New Zealand or Aotearoa, “the land of the long white cloud”, sits alone in the Pacific Ocean nearly 1,000 miles to the east of Australia. With a unique but now sadly diluted flora and fauna, it was one of the last significant land masses to be inhabited by humans. The Maori peoples only arrived from about 1200 CE with the first European settlers not following until the early years of the nineteenth century. Today the population totals a little over four and a half million relatively thinly spread across slightly more than 100,000 square miles and famously outnumbered by sheep. Barry Humphries once cruelly quipped “New Zealand is a country of thirty thousand million (sic) sheep, three million of whom think they are human”. Sheep numbers have declined and the human population grown since this acid remark, but New Zealand remains a small country, its population well under 0.1 per cent of the global total. As users of this book will discover, however, it is a country that “punches above its weight” and whose people are far from sheepish. New Zealanders have conquered Everest (Hillary), fathered nuclear physics (Rutherford), excelled on the athletic track (Snell), reached new operatic heights (Te Kanawa) and humiliated far more populous nations on the rugby pitch (All Blacks).
Historical Dictionary of New Zealand was first published in 1996, authored by Keith Jackson and Alan McRobie. A second edition by the same authors appeared in 2005 and was reviewed in these columns (RR 2007/051). A special New Zealand version of the second edition entitled Historical and Political Dictionary of New Zealand was issued in 2008 by MC Enterprises. This latest 2016 edition has a new authorial team of Hayward and Shaw. Both are political science academics, at Otago and Massey universities respectively, and both have a track record of publishing on aspects of New Zealand politics. As this is the third edition to appear within 20 years (fourth if the New Zealand offshoot of 2008 is included), a key issue must be the extent of updating. In their Preface (pp. ix-xi), Hayward and Shaw state they “have updated most of the books content but not all” […] adding new material and subtly tilting the book to reflect the rapidly changing perspectives on New Zealand politics”. They continue “if there is a thematic thread running through this edition of the dictionary, it is New Zealand’s evolving place in the Asia-Pacific region”.
Leafing through the entries in the Dictionary sequence there is much evidence of both updating and new material to reflect New Zealand’s reorientation towards Asia and a move away from seeing the past from an overwhelmingly European, colonial perspective. For example, about half the three-quarter page entry China, People’s Republic of, Relations With deals with developments since 2005, while the extensive two-page entry Foreign Affairs seems to have been largely re-worked. The biographical entries, while covering all the expected male New Zealand notables of European descent, also include many Maori as well as a good selection of women. For example, in the sequence for the letter M, of the 23 biographical entries five are for women, including of course, New–Zealand-raised Katherine Mansfield. Two more of the entries are for Maoris. One of the features of the preceding editions of this historical dictionary, maintained and built upon here by Hayward and Shaw, is detailed coverage of New Zealand politics. This extends to not only numerous biographical entries for politicians, but also coverage of political parties and groupings, governments and legislation. Typical of such entries are the three-quarter-page Fifth National Government (2008-), the one-page United Future Party and the half-page Fiscal Responsibility Act (1994). Further reflecting this focus is the long article Political Parties and full entries for individual parties; the entry for New Zealand Labour Party, for instance, runs to just over two pages. This emphasis on politics does not generally mean other aspects of New Zealand are neglected. There are nearly two pages on Flora and Fauna, half a page on Libraries, over a page on Tourism and no less than five pages on Literature. Of course, not everything can be included and some might feel there could have been more on New Zealand’s cities, regions and aspects of the economy. The latter topic has a relatively short one-and-a-half-page general entry. Agriculture, still a cornerstone of the economy, is even shorter at less than a page although there are separate entries on key agricultural sectors, for example Deer Farming, Kiwifruit and Wool Industry.
Hayward and Shaw’s updating and revision have not been confined to the Dictionary sequence. The Bibliography, which runs to over 80 pages and is divided into topical sections and sub-sections, contains a good sprinkling of recent titles. Although it offers an immense range of material, probably listing nearly 1,500 items, the Bibliography has the disadvantage of excluding journal articles. This, and the fact that a good number of the titles cited are specialist or from small New–Zealand-based publishers, may be a hindrance to those outside the country. A two-page list of Selected Websites helps alleviate this obstacle, providing a more easily accessible route to resources suitable as support for non-specialist research. Also assisting the non-specialist is the thoroughly updated statistical appendix (pp. 377-388) giving basic demographic and trade figures, a table on the sale of government assets (a hallmark of New Zealand’s financial policy in the last few decades) and a list of First Ministers, Premiers, and Prime Ministers 1856-2015. The Chronology (pp. xxiii-lvi) includes five pages for events from 2005 and is preceded by an Acronyms and Abbreviations listing and five line maps, the latter of a higher standard than those in many other historical dictionaries. The Introduction (pp. 1-23) is a competent but concise summary of New Zealand’s history, most useful to those unfamiliar with the country’s story. Unlike some other historical dictionaries, no illustrative material is provided.
With this third edition, Historical Dictionary of New Zealand is renewed and reinforced as one of the important general reference sources on New Zealand’s history and, especially, politics. It will be valuable to libraries in institutions where there is study or research interest in the country, primarily for the overview it provides and as a quick reference source. Given New Zealand’s position on the geographic extremities of the Anglosphere, it will also be useful in libraries, both academic and public, as a general reference and introduction to a country which many will know of, but know little about.
