New Zealand History

The Eighties – A Retrospective View

Part of the Public Service Act centenary series, this talk by Prof. Jonathon Boston, Institute of Governance and Policy Studies was presented on 23 October 2012.

The “Old” Public Service

Talk by John R. Martin, IPANZ Fellow, presented on 16 October 2012.

Patronage and Scientific Rationalism: The Public Service Act 1912

Talk by Dr. John E. Martin, Parliamentary Historian on 8 October 2012.  This is the first in the IPANZ series of talks marking the centenary of the Public Service Act.

Charles Mackay: The fall and rise of New Zealand's first 'homosexual'

In 1929 Charles Mackay, a former mayor of Wanganui bled to death on a Berlin street corner – a victim of violent clashes between police and Communist protesters. How did he get there? An earlier incident triggered Mackay’s tragic trajectory: in 1920 he shot the returned soldier-cum-writer Walter D’Arcy Cresswell, who was blackmailing the (secretly homosexual) mayor. Paul Diamond’s research into the events surrounding both shootings has uncovered new information about this hidden aspect of New Zealand history. Seminar presented by Paul Diamond, 7 September 2011.

Life on the Battlefields 94 years later

Belgian historian Charlotte Descamps, who has lived her whole life in the First World War battlefields of the Ypres Salient, talks about her experiences at Varlet Farm, how evidence of the conflict is unearthed every year, how modern technology is helping to identify human remains almost a century after the war, the ‘iron harvest’ in the Salient (over 200 tons of live ammunition is still collected very year) and the work of the bomb disposal squad, how other items like helmets, rifles, rum jars, badges, buckles and silent pickets help tell the history of the area, and the ongoing research efforts to locate tunnels, ammunition dumps and dugouts. This seminar was presented on 1 August 2012.  You can also download the associated slides for this talk (4mb, pdf)

Scandal sheet confidential: voyages around NZ Truth (1977-2008)

Redmer Yska recalls his involvement with 'NZ Truth' newspaper over three decades: first, as a journalist, second as a historical researcher, and lastly as its biographer, resulting in the 2010 book NZ Truth: the Rise and Fall of the People's Paper. This seminar was presented on 5 October 2011.

The search for Anne Perry

Dr Joanne Drayton discusses her biography of crime writer Anne Perry, better known in New Zealand as the convicted muderer Juliet Hulme. On 22 June 1954, Juliet Hulme and her friend Pauline Parker, set out for an afternoon in Victoria Park, Christchurch with Pauline’s mother, Honora Parker. For Honora, the walk ended with her murder. Juliet and Pauline were subsequently tried in a sensational court case that was widely covered by the press in New Zealand and overseas. Having been found guilty, Juliet spent five and a half years in prison. On her release she changed her name, left New Zealand and disappeared from view. Then Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures (1994) changed everything. With interest in the murder reignited, journalists managed to track down Juliet Hulme, who was now living under the name of Anne Perry – and leading a successful life as a bestselling crime fiction writer (she’s sold more than 25 million copies of her books). While Anne’s identity has been revealed to the world for some years now, she has never spoken to a biographer about her life in-depth. However, in a ground-breaking move, the famously private Perry agreed to be interviewed by Joanne Drayton, allowing her unparalleled access to her friends, relatives, colleagues and archives. This unique access has resulted in the first comprehensive biography of Anne Perry, bringing together the two somewhat incompatible lives of Juliet Hulme the murderer, and Anne Perry the bestselling author in a literary biography with a twist. This seminar was presented on 5 September 2012.