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When it came to British propaganda, on the other hand, New Zealand was fully entrenched in the
ideals of rural Arcadia, in spite of varying inconsistencies.
This Arcadian vision has been studied at length in Miles Fairburn’s 1989 study The Ideal
Society and its Enemies. 35 In this notable work the author identifies three ‘paradise’ models
attributable to New Zealand which clearly rely on classical Arcadian principles: ‘natural
abundance’, the ‘labourer’s paradise’ and the ‘middle-class paradise’. Although the former is
consistent with the traditional notions of Arcadia, the passive relationship, in this case, has been
replaced by a dynamic one, which sees man converting and improving this natural abundance by
hand due to the Victorian conception of material progress, namely “the belief that material
betterment stimulates moral growth which in its turn produces more material growth and so on in
an everlasting upward spiral”. 36 The three steps in this process can be labelled as ‘natural
advantages’, ‘bush cornucopia’ and material growth. While the first emphasises the potential for
industry that the bountiful nature of New Zealand is providentially blessed with, such as “a
‘salubrious’ climate; a naturally productive soil; plenty of land; proximity to the major trading
routes; a long coastline and naturally good harbours; luxuriant forest cover; ample fauna though
not in variety; and a wide range and an ample store of minerals”, 37 not to mention the easy
introduction of European animals, vegetables and plants which flourish in large numbers due to
the “genial climate, ample food, [and] absence of predators”, 38 the latter two steps transform this
“potential for fruitfulness” into real progress, in which the end result is that “people have greater
influence over nature, and the plenty is correspondingly more refined, varied, and copious”. 39
The second Arcadian image is the ‘labourer’s paradise’ which stems from the first, in that
“natural abundance creates marvellous opportunities for working men to become materially
independent, to gain what contemporaries called a ‘competency’ or an ‘independency’, equivalent
to the ownership of productive capital, usually landed property”. 40 In theory, the self-made man
could better himself on his own freehold farm regardless of class and capital, albeit after working
as a rural labourer for several years while saving enough money to buy a small parcel of land on
which to settle and become his own boss, a popular theme for those dissatisfied with the status
35
Miles Fairburn, The Ideal Society and its Enemies: The Foundations of Modern New Zealand Society 1850-1900.
Reprinted. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1990; cf. Claudia Bell, Inventing New Zealand: Everyday Myths of
Pakeha Identity. Auckland: Penguin, 1996, 3-6.
36
Fairburn, The Ideal Society, 33.
37
Ibid., 33.
38
Ibid., 38.
39
Ibid., 39.
40
Ibid., 42.
18