Martin Conway,
President, New Zealand Society
Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou
katoa
A funny thing happened to me a few years ago. I was being driven to
a function when a car behind us couldn’t stop in time and crashed
into our car. I and the driver hopped out to inspect the damage with
the driver of the other car. I said to him “I’m not happy” to which
he replied “Well, which one are you then??”
But I am happy, very happy to be here tonight to host this evening
on behalf of the New Zealand Society. I would like to take this
opportunity to acknowledge all the Kiwis in the UK, who show their
love and support for New Zealand and in particular on Waitangi Day.
We do not have to go home to remain loyal and in the immortal words
of our own Dave Dobbyn, “And we are loyal, keep it that way.”
Kiwis abroad show their loyalty not just by buying delicious New
Zealand butter or lamb but also by selecting New Zealand products
and services because of style, design and often above all quality.
My trusty Macpac is now 19 years old and it is still going strong
and I wished I had bought Icebreaker clothing many years ago as it
is so comfortable. Moreover, McKinleys in Dunedin will make my hand
made shoes for a tenth of the price charged in the West End. Why
tonight I am wearing my Merino woollen socks…so I suppose I DO walk
the talk. And because of the friendly smile and great service I will
always try to fly with Air New Zealand.
As has been evident tonight we love eating our delicious produce and
drinking our fine wines and beers, but there is a lot more to New
Zealand and its peoples, and the expatriate community is no
exception.
What makes New Zealanders choose to stay in the UK? Perhaps because
we marry a Brit or a European and then after starting a family find
it difficult to relocate back home. Or you like me; do you wish to
stay longer to experience the sights and culture of Europe, the
Americas, the Middle East and Africa? Or could the reason be money?
A recent survey found that New Zealanders are amongst the top
earners of long term migrants to the UK and around a third of these
kiwis are earning at levels which would put them in the top three
percent of earners back home. One way these top earners do support
New Zealand is in buying properties back home – sometimes only seen
via a web cam. For whatever reason, New Zealanders very much enjoy
living in the United Kingdom and our OE, however long it may be, is
an intrinsic part of who we are and what we become.
So what has kept me in this historic and enthralling land for 18 ˝
years? The beer, the heritage, the architecture, the cricket
grounds, theatre and cinema - yes to all the above. And what would
draw me back home after such a long time away? Well … it would have
to be the un-crowded beaches, the world class wine, the native bush,
the big blue sky and of course whanau …family. This then puts me in
a bit of a quandary – should I stay or should I go home? Ask me in
another five or even ten years!
I would like to acknowledge tonight, the opportunities and warm
welcome that many UK universities and employers give to Kiwis. Two
examples spring to mind, with the University of London’s support for
the Centre for New Zealand Studies, of which we will hear more about
from our guest speaker, and Cambridge University’s hosting of
Pasifika Styles. The New Zealand Society is proud to recognise the
leaders of these ventures in nominating them along with Chris
Pugsley, as finalists in the Air New Zealand New Zealander of the
year award to be presented in 20 minutes time. New Zealand
undergraduate students also benefit enormously, from organisations
such as The Worshipful Company of The Girdlers and their very
generous annual scholarships at Corpus Christi College, and we are
delighted to have Master of the Girdlers here with us this evening.
The New Zealand Society in Britain along with a branch in Scotland
offers a variety of social and cultural events for New Zealanders,
with membership open to anyone who has an interest in New Zealand.
This means we have a dynamic and growing membership and we are very
thankful to our many friends who provide valuable links between the
two countries, and which we look forward to further strengthening in
2008.
So far I have spoken about human kiwis but now I would like to let
you know about the plight of another Kiwi. This one eats roots and
leaves but is flightless and has feathers. The former is thriving;
the latter is in a perilous state; decimated initially by
deforestation and latterly by predators. All species of Kiwi are
gravely endangered. With a population of 25, 000 (estimated once to
have been millions) the brown kiwi is in serious decline with
numbers expected to fall by 50 percent in three generations (which
would be in only 15 years) if concerted action is not taken quickly.
Other species such as the Rowi and the Haast Tokoeka each numbering
under 300 are both classified as nationally critical.
So what is being done to turn this situation around? Well there are
several Department of Conservation projects in hand which aim to
help increase or at least maintain current population levels. One
organisation that is having some significant success is the
Whinray Ecological Charitable Trust, located in the Motu area of
the East Coast. The Trust’s principal aim is to save the Brown Kiwi
but it also seeks to protect and enhance the area’s other threatened
species and to educate people about conservation. As well as Dept of
Conservation staff and other conservationists, the local
communities, shepherds and farm managers, have all become very
passionate about this vulnerable national symbol. Should you wish to
donate to or know more about this trust please see me later in the
evening?
www.ecoworks.co.nz
The programme for this evening, which is a good read, lists out all
the companies and people who support us through product and raffle
prizes. Too many for me to acknowledge here but all have a New
Zealand connection and I would like to think that you will consider
these businesses when making purchases in the future. However, I do
have to give special thanks to our major sponsors Air New Zealand,
NZ Inspired, ANZ, Bayleys Real Estate and 1st Contact.
This evening would not be such a success if we did not have a team
of helpers some who could not be with us tonight. So in no
particular order I would like to thank our immediate past president
and Hon Treasurer Maria Wickens, our Hon. Secretary Karyn Newman,
Jennifer McKenzie, Helen Campbell, Margaret Walter, Jim Rea, Shari
Gallagher, Romy Brandeis, Trish Jackson, Diane Beecham, Alan Grover
and Katherine Hersey-Meade. However, someone who does need a special
mention is Rachel Broadmore. She is the most unflappable level
headed behind the scenes organiser who has given the Society over 4
years of service and is the link person between the Society and the
High Commission. She has been invaluable. Thank you Rachel.
Lastly I would like to thank Jonathan Hunt our High Commissioner for
his unstinting support and promotion of the New Zealand Society and
also for attending many of our functions. I wish you good fortune in
your semi-retirement back in Auckland. Thank you all for coming
please enjoy the rest of the evening and I would now like to
introduce to you, our guest speaker Sir Graeme Davies, Vice
Chancellor of the University of London.
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Sir Graeme Davies, guest speaker
Vice-Chancellor, University of London
When, in
February 1958, I was preparing to enter my final year as an Engineering
undergraduate in the University of Auckland at Ardmore near Papakura it
was inconceivable and unimaginable that some 50 years later I would be
in London addressing a dinner of New Zealanders and their friends and
supporters.
For my
generation the Treaty of Waitangi signed on the 6 February 1840 was
something of a vague historical event – at best remembered because of a
2 1/2d stamp issued as part of the special 1940 Centennial issue –
information on the Treaty was, at least in my Grammar School which was
not untypical, less a part of the school history curriculum than the
signing of the Magna Carta at Runnymede on the River Thames in 1215.
That
Waitangi Day has become a prominent feature of the New Zealanders’
calendar is, in my opinion, admirable although this has not been
achieved without difficulty. The first formal proposals came in 1957
which led to the Waitangi Day Act 1960 which
enabled any
area of the country to substitute a Waitangi Day holiday for its
provincial anniversary day. This was done for Northland in 1963. The New
Zealand Day Act 1973 made the sixth of February a public holiday in New
Zealand.The
ultimate reinstatement came with the Waitangi Day Act of 1976.
But it is
wholly appropriate that we are here today to celebrate our “… national
day of thanksgiving in commemoration of the signing of the Treaty of
Waitangi …" – a celebration within the theme of ‘fellowship’ and which I
will seek to interpret in terms of social integration and education.
That the
Treaty was so unemphasised is, on reflection, quite surprising for two
principal reasons
-
the recognition of the importance of integration of Maori
and Pakeha in our society, and
-
the emphasis on education as central to the future of New
Zealand as a nation.
Although
Maori were very much a minority in numbers in the years when I was
growing up there was emphasis on the extent to which there was
integration and had been since the earliest times – New Zealanders
seemed to feel that they were a model for other multicultural societies
– and despite some of the rough waters between then and now this appears
to be a view that most NZers would still hold – certainly from the point
of view of one who has been outside their homeland for more than 40
years the impact of Maori language and customs reinforces that view.
Who could
have imagined that the installation in 2004 of a New Zealander as the
Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University would have involved him being
handed over to Oxford, clad in a Maori cloak, by a University of
Auckland kaumatua and a kuia - a cloak which he then
exchanged for his Vice-Chancellor’s robes - or that the outgoing VC
would address him in Maori - “esteemed John, I bid you welcome … thrice
welcome” - or that John, himself would include a Maori greeting in his
Inaugural Address which concludes with the statement
“Ma to rourou Ma taku rourou Ka ora ai te iwi
With your efforts With our collective efforts Our University will
be sustained”
Perhaps the
lack of educational emphasis is even more perplexing not least because
of New Zealand’s uncompromising and continual commitment from the 1850s
to a broadly based, inclusive, meritocratic system of education.
This was
brought home to me during the eight years I spent as Vice-Chancellor of
the University of Glasgow when I was made aware of the deep commitment
to education that is embedded in Scottish society – a commitment which
was translated to NZ by emigrating Scots and which was largely taken for
granted by successive generations – certainly it never crossed my own
mind in the 1950s that I and my contemporaries who were suitably
qualified would not enter University if they so wished.
It has also
become apparent to me in my current role as Vice-Chancellor of the
University of London. We have an External Degree programme which is,
this year, celebrating its 150th Anniversary. We had our
first New Zealand student – Mary Temple of Dowling Street, Dunedin - in
1884! John Ballance, Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1890 to 1893,
was also a London External graduate.
Unusually,
we also educated many prisoners of war in both World Wars – one of
these, John Guest from Christchurch (who had been a university lecturer
in Otago before joining up), developed his own university in Stalag IVb
in Muhlberg-on Elbe where law, philosophy, foreign languages, English
literature and history were taught under the banner of the University of
London. – education was a permitted activity under the Geneva
Convention.
Finally, it
would be remiss of me if I did not draw to your attention the new Centre
for New Zealand Studies, set up in the University of London. The Centre
will bring together the work, research, connections, resources, and
energies of what is an extensive though dispersed group of academics and
non-academics. It will promote New Zealand Studies at UK and European
universities, facilitate the exchange and dissemination of information
and research, and act as a base offering support for New Zealand
academics engaged in the broad spectrum of subjects that can be defined
as New Zealand studies. It will establish collaborations between
universities in New Zealand and the Northern hemisphere.
Thus it
would appear that, in the 1950s, the lack of emphasis on our own history
was more of an oversight than an error of commission – New Zealand is
now much changed and the fact that we are here today joining together in
celebration of Waitangi Day is firm evidence of that – this is a
gathering and an occasion that makes me feel proud and privileged to be
a New Zealander.
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