Lands for the People?
An enlightening political biography of the Minister of Lands and Agriculture in the 1890s. John McKenzie was the legislator who ‘burst up’ the great pastoral estates and assisted the establishment of the small family farm in New Zealand.
Tom Brooking traces McKenzie’s background as a child who witnessed the Highland Clearances, and as an immigrant of modest means who believed strongly in the right of ordinary people to own land. He points to the paradox that his legislation advanced the process by which Maori were dispossessed of their land.
Tom Brooking
Tom Brooking specialises in New Zealand and comparative rural and environmental history, New Zealand political history and the historical links between New Zealand and Scotland. This research has focused upon on environmental transformation and the role of colonising peoples in that process, particularly farming and its economic, environmental and sociological impacts.
He has published seven sole author books, two co-authored books, and three edited volumes, in addition to numerous book chapters, essays and articles. His three most recent major books are Making a New Land: Environmental Histories of New Zealand (University of Otago Press, 2013) edited with Eric Pawson; Unpacking the...
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