Southland NZ, Anniversary Day – some brief history of our Province and this day:

Today - the Tuesday after Easter is the ‘new’ date the Anniversary of Southland, NZ, is observed.

TYPICAL EARLY SOUTHLAND SCENE:
"Dad" Chilton, cutting oats with a horse-drawn binder in a
paddock behind 'Vale View' their property by Otautau, early 1900's
(photo kindly donated by Peter & Audrey Campbell - no known Copyright Restrictions)

See here for photos and information on Southland today: https://southlandnz.com/
Today being the Southland Anniversary Day, is only a new development and one which was recently bought into being after much protest and plea’s from a large portion of Southland/Murihiku’s residents. The original day had been observed on 1 April, a date just after it was finally founded as its own province in 1861. This day of celebration was considered annoying by many of the province’s modern peoples, as it was close to both Easter and ANZAC and only a single day holiday. By sheer sense of purpose and pig-headedness, many started celebrating the day unofficially on the Tuesday after Easter each year, although banks and other official and government offices stuck to tradition. This was particularly annoying for people new to Southland, as we had to work around two holidays! After many decades of dissension, it was only decided in December 2011 to officially change the day Southland Anniversary was celebrated, to Tuesday after Easter each year. The Holidays Act of 1981 allows a provincial anniversary day to celebrate the first colonists of each province, but the date is not legislated in law, so the observance of them can vary, and often be weeks from the actual original anniversary of the first date of the event, and the observation can change over time, as this one has.

MURIHIKU or Southland:
Murihiku or Southland province (although much smaller than the area it covers today), was finally purchased off the Maori in 1853, by Commissioner Mantell. The area eventually bought for the paltry sum of £2,600, on 17^th August 1853 were the rich pastoral lands between the Mataura river to the East and the Waiau River to the West, with the northern boundary following a line between Lake Manapouri and Eyre Peak. It was not until 1863 and by an act of the NZ Assembly in 1863, that Stewart Island was annexed to Southland province.

Around the time of the purchase of Southland in 1853, NZ was split into six provinces. The Southernmost was Otago, and this covered the area now known as Southland/Murihiku. In fact with the joint areas of Otago and Southland combined, the Otago province was approximately a third of the land mass of the South Island or Mainland as it is known. These individual provinces were in effect self-governed although ultimately bound by English law, and any decisions could be overruled by the General Assembly. But as such, they had the right to make their own immigration policies and other rules and regulations. In the Southland Immigration Pamphlet of 1866, the area was described as, “… an extensive and fertile district in the extreme south of New Zealand… From North to South it extends to an average length of nearly seventy miles, with a breadth of nearly sixty, having an area of considerably over two millions of acres, - this exclusive of Stewart’s Island.”

Map from Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New ZealandThis item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence - Licenced to Te Ara

The above map is one view only of layering maps showing the different stages and areas of Southland's and Otago Provinces land area and development through the years- try it out here:
https://teara.govt.nz/en/interactive/33010/provincial-government-1853-76

SEPARATION FROM OTAGO:
However, Southland/Murikiku itself was to have a troubled existence for its first few decades. It grew in popularity and population, the number of ‘squatters’ farming the determined ‘waste lands’ increased and there were many difficulties in having it governed by a centre so distant as Dunedin in Otago. On 28^th March 1861, the NZ Gazette published the news that the area known as Murihiku had now been proclaimed the province of Southland, with the capital of the area, being Invercargill. Hence the long standing traditional date of the Anniversary Day of Southland being 1^st April each year. The newly independent Southland was to be ruled by a council of eleven members selected from the six electoral districts across the lands contained within the province.

The separation of Southland/Murihiku from Otago, did not last that long. The timing sadly, could not have been more disastrous. In 1861, gold was discovered in Central Otago and the area’s gold rushes began. Southland missed out on this opportunity, as it had gained separation just prior to this date. The whole province was reeling from gold fever, but the gold was not even in the province. The main of the gold money was heading north to the Otago province, which was booming, while Southland as a whole was in bust mode and serious financial crisis. And when the gold boom went fell over and all the miners were out of work, with no funds to support them or their families, the situation went from bad to worse. It has often been said that a prolific program of public works and overspending led to the downfall of Southland in the first instance, but this is a simplified story that doesn’t take other matters into account. The facts are that by the time 1869 rolled around, Southland/Murihiku was virtually bankrupt. In 1870 it begged and was let back into the province of Otago; it really had no choice. For both reasons, there was no more money and there was no other option. Its brief stand of solidarity and independence was over. But only for now did it lose its name and separate identity. The province of Otago would not ‘own’ Southland forever.

 

1881 Southland Census Map, thanks to Statistics NZ

 

But there were those who still longed for Southland to be the separate province it once was, with its own boundaries and governance. They got part of their desire eventually, but not in the way they wanted. By the end of 1876, the six individual provinces were removed, NZ instead becoming governed as a whole. The area south of the province of Otago once again became known as Southland/Murihiku, but it was now a much larger area of land than it had been originally. The Cyclopedia of New Zealand gives a helpful description from 1905: “The land district of Southland includes the counties of Southland, Wallace, Fiord, and Stewart Island. The district is comprised between latitude 45 degrees and 47 degrees south, and longitude 166 degrees 15 minutes, and 169 degrees 15 minutes east…The present eastern boundary of Southland starts a little to the west of Chasland's Mistake, and runs in a northwesterly direction to Lake Wakatipu. The great lake itself forms part of the northern boundary, which runs north of the Eyre Mountains, almost due west to George Sound on the west coast. The land district is thus much larger than the original province, which was nearly all comprised between the Mataura and Waiau rivers. The area of Southland today, including Stewart Island, [excluding smaller islands] is 6,966,592 acres; whereas the provincial district was only 2,776,000 acres in area.”


Map of the provinces of Canterbury and Otago (New Zealand) to illustrate the papers of Mr. James M'Kerrow, Dr. J. Haast & Dr. Hector: [Published for the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society by J. Murray, 1864]

• Source URL: http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE274598
  http://natlib-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/NLNZ:NLNZ:NLNZ_ALMA11315056530002836
  Archived copy available at the National Library of New Zealand
  

SOUTHLAND IN THE MODERN DAY:
Currently, the Southland province is leading the way in Tourism growth. Reported by Stuff on 26 May 2017, “Southland’s tourism sector is one of the fastest growing in the country, due in no small part to the increase of visitors to Te Anau and Fiordland…While the peak for the tourism season ended in March, the figures show continued growth in numbers into April. Tourists spent $62 million during April in Southland, a 15 per cent increase on the month of April for 2016.” The article also quoted figures from Ministry of Business, Employment and Innovation show tourism spending had increased by 9 per cent from April 2016 to 2017. And agriculture has always been at the heart of what Southland has produced, from the 1850’s onwards. 

But an earlier report from Ministry for the Environment on Southland dated 13^th May 2013 shows the more about the strengths and struggles of the region:
“...a vibrant rural economy of Southland for people to both live and work... indeed reflects the central importance of agriculture and primary industries for the Southland economy. The primary sector employs 23 per cent (13,780 employees) of Southland’s labour force. Livestock and cropping farming employs almost 6,000, although this is decreasing because of the number of dairy farm conversions, with many of livestock and cropping jobs switching to the dairy sector. Thus the face of agriculture is changing in Southland. Some manufacturing sectors have had to consolidate (e.g. Meat and meat product manufacturing, Basic metal manufacturing, Wood product manufacturing) due recent economic conditions, while others (e.g. Dairy product manufacturing and Construction) have grown in size. Most of the industries related to providing goods and services to households and local business have shown an increase in employment… Other primary sector activities (including fishing, forestry and mining) contributed a further $120m to Southland’s value added. The importance of agriculture is further evident in the flow on effects to the manufacturing sector. Meat and meat product manufacturing is the largest single economic sector in Southland, witha value added contribution of $625m (15per cent of the region’s value added). This sector is coming under pressure from the large amount of dairy farm conversions. There are significant other manufacturing industries in Southland. Southland’s manufacturing contributed around $1.4bn2012of value added to the region’s economy.3Manufacturing has been under pressure due to the economic recession. Basic Metal Manufacturing is a key manufacturing activity. This industry has a number of downstream linkages with the rest of the Southland economy.”

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SOURCES: Most information contained in the above post is gleaned from research done for "Tale of A Town" an early history book of the town that I am currently researching and writing (see: facebook.com/TaleOfATown), from other sources listed and my own archive files.

Above article researched and written by Suzie Best - Researcher/Historian, ph: 027-211-4675 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The content within this blog is Copyright: Photos - as stipulated above; Research/text - to the author, unless stipulated otherwise (contact on: riverstream@xtra.co.nz)