A Bit of Auckland NZ History

Some Things Have Not Changed

An adequate armed defence of New Zealand has always been a problem.  In 1873, an account of "one of the greatest calamities that ever overtook the colonies" was published in the Daily Southern Cross.  It detailed 

. . . an event productive of grave disaster to New Zealand, and destructive of the ancient prestige of England and her boasted supremacy as Sovereign of the Seas.  That event was the sudden appearance of the hostile ironclad man-of-war, the "Kaskowiski," which took possession of the British warship lying in the waters of the Waitemata, seized our principal citizens as hostages, demanded a heavy ransom for the city, and emptied the coffers of the banks of all gold and specie they contained.

The consternation which, for a time, overwhelmed the people of the Province, who were made aware of this nefarious and barbarous transaction, which is utterly at variance with the laws and practice of modern warfare, may be understood by the reader but cannot be described here.  At this moment we are under the complete domination of Russia, our own guns in our own man-of-war being pointed against the city, ready to be opened upon us at any moment that the barbarous caprice of her captors may select.  [A W Reed, Auckland: City of the Seas (Wellington: A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1955), p. 313.]

The news account went on for some length describing the depredations about to fall upon Auckland as a result of the hostile Russian man-of-war anchored in the Waitemata Harbour.
   Panic seized many citizens; others began resorting to rifles and other guns in an effort to defend the settlement. 

But it was all a hoax, as the name of the Russian man-of-war would have clearly indicated--that is, "Case of Whiskey".  But for a time, it was thoroughly believable.  It was immediately received as a genuine threat. 

From the time of European settlement onwards, New Zealand has never had an adequate defence.  As the saying goes, "In our isolation is our strength".  That can hardly be true any longer.  Let's hope not too many Kaskowiski's turn up on our shores.