ON THE NEED OF A HISTORY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 15, 8 April 1927, Page 8

ON THE NEED OF A HISTORY

(Written for THE SUN) "YOUNG countries have no history. It is the old lands who say that, much in the same spirit as a crusty grandparent will dismiss hastily a suggestion that a child may have a storehouse of recollections, vivid with the keen perceptions of youth. To counter this, I have even seen it debated that all the materials for one’s intellectual life are accumulated before adolescence, and that the remainder of man’s career may be, and sometimes is, profitably spent in the contemplation, maturing and mellowing of these experiences. That may possibly be extreme, and no doubt is so when a country rather than an individual is in question. Nevertheless, New Zealand, in something less than a century, has already made enough to provide material for a history in several volumes. That much is not necessary. This is the age of condensation, and many-tomed histories are, and perhaps wisely, taboo. The time for a ribbon is not now. But there is, one feels sure, scope for a history of the Dominion of New Zealand so far as it has gone. History, in many of its phases, and certainly in its origin, was a matter of oral tradition. Whether the modern super-scientific methods of strictly documented surveys have superseded such a writer as, for example, Herodotus, is open to question. There edfn be little doubt that as a humanly interesting piece of reading, his method is not beaten. However much the critics may plead for a lapse of years before the passing of judgment upon great events, such as the War, the plain man will always take more interest in the words of the actual participants than in the cold century-distant treatise which has, or so it claims, by then attained the correct perspective. There is much to be said for history written on the spot, and not too long after the event. The calendar is relentless. Our old people who knew early New Zealand, primitive Auckland, will not live for ever. Their testimony is valuable beyond compare, but at present is only .occasionally exploited to fill a column which must of necessity be ephemeral. Many who do not trouble to cut out an article will preserve a book which contains much the same material. It is in no way deprecating the existing histories to reiterate the contention that there is room for another account of the land in which we live. History is not, .we must face it, a “popular” subject. And yet it might be made more wide in its appeal than fiction. History contains in itself most of the elements of all good literature, which is to say, life itself. At present it is in the hands of the specialists. We have “diplomatic” histories of New Zealand, telling us of the deeds of the Colonial Office, “drum and trumpet” accounts of the Maori wars, histories of cities which become theses on the growth of local government—all excellent, in their respective spheres. What we want now is a People's History of New Zealand, a book which will make the man in the street forsake, for a few evenings, his American novel. And this is not to cast any stones, either. But the inventor of the phrase, “See Your Own Country First,” was saying also “Know Your Own Country First.” The professors will read the scientific studies of the evolution of Dominion Government, the military men will be interested in the stormings of the Maori strongholds, but Everyman would be in the audience for the People’s History. The bird is on the wing. More — he is grown up. Those who saw his early flappings are. many of them, still with us. Word-of-mouth now is infinitely more precious than excavation in 2000 A.D. The latter makes fine reading for the antiquary. The former, judiciously and humanly collected, delights him who is always with us and of us—the Man in the Street. That People’s History is almost if not quite overdue. ALFRED OAKES. Auckland.