title: Te Kahautu Maxwell on Te Kooti and Ringatu (Interviewed by Tama Muru)

authors: Maxwell, Te Kahautu

abstract: In October 1869 musket fire erupted at Te Porere about sixty kilometres north of here, in the shadow of Mount Tongariro in the last major battle of the New Zealand wars. 

Armed constabulary and Maori fighters, clashed with the forces of the prophet Te Kooti Arikinui Te Turiki who had built an earth redoubt at Te Porere.  It was overwhelmed during the battle, but Te Kooti and his surviving followers escaped. 

Today the site is a tourist attraction but what also endured is the Ringatu Church, founded by Te Kooti. In 2018 it celebrated its 150th anniversary. 

Ringatu mixes the Bible with Maori custom and, like Matariki, follows annual cycles such as Te Huamata in June for planting and Te Pure, the harvest, each November. 

We spoke to Professor Te Kahautu Maxwell , a minister in the Ringatu Church and a senior academic in Maori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato.

text: Te Kahautu Maxwell on Te Kooti and Ringatu (Interviewed by Tama Muru) In October 1869 musket fire erupted at Te Porere about sixty kilometres north of here, in the shadow of Mount Tongariro in the last major battle of the New Zealand wars. 

Armed constabulary and Maori fighters, clashed with the forces of the prophet Te Kooti Arikinui Te Turiki who had built an earth redoubt at Te Porere.  It was overwhelmed during the battle, but Te Kooti and his surviving followers escaped. 

Today the site is a tourist attraction but what also endured is the Ringatu Church, founded by Te Kooti. In 2018 it celebrated its 150th anniversary. 

Ringatu mixes the Bible with Maori custom and, like Matariki, follows annual cycles such as Te Huamata in June for planting and Te Pure, the harvest, each November. 

We spoke to Professor Te Kahautu Maxwell , a minister in the Ringatu Church and a senior academic in Maori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato.

year: 2025

title: Mining at Te Aroha before the murder in February 1881

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Mining was slow to restart after the Christmas holidays on a goldfield whose value was still unknown. Some miners did not return, but other men, mostly with mining experience, replaced them. As was pointed out, more testing was required to justify the cautious optimism, and more explorations did not discover any payable ore or a reef of any sort. More capital was needed to fund adequate development, and the lack of a battery held back the field.
Some searched the nearby countryside, fruitlessly, but at Tui the mostly Maori miners working there seemed to be having better results. Unskilled miners who drove incompetent and even dangerous adits wasted their efforts, while others were accused of shepherding their ground. Two companies formed during January attracted many small investors, but experienced miners started leaving for newer finds, and non-miners abandoned their attempts at mining after discovering that gold was not easy to find. But others remained hopeful, and waited for the erection of a local battery to prove the value of what they had found.

text: Mining at Te Aroha before the murder in February 1881 Mining was slow to restart after the Christmas holidays on a goldfield whose value was still unknown. Some miners did not return, but other men, mostly with mining experience, replaced them. As was pointed out, more testing was required to justify the cautious optimism, and more explorations did not discover any payable ore or a reef of any sort. More capital was needed to fund adequate development, and the lack of a battery held back the field.
Some searched the nearby countryside, fruitlessly, but at Tui the mostly Maori miners working there seemed to be having better results. Unskilled miners who drove incompetent and even dangerous adits wasted their efforts, while others were accused of shepherding their ground. Two companies formed during January attracted many small investors, but experienced miners started leaving for newer finds, and non-miners abandoned their attempts at mining after discovering that gold was not easy to find. But others remained hopeful, and waited for the erection of a local battery to prove the value of what they had found.

year: 2016

title: Soil carbon loss under pasture and pine: Responses to urine addition

authors: Lambie, Suzanne Margaret

subjects: Urine

abstract: There have been reports of losses of soil carbon (C) in New Zealand pastures under dairy grazing.  Acceleration of mineralisation or leaching of soil C following urine deposition may decrease soil C.  However, little research of the effect of cow urine on soil C has been conducted.  The overall objective of this thesis was to investigate the potential for dairy cow urine to solubilise soil C, which can then be lost through mineralisation or leaching.  Soils from both grazed pasture and Pinus radiata plantations (termed pasture and pine soils) were investigated.

The concentration, composition, and bioavailability of urine-C were investigated.  Cow urine contained 7.5±1.2 g C L–¹, with a C:N ratio of 2:1.  About 45% of the C content of cow urine was attributed to hippuric acid, the other major contributors were urea, an unidentified amide and phenaceturic acid.  On incubation at 25°C, up to 25% of urine-C was degraded in 28 days, demonstrating that cow urine is biodegradable and could potentially act to prime C mineralisation in soils.  

Solubilisation of soil C (0-20 cm soil depth) following urine application was tested by measuring adsorption of urine-C and subsequent desorption of soil C in air-dried pine and pasture soils.  While adsorption was low at 3% of urine-C, the solubilisation of soil C by urine ranged between 11-28% of soil C concentration for 5 different soils, however, solubilisation was likely overestimated due to the use of air-dried soils.  Soil C solubilisation was also measured in field moist soils applied with artificial urine, and was less than that reported from air-dried soils.  

Priming of soil C mineralisation, solubilisation, and extracellular enzyme activity were measured using moist repacked pine and pasture soil cores (0-5 cm soil depth) treated with cow urine or radio-labelled artificial urine.  Positive priming of soil C mineralisation, where more carbon dioxide (CO₂) was produced than C added, was measured following application of cow urine in both pine and pasture soils.  The pasture soils lost 5.1±0.9%, and the pine soils 4.0±0.1%, of soil C concentration as CO₂ during a 84 day incubation.  Positive priming was attributed to increased microbial and urease activity and accelerated soil C mineralisation in urine treated soils.  The remaining extracellular enzyme activities assayed were unlikely to have contributed to soil C priming.  In contrast to the positive priming measured following cow urine application, treatment of soil with artificial urine resulted in less CO₂ produced than C added – or negative priming.  Increased soil pH following urine application may have played an important role in increasing C mineralisation as water soluble C increased with increasing soil pH.  Therefore, cow urine can cause priming of soil C mineralisation and lead to a loss of soil C.  However, artificial urine may not adequately model cow urine with respect to C cycling.

Soil C solubilisation by urine and subsequent leaching from undisturbed pasture soil (0-5 cm soil depth) was assessed by applying δ¹³C enriched urine.  Leaching resulted in a loss of 0.45±0.03% of soil C concentration, which was 10 times greater than the loss of soil C in the water control treatment (0.048±0.001%).  The leaching of soil C was small compared to the 5% loss of soil C by priming in the repacked core experiment.  Soil solubilisation in the undisturbed cores was less than both repacked cores and air-dried soils, demonstrating that soil C solubilisation increases with increasing soil disturbance.  The acid neutralising capacity (ANC) forcing potential of cow urine was 11.8 meq L–¹, which was more than 20 times greater than sodium nitrate fertiliser application (30 kg N ha-¹ year-¹), although the nitrogen loading rates of the urine were higher than the fertiliser .  ANC forcing has been linked to increasing soil pH and dissolved organic C leaching, and may have been a factor in soil C solubilisation under urine patches.  Upon assessing water stable aggregates after urine application, disaggregation of soil was not a major factor in soil C solubilisation.  
The key conclusions were that:
•	there was strong evidence to support the hypothesis that urine deposition led to soil C solubilisation and priming of soil C mineralisation, that could have contributed to the reported declines in soil C in dairy pastures;
•	priming of soil C decomposition was 10 times greater than leaching and may be the predominant mechanism of soil C loss following urine deposition; and
•	urine deposition resulted in greater losses of soil C from pasture soils than pine soils, in contrast to expectations that soil C in pasture soils would have been acclimatised to urine application.
The work in this thesis was laboratory based and requires further testing under field conditions.  Further work is also needed to establish the mechanisms of soil C solubilisation and the role of solubilised soil C in priming of soil C mineralisation.

text: Soil carbon loss under pasture and pine: Responses to urine addition There have been reports of losses of soil carbon (C) in New Zealand pastures under dairy grazing.  Acceleration of mineralisation or leaching of soil C following urine deposition may decrease soil C.  However, little research of the effect of cow urine on soil C has been conducted.  The overall objective of this thesis was to investigate the potential for dairy cow urine to solubilise soil C, which can then be lost through mineralisation or leaching.  Soils from both grazed pasture and Pinus radiata plantations (termed pasture and pine soils) were investigated.

The concentration, composition, and bioavailability of urine-C were investigated.  Cow urine contained 7.5±1.2 g C L–¹, with a C:N ratio of 2:1.  About 45% of the C content of cow urine was attributed to hippuric acid, the other major contributors were urea, an unidentified amide and phenaceturic acid.  On incubation at 25°C, up to 25% of urine-C was degraded in 28 days, demonstrating that cow urine is biodegradable and could potentially act to prime C mineralisation in soils.  

Solubilisation of soil C (0-20 cm soil depth) following urine application was tested by measuring adsorption of urine-C and subsequent desorption of soil C in air-dried pine and pasture soils.  While adsorption was low at 3% of urine-C, the solubilisation of soil C by urine ranged between 11-28% of soil C concentration for 5 different soils, however, solubilisation was likely overestimated due to the use of air-dried soils.  Soil C solubilisation was also measured in field moist soils applied with artificial urine, and was less than that reported from air-dried soils.  

Priming of soil C mineralisation, solubilisation, and extracellular enzyme activity were measured using moist repacked pine and pasture soil cores (0-5 cm soil depth) treated with cow urine or radio-labelled artificial urine.  Positive priming of soil C mineralisation, where more carbon dioxide (CO₂) was produced than C added, was measured following application of cow urine in both pine and pasture soils.  The pasture soils lost 5.1±0.9%, and the pine soils 4.0±0.1%, of soil C concentration as CO₂ during a 84 day incubation.  Positive priming was attributed to increased microbial and urease activity and accelerated soil C mineralisation in urine treated soils.  The remaining extracellular enzyme activities assayed were unlikely to have contributed to soil C priming.  In contrast to the positive priming measured following cow urine application, treatment of soil with artificial urine resulted in less CO₂ produced than C added – or negative priming.  Increased soil pH following urine application may have played an important role in increasing C mineralisation as water soluble C increased with increasing soil pH.  Therefore, cow urine can cause priming of soil C mineralisation and lead to a loss of soil C.  However, artificial urine may not adequately model cow urine with respect to C cycling.

Soil C solubilisation by urine and subsequent leaching from undisturbed pasture soil (0-5 cm soil depth) was assessed by applying δ¹³C enriched urine.  Leaching resulted in a loss of 0.45±0.03% of soil C concentration, which was 10 times greater than the loss of soil C in the water control treatment (0.048±0.001%).  The leaching of soil C was small compared to the 5% loss of soil C by priming in the repacked core experiment.  Soil solubilisation in the undisturbed cores was less than both repacked cores and air-dried soils, demonstrating that soil C solubilisation increases with increasing soil disturbance.  The acid neutralising capacity (ANC) forcing potential of cow urine was 11.8 meq L–¹, which was more than 20 times greater than sodium nitrate fertiliser application (30 kg N ha-¹ year-¹), although the nitrogen loading rates of the urine were higher than the fertiliser .  ANC forcing has been linked to increasing soil pH and dissolved organic C leaching, and may have been a factor in soil C solubilisation under urine patches.  Upon assessing water stable aggregates after urine application, disaggregation of soil was not a major factor in soil C solubilisation.  
The key conclusions were that:
•	there was strong evidence to support the hypothesis that urine deposition led to soil C solubilisation and priming of soil C mineralisation, that could have contributed to the reported declines in soil C in dairy pastures;
•	priming of soil C decomposition was 10 times greater than leaching and may be the predominant mechanism of soil C loss following urine deposition; and
•	urine deposition resulted in greater losses of soil C from pasture soils than pine soils, in contrast to expectations that soil C in pasture soils would have been acclimatised to urine application.
The work in this thesis was laboratory based and requires further testing under field conditions.  Further work is also needed to establish the mechanisms of soil C solubilisation and the role of solubilised soil C in priming of soil C mineralisation.

year: 2012