Maggs Bros. Ltd.

A series of highly-accomplished images by an anonymous artist. Nearly a third of the watercolours - and certainly the best of them - depict scenes of the southern tip of New Zealand's north island.

The most striking, not to mention important, image is that of a Maori meeting with a marae in the background, and a British encampment flying the red ensign. Contact between Europeans and the Maori was often fraught and misunderstood, often leading to violence. "As increasing numbers of settlers arrived in New Zealand, the pattern became established. Maori gatherings, or hui, once held in the village plaza, were now staged in a marae complex, with its carved meeting house and courtyard for orators fenced off and isolated from other settlement. Europeans were only rarely to be found at a hui, and privacy of the marae was jealously preserved" (Salmond, 192).

"The hui had come to play the role of main repository for Maori culture in a world which was increasingly European, for it was one situation where Maoris were in charge, Maori was the dominant language, Maori food was served, and Maori etiquette prevailed ... It is the cover term for a whole range of ceremonial gatherings on the marae. They last from one to three days, and are sponsored and stage-managed by the marae's owner-group" (ibid, 193). Here we not only have a European artist working close to the scene, but he (or she) is probably part of a group of four seated in the foreground. There are several other Europeans seated among the crowd, suggesting the this was a meeting of some importance and its agenda possibly concerned local European settlers. As such, this is an important image depicting Maori relations with European colonists.

The other twelve images of New Zealand are predominantly from the north island and include two of Wanganui (Whanganui) River, Kaiwharawhara, Wellington, Hutt Valley, Akaroa Banks Peninsula, Palliser Bay, and Paekakariki. There is also a fine watercolour of Pitcairn Island with two canoes in the foreground.

There are further images of St Thomas in the Caribbean, as well as Brazil, France, and Northern Ireland.

Salmond, A., "Rituals of Encounter AMong the Maori: Sociolinguistic Study of a Scene" in Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking (Cambridge, 1989) p.192-212.