Reviews

Reviewers: Professor Glynnis Cropp (GC), Professor Jenny Carryer (JC), Makere Edwards, (ME) Jennifer Little (JL), Malcolm Wood (MW)

Pacific History

Where Fate Beckons. The Life of Jean-François de La Pérouse
by John Dunmore, Exisle Publishing, ISBN:0-908988-53-2, NZD $49.99

Beside his scholarly English editions of the journals of de Surville, Bougainville and La Pérouse, John Dunmore, the pre-eminent historian of French exploration of the Pacific, has written a biography of each of these navigators. In his words, he wanted ‘to put a human face’ on the explorer, to envisage him in the social and cultural context in order to understand motivation and assess achievement. Where Fate Beckons is in all respects an excellent companion volume to Storms and Dreams. Louis de Bougainville: Soldier, Explorer, Statesman (2005). To present the whole life of these explorers, Professor Dunmore has encompassed much more than Pacific history. The backdrop is 18th century France, the Age of Enlightenment, when the philosophes debate the notion of the ‘noble savage’, noble birth ensures the right to privileges, scientific knowledge is growing, and efforts are being made to reduce the unknown parts of the world.

La Pérouse’s life from birth in 1741 to his mysterious disappearance off Vanikoro Island in the Pacific in 1788 is narrated on the basis of documents, and with a small measure of authorial imagination, to give a full, judiciously balanced account. Of noble family background, he left Albi in the south-west of France in 1756 to undertake naval training in Brest, where his advancement owed something to Albi connections. He served during the Seven Years War with Britain and on a mission to the West Indies; based at Isle de France (Mauritius), he served in the Indian ocean (1772-77), where he first commanded a ship and also heard much about exploration of the Pacific; then he took part in the American Campaign (1778-82), and undertook a secret mission to north Canada. La Pérouse thus had nearly 30 years of naval experience and wartime action before he sailed for the Pacific. Zealous and ambitious, he had gained promotion and the confidence of his superiors. However, his father’s jealous protection of the family’s noble status was an obstacle to La Pérouse’s marriage to Eléonore Broudou, with whom he fell in love in Isle de France. Eventually they married in 1783, when his rank and standing, his independence of mind, as well as his love, made him courteously inform his family and the navy of his marriage plans, without seeking their approval.

One third of the book is devoted to the Pacific voyage (1785-88), which was under discussion by the navy, the Minister of marine, and scientists, when La Pérouse returned from America. Louis XVI approved and supported this major scientific expedition to survey new areas. La Pérouse was appointed commander, with the immediate task of selecting officers and scientists for the two ships, the Boussole and the Astrolabe. The route was around Cape Horn to Easter Island, then north to Alaska in order to explore the American coast down to Monterey, California; from there, the expedition sailed westwards to the unknown seas north of Japan, then south to Botany Bay, Australia. Reports and correspondence were dispatched to France from ports along the way. The consignment entrusted at Botany Bay to Captain Phillip’s fleet includes the planned itinerary for the last stages: north to the Santa Cruz and Solomon Islands, then westwards along the west coast of New Holland as far as Diemen’s Land, then northwards to reach Isle de France in December 1788. But the last sighting by Europeans was as the ships sailed from Botany Bay on 10 March 1788. When news reached France that the expedition was overdue, the country was in Revolutionary turmoil. Nevertheless, in April 1791, the King authorised a rescue expedition, which spent about ten months in 1792-93 searching around New Caledonia and the Santa Cruz group, even sighting from a distance and recording on map the island which was Vanikoro, where La Pérouse’s ships had been wrecked. Fate determined that La Pérouse’s Pacific expedition was unfinished, his goal unattained. Fate also determined that the mystery persist. For since Peter Dillon’s efforts in 1827 (which the Prologue evokes in a lively scenario) until today, when diving equipment and DNA analysis can be used, the Vanikoro site continues to be explored, with small but significant findings of traces of the ships and their men.

There are vivid scenes, such as of Port-Louis, Isle de France, well documented descriptions, such as of Hudson’s Bay, and moving accounts of two tragedies on the Pacific voyage, which deeply affected La Pérouse. A careful navigator, with special interest in hydrography, he commanded with authority and diplomacy, showing courage, humanity and compassion. His name and life resound still, for the circumstances of his final overwhelming struggle with the forces of nature cannot be known.

This is a book not only for readers of Pacific history, but also for those interested in eighteenth-century Europe and history of warfare. —GC

Chalk and Cheese

By Emeritus Professors Nan Kinross and Norma Chick, Central Publishing Bureau, $29.00

This book is a wonderful insight into Massey’s history of nursing education, the people who have contributed to that history and the particular contribution of two notable and leading nurse academics.

The book is constructed through woven narratives. This works well, allowing the individual personalities and different lives of these two leaders to shine through. The establishment of the Bachelor of Nursing for registered nurses in 1973 and the subsequent growth and strength of a masters and doctoral program is a credit to two strong and visionary nurses. It is clear through the pages of this book that both of them have made separate but vital contributions to the development of nursing and nursing scholarship in New Zealand. It is interesting to observe the extent to which some individuals can make such major contributions and create such difference. It was also sobering to reflect what a long hard journey it has been and still is to establish what should be the taken-for-granted parameters of a major health discipline.

The book is a credit to Professor Nan Kinross and Professor Norma Chick and all of those who assisted in bringing it together. That they were and are chalk and cheese is beautifully illustrated in the book. What is also obvious is that we need such differences; nursing is so vast and so complex that it most certainly needs many types of leaders working in many different ways to continue the journey that women such as these have carried so strongly. - JC

Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance

Edited by Jack Ross, selected by Jack Ross and Jan Kemp, Auckland University Press, paperback with flaps, 2 audio CDs, ISBN-10:1869403673, ISBN-13:9781869403676, NZD$45.00

Jack Ross has spent much of the past two years hearing voices.
Haunting voices. The voices of Janet Frame, of James K Baxter, of Rex Fairburn, of Denis Glover, of Hone Tuwhare, of Fleur Adcock and many other poets.
Now New Zealanders listen in. Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance includes two CDs of recordings.
The Auckland-based Massey University creative writing teacher, English lecturer and author has been listening to archives both recent and from 1974 as part of the sifting, selecting process for publication.
Ross, who co-edited the book with poet Jan Kemp, says the recordings go beyond the text in showing how the poet intended words and phrases to emphasised and inflected.
“Poems performed by their authors expand meaning further, enhancing the rightness of cadences and the exactness of language,” the book’s editors say.
The book includes Denis Glover reading his famed poem The Magpies with its immortal onomatopoeia “Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle”.
The book brings together material from the Waiata Recordings Archive collected in 1974, as well as from the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive, completed in 2004.
The cover design features Pat Hanley’s 1983 painting Wonder Full. —JL

Stick Insects

By Steve Trewick and Mary Morgan-Richards, Reed, ISBN: 186948570X, NZD$14.99

For children – and for adults too – the stick insect is one of the insect world’s novelties: a piece of vegetation come to life, often only spotted when if moves from the tree on which it is feeding to an adjacent fence or house wall. Yet stick insects are all around us, in our bush and in our gardens. New Zealand has 21 formally named species and there may, according to Trewick and Morgan-Richards, be others as yet uncollected and studied.

What else might you like to add to your collection of fascinating facts about stick insects? Well, they lack ears, are exclusively herbivorous, and, in the case of a Malaysian stick insect, have been known to reach a length, legs included, of 56cm. Three of New Zealand’s more common species have now settled southwest England.

Then there’s the matter of sex. That the male of the species is often much smaller than the female, isn’t that unusual (sexual dimorphism is common among insects). More curious is that some species of stick insect have dispensed with males altogether, reproducing by parthenogenesis (from the Greek partheno or virgin, and genesis or birth).

In natural history appeal, insects are a hard sell. Our species has a predilection for animals of the large warm-blooded, furry or feathery variety. If they are in their dewy-eyed cuddly infancy, all the better.

But that’s not to say that the way we look at our insect and invertebrate life can’t be changed. Take the weta, emblem of our lauded special effects studio. The weta is never going to going to supplant the kiwi or kakapo in our national affections, but it is a creature in which we now take some perverse pride.

Books like this one enlarge our sympathies and understanding. If you have a bright and curious child with an interest in the natural environment, and in insects particularly, this would be a good purchase.

Stick Insects is the most recent in Reed’s series of New Zealand Wild children’s books. —MW

In the Face of the Enemy: The Victoria Cross and New Zealand

By Glyn Harper and Colin Richardson, HarperCollins New Zealand, paperback ISBN:1869505220, NZD$35.99

Best and Bravest: Kiwis awarded the Victoria Cross

By Glyn Harper and Colin Richardson, HarperCollins New Zealand, paperback ISBN:1869505239, NZD$19.99

In the Face of the Enemy, the latest book by military historian Associate Professor Glyn Harper, has launched to a barrage of international media interest.

Co-written by Dr Harper and Colonel Colin Richardson, In the Face of the Enemy, examines the events, politics and philosophies of the highest Commonwealth military decoration for gallantry. It features the controversial stories of the New Zealand servicemen who were recommended for the Victoria Cross but who did not receive it.

The book has been profiled in feature articles in The Daily Telegraph (UK) and The Canberra Times (Australia) and Dr Harper has been interviewed by the BBC.

In a speech delivered at the book launch, Minister of Defence Phil Goff described the bronze Victoria Cross as “a symbol of extraordinary courage, in the face of an enemy”. He said the men awarded the Cross would likely endorse the view expressed by Dr Harper and Colonel Richardson that the award of gallantry decorations can be something of a lottery.

“This is because extreme courage can go unrecognised, or not be fully recognised… the analysis of the way various factors featured in the chain of decisions that lay behind the award of each Victoria Cross is one of the areas in which In the Face of the Enemy breaks new ground.”

Of the servicemen who were recommended for the VC but who did not receive one, the story of Ma-ori Battalion Lance-Sergeant Haane Manahi is pertinent amid current lobbying by the Manahi VC Committee. Mr Goff said Sgt Manahi displayed outstanding courage and leadership, leading three men 500 feet up a near-sheer face of a mountain. He was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal.

“His citation for the VC was signed by those who witnessed his exploits and supported by the entire chain of command including generals Alexander, Montgomery, Freyberg and Kippenberger.”

The Ministry for Defence is working with the committee to see if the case can be reconsidered, acknowledging, however, that the consistent position of the Palace since the late 1940s has been to not revisit such decisions.

Mr Goff praised the book and “the fact that Glyn Harper and Colonel Richardson have again ensured that the feats of Haane Manahi and others like him who deserved but did not get the VC will not be forgotten”.

In the Face of the Enemy is nicely complemented by Best and Bravest, where the stories from In the Face of the Enemy are recounted for younger readers. In fact, with its stirring tales of gallantry and courage the book is ideally suited to boys who may otherwise be reluctant readers.

Dr Harper heads the Centre for Defence Studies at the Palmerston North campus and is the author of several military histories. He joined the Australian Army in 1988, transferring to the New Zealand Army where he held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel until leaving in 2001.

Colin Richardson currently serves at the headquarters of the New Zealand Defence Force and has taught military history and strategy at the Australian Army Command and Staff College. He has a long interest in the history of the Victoria Cross.

Both authors started their military careers as Territorial Force soldiers in the 2nd Canterbury Nelson Marlborough West Coast Battalion in the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, a unit that claims five Victoria Crosses as part of its heritage. - JG

Professional Thesis Presentation: A step-by-step guide to preparing your thesis in Micosoft Word

By Ken Benn and Cheryl Benn: Pearson Education New Zealand ISBN:1877371475 NZD$29.95

Full disclosure: this reviewer is no great fan of Microsoft Word. I find it inelegant and non-intuitive, and when I can use other programmes I will, but Word is the world’s default word processing programme, so it is best to come to grips with it.

This is never more important than when setting out to produce a thesis. If you put a little time in to learning the ways of Word before you begin to write you will save yourself a great deal of time and grief and be able to make the best use of Word’s many powerful features.

Ken and Cheryl Benn’s Professional Thesis Presentation is the ideal place to start: jargon-free, clearly structured, and, at under 100 pages, a manageable read.

Cheryl Benn is an Associate Professor in the School of Health Sciences. Ken Benn is a writer and runs his own business. — MW

Colonial Discourses: Niupepa Maori 1855 – 1863

By Dr Lachy Paterson, Otago University Press, ISBN:101877372269, NZD$39.95

A new book by Ma-ori history lecturer Dr Lachy Paterson shows how the government and churches used Maori newspapers to promote their policies, values and Christianity and discourage traditional Ma-ori spiritual and social practices.

Colonial Discourses: Niupepa Ma-ori 1855 – 1863 looks at how nine bilingual newspapers provided a platform for propaganda and also how they were used as a forum by Ma-ori and Pa-keha- to debate issues of the day.

Dr Paterson says the government and the churches published most of these papers in both languages as a way of colonising and assimilating Ma-ori into Pa-keha- society. They also used the papers to promote the sale of land, legislation and the advantages of the Pa-keha- way of living.

He says Ma-ori also realised the power of the press and the benefits of using newspapers to spread their own messages. Two Waikato chiefs, He-mara Rerehau and Wiremu Toetoe learnt how to use a printing press when they were invited to visit Vienna. The Emperor of Austro-Vienna gifted a press to the chiefs, and on their return home they started up the Kingitanga newspaper called Te Hokioi o Niu Tireni, which was also used to influence thinking and promote the Kingitanga movement.

Dr Paterson says Ma-ori also contributed to the debates by writing in response. The viewpoints varied, with some opposing the views presented and others supporting them. Ma-ori also saw an opportunity to allow a wider audience to hear what had been said at hui, so whaiko-rero and waiata at significant events were also published.

The book will be of particular interest to all those concerned with New Zealand’s social, political and religious history. Dr Patersen believes that the Ma-ori newspapers have been under valued as an historical record of Ma-ori-Pa-keha- relations and provide a window into Ma-ori society in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The book is based on an eight-year span of the newspapers from January 1855 to September 1863, covering a vital period in Ma-ori-Pa-keha- relations, leading into the wars of the 1860s, when many of the papers ceased printing temporarily. - ME