General copyright and disclaimer - ResearchSpace@Auckland ...

their present state of ‘irregular’ industriousness, 212 all of which further adds to the already
ambivalent and contradictory depiction of the Maori in the eyes of many Europeans.
Conclusion
Hochstetter’s Neu-Seeland, which has long been regarded as the definitive German-language
book on the country in the nineteenth century, managed to achieve an authoritative status in
Germany and Austria thanks largely to his views appearing in an accessible German format for
the general reader and scientific novice alike. What he offered was a less biased German
perspective complete with political insights and commentary, alternative views on interracial
relations, including criticisms of the Government’s handling of the Maori and his siding with the
latter during the New Zealand Wars (most of which did not appear in the English edition), as well
as observations on the colony’s future prospects and environmental concerns. The timing of
Hochstetter’s arrival in the colony may have enabled him to deal more with realities and not just
predictions, as New Zealand society had gained a foothold, albeit still a relatively primitive one,
on the empty landscape where Dieffenbach once traversed, yet a period of two decades had
passed to strengthen popular beliefs and propaganda-based patriotism, which accounts for the
inevitable presence of ‘paradise’ imagery and other common ‘Anglophile’ stereotypes and
images, while various philosophical theories had also been hardened by ‘science fact’.
Hochstetter, for example, saw New Zealanders as a generous, educated and science-minded
people who were proud to belong to the British Empire in a colony that had become at once the
‘Britain of the South’ and the epitome of the safe rural paradise especially suited to the
industrious Britons and German-speaking immigrants. The only issues that could impact
negatively on this image were the decentralised provincial particularism that pervaded the colony,
the short-sightedness of certain colonists regarding the management of their land, interracial
tensions and conflict, and the still primitive conditions that existed for commencing expeditions.
Importantly, Dieffenbach’s views have had a clear influence on Hochstetter’s own arguments
regarding conservation, causes of Maori decay and the British treatment of Maori. Hochstetter,
for example, continues Dieffenbach’s conservationist mentality through distinguishing between
the necessary destruction involved in the building of colonies, including the controlled
exploitation of resources to sustain the growth of a predominantly rural economy, and the
212 Cf. Hanf, “Streifzüge in Neu-Seeland (Auckland)”, 5513.
217