title: Pest fish survey of Hokowhitu (Centennial) Lagoon, Palmerston North

authors: Brijs, Jeroen

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: The koi carp is an ornamental strain of the common carp which is believed to be one of the most ecologically detrimental of all freshwater invasive fish species. Numerous “koi carp” sightings have been made by the public in the Holowhitu Lagoon, Palmerston North. Because koi carp is designated an unwanted organism under the Biosecurity  Act, the Department of Conservation commissioned a survey be undertaken to determine whether koi carp were present in the lagoon. Due to the abundance of aquatic birds and the public nature of the lagoon, nets were unable to be set and thus the use of an electric fishing boat from the University of Waikato was required. This method provided a non-lethal, quantifiable, method of collecting freshwater fish species in a non-wadeable freshwater habitat. The boat operated by supplying a pulsed DC current into the water column where it attracts and then incapacitates fish, allowing operators to remove them from the water with hand nets.

text: Pest fish survey of Hokowhitu (Centennial) Lagoon, Palmerston North The koi carp is an ornamental strain of the common carp which is believed to be one of the most ecologically detrimental of all freshwater invasive fish species. Numerous “koi carp” sightings have been made by the public in the Holowhitu Lagoon, Palmerston North. Because koi carp is designated an unwanted organism under the Biosecurity  Act, the Department of Conservation commissioned a survey be undertaken to determine whether koi carp were present in the lagoon. Due to the abundance of aquatic birds and the public nature of the lagoon, nets were unable to be set and thus the use of an electric fishing boat from the University of Waikato was required. This method provided a non-lethal, quantifiable, method of collecting freshwater fish species in a non-wadeable freshwater habitat. The boat operated by supplying a pulsed DC current into the water column where it attracts and then incapacitates fish, allowing operators to remove them from the water with hand nets.

year: 2009

title: Optimising industrial hemp fibre for composites

authors: Pickering, Kim L.

abstract: The optimisation of New Zealand grown hemp fibre for inclusion in composites has been investigated. The optimum growing period was found to be 114 days, producing fibres with an average tensile strength of 857 MPa and a Young’s modulus of 58 GPa. An alkali treatment with 10wt% NaOH solution at a maximum processing temperature of 160o C with a hold time of 45 minutes was found to produce strong fibres with a low lignin content and good fibre separation. Although a good fit with the Weibull distribution function was obtained for single fibre strength, this did not allow for accurate scaling to strengths at different lengths. Alkali treated fibres, polypropylene and a maleated polypropylene (MAPP) coupling agent were compounded in a twin-screw extruder, and injection moulded into composite tensile test specimens. The strongest composite consisted of polypropylene with 40wt% fibre and 3wt% MAPP, and had a tensile strength of 47.2 MPa, and a Young’s modulus of 4.88 GPa.

text: Optimising industrial hemp fibre for composites The optimisation of New Zealand grown hemp fibre for inclusion in composites has been investigated. The optimum growing period was found to be 114 days, producing fibres with an average tensile strength of 857 MPa and a Young’s modulus of 58 GPa. An alkali treatment with 10wt% NaOH solution at a maximum processing temperature of 160o C with a hold time of 45 minutes was found to produce strong fibres with a low lignin content and good fibre separation. Although a good fit with the Weibull distribution function was obtained for single fibre strength, this did not allow for accurate scaling to strengths at different lengths. Alkali treated fibres, polypropylene and a maleated polypropylene (MAPP) coupling agent were compounded in a twin-screw extruder, and injection moulded into composite tensile test specimens. The strongest composite consisted of polypropylene with 40wt% fibre and 3wt% MAPP, and had a tensile strength of 47.2 MPa, and a Young’s modulus of 4.88 GPa.

year: 2007

title: Tribal guns, tribal gunners : A study of acculturation by Maori of European military technology during the New Zealand inter-tribal musket wars

authors: Bentley, Trevor William

abstract: The Musket Wars were New Zealand’s longest and most costly war. Some 20,000 Maori perished in the raids, battles and sieges that convulsed the tribal societies during the 1820’s and 1830’s. The rise of powerful musket armies set in train forty major hekes or tribal migrations that emptied vast reaches of country by 1840, paving the way for European settlement that proceeded largely unopposed until the 1860’s.

There is little known about the nature of Maori warfare in this period for the Musket Wars have yet to receive the same kind of intense study currently being given by New Zealand historians to the Northern and New Zealand Wars. While other nations have conducted exhaustive research into the military history of their indigenous people, the Musket Wars remain New Zealand’s least known war.

The paucity of information on inter-tribal; warfare in this period is sourced in the fact that native warfare was actively discouraged by the missionaries, judged barbaric by most early visitors and regarded as an inferior form of warfare by settlers and English military men. Later nineteenth century writers perpetuated a distorted view of the Musket Wars as chaotic inter-tribal conflicts in which Maori fought and destroyed Maori. This distorted view has its origins in the two widely divergent systems of values that operated in nineteenth century New Zealand and in the dominance of Victorian ideas about race and colonialism.

This thesis is revisionist only in its attempt to demolish the entrenched colonial view of Maori musket warfare as disordered and exclusively Maori. It endeavours to fill specific gaps that exist in the research on this period by examining the role and purpose of the European gun trading enterprise in New Zealand and the extent of European involvement in Maori warfare. The thesis explores the deployment and effectiveness of European guns during the three phases of Maori warfare that characterise the period; predatory raiding, the great rakau-musket battles and the musket to musket conflicts of the 1830’s. The thesis also develops the theme that while the Musket Wars were shaped by non-Maori influences they were distinctly Maori in style.
While the bulk of evidence is provided by contemporary European observers and nineteenth century historians, every attempt has been made to provide a more balanced picture of Maori warfare by reporting Maori experiences wherever possible. The thesis consequently draws on current Maori oral testimony, the evidence of contemporary Maori eyewitness and the substantial and well developed body of written tribal history currently available.

The Musket Wars represent a fascinating but largely forgotten military age in New Zealand where Maori armies of unprecedented size employed powerful armaments of flintlock guns and ships cannon on long distance campaigns against remote enemies. This period has provided a unique opportunity to research the ways an indigenous warrior society acculturated European firearms technology in established tribal rituals and in warfare, independent of European military influences and in a purely Maori context. Most importantly the Musket Wars have provided the opportunity to examine Maori tactical developments through the critical stage between classical Maori warfare and the clashes with British and Colonial forces during the Northern war of 1845 and New Zealand wars of the 1860’s.

text: Tribal guns, tribal gunners : A study of acculturation by Maori of European military technology during the New Zealand inter-tribal musket wars The Musket Wars were New Zealand’s longest and most costly war. Some 20,000 Maori perished in the raids, battles and sieges that convulsed the tribal societies during the 1820’s and 1830’s. The rise of powerful musket armies set in train forty major hekes or tribal migrations that emptied vast reaches of country by 1840, paving the way for European settlement that proceeded largely unopposed until the 1860’s.

There is little known about the nature of Maori warfare in this period for the Musket Wars have yet to receive the same kind of intense study currently being given by New Zealand historians to the Northern and New Zealand Wars. While other nations have conducted exhaustive research into the military history of their indigenous people, the Musket Wars remain New Zealand’s least known war.

The paucity of information on inter-tribal; warfare in this period is sourced in the fact that native warfare was actively discouraged by the missionaries, judged barbaric by most early visitors and regarded as an inferior form of warfare by settlers and English military men. Later nineteenth century writers perpetuated a distorted view of the Musket Wars as chaotic inter-tribal conflicts in which Maori fought and destroyed Maori. This distorted view has its origins in the two widely divergent systems of values that operated in nineteenth century New Zealand and in the dominance of Victorian ideas about race and colonialism.

This thesis is revisionist only in its attempt to demolish the entrenched colonial view of Maori musket warfare as disordered and exclusively Maori. It endeavours to fill specific gaps that exist in the research on this period by examining the role and purpose of the European gun trading enterprise in New Zealand and the extent of European involvement in Maori warfare. The thesis explores the deployment and effectiveness of European guns during the three phases of Maori warfare that characterise the period; predatory raiding, the great rakau-musket battles and the musket to musket conflicts of the 1830’s. The thesis also develops the theme that while the Musket Wars were shaped by non-Maori influences they were distinctly Maori in style.
While the bulk of evidence is provided by contemporary European observers and nineteenth century historians, every attempt has been made to provide a more balanced picture of Maori warfare by reporting Maori experiences wherever possible. The thesis consequently draws on current Maori oral testimony, the evidence of contemporary Maori eyewitness and the substantial and well developed body of written tribal history currently available.

The Musket Wars represent a fascinating but largely forgotten military age in New Zealand where Maori armies of unprecedented size employed powerful armaments of flintlock guns and ships cannon on long distance campaigns against remote enemies. This period has provided a unique opportunity to research the ways an indigenous warrior society acculturated European firearms technology in established tribal rituals and in warfare, independent of European military influences and in a purely Maori context. Most importantly the Musket Wars have provided the opportunity to examine Maori tactical developments through the critical stage between classical Maori warfare and the clashes with British and Colonial forces during the Northern war of 1845 and New Zealand wars of the 1860’s.

year: 1997