Chiefs of Industry: Māori Tribal Enterprise in Early Colonial New Zealand

Hazel Petrie

‘Petrie is to be congratulated on a book which not only informs but also stimulates wider reflection.’ – Brad Patterson, Journal of Pacific History

Chiefs of Industry is the first book to explore the entrepreneurial activity of Māori in the early colonial period. It focuses on two industries, coastal shipping and flourmilling, where Māori were spectacularly successful in the 1840s and 1850s – the ‘golden age’ of Māori enterprise.

Historian Hazel Petrie shows how quickly and effectively Māori society adapted to accommodate and develop such capital-intensive investments, harnessing tribal ownership, existing skills and a keen eye for commercial advantage. She also charts the sudden decline of Māori economic success by the 1860s, as market conditions, a rapidly increasing and individualistic Pākehā population, land alienation, and other factors had a severe impact.

Chiefs of Industry draws on a wide range of sources in both English and Māori, is attractively illustrated and is written with clarity and elegance. Fascinating for general readers and essential for historians, researchers, teachers and students of history, business, commerce, law, politics or Māori studies, libraries.

Author

Born in England but raised in New Zealand, Hazel Petrie has a BA in History and Māori Studies, an MA in History and PhD in Māori Studies from The University of Auckland. She has contributed chapters to the books Rere Atu Taku Manu: Discovering History, Language and Politics in the Māori-Language Newspapers, 1842–1933 and City of Enterprise: Perspectives on Auckland’s Business History, and has also written or delivered academic papers on related topics. Dr Petrie is married to a Te Rarawa businessman and has two adult sons.

Shortlisted for Montana New Zealand Book Awards: History Category 2007.

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