John Eldon Gorst, 1835–1916

Abstract

Nineteenth-century migrations to New Zealand from Britain, Europe, the United States and Australia resulted in a substantial literature of exploration, settlement and cultural encounter, as the new arrivals engaged with the long-established indigenous Māori population. By 1860, the immigrants began to outnumber Māori, and widespread tensions and finally open war resulted from their growing demands for land. John Eldon Gorst’s The Maori King is one of a large number of works of non-fiction and fiction dealing with what for a long time were known as the Māori Wars, now known more neutrally as the New Zealand Wars. Gorst’s analysis of the causes of the war in the Waikato region south of Auckland has long been considered the masterpiece of this body of literature.