There are more than 50 chambers of commerce in New Zealand. They are the oldest established of the commercial organisations, those in Auckland and Wellington having being founded as early as 1861. A number of provincial chambers – principally in the ports – go back over 50 years.

The first fully recorded chamber of commerce was founded in Marseilles near the end of the sixteenth century. In British countries chambers of commerce are voluntary organisations which are free to take up what work they like. The New Zealand chamber has its own links with local government; it cooperates with elected government, but, being a non-party organisation, feels free to give its advice to all political groups without fear or favour.

Although described as a jelly, this organism is quite unrelated to the common jellyfish. Indeed, it belongs to a much more advanced place in the evolutionary scale, where it almost became a vertebrate, but for some unknown reason retreated and became more primitive in appearance. The long double chains are really only one phase in its life history, the colonial phase, and are formed asexually from a solitary parent by a budding process somewhat like that of certain plants. Each of the new individuals is able to produce eggs and sperms, and the eggs once fertilised hatch into tiny tadpole-like larvae which eventually grow into solitary individuals similar to the colonial form, but still clearly distinguishable. The solitary individuals then become parents of the new colonial generation.

The commonest New Zealand salp, Thalia, often occurs in enormous numbers in open waters particularly in summer months, and their presence in the water is quite unmistakable even to the casual observer. They seem to be a favourite diet of the snapper, particularly about spawning time, though being largely water they would not seem to be particularly nutritious and are often passed right through the alimentary canal without any sign of their being digested. A close relation of the chain-jelly is the fire salp.

by Richard Morrison Cassie, M.SC.(N.Z.), D.SC.(AUCK.), Senior Lecturer in Zoology, University of Auckland.

The spectacular developments that have occurred in the Central Plateau are liable to obscure the fact that the economic centre of gravity of the region has lain and still remains in the Bay of Plenty. Nonetheless, the Bay of Plenty is experiencing a relative decline in importance. Whereas in 1936, 33.07 per cent of the region's total population was located in the Central Plateau, by 1961, during a period of rapid demographic growth in the Bay of Plenty itself, the proportion of the total population resident in the Central Plateau had risen to 44.68 per cent. In contrast to the Central Plateau, the Bay of Plenty is somewhat milder in climate, is lower lying, and has been longer settled and earlier developed. These points are brought out by the following figures. Tauranga, for instance, has a mean annual temperature, of 56.9°F, compared with Rotorua's 54.4°F, and the number of hours of bright sunshine is 2,316, compared with Rotorua's 1,998 hours. It is an important dairying area and in 1951 contained far more dairy cows than did the Central Plateau and, despite the rapid increase in numbers there, it had retained its predominance at the end of the 1950s. Indicative of its earlier settlement is the relatively lower growth in dairy cows' numbers. The district around Tauranga is recognised as one of the important citrus growing and fruit areas of the North Island, which is attested to by the 858 acres of land in Tauranga County under orchards, market gardens, and nurseries. Except for the small portion which is adjacent to Whakatane County, but which is nevertheless the most populated part, Opotiki County shows much greater affinities with the East Cape so that, in contrast to all the other counties of the region, the number of cows in milk has declined and the area grassed has not shown that considerable rate of increase displayed elsewhere during the last decade. Although Bay of Plenty stands in its own rights as a region of economic significance, it has nevertheless gained appreciably from the development of the Central Plateau. This is shown most clearly by the expansion of the trade through Mount Maunganui, the port of Tauranga. Total tonnage handled has increased from 123,151 tons in 1955 to 838,794 tons in 1963. The outgoing cargoes are concerned mainly with the timber industries: 282,930 tons of timber, 64,315 tons of wood pulp, and 111,530 tons of paper and newsprint. The inward cargoes consist mainly of petroleum and oil products, manures, and grain. Ohiwa is a much smaller and less important port for coastal traffic; 15,519 tons of paper and newsprint constituted the principal item in a total of 15,725 tons which were handled in 1960.

Development of the Region

The economic development of the past decade is not to be seen as a contest between two parts of the same region, but rather in terms of general overall growth. In the period 1951–61 the total population grew by 66.93 per cent and this growth was heavily concentrated in the urban areas, which grew by 109.08 per cent. The largest towns grew rapidly. Rotorua, whose tourist facilities had retained at the beginning of the decade a distinctly nineteenth century flavour, grew by 81.68 per cent to become an important centre for commercial life and for the location of a wide range of Government offices as the resources of the surrounding districts were developed. The tourist industry has made a notable contribution to the growth of Taupo (287.40 per cent). There has been a considerable increase in the number of baches (holiday houses) as well as in the number of people residing permanently. During the Christmas period it is estimated that the population doubles, due to the influx of tourists. The town is also a centre for the construction camps, timber milling workers, and especially the newly established farmers of the district. In the period Whakatane has grown by 89.75 per cent and Tauranga by 72.15 per cent.

Representing a quarter of the total population, the Maori increase was 54.54 per cent. With the exception of that of Opotiki County, the rural population of the other counties showed an increase, but at 24.85 per cent the rate of rural population growth was far below that of the urban population, 187.61 per cent. The increase in Maori numbers has been particularly marked in Rotorua, Mangakino, Whakatane, and Te Teko, and, though the numbers involved are smaller, also in Tauranga. It would seem, therefore, that the urbanisation of the Maori is closely associated with the establishment of construction-camp sites and timber-milling industries, so that the Maori is not thereby losing his association with primary industries or labouring. Furthermore, the figures suggest that the area, as a whole, has been one of in-migration, and within the area there has been a movement from rural towards urban areas.

The combined labour force of the Tauranga and Rotorua Employment Districts, whose limits correspond to those of the region as defined here, is 33,200. During the period April 1953 to April 1961 the total labour force increased by 50 per cent and the labour force engaged in manufacturing by 90.74 per cent, both rates being well above national averages. A comparison of the figures for the two employment districts makes clear their slightly differing economic structures. Both have approximately the same proportion engaged in primary industries, 25.31 per cent for Rotorua and 24.60 per cent for Tauranga. Rotorua has 26.47 per cent engaged in manufacturing industries, principally the pulp and paper industries, whilst Tauranga has only 17.46 per cent. The longer established and more elaborate structure of employment in Tauranga is revealed by the 45.23 per cent employed in tertiary activities (cf. Rotorua, 34.64 per cent). 60.45 per cent of the Central Plateau labour force is engaged either in primary or secondary industries, a proportion indicative of the huge development of resources which is under way. With a slightly greater proportion engaged in industry than in agriculture, the area has clearly passed beyond the exploitative and pioneer phase of its development and has established a basis for a further diversification of its economic structure. One estimate therefore forecasts an 80–per-cent increase in the region's total population during the period 1961–81 at an average annual rate of twice that of the prospective national rate of increase.

by Samuel Harvey Franklin, B.COM.GEOG., M.A.(BIRMINGHAM), Senior Lecturer, Geography Department, Victoria University of Wellington.

Statistics of Central Plateau and Bay of Plenty

• Power in New Zealand, Farrell, B. H. (1962)
• New Zealand's Industrial Potential, Ward, R. G., and M. W. eds. (1960)
• New Zealand Geographer, Vol. 5, Apr 1949, “The Galatea Basin”, Fox, J. W., and Lister, R. G.
• lbid, Vol. 12, Oct 1956, “Land Development in Taupo County”, Ward, R. G.; lbid, Vol. 13, Apr 1957, “Taupo and the Central North Island”, Ward, R. G.; lbid, Vol. 16, Oct 1960, “Changing Patterns of Settlement in Tauranga County”, Dinsdale, E.;New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, May 1954, “Pumice Land Development in Central North Island”, Smallfield, P. W.

Popular opinion has it that this pioneer work solved the problems of occupancy. In fact the rapid extension of farm land in the region since Vaile's time has been dependent on the interaction of a number of critical factors. It is true that mineral deficiencies were an important factor, and time has revealed the need to apply additional minerals other than cobalt, whilst agricultural research has placed the application of these minerals on a more scientific basis. The soils of the region, being derived from ash, are notoriously deficient in humus content and no method has been devised of rapidly building up this content under a system of small-scale individual land settlement. The capital charges, for one thing, are too great. Consequently, the State has had to provide the finance and bear the risks involved in developing large blocks of land previous to their subdivision. By combining high-grade pastures, including a notable clover content, with modern fertiliser practices and modern livestock management techniques, the Government Departments in charge of the schemes have been able to establish profitable farming whilst the soils have been undergoing mechanical and chemical improvement. The farms of the Central Plateau are the product of modern technology and modern science and State intervention.

The State acquired a total of 431,894 acres of land for development. By the end of 1961, 128,498 acres had been disposed of and a further 150,440 acres were awaiting alienation. In 1960 the costs of development per acre were estimated at £34 for sheep and 62 for dairy farms. Largely as a consequence of these schemes, therefore, the total area grassed has increased in Taupo County from 39,741 acres to 193,493 acres in the period 1951–52 to 1959–60, and in Rotorua County from 117,299 acres to 234,790 acres. During the same period the number of cows in milk has increased by 92.67 per cent in Rotorua County and by a huge percentage in Taupo County. The region as a whole has shown a 20-per-cent increase in the number of cows in milk, a 135.92–percent increase in the number of sheep, and 158.24–percent increase in the number of breeding ewes.

Immediately to the north of Taupo at Wairakei the tourist gets his first glimpse of the basic features of the region's economy – power, agriculture, and forestry. It will be the geysers and the Huka Falls of the Waikato River that have attracted him as a tourist to the area. But the geothermal power of the district has now been tapped for the production of electricity. Wairakei geothermal station has at present an installed capacity of 162,420 kW, the effective capacity being 151,245 kW. Wairakei represents only a small fraction of the total installed capacity in the Waikato, the greater proportion of which is drawn from the hydro-electric dams. The original dams were constructed lower down the river at Arapuni and Karapiro. During the 1950s the Maraetai, Whakamaru, and Atiamuri stations were brought into production, followed by Ohakuri and Waipapa in 1961, so that at March 1962 the total installed capacity along the river was 774,800 kW. With the completion of Aratiatia (90,000 kW) in 1964 the resources of the Waikato, with the exception of Maraetai Number 2 (180,000 kW) station, where work has been discontinued, will have been almost exhausted. Consequently there has been a search for additional sources of power within the region, and a number of schemes have been put forward, including the diversion of the Wanganui River headwaters towards Lake Taupo, the development of sites along the Tongariro River and on the Kaituna River, using the outflow of Lake Rotoiti, but the only scheme adopted has been to establish the Matahina Dam on the Rangitaiki River with an installed capacity of 70,000 kW.

The damming of the Waikato River has created a number of extensive artificial lakes, so that it is now possible to drive through a landscape which to a considerable degree is man-made, for reflected in the still waters of the lake is the image of the coniferous forests which have been established largely during the past 40 years. There are two principal tracts of forest. The first, privately owned, is divided into two parts, one of which extends from Mokai in the south towards Atiamuri and thence on towards Kinleith and Tokoroa. The other part lies to the west of Kinleith and Tokoroa and extends towards the Waikato River around Mangakino, the net planted area being approximately 176,000 acres. The other principal tract of forest, State owned, lies further east in the Kaingaroa Plains. These forests were planted during a period of intense speculation when considerable doubts existed concerning the agricultural potentialities of the region and when owing to depressed economic conditions labour was cheap. Although most of the forests have since received very little proper silvicultural treatment and the plantings are far in excess of industrial needs, nevertheless they have formed the basis for the creation of an important pulp and paper industry in the post-war period. At Kinleith New Zealand Forest Products established their plant in 1952 for the production of kraft paper (capacity, 38,500 tons), kraft pulp (capacity, 91,000 tons), and sawn timber (capacity, 80 million board feet); whilst at Kawerau in 1955 the Tasman Pulp and Paper Co., of which the State is a shareholder, established their plant for the production of 60,000 tons of chemical pulp and 65,000 tons of mechanical pulp and, by 1962, of 200,000 tons of newsprint. In addition there is a tissue and lightweight paper plant at Kawerau and, at Whaka-tane, a cardboard plant, established in 1939, with an annual capacity of 38,000 tons. Kinleith and Kawerau are amongst the largest concerns in the Dominion and the industry is making a significant contribution to the economy generally and to the export trade of the country. In 1963 pulp and paper exports were valued at £6,905,054.

In the absence of a long winter the growth of the conifers has been rapid. Principal species are Pinus radiata , Pinus ponderosa, Pseudotsuga taxifolia (Douglas fir), and Pinus nigra vas calabrica (Corsican pine). Although by North Island standards the number of days with ground frost is high, at Rotorua 79.9, the climate on the whole is quite agreeable to livestock farming. Rotorua has a January mean daily maximum of 73.8°F and a July mean daily minimum of 37.2°F. The annual average rainfall is 53.7 in. and the number of rain days averages out at 151 days. The station records an annual average of 1,998 hours of bright sunshine.

In contrast to that of much of the North Island, the vegetation of the Central Plateau at the time of European settlement was of scrub, fern, and tussock grass rather than dense forest. Consequently, the barriers to settlement were not apparently overwhelming and, in fact, some parts of the region, for example, Moawhango and around the southern shores of Lake Taupo and the southern part of the Kaingaroa Plains, were taken up by the 1880s. Large flocks of Merinos and Cheviots were grazed and, in addition, near Reporoa a number of smaller farms were successfully established. The prosperity of the settlers did not advance, because among other things they encountered bush sickness which appeared as a loss of condition in the stock. This problem was at first circumvented by running the animals part of the time on land free of bush sickness, a practice which of course limited the extent of settlement considerably. A long-term solution to the problem was suggested by the experience of E. E. Vaile, who related the sickness to the absence of cobalt in the soil.

Inaccuracies and exaggerations are inevitable in any brief account of the region's physical geography, but the Central Plateau is best visualised as a broad expanse (some 50 miles wide) of volcanic rocks and ash deposits which are not greatly dissected and which slope down from Lake Taupo at an altitude of approximately 2,000ft towards the Bay of Plenty. The region is much broader in its north-eastern section, and its total length north-east to south-west is approximately 200 miles. To the east the greywacke ranges of the Kaimanawa (summit 5,625 ft), the Huiarau (summit 4,602ft), and the younger rocks of the Raukumara Range appear as a clear and decisive boundary. On the west, however, much lower and less continuous ranges, the Hauhungaroa (summit 3,825 ft), and Mamaki and Kaimai, suggest rather than confirm the physical limits of the region. In the southernmost and highest part the width of the region is reduced as the greywacke rocks in the east and the Tertiary rocks in the west draw closer together and finally limit the volcanic region. But it is in the south that one finds the most spectacular scenery of the district and some of the most attractive tourist and recreational facilities.

Lake Taupo is a huge sheet of water (234 sq. miles) lying in a grabenlike structure. Its eastern shores are the preferred ones for tourists and anglers and from the borough of Taupo in the north to Turangi and Tokaanu in the south there is a litter of camp sites, motels, fishing lodges, and private baches, the principal attraction lying in the trout fishing both on the lake itself and, more especially, from streams such as the Waitahanui and the Tongariro River. In association with the construction of a highway on the western side of Lake Taupo, a rapid development of the more favoured sites of the western shore is already under way. Immediately to the south of the lake lies the magnificent trinity of Tongariro (6,517 ft), Ngauruhoe (7,515ft), and Ruapehu (9,175ft); the latter two are still active. Tongariro is an extensive and formless dump of volcanic debris without the perfect conical form of Ngauruhoe, because it is supposed to have destroyed its peak in a series of tremendous explosions. Ruapehu, less classic in its form, appears as an immense and formidable mass standing 6,000 ft above the surrounding country – a waste of ash and tussock country partly used for army manoeuvres from the military base at Waiouru. On the northern slopes of Ruapehu lie the most extensive ski-ing fields in the North Island. The skiers are housed either in the more expensive accommodation of the Chateau Tongariro or in one of the 35 ski club huts, with accommodation ranging from the bare and minimum to the lavish, grouped at approximately 5,000 ft near the bottom of the first or second chair lifts. The altitude is barely sufficient to compete with the latitude of the area, 39° 15 S, so that the ski-ing season is a limited one, from the beginning of June to the end of October. But the attractions are great and include not only the ski runs themselves but also the paradox of the warm waters of the crater lake surrounded by snow and ice and the superb vistas from the summit, which on certain days include the smoke of Ngauruhoe, the distant gleam of Lake Taupo, and snow-capped Mount Egmont 80 miles away.

The general economic development of the post-war period has nowhere else been so spectacularly made manifest as in the Central Plateau. From a relatively underpopulated and undeveloped region it has emerged as the most important centre for the production of hydro-electric power, timber, pulp, and paper in the North Island. Its tourist and recreational facilities have undergone marked improvement, whilst the agricultural production of the region and the extent of the area grassed have increased tremendously. Excluding Opotiki, the total area grassed in the remaining four counties has increased by 51.75 per cent during the period 1951–52 to 1959–60. Two sizable towns, Kawerau (4,413) and Tokoroa (7,054), in Matamata County, have grown from nothing, and Mangakino (5,025) has been established to house the families of the engineers and labourers engaged in the construction of the hydro-electric dams. Rapid rates of growth have been attained during the last decade in Rotorua (81.68 per cent), Tauranga (72.15 per cent), Whakatane (89.25 per cent), and Taupo (287.40 per cent). The improvement of roads and highways which has accompanied and assisted all these developments has not only facilitated access and circulation within the region but has also made it the principal route for motor traffic between the northern and southern parts of the North Island. In the Central Plateau one has been able to observe the creation of a modern geography through the needs and with the technologies of the twentieth century.

By linking together the two regional names of Central Plateau and Bay of Plenty one recognises a further aspect of change during the post-war period. The Bay of Plenty is a much longer settled and more intensely developed region than the Central Plateau, but with the improvement of roading and with the establishment of Mount Maunganui as the port for the timber industries, the interrelation between the two areas has grown apace. The individualities of the two regions have not merged, but it would be an anachronism and against the trend established by the economic forces at work to maintain their separate identities.

The Central Plateau is an extensive area of high but level country whose underlying rocks and soils are of volcanic origin; hence it is sometimes referred to as the Volcanic Plateau. It lies in the central part of the North Island extending from Ruapehu and Lake Taupo in the south towards Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty in the north-east. The area corresponds roughly to the extent of five counties, Tauranga, Rotorua, Taupo, Whakatane, and Opotiki, which, together with their interior boroughs, constitute the principal basis for the collection of statistics. Rotorua (urban area population, 25,068, 1961) and Tauranga (urban area population, 24,659, 1961) are the main towns of the region, which, in 1961, had a total population of 129,840 (representing 5·37 per cent of the New Zealand population), 24·74 per cent of whom were Maoris.

The law was revised in 1963 and the new Indecent Publications Act must be seen against this background of practice as well as law. Although important, the changes are less radical in practice than in law. The greatest innovation is the transfer of power from the Courts to a single administrative tribunal with an appeal to a bench of three Judges of the Supreme Court. The tribunal has been empowered to classify publications as indecent, or indecent in the hands of particular age groups, or indecent except for specified classes or purposes. The effect should be liberalising, since it avoids any possibility that, in the words of a contemporary English Judge, the standard of decency will be what is fit for a 14-year-old schoolgirl. Some judgments in the case of the book Lolita in 1961 went close to suggesting this. Also liberal are the principles which the tribunal is directed to follow. Besides the literary or artistic merit of the publication, they include its dominant effect and the author's honesty of purpose, tests enunciated in the American and English Courts.

The new Act does not create pre-censorship in the usually understood sense, since publication does not require prior approval. On the other hand a book, magazine, or periodical may be submitted to the tribunal at any time and a decision obtained without involving prosecution or seizure. The restrictions which the tribunal may place on the publication of its proceedings and decisions – by no means as great as suggested by some when the Act was being passed – are a half-way house between wholly open Courts and administrative procedure in private. The most serious feature is the ability of the tribunal to prevent newspaper discussion and criticism of its decisions. One may hope, however, that the tribunal will use its powers sparingly.

It is improbable that the new Act will present any threat to serious works or works with real claims to merit. Indeed, fewer of these may find themselves held wholly indecent and adults may perhaps lawfully be able to acquire currently excluded works of Lawrence, Nabokov, etc. Doubtless a more vigorous assault will be launched on trashy books or periodicals exploiting sex and sadism. The ability of any tolerable law to exclude undesirable or supposedly undesirable publications is, however, limited. Short of putting up a woollen curtain between New Zealand and the outside world, we are necessarily exposed to the wind of standards in overseas countries from which most of our reading matter comes.

by Bruce James Cameron, B.A., LL.M., Legal Adviser, Department of Justice, Wellington.

Almost every country places some restrictions on what may be published, although the emphasis and the degree of control differ from country to country and at different periods. In New Zealand the law prohibits the publication of seditious and defamatory writings, or matter that is in contempt of Court, but, as might be expected in a democratic country of puritan background, censorship is primarily associated with obscenity or indecency. Traditionally, indecency has been regarded as confined to sexual matters. Since 1954, however, it has, in law, extended also to matters of horror, crime, cruelty, or violence. For the purposes of the new Act of 1963, indecency consists in describing, depicting, expressing, or otherwise dealing with matters of sex, horror, crime, cruelty, or violence in a manner injurious to the public good.

The publication of obscene writings was a common law offence in New Zealand, but became statutory when the criminal law was codified in 1893. There were also summary offences relating to obscene publications. The Indecent Publications Act of 1910 marked a new approach. It created various summary offences and laid down the matters to which the Court was to have regard. One liberal feature was the relevance of literary and artistic merit, evidence of which was admitted by the Courts. This was not achieved in England until 1959. On the other hand, jury trial was deliberately excluded as being inappropriate in this field, and ignorance of the character of a publication was not a defence.

The Act of 1910 left the determination of indecency to the ordinary Courts, and a decision on a book could be given only on a criminal prosecution or seizure proceedings. Except with obvious pornography this could be unfair to the individual and disadvantageous to the community. Court proceedings might draw attention to an undesirable and perhaps little-known work. A case could come before any Magistrate or Judge, whose opinions might colour the result. Partly for these reasons, there grew up an informal censorship by the Customs and latterly the Justice Departments, with an outside advisory committee considering literary questions. Book sellers and importers were given informal opinions which were recognised to have no legal force but were almost always accepted. Since 1954 there has been what amounts to open censorship of children's comics. The Customs authorities also devised an informal scheme of categories into which publications were placed, thus avoiding the simple in-or-out distinction of the Act.