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immer eines der besten Werke über Neu-Seeland” (549) which “heute noch eine wahre
Fundgrube von Thatsachen und Beobachtungen ist” (365), there are several fundamental
differences between the two: Hochstetter’s account is not directed specifically at immigrants and
colonisers, British or otherwise, and is inclusive of the wider German public in that it offered as
much for the general reader as it did for the scientist. The English version of Neu-Seeland, on the
other hand, was designed to be accessible to the colonists of New Zealand, and therefore required
the necessary changes and editing.
Hochstetter makes it clear in his introduction to Neu-Seeland that he relished the chance to
devote himself to the “Erforschung eines der merkwürdigsten Länder der Erde […], eines
schönen Landes, welches Großbritanniens unternehmende Söhne, die dasselbe in ihren Besitz
gebracht, in begeisterter Hoffnung auf eine reiche und lebensvolle Zukunft ‘das Großbritannien
der Südsee’ nennen” (vii). In fact, he cannot put the lasting favourable image of the country down
to one factor alone:
War es die Liebenswürdigkeit seiner Bewohner? Waren es Bande der Freundschaft, welche ich
dort geknüpft? Oder war es die Großartigkeit und Eigenthümlichkeit der Natur des Landes, das in
seiner Abgeschlossenheit eine Welt für sich bildet, die mich so sehr angezogen? Ich kann es nicht
sagen; aber noch heute blicke ich mit Begeisterung zurück auf meinen Aufenthalt bei den
Antipoden. (vii-viii)
One of the contributing factors in the success he achieves in this distant British colony is the
warm welcome and continual favourable treatment by officials and colonists alike despite his
being non-British. 41 Another factor is the general make-up of New Zealand society which, in
Hochstetter’s ‘Anglophile’ eyes, consists of an educated and inquisitive breed of colonist who is
inherently generous and devoted to religion, which is “in weit höherem Grade mit puritanischer
Strenge gefeiert” (172).
Throughout both Neu-Seeland and New Zealand he makes particular mention of their
interest in all things scientific, especially when it relates to the material and practical value of the
colony: “The well-educated class of colonists, for which New Zealand is noted, were fully aware
of the importance of explorations to be made by scientific men in behalf [sic] of physical
geography and geology, and that scientific knowledge aids in the extension and improvement of
the industrial arts.” 42 Needless to say, he is impressed how the whole population is interested in
41 Hanf, “Streifzüge in Neuseeland (Nelson)”, 1103.
42 Hochstetter, New Zealand, 50. In one instance, he states: “Die hübschen Käfer- und Pflanzensammlungen einiger
Familienmitglieder überzeugten mich von Neuem von dem regen Interesse der Ansiedler für Naturwissenschaften
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