Winds of war
The first overseas conflict to involve New Zealand troops had considerable impacts back home.
The first overseas conflict to involve New Zealand troops had considerable impacts back home.
On May 18, 1900, New Zealand cities and towns awoke to a cacophony of sound. The noise was caused by fire alarms, school bells, fireworks, people striking anything capable of making a loud noise and even the odd politician discharging his 12-gauge shotgun into the air.
The cause of the disturbance, which was accompanied by uncharacteristic displays of emotion, was not an emergency or the latest sporting triumph. Instead, it was the news that a dirty, dusty and remote outback town in Southern Africa called Mafeking had been relieved by the British Army aer being besieged for 217 days by hostile Boer forces.
The news of the town’s relief aer such a protracted siege unleashed “a tumult of patriotism” in this country.
This reaction indicated how important we regarded the conflict in South Africa and how strongly we were connected to the affairs of Empire in 1900.
The South African War of 1899-1902 and its effect on New Zealand are the themes of Our
First Foreign War, by Nigel Robson. It is not a military history of our efforts in the South African War, although these do feature in the background.
Instead, the focus of Robson, a senior historian at the Office for Māori Crown Relations – Te Arawhiti, is on the changes to our social, political and economic fabric.
Our First Foreign War, Robson’s first book and based on his master’s thesis at Massey University, skilfully demonstrates how the war created several precedents for what followed in later wars of the 20th century. There was the considerable number of deaths and woundings in the war, certainly not large by comparison with other wars, but they were “not insignificant” and certainly shocking at the time. Disease, rather than bullets or shrapnel, proved to be the most deadly killer of soldiers. At one point in the war, about 70 New Zealand troops were dying of disease each week in South Africa, prompting Premier Richard Seddon to announce in Parliament that “our men were dying there like sheep”.
Other precedents include the unbelievable age range of the soldiers – from 16 to 70 – reports of bad behaviour and racist attitudes, the struggle for women’s service to be included and recognised, rabid intolerance of dissenting voices and government parsimony when it came to paying adequate pensions to disabled soldiers and their dependants.
As with the world wars that followed, the role and place of Māori caused considerable tension. Many Māori were keen to serve and the Government was fully supportive of this desire. The British authorities did not want them, though, and regarded this war as solely “a white man’s war”. As Robson writes, many Māori skirted around this colour bar by anglicising their names. This exclusion of Māori was deeply resented in New Zealand. One newspaper, highly critical of the British attitude, presciently concluded: “A
The competence and courage of New Zealand soldiers often surprised the British military authorities and became “one of their most enduring legacies”.
time may come when necessity will override sentiment and Britain will be only too glad to accept the services of all her sons – be their colour what it may.” That time was just over a decade away.
One of the more positive legacies of the South African War was the performance of New Zealand soldiers in the field. Robson writes that their competence, courage and horse skills oen surprised the British military authorities and became “one of their most enduring legacies”.
Robson concludes that the South African War had profound and far-reaching. effects on this country. His book fully explores the war’s legacy, and anyone interested in New Zealand history should read it. ▮
OUR FIRST FOREIGN WAR: The impact of the South African War 1899-1902 on New Zealand, by Nigel Robson (Massey University Press, $55).