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

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

These unshaped islands, on the sawyer’s bench,
Wait for the chisel of the mind…

James K Baxter, New Zealand, 1972

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)

Origins of an Experimental Society:
New Zealand 1769–1860. The,

author Erik Olssen
university Ōtago
publisher Auckland University Press
published 20250408
light-the-fuse perspective :

Wisdom abhors a vacuum and Aotearoa today is woefully the worsefirst draft: worser, embracing the idiom of the 1600–1700s colonial period for the lazy assumption that its coloni­sa­tion by Europeans was typical of that which was visited upon the Americas, and even penal-col­o­nised Australia a centuryin respect to penal transportation from Britain to either continent, 126 years and a quarterin respect to penal transportation from Britain to either continent, 126 years more recently. By itself, Dame Anne Salmond’s Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas —which Olssen quotes—was wondrous 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. The docu­series-initiating trilogy demanded today—thanks to The Origins of an Experimental Society, would have considerably greater heft—by em­bodying the part the Enlightenment played in New Zealand’s European set­tle­ment. For this single-issue reviewer , the reciprocal role the Pacific and Aotearoa played in the En­light­en­ment that Olssen so superbly details—not least detail is the contribution offered by 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—was the icing on the Enlightenment revelation.

Readers who had, long since, suspected that the main shortcoming of Britain’s voyages of exploration and of colonisation, from 1769 onward, was not ill-intention, but of ill-funding, won’t find much in Olssen’s metic­u­lous account to disabuse them of that impression. Volume two of The Origins of an Experimental Society  will pre­sum­ably confirm Julius Vogel’s Great Public Works of the 1870s as the first robustly funded, at-scale New Zealand enterprise. That, began a period of large-scale public works—in­clud­ing planted forestry and hydroelectric infrastructure—that was de­servedly long held in high regard. Shamefully, by the time of Sirthat a brazen, bullying, disingenuous populist politician could be knighted whilst in office, should have provoked the urgent, deep redemocratisation of Aotearoa Robert Muldoon’s Thinkcoined by Minister of Internal Affairs Alan Highet, who, that year also introduced God Defend New Zealand as the country’s national anthem, alongside God Save the Queen Bigcoined by Minister of Internal Affairs Alan Highet, who, that year also introduced God Defend New Zealand as the country’s national anthem, alongside God Save the Queen of the 1980s, any and ev­ery state-led initiative, locally and globally, was being lampooned with indolent impunity. The state was purportedly too inherently inept, in the face of the sup­posedly self-evident superiority of the free market, to be allowed to determine the direction of nations. Without its name being widely known, much less spoken , Ne­olib­er­al­ism won-out over gov­ern­men­tal—and hands-down over inter ­govern­men­tal—planning, leaving civilisation dead in the 3rd Mil­len­nium Polycrisis water. Fervently, the exceeding rare few who sub­scribe to any form of Light the Fuse  life­line, must pray/labour that some form of Great Mo­bil­i­sa­tion materialises. If it should, and if  it should be of New Zealand origin and  have material­ised in time to be mentioned in the con­cluding pages of the thirdand final volume of Origins of an Experimental Society , said ex­per­i­men­tal society will have fully redeemed itself.

‹ New research   | Endnotes ›

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Disclosure The author of this novel modello is no longer the secretary of Mahurangi Action Incorporated or the Mahurangi Coastal Path Trust. The content published here, however, is that of the editorially independent, independently funded Mahurangi Magazine.

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