barr, ‘Awake, my muse!’, in Poems and Songs, pp. 240–2. 142 Robert Francis, ‘Three gifts’, in Robert Francis, A New Zealand Harp (London, n.d.), p. 87. 143 Angus Cameron Robertson, ‘The mountains of Skye’, in Angus Cameron Robertson, Salt Sea Tang (Dunedin, 1927), p. 73. 144 ‘The Gaelic tongue’, in ibid., p. 293. 145 Kinross, ‘A freeman’s lay’, in My Life and Lays, p. 75. 146 Kinross, My Life and Lays, p. 3. 147 William Hogg, ‘Song, “old Scotland”, in William Hogg, Lays and Rhymes, Descriptive, Legendary, Historical, Local, and Lyrical (Nelson, 1875), pp. 89–90. 148 ‘When Rona played the bagpipes’ [at Greymouth], in Berta Sinclair (ed.), The Poetical Works of Hugh Smith (The Bard of Inangahua) (Papanui, n.d.), p. 177. 149 Hogg, ‘To the united Caledonians of Nelson’, in Lays and Rhymes, p. 330. 150 Barr, ‘Robin’s adventures’, in Poems and Songs, pp. 91–2. 151 Francis, ‘O Scotia land of leal and free’, in A New Zealand Harp, p. 73. 152 Robertson, ‘Lines on the occasion of the anniversary of the birthday of Robert Burns’, in Salt Sea Tang, p. 23. 153 The N.Z. Scotsman, 2:14 (15 April 1928), p. 56, ATL, Serials Collection, Per NZ SCO. 154 The Scottish New Zealander, 4:7 (26 July 1926), p. 1, ATL, Serials Collection, Per SCO. 155 The New Zealand Scot, 1:4 (20 Feb. 1913), p. 8, ATL, Serials Collection, fPer NZ SCO. 156 The N.Z. Scotsman, 3:33 (15 Nov. 1929), p. 664. 157 The New Zealand Scot, 2:3 (20 Jan. 1914), p. 19. 158 ‘Constitution and rules’ (1925), Gisborne Scottish and Caledonian Society Inc., ANZ ARO, BANF/5706/Box 6/1925/4. 159 The N.Z. Scotsman, 1:8 (15 Oct. 1927). 160 ‘Rules of the society’, p. 1, Pahiatua and Districts Scottish Society, Inc., ANZ WRO, CO-W/2/12/598. 161 Evelyn Entwistle, History of the Gaelic Society of New Zealand, 1881–1981 (Dunedin, 1981), p. 13. 162 Comunn Gaidhealach Wellington Minute Books, 20 May 1949, ATL, MSX-30553061/4. 163 Clan Mackay Society of New Zealand Minute Book, 7 June 1937, p. 1, HC, MiscMS-1433; 10 Aug. 1937, p. 6; 3 Sept. 1938, p. 21. 164 Ibid., 31 July 1949 and 31 July 1950, HC, Misc-MS-1433. 165 Ibid., 31 July 1950 and 5 July 1950, p. 180, HC, Misc-MS-1433. 166 Ibid., 31 July 1950, HC, Misc-MS-1433. 167 Ibid., 3 Sept. 1938, p. 21, HC, Misc-MS-1433. 168 Ibid., 31 July 1949, HC, Misc-MS-1433. 169 Shetland Society, HC, 97-095-1. 170 Lenore Satterthwaite, History of the Dunedin Burns Club: Dunedin Burns Club 1991 (Dunedin), p. 17. 171 Tanja Bueltmann, ‘“Brither Scots shoulder tae shoulder”: ethnic identity, culture and associationism among the Scots in New Zealand to 1930’ (PhD, Victoria University of Wellington, 2008), p. 100. 172 Ibid., p. 128. 173 Gillian I. Leitch, ‘Scottish identity and British loyalty in early-nineteenth-century Montreal’, in Peter E. Rider and Heather McNabb (eds), A Kingdom of the Mind: How the Scots Helped Make Canada (Montreal and Kingston, 2006), pp. 218–20. 174 Kim Sullivan, ‘Scottish associational culture in early Victoria, Australia: an Antipodean reading of a global phenomenon’, in Tanja Bueltmann, Andrew Hinson, and Graeme Morton (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Markham, Ont., 2009), p. 162. 175 J. Sheehan, 4 Sept. 1872, New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, 13, p. 109. 176 Kinross, ‘A freeman’s lay’, in My Life and Lays, p. 75.

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CHAPTER 6

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National characteristics

With purpose leal and God our guide, With English candour leading, With Scottish grit and Irish wit And Maori grace proceeding By action, more than word of mouth, We’ll make this happy freeland The brighter Britain of the South Our Native land, New Zealand.1

This poem, dating from 1935, details specific traits associated with different ethnic groups. While the English are depicted as candid and the Maori as graceful, the Scots are portrayed as gritty and the Irish as witty. These apparent national attributes are conceptualised as national character, ‘that a people forming a given nation have some psychological or cultural characteristics in common that bind them together and separate them from other peoples’.2 In his recent work on the English national character, Peter Mandler points to a number of contemporary attributes as characteristically English, including ‘their courage, fortitude, sobriety, temperance, justice and generosity’.3 National characteristics are also assigned to the Irish and the Scots, often emanating from visitors to Ireland and Scotland. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Ireland, for instance, the peasantry and Catholic component were often the focus of such commentary, while in Scotland a good deal of attention concentrated on the Highlanders. The incorporation of virtues associated with both the Irish and the Scots seemingly took place during the eighteenth century, but the focus was still primarily on their negative elements. For the Irish, then, while there was recognition of their warmheartedness and inquisitiveness, greater attention was levied on their alleged indolence, riotousness, and lawlessness.4 [ 150 ]

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As we saw in the historiographical overview provided in Chapter 1, a range of national characteristics were also associated with migrants from Ireland and Scotland. And in New Zealand, ‘cultural traits’ continue to be dangerously assigned to ethnic groups as is evident in popular representations of the Irish in New Zealand. For example, the online Encyclopedia of New Zealand and its accompanying publication proclaims, ‘Other cultural traits began to merge with New Zealand traditions: a commitment to the extended family and to family occasions, expressed in extravagant funerals and wakes; a love of wit and humour; an enjoyment of drinking in the pub, which may have helped establish the rich atmosphere of the West Coast hotel. In these ways, habits originally Irish became part of the New Zealand fabric.’5 Historian Michael King also reflected on national characteristics, drawn from observations of his family. Summarising his paternal grandmother, he declared, ‘it was her Scottishness that had long since determined her character – especially her dourness, her thrift, and her conviction that you expressed loyalty and love for your family by doing things, not by talking about those virtues’.6 King also pointed to those traits he saw as features of New Zealanders: ‘an unwillingness to be intimidated by the new, the formidable, or class systems; trust in situations where there would otherwise be none; compassion for the underdog; a sense of responsibility for people in difficulty; not undertaking to do something without seeing it through . . . a lesser degree of racial prejudice (though not an absence) than that apparent in many other parts of the world’.7 There are problems with such portrayals, as Mary C. Waters points out in a chapter on social psychological and character traits in her influential Ethnic Options. The respondents to her questionnaires, she indicates, believed that certain characteristics, traits, and behaviours could be found among specific ethnic groups. Yet Waters raises the question as to what extent such attributes were ethnic or connected to a particular family.8 What Waters revealed was that general values and beliefs were highlighted, such as family, education, hard work, and loyalty to God and country, but respondents felt these were confined to their ethnic group.9 Reginald Byron also encountered this tendency in his study of Irish descendants in America where four main values were linked to Irishness: religiosity; family life and love of parents and children; belief in hard work; and emphasis on the value of education.10 Yet by adopting a comparative approach, Waters points to such values being universal and concludes, ‘Researchers who concentrate or study one ethnic group at a time do not see how widespread and common such values are.’11 A key point, nevertheless, is the assumption that specific characteristics can be associated [ 151 ]

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with particular groups. This chapter therefore examines the range of national traits associated with the Irish and the Scots who settled in New Zealand.

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Scottish national character Clannishness A particular trait associated with the Scots at home and abroad is their clannishness. Historically, this attribute was connected with Highlanders and the operation of a clan system which afforded protection and patronage together with mutual support and responsibility. It was also a trope that subsequently came to be applied to Scots as an entirety and was, as Doug Hamilton has argued, ‘remade in the Empire’.12 Emigration agents were particularly alert to this perceived aspect of the Scottish character, and although silent on divergences within the Highlands, did attribute clannishness to the west of Scotland. As such, in 1873 emigration agent Revd Peter Barclay acknowledged, ‘Things are in nearly every respect entirely different on the West Coast of Scotland and in the Islands . . . The great difficulty is to create a stream; that being done, the people are so clannish that they will more or less readily follow.’13 Barclay’s emphasis not only endorsed a popular and longstanding connection of Highlanders with clannishness, but provides a rationale for Barclay’s identification of the west coast of Scotland as an area requiring the activities of emigration agents. Stress was also given to religious practices in the western districts of Scotland: ‘On the West Coast the people are intensely clannish, and, as a rule, fond of their church’.14 This perceived clannishness was especially connected with the tendency of the Scots (as well as the Irish) to join family and friends abroad. Comments from those outside the Scottish ethnic group certainly convey recognition of a strong networking element to Scottish migration and settlement throughout New Zealand. According to Irishman John Birmingham in Otago in 1870, in an accusation most frequently levied at the Irish, ‘Well wages is coming down very fast for their is a constant flow of Imigration to New Zeland all poor Miserable Scotch coming out to their Scotch friends so so that no Irish need apply.’15 Indeed, the Census for 1871 records around 17,000 Scots in Otago compared with just over 10,000 English and 5,500 or so Irish. Rather less scornfully, an Irish Catholic nun reported from Auckland in 1872 on the influence of Rothesay-born Thomas Bannatyne Gillies: ‘this is a very Protestant place, the present superintend is Scotch. He has got out a muster of his country men & women so Scotland stands very high in [ 152 ]

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Auckland.’16 Census figures, however, indicate that while the 5,546 Scottish migrants resident in the Auckland province in 1871 supplied 8.9 per cent of the province’s total population, they were outnumbered by English and Irish migrants.17 By 1874, the number of Scots in Auckland had fallen slightly to 5,213. Once in New Zealand, Scots frequently encountered others from their homeland and, as we saw in Chapter 2, they made ongoing reference to this in their communications. While not explicitly using the term ‘clannish’, William Poppelwell associated that particular trait with two Scots residing with him in 1861: ‘They sustain the Highland character of closeness in masterly style, as much so, as to render it very difficult for me to report progress.’18 By contrast, another correspondent explicitly referred to the clannish tendency of his compatriots to congregate without designating regional divides. As John McNab, a native of Stirling, wrote in 1881: ‘I had never met either of the gentlemen before, but perhaps with some of the proverbial clannishness of the race we fell a-talking as if we were the oldest of friends, perhaps also pleased at seeing one from the “old country” who could tell of things and places of long ago.’19 While more local studies of the Scots are needed to explore this tendency further, Census data reveals that certain provinces of New Zealand contained significant percentages of Scottish migrants. Table 1, for instance, shows the proportions of Scots in the main provinces of New Zealand during the country’s most significant phase of assisted and nominated migration. Otago and Southland’s Scottish character is striking in this regard. More detailed demographic work, however, will undoubtedly highlight the concentration of Scots in particular localities.20 Table 1 Percentage of Scottish-born in New Zealand provinces, 1871–86 (%)

Auckland Taranaki Wellington Hawke’s Bay Nelson Marlborough Canterbury Westland Otago Southland

1871

1874

1878

1881

1886

8.9 4.3 8.7 10.8 8.1 9.5 9.5 11.9 28.0 31.7

7.7 4.4 7.8 8.8 7.4 7.3 8.5 8.9 25.0

6.7 4.4 6.6 7.2 6.8 6.2 8.3 7.9 23.0

6.3 4.8 6.3 6.8 6.4 5.8 7.6 7.2 21.6

5.8 4.4 6.0 6.3 6.2 5.1 6.8 6.9 19.0

Source: Census of New Zealand, 1871–86

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Thriftiness If clannishness was at times more likely to be associated with Highland origins, thriftiness, the most frequently cited national characteristic of the Scots, was linked to the entire Scottish national group. Accusations of parsimoniousness were also more likely to emerge in the nineteenth century from non-Scots than those of Scottish birth. The earliest reference encountered during this study was Lady Barker’s admiring comment in 1866 that ‘Scotchmen do particularly well out here; frugal and thrifty, hard-working and sober, it is easy to predict the future of a man of this type in a new country.’21 Such characteristics were considered positively and helped explain the successful Scot as well as exalting the reputation of Scots. The Catholic publication the New Zealand Freeman’s Journal also referred in 1884 to Scottish frugality in its comments on a Scottish clergyman, Dr Macleod, but saw thriftiness in less positive terms: ‘I fear that to convince the canny Scot that it is wrong to hunt for bargains is a task greatly beyond the argumentative powers of Dr. Macleod.’22 The engagement of Scottish migrants with the allegation of parsimoniousness, however, was more evident throughout the twentieth century, and instead of reacting indignantly, the Scottish response was generally one of humour. As the Scottish ethnic press in New Zealand acknowledged: jokes about Scots meanness and Scots canniness are the irrepressible outcome of Scots pawkiness and fondness for joking about those very things, institutions and friends that they love most. Hence we have an immense collection of jokes concerning our lassies and wives, the kirk, the minister, whisky and the Aberdonian. But while the Scot enjoys joking about his countryman’s meanness, he, in the mass, takes care to place on record, for the behoof of all who are sufficiently interested in such matters as to seek out the evidence, that the charge is the reverse of the truth.

In other words, ‘the reason why the Scot laughs at any joke concerning Scot meanness – he knows it is only a joke!’23 The pages of this periodical also reported on a talk at Invercargill’s Scottish Society in 1929 which linked national characteristics with national humour.24 The Irish ethnic press also engaged in good-natured banter about Scottish fiscal prudency. In 1935, for instance, it was claimed that a message was sent about the cessation of war hostilities, written by a Scot and carried by an Irishman. The claim was made that ‘had “Scotty” not been supplied with a free pencil and paper the message would not have been written and the war would still be running’.25 Several individual migrants throughout the twentieth century also remarked, unprompted, on the alleged Scottish trait of frugality. In [ 154 ]

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his memoirs, the prominent Edinburgh-born Dunedin resident Carl V. Smith pointed to a Scottish tendency to admire a bargain when recalling his stay at the Settlers Hotel, Whangarei, shortly after the end of the Second World War: ‘I still have the happiest memories of this hotel not so much because we could get a five course lunch for a shilling (a Scot could never forget that?) but for the wonderful friendliness of the host and hostess during our stay there.’26 In his early years in New Zealand Smith also recounted of his boss, ‘He must have had a Scottish strain in him for he never liked to waste anything and although losing a sheep through accident or at lambing time was bad enough, he saw no reason why it should be allowed to rot away with a good fleece on it.’27 Smith also commented on the practice of ‘wetting the baby’s head’, revealing, ‘I had never heard of the custom before coming to New Zealand but perhaps we Scots think there are cheaper methods of achieving this objective.’28 This self-reflection was also apparent in the mid-twentieth century, with Scots referring self-deprecatingly to Scottish frugality. For instance, Mae Palmer, writing to her parents in May 1951 from Colombo, noted, ‘Then we wended our way back to the shopping centre and wandered in and out of the shops pricing things, feeling things, looking at things and buying nothing (Scotch fashion).’29 During her sojourn in New Zealand in the early 1950s, Lorna Carter, born in Lancashire to an English father and Scottish mother, was similarly quick to self-deprecatingly comment on particular quirks of character that she alleged to be peculiarly Scottish. In August 1952, for instance, Lorna notified her parents, ‘The last letter I sent I typed from the last bit from the written as I wanted it to go for 1/3d also that’s why I trimmed the Rugby programme. I’m still plenty Scots!!’30 Furthermore, in preparing for a camping trip, Lorna ‘borrowed a haversack from Mr Boult, sox from Jean Luke, sleeping bag from Heather, ground sheet from Ron, torch from Beth and boots from Cedric – true Scot me!!’31 The following year she claimed ‘It was late night so we did the shops but being Scots didn’t buy anything!!’32 These extracts suggest that Lorna Carter was rather proud of the ‘tight Scot’ stereotype and that the typecast had applications for Scots at home as well as abroad. Indeed, the linkage of the Scots and frugality was an already established image at home and overseas, and by attributing frugality to their national character, migrants could justify their behaviour. Descendants of the Scottish-born also occasionally refer to characteristics deemed to be Scottish, including that of thriftiness, but attribute this trait to their ancestors rather than themselves. As Colin Martin recalled of his father, Alan, ‘He enjoyed everything Scottish. His cobbers (friends) would visit and out would come the [ 155 ]

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book “Many Canny Tales of Aberdeen” and another one “Cuddle Doon.” . . . On the house to house collection day everyone was in Aberdeen. There was an accident on the main street. People were lying on the footpath and the road. This chappie came along and said “Oh Irr, has the insurance man came?” “No, not yet.” said another. “I’ll lie down beside you then.”’33 Similarly, Karen Haugh recalled of her New Zealand-born grandfather, ‘my cousin remembers a different side of Pop and this must have been the Scottish coming out in him. He used to charge Nana a packet of cigarettes if she took the car out during the day. Sometimes he may not have gone to the pub because it may have been his turn to shout.’34 Alex McGeorge, although born in New Zealand, saw himself as a Scot: ‘I remember working all New Year’s Day on this job, which was an unheard of thing for a Scotchman to do. However, I did not mind, as I received double pay for it’.35 There is evidence, then, that the multigenerational Scottish group energetically participated in and engaged with this characteristic levied at their national identity in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Yet rather than seeing it as a negative trope and reacting defensively, Scots saw it as a positive attribute and responded with good humour to the jibes levied at them. Emphasising perceived characteristics of their ethnicity, even when those characteristics were viewed negatively, was a way for Scots to distinguish themselves from other British migrants, the English being viewed as ‘whingeing Poms’. The national characteristic of frugality also served as a way to connect all Scots, regardless of origin, gender, and class, and seemingly suggested a Scottish ability to succeed financially, something to boast about. There was, however, condemnation of the alleged Scottish trait of selfishness, with a particularly lengthy account supplied by William Hamilton Clark, who in 1882 voyaged from Greenock to Port Chalmers on the Jessie Readman. In Scotsman Clark’s account the Scots were contrasted with the Irish and subsequently castigated in his analysis: ‘the Scot[t]ish passengers on board are fully shewing themselves true to their national characteristics of being very disagreeable and equally selfish indeed the only pleasant conversation to be had is with the Irish who are, every one of them, thoroughly decent and enjoyable company’.36 His comment may have been a way of justifying to himself and others his interaction with the Irish-born. A little later during his voyage, Clark discussed his fellow passengers and qualified his condemnation to those Scots from the Borders: The other passengers are all Scotch and a dirtier meaner and more selfish crowd I never before met with. I have often heard that the border Scot was about the meanest specimen of humanity it was possible to

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Figure 15 Thomas Scott, ‘Dunedin fights back against the big freeze’, The Dominion Post, 18 Aug. 2004 procure, and after three months experience I solemnly declare that I most fully believe the report.37

Clark’s comment indicates the circulation of characteristics attributed to particular regions of Scotland rather than being universally applied. Even in the early twenty-first century, during a particularly bitter winter, the Scottish character of Dunedin was linked to parsimoniousness, as Figure 15 suggests! Caution and adventure One explanation for the widespread dissemination of the trope of Scottish frugality is its connection with the apparently cautious nature of the Scot. Such accusations, however, particularly when emanating from emigration agents, may have been an attempt by agents to explain their inability to secure the number of migrants expected of them. As the Reverend Peter Barclay put it in 1872, ‘It is well known the Scotch people are cautious, and do not readily take in a new thing.’38 The following year he elaborated further: Slow, cautious people they generally are, and not ready to entertain new ideas. Besides their minds are so preoccupied by America, which is

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near (they forget the many miles of land journey to Nebraska and other much-vaunted places), and to which many of their friends have gone. Then some of the American agents have been most unscrupulous in what they have said.39

Such explanations circulated in 1878, with caution one of several factors cited for the small number of Scottish migrants voyaging to New Zealand. In other cases, however, prudence was attributed to the lower classes rather than all Scots: ‘the Scottish peasantry are of very cautious habit, and usually require a long time to make up their minds upon so momentous a matter as emigration’.40 Yet despite being considered cautious, Scots were also perceived as being adventurous. Speaking on Scottish traits at the monthly meeting of the Dunedin Gaelic Society in 1927, Professor Elder, a Professor of History at the University of Otago, claimed: the Scots had characteristics which were outstanding, such as their refusal to accept things on their face value. They inquired into things with a strong logical sense – they would not accept compromise. They took even politics seriously, and the wild men of the Clyde who were causing disturbances in the British Parliament were simply the descendants of the Clyde patriots of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, who were deported to Botany Bay because of their political opinions. The Scots were inclined to take their pleasures sadly, but their trait of caution was in many cases outweighed by their spirit of enterprise and adventure.41

This trope of enterprise and adventure is captured most succinctly in the ‘Scots on the make’ label in which a small entrepreneurial minority were acclaimed for their industry.42 In this interpretation of migration from Scotland, the Scots are acclaimed for their ‘contribution history’ to the lands in which they settled. And, as Ian Donnachie points out in a survey of the historiography relating to the Scots in Australia, three main factors accounted for such success: ‘the individually brilliant Scot; “clannishness”; and the Protestant work ethic’.43 Bonny and dour Most of the national characteristics attributed to and by Scottish migrants in New Zealand not only served to merge Scots from different regions and classes, but were also applied to both genders. While much of a Scottish national identity is construed as a masculine one, at home and abroad, two opposites of this gendering of Scottishness appear in representations of Scottish women being perceived as bonny and Scottish men as dour. As Lady Barker revealed of one acquaintance, [ 158 ]

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‘It does me good to see her bonny Scotch face, and hear the sweet kindly “Scot’s tongue;” besides which she is my great instructress in the mysteries of knitting socks and stockings, spinning, making really good butter’.44 Alex McGeorge, by contrast, although born in New Zealand, considered himself ‘like the dour Scot I was’.45 The Catholic Times in 1888 also mocked the Scots, claiming, ‘The few weeks succeeding what is facetiously termed the “festive season” on the lucus a non lucendo principle, so far as matters secular and a Scotch community are concerned, are always marked by a very special dead-and-alive dullness.’46 As we saw earlier, however, Michael King connected dourness with his Scottish grandmother.

Irish national character In David Fitzpatrick’s study of the letters exchanged between Ireland and Australia, he observed that ‘the Irish emigrant was variously depicted as spendthrift, nosey, or avaricious’ and concluded that ‘Irish settlers tended to attribute their success to defiance rather than observance of “Irish” norms.’47 Meanwhile, in his survey of Irish descendants in the United States, Reginald Byron encountered a number of traits assigned to the Irish, including being humorous, argumentative, friendly, generous, caring, family-centred, and melancholy.48 A recent collection of stories from Irish migrants and their descendants in New Zealand also associated a range of traits with Irishness, with one contributor indicating that humour, talking, ‘faith, strength, a sense of “getting on with things” no matter how tough, generosity, loyalty, independence and being hard working are all qualities that I associate with being Irish. Of course I should also include talking, lots of talking as well! I associate eloquence in self-expression as a very Irish characteristic.’49 As established in Waters’ study, however, such characteristics are often found among other groups. What particular national characteristics, though, were equated with the Irish in New Zealand? Industriousness While it was a national character attributed to Scottish migrants, the spirit of industry was also occasionally levied at the Irish, but confined to those from the north of Ireland. Charlotte Godley, for instance, designated the newly arrived Ward brothers from County Down as ‘Irish, (but very un-Irish in the extreme carefulness and prudence with which they have provided themselves against every contingency of their new life) and very nice’.50 St Patrick’s Day 1953, meanwhile, saw the Ulster Society of Otago receive a message from [ 159 ]

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Viscount Brookeborough to Ulster men and women throughout the world in which it was claimed, ‘The old spirit of sturdy individualism, industry and thrift continues to animate the people of Northern Ireland.’51 It was therefore a quality that seemingly separated those from the north of Ireland from the south, without distinguishing between Protestantism and Catholicism. Humour and warmth Among further positive attributes levied at the Irish was their sense of fun and humour, found in comments on both sexes. As Irishwoman Minnie Williams put it in 1881, ‘The officers and passengers would do anything for the merry Irish girls.’52 Mostly, however, a sense of fun was attributed to Irishmen. William Hamilton Clark, for instance, reported fulsomely on those Irish sharing his journey in 1883: ‘The Irish, as stated above, I found to be the very reverse of the Scots, the last mentioned being a thorough specimen of the rollicking merryhearted Irishman . . . The fact, also, that, without the presence of the Irishmen, the persecution to which we were subjected would have been almost unbearable has made our friendship with the Lattimores the stronger’.53 The humour generated by the Irish included the spinning of tales, with John Elder Moultray commenting in 1883: ‘The rich humor of the Irishman who related the incident was in itself a treat.’54 Jokes were also received happily to help pass the boredom accompanying the voyage. According to Jemima Symes in 1895, ‘he kept us in a fit of laughter all dinner hour passing his pleasant jokes just like an Irish man but of course he is an Irishman but living in all parts of the world’.55 At other times, the activities rather than the prowess of Irishmen generated fun. Scotsman Robert Hutton, for instance, reported on the jocular deeds he undertook with his fellow Irish passengers during his 1874 passage. Managing to lure a couple of Irishmen in to playful action, he reported, ‘Two Irishmen two messes further down than us wer almost alive we got them to get up & hase sum fun along with us’.56 John Forsyth Menzies was another who reported on the joyous behaviour of the Irish: ‘The young men had a fine time last night with the boxing gloves and there was some rare fun with the young Irish who did batter one another with them to their hearts content until they were likely to spoil the gloves’.57 Such qualities presumably took on greater resonance at sea as passengers endeavoured to endure the tedium of voyaging for several months. Such attributes were also levied at the descent group, with a friend of Sir Patrick Hogan claiming the renowned horse-breeder had two sides, including serious and hardworking, ‘and the other a different person that let his hair down [ 160 ]

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and relaxed, when the Irish in him came out and he enjoyed life to the hilt’.58 If humour was more likely to be ascribed to Irishmen, the positive attribute of warmth was discussed more readily in relation to Irishwomen. For instance, Sarah Courage noted of her servant, ‘She was very willing and warmhearted, like all the Irish, and those good qualities covered a multitude of sins.’59 Writing from Wellington in 1850, Charlotte Godley also reported on Irishwoman Mrs Russell: ‘She was an Irish girl of no particular family and a very bad match, but her manner, after hearing this, would quite surprise you, it is so good, and I am sure she is warm-hearted and very anxious to do the right thing.’60 Even the Agent General, in corresponding with the Minister of Immigration in May 1878 about an influx of Irish to Otago due to the merger of Irish and Scottish immigration and the direction of vessels to Otago, proclaimed, ‘It would be impossible for me to say one word against the Irish people, of whose warm-hearted temperament and great natural ability I have been all my life an admirer, and amongst whom I count many intimate friends.’61 While Irishwomen were also subject to negative portraits, positive portrayals may have emerged in part due to the difficulty of securing colonial helpmeets. Admiration of such qualities may also have prevented widespread opposition to large amounts of Irish migrants entering New Zealand during the 1870s. While not explicit in their comments, other examples also suggest positive images of the Irish, including Mrs O’Carroll, whom Charlotte Godley considered ‘not very ladylike, but good-looking, with something very pleasant about her manner, and, as her name may suggest, very Irish’.62 John Cardwell, a Protestant from the north of Ireland, also provided a warm interpretation of a fellow passenger: M stands for McSweeny a real irish gem Whose boast is of Erin and the shamrock so green.63

Boasting William Harold Munro also reported on an Irishman’s boasts in 1876 during the passage to New Zealand: There is one of the saloon passengers – a little Irishman – who prides himself on his muscles, and who offered to bet £10 that no man in the ship could wrestle with him. We got one of the sailors about his own height to wrestle with him for a pound of tobacco. The match was to be decided by who ever had the best of three throws. The Irishman advanced [erased: t] disdainfully to show off his prowess before some of the lady passengers to whom he had been boasting. Suddenly to his

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dismay he found the deck hitting him on the back; the second time he fared the same way, and slunk away amid the cheers raised for his opponent. However he was not done yet, for he came back again and offered to wrestle with [erased: an] another sailor, a giant of six feet six inches and broad in proportion, called Big John. The Irishman again tried his luck, but he was an infant in the hands of a grown-up man. Big John just put his hands round his back and swung him back and fore between his legs, while the onlookers were rendering themselves unfit to move with laughter. The Irishman is considerably crestfallen now.64

The antics of some passengers then were not always considered humorous. The derision of the particular Irishman discussed by Munro, however, was presumably the result of his boasting rather than his ethnicity. More than 40 years after her migration, Margaret Kilpatrick from County Armagh wrote, ‘God has blessed me with good children. Every bodey says the are models. This is no Ireish blow, but a fact’.65 In this account, Irishness is equated with boasting, a typecast that Margaret Kilpatrick was swift to counteract! Being loud was also connected with boasting. As Charlotte Godley explained in 1851 of her husband, John Robert Godley, applauding the winner of the vessel Lass of Erin, ‘my husband loudest of all, for all that is Irish in him comes out on such an occasion’.66 Both examples are of interest for the equation of aspects of Irishness with Protestant migrants. Superstition Superstition was yet another charge associated with the Irish but was restricted to an Irish Catholic national character, and could be positive and negative. When John Elder Moultray voyaged from Greenock to Dunedin on the Helen Denny in 1883, he reported on a ship mate who thought he had seen a ghost: ‘as he is Irish and a proper superstitious Catholic to boot, one who had strong faith in miracles of modern times and a firm believer in spirits &c I found it was useless to argue with him so I got up and explained to him how the overcoat hanging in front of his berth had been swinging with the rolling of the ship’.67 It was also a national characteristic associated with Irish Catholic migrants in the twentieth century, with Sir Patrick Hogan considering his father ‘the deeply superstitious Irishman’.68 The trait was seemingly inherited: How could Patrick admit to Sir Philip that the sentimental compulsion for him to own Sir Tristram was, simply, patriotism? The stallion was Irish. His father, Sir Ivor, had stood his first season in Ireland where Sir Tristram was dam served, conceived and foaled in 1971 and, for the deeply superstitious Patrick, that link to Ireland was a powerful omen. He was

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intensely proud of his Irish roots, and then there was his allegiance to his father, Tom Hogan. Thanks to that shared Celtic heritage, one large Irish bay stallion was about to leave Europe.69

Stubbornness and violence Stubbornness was another trait connected to Sir Patrick Hogan. Linking Hogan and his horse Sir Tristram, an acquaintance claimed, ‘He and his horse are two fiery Irishmen – two stubborn characters.’70 This apparent stubbornness was also attributed to Patrick’s Irish ethnicity when he elected to purchase Sir Tristram who was found to have several problems: ‘His agent’s words should have deterred Patrick. Instead, they rallied the stubborn Irishman in him.’71 Stubbornness therefore arose in particular circumstances and was seen to legitimise decision-making. Apart from stubbornness, the threat of violence was also associated with some Irish migrants. According to Emma Hodder in 1869, during her voyage out on the Hydaspes, ‘a disturbance last night with the Irish – we were all very much frightened – watches appointed now all night – I and Grace Campbell begin tonight – we are afraid they will rise in the night and do for us’.72 William Smith also described fractious events during his voyage from Greenock to Port Chalmers in 1862, though again such behaviour was not attributed to national character: A regular fight took place down the aft hatch today beside the married people between an Irish girl & another from Aberdeen. It rose from one spilling some meal belonging to the other then an exchange of civilities took place when Miss Ritchie shied (?) a spoon at Miss Muir (Saint Patrick’s chicken) when the latter knocked the other down then commenced the tug of war when Greek met Greek tearing at each other’s hair when Mr McGregor put a stop to their prize fight.73

Generally, however, it was Irishmen who were associated with fighting. During his voyage in 1842, Robert Graham reported on a fellow passenger: Mr. Donnelly told me how he was situated with regard to the Dr. He said he had met the Dr. at two parties before coming on board the Jane Gifford and he seemed to pay more attention to his wife than he could tolerate. He said he was an irishman both by birth and by nature and he would not disgrace either himself or his country by being taken advantage of by any body and he would take the first favourable opportunity he could get and kick him.74

Thomas Keir, meanwhile, reported on a clash in 1864: ‘In the morning a quarrel arose between an English & Irishman which ended by the former getting a blue eye & the latter threatened to be put in [ 163 ]

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irons by the captain.’75 John Forsyth Menzies also documented a brawl in 1878: ‘This morning another riot took place. The Irish the cause as usual, two of them being in a Mess with English and Scotch and of course not content with an equal division of the provisions, so one of them attacked the Captain (Mess) and a stout young Englishman, seeing it, went for him and a royal set to commenced’. Having been instructed of the consequences of further behaviour, Menzies then reported changes to mess duty: ‘Then the Doctor went below and at the request of some changed the Mess so that the English and Scottish might be together as it was impossible to get along with the Irish.’76 A number of reports also documented inter-Irish conflict. As Thomas Dacre noted in 1873, ‘There was a fight after dinner with two of the single men. Both of them are Irish.’77 In this case, however, the denomination of those involved is unknown. Similarly John Forsyth Menzies reported in 1878, ‘Another row among Irish last night – one put in irons for 6 hours – he howled – it seemed to have a salutary effect on the others as we had quietness and likely to have I think, for in crowds they are something, individually nothing.’78 Conflict, however, did not always involve Irish migrants. Indeed, other ethnic groups also clashed during their time at sea. According to Dugald McLaren in 1864, ‘there was tow young men had A fight this morning The one was scoth And The other English. They fell out About some dirty dish but however the English gained The day but it is All quite now Again.’79 Scottish–English conflict also erupted a decade later during Henry Ward’s voyage: ‘There was also a row between the Scotch and English, the Scotch made some very strong remarks about the English, being [erased: lazy] lowzy and dirty’.80 The following day Ward reported, ‘I would just say that the Scotch and English are now in an uproar over what was said Last night.’81 While the causes of most arguments are unknown, John Greenfield attributed the conflict between two passengers on his 1908 journey to socialist/royalist divisions: ‘We have a liberal supply of socialists on board, and they are always haranguing somebody. I had to laugh the other night at one in our cabin, who struck up The Red Flag, and immediately a Glasgow man, beside him, chimed in with God Save the King, and there the two went at it, the one trying to drown the other.’82 Drunkenness was also another cause of disputes, and although not readily associated with the Scots in the evidence consulted for this study, the drinking habits of some Scots also attracted comment, and led to commotion, as James Caygill described in 1864: In the evening another disturbance was created by a few of the young men: [erased: one person] a Scotchman named Gallen, [erased: a native

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of Scotland] having spent 7/6 in drink during a few hours, and of course had got a ‘cup of too much’ did, for some real, or imaginary, wrong, throw a glass bottle at the head of an Irish man named Lynn [erased: from Ireland], which said bottle caught him (the Irishman) in the eye and nearly blinded him.83

Boozing and bumbling Indeed, it is the Irish who are generally equated with drink and drunkenness throughout the diaspora. In the United States, for instance, the Irish-American drunk was caricatured in newspapers, cartoons, songs, and the theatre after 1890, whereas a more savage portrait existed before 1850.84 In the cinema, meanwhile, the representation of the Irish has been summarised as ‘buzzing, boozing, blustering, or bumbling’.85 This representation also reflects the twentieth-century British attitude towards the Irish as a comic figure rather than political rebel, surprising in light of the recent revolutionary turmoil in Ireland in the 1920s and the sedition trial of Bishop Liston in New Zealand in 1922.86 New Zealand’s early cinematic depiction of the Irish in The Te Kooti Trail resembled that in the United States. Produced in black and white by pioneering filmmaker Rudall Hayward and released in 1927, this silent film set out to depict the chilling events at ‘Mill Farm’ in Te Poronu in 1869 when the mill’s supervisor, Jean Guerren (H. Redmond), with his Maori wife, her sister, and a clutch of others were attacked by the rebel Te Kooti and his followers. Despite a brave resistance, all except Jean’s wife were eventually killed. Much was made of the supposed historical accuracy of the film in publicity sheets (Figure 16): ‘Not fiction – filmed facts. That hold you spellbound! British Pluck and Irish Wit’.87 The ‘Irish Wit’ was provided by the film’s Irishman, Barney, weaving unsteadily on his feet after imbibing. Indeed, Barney’s main purpose in the film, then, appears to be that of ‘stage Irishman’. A further character given traits resembling the screen portrayal of Barney O’Halloran is the Irish policeman in On the Friendly Road, dating from 1936 and also directed by Hayward. The bobby’s bumbling and blustering is evident not only in his actions but also in his speech, replete with the Irish syntax of speaking English. ‘Where in blazes and where the devil’s gone me helmet?’ he rages comically at one point. ‘Sure and you’re right’, he exclaims later. The film also replicates the increasing tendency in American cinema to depict the Irish as policemen.88 Again, however, the representation is one which links Irishness and clumsiness. Those travelling to the colony in the nineteenth century also occasionally drew attention to an apparent Irish tendency towards drink. [ 165 ]

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Figure 16 ‘British pluck and Irish wit’, New Zealand Poster Collection: The Te Kooti Trail (1927)

As John Forsyth Menzies outlined in 1878, ‘The Irish are in a great state because he has stopped them getting grog and what schemes some of them try to get on the drink brigade, as I call them.’89 A couple of months later Menzies reported on the drunkenness of ‘a man named Kyle, a cross old Irishman’.90 Scotsman William Runciman, meanwhile, outlined in 1881 the harmful effects of alcohol on a first-class passenger: ‘He is an Irish landlord going out for a trip but I fear he is sent off for drinking for a number of days. He was never sober and the Captain stopped the supply and the fit was the result. It was a simple case of Delirium Tremors or vulgarly what they call the “Blues”’.91 Other consequences were also felt from an apparent reliance on alcohol, as Jessie Campbell reported from Wanganui in 1845: ‘We had a little Irishman as a servant for a short time, who would have been an acquisition if he had not been too fond of gin’.92 Useless, disreputable, thieving, and unclean If ‘Paddy’ was stereotyped as violent and drunk throughout the diaspora, images of Irishwomen in the United States often alluded to Biddy, the domestic servant, who was criticised for clumsiness.93 Such typecasts [ 166 ]

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also found their way to New Zealand. As was reported by the Immigration Officer at Dunedin in 1874, ‘I found, on my visit to Caversham to-day, that six Irish girls, ex “Asia,” were sent back to the depôt by those who engaged them, all having the same complaint, viz., that they were entirely useless in a house, and, in fact, did not know how to do any household work.’94 Other allegations were also made against these women’s characters, including concerns about their moral conduct: ‘the shipment by the “Asia” to Dunedin includes a number of girls out of the Cork workhouse, some of whom are notoriously loose’.95 Richard Davis’ assessment of the situation included recognition that while such alarms might mirror concerns in Australia of single Catholic women marrying Protestant men, poor reception arrangements facilitated the mingling of the sexes and allegations of inappropriate behaviour.96 Such charges mainly arose during the 1870s when Irishwomen were among the thousands of Irish availing of assisted and nominated passages to the colony. According to one report, ‘But the Irish, who were the respectable women, married and single, as testified by the captain and doctor – although the matron stated that the seven Irish females on board were put into one corner, as they were, before they would taint the rest; and yet we were known by no other appellation by these rejected Brogdenians than the bl____y Irish’.97 As well as concerns about their moral character, comment on the quality of Irish domestic servants continued to circulate, including an Irish cook who went to work for Lady Barker but was found to be not up to scratch: ‘A few days later the cook arrived. She is not all I could wish, being also Irish, and having the most extraordinary notions of the use, or rather the abuse, of the various kitchen implements’.98 Thieving was another characteristic levied at the Irish, both men and women, as evident from reports from shipboard journals. As claimed by Mary Ann Bennetts in 1873, ‘The Irish are very bad for taking any thing they like.’99 In similar terms John Forsyth Menzies in 1878 reported, ‘Last night Adam detected one of them stealing from his locker, an Irishman of course, and reported him to the Doctor’.100 Ten days later he added, ‘Today a young man has had his coat and some money and papers stolen. Of course, the Irish again.’101 Interestingly, these examples all emerge from the 1870s, the most sustained period of assisted Irish migration to New Zealand. Yet if such accusations are correct, they are suggestive of the poverty of some Irish migrants. A lack of cleanliness was also associated with the Irish, Dugald McLaren noting during his 1864 voyage, ‘their was only wone person that had it & it never Spread. It was a ireshman that had it. He had [ 167 ]

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Figure 17 ‘Inside the sty’, Land and Sea, 12 Jan. 1889

not been clean at first’.102 As David Hastings has commented in his study of shipboard journals during the main phase of assisted migration to New Zealand, the Irish, like the Poles, ‘were supposedly dirty, lice-ridden, Catholic thieves’.103 Such impressions also continued after arrival, with a striking example appearing in 1889 in the Otago publication, Land and Sea (Figure 17), which linked the Irish with pigs, redolent of Friedrich Engels’ depiction of the Irish in 1840s England: ‘He builds a pig-sty against the house wall as he did at home, and if he is prevented from doing this, he lets the pig sleep in the room with himself . . . he eats and sleeps with it, his children play with it, ride upon it, roll in the dirt with it, as anyone may see a thousand times repeated in all the great towns of England.’104 In Figure 17, however, the image appears to depict the Irishman stealing the pig’s meal. As well as routinely attempting to replicate the way English was spoken by the Irish, the image also portrays the Irishman as simianised, mirroring images of the Irish found elsewhere in the diaspora. Indeed, a number of depictions of simianised Irishmen appeared in New Zealand publications in the 1880s.105 [ 168 ]

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Impressions of other ethnic groups As with the Irish, Polish migrants were accorded a similar reaction in New Zealand, being termed ‘lazy, indolent, and dirty in their habits’ and ‘comparatively useless’.106 Such comments, however, clearly need to be located in their historical context. Between 1870 and 1871, for instance, the Franco-Prussian War was fought, and between 1872 and 1873 a large influx of Poles availed of free passages to New Zealand, arriving on approximately 40 ships. Poverty, together with language and religious divisions, presumably played a role in the formation of these impressions. Danes were also castigated in 1874: ‘The diseases were aggravated by the Danes’ filthy habits, their total disregard to personal cleanliness, their improper self-made dietary, and their determined resistance to any disinfecting process.’107 Contemplating single women migrants in 1873, ‘I would discourage the selection of Norwegians. I think they are a little unruly’.108 As well as remarks about their individual origins, Scandinavians also received overarching commentary which was more positive. In 1874, for instance, they were collectively ‘represented as being extremely honest, frugal, and industrious, and all are more or less educated . . . They seem to have great facility in acquiring the English language, and in habits, manners, and customs resemble very closely our own countrymen, especially the Scotch.’ Nevertheless, it was suggested: ‘Whilst I am desirous you should continue to send Scandinavians, I must express the opinion that it is highly inexpedient to send them with British emigrants. Their habits are so dissimilar to those of our own countrymen that their being joined together causes dissatisfaction.’109 It was also urged that Scandinavians and Germans voyage separately due to friction on board the vessel Friederberg in 1873: ‘owing to their national antipathies, a want of harmony has existed during the voyage’.110 Welsh migrants were also mentioned as having characteristics similar to the Scots. As well as being considered ‘hardy, frugal, and diligent’, the physical prowess of the Welsh also attracted comment: ‘The people of Wales, like all mountaineers, are much attached to their country; they cling tenaciously to their ancient language, in spite of English being the language of business; and they are clannish.’111 Gender distinctions were also highlighted. Female Welsh servants, for instance, were ‘deservedly valued for their honesty, respectful demeanour, and excellent domestic qualities’ while ‘The seamen bred on the Welsh coast are equal, for daring and skill, to any sailors in the world.’112 A number of impressions were also directed at English migrants during the voyage out. Particularly forthcoming in this respect was John Forsyth Menzies, who reported on several individual English [ 169 ]

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migrants as well as revealing that collectively ‘The English especially sang songs (more) fit for a brothel than any other place’.113 Irishman Matthew Moriarty similarly offered his views, claiming, ‘only for the extra cooking you would not know it was a Sunday as only a few dress better and behave themselves. Cooking is far more to our English friends than praying.’114 As with the Irish and the Scots, English migrants were also occasionally distinguished by their county origins, prompting Moriarty to allege of the Cornish: There are many from Cornwall and after two months listening to them I cannot understand one word they say, nor can nayone else, neither can we understand the Yorkshiremen, they speak so indistinctly, and not one in ten can read or write . . . and though they sing and condemn every appearance of vice they curse and swear from hour to hour, beat their wives and children and are dirtier than animals.115

Migrants from Yorkshire were also connected with certain character traits, as evident in Menzies’ report on ‘A family of the name of Hogan of the rudest Yorkshire type has a boy about 16 years old whose main enjoyment is devilment.’116 Occasionally, the English, together with the Scots, were connected to national characteristics typically identified as Irish. From Tuakau in 1884, for instance, John Abbott wrote, ‘We after much delay Sam & Hugh completed the purchase of this place on the 5th March dealing with a Scotch woman widow of a Doctir and an English shop keeper both well inclined to cheat.’117 Divisions were, however, evident between the Scots and the English, as Charlotte Godley reported of the scene at Dunedin in 1850: ‘There is a Scotch and an English party, and half of them will not visit the other half, or approve of anything that is done. I believe it is so more or less in all small communities, and here Scotch and English of course makes a capital ground of offence.’118 The rivalry between the Scots and the English also found its way into the Scottish ethnic press, with a particularly humorous example apparent in a joke about an Englishman who proudly claimed he was born English, reared English, and would die English. The Scots retort was ‘Hae ye nae ambition?’119 National characteristics, as we have seen, were frequently identified in relation to Irishness and Scottishness in New Zealand, but were not confined to migrants from Scotland and Ireland. Moreover, as the following chapter reveals, Irish and Scottish migrants also passed comment on the alleged national characteristics associated with Maori in New Zealand. Their first impressions, however, were of the land they were about to encounter. [ 170 ]

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Notes 1 ‘New Zealand’s national song’, Tribune, 1:10 (21 Nov. 1935), p. 3. 2 Peter Mandler, The English National Character: The History of an Idea from Edmund Burke to Tony Blair (New Haven and London, 2006), p. 8. 3 Ibid., p. 24. 4 Roberto Romani, ‘British views on the Irish national character, 1800–1846: an intellectual history’, History of European Ideas, 23:5–6 (1997), p. 193. 5 www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/NewZealandPeoples/Irish/8/en [accessed 29 Jan. 2009]; Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Settler and Migrant Peoples of New Zealand (Auckland, 2006), p. 180. 6 Michael King, Being Pakeha: An Encounter with New Zealand and the Maori Renaissance (Auckland, 1985), p. 17. 7 Ibid., p. 159. 8 Mary C. Waters, Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1990), p. 131. 9 Ibid., p. 134. 10 Reginald Byron, Irish America (Oxford, 1999), pp. 225–6. 11 Waters, Ethnic Options, p. 138. 12 Douglas Hamilton, ‘Transatlantic ties: Scottish migration networks in the Caribbean, 1750–1800’, in Angela McCarthy (ed.), A Global Clan: Scottish Migrant Networks and Identities since the Eighteenth Century (London and New York, 2006), p. 49. 13 AJHR, 1873, D2, p. 40, Sub Enclosure 2 to Enclosure 3 in No. 36, Supplementary Report 1 Oct.–31 Dec. 1872. 14 AJHR, 1872, D-No.1C, Enclosure 3 in No. 1, P. Barclay to Dr Featherston. 15 John Birmingham (Otago) to his parents Patrick and Mary Birmingham (Kildare), 22 Nov. 1870, National Library of Ireland, MS 17801. I am grateful to Professor David Fitzpatrick for providing a transcript of this letter. 16 Sister Mary Cecilia to Mother M. Catherine, 17 Jan. 1872, ACDA, CRO 6-2/1. 17 Census of New Zealand 1871, No. 11 and No. 12. 18 William Poppelwell to his brother-in-law, 25 Nov. 1861, in Dugald Poppelwell, ‘A pioneer story’, p. 11, AWMML, MS 1269. 19 Shipboard journal of John McNab, 5 Dec. 1881, OSM, C150, p. 17. 20 Such detail is likely to appear in Rebecca Lenihan, ‘Who were New Zealand’s Scottish settlers, 1840–1930?’ (PhD thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, forthcoming). 21 Lady Barker, Station Life in New Zealand (London, 1883; first published 1870), p. 41. 22 New Zealand Freeman’s Journal, 22 Aug. 1884, p. 5, ACDA. 23 The N.Z. Scotsman, 1:2 (7 April 1927), p. 54, ATL, Serials Collection, Per NZ SCO. 24 Ibid., 3:32 (15 Oct. 1929), p. 634. 25 Tribune, 22 Aug. 1935, p. 16. 26 Carl V. Smith, ‘Memories of a great-grandfather’ (unpublished), courtesy of Douglas Duncan, Book Two, p. 26. 27 Ibid., p. 58. 28 Ibid., pp. 136–7. 29 Mae Palmer, At the Bows Looking Forward: The Voyage to NZ by the Palmer Family in 1951, on Board the SS Atlantis, as Described by Mae Palmer in Letters to her Parents in Paisley, Scotland (New Zealand, ?1998), 12 May 1951. 30 Lorna Carter (Wellington) to her parents (Oban), 3 Aug. 1952, courtesy of Lorna Ross. 31 Ibid., 23 Nov. 1952. 32 Ibid., 26 April 1953. 33 D. Patricia Watt, Martin and Duncan: The Family of David Crighton Martin and Christina Nicol Duncan (Hamilton, 1993), p. 58. 34 Ibid., p. 81. 35 Dad’s Autobiographical Sketches: Incidents in the Life of Alex C. McGeorge Recorded for his Family, 1868 –1949 (Dunedin, [n.d.]), OSM, C066, p. 15.

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 36 Shipboard diary of William Hamilton Clark, 1882, ATL, MS-Papers-4187/1&2, pp. 25–6. 37 Ibid., p. 64. 38 AJHR, 1872, D-No.1C, Enclosure 3 in No. 1, P. Barclay to Dr Featherston, p. 6. 39 AJHR, 1873, D-2, p. 38, Enclosure 3 in No. 36, Rev. P. Barclay to Dr Featherston, 10 Jan. 1873. 40 AJHR, 1878, D-2, p. 17, Enclosure in No. 19, Messrs Andrew and Ottywell to the Agent General, 15 May 1878. 41 The N.Z. Scotsman, 1:5 (7 July 1927), p. 181. 42 See Ian Donnachie, ‘The making of “Scots on the make”: Scottish settlement and enterprise in Australia, 1830–1900’, in T. M. Devine (ed.), Scottish Emigration and Scottish Society (Edinburgh, 1992), p. 135. 43 Ibid., pp. 140–1. 44 Barker, Station Life in New Zealand, p. 152. 45 Dad’s Autobiographical Sketches, OSM, C066, p. 6. 46 The Catholic Times, 28 Jan. 1888, p. 23. 47 David Fitzpatrick, ‘“That beloved country, that no place else resembles”: connotations of Irishness in Irish-Australasian letters, 1841–1915’, Irish Historical Studies, 27:108 (1991), p. 330. 48 Byron, Irish America, p. 231. 49 Karen Hansen, New Zealand Irish Voices: Stories from Irish Migrants and their Descendants (Wellington, 2008), p. 54. Also see p. 95. 50 John R. Godley (ed.), Letters from Early New Zealand by Charlotte Godley, 1850 –1854 (Christchurch, 1951), 16 Dec. 1850, p. 158. 51 Ulster Society of Otago Inc. Minute Books, HC, AG 239-1. 52 Shipboard diary of Minnie Williams, 1881, ATL, MS-Papers-2035, p. 9. 53 Shipboard diary of William Hamilton Clark, 1882, ATL, p. 64. 54 Shipboard journal of John Elder Moultray, 11 Sept. 1883, OSM, C-0209, Part II. 55 Shipboard diary of Jemima Symes, 1895, ATL, MS-Papers-4631-3. 56 Shipboard diary of Robert Hutton, 1874, ATL, MS-Papers-1066, p. 4. 57 Shipboard journal John Forsyth Menzies, 7 Dec. 1878, CM 91/85. 58 Dianne Haworth, Give a Man a Horse: The Remarkable Story of Sir Patrick Hogan (Auckland, 2007), back cover. 59 Cited in Lyndon Fraser, To Tara via Holyhead: Irish Catholic Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century Christchurch (Auckland, 1997), p. 61. 60 Godley (ed.), Letters from Early New Zealand, 26 Nov. 1850, p. 162. 61 AJHR, 1878, D-2, No. 19, p. 16. 62 Godley (ed.), Letters from Early New Zealand, 20 June 1850, extract 27 July 1850, p. 79. 63 Shipboard diary of John Cardwell, 1881, ATL, qMS-0391. 64 Shipboard journal of William Harold Munro, 4 Oct. 1876, p. 79, CCL. 65 Margaret Kilpatrick (Auckland) to her brother Thomas Reid (Armagh), 22 Nov. 1903, PRONI, D/3014/3/3/2. 66 Godley (ed.), Letters from Early New Zealand, 8 May 1851, extract 27 May 1851, p. 200. 67 Shipboard journal of John Elder Moultray, 4 Aug. 1883, OSM, Part I. 68 Haworth, Give a Man a Horse, p. 30. 69 Ibid., p. 98. 70 Ibid., p. 284. 71 Ibid., p. 94. 72 Shipboard diary of Emma Hodder, 1869, ATL, MS-Papers-1192. 73 Shipboard diary of William Smith, 1862, p. 12, ATL, MS-Papers-3609. 74 Shipboard diary of Robert Graham, 1842, p. 2, ATL, qMS-0870. 75 Shipboard journal of Thomas Keir, 5 Jan. 1864, CM, ARC 1900.22, transcript courtesy of Ian and Bev Boyd. 76 Shipboard journal of John Forsyth Menzies, 8 Dec. 1878, CM. 77 Shipboard journal of Thomas Dacre, 24 Aug. 1873, CM, ARC 1994.19.

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86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119

Shipboard journal of John Forsyth Menzies, 23 Dec. 1878, CM. Shipboard diary of Dugald McLaren, 26 July 1864, p. 25, ATL, MSX-2904. Shipboard journal of Henry Ward, 22 July 1874, p. 14, OSM, C116. Ibid., 23 July 1874, p. 14. Shipboard diary of John Greenfield, 5 Oct. 1908, p. 6, ATL, MS-Papers-6422. Shipboard journal of James Caygill, 1864, CM, ARC 1900.21. Richard Stivers, Hair of the Dog: Irish Drinking and its American Stereotype (New York and London, 2000, rev. edn), ch. 7. Joseph M. Curran, Hibernian Green on the Silver Screen: The Irish and American Movies (Westport, 1989), p. 59. See Rory Sweetman, Bishop in the Dock: The Sedition Trial of James Liston (Auckland, 1997). The Te Kooti Trail, Poster Type 3, NZFA. Curran, Hibernian Green, p. 36. Shipboard journal of Journal of John Forsyth Menzies, 13 Dec. 1878, CM. Ibid., 16 Feb. 1879. Shipboard diary of William Runciman, 1881, ATL, MS-Papers-1414, p. 9. Jessie Campbell (Wanganui) to Isabella, 9 Sept. 1845, p. 43, ATL, qMS-0369. Bronwen Walter, Outsiders Inside: Whiteness, Place and Irish Women (London, 2001), p. 63. AJHR, 1874, D-2, Enclosure 2 in No. 53, p. 61. AJHR, 1874, D-1A, No. 1, p. 2. Richard P. Davis, Irish Issues in New Zealand Politics, 1868–1922 (Dunedin, 1974), p. 40. AJHR, 1873, D-1D, Enclosure No. 25, p. 18. Barker, Station Life in New Zealand, p. 71. Shipboard journal of Mary Ann Bennetts, 25 July 1873, CM, ARC 1900.18. Shipboard journal of John Forsyth Menzies, 29 Nov. 1878, CM. Ibid., 9 Dec. 1878. Shipboard diary of Dugald McLaren, 17 Aug. 1864, p. 50, ATL. David Hastings, Over the Mountains of the Sea: Life on the Migrant Ships, 1870–1885 (Auckland, 2006), p. 113. Cited in F. M. L. Thompson, ‘Town and city’, in F. M. L. Thompson (ed.), The Cambridge Social History of Britain, 1750–1850, vol. 1: Regions and Communities (Cambridge, 1990), p. 50. See, for example, Illustrated New Zealand Herald, 27 Feb. 1880; New Zealand Punch, 28 April 1888; Land and Sea, 13 Oct. 1888, 1 Dec. 1888, 22 Dec. 1888. I am grateful to Seán Brosnahan for bringing these to my attention. AJHR, 1873, D-1, p. 8, Enclosure 5 in No. 8. AJHR, 1874, D2 Sub Enclosure to Enclosure 2 in No. 12, Report by Surgeon of Ship ‘Punjaub’, 23 Oct. 1873. AJHR, 1873, D-1, Enclosure 5 in No. 8, p. 8. AJHR, 1874, D-1, No. 17, p. 10. AJHR, 1873, D-1, Enclosure in No. 4, p. 2. AJHR, 1874, D-1A, p. 13, Enclosure 1 in No. 9; AJHR, 1874, D-1A, p. 14, Enclosure 1 in No. 9. AJHR, 1874, D-1A, pp. 13–14, Enclosure 1 in No. 9. Shipboard journal of John Forsyth Menzies, 1 Jan. 1879, CM. Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 1 Dec. 1878, CM, Folder 51, 73/67. Ibid., 5 Jan. 1879. Shipboard journal of John Forsyth Menzies, 28 Dec. 1878, CM. John M. Abbott (Tuakau) to Robert Murray, 29 April 1884, quoted with the permission of The Board of The National Library of Ireland, MS 27994. Godley (ed.), Letters from Early New Zealand, 20 Feb. 1850, extract 23 March 1850, p. 19. The N.Z. Scotsman, 4:45 (15 Dec. 1930), p. 267.

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CHAPTER 7

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Impressions of New Zealand and Maori

Within the historiography of New Zealand, much of the literature concerned with impressions of the country has arisen from accounts penned by emigration agents or travel writers. Both forms ensured the dissemination of information back to Britain and Ireland. As Lydia Wevers summarised in connection with one travel writer, ‘Every observation about New Zealand, Maori, the landscape, the climate, the food, the habits of the local population, is embedded in a stream of comparisons, asides and anecdotes’.1 As well as travel writers, migrants settling in New Zealand also sought to make sense of their new homeland by making comparisons between home and abroad. Insights into the nineteenth-century migrant mind largely emanate from the correspondence they sent back home, while for the twentieth century questionnaires with migrants prove insightful. For migrants arriving in the twentieth century their impressions were based as much on changes they had perceived taking place between their arrival and being interviewed, as on their recollections of their initial arrival. Such comparisons were important, however, with perceived similarities or differences that favoured conditions in New Zealand enabling migrants to make a smoother transition. This chapter begins by examining the ways in which migrants made sense of their surroundings, before moving to consider their impressions of New Zealand’s Maori population. In making comparisons between home and abroad, Irish and Scottish migrants continued to hold the homeland as their point of reference.

Views of New Zealand Countryside For most migrants arriving in New Zealand in the nineteenth century, the landscape initially dominated their accounts and was [ 174 ]

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vividly contrasted with memories of their homelands. Indeed, after numerous months at sea it is unsurprising that the immediate impressions of migrants about New Zealand centred on its physical landscape, spotted eagerly as ships drew near the new landmass. For Scottish migrants in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the tendency was to emphasise similarities and differences between old and new lands. Such contrasts, however, were often confined to particular regions. As such, it was the Highlands of Scotland which were considered to be most like New Zealand. How did those arriving in different parts of New Zealand articulate these contrasts? New arrivals to Otago were inclined to highlight the mountains, though vegetation was also observed. Upon arriving at Port Chalmers in 1848, a passenger on board the Philip Laing wrote, ‘As we passed within the heads and up to the anchorage here, many of our Highlanders, and most of our cabin passengers who had seen it, exclaimed, “How like this is to the scenery of the Trossachs and Loch Katrine!” The difference is that the scene here is on a larger scale, and of a much less stern character. There is no grey rock, no rock at all, nothing but the lovely sylvan green of the evergreen hill sides.’2 The reference to cabin passengers (whose ethnicity was unknown) finding the scenery in Otago familiar to the Highlands indicates their intimacy with the Highlands. If not Highland-born, they were presumably familiar with the region due to touring or vacationing there or having read travel accounts.3 Another passenger arriving on the John Wickliffe in May 1848 likewise found ‘The resemblance to Loch Catrine, in Scotland, is great. The outline of the hills is much the same.’4 Expanding further, however, the writer’s geographical knowledge suggested a personal familiarity with the Highland region, with details also seemingly relevant to home readers: ‘To give you an idea of the place, conceive the entrance of the river at Kincardine, my section that point west from Long Carse, and an island like the Inch, but containing 6,000 acres, the river winding like the Forth, but three times the size, and twenty times the extent of level country.’5 For another commentator, the flax ‘resembles the water-segg at home’.6 Towards the end of the nineteenth century, James McKerrow reminisced about his arrival at Dunedin in 1859 and observed, ‘In coming up the Bay and through among the islets at Port Chalmers I was strongly reminded of beautiful Loch Lomond.’7 Little changed in the observations of those who arrived throughout the 1860s. When William Laing landed at Port Chalmers in 1860, he observed, ‘if any one asked me what I thought of it, I would without hesitation say it was beautiful regular highland scenery, picturesque & very primeval looking’.8 Two years later Peter Thomson clearly had [ 175 ]

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in mind particular regions of Scotland that the new land’s physical terrain resembled, but he remained coy about them: ‘The Otago coast line is very pretty having fine bold hills close to the sea with plenty of wood & water. Some of the hills are of very peculiar shape while the whole scene reminds me very much of some parts of dear Old Scotland.’9 David Carr, arriving in 1863, was, by contrast, particularly specific, drawing on his local knowledge of living in Forfarshire: ‘We came in sight of N. Zealand this morning. the port being Otago. It somewhat resembles the hills of fife opposite Broughty Ferry’.10 A particularly poetic description was penned by David Kennedy Junior, who embarked with his father on a tour ‘singing the Songs of Scotland round the world’ in the early 1870s. On arrival at Dunedin, he exclaimed, ‘What! were we in Scotland? Every person on shore was talking Scotch. There were many calls for “Jock,” and numerous inquiries for “Sandy.” The high mountains locking in the harbour were decidedly Scottish in character, and had the fresh greenness, the bright look of home-country scenery. Everything was redolent on Scotland. The waves seemed to ripple tartan, the wind to moan with a Scottish accent.’11 Such commentary continued throughout the decades. John McNab of Stirling, travelling from Australia to New Zealand in 1881, conveyed his pleasure ‘with the appearance of the country, everything looking well, fine hills, some very high, reminding me of my native land. It was like meeting an old friend when I saw the “wee modest, crimson-tipped flo’er” growing in luxuriance on the hill side.’12 Two days later McNab continued, ‘The scenery was so much like Home, it was to some extent difficult to realise we were so far from “the land of brown heath and shaggy woods”, “the land of the mountain and the flood”. The weather was favourable during our rambles, but in the afternoon a Scotch mist set in.’13 John Elder Moultray, arriving in Dunedin two years later, made similar comments, drawing on his first-hand knowledge of steamers at Loch Katrine: ‘The scenery is simply Grand, the display is not unlike what one would see off the steamers decks on Loch Caterine, Scotland. rugged hills covered with Rock and bush hover up on either side of the ship’. Moultray, though, was observant of the contrasts between his birthplace and new residence: ‘The trees are different from the home ones for instance up on the hill sides there are palm trees resembling ferns growing at the tops of long poles’.14 Twentieth-century correspondents differed little in drawing comparisons between home and abroad. In 1953, after some time touring New Zealand, Lorna Carter was alert to the differences between the environments of the two countries. Travelling through the South Island [ 176 ]

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and having passed through the Eglinton and Hollyford Valleys, she drew comparisons between these mountain ranges and those in the Scottish Highlands: ‘There was snow on the mountains and the air was keen. It reminded me of the hielans a bit, but the mountains are very much higher – one we passed was nearly 8000 Mt Talbot.’15 A few days later Lorna jocularly added, ‘We went up the Routeburn Valley from the head of the lake in open buses and on either side there were these gigantic mountains. He pointed out the smallest and it was as high as Ben Cruachan!!’16 As well as the physical landscape, southern towns were also commented on, with Archibald McCallum in 1860 drawing linkages between Dunedin and Edinburgh: ‘The town of Dunedin is situate at the head of a loch fourteen miles long, something like Lochland . . . They are laying the town off and naming the streets the same as Edinburgh. Princes Street is the main one with a number of other ones sloping up from it but you must not imagine that it is the same as a Glasgow street as everyone builds on his little spot to suit his fancy.’17 William Irvine offered similar comments on Otago’s main city in 1874: ‘Dunedin is indeed a fine place. No one who has not been here can imagine how like home it is with the exception of there being many wooden houses & persons of all nationalities.’18 Despite the renowned connection of Dunedin with Scotland, and more especially Edinburgh, it was not just the Scots who considered Dunedin familiar. William Clarke of County Tyrone also found that the Dunedin environment, except the hills, resembled his homeland when he arrived in 1879: ‘The weather is very much like April at home; some heavy rain and plenty of bright sunshine; but the roads are very soft and dirty.’ He also found ‘lots of little birds, similar to those we have at home, bullfinches and whin sparrows’. Clarke’s judgements led him to conclude ‘everything is just nearly alike about Dunedin to what it is in the Old Country; only here it is more hilly’.19 While Otago has acquired the reputation of being the most Scottish province in New Zealand, in terms of the proportion of Scottish-born, Southland was more so. Mrs Isabella Bonthron certainly drew parallels with home upon her arrival in 1863: ‘we had come in sight of Southland the first view of which reminded me much of the Cheviot Hills as seen from the highest part of Roxburghshire. It is a long range of hills, some of which at their summits had snow lying white only ther was this difference in the two that the Southland hills seem not so uniformly high as Cheviot but with considerable declevations at some parts.’20 By contrast with Otago and Southland’s reputation as Scottish centres, Canterbury was considered New Zealand’s most English [ 177 ]

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province and Christchurch the country’s most English city. Yet brief observations made by Agnes Christie and John Jack reveal the similarity of Canterbury to parts of Scotland: ‘The coast is very pretty & wild something like the west Highlands’; ‘It looked in outline very much like Scotland’.21 Scotsman William Torrance Irvine, meanwhile, considered in 1874, ‘The hills look something like our own at home although not quite si (sic) grand and majestic like.’22 Again, Irish migrants, like their Scottish counterparts, were also quick to make linkages between the new land and the old. Matthew Moriarty, arriving in Canterbury in early 1879, wrote, ‘’Tis very grand, very high yet, not cliffs, great ravines running up for one or two miles with trees growing on very top (maple). Going up Lord Lyttelton’s Bay, ’tis like running into Slieve League. High up on both sides and about the same width as Killybegs Bay, but longer and wider inside with beautiful bays and inlets running either side.’23 Even Quarantine island provoked commentary from Moriarty, whose ‘paths run round like Portstewart or Portrush’.24 Moving further north, Wellington also generated comparison with Scotland, particularly its mountainous character. According to John Deans in 1843, ‘New Zealand is a beautiful country but in general far too hilly for cultivation. It reminds me of the Highlands of the Old Country, but the hills instead of being covered with stunted heather, are clad with large timber to the top.’25 Almost 20 years later, David Miller found, ‘A fine view of the hills this morning some of them very high & rugged very like some of the hills in Scotland’.26 John Jack took a more detailed approach, considering it ‘quite like a panorama & very similar to the appearance Dundee has from Newport only on a much smaller scale’.27 Such commentary continued throughout the twentieth century. Lorna Carter, arriving in Wellington in the 1950s from the Scottish seaport of Oban, relished her first impression of the city’s surroundings due to the familiar landscape. Writing to her parents in 1951 she exclaimed, ‘I see away on the starboard side mountains just like our coast and snow capped peaks in the distance. I just feel that I’m sailing home from Kyle to Mallaig and I’ve got the feeling that I’m going to love this [word illegible] land.’28 Auckland, meanwhile, drew comment from Irish migrants finding resemblances with their homeland. At Epsom, according to Robert Graham in 1842, ‘the appearance of the hills seem much like the Island of Aran, Golat Fill included’.29 Four decades later when Minnie Williams arrived, it was the north rather than west coast of Ireland that was the focal point as Three Kings ‘looked very much like the north coast of Ireland, barren and rugged, the waves tremendously high, a very dangerous part of the coast’.30 [ 178 ]

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For both Irish and Scottish migrants, then, physical similarities and differences were made between the landscape at home and abroad. Generally, these comments were made on immediate arrival, migrants endeavouring to find a semblance of familiarity after months at sea and the chaos of stepping ashore. Further comments on features such as the colonial climate and housing were usually conveyed a short time after arrival, reflecting the migrant’s experience and satisfying the curiosity of those at home interested in these critical elements of life abroad. Climate Quite apart from commentary on the landscape, the climate also provoked a range of remarks from migrants, with a Scot in 1840s Otago finding ‘the bad weather here seems to be just about as disagreeable as at home, with this difference, that it never last longer than the time I have mentioned’.31 At Petone, near Wellington in February 1841, Agnes Hay concluded, ‘this climate is much like Scotland but not so coold in winter’.32 For William Munro in 1876, meanwhile, ‘I cannot remember such a gale of wind since the great storm in Edinburgh about fourteen years ago.’33 And in Dunedin James McKerrow observed that an elderly lady friend thinks ‘everything here is contrairy – for “The south wind is cauld, the north wind is warm and the very sun, himsel gangs the wrong way about”’.34 In questionnaires conducted with assisted migrants arriving in the twentieth century the climate was also considered different to home, mainly in having no great extremes of temperature. While 15 per cent either found the climate too hot or too cold, the majority were favourably impressed. In some cases this was because New Zealand’s climate compared so positively with the previous summer at the point of origin: ‘after a typical “Irish Summer” I thought I had arrived in heaven’, explained an enthusiastic Thomas Brown of Belfast.35 For George Nicholson, a schoolteacher from Belfast arriving during a howling southerly in Wellington in September 1952, ‘Where was the tropical paradise we were told about.’36 The length of daylight in winter months certainly struck some migrants as did the shorter daylight hours of a New Zealand summer.37 The sun in New Zealand was also considered ‘so much more dazzling’.38 Housing Housing was another feature of life in the new homeland that provoked the curiosity of migrants and it proved particularly rudimentary in the early decades of settlement. At Otago in the 1840s one migrant observed of their lodging and furnishings: [ 179 ]

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it is made without a nail, and without a stone; there is no lock to the door, which is made of bark; we have a bark table, it looks very pretty, just like mahogany. We can go anywhere and leave our house with the greatest safety . . . I would not change this house for any one in Scotland. I know you can scarcely go to the door at home, but you must lock the door and hide the key, or take it with you; we need not do no such thing here; as yet, there is nothing but peace and safety.39

By contrast, the primitive character of colonial housing prompted another writer at the same time to brutally conclude, ‘If you had the same sort of houses to live in you would be killed.’40 Others, however, considered their colonial houses significantly superior, with Daniel Gow of Perthshire declaring in 1866 from Canterbury: ‘We have put up the best sod house on the Rangiora plains and we find it much more comfortable than the old reeky house which you will remember of in Blairnowar(?)’.41 The location of houses was also important and migrants drew on their knowledge of housing back home, but reconfigured the aspect due to the geographical difference. As William Munro explained in 1876, ‘So I suppose in choosing a house in New Zealand we will take one with the windows looking to the North instead of advertising for a mansion with a southern aspect as we would do in Edinburgh.’42 Twentieth-century arrivals were likewise intrigued with housing in New Zealand and made comparisons with houses at home. For Evelyn Duncan, arriving at Wellington in 1958, ‘I loved it from the first moment we could see land. It was a brilliant day – the sky was so blue, the hills were brilliant yellow (I discovered later it was gorse in bloom!) and the green seemed so green after five weeks at sea! I was amazed at all the coloured roofs and, then, seeing the houses, too, were coloured I realised how grey my homeland was.’43 As in the nineteenth century, houses in New Zealand were noted for their wooden construction and flamboyant character, contrasting with dull stone houses at home.44 For some, the lack of technology proved a burden, including, the outside toilet at Rotowaro used by Doreen Wilkinson, whereas the family home in Scotland contained a flush toilet.45 Others were impressed by the facilities encountered. Elizabeth Harris was delighted at the availability of hot and cold water rather than the harsher lifestyle in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, where she had to carry water from a river or well. Electricity for lighting and cooking compared with kerosene lamps and open fires meant that ‘Everything here was so convenient it was like a holiday for me.’46 Indeed, Irish migrants leaving rural agricultural districts were most impressed with New Zealand. As Brigid Dawson wrote home to County Armagh from Wanganui in 1924: [ 180 ]

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You would never have to wash the chairs or Tables in a lifetime and the Floors are all polished and carpets so there is no slavery or work only to cook and wash and the clothes are never dirty for washing like at home. The most of the people just steeps them in the Boiler with washing powder the call easy Monday so the next morning the[y] light the fire and boils them and when the[y] are taken out they are perfect. No scrubbing whatever for they are not dirty but I give mine a wee touch. It will be a miracle to me Ellen if I get in the remainder of my life like this. No worry or trouble about crops or how they will be saved or hens or eggs or Turkeys or not wet feet like going across Craigs fields. I am surprised at myself and the Comfort I have.47

Those emerging from urban districts in Scotland and Ireland, however, expressed disbelief at the ‘cowboy-like’ environment encountered in many Antipodean towns in the twentieth century, including Wellington, which Catherine Graham considered ‘like an American West Town’.48 Slow trains devoid of comfort, poor road conditions, and terrible driving stunned others.49 By contrast, work conditions were generally considered better, wages better, and food cheaper.50 The downside was the early closure of bars and poor nightlife.51 Naming The naming of new houses and properties in New Zealand was also influenced by memories of home and demonstrates an ongoing sense of ethnic identity among migrants. A number of examples from Canterbury serve to illustrate this tendency. According to Ebenezer Hay, ‘you will see by the plan that I have named the Estate Annandale in honor of my wifes berth place’.52 The Pilgrims volume also records a range of naming practices associated with areas throughout Canterbury: ‘They named the river “Avon” after the Avon flowing past the Duke of Hamilton’s place in Lanarkshire, and into the Clyde, because it bounded their grandfather’s property just as the new “Avon” did their own.’ Riccarton, meanwhile, was named ‘after their native parish in Ayrshire’.53 One account also indicated that: ‘My brother later leased 182 acres known as Scotch Hill. This hill acquired its name by reason of the fact that there was a Scotchman after it at the same time as my brother, and as he tried to do my brother out of it we named it Scotch Hill. A lot of people think it was called Scotch Hill owing to the large numbers of thistles that were growing there, but this was not the case.’54 While these examples seemingly suggest that nostalgia was the prime motivation for these naming patterns, this activity was also, as scholars have pointed out in studies of Scottish migrants elsewhere, a form of appropriating the land from the indigenous population.55 [ 181 ]

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Views of Maori Besides commenting on the similarities and differences of New Zealand’s environment, migrants also made observations on the country’s indigenous population. As David Fitzpatrick has indicated, ‘No experience defines the collective mentality of a people more sharply than contact with other peoples.’56 Yet within the broader historiography of Irish and Scottish migration, little work examines the contact individual migrant groups had with indigenous cultures. There are, however, instances of particular components of these migrant groups engaging with indigenous peoples including, in Australia, Don Watson’s assessment of Highland encounters with the Kurnai of Gippsland and the shared theme of dispossession.57 As the preface to the book put it, ‘The heart of the tragedy is that these previously dispossessed Scots should come to inflict dispossession on others.’58 It is a theme echoed in respect of the Irish: ‘One of the fundamental stories of the Irish diaspora is of Irish emigrants choosing to do unto others what others had already done unto them.’59 Highlanders also feature in Colin G. Calloway’s insightful and engaging study of the parallel experiences and cross-cultural encounters between Highlanders and American Indians.60 In his assessment, Calloway has pointed to a range of Highlanders’ impressions of Indians’ alleged characteristics, including being lazy, unattractive, thieving, hospitable, and warlike.61 Highlanders involved in the fur trade, he asserts, displayed ‘ignorance, greed, fear, arrogance, intolerance, sympathy, affection, bias, prejudice, and misunderstanding in their dealings with Indians’.62 In this they were guided by ‘notions about morality, gender, wealth and poverty, work and idleness. They thought and acted as traders first and foremost – after all, that was why they were there.’63 Margaret Connell Szasz has also examined Highlanders and native Americans but with a focus on educational issues in the eighteenth century.64 In the historiography of New Zealand, Scottish and Irish engagement with Maori is also surprisingly thin, with the glimpses of this issue suggesting that because of their experiences of colonialism in the homelands the Irish and Scots were more readily sympathetic towards Maori. As one commentator suggested, ‘Perhaps because they share a history of oppression and land loss, and have both been the butt of racist jokes, the Maori and Irish in New Zealand have long identified with one another.’65 Don Akenson, in his important work on the Irish in New Zealand, makes short shrift of such assumptions: ‘The suggestion that the Irish Catholics, like the Maori, were a downtrodden people, seems to me to be both romantic and of little [ 182 ]

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operational use.’66 Nevertheless, there are indications in contemporary documents that such shared experiences had some bearing on attitudes towards Maori, and these are discussed below. More influential in a migrant’s impressions of Maori than ethnicity and gender, however, were place, timing, and occupation. It is also important to recognise that the historiography of Maori– migrant engagement generally neglects to distinguish the views about Maori held by different ethnic groups. Typical in this respect is Angela Ballara’s work which asserts that ‘the average colonist assumed that he had to deal with an inferior and savage people’ and that ‘Sweeping condemnations of their characters and habits were to be found in the private correspondence and published writings of settlers who had barely stepped off their ships.’67 Among such ‘Sweeping condemnations’ were assessments of Maori being lazy and dirty, childlike, savages, and a dying race.68 Yet Ballara’s evidence base is slim, with just a handful of examples drawn mainly from the published correspondence of prominent colonists or newspaper reports. Indeed, how do we know what ‘the average colonist’ thought in the absence of a sustained study of their letters and journals? What ordinary migrants thought and felt therefore needs to be considered and this study provides a preliminary insight into this. As T. H. Breen put it, ‘the new imperial history will focus on the movement of peoples and the clash of cultures, on common folk rather than colonial administrators’.69 We need then to move beyond the perceptions of Maori by missionaries, travel writers, and the colonial elite. Other approaches include visual representations of Maori, such as Leonard Bell’s survey of European images of Maori between 1840 and 1914. Bell indicates that class, gender, and sexuality all played a part in determining how Maori were represented. Ethnicity, too, was important and Bell refers to the Scottish influences on John Gilfillan’s representation of Maori.70 Overall, Bell asserts that ‘European artists formulated multiple, at times seemingly conflicting “views” of Maori people, culture, and history.’71 More recently, Conal McCarthy has assessed the ways in which Maori have been displayed in museums, an analysis that emphasises Maori involvement in how they were to be presented.72 Recent analysis of intermarriage is another area that opens up avenues into the ways in which Maori were perceived.73 Nevertheless, we still have little research that considers perceptions of Maori by individuals of different ethnicities; typically such impressions are lumped together as a ‘Pakeha’ perspective. But how did the Scots and the Irish view Maori? Were their perceptions similar or can we identify divergences? What changes can be discerned over time? [ 183 ]

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For instance, Conal McCarthy has pointed out that from the 1880s onwards, representations of Maori became more romantic and exotic, with the image of the noble savage replacing that of the ignoble one.74 Moreover, were the experiences of colonialism in Scotland and Ireland a factor in shaping their perspectives of Maori? Or were other aspects such as occupation and the time and place of settlement more important? Official images of Maori in the homeland As with Calloway’s assessment, the Scots – and the Irish – in New Zealand proffered a range of impressions about Maori that were positive, negative, and ambivalent. Such perceptions circulated in the homelands prior to arrival and literate Irish and Scots would have been alert to these representations given the importance of personal letters, newspapers, and agent activity in encouraging migration to New Zealand. These factors, more than the history of colonialism in Ireland and Scotland, probably had greater influence on Irish and Scottish perceptions of Maori. The testimony of emigration agents, for instance, suggests that Maori were renowned for warfare and cannibalism. As one report from 1872 mentioned, ‘In some parts of Invernesshire, which he visited, many had never heard of the colony, and others associated it with Maori cannibalism.’75 The following year, it was claimed, ‘Another of the reports was that I wanted the people to fight the Maoris.’76 Such denigrating comments arose, however, from competing emigration agents for other countries, and shows that those in Britain and Ireland were subjected to various (and often skewed) knowledge about potential destinations. The extant official correspondence reveals, for instance, that sustained attempts were made by agents from the United States in particular to paint a negative picture of New Zealand which encompassed a number of factors, including the allegation that the New Zealand environment was hostile, in terms of both climate and its indigenous population. As an emigration agent for New Zealand in 1873 reported: The American agents are coming in force this year, I have heard, and may by their extraordinary promises, and their adverse statements (such as that the Natives are cannibals) about New Zealand, – which, moreover, they represent as a badly-watered country, burnt up by hot scorching winds, – succeed to some extent in hindering our New Zealand work.77

Presumably the alleged threat posed by Maori constituted a greater and more novel menace than the usual travails of the climate. As was reported in 1875 of an emigration tour to Lewis: [ 184 ]

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I believe a large number of people could be got from the Lewes, [sic] a large island, population 24,000 – far too many. It is the property of Sir James Matheson, Bart., at whose invitation I visited the Island in 1872, and lectured in six or eight places. But an American agent then came after me, and terrified the people with tales of war and cannibalism in New Zealand, so that very few left.78

Reports of such activity may, however, have been exaggerated by agents promoting emigration to New Zealand in order to account for the fewer numbers of emigrants than expected. Based on these reports, it would have been with some trepidation that the Scots and Irish landed in New Zealand. As James Begg recounted in 1874: People are apt to imagine that, in going to New Zealand, they are going to a land where they are in danger of being eaten by Maories – (laughter) – but, in point of fact, there is no such danger; and, in particular, if there be any danger at all, it is confined to a small section of the northern portion of New Zealand, that is to say, the place where the war of which we used to hear so much was carried on.79

Here Begg is referring to sustained conflict in the 1860s in the North Island of New Zealand. Yet as is evident from the following accounts, many extracted from personal correspondence, competing views of Maori were sent from New Zealand back to the homeland societies. Consequently, if Irish and Scottish migrants were arriving in fear of Maori, it was often short-lived, at least in earlier years. Early settlers, in particular, reported favourably on Maori, including Robert Graham who observed upon arrival at Auckland in 1842, ‘a number of natives were standing on the beach to welcome us to new Zealand they all seemed glad to see us shaking hands with us and talking in their own language’.80 A similarly warm greeting was experienced by George Hepburn in 1850 when he arrived at Dunedin. Maori, the Scotsman indicated, ‘seem very fond to see newcomers, laugh heartily, and shake hands with you A good few of the old ones are still tattooed and look rather fierce like, but are very kind and gentle. The settlers say they have no fear of them by night or day’.81 Reporting on four Maori who boarded his ship in 1858, Daniel Brown noted that Maori ‘entertained us with their war song’, and ‘They were in like manner entertained with our two Pipers’.82 From Wanganui in 1843, Jessie Campbell provided a possible explanation for the warm welcome she experienced: ‘The natives are very anxious to have the white people settled among them, they cannot live now without tobacco, blankets, etc. all of which the Pakehas or White people provide them with. Our old native here came yesterday with a present of a fine eel.’83 Yet newcomers also benefited from cross-cultural [ 185 ]

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contact, as Ebenezer Hay explained from Canterbury in 1852: ‘I allow the natives to put in a Croap upon my land upon thair own account and afterwards the put in one for myself. I am on veray friendly terms with the Maiores as it is to our mutual advantage’.84 Indeed, Hay’s acquisition of the land was also dependent on mutual agreement, as he explained to his parents in 1844: we went to the chief to see what he had to say about us settling on them. He told us veray plane that he never had sold the land nor never would. He had no obgections to me settling alone providing no other white people would come besides the one famelay. He said so sone as I came thare would plentay more come and take all his land and he would have none left for his offspring. He told me to build a house he would not kill me nor any beloning to me but so fast as I bilt he would burn it down.85

As with Calloway’s study of Highland–Indian interaction, such exchanges were about mutual cooperation rather than competition.86 Yet there was an element of exploitation at play, with Hay admitting in 1862 to his uncle, ‘have to get the Maories to fell the bush, burn it off and plant the potatoes, because they do it better and cheeper than white people’.87 The economic interaction of Maori and newcomers from Scotland and Ireland, together with associated Maori consumption of goods from Europe, increased substantially as migration intensified over the next few decades.88 This prompted warm praise of Maori acumen in business dealings from some settlers. Alexander Campbell at Matakana was especially impressed with Maori business transactions in 1863, particularly in comparison with indigenous peoples elsewhere: ‘In hearing of the Maories you are apt to think they are an uncivilised set of Aborigines and they carry on their depredations like the Kaffirs at the Cape. But this is not the case. True, there are many of them still in great ignorance but as a whole they are just as wide awake as Europeans. They trade and transact their business with great savie.’89 William Smith at Tauranga Harbour conveyed similar thoughts in his reminiscences: ‘There were no white people about but not far away was a large Maori settlement. We chummed up with the Maoris, and got on firstrate with them, often spending an evening in their huts playing cards. We had some employed on the job, and found them real good workers.’90 Some migrants also felt inclined to offer reports on the prowess of Maori in terms of their ability at tasks. According to William Deans at Canterbury: ‘The New Zealanders are certainly a very extraordinary people . . . admirable seamen’.91 Not all migrants had the opportunity to meet with Maori, however, particularly those settling in the South Island. From Invercargill, [ 186 ]

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Gordon McClure informed his sisters in Belfast in the mid-1860s, ‘We have no connection with the War in this Island whatever as the Maoris here are too poor & never were warlike. There are several villages close at hand but they don’t come much among the white men.’92 Harmless As with Gordon McClure, other migrants commented on the harmless nature of Maori. Indeed, ‘harmless’ was a term frequently deployed to sum up Maori, and was presumably offered to reassure those at home who may have read accounts of conflict or who may have heard exaggerated tales from competing emigration agents. In letters sent from Otago back to Scotland in the later 1840s, for instance, it was claimed, ‘The natives are very harmless, inoffensive creatures . . . they are very humorous creatures, and very anxious to learn English, which they pick up quickly. I can talk a little of their language, but not much.’93 Another correspondent in Otago claimed, ‘The natives are quiet, peaceful, harmless creatures.’94 From Auckland in 1850 a Catholic nun singled out female Maori commenting, ‘I am quite enraptured with the Zealanders there are Six Native girls in the house at present, one of them has a beautiful tattoed face. They are simple, innocent, pious, not rude but on the contrary very gentle & respectful to superiors, children do not speak in presence of grown persons, but listen – very attentively they are very playful’.95 Archibald McCallum in Dunedin also discussed his interaction with Maori in 1860: ‘We had a meeting here of the native last week expressing their friendship which I believe is sincere.’96 At Tuakau almost a quarter of a century later and after the intense conflict of the 1860s, Protestant Irishman John Abbott noted, ‘Their [erased: ?] are many small farmers round many of them from North of Ireland also many natives Maoris called. All quiet & very [word illegible] people. Life and property quite safe.’97 Such impressions found echoes in poetry composed by Scottish settlers in New Zealand, including J. Maclennan’s ‘The Song of Waipori’ in which Maori were ‘a trusty race’ and ‘kindness itself to me’.98 A possible factor in the assessment of Maori as harmless may have been migrant knowledge of a declining Maori population. Between 1840 and 1890, for instance, the Maori population in New Zealand declined from more than 100,000 to less than 50,000 and some have suggested that they were a race doomed to extinction. Summarising the historiography, James Belich claims that during this last phase of fatal impact, ‘Most Pakeha believed that Maori were dying out fast.’99 In the absence of a sustained study of the impressions of Pakeha towards Maori, however, such a conclusion can only be tentative. That caution is reinforced in this study with only two migrants conveying [ 187 ]

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such an assumption from among the various sources consulted. George Fairlie Moore reported that ‘The Maori are a fine race but getting lazy and fast disappearing, only 50,000 being left, although this year their numbers slightly increased.’100 Alexander Campbell, meanwhile, reported to his mother in 1864 from Matakana, ‘Many people at home will think we are living in a country densely populated with rebels but this is not the case. The Maories are fastly dying out. Civilisation has decreased them much and what is left are a shrewd intellegent class.’101 Maori intelligence was also emphasised by Agnes Hay after her initial arrival at Wellington in 1841: ‘we ar not afraid of the natives. The ar clever intelligent pople’.102 In his assessment of 1842, Robert Graham blended intelligence with their physical features: ‘they are rather inteligent looking creatures and some of them have got pleasant countenances. They are mostly all tatooed more or less. The chiefs in particular are well carved about the face’.103 Physical descriptions Indeed, the most frequent reports in connection with Maori were descriptions of their physical features and actions. Male and female, young and old, all attracted comment from migrants in New Zealand. As Tony Ballantyne and Antoinette Burton have put it, ‘bodies have been a subject of concern, scrutiny, anxiety, and surveillance in a variety of times and places across the world’.104 For Andrew Carbery, an Irish-born surgeon in the New Zealand Wars, ‘the Maoris are very energetic in their language and movements and I may say graceful. You could almost guess at their discourse from their motions which are characteristic very graceful, sometimes the speaker becomes much excited’.105 John Elder Moultray, meanwhile, reported in 1883 that ‘The Maorie is an object of general interest. He just sits and grins at the people.’106 Facial characteristics of the Maori even prompted some migrants to remark on the comparisons of Maori and Native Americans. A particularly extensive commentary was provided by George Fairlie Moore of Kilmarnock during his round-the-world tour in the early twentieth century in which Maori ‘put me very much in mind of the pictures I have seen of American Indians. The younger generations are all getting educated now and so do not go in for tattooing the face but a great many have various designs tattooed on their chins.’107 Interestingly, however, no mention is made of the importance of the moko (tattoo) in demonstrating an individual’s status. Instead, just like artistic representations, the moko denoted the exotic and barbaric.108 Moore was also taken with Maori children, reporting, ‘It would have killed you laughing to see them. At one point they all put their tongues [ 188 ]

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to the fullest extent and turned up the white of their eyes and one little girl and one little boy in particular sent me off into fits.’109 And a few days later, ‘The Maori children are keeping up an awful din all round the Hotel. They are most comical, drilling like soldiers, having races etc. and always ready to give you a juvenile “Haka”, some of the boys and girls being better than the adults at putting out their tongues and rolling up the whites of their eyes.’110 Indeed, Moore was particularly preoccupied with eyes as he had commented the day before: ‘By the bye we see the natives all places here. They are a splendid race and the women often very pretty in a way, lovely eyes, but generally large lips and flat noses, olive skins and fine teeth. The men are as a rule of fine physique’.111 Some days later, however, Moore was less flattering: ‘The Maori women get awfully fat and ungainly after 30, being only nice from 15 to 20. The men also are all fat and awfully lazy.’112 Moore’s account reveals that migrant accounts of Maori could alter not just over the years, but on a daily basis, depending on who was encountered and the writer’s reaction. Moore’s contrasts between male and female were echoed in the 1870s during David Kennedy Junior’s singing tour through New Zealand: their woman are ugly! A Maori man is nearly always superior in looks to his better half. Some of the very young women have a kind of comeliness, but they age fast. They have big thick lips, flat noses, narrow foreheads, liquid eyes, and, terrible to relate, are guilty of inveterate smoking. The Maories are said to be very lazy at times; but what savage or what civilized man of any standing can clear himself of this charge? We saw more Maories – Maori girls in tartan dresses and Rob Roy shawls . . . We missed the picturesque robe and plumed head-dresses of the savage, though we were told that the native, when he goes back to the country, throws off the clothes of the pakeha (white man) and wraps himself again in his blanket.113

Kennedy also drew comparisons between Maori in different parts of New Zealand. Comparing Maori at Wanganui and Waikato, for instance, he declared the former to be ‘an inferior people to the highborn aristocratic natives of the Waikato and the north generally’.114 So even if migrants generally failed to acknowledge iwi and hapu divisions in Maori society and rarely mentioned individual names, some distinguished between Maori according to locality. Other contemporary comment drew parallels between Maori and particular groups half a world away. According to Jane McGlashan in 1853: hearty cheers greeted a large party of Natives who came on board looking very much pleased with their reception, every one crowding to shake

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hands. This they returned with great politeness saying ‘how do’ ‘white man welcome to New Zealand’. One of them asked what news from England? They were a fine looking set of men, well dressed in brown felt and straw hats, blue flannel blouses, all had strong shoes. They are copper coloured, but we have a Spaniard on board who looked almost as swarthy as they. Their hair is black and curly. Several of the older men are tatooed with dark blue lines and figures . . . Several had ear ornaments – the prettiest was a pink shell.115

According to Archibald McCallum, writing to his brother from Dunedin in 1860, ‘There are very few natives in this Province. A few of them come into the town to sell pigs and baskets. Some able fellows amongst them. They are not very dark in colour and some of them very good featured. Very like our Tinkers at Home.’116 In the 1870s, during his tour of New Zealand, David Kennedy drew comparisons between Maori and the Australian aborigine. As he reflected from Auckland, ‘The Australian black is an uncouth fellow, a loafer round country hotels, a grinning plaything for passing strangers, a kind of human tree soon to be rooted out. But the New Zealand savage is by far superior, physically and mentally, to the Australian aboriginal.’117 Several decades later, George Fairlie Moore considered the Maori to resemble other groups: Some of them are very dark, but mostly like the Singalese [Sri Lankans, ed.] in colour. To see groups of them at the different Paks (villages) the look like (in dress) the Irish tattie howkers [potato pickers, ed.] at West Kilbride but of course dark skinned and not at all repulsive and some pretty. They all have lovely eyes.118

Similarities of Maori with Irish and Scots Mostly, however, the comparisons made with Maori were connected to the Irish and the Scots, although Jessie Campbell simply referred to them as imitating Europeans: ‘It is our boast that in no part of New Zealand are the natives so well affected to the whites. They seem quite aware of the benefits they derive from being among them. It is very laughable the wish some of them have to imitate the Europeans in their dress, particularly the baptised natives.’119 Other Scottish migrants emphasised particular regions of Scotland in the connections they made between the Scots and the Maori. As Alexander MacDonald admitted in his 1904 memoir: ‘I do not however pretend that I know more about Maoris than many others of my countrymen. I have heard high authorities say that Highlanders who have learnt to speak the Maori tongue can enter into the feelings of a Maori, or as some scholar has said, “can think in Maori” better than most Europeans.’120 Alexander Campbell at Matakana certainly considered the [ 190 ]

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Scots and Maori similar, except physically: ‘Beyond their being black and their style of living. They differed little from us, but there is scarcely a good looking one among them.’121 Campbell also ventured a possible reason for the connection between Scot and Maori: patriotism, but stressed national rather than regional connections. As he claimed in 1868, ‘Love of country reigns in a Maori as well as a Scotchman’.122 David Kennedy also drew similarities between the Scots and Maori in the 1870s at Wellington: ‘Their store of tradition, fable, poetry, proverb, and song is endless. They are undoubtedly the Scotchmen of savages’.123 At Manukau Heads, meanwhile, Kennedy encountered a Scotsman hostile to Maori whom Kennedy labelled ‘is in minority’. Instead, referring to the last war, Kennedy hoped it ‘enabled the Maories to assert themselves, like the Scots of old under the Invasions of the Edwards’.124 Others, however, have indicated the importance of similar coalitions: ‘In their relationships and the shifting alliances between them, they were like the Scottish clans of a couple of centuries ago.’125 And New Plymouth’s Caledonian Society declared that ‘less than 200 years ago there existed within 500 miles of London a vast tract of Scotland inhabited by tribes whose way of life was almost as primitive as and very similar to that of the New Zealand Maori of 100 years ago’.126 There was a sense then, among some migrants, that shared experiences of colonialism and patriotism linked them to Maori. These connections also appear in fiction, with the character of Euan Hazeldean remarking to Lindsay in an Essie Summers novel: ‘You’ll find a good many Scots names, Bannockburn, Ettrick, Roxburgh, Teviot and so on. There’s quite a happy intermingling of Scots and Maori names, just as there is of European and native trees. That’s as it should be, growing side by side.’127 The Scottish–Maori link also appeared in cartoon representations such as that in Figure 18 depicting the Edinburgh-born politician Thomas Mackenzie who was Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1912. As well as Scottish identifiers such as the glengarry and pipes, Mackenzie also displays elements of Maori culture such as the moko (tattoo) and mere (club). This representation was echoed almost a century later when politician Winston Peters, of Maori and Scottish descent, was depicted with a Scottish bonnet and sporran and Maori mere and flax kilt carrying out a mixture of a haka and sword dance over a sword and taiaha (Figure 19). Film also connects Irish and Maori, but negatively. In River Queen (2005), for example, allusions are made about the Irish and Maori being traitors. When Sarah asks her friend and soldier Doyle (Kiefer Sutherland) about Wiremu (Cliff Curtis), a Maori fighting on the side of the British Army, Doyle responds that Wiremu is like the Irish. He [ 191 ]

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Figure 18 The Campbells are comin’ (c. 1901–12)

elaborates, ‘I’m Irish and I fight for the bloody British. A few years ago he used to fight against us too alongside his own people but apparently he saw the errors of his way and decided to go down river.’ Later in the film, as British and Irish soldiers march towards a bloody confrontation, Doyle meditates in voiceover, ‘Murder fighting these Maoris. Might as well be Irish from Cromwell’s time. Skin is darkened by the sun is all.’ Such parallels have appeared in the wider historiography, but despite fleeting examples of solidarity, many more Irish enlisted in contingents of the colonial and imperial forces to fight against the Maori, and Irish migrants posited varied impressions of Maori.128 Such was the tendency for Irish enlistment in the colonial forces that William Lysaght wrote from Limerick in 1869 to his brother in Auckland pleading: ‘I wish the Maories every success. [ 192 ]

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I

Figure 19 Ashley W. Smith, [Winston Peters], MG Business – Mercantile Gazette, 20 Aug. 2001

Take care. Join no party to fight against them. They are the same as Irish men fighting for their own Land. Twas a regular Humbug the way their land were confiscated. Again I say to you do not fight against them – help them if you wish. I have it on good authority that they are assisted by many Irishmen.’129 There was also muted admiration of the Maori when compared with Fenian rebels, with Hamilton McIlrath claiming in 1867, ‘The fenians seems to be keeping Ireland in a small fever of excitement. The dont show even as much pluck as the Maorias.’130 His brother James McIlrath, on the other hand, ventured that the Irish insurgents would make worthy opponents of the Maori: ‘I Hear it is in a disturbed state up the contry. The have not forgot their old tricks. The will be useful here to fight the Moiries’.131 Rebellion Indeed, another major representation of Maori by the Irish and Scots related to warfare and rebellions. Phrases such as ‘Black Maori’, depicting the Maori as ferocious and warrior-like, presumably arose from the circulation of stories about the bloody, recent history of the New Zealand wars.132 Yet although much negative commentary was generally generated during periods of unrest, especially 1860–72, the location from where impressions were penned were also influential. From Canterbury, in 1847, for instance, Ebenezer Hay wrote to his [ 193 ]

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brother indicating, ‘we may be veray thankfull that we ar settled in pigeon Bay as we ar not disturbed with the natives nor liklie to be. The ar Driving all before them to the north’.133 Fourteen years later, in 1861, he echoed, ‘We ar just as Clear of the Native war on this Island as you ar at home. The ar not mor than 500 Natives on this Island’.134 And from Matakana in the North Island that same year, Alexander Campbell revealed, ‘There are many Maoris throughout this province that have been friendly to the white folks since the last war but these are not now to be trusted. Those at Matakana are friendly’.135 Apart from the location and timing of impressions, the occupations of those writing of events also influenced their perspectives. According to Andrew Carbery, born at Youghal in County Cork and an assistant surgeon during the New Zealand wars in the early to mid-1860s, ‘It is said that the niggers intend fighting – but we shall see.’136 Writing from the North Island during this period of conflict, Carbery also reckoned, ‘the Waikato land is the best in the country and will certainly fall into the hands of the whites when the Blacks go to the wall’.137 His comment demonstrates the importance of land as a factor in the conflict between Maori and Pakeha, though this view is challenged by those claiming that sovereignty and myths of Empire were more important.138 Carbery also provided a graphic account of a tomahawk attack on a militia officer: ‘a Maori struck him on the back of the head with a Tomahawk and was leaving him for dead when he saw the wounded man turn on his back the Maori went back to finish him and the militia man shot him through the face with his Revolver – other Maoris then rushed in and hacked him with their Tomahawks’.139 By 1865, little appears to have changed, with Carbery concluding, ‘It is a pity that we have not a country here like England and we would blot out every black skinned savage in a week’s time.’140 Yet a short time later Carbery attended a runanga, or great meeting, and provided a more positive account: ‘the Maoris are very energetic in their language and movements and I may say graceful you could almost guess at their discourse from their motions which are characteristic very graceful, sometimes the speaker becomes much excited’.141 John Armstrong, an Irish captain in the Taranaki Militia, and son of a Church of Ireland minister, was similarly hostile in his view of Maori, but was probably more influenced by his residence in a hotspot of conflict in the mid-1860s than by his background: ‘The more I think on the subject the more I am convinced that the perfect subjection of the Maori race to our rule is the only means humanly speaking of effecting a permanent peace with them. Let them find out [ 194 ]

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the uselessness of prolonging the struggle with us and they will be more careful in future in taking up arms against us and more anxious to submit to our terms of peace.’142 Those Irish not involved in the militia and residing elsewhere in the country were also keenly aware of military activity further north. As Hamilton McIlrath remarked in 1863 from Rangiora to his family in County Down: The Moris In the North Island has Been very troublesom Lately. The More the are civelized the the worse the get Burning Houses and killing the setlers But I think the will be forced to give over soon. The goverment gave grants of Land to all the young Men that would volenter and has raised A force of about three thousand Men Besides 2 thousands from England. The took one of there Pa’s last week and killed 400 natives and took 500 prisoners. The intend to give them A dressing Before they have done with them that the shall Remember. The very Men that the Instructed Most and thought they had made saints of the were the Leaders of the Rebelion. I expect Mother would like to see one of them with there face tattoed and all the Devices you could Imagine painted on then and A Boars Tusk strung to there ear.143

Inevitably, accounts of hostile relations in the colony generated concern in Ireland, and it was not unusual for letters sent home throughout the 1860s to reassure home readers of the migrant’s safety. Perspectives differed according to the parts of the country in which correspondents resided. In 1863, for instance, James McIlrath in Canterbury calmly advised that ‘There is great talk of the Mowrie war but we have nothing of it here’.144 Scottish migrants also conveyed anxiety about various hostilities with Maori. One of the more extensive and graphic commentaries emerged from Ebenezer Hay, who had settled at Pigeon Bay in the South Island in 1843, just months before the following incident: You will I have no dout have hard of that Sad Massacker near to nelson of 22 of our most interprising Colonists done by one chife in cold Blood after A schiomes about survaiying some land. The had maid peace and the white people had laid down all thare arms which was veray wrong in them as the natives is very treacherous and the should have known that. The chief got them all tyed and laid in A row and then he comenced at the one and and went to the other with his thomahauck spliting open all thare heads. When he came to Cap Wak[e]field he offered him 2 hundred pound to save his fife but it had no affeck as he took [erased: it off holding word illegible] off Col Wakefields head holding it up in his hand saying hear goes the man of 2 hundred pounds till he smashed it all to peces. If Goverment does not punish them for such an ack thare will be no living hear.145

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This episode, known as the ‘Wairau Affray’, occurred on 17 June 1843 and was the first major conflict to arise after the signing of the Treaty in 1840. It has been attributed to misunderstandings over land-ownership, and when Arthur Wakefield attempted to remove Maori from the land, he was one of an estimated 22–30 Europeans and 2–6 Maori killed.146 Despite Ebenezer Hay’s insistence that the Maori be punished, this did not eventuate. At least two reasons explain this. First, there was no evidence to suggest that settlers had legally bought the land from Maori. Second, a lack of military muscle meant the colonial government could not ‘impose its sovereignty by force’.147 Scottish migrants in the North Island also conveyed concern about conflict with Maori. According to Dugald Poppelwell in his memoir, ‘I have heard my mother tell of the fear of the new-arrived immigrants of the Maoris, who at that date were almost in their original state of cannibalistic savagery.’148 While this retrospective account related to Wellington in 1840, more vivid contemporary accounts also convey fear and apprehension of the situation. As Jessie Campbell wrote from Wanganui to her sister Isabella in 1843, around 200 ‘natives’ from Taupo travelled south ‘with the intention of fighting a tribe who live 20 miles down the coast and who had killed and eaten some of their relatives 8 or 9 years ago’.149 Further north at Matakana in April 1860, Alexander Campbell explained, ‘If war is decided on it will be very serious for us as there are Maoris in our immediate neighbourhood and they would go in bands in search of life or property. Several families beyond Auckland have been brutally murdered last week.’150 Campbell expressed similar views as Irishman John Armstrong (see above): ‘Instead of giving the natives a good butchering and be done with them they try to mediate amongst them and settle matters quietly, and so the anxiety among people who have arrived like us, is kept up.’151 By November 1860 he reported, ‘Luckily there are no Maoris very near us or we would have been kept in dreadful suspense for the last six months, as some of our fellow passengers have been who took their land where there were Maori pahs (calchans).’152 Anxiety continued to prevail but the reinforcement of troops seemingly provided some reassurance to Campbell by early 1861: ‘the Maoris are still rebellious but we have now got as many soldiers out as will teach them British rule’.153 William Smith’s memoirs also contained commentary on Maori. At the outset he claimed to have acquired a pistol and ammunition ‘as I was off to a land chiefly inhabited by savages’.154 Smith did, however, distinguish regional groupings of Maori and the respective trouble he believed they were likely to provide: ‘South of Auckland, the Maoris were all hostile, even as close to the town as Otahuhu, while the Maoris in the north, were all more or less friendly’.155 [ 196 ]

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Figure 20 A Scottish missionary coming ashore confronted by warring Maori, 1868

Harsh colonial impressions of Maori also filtered into paintings of Maori, as evident in Figure 20, and in the poetry penned by Scottish migrants. In one of William Hogg’s poems he claims that ‘Savage foes must be subjected – /Must acknowledge righteous laws’.156 In another, ‘Stanzas suggested by the Taranaki war’, William Hogg is vigorous in his critiques: Arise, Volunteers! The war field’s before you! The crimes of Omata command you to rise! Pursue till you conquer the blood-soaked Maoris, Pursue them! subdue them! humanity cries. ... No trust can be placed in the faith of the Maori, He turns on the friends that have succoured him long; Arise, Volunteer! And go forward to glory! In teaching the savage the right from the wrong.157

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The flip side of negative impressions of Maori engagement in warfare was appreciation of their martial skills. As Alexander Campbell reported from Matakana in 1863, General Campbell ‘even compliments them for their bravery. They had to succumb to the Highland blood of Cameron, but they killed a good many of our soldiers’.158 Scottish descendant and poet J. Maclennan, meanwhile, reflected, ‘The Maori is brave, and they call me a Maori,/Because I was born on the tussocky plains’.159 Just as Irish and Scottish migrants commented on other ethnic groups in their personal correspondence, so too did characters in novels display intrigue with their new residents. Set in the nineteenth century but published in 1949, Georgina McDonald’s Grand Hills for Sheep conveys the uncertainties surrounding Maori. According to one character, ‘We’ve been favoured here in our natives. I was reading the other day that the Maoris are the highest aboriginal race that’s known. Aye, and they’re peaceable, too, which is more important.’ Such belief reflects some nineteenth-century commentary on this matter. The response, however, shows the other side of the coin, harking back to the massacres at Wairau in 1843: ‘Aye, so it seems, but we havena heard the last word from the Maoris yet. It’s no’ that long since you trouble up Nelson way.’160 Apart from hostilities, a range of other negative characteristics were also assigned to Maori, including that of laziness. As John Deans wrote in 1843, ‘The natives are a queer lot . . . They are in general lazy and love on a warm day to bask in the sun.’161 He qualified this, however, by then attributing laziness to age: ‘all the old ones are rather lazy, but some of the younger ones are pretty serviceable’.162 Related to laziness was the concept of time, something that Jessie Campbell complained about: ‘I never attempt to bargain with the natives, they have no idea of the value of time and I lose patience’.163 Into the twentieth century Just as nineteenth-century correspondents reflected on Maori, so too did those migrants arriving in the twentieth century. Questionnaires conducted with these migrants included the issue of race relations, with some claiming to be afraid of Maori, while others found them difficult to understand.164 Others made fast friendships.165 Still others commented on what they considered to be good race relations. According to Catherine Graham, ‘I was also not aware of any racist overtones in those days and felt that Maori and Pakeha were on much better terms than they are today.’166 Generally, migrants seemed to recollect good race relations in New Zealand. This presumably reflects contemporary tensions in the late 1990s when the interviews [ 198 ]

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were conducted. Or it may simply mirror migrants’ irregular interaction with and knowledge of Maori prior to the latter’s increasing relocation to urban areas in the later twentieth century. Between 1945 and 1966, for instance, the Maori presence in the urban population rose from 26 per cent to 62 per cent and by 1986 had reached 83 per cent.167 Other migrants specified in their interviews that they had informed Maori of perceived similarities between Maori and the Irish and the Scots. Andrew Rae, for instance, discussed problems in Scotland and Ireland in connection with land holdings and social development, while John Gallagher likened Ireland and the north of Scotland to Maori, stressing that language is culture: ‘If you lose your language you lose your identity.’168 Indeed, some attempts were made in the ethnic press to support learning Maori, as this example from the Tribune in 1935 shows: ‘Would it not be much better for young New Zealanders, both Maori and pakeha, if they learned the Maori language and thus helped to keep it alive? . . . The study of the Maori language as part of the school curriculum would help to preserve one of the great distinctive features of the Dominion and its native people.’169 Cross-cultural interaction was also evident during funerals. Donald Sinclair Sutherland’s burial in 1927, for instance, was reported in the pages of The N.Z. Scotsman, where it was noted, ‘The native race were largely represented at the funeral. Mr. Tutu Te Whaiti placing a beautiful Maori mat upon the coffin, an honour very seldom accorded a departed pakeha.’170 A year later, at a gathering of Wellington’s Shetland Society, there was a ‘hearty welcome to the plaza of the Maori people’ and a Maori address of welcome was read and then translated into English.171 The assessments that the Irish and the Scots had of the Maori therefore fail to adhere to any simplistic divergence of good versus bad. Instead, impressions ranged widely and could vary among the same migrants. The time of writing, as well as the effect of place and the occupation of the migrant, also influenced perceptions. The material also indicates that early impressions were far removed from depictions of Maori as ignoble. Instead, migrants reported favourably on the assistance given them by Maori and demonstrated their curiosity and admiration of the country’s indigenous population. Moreover, impressions of Maori did not simply become more romanticised from the 1880s onwards. The vexed issue of Irish and Scottish impressions of Maori being influenced by their experiences of colonialism by England remains problematic. While some evidence of Irish and Scottish similarities with Maori in the nineteenth century exists, it is difficult to determine whether this was due to experiences of [ 199 ]

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colonialism or recognition of similar customs. Reflections by migrants in the twentieth century, meanwhile, indicate that where this assumption of shared colonialism may have been influential, it made migrants more sympathetic to Maori.

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Notes 1 Lydia Wevers, Country of Writing: Travel Writing and New Zealand, 1809–1900 (Auckland, 2002), p. 198. 2 Hocken Library, Letters from Otago, 1848–1849 (Dunedin, 1978), p. 9. 3 The Highlands were a particularly important destination for English travellers. See Katherine Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, 1770–1914: Creating Caledonia (Aldershot, 2005). 4 Letters from Otago, p. 13. 5 Ibid., p. 19. 6 Ibid., p. 17. 7 James McKerrow Reminiscences, 1899, p. 6, OSM, C069. 8 Shipboard journal of William Laing, 25 Jan. 1860, CM, Folder 44, 76/49. 9 Shipboard journal of Peter Thomson, 7 Feb. 1862, CCL, Arch 796. 10 Shipboard journal of David Carr, 8 Oct. 1863, p. 45, CM, Folder 88, 1993.67. 11 David Kennedy Junior, Kennedy’s Colonial Travel: A Narrative of a Four Years’ Tour through Australia, New Zealand, Canada, &c. (London, 1876), preface and p. 158. 12 Shipboard journal of John McNab, 10 Dec. 1881, p. 19, OSM, C150. 13 Ibid., 12 Dec. 1881, p. 19. 14 Shipboard journal of John Elder Moultray, 9 Oct. 1883, OSM, C-0209, Part II. 15 Lorna Carter to her parents, 1 April 1953, courtesy of Lorna Ross. 16 Ibid., 5 April 1953. 17 Archibald McCallum (Dunedin) to his brother, 23 Sept. 1860, p. 11, OSM, C177. 18 Shipboard diary of William Torrance Irvine, 1874, ATL, MS-Papers-3875. 19 Shipboard journal of William Clarke, 1 Oct. 1879, courtesy of Professor Michael J. Crozier. 20 Shipboard journal of Mrs Isabella Bonthron, 26 Sept. 1863, p. 32, OSM, C011-1. 21 Shipboard diary of Agnes Cunningham Christie, 1879, ATL, MS-Papers-3891; Shipboard diary of John Jack, 1883, ATL, MS-1074. 22 Shipboard diary of William Torrance Irvine, 1874, ATL. 23 Shipboard journal of Matthew Francis Moriarty, 31 Jan. 1879, CM, Folder 51, 73/67. 24 Ibid., 1 Feb. 1879. 25 John Deans (Port Nicholson) to his father, 16 Jan. 1843, in John Deans, Pioneers of Canterbury: Deans Letters, 1840–1854 (Dunedin and Wellington, [1937]), p. 63. 26 Shipboard diary of David Miller, 1862, p. 39, ATL, MS-Papers-4849. 27 Shipboard diary of John Jack, 1883, ATL. 28 Lorna Carter (Wellington) to her parents (Oban), Oct. 1951, ATL, MS-Papers-7377. 29 Shipboard diary of Robert Graham, 1842, p. 28, ATL, qMS-0870. 30 Shipboard diary of Minnie Williams, 1881, p. 16, ATL, MS-Papers-2035. 31 Letters from Otago, p. 10. 32 Agnes Hay (Wellington) to her father Thomas Orr (Annandale), 20 Feb. 1841, CM, ARC 1990.8, 1/5. 33 Shipboard journal of William Harold Munro, 16 Oct. 1876, p. 93, CCL, Arch 215. 34 James McKerrow Reminiscences, 1899, p. 8, OSM. 35 Thomas Brown, BAIQ 028. 36 George Nicholson, BAIQ 191. 37 Angela McCarthy, Personal Narratives of Irish and Scottish Migration, 1921–65: ‘For Spirit and Adventure’ (Manchester, 2007), p. 137. 38 Lorna Carter (Wellington) to her parents (Oban), 14 Jan. 1953.

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IMPRESSIONS OF NEW ZEALAND AND MAORI 39 Letters from Otago, p. 16. 40 Ibid., p. 19. 41 Typed transcript of a letter from Daniel Gow to his aunt Johanna, 25 Nov. 1866, CCL, Arch 553. 42 Shipboard journal of William Harold Munro, 9 Oct. 1876, p. 85, CCL. 43 Evelyn Duncan, BAIQ 063. 44 McCarthy, Personal Narratives, p. 138. 45 Interview with Doreen Wilkinson by Sarah Smith, recorded 1995, HCL, OH0253. 46 Elizabeth Harris, BAIQ 107. 47 Brigid Dawson (Wanganui) to her sister Ellen Quinn (Armagh), 30 July 1924. This letter was kindly provided by Joan Leonard. 48 Catherine Graham, BAIQ 100. 49 McCarthy, Personal Narratives, p. 143. 50 Ibid., pp. 144 –7. 51 Ibid., pp. 147–8. 52 Ebenezer Hay (Pigeon Bay) to Thomas Orr (Annandale), 5 Jan. 1852, CM, ARC 1990.8/14. 53 Canterbury Pilgrims and Early Settlers Scrapbook, 1923–35, vol. 2, p. 162, CCL. 54 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 69. 55 John M. MacKenzie with Nigel R. Dalziel, The Scots in South Africa: Ethnicity, Identity, Gender and Race, 1772–1914 (Manchester, 2007), p. 31; Leigh S. L. Straw, A Semblance of Scotland: Scottish Identity in Colonial Western Australia (Glasgow, 2006), p. 112. 56 David Fitzpatrick, ‘“That beloved country, that no place else resembles”: connotations of Irishness in Irish-Australasian Letters, 1841–1915’, Irish Historical Studies, 27:108 (1991), p. 330. 57 Don Watson, Caledonia Australis: Scottish Highlanders on the Frontier of Australia (Sydney, 1997; first published 1984), esp. chs 4 and 8. 58 Rodney Hall, ‘Preface’, in ibid., p. xii. 59 Donald Harman Akenson, If the Irish Ran the World: Montserrat, 1630–1730 (Liverpool, 1997), p. 175. 60 Colin G. Calloway, White People, Indians, and Highlanders: Tribal Peoples and Colonial Encounters in Scotland and America (Oxford, 2008). 61 Ibid., pp. 63, 64, 66, 89. 62 Ibid., p. 133. 63 Ibid., p. 133. 64 Margaret Connell Szasz, Scottish Highlanders and Native Americans: Indigenous Education in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World (Norman, 2007). 65 Anna Rogers, A Lucky Landing: The Story of the Irish in New Zealand (Auckland, 1996), p. 92. 66 Donald Harman Akenson, Half the World from Home: Perspectives on the Irish in New Zealand, 1860–1950 (Wellington, 1990), p. 201. 67 Angela Ballara, Proud To Be White? A Survey of Pakeha Prejudice in New Zealand (Auckland, 1986), pp. 14–15. 68 Ibid. See especially pp. 24 – 6, 29–35, 82–7. 69 Cited in Szasz, Scottish Highlanders and Native Americans, p. 5. 70 Leonard Bell, Colonial Constructs: European Images of Maori, 1840–1914 (Auckland, 1992), esp. pp. 55–6. 71 Ibid., p. 4. 72 Conal McCarthy, Exhibiting Maori: A History of Colonial Cultures of Display (Wellington, 2007). 73 See, for instance, the work of Angela Wanhalla. 74 McCarthy, Exhibiting Maori, pp. 40, 26. 75 AJHR, 1872, Sub-Enclosure 1 in No. 42, D-No. 1, pp. 48–9. 76 AJHR, 1873, Enclosure 2 in No. 36, 18 Sept. 1872, D-2D, pp. 14–15. 77 AJHR, 1873, Sub Enclosure 2 to Enclosure 3 in No. 36, Supplementary Report 1 Oct.–31 Dec. 1872, D2, p. 40.

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840 78 AJHR, 1875, Enclosure in No. 62, D2, p. 36. 79 James Begg, A Visit to New Zealand, Etc. An Address Delivered at a Meeting in the Edinburgh Literary Institute, 26th February 1874 (Edinburgh, 1874), p. 11. 80 Shipboard diary of Robert Graham, 1842, p. 26, ATL. 81 William Downie Stewart (ed.), The Journal of George Hepburn on his Voyage from Scotland to Otago in 1850 . . . with Extracts from his Letters Written from Otago (Dunedin, 1934), p. 93, extract dated 8 July 1850. 82 Shipboard journal of Daniel Brown, 5 May 1858, OSM, C172. 83 Jessie Campbell (Wanganui) to her mother, 27 June 1843, p. 21, ATL, qMS-0369. 84 Ebenezer Hay (Pigeon Bay) to Thomas Orr (Annandale), 5 Jan. 1852, CM, ARC 1990.8/14. 85 Ebenezer Hay (Pigeon Bay) to his parents (Midbuiston), 26 Jan. 1844, CM, ARC 1990.8/7. 86 Calloway, White People, p. 134. 87 Ebenezer Hay (Annandale) to his uncle Robert Hay, 26 May 1862, CM, ARC 1990.8, 2/9. 88 James Belich, Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders from Polynesian Settlement to the End of the Nineteenth Century (Auckland, 1996), pp. 213–14. 89 Alexander Campbell (Matakana) to James, 27 Aug. 1863, p. 119, AWMML, MS 50. 90 William Smith, ‘Reminiscences of a long and active life by an old colonist’, 1911, AWMML, MS 1236, p. 38. 91 William Deans (Port Nicholson) to his father (Kilmarnock), 29 March 1840, in Deans, Pioneers of Canterbury, p. 23. 92 Gordon McClure (Otago) to his sisters (Belfast), 28 May [mid-1860s], PRONI, D/1746/3/1. 93 Letters from Otago, p. 16. 94 Ibid., p. 12. 95 Sr M. Philomena to Revd Mother, 1850, ACDA, POM 35-1/7. 96 Archibald McCallum (Dunedin) to his brother, 21 Oct. 1860, p. 13, OSM. 97 John M. Abbott (Tuakau) to Robert Murray, 29 April 1884, quoted with the permission of The Board of The National Library of Ireland, MS 27994. 98 J. Maclennan, Neptune’s Toll and Other Verses (Christchurch, Wellington, and Dunedin, c. 1907), p. 45. 99 Belich, Making Peoples, p. 248. 100 George Fairlie Moore, ‘Diary of a travelling Scotsman’, 11 Jan. 1902, p. 201, AWMML, MS 97/3. 101 Alexander Campbell (Matakana) to his mother, 27 Feb. 1864, p. 129, AWMML. 102 Agnes Hay (Petone, Wellington) to her father Thomas Hay (Annandale), 20 Feb. 1841, CM, ARC 1990.8, 1/5. 103 Shipboard diary of Robert Graham, 1842, p. 28, ATL. 104 Tony Ballantyne and Antoinette Burton (eds), Bodies in Contact: Rethinking Colonial Encounters in World History (Durham and London, 2005), p. 4. 105 Journal of Andrew Thomas Carbery, 1863–65, ATL, MS-Papers-2310, pp. 29–30. 106 Shipboard journal of John Elder Moultray, 9 Oct. 1883, OSM, Part II. 107 Moore, ‘Diary of a travelling Scotsman’, 11 Jan. 1902, p. 201. 108 Bell, Colonial Constructs, p. 104. 109 Moore, ‘Diary of a travelling Scotsman’, 19 Jan. 1902, p. 215. 110 Ibid., Jan. 1902, p. 218. 111 Ibid., 10 Jan. 1902, p. 200. 112 Ibid., 20 Jan. 1902, p. 216. 113 Kennedy, Kennedy’s Colonial Travel, p. 203. 114 Ibid., pp. 300 –1. 115 Shipboard journal of Jane McGlashan, 4 Oct. 1853, p. 41, OSM, C067-1. 116 Archibald McCallum (Dunedin) to his brother, 23 Sept. 1860, p. 12, OSM. 117 Kennedy, Kennedy’s Colonial Travel, p. 232. 118 Moore, ‘Diary of a travelling Scotsman’, 11 Jan. 1902, p. 201, AWMML.

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IMPRESSIONS OF NEW ZEALAND AND MAORI 119 Jessie Campbell (Wanganui) to Isabella, 9 Sept. 1845. Cited in Frances Porter and Charlotte Macdonald (eds), ‘My Hand Will Write What My Heart Dictates’: The Unsettled Lives of Women in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand as Revealed to Sisters, Family and Friends (Auckland, 1996), p. 111. 120 Memoir of Alexander MacDonald, 1904, p. 36, ATL, MS-Papers-6628. 121 Alexander Campbell, 26 Oct. 1863, p. 116, AWMML. 122 Alexander Campbell (Matakana) to his father, 25 Nov. 1868, p. 222, AWMML. 123 Kennedy, Kennedy’s Colonial Travel, p. 211. 124 Ibid., p. 226. 125 Canterbury Pilgrims, vol. 2, p. 254, CCL. 126 The N.Z. Scotsman, 4:40 (15 June 1930), p. 117, ATL, Serials Collection, Per NZ SCO. 127 Essie Summers, No Legacy for Lindsay (London, 1965), p. 40. 128 Angela McCarthy, Irish Migrants in New Zealand, 1840–1937: ‘The Desired Haven’ (Woodbridge, 2005), pp. 220–5. 129 William Lysaght (Doon Glebe, Limerick) to his brother Edward Lysaght (Auckland), 19 Dec. 1869, courtesy of Reg Brown. 130 Hamilton McIlrath (Canterbury) to his parents (Co. Down), 9 June 1867, courtesy of Jenny Langford. 131 James McIlrath (Canterbury) to his family (Co. Down), 8 Sept. 1862. 132 James Belich, Paradise Reforged: A History of the New Zealanders from the 1880s to the Year 2000 (Auckland, 2001), pp. 206–15; The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict (Auckland, 1998). 133 Ebenezer Hay (Pigeon Bay), 1 Sept. 1847, to his brother Robert, CM, ARC 1990.8/11. 134 Ibid., 4 Aug. 1861, CM, ARC 1993.62/8. 135 Alexander Campbell (Matakana) to James, 29 July 1861, p. 55, AWMML. 136 Journal of Andrew Thomas Carbery, 18 Nov. 1863, p. 2, ATL. 137 Ibid., p. 3. 138 Belich, Paradise Reforged, p. 230. 139 Journal of Andrew Thomas Carbery, p. 4, ATL. 140 Ibid., p. 23. 141 Ibid., 1 March 1865, p. 29. 142 John Armstrong (Taranaki) to his sister Marian Armstrong (Dublin), 6 May 1865, PRONI, T/1978/2. 143 Hamilton McIlrath (Canterbury) to his brother (Co. Down), 5 Dec. 1863. 144 James McIlrath (Canterbury) to his family (Co. Down), 1 Dec. 1863. 145 Ebenezer Hay (Pigeon Bay) to his parents (Midbuiston), 26 Jan. 1844, CM, ARC 1990.8/8. 146 James Belich indicates that 22 Europeans and 2–6 Maori were killed in the affray, while Michael King estimates 30 Europeans and 6 Maori were killed. See Belich, Making Peoples, p. 205, and Michael King, The Penguin History of New Zealand (Auckland, 2003), p. 182. 147 Tony Ballantyne, ‘The state, politics and power, 1769–1893’, in Giselle Byrnes (ed.), New Oxford History of New Zealand (Melbourne, 2009), pp. 106–7. 148 Dugald Poppelwell, ‘A pioneer story’, p. 2, AWMML, MS 1269. 149 Jessie Campbell (Wanganui) to Isabella, 17 Oct. 1843, p. 33, ATL. 150 Alexander Campbell (Matakana) to his sister Agnes, 19 April 1860, p. 28, AWMML. 151 Alexander Campbell (Matakana) to his mother, 20 June 1860, p. 36, AWMML. 152 Ibid., 26 Nov. 1860, pp. 48–9. Clachans were small, traditional Highland villages. 153 Alexander Campbell (Matakana) to James, 22 Jan. 1861, p. 52, AWMML. 154 Smith, ‘Reminiscences’, p. 6, AWMML. 155 Ibid., p. 35. 156 William Hogg, ‘No III Britain’s march. A song’, in William Hogg, Lays and Rhymes, Descriptive, Legendary, Historical, Local, and Lyrical (Nelson, 1875), p. 313. 157 William Hogg, ‘Stanzas suggested by the Taranaki war’, in ibid., p. 312.

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158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168

169 170 171

Alexander Campbell (Matakana) to James, 23 Dec. 1863, p. 124, AWMML. Maclennan, ‘From Dunedin to Dingwall’, in Neptune’s Toll and Other Verses, p. 12. Georgina McDonald, Grand Hills for Sheep (n.p., 1949), p. 76. John Deans (Port Nicholson) to his father, 16 Jan. 1843, in Deans, Pioneers of Canterbury, p. 56. Ibid., p. 63. Jessie Campbell, n.d., p. 49, ATL. BAIQ 042, 099. BAIQ 107, 135, 137. Catherine Graham, BAIQ 100. Belich, Paradise Reforged, p. 471. Interview with Andrew Rae by Robert Paton, recorded 9 Dec. 1991, in ATL OHC, Labour Movement Oral History Project, OHC-0056; Interview with John Gallagher by Robert Paton, recorded 1 Sept. 1993, in ATL OHC, Labour Movement Oral History Project – Part II, OHC-0059. Tribune, 26 Sept. 1935, p. 3. The N.Z. Scotsman, 1:10 (15 Dec. 1927), p. 398. Ibid., 2:23 (15 Jan. 1929), p. 355.

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CONCLUSION

Drawing on a vast array of written, verbal, and visual sources, this book has attempted to provide some insight into the myriad ways that insiders and outsiders conceptualised Scottishness and Irishness in New Zealand. In undertaking this investigation, the central finding of the book is that discrimination was not a precondition for most expressions of varied forms of Irishness and Scottishness in New Zealand and, when it was experienced, did not necessarily lead to the articulation of an ethnic consciousness. While the Irish ethnic press and ethnic associations drew on political motifs, and in this sense differed from the Scottish ethnic press and ethnic societies which were predominantly cultural in their emphasis, this engagement with political matters was generally directed towards grievances in Ireland. For the most part, however, Irish and Scottish migrants, their descendants, and those commenting on them, conveyed a range of elements regarded as part of an Irish or Scottish ethnic identity, and generally these aspects were considered in a positive fashion. The issue of source material is important in addressing this aspect, for in Lyndon Fraser’s fascinating investigation of the Irish on New Zealand’s West Coast a range of sources to explore ethnicity were used, including civil registers, street directories, and immigration files. Yet these sources do not aptly capture expressions of ethnic consciousness. Fraser also utilised personal letters and family memories, including a sequence of letters from Ellen Piezzi, the Kilkenny-born widow of a Swiss-Italian migrant, and argued that ‘there is nothing in the surviving letters to suggest that Ellen made extensive use of Irish ethnic networks’.1 These letters, however, were sent to her deceased Italian husband’s family so it is less likely that Ellen would be emphasising any Irish networks or a sense of Irishness in such communication that may have appeared in letters sent to her family in Kilkenny. Nor does Fraser utilise the records of Irish ethnic associations on the West Coast, or examine the commemoration of St Patrick’s Day and the ‘Glorious Twelfth’. How others perceived the West Coast Irish and their sense of ethnic identity is also missing from his analysis. Admittedly, the possible absence of references to ethnic consciousness in such sources may still validate Fraser’s overarching argument, but this book contends that we need to examine a range of sources generated by those within and outside the ethnic group when exploring the issue of ethnic identity. [ 205 ]

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840

In what ways then do the diverse sources utilised in this book differ in the insight they shed on Irishness and Scottishness in New Zealand? Personal testimonies composed by the Irish and the Scots such as letters and shipboard journals might be seen as more reliable in unconsciously revealing a sense of ethnic identity, but such documents were also consciously constructed for home readers. Accounts of their fellow ethnics, participation in ethnic practices, and the continuation of material culture might therefore have provided a deliberate strategy to reassure their transnational connections of ongoing ties with their homeland. On some occasions, however, their fellow ethnics attracted derision, just as the Irish and the Scots did from each other and from English commentators. Oral interviews and questionnaires, by contrast, are often portrayed as unreliable, subject as they are to the whims of a narrator’s memory. Often structured and influenced by contemporary conditions at the time of the interview, such recollections are also mediated by an interviewer who may have their own agenda in mind. Despite such drawbacks, reminiscences allow for reflection on aspects of ethnic consciousness. Other sources also offer an insight into notions of ethnic identity, albeit refracted by other means. Lunatic asylum casebooks, for instance, are an illuminating, if little used, source for the exploration of migration and ethnicity. As evident throughout this book, medical officers recorded their impressions of patients admitted to asylums and also documented the words and actions allegedly arising from their subjects. Photographs sometimes accompanied these entries. A patient’s ethnicity could therefore be identified visually, verbally, and textually. Such analysis is constrained, however, by privacy restrictions on accessing such sources. Whether ethnicity continued to be identified throughout the twentieth century in such sources would be an intriguing research agenda. Family histories provide another avenue into ethnicity, frequently mentioning the naming of places and houses after homeland origins as well as attributing national characteristics to ancestors rather than descendants! Official printed documents such as contemporary immigration correspondence also have issues surrounding their usefulness in the exploration of ethnic consciousness. Emanating primarily from emigration agents, concerns as to who was considered a suitable migrant to New Zealand need to be acknowledged. Interestingly, deliberations of the Irish and the Scots varied, and though tactics suggest the Irish were not wanted as settlers, the correspondence was not so explicit in this respect. Comparative analysis reveals other migrants were also subject to negative commentary. The correspondence is also noteworthy for its recognition of regional differences in Ireland and Scotland. [ 206 ]

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CONCLUSION

The records of the ethnic press and ethnic associations also offer insight into the collective depiction of Scottishness and Irishness in New Zealand. Noted already is the Irish emphasis on politics and Scottish stress on culture and history, reflecting the agendas of the periodicals and ethnic associations which sought to engage with Irish nationalism and Scottish culture. The objectives of Scottish societies emphasised key cultural components, whereas political provisos accompanied the key aims of the Irish. This difference reflects the nature of the societies the migrants left in which the drive for Home Rule was more potent among the Irish than the Scots. Even the idea of cultural nationalism among the Scots sparked minimal engagement. Visual records such as film, documentary, and cartoons also provide an avenue to explore ethnicity, and are just as much, if not more so, subject to an alternative agenda. While these representations were more likely to be negative in tenor, there is no sense in which this generated ethnic consciousness among those mocked – unless Scottish laughter about frugality reinforced their identity, but positively, as they scoffed at the ridicule directed their way in order to defuse the situation. Poetry and literature, meanwhile, had romantic overtures, with literary creations targeting specific audiences such as Highland societies, or reflecting the poet’s own leanings towards their place of origin. Literature was also laden with Highland symbolism such as the pipes and kilts. While such indicators or markers of identity seemingly jar with some homeland Scots, they were energetically and positively manifested in New Zealand. When, how, and why, then, did the Irish and the Scots perceive themselves and others in ethnic terms? Both at sea and after arrival both the Scots and the Irish were considered according to the nation, region, county, and locality from which they emerged. For the Scots, their overarching identity as Scottish was far more prevalent than any conception of Britishness. Moreover, identification as Scottish was just as widespread as other forms of their ethnic identity such as the region or local area from which they emerged. Unlike the Irish, however, who were divided by northern and southern lines, Scots had regional identities as Highlanders, Lowlanders, and Islanders, though it was the first that was most regularly remarked upon. The attention given to Highlanders presumably reflects much of their migration and/or settlement in groups, thus making them more visible. Despite the large influx of Irish to Scotland, some of whom would have ventured to New Zealand alone or with descendants, no source has been uncovered to illuminate their mindset. Nor has evidence been unearthed in this study of an Ulster Scot mentality among those descendants of Scottish [ 207 ]

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840

migrants who settled in Ulster. At a more specific level, that of the county and immediate locality, such identifiers were important for newcomers seeking accommodation, employment, and companionship. Ethnic networks therefore offered emotional and practical succour and support. Yet it appears the Scots were more distinctive in this respect, referring more frequently to fellow Scots they encountered but did not previously know. Irish migrants, by contrast, were more likely to refer to networks of family and friends already known to them. Initial encounters at sea also exposed a range of ethnic elements that would linger after settlement, including language, customs, festivals, food, and dress. While all these aspects were important to both the Irish and the Scots, significant contrasts are again apparent. Dancing and music appealed to both the Scots and the Irish, but the Scots were set apart by the pipes. Dress also distinguished the Scots, with Highland symbols again to the fore such as the kilt, tartan, and plaid, though other Scottish apparel was also mentioned, including glengarry caps and tam o’shanters. The Scots and the Irish were also distinguished by the major festivals considered in this analysis. New Year (or Hogmanay) took priority for the Scots, while Irish migrants were associated with St Patrick’s Day and commemorations of the Twelfth. Food was another dimension in which the Scots were strikingly dissimilar from the Irish, with numerous references to oatmeal, porridge, scones, and haggis. Again, these aspects were identified by insiders and outsiders as specific elements of Scottishness and Irishness which shows the awareness arising from encounters with different ethnicities. The ocean passage to New Zealand also revealed differences in religious practices which were associated with the Irish and the Scots. Irish Catholics received commentary for their excessive use of prayer, while it was the Scottish versus English service which generated observations from others. Again, this liminal space at sea was often the first time that migrants encountered those of other origins and beliefs, and curiosity presumably generated many reflections. That shipboard journals were often composed to be sent to family and friends back home also meant that deliberations on such practices in ethnic terms had relevance in the homelands. At times such reflections indicate sectarian tensions, which continued after arrival and were most striking in relation to Irish migrants where Orange and Green divisions were emphasised. Indeed, Irish politics was a key feature of the ethnic societies and ethnic press constructed by the Irish and a sense of their ethnicity was essential in this respect. By contrast, Scottish ethnic societies and the ethnic press remained overwhelmingly cultural in expressions of Scottishness. [ 208 ]

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CONCLUSION

First impressions of the New Zealand landscape were also important, with Irish and Scottish migrants stressing similarities with home, often focusing on specific localities as well as the broader nation. While this was undoubtedly designed to reassure home readers, it was also a way for migrants to stay connected to the homeland they had recently left. But such comparisons were also made to facilitate migrant settlement; perceiving the land as familiar helped make the transition less formidable. As well as the New Zealand landscape, the Maori population also attracted comment, with the Irish and the Scots perceiving Maori in terms of national characteristics rather than other aspects of their ethnicity. This was possibly due to sporadic contact and the influence of the perceptions of Maori that migrants brought with them. Importantly, Irish and Scottish observations of Maori were not wholly negative or prejudiced, as has been argued of Pakeha collectively. Their impressions were also influenced by the time and place of writing, as well as their own occupations and backgrounds. The national characteristics of Irish and Scottish migrants also conveyed a range of elements that were considered typical of Irishness and Scottishness. Scottish migrants tended to disseminate and engage good-naturedly with the same characteristics that outsiders linked to them such as clannishness and frugality. Irish migrants, by contrast, were less inclined to discuss perceived national characteristics, though other ethnic groups attributed many characteristics to the Irish, including larceny, uncleanliness, and violence, but also encompassing warmth and humour. For the Scots, the national characteristics associated with them lingered over time, whereas the Irish, while still having the traits of warmth and humour linked to them, were less inclined to be seen as thieving and dirty over time, though the spectre of violence remained. Seemingly, earlier negative characteristics reflected impressions of the Irish found elsewhere in the diaspora and also appeared more regularly during the most intensive phase of assisted migration to New Zealand, which facilitated the arrival of many Irish. The caricaturing of migrant accents also occasionally took place, particularly in cartoons and films. Indeed, accent was a key aspect of Irishness in New Zealand, particularly in light of the few references to the Irish language appearing in migrant testimonies. That the language had some resonance, however, can be seen by the provision of a language column in the Irish ethnic press. Scottish Gaelic also appeared in this way, and though it also rarely featured in the personal testimonies of migrants, there is more evidence of the use of Gaelic among Scottish migrants. This presumably reflects the use of Gaelic for propaganda purposes, the group migration of many [ 209 ]

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SCOTTISHNESS AND IRISHNESS IN NEW ZEALAND SINCE 1840

Highlanders, and the influence of Gaelic Societies in the colony. Scottish poets in New Zealand, while rarely using Scottish Gaelic, did connect the language to their depictions of Highlanders. More widespread evidence exists, however, of migrants writing and speaking the Scots language. Transformations in these elements of Irishness and Scottishness also altered over time, a transition that often began at sea. The absence of certain cooking ingredients, for instance, meant that certain Scottish foods, such as scones, were made a different way. The contrasting seasons in the New World also had a role to play in the celebration of certain festivals, such as Hogmanay, observed in a New Zealand summer rather than a Scottish winter. Indeed, a New Zealand summer has prompted some seemingly quirky expressions of Scottish identity, such as the combination of the kilt with a singlet and gumboots. Such transformations are evident in the homeland also, with Scots wearing the Scottish rugby shirt with their kilts at international matches. Distance from Ireland, meanwhile, may have dampened Irish republican nationalist fervour in New Zealand though, as we have seen, such expressions were still important to some Irish. Why were expressions of Scottishness predominantly cultural while Irishness had a political tenor? Similar sources have been consulted throughout this study so a range of other explanations are more likely, including the nature of the homeland society, the timing of arrival, and respective size of the migrant groups. That an Irish ethnic consciousness contained aspects of a political fabric without receiving sustained condemnation is also partly attributable to the presence of Maori and Chinese in New Zealand. Moreover, so long as an Irish political thrust was focused on the homeland and so long as Irishness ‘signified nothing more sinister than saints and shamrocks, it could be treated with benevolence’.2 Assessing change over time in the constructions of Scottishness and Irishness in New Zealand is problematic. The nature of the societies that migrants were entering and leaving transformed over time, and changes were also evident among the migrants themselves. Also important was the decline in the numbers of the Irish- and Scottishborn arriving in New Zealand. This easing in the momentum of migration inevitably meant established ethnic communities were not being replenished as extensively. Despite changes over time, it is intriguing that even towards the end of the twentieth century, associational Irishness continued to be expressed in a political fashion while Scottishness maintained its cultural emphasis. Both ethnic groups also expressed alarm about the decline of a sense of ethnic identity among the multigenerational descent group. Material aspects of their ethnic [ 210 ]

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CONCLUSION

consciousness together with national characteristics are still evident today. This is suggestive of a continuing dynamic of attitude surrounding issues of ethnic identities for the Irish and the Scots. The exploration of Irishness and Scottishness in New Zealand undertaken in this book is not exhaustive and further research avenues remain. Extensive analysis of the perceptions of English and other migrants towards the Irish and the Scots, and towards elements of their own ethnic identities, is required to deepen our understanding. Moreover, the depiction of ethnic groups in newspapers would be an intriguing research avenue. More engagement with the multigenerational descent group is also required, perhaps through questionnaires as well as family histories. Such a study would enable consideration of challenging puzzles including why individuals with competing ethnic attachments select certain identities over others. As with migrants, it is likely that such expressions of ethnic consciousness are undertaken for diverse purposes, including practical and material self-interest, emotional and psychological benefits, as well as for social reasons. International comparisons also offer promising insight into what aspects of Scottishness and Irishness were specific or common to a New Zealand setting. Examining those who chose not to express their ethnic consciousness is also a research avenue deserving of analysis.

Notes 1 Lyndon Fraser, Castles of Gold: A History of New Zealand’s West Coast Irish (Dunedin, 2007), p. 153. 2 David Fitzpatrick, ‘A curious middle place: the Irish in Britain, 1871–1921’, in Roger Swift and Sheridan Gilley (eds), The Irish in Britain, 1815–1939 (London, 1989), p. 32.

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APPENDIX

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Table 2 Scots and Irish in New Zealand as percentage of total population and non-New Zealand-born population, 1858–1971 Census year

1858 1861 1864 1867 1871 1874 1878 1881 1886 1891 1896 1901 1906 1911 1916 1921 1936 1945 1951 1956 1961 1966 1971

Scotland-born

Ireland-born (including Northern Ireland)

Number

% total pop

% non-NZ

Number

% total pop

% non-NZ

7,976 15,534 30,940 34,826 36,871 38,431 47,949 52,753 54,810 51,916 50,435 47,858 47,767 51,709 51,951 51,654 54,188 43,818 44,049 46,399 47,078 49,937 47,508

13.4 15.7 18.0 15.9 14.4 12.8 11.6 10.8 9.5 8.3 7.2 6.2 5.4 5.1 4.7 4.2 3.7 2.8 2.3 2.1 1.9 1.9 1.7

19.6 21.8 23.6 22.5 22.6 21.7 20.0 19.8 19.7 20.0 19.3 18.6 16.9 16.9 17.0 16.5 18.4 17.5 16.5 14.9 16.9 15.3 11.4

4,554 8,831 20,317 27,955 29,733 30,255 43,758 49,363 51,408 47,634 46,037 43,524 42,460 40,958 37,380 34,419 25,865 18,615 17,172 17,508 17,793 17,603 16,165

7.7 8.9 11.8 12.8 11.6 10.1 10.6 10.1 8.9 7.6 6.5 5.6 4.8 4.1 3.4 2.8 1.6 1.1 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.6

11.2 12.4 15.5 18.1 18.3 17.1 18.2 18.5 18.5 18.3 17.6 17.0 15.0 13.4 12.2 11.0 8.8 14.3 6.4 5.6 6.4 5.4 3.9

Source: Figures calculated from New Zealand Population Census (Wellington, 1923, 1945, 1952, 1959, 1964, 1969, 1975).

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Primary sources Alexander Turnbull Library Shipboard diary of James E Arnold, 1865, Resolute, MS-Papers-5678 (English) Shipboard diary of Jeremiah Lawrence Bourke, 1851, MS-Papers-4286 (Channel Islands) Jessie Campbell, 1841–45, Blenheim, qMS-0369 (Scot) Andrew Thomas Carbery, 1863–65, MS-Papers-2310 (Irish) Shipboard diary of John Cardwell, 1881, City of Tanjore, qMS-0391 (Irish) Letters of Lorna Carter, Aug.–Oct. 1951, MS-Papers-7377 (Scot) Shipboard diary of Joshua Charlesworth, 1879, Euterpe, MS-Papers-4564 (probably English) Shipboard diary of Agnes Cunningham Christie, 1879, Hermione, MS-Papers3891 (Scot) Shipboard diary of William Hamilton Clark, 1882, Jessie Readman, MSPapers-4187/1&2 (Scot) Comunn Gaidhealach Wellington Minute Books, MSX-3055-3061 Shipboard diary of Eleanor D’Arcy, 1914, Osterley, MS-0662 (Irish) Shipboard diary of John Dawson, 1879, Nelson, MS-Papers-4460 (Scot) Shipboard diary of Elizabeth Aitken Dempster, 1883, Rangitiki, MS-Papers-4162 (Irish) Dunedin punch, gas, humor, 1865–67, Micro 1039 and Per DUN Shipboard diary of Polly Evans, 1866, Blue Jacket, MS-Papers-0586 Shipboard diary of Elizabeth Fairbairn, 1877, Oamaru, MS-Papers-6939 (Scot) Shipboard diary of Jane Findlayson, 1876, Oamaru, MS-Papers-1678 (Scot) Shipboard diary of Robert Graham, 1842, Jane Gifford, qMS-0870 (Scot) Shipboard diary of George Grant, 1877, Zealandia, MS-7148 (Scot) The Green Ray: A Review of Current Affairs, Literature, Art, Industry, and a Magazine of Irish National Thought (Dunedin), 1917–18, Per GRE Shipboard diary of John Greenfield, 1908, Corinthic, MS-Papers-6422 (Scot) Memoirs of David Guild, 1876, Wellington, MS-Papers-1147 (probably Scot) Shipboard diary of John Hemery, 1839–40, MS-Papers-4384 Shipboard diary of Emma Hodder, 1869, Hydaspes, MS-Papers-1192 (probably English) Shipboard diary of T. P. Hughson, 1879–80, Eastminster, MS-Papers-4182 (Scot) Shipboard diary of Robert Hutton, 1874, Cartsburn, MS-Papers-1066 (Scot) Irish Wit and Scottish Wit, MS-Papers-5291-13 Shipboard diary of William Torrance Irvine, 1874, Invercargill, MS-Papers-3875 (Scot) Shipboard diary of John Jack, 1883, Invercargill, MS-1074 (Scot)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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INDEX

Abbott, John M., 126, 170, 187 accent, Irish, 7, 64–8, 81–2, 165, 168, 209; other, 65, 81–2, 170; Scottish, 7, 80–3, 176 America, 1, 2, 17–18, 22–3, 31, 54, 63–4, 71, 100, 104, 127, 151, 157–9, 165–6, 181, 184–5 Archibald, Daniel, 55–6 Armstrong, Harold, 55, 81 Armstrong, John, 194–5 associational clubs, Irish, 4, 54, 70, 99, 117–18, 128, 130, 136–7, 159–60; Scottish, 4, 21–4, 52–3, 74, 77, 88–9, 93–4, 99, 101, 110–11, 140, 142–4, 154, 191, 199; Scottish Gaelic/Highland, 4, 22, 24, 41, 64, 71, 73–4, 80, 91–2, 110, 128, 140, 142–4, 158, 209 Aubert, Sr Mary, 37 Australia, 20, 24, 33, 63–4, 105, 130, 144, 158, 167, 176 bagpipes, 19, 22–4, 41, 80, 90–3, 102, 107, 111, 138, 143, 185, 191, 207–8 Barker, Lady Mary Anne, 154, 158–9, 167 Bennetts, Mary Ann, 167 Bonthron, Isabella, 72, 90, 177 Britain, 11, 14–15, 52, 54, 104, 130, 150 Britishness, 19–21, 23–4, 31, 38, 52–5, 207 Brown, Daniel, 90, 185 Campbell, Alexander, 49, 78, 97, 186, 188, 190–1, 194, 196, 198

Campbell, Andrew, 1, 34, 45, 48, 96, 103, 119, 121, 125 Campbell, Jessie, 36, 40–1, 46, 50, 55, 72–3, 78, 80–2, 107, 110, 166, 185, 190, 196, 198 Canada, 19, 23–4, 39, 52, 56, 71–2, 144 Carbery, Andrew, 34, 188, 194 Cardwell, John, 104, 161 Carey, Andrew Fuller, 102–3 Carr, David, 1, 47, 176 Carter, Lorna, 76–7, 82, 155, 176–8 Charlesworth, Joshua, 32 Chisholm, Jean, 121 Christie, Agnes Cunningham, 33–4, 78, 178 Clark, Archibald, 107 Clark, William Hamilton, 156, 160 Clarke, William, 43, 51, 177 clothing, 20–1, 108–11, 142, 189–91, 208, 210 Dacre, Thomas, 123–4, 164 dancing, 92, 96, 142, 208; see also voyage: dancing D’Arcy, Eleanor, 96 Davis, Thomas, 135 Dawson, Brigid, 180–1 Dawson, John, 44 Deans, Jane, John, and William, 35–6, 50, 92, 106–8, 178, 186, 198 Dempster, Elizabeth Aitkin, 43 drink, 41, 66, 68, 89, 107; see also voyage, drink Duncan, Evelyn, 180 education, 37, 81, 96, 109–10, 130, 182

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INDEX

Highlanders, 7, 13–14, 21, 29, 31, 39–42, 44, 46, 52–3, 71–4, 78, 80, 90, 92, 109, 128, 139, 142–3, 152–3, 175, 182, 190, 198, 207, 209–10 Highlands, 39–42, 53, 71, 77, 152, 175, 177–8 Hodder, Emma, 123, 163 Hogan, Sir Patrick, 65, 69, 96, 160–3 Hughson, T. P., 101 Hutton, Robert, 160

emigration agents, 12, 40, 43, 71–2, 152, 157–8, 184–5, 187, 206 England, 12–13, 23–4, 32, 52, 54, 64–5, 118, 127, 129, 168, 190, 194–5 ethnic groups, 3–4, 7–8, 14–17, 19–23, 29–34, 38, 41, 44, 47, 52–7, 76, 78–9, 81–2, 88, 91–2, 95, 97, 99, 100, 105–8, 120, 122–5, 127, 134–5, 138, 145, 150, 152–3, 155, 156–7, 163–4, 168–70, 182, 185–92, 196, 198–9, 211; see also Maori Evans, Polly, 31, 123 exile, 1, 2, 3, 13, 79, 136

India, 23 Irvine, William, 90, 92, 177–8 Islanders, 31, 39, 40, 207 Jack, John, 75, 90, 104, 110, 120, 178 Johnson, William, 38

Fenians, 127–9, 193 Findlayson, Jane, 33, 94, 122 food, 20, 22, 53, 88, 104–8, 208, 210; see also voyage: food France, 92, 134 Gaelic League, 68–9 Gallagher, John, 199 Germany, 5, 92 Gibson, Mary, 75–6, 92 Gilmore, Alice, Andrew, and John, 35, 43, 49–51 Godley, Charlotte, 65, 70, 159, 161–2, 170 Gow, Daniel, 180 Graham, Catherine, 181, 198 Graham, Robert, 119–20, 163, 178, 185, 188 Grant, George, 120 Greenfield, John, 47, 121–2, 164 Harris, Elizabeth, 180 Harrison, James, 90, 95, 108–9 Hay, Agnes and Ebenezer, 36, 44, 50, 106, 126, 179, 181, 186, 188, 193–6 Hayward, Rudall, 67–8, 165 Hemery, John, 125 Hepburn, George, 92, 108, 185

Keir, Thomas, 90, 94, 105, 107, 109, 120, 124, 163 Kennedy, David, 79, 176, 189, 190–1 Kilpatrick, Margaret, 34, 162 kilt, 19, 22, 29, 53, 76, 80, 91, 109–10, 138–9, 143, 207, 210 Laing, William, 33, 41, 75, 101–2, 175 language, Irish, 7, 48, 53, 63–4, 68–70, 134, 136–7, 209; other, 7, 8, 32, 44, 68–73, 76–8, 81, 138, 169, 185, 187–8, 190, 194, 199, 209–10; Scots, 7, 32, 42, 64, 74–80, 89, 141, 159, 176, 210; Scottish Gaelic, 7, 21, 39–40, 44, 64, 69, 70–4, 81, 139, 142–3, 209 Lloyd, Trudie, 66 Lowlanders, 7, 40–2, 74, 207 lunatic asylums, 36, 40, 43–4, 46, 65–6, 68, 73, 78, 127–9, 206 Lysaght, William, 192–3

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INDEX

McCallum, Archibald, 49, 104, 177, 187, 190 McCallum, Margaret, 108 McCarlie, Jean, 32, 75, 107 McClure, Gordon, 187 McCullough, David, 46 MacDonald, Alexander, 71, 190 McDonald, Archibald, 103–4 Macdonald, Flora, 141 McDowell, John, 100 McFadzean, Jack, 81, 110 McGlashan, Jane, 189–90 MacGregor, Agnes, 34 McIlrath, Hamilton, 49, 193, 195 McIlrath, James, 48–51, 126, 193, 195 McIntyre, Peter, 103, 109 McKay, Angus, 90 Mackay, Jessie, 77 McKelvey, Alexander, 43, 65–6 McKerrow, James, 104, 175, 179 McLaren, Dugald, 33, 120, 124, 164, 167–8 MacLean, William Herries, 32, 95, 106, 122 McNab, John, 153, 176 Maori, 8, 41, 44, 66, 68, 72, 109, 150, 174, 182–99, 209 marriage, 12, 36, 50–1, 65, 82, 107, 167 Mawhinney, Bethia, 33, 90–1, 95, 106, 118, 120, 122 Menzies, John Forsyth, 33, 92, 120, 160, 164, 166–7, 169–70 Miller, David, 32, 178 Moore, George Fairlie, 106, 188–90 Moriarty, Matthew, 34, 44, 48, 65, 96, 102–4, 123–5, 170, 178 Moultray, John Elder, 78, 95–6, 160, 162, 176, 188 multigenerational descent group, 3, 6, 18, 22, 53, 56, 82, 91–3, 132, 136, 140–3, 151, 156, 210–11 Munro, William Harold, 31, 46–7, 120, 161–2, 179, 180 Murray, John, 101

music, 20, 22–3, 73, 91–7, 136, 141–3, 208; see also voyage: music national character, Irish, 7–8, 15–19, 150–1, 156, 159–68, 209; other, 14, 150–1, 164–5, 170, 209; Scots, 7–8, 18–19, 143, 151–9, 164–5, 207, 209; see also ethnic groups New Year, 20, 75, 101–5, 156, 208, 210 ‘North of Ireland’, 43, 56, 70, 100, 125, 128, 187 Ormond, Hannah, 33 Palmer, Mae, 32, 76, 81, 92, 109, 155 Peace, Margaret, 101, 122, 124 politics, Irish, 2, 37–8, 96, 130–7, 205, 207–8, 210; New Zealand, 130, 136; Scottish, 2, 123, 138, 158 Poppelwell, Dugald, 72, 196 Proudfoot, G., 102 public figures, Burns, Robert, 24, 65, 93, 101, 138–41, 144; Casement, Roger, 133–4; Connolly, James, 133; Croke, Bishop Thomas, 37, 99; Cromwell, Oliver, 67, 192; de Valera, Eamon, 134; Emmet, Robert, 133–4; Grey, Sir George, 107; Grimes, Bishop John Joseph, 69; Hennebery, Fr Patrick, 130; Liston, Bishop James, 128, 165; Livingstone, David, 141; Lloyd George, David, 53; Mary Queen of Scots, 141; Moran, Bishop Patrick, 130; Muldoon, Robert, 132–3; Pearse, Patrick, 133, 135; Pompallier, Bishop, 37; Scott, Walter, 64, 139, 141; Selwyn, Bishop, 126; Stewart, George Vesey, 43, 130; Stout,

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INDEX

‘Twelfth of July’, 97, 99–100, 205, 208

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Sir Robert, 107; Tone, Wolfe, 133; Wallace, William, 103, 138–41 Rae, Andrew, 199 religion, 1, 7, 13, 16, 24, 37–8, 42–3, 54, 73, 78–9, 102, 110, 126–7, 131, 135–6, 150, 152, 162; see also sectarianism; voyage, religion Robertson, George, 33, 64, 77–8, 90, 94, 119, 121 Runciman, William, 99–100, 105, 120–1, 166 Rust, Joseph, 105, 110–11 St Andrew’s Day, 23 St Patrick’s Day, 96–9, 134, 159, 205, 208 sectarianism, 7, 118, 127–31, 137, 208 Sinn Féin, 132–3 Smith, Carl, 51, 55, 81, 106–7, 126, 155 Smith, John, 32, 47 Smith, William, 1, 77, 129, 163, 186, 196 Symes, Jemima, 160 tartan, 5, 19–22, 24, 91, 108, 110–11, 143, 176, 189, 208 Taylor, John Matthew, 33–4, 123 Thomson, Peter, 32, 47, 101, 175–6 Treanor, Patrick, 45–6

voyage, activities, 34, 75, 90, 92, 99, 108, 110, 124, 160–2; birth and death, 34–5, 45–7, 90, 123–4; class, 32–4, 41, 43, 47–8, 77, 94, 96, 100, 120–1, 161, 166, 175; conflict, 48, 65, 100, 163–5, 169; crew, 31–2, 34–5, 40, 48, 72, 76–8, 91, 94, 96, 102–3, 105, 107, 119–21, 123–4, 160–2, 164, 166–7; dancing, 33–4, 45, 90, 92, 109; drink, 33, 35, 98, 100, 102–5, 164–6; food, 65, 75, 103–6, 108, 163–4; music, 45, 90, 92, 94–6, 100–4, 109, 124; passengers, 32–4, 40–1, 43–9, 64–6, 72, 75–7, 92, 95, 100, 108–10, 120–5, 160–7, 169–70; religion, 33, 43, 102, 118–25, 162, 170, 208 wages, 12, 36–7, 44, 49–50, 152, 186 Wallace, Isabella, 41, 46–7, 106 Ward brothers, 159 Warnock, Thomas, 1, 45, 100, 120 Wilkinson, Doreen, 180 Williams, Minnie, 48, 160, 178 work, 12, 20, 36–7, 39, 41, 44, 47, 49–51, 56, 72–3, 81, 93, 107, 156, 166–7, 169, 181, 186

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