Waipa County’s story

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 17

Waipa County’s story

The View from Pirongia; the History of Waipa County. By L. H. Barber. Richards Publishing in association with Waipa County Council, Te Awamutu. 196 pp.. Ulus., maps, index, notes, appendixes. (Reviewed by Stuart Perry) Local history is traditionally the pasture of the reminiscent amateur who preserves all that he digs up, and often enough fails to recognise the treasures he is lucky enough to find. Lately in New Zealand we have had several local histories which have gone a long way towards setting new standards. Waipa County has been fortunate in being able to call on the service of an historian of the nineteenth century one of whose special fields happens to be our own history. As might have been expected Dr Barber’s presentation is thoroughly professional, and it is also equipped with all the scholarly apparatus of maps, notes, and so on to sustain the narrative and its conclusions. He has a gift of exposition and his narravative comes to life: the locale, some of the events, the dramatis personae allow him appropriate scope. Revaluation of how and why the pakeha comes to be here, and appraisal of how he has behaved himself during his century and a half of impact, are very much in the air. Much injustice is water under the

brdge; after all, white men have been unkind to white men throughout the ages, and Maoris were unkind to one another before the pakeha came. A divisive or tendentious book would have left the story unexplained and in mid-air: this book, as much as the treacheries, emphasises the chivalry and mutual respect of the period of General Cameron’s campaign. One sees clearly, through neither dark nor rosecoloured glasses, the plateau on which the future will be built. Roughly half the book deals with the nineteenth century and the other half with the twentieth. The first part ends with the ignoble carpet-baggers, then the laying of the rails to carry the vehicles of future development, The transition from provincial council to county authority is then shown, and from this point the story is more a narrative of economic history ihan one of political history’. 'I he swamps were drained and the transition “From Peat to Pasture, 1890-1914” w’as begun. Throughout the narrative the threads of community life, as they appear, are drawn together. The county and its life are a proud entity, and a dynamic one. The story of its development has a clear relevance for all New Zealanders and a general interest: these are the measure of the author’s success. He and the Waipa County Council deserve congratulations for a first class job.