Maori Hapu as a Whole Way of Struggle: 1840s–50s Before the Land Wars

Research in Maori land history, burgeoning under the influence of the Waitangi Tribunal since the mid-1980s, promises a better understanding of the history of Maori kinship as well as New Zealand political economy. It has often been merely assumed, for instance, that contemporary hapu are a (or the) traditional form. I argue that Maori kinship and especially hapu or their equivalent need to be better understood in historical perspective. This essay examines some evidence and issues arising from the first few decades of colonisation before the land wars of the 1860s.     

Community-based Fisheries Management,Tradition and the Challenges of Development in Marovo,Solomon Islands

This study examines traditional fisheries-related resource management through a case in which local communities, from a basis of customary, ‘common property’ control over the sea and its resources, handle a multitude of development issues. Presenting first some important issues relating to people's role in fisheries management and to the ‘common property’ debate, the article then describes a traditional system for management of land and sea resources in a Pacific Islands society; that of Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands. Emphasis is given to fisheries resources, with a view to explaining in practical terms how a system of customary marine tenure operates under the wider social, political, economic and ecological circumstances of change arising from development pressures. Against this background, assessments are made of the viability of this traditional fisheries management system under present conditions of state control and of both external and internal pressures for large-scale resource development enterprises.     

Kriging the Local Risk of a Rare Disease from a Register of Diagnoses

A substantial problem in studying the geographical epidemiology of rare noncontagious diseases is to estimate the risks of their development within populations. A geostatistical solution is described and illustrated by a case study of cancer among children in the West Midlands of England for the years 1980 to 1984 inclusive. Data consist of the numbers of diagnosed cases of cancer and of healthy children in each of 838 electoral wards, the centroids of which are known accurately. The rate of incidence or frequency, equal to the number of cases divided by the number of children, is a binomial variable and is treated as a realization of the underlying risk of a child's developing the disease that varies from place to place. The experimental variogram of the frequency was computed using the standard formulation. The variogram of the risk was obtained from it taking into account the numbers of children at risk and the error associated with each observed frequency. The variogram of the risk increased monotonically from 0 at zero lag to about 50 kilometers, and it was modeled as Whittle's two-dimensional elementary correlation function. The covariances of frequency and cross-covariances between the frequency and the risk were derived from it, and these were then used together with the data to krige the risk and map it. The risk of developing the disease is shown to have a patchy distribution, strongly autocorrelated at the regional scale of the investigation.     

Cyclic loading of an idealized clay‐filled fault: comparing hydraulic flow in two clay gouges

The flow of water along discontinuities, such as fractures or faults, is of paramount importance in understanding the hydrogeology of many geological settings. An experimental study was undertaken comprising two experiments on a 30° slip‐plane filled with kaolinite or Ball Clay gouge using a bespoke Angled Shear Rig (ASR). The gouge was initially loaded in equal step changes in vertical stress, followed by unloading of the sample in similar equal steps. This was followed by reloading to a new maximum stress, followed by unloading; the test history was therefore load‐unload‐reload‐unload (LURU). The transmissivity of the kaolinite and Ball Clay gouge showed a power‐law relationship with vertical stress. The LURU history showed considerable hysteresis, with flow effectively unchanged during unloading, even when vertical stress was close to zero. Reloading resulted in flow similar to that seen during unloading suggesting that the unloading‐reloading path is similar to the rebound‐reconsolidation line in classic soil mechanics. These observations show the importance of stress history on fracture flow; consideration of just the current stress acting upon a fracture may result in inaccuracies of predicted hydraulic flow. Once a new stress maximum was achieved the transmissivity of the fracture continued to reduce. No significant variation was seen in the flow response of kaolinite and Ball Clay gouge suggesting that the inclusion of illite and quartz did not have a significant influence on the form of the relationship between stress and flow, i.e. both described by a power‐law.     

A Permian Barycrinus? Wachsmuth (Crinoidea,Cladida) from Timor

Donovan, S.K. &; Webster, G.D. December 2015. A Permian Barycrinus? Wachsmuth (Crinoidea, Cladida) from Timor. Alcheringa 40, 216–218. ISSN 0311-5518.

A crinoid pluricolumnal from Noil Simaam, Timor, is identified as Barycrinus? sp., the youngest member of this otherwise Mississippian genus. Identifying features of this robust specimen include a moderately broad, pentastellate lumen and pentamerism. Although likely a new species, preservation is too poor to warrant erection of a nominal taxon. The only coeval barycrinid, probably also Barycrinus?, was described from the Carnavon Basin, Western Australia.

Stephen K. Donovan [steve.donovan@naturalis.nl], Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Postbus 9517, NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands; Gary D. Webster [webster@wsu.edu], School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-2812, USA.     

‘Not a Position for a Gentleman’: Sir Matthew Nathan as Colonial Administrator: From Cape Coast Castle to Dublin Castle via Natal

This article examines the role of Sir Matthew Nathan, British permanent under secretary for Ireland at the time of the Easter Rising in April 1916, and how critical events in his career as soldier, colonial governor and civil servant shaped his conduct and reaction to events in Ireland as the Rising unfolded around him. The article raises issues of identities: namely Nathan's own identity as an English gentleman, when, given his Jewish background, he was an outsider to that caste. Nathan's brief military career and lengthier career as a colonial governor earned him high praise as a model bureaucrat. In this paper Nathan's track from the War Office through government houses situated in West Africa, Hong Kong and Natal to Dublin Castle is traced to illustrate the changes in his character from decisiveness to indecision. While Nathan clearly misread the volatile situation in Ireland over the 1916 Easter weekend, his actions demonstrated both indecision and bureaucratic delaying tactics. It is argued that his experiences with obdurate settler ministers in Natal played a role in shaping his hesitancy at the time of crisis in Dublin and that this hesitancy provided an opportunity for the direct action of the Irish Volunteers. The conclusion is that, at the time of the Irish crisis, Nathan failed to exercise the ‘power of the personal influence’ expected of an experienced governor.     

The 1989 Tasmanian election: The green independents consolidate

This paper provides an analysis of the election of 13 May 1989 which was a major watershed in Tasmanian politics. Independent members of parliament were elected in each of Tasmania's five electorates with the result that neither the Liberal Party nor the ALP could govern in their own right The period following the election was marked by continuing political drama punctuated by several key events. These events included the development of the Tasmanian Parliamentary Accord between the ALP and the Independents, continued pressure from supporters of the Liberal Party for a fresh election, and arrests in relation to an alleged attempt to bribe a newly‐elected ALP member to cross the floor and support the Liberal Party. The defeat of the Gray government in a vote of no‐confidence following the recall of parliament, and the resignation of Premier Gray, led to the commissioning of a minority ALP ministry, relying on the support of the Independents.