title: Adam Porter: a miner who became a ‘self-made man’

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Adam Porter won the accolade of being a ‘self-made man’ because of rising from humble beginnings in Scotland. After arriving in New Zealand, aged 12, and working hard for some years, he joined the South Island gold rushes from 1861 onwards, sometimes as a miner and sometimes as an investor, storekeeper and publican. Even as a young man he was involved in local politics. After settling at Thames after the goldfield opened there, he concentrated on prospecting in Ohinemuri and in promoting the interests of the mining industry generally. From 1875 onwards he would be a director of many mining companies, and would encourage the prospecting of new districts, especially in his capacity as an Ohinemuri representative on the county council. Amongst his many policies designed to benefit the community was the promotion of education, including secondary education. By the late 1870s he was based in Auckland.
From 1878 onwards he claimed to know that gold was to be found at Te Aroha, and urged the government to acquire Maori land there for Pakeha farmers and prospectors. In mid-1880 he arranged for a government-subsidized prospecting party to examine the mountain under the leadership of Hone Werahiko, and liaised with both the warden and the government on the latter’s behalf, on occasions implying that he had shared in the discovery of gold. He may have tried to obtain control over the new find, but despite this he remained Werahiko’s agent and would be the executor of his estate. As well as investing in the Te Aroha and Waiorongomai fields, he was involved in the development of mines throughout Hauraki in the 1880s. 
Over time he took an increasingly leading role in promoting the mining industry, as for example a member of the Thames Drainage Board and of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. For many years he attempted to obtain government assistance for mining, and was also interested in new mining technology. In his last years he was a leading member of the Auckland business community, investing in non-mining ventures and being a good employer (though critics disagreed). He also became involved in local government issues and the temperance movement before speaking his mind on national issues, finally standing for parliament as an independent-minded supporter of his old friend from his West Coast days, Richard John Seddon. 
Harsh working conditions on the West Coast led to poor health and an early death. He left his family a comfortably legacy, and was remembered as having a genial, kindly, and witty personality but also having a good sense of his own importance. He seized opportunities, sometimes in a manner that offended others, but tried to benefit not only himself but also the wider community.

text: Adam Porter: a miner who became a ‘self-made man’ Adam Porter won the accolade of being a ‘self-made man’ because of rising from humble beginnings in Scotland. After arriving in New Zealand, aged 12, and working hard for some years, he joined the South Island gold rushes from 1861 onwards, sometimes as a miner and sometimes as an investor, storekeeper and publican. Even as a young man he was involved in local politics. After settling at Thames after the goldfield opened there, he concentrated on prospecting in Ohinemuri and in promoting the interests of the mining industry generally. From 1875 onwards he would be a director of many mining companies, and would encourage the prospecting of new districts, especially in his capacity as an Ohinemuri representative on the county council. Amongst his many policies designed to benefit the community was the promotion of education, including secondary education. By the late 1870s he was based in Auckland.
From 1878 onwards he claimed to know that gold was to be found at Te Aroha, and urged the government to acquire Maori land there for Pakeha farmers and prospectors. In mid-1880 he arranged for a government-subsidized prospecting party to examine the mountain under the leadership of Hone Werahiko, and liaised with both the warden and the government on the latter’s behalf, on occasions implying that he had shared in the discovery of gold. He may have tried to obtain control over the new find, but despite this he remained Werahiko’s agent and would be the executor of his estate. As well as investing in the Te Aroha and Waiorongomai fields, he was involved in the development of mines throughout Hauraki in the 1880s. 
Over time he took an increasingly leading role in promoting the mining industry, as for example a member of the Thames Drainage Board and of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. For many years he attempted to obtain government assistance for mining, and was also interested in new mining technology. In his last years he was a leading member of the Auckland business community, investing in non-mining ventures and being a good employer (though critics disagreed). He also became involved in local government issues and the temperance movement before speaking his mind on national issues, finally standing for parliament as an independent-minded supporter of his old friend from his West Coast days, Richard John Seddon. 
Harsh working conditions on the West Coast led to poor health and an early death. He left his family a comfortably legacy, and was remembered as having a genial, kindly, and witty personality but also having a good sense of his own importance. He seized opportunities, sometimes in a manner that offended others, but tried to benefit not only himself but also the wider community.

year: 2016

title: Think globally, act locally: Collective consent and the ethics of knowledge production

authors: Hudson, Maui

abstract: Ethical review is an integral part of the process of developing research and considering issues associated with the production of knowledge. It is part of a system that primarily legitimises western traditions of inquiry and reinforces western assumptions about knowledge and its benefit to society. Around the world the process of colonisation has excluded indigenous understandings. In New Zealand, Māori (indigenous) knowledge has been similarly marginalised; this pattern is also reflected within ethical review. Māori values, while acknowledged, are not yet considered to have equal weight in ethical deliberations. The notion of collective rights and the possibility of developing processes to allow collective consent to be recognised and mandated by ethics committees have been raised by communities but largely ignored by the ethical review system. While kaupapa Māori researchers espouse the benefits of closer community involvement, policy makers and ethics committees have focused on “consultation” as the mechanism which confirms proof of engagement, the establishment of community support, and the relevance of the project. This article highlights the potential of the concept of collective consent in negotiations between researchers and communities.

text: Think globally, act locally: Collective consent and the ethics of knowledge production Ethical review is an integral part of the process of developing research and considering issues associated with the production of knowledge. It is part of a system that primarily legitimises western traditions of inquiry and reinforces western assumptions about knowledge and its benefit to society. Around the world the process of colonisation has excluded indigenous understandings. In New Zealand, Māori (indigenous) knowledge has been similarly marginalised; this pattern is also reflected within ethical review. Māori values, while acknowledged, are not yet considered to have equal weight in ethical deliberations. The notion of collective rights and the possibility of developing processes to allow collective consent to be recognised and mandated by ethics committees have been raised by communities but largely ignored by the ethical review system. While kaupapa Māori researchers espouse the benefits of closer community involvement, policy makers and ethics committees have focused on “consultation” as the mechanism which confirms proof of engagement, the establishment of community support, and the relevance of the project. This article highlights the potential of the concept of collective consent in negotiations between researchers and communities.

year: 2010

title: Moisture Associated Microbial Communities in Antarctic Dry Valley Soils

authors: Anderson, Rachelle

subjects: Climate change

abstract: Climate change is having a dramatic impact on the natural environment and is one of the most imminent and important issues of the 21st century. With limited vegetation and few large terrestrial organisms, Antarctica offers a unique opportunity to understand the impact of abiotic, climatic factors on microbial ecosystems (free of many of the confounding biological variables in more complex systems). 

Recent in situ studies indicate that microbial communities within Antarctic soils may respond to environmental changes within far shorter time frames than originally believed. In a landmark study, Tiao et al. (2012) investigated the rate at which microbial communities responded to a unique soil modification experiment. To this end, a mummified seal carcass (dated at 250 years) was shifted from its original site in Miers Valley, to a new, geomorphically similar site in close proximity. Remarkably, increased microbial biomass, decreased biodiversity, and shifts in the microbial community composition were observed within just two summers. While the seal carcass altered the underlying soil’s nitrogen and organic carbon content, pH, and conductivity; statistical analysis revealed that none of these physicochemical changes could satisfactorily explain the changes in the microbial community. Instead the data suggest that the changes observed may have been caused by physical, abiotic factors induced by the seal carcass (i.e. increased and more stable relative humidity (RH), reduced UV exposure, and reduced daily temperature fluctuations). However, due to the un-replicated, observational nature of the study, this is merely speculation. 

In order to verify these findings and resolve the drivers of the microbial community changes observed, a controlled, in situ experiment was designed to replicate the abiotic effects of the seal carcass (stabilise temperature, reduce UV exposure, and increase and stabilise RH in the underlying soil). To do this, overturned or upright black and translucent plastic trays were set up on undisturbed regions of Antarctic Dry Valley soil; soil samples were taken every January for a five-year period; and Ion Torrent sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons was used to assess changes in the microbial community composition and structure. However, based on RH data and visual observations of the site it would appear that the tray experiment was unknowingly set up in either a flat, low lying area where moisture accumulated; or in a subsurface water track. Due to the constant high moisture content within the soil on which the experiment was deployed, the effect of the tray treatments on the local environment (i.e. RH and temperature) was negligible.
		
The microbial community composition in the tray treatment experiment stayed quite consistent across all years and treatments, however there was a significantly greater abundance of Cyanobacteria/ Chloroplasts in the translucent overturned (TO) treatment than in the black upright (BU) or black overturned (BO) treatments. Interestingly, the moist tray treatment soil had a greater relative abundance of Cyanobacteria/ Chloroplasts, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes than the drier seal control site, in keeping with the observations of other studies investigating microbial community composition within wet environments. These findings hint at the importance of small-scale topographic factors in microbial community structure, and/or highlight the potential of using microbial community composition as a bio-indicator of hidden water tracks.

text: Moisture Associated Microbial Communities in Antarctic Dry Valley Soils Climate change is having a dramatic impact on the natural environment and is one of the most imminent and important issues of the 21st century. With limited vegetation and few large terrestrial organisms, Antarctica offers a unique opportunity to understand the impact of abiotic, climatic factors on microbial ecosystems (free of many of the confounding biological variables in more complex systems). 

Recent in situ studies indicate that microbial communities within Antarctic soils may respond to environmental changes within far shorter time frames than originally believed. In a landmark study, Tiao et al. (2012) investigated the rate at which microbial communities responded to a unique soil modification experiment. To this end, a mummified seal carcass (dated at 250 years) was shifted from its original site in Miers Valley, to a new, geomorphically similar site in close proximity. Remarkably, increased microbial biomass, decreased biodiversity, and shifts in the microbial community composition were observed within just two summers. While the seal carcass altered the underlying soil’s nitrogen and organic carbon content, pH, and conductivity; statistical analysis revealed that none of these physicochemical changes could satisfactorily explain the changes in the microbial community. Instead the data suggest that the changes observed may have been caused by physical, abiotic factors induced by the seal carcass (i.e. increased and more stable relative humidity (RH), reduced UV exposure, and reduced daily temperature fluctuations). However, due to the un-replicated, observational nature of the study, this is merely speculation. 

In order to verify these findings and resolve the drivers of the microbial community changes observed, a controlled, in situ experiment was designed to replicate the abiotic effects of the seal carcass (stabilise temperature, reduce UV exposure, and increase and stabilise RH in the underlying soil). To do this, overturned or upright black and translucent plastic trays were set up on undisturbed regions of Antarctic Dry Valley soil; soil samples were taken every January for a five-year period; and Ion Torrent sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons was used to assess changes in the microbial community composition and structure. However, based on RH data and visual observations of the site it would appear that the tray experiment was unknowingly set up in either a flat, low lying area where moisture accumulated; or in a subsurface water track. Due to the constant high moisture content within the soil on which the experiment was deployed, the effect of the tray treatments on the local environment (i.e. RH and temperature) was negligible.
		
The microbial community composition in the tray treatment experiment stayed quite consistent across all years and treatments, however there was a significantly greater abundance of Cyanobacteria/ Chloroplasts in the translucent overturned (TO) treatment than in the black upright (BU) or black overturned (BO) treatments. Interestingly, the moist tray treatment soil had a greater relative abundance of Cyanobacteria/ Chloroplasts, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes than the drier seal control site, in keeping with the observations of other studies investigating microbial community composition within wet environments. These findings hint at the importance of small-scale topographic factors in microbial community structure, and/or highlight the potential of using microbial community composition as a bio-indicator of hidden water tracks.

year: 2017