Light the fuse

Not the great New Zealand mobilisation novel

An early work-in-progress dedicated to helping,
circuitously, precipitate the Great Mobilisation

Dare to be wise!
Kant

Back matter

Bibliography

Contents
author Cimino
work-in-progress published 20250711

These unshaped islands, on the sawyer’s bench,
Wait for the chisel of the mind…
James K Baxter, New Zealand, 1972

Origins of an Experimental Society, cover

Great New Zealand History: Candidate surely, as the basis for the first of an essential three-part, multi-episodic history documentary series, The Origins of an Experimental Society: New Zealand 1769–1860 —and its two companion volumes, once published—have enormous potential to contribute to rebuilding a kinder New Zealand society—a team of five or more million committed to salvaging a survivable climate, one Aotearoa at a time. publisher Auckland University Press | typographic compaction Mahurangi Magazine

Colloquium, at the first of the word’s three appearances in The Origins of an Experimental Society: New Zealand 1769–1860 , instantly became Cimino’s new most favourite word, of his new most favourite book, authored by candidate for his new most favourite New Zealand historian:

Bibliography – ordered alphabetically by titlebut disrespecting the bloody The, where regrettably deployed

The Origins of an Experimental Society:
New Zealand 1769–1860
author Erik Olssen
university Ōtago
publisher Auckland University Press
published 20250408
light-the-fuse observation Wisdom abhors a vacuum, and Aotearoa is woefully the worserembracing the 1600–1700s vernacular for the lazy assumption that its colonisation by Europeans was typical of that which was visited upon the Americas, and even Australia. By itself, Dame Anne Salmond’s Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas —which Olssen quotes—was worthy of seeding a trilogy of first-contact movies which, as well as filling theatres worldwide, would have provided a springboard for the better education of New Zealanders young and old, Māori, Pākehā, Pasifika et al as to their uniquely Enlightenment-nuanced heritage. Be that as it may, Salmond’s stout ship sailed 21 years ago this2025 August, without materially boxing New Zealand’s compass. Thanks to The Origins of an Experimental Society, the docuseries-initiating trilogy demanded today would have considerably greater heft, incorporating the part the Enlightenment played on New Zealand’s European settlement, and the part Aotearoa and the Pacific played in the Enlightenment, which Olssen so superbly details—not least of all the contribution of the irrepressibly polymathic Benjamin Franklin to the designFranklin made specific suggestions for Cook’s mission to establish key Old World domesticated animals and crops throughout the Pacific, for the strengthening of its societies of the New Zealand experiment.

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Disclosure The editor of this content is no longer the secretary of either the Mahurangi Action Incorporated or the Mahurangi Coastal Path Trust. Regardless, the content published here continues to be that of the editorially independent, independently owned and funded Mahurangi Magazine.