INHERITORS OF A DREAM - The Development of A New Zealand Folk Music Heritage

Phil Garland



The Sealers and Whalers

The earliest songs deal with the life and hardship of the sealers and whalers, who
first started visiting our shores towards the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. A number of these songs were collected in New Bedford from descendants of American whaling crew, who had spent some time off the coast of New Zealand during the 1820s and 30s. Obviously they adapted well known shanties and songs to suit their environment and here we have a local variant of a well known British song “The Coast of Peru.”    [note: see lyrics Issue 3]

“Come all of you whalemen who are cruising for sperm,
Come all of you seamen who have rounded Cape Horn,
For our captain has told us and he says out of hand,
There's a thousand whales off the coast of New Zealand.”


A number of shore whaling stations sprang up around the country and the men were commonly signed on in Sydney before being taken to the shore station and provided with drink, clothing and tobacco. Many took on Maori wives and in return for their housekeeping and support had to pledge allegiance to the interests of the tribe.

The Gold Rush

The most important single event in New Zealand's early history was the Gold Rush, bringing with it all the frenzied activity that results from the discovery of gold.

“Nothing populates a howling wilderness like gold”

This period gave rise to the first truly indigenous song “Bright Fine Gold” the perfect example of creative folk process at work – starting life as a miners' chorus, which developed into a schoolyard skipping rhyme chanted to the well known “Hot Cross Buns” before picking up extra verses and a haunting tune to become what is generally considered one of the finest songs to come out of our musical heritage.

“Bright Fine Gold, bright fine gold,
Wangapeka, Tuapeka, bright fine gold.”

“Spend it in the winter or die of the cold,
Wangapeka, Tuapeka, bright fine gold.”

“I'm weary of Otago, I'm weary of the cold,
If my man strikes it rich, away we will go.”

The original place names of “Wangapeka” and “Tuapeka” were gradually changed to “One a pecker, Two a pecker” probably during the chanting of the skipping rhyme, before being adopted for the title of Ruth Park's novel set in the Otago goldfields of the 1860s.

There have been a number of fine songs to come out of the Gold Rush era – many from the pen of Charles Robert Thatcher, who made his living lampooning public figures and events, while others blossomed as a result of the gold decline in Otago coinciding with the news of fresh discoveries on the West Coast. Overnight the miners started to move out, heading west towards the new El Dorado.

“Cheer boys cheer, a stunning goldfield's started,
Round upon the West Coast, there's golden ground for miles,
Good news for the diggers, so don't you be downhearted,
Take your passage now and go and make your piles.”

The country's first recession followed hard on the heels of the golden boom as the early settlers and pioneers began to experience harsh times and economic downturn. Regardless of social standing and through no fault of their own, many found themselves out of work, tramping the roads searching for whatever job became available during what would become known to many as “The Hungry Years.”

“The Winter ain't been hard as yet, though frost was pretty keen,
There's one thing I'll tell you mate, the country's getting mean.
The price of wool is looking up, the harvest ain't been bad,
But for them that's on the wallaby, there's little to be had.”

“And when skies are grey above us, it's getting hard to bear,
The feeling that the country has of hunger in the air.”


These hard times helped send many men into the swamps of Northland, digging and scraping for Kauri gum, which was a true resin – solidified turpentine. Although the substance is still in demand today, that demand far exceeds supply. There was no fortune to be made here, but it certainly provided a steady albeit lonely existence. The men spent the whole day digging and 'hooking' for gum, then singing and making music during long evenings to help relieve the boredom of scraping the resinous substance clean.

“The end of the earth isn't far from here,
And it's getting much darker year by year,
The gum's getting smaller and deeper down,
While never again will I see a town……….”


Some of the music originating from the gumfields can still be heard today, played by those 'Bohemian' musicians and their descendants who have been the cornerstone of the Puhoi Band, making music in the district since 1863.

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