The DUNEDIN (1876-1882) was the first ship to successfully transport a cargo of frozen meat from New Zealand to the UK. She departed February 1882 and arrived in London 98 days later.She was a full sailing ship originally made for carrying 400 passengers.
Frozen meat and dairy exports from New Zealand to Britain from then on formed the backbone of New Zealand's economy until Britain entered the EEC (European Economic Community) in 1974. New Zealand's produce was then excluded.
Farmers were being urged to diversify from sheep and dairy for several years prior to the British move but it is not easy to change well established farming practices. The farming families knew nothing other than sheep and cows. Plus there was the cost. It isn't easy to convert 400 acres into a vineyard. But most of all there is the weather. Practically all of New Zealand's arable land is coastal with the concomitant changeable and cold weather. Fruit and vegetables grow prolifically only inland. There is also a small but thriving wine industry in the areas protected from the salty winds. Very little other than sheep and cows will grow south of Christchurch. It is just too cold!
One thing New Zealand does have is a multi-million dollar fishing industry. Include salmon and mussel and oyster farms in that. Nevertheless, most of the fish go off-shore, and New Zealanders pay export prices for seafood. We have no home market.
Those who think investment of humans and capital in technology would be the path for New Zealand to follow need to live here for a year or two. About two percent of the population is capable of innovation, with another ten percent capable of working with it.
After 1970 many dairy farmers went out of dairying and into sheep, counting on the wool clip, but here we are nearly forty years later with huge dairy herds everywhere again. Some herds are 800-900 cows. (One milking is just finished and it is time to start another.) Milk in New Zealand is more expensive than petrol.
However, all things seem to even out over time and we now have Exxon and a couple of other international oil companies preparing to explore the Great South Basin where it is thought there could be the largest offshore oil field in the world. The poverty stricken south of the South Island may yet give this little country riches. This will be an exciting experience for the oil men working in the new oil fields if stories of experienced fishermen are true. They say they sail home in front of huge following seas - they fill themselves full of beer and marijuana, and are still too frightened to look behind them. They are never sure if the next giant wave will swamp them. Every family in the fishing community of Bluff has lost a family member by drowning.
The one single thing which prevents New Zealand from being anything other than what it is, is the geographical distance from other countries. We are so isolated, and this shows particularly in economics and culture. As a people we have grown in on ourselves, without fresh ideas or new blood. I remember my seafaring husband saying to me many years ago when I thought of going teaching at Pitcairn Island. "Don't do it!" he said, aghast. "The shipping company has given us orders not to sail within a certain distance of the island. If we do, the people there launch all sorts of little boats and row out to make contact. They are desperate to speak with anybody new. They go crazy with loneliness."
2 comments:
Fascinating. Looking forward to the next chapter. I agree about the isolation of an island. My husband had an opportunity of working at a university in one of the islands in the Caribbean, but I knew I couldn't stand the claustrophobia, so he declined.
The isolation and the weather are the major drawbacks. I grew up in NZ when it was usual to go anywhere in the country and find a relative or someone who knew my relatives. People slept behind open windows and unlocked doors - indeed, doors were left unlocked when people went on holiday so the neighbours could feed the cat, bring in the mail, prepare the house for the homecoming etc. But what a boring and grim little country it was (domestic violence was endemic). And is. Since 1970, each liberal step forward has brought maleficent social problems which have the authorities baffled. The violence, instead of decreasing, has increased. It is not like US where the blacks whine about their violence being due to all types of disenfranchisement because the maoris here are the indigenous people and recognised as such. Intermarrying between maori and european is common, always has been.
I will be touching on the problem of violence in later posts. Have to - it's so prevalent.
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