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e done to prevent negative processes from worsening or increasing in effect. For the naturalist
and ethnologist, New Zealand therefore became the perfect model for studying the effects of rapid
colonisation on both the environment and the Maori. This resulted in the dominant interests of
many nineteenth-century German and Austrian visitors to carefully study the indigenous fauna,
flora and population. In possibly the most significant Germanic contribution to the perception of
New Zealand, they exhibited a central fascination in not only ornithology and botany, but also the
state of the environment, with specific emphasis given to educating the public in conservation and
preservation practices and in their need to act or change harmful actions before it became too late.
In fact, from the middle decades of the colonising era, this latter focus had grown steadily in
importance to the point where certain observers were more concerned about New Zealand’s
environment than most of the public and officials combined. Furthermore, as both natural and
indigenous worlds faced extinction from European invaders and immigrants, rare New Zealand
birds and Maori artefacts in particular became much sought after by European museums. As a
result, most observers were generally connected to a German or Austrian museum as director,
curator or collector, and possessed a strong desire to record relevant ethnological information and
acquire or ‘save’ rare native treasures and specimens due to the underlying belief that they were
collecting permanent records of New Zealand’s fast disappearing wildlife and indigenous culture,
which could remain in European museums as a showcase to those species and races that were
believed to be nearing extinction, if they had not reached that point already. One manifestation of
this outlook was the constant fascination, if not obsession, of many to see the so-called ‘Classical
Maori’ living according to traditional customs before they too became European and ultimately
extinct.
While early explorers of New Zealand’s isolated wilderness had to ‘rough it out’ in
extremely primitive conditions without a European settlement in sight, and were therefore at the
constant mercy of Maori generosity, circumstances improved by the mid-nineteenth century to
enable not only a new generation of German-speaking scientists, naturalists and explorers to
arrive in the fledgling British colony, but also various travellers and immigrants from all walks of
life. Due to the intense period of German emigration at the time, many individuals and families
traded their homeland for better living conditions and employment in the antipodes. This was
followed in the late 1870s and 1880s by improved transportation, which meant a higher
concentration of visitors and travellers could now also explore tourist-friendly areas, townships
and cities with relative ease. As many of these travellers and immigrants came without a formal
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