Story: Economy and the environment

In the 1840s French settlers planted vines around their settlement on Akaroa Harbour, Canterbury. This 1866 painting by William Watkins shows rows of vines on the slopes behind the settlement. When European wine expert Romeo Bragato visited Akaroa in 1895, very few families were still growing grapes, as there was no market for their wine. Instead a ready market for pastoral products in Britain created the grasslands landscape of rural New Zealand.