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The basic idea was to reproduce Britain in either of the two planned forms: ‘Better
Britain’ or ‘Greater Britain’:
Better Britain ranked paradise over progress; Arcadia over Utopia; and quality over quantity.
Greater Britain inverted these rankings. Better Britain saw New Zealand as permanently
subordinate to Old Britain, though the child was to be an evolutionary improvement on the parent.
Greater Britain envisaged a bigger, bolder and less subordinate future, and was prepared to take
more risks with select stock to obtain it. 33
In other words, this ‘Britain of the South’ in its ‘Better’ form was to be a neo-British melting-pot
which was subordinate and smaller, yet of higher quality to the original, whilst in its ‘Greater’
form it was to be greater in both size and quality, more independent and at least on a par with
Britain, if not superior. The tension, however, between both visions resulted in the incorporation
of “an instant collective identity that was not merely arcadian and rural but also British and
progressive”:
Arcadianism, involving natural abundance and steady, natural, farm-led growth powered by
virtuous individuals, contested with utopianism: abundance stemming from the British
insemination of raw New Zealand nature, and fast, artificial, town-led growth powered by
progressive collectivities. In the colonising era, 1840s-80s, it was utopianism that predominated;
only to be retrospectively replaced by arcadianism as a new present rewrote history to suit itself.
But, characteristically, the crusaders wanted to have their cake and eat it: both Better Britain and
Arcadia, and Greater Britain and Utopia. That the latter pair outpaced the former in the colonising
era, and that the reverse happened thereafter, was not planned by them. 34
Christchurch: Kiwi Publishers, 1998, 27-50; I. R. Cooper, The New Zealand Settler’s Guide: A sketch of the present
state of the six provinces, with a digest of the constitution and land regulations, and two maps [1857]. Facsim. Ed.
Christchurch: Kiwi Publishers, 1997, 3-18, 27f., 150-53; Thomson, The Story of New Zealand, 36-50; Charles
Hursthouse, New Zealand, the “Britain of the South”: with a chapter on the Native War, and our future native policy
[1861]. Facsim. Ed. Christchurch: Kiwi Publishers, 1997, 59-72, 192-94, 255-57, 387f., 407-9; Sir Julius Vogel (ed.),
The Official Handbook of New Zealand: A collection of papers by experienced colonists on the colony as a whole,
and on the several provinces [1875]. Facsim. Ed. Christchurch: Kiwi Publishers, 1999, 16, 36-40, 70, 112, 127, 134,
160f., 167, 171f., 183f., 208f., 216f., 225f., 243, 258f.; Alfred Simmons, Old England and New Zealand: The
Government, Laws, Churches, Public Institutions and the Resources of New Zealand, popularly and critically
compared with those of the Old Country: with an historical sketch of the Maori race (the natives of New Zealand): to
which are added extracts from the author’s diary of his voyage to New Zealand, in company with 500 emigrants
[1879]. Facsim. Ed. Christchurch: Kiwi Publishers, 1995, 30f., 42f., 60f., 92-97; Arthur Clayden, The England of the
Pacific, or New Zealand as an English Middle-Class Emigration Field: A lecture, together with a reprint of letters to
the Daily News on the English agricultural labourer in New Zealand, notes of a month’s trip on horseback through
the North Island of New Zealand, and a few plain directions for intending emigrants. London: Wyman, 1879, 6-21,
25-44, 48-50, 55; John Bathgate, New Zealand: Its Resources and Prospects [1880]. Facsim. Ed. Christchurch: Kiwi
Publishers, 1996, 20-30, 50f., 66-68, 99f., 109-11; Edward Wakefield, New Zealand After Fifty Years [1889].
Facsim. Ed. Christchurch: Kiwi Publishers, 2000, 4f., 20f., 25-55, 120-22, 224.
32
See Raewyn Dalziel, Julius Vogel: Business Politician. Auckland: Auckland University Press; Oxford University
Press, 1986; Raewyn Dalziel, “Vogel, Julius 1835 – 1899: Journalist, politician, premier, writer”, in: DNZB 1, 563-
66.
33
Belich, Making Peoples, 302.
34
Ibid., 309.
17