In this region, isolated from other agricultural districts by the rugged Athabasca River watershed and 1800 miles from the nearest terminal grain market, they attempted to create commercial farm enterprises. Over the course of the next forty years, the farm community in this district experimented with numerous grain crops and modes of livestock production. Eventually a diverse pattern of agriculture emerged in the district with wheat growing dominating in some areas, and oats, timothy, cattle or hogs in still other areas. Above all, it is clear farmers sought increased profitability of their farm enterprise. Within this framework, the choices farmers made in selecting the agricultural produce reflected the combined influence of changing commercial markets and transportation costs, scientific knowledge and experimentation, and the environmental limitations of the region s soils and climate.
Gorse hedges are a widely recognized feature of the New Zealand agricultural landscape.
Less well-known is the extensive folk culture that developed for the establishment and maintenance of gorse hedges. Although most hedges have been removed in recent years, there remains a remnant of this folk culture of hedges in the form of folk technologies that have mechanized the formerly labor-intensive task of maintenance. In this study, we examine treaty settlement as a mechanism for providing social justice and incorporating Maori people into mainstream New Zealand society by improving economic and social well-being. The fundamental proposition is that all Maori are harmed by the legacy of dispossession and marginalization and, therefore, all Maori are entitled to social justice. The central question is what is the role of the State in providing redress to all indigenous New Zealanders, collectives and individuals, for breaches of both Article II and Article III treaty rights.