Our History

Our nation's history is something that should be precious to all of us. Our history was created by our ancestors who came from Polynesia and Europe and while one part of our history is more ancient than the other, and the younger part thinks itself more important than the first, we really should remember all of it. New Zealand was 'discovered' by Captain Cook a couple of centuries ago but really it was discovered by the Polynesian people centuries beforehand and so Cook takes the glory for what he was not the first to do.

Anyway, this is getting away from the purpose of this post. We need to protect our history, both Maori and European. Too many historic buildings are being removed or demolished, too many subdivisions are being plonked on top of historic middens, dumps and other places such as the old Clark Pottery site. Together we need to work together to preserve our heritage and our culture.

For an example the people of Arrowtown have done a good job of this in the way they have protected the history of their town from the development of nearby Queenstown and many of the buildings are protected by the Historic Places Trust. You are able to walk through the Chinese settlement and hire gold pans and shovels to pan for gold in the stream that runs along the edge of town. I believe we should protect the rest of Auckland's heritage in the way that Arrowtown has done.