Impact on Land

Look at this painting.

It was painted around 1857, when European settlers had been steadily arriving to NZ for about 10 years.

Landscape with settlers, Messenger Sisters; attributed; circa 1857 Te Papa Collection

Describe what you see in this painting, you are a historian analysing it.
How have settlers changed this environment?
What reasons would they have for changing it?
What impacts do you think it would have? (note: impacts can be both good and bad)
(Bonus question) Can you tell where this is?

Painting Analysis

Prior to European arrival, Māori people had cleared some forest land to make space for living, growing food and also to make it easier to travel. It is estimated they cleared 40% of trees (but left a lot of low growing plants and did not remove tree stumps). This happened over a timeframe of 200 years.

In comparison when Europeans arrived the remaining lowland forests and scrubland were burnt, drained, logged and cleared for farms and cropping. Today only about 20% of our native bush has survived.

Many native trees were huge when settlers came. These natives are slow growing so could not recover quickly to replace the old trees.

Major impacts to land:

Logging - Many of our big native trees were cut down (kauri, mataī, rimu, tōtara) Some of the trees were over 1000 years old. This has impact on the habitat of birds/insects who rely on those species for food etc. Putting them at risk of becoming endangered or extinct.
Draining wetland- This was a big one for Canterbury. Christchurch was mostly a boggy wetland before it was settled. Draining this meant that native wild life and plants were threatened from the change in environment.
Erosion - Europeans stripped the trees from the land and ripped out stumps. The lack of roots holding soil together started causing erosion.
Introduced plants - Gorse, pine... the list goes on. Gorse was introduced as a nice hedge for settlers properties, except it spread faster than they expected and is now a pest on many farms and in native bush.

Look at the picture to the left- it would take 3-4 people with their arms stretched out to fit the width. Have 4 students stand finger-tip to finger tip to demonstrate the scale.

Letter writing

Your letter should include:

Date and greeting – Start with “Dear Editor” and include a date.
Introduction – Explain who you are and why you are writing.
Main points – Describe the changes you have noticed and your opinion on them.
Persuasive language – Use formal and respectful language to argue your point.
Conclusion and sign-off – Suggest what should be done and end with “Yours sincerely” or “Yours faithfully.”