Job-seeking research has been implicitly an examination of the job-seeking activities of youth. Even at the broader level of the labour market there continues an underlying association of youth with employment while the experiences of mature workers have been largely minimised, especially in New Zealand. This study examines the job-seeking activities and experiences of mature job-seekers in the New Zealand labour market from a political economy perspective.Issues surrounding mature workers have lacked a theoretical and disciplinary "base" with the issues of retirement and health consistently overwhelming any discussion about mature people and employment. The political economy theory of aging does provide a useful explanatory framework given the struggle for recognition and resources of mature workers. The persistent exclusion of mature workers from any discussion about the labour market in New Zealand is a common theme throughout the present study.As mature workers become increasingly "problematised" by economists as a threat to future economic productivity; issues surrounding mature employment need to be better understood because there will be greater proportions of mature workers and mature job-seekers. Through a sample of 947 mature jobs-seekers collected by MESA offices throughout New Zealand, issues surrounding mature job-seekers in particular were examined.The results highlight both the different and similar experiences of men and women in the New Zealand labour market. Women respondents were more likely to present themselves as younger than men, and to be returning to the labour market after family responsibilities with lesser confidence in their job-seeking skills and occupational abilities. Men by contrast presented themselves at MESA as older and more likely to have been made redundant; they also appeared to have more confidence in their job-seeking and occupational skills. Gender, however, did little to explain the primarily formal job-seeking methods used and the effort expended job-seeking. There is little to suggest that job-seeking efforts diminish significantly with age. Only with the final cohort of age 61 years and over, was mean job-search effort significantly less than for other age-cohorts. By contrast the variable time out of work explained much of the variance with job-search peaking at six months out of work. Subsequent analysis strongly supports the suggestion that any policy intervention will have the greatest impact within the first four to six months of unemployment.There is also some evidence to suggest that the reason for becoming a mature job-seeker and the attributions these mature job-seekers make for their unemployment is associated with their job-search efforts. In the present study those mature job-seekers made compulsorily redundant, regardless of age or gender, clearly tried harder than other job-seekers. By contrast those job-seekers who indicated they had been dismissed gave less effort to their job-search.The primary barrier identified by mature job-seekers is silence, silence from employers or employment agencies about why they have not been considered or rejected for work. As a consequence many mature job-seekers interpreted this silence as age discrimination. Understandably mature job-seekers are reluctant to see their lack of skills or experience as contributing to their circumstance and feel disappointed that their skills are not appreciated: a point well highlighted by the qualitative analysis "Trajectory of emotion" that captures the voice of participants in the present study. Finally, paid employment does matter to mature people and future research and policy would do well to examine the full picture of the labour market and give attention to where real needs exist. Mature job-seekers in the present study did not necessarily seek "special" treatment but rather the same opportunities as their chronologically younger colleagues to make a contribution to New Zealand society through paid work.

Through a theoretical framework of myth in genesis, operation and review, this thesis evaluates the relationship between Australian society and the myth of the digger, a tradition of Australian military manhood which originated in the First World War. The digger in genesis was a product of early twentieth century Australia???s need to establish for itself a distinct national identity. Deriving strongly from existing mythology of the bushman/pioneer and foster by the work of CEW Bean, it was quickly adopted by both governments and citizens anxious to promote the contributions of the Australian soldiers and to understand the relationships that these had with the emerging Australian society. The digger in operation from the First World War to the end of the Second World War to the early 1960s demonstrates the way in which Australian (enamoured of its simple and seemingly enduring qualities) Embedded the myth at the core of orthodox thinking about national Identity, despite its exclusivity and prescriptive, authoritarian control by conservative institutions. The era of the Vietnam War acted as a key review phase for the myth as its relevance was questioned significantly. Despite temporary rejection from many and fragmentation into a variety of icons, Australia???s brief flirtation with radical thinking did not last beyond the mid-1970s. A return to conservative values in the 1980s-1990s coincided with political reconciliation over the Vietnam War ??? by the mid-1990s, the digger myth had retained its position of relevance and importance within Australian culture, demonstrating its capacity to become adapted and appropriated to reflect an increasingly democratic and pluralistic society. The current prevailing version of the digger, the &quotnew professional&quot, demonstrates the parallel transition of Australian military culture. It co-exist with other representations, providing a scaffold through which individuals interact with it to develop their own understanding of the application of the digger myth to both their own lives and Australian society.

The thesis explores the interactions of the common law with indigenous law in three jurisdictions: Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Case law involving family, criminal and land law is examined in detail, to establish how the common law has interacted with indigenous law. Two aspects of common law interactions are explored: judicial approaches to the recognition of indigenous law; and, judicial perceptions about the relationship between the common law and indigenous law. Courts faced with indigenous law have taken one of three approaches to recognising it. These are respectively referred to in the thesis as the non-recognition approach, the accommodation approach and the recognition approach. With regard to judicial perceptions about the relationship between the common law and indigenous law, the case law reveals seven different perceptions. They are: no relationship; mere acknowledgement; separate but capable of recognition; adjustment; assimilation/domination; assimilation/search for partnership; and absorption. Where a relationship is acknowledged, although perceptions may vary, essentially they can be placed in one of three categories. Courts may regard the relationship as one between two separate bodies of law, with points of intersection. They may regard it as one of convergence, perhaps even partial integration, between separate legal traditions. Finally, they may regard indigenous law as having been absorbed into the dominant legal system. Courts with this latter perception regard indigenous law as analogous to English local customs. Having identified more than one approach to the recognition of indigenous law, consideration is given to the circumstances in which the approaches are used, exploring differences arising out of the subject area in question and the jurisdiction in which the case is considered. The thesis also demonstrates that some correlation exists between the judicial approach to recognition of indigenous law and judicial perceptions about the relationship of the common law with indigenous law, though this correlation cannot be demonstrated in all cases. Lastly, the capacity of the common law to recognise changes to indigenous law is considered, where the case law reveals that both the judicial approach to recognition of indigenous law, and judicial perceptions about the relationship between the common law and indigenous law have a bearing on the capacity of the courts to recognise change. The thesis demonstrates that both the judicial approach to recognition of indigenous law and judicial perceptions about the relationship between the common law and indigenous law affect common law interactions with indigenous law.

Recent New Zealand (NZ) research found rates of physical fighting and weapon carrying among high school students in Dunedin were equal to that of rates for the United States (US). The NZ Government has identified violence as a priority health issue. However, NZ is lacking information on the prevalence of the problem, and the identification of factors which may provide clues for prevention. The current understanding of the social context in which physical aggression takes place, has focused on risk factors that are present in the adolescents� ecological frame. Emerging protective factors are increasingly being recognised as major determinants that can moderate the adverse effects of risk factors. However, little research into protective factors has been conducted in NZ. The aim of this thesis was to investigate physical aggression among adolescents in NZ. This was explored through four in-depth studies: i) a national survey of secondary school principals and counsellors ii) focus groups with students in Otago; iii) an online survey with students in Otago and iv) a survey with teachers in Otago. The national survey of secondary school principals and counsellors points to a degree of concern about physical violence in NZ. One in ten reported fights occurred frequently, and over a quarter of principals and over one third of counsellors reported that at least one student at their school had been caught carrying a weapon. Focus groups with Otago adolescents indicated that fights often began as verbal disagreements escalating to physical fights, that a fight should be defined as serious as opposed to a play fight; and differences were also found between fighting at school and outside of school. Participants suggested that items may be reported as weapons, even though they are not being carried for such purposes. Previous estimates of aggressive behaviours may have been unjustifiably high and possibly hid signifcant differences in the nature of the aggression being reported. A quantitative cross-sectional online survey was undertaken with Otago secondary school students, and confirmed that physical aggression among NZ adolescents is a significant problem. Mutivariate analyses identified the school as an important factor in the social system of adolescents; in particular feeling safe, not feeling alienated and being treated fairly. The results highlighted the need to concentrate on strategies that improve students� positive engagement with school as a means to reduce physical aggression. The final study of Otago secondary school teachers showed that while teachers did not consider physical aggression as a major problem in their schools, they did report frequent occurrences of physical fighting. Respondents also reported some teachers experienced significant physical aggression from students. Physical aggression among NZ adolescents is a significant public health problem that needs addressing. This behaviour impacts directly on the education offered to students, the safety of the environment in which learning takes place, and the stress of the work place for teachers. This thesis has identified school engagement as the most promising protective factors for young people against involvement in physical aggression.

�Every poet who takes language seriously is working against a culture of clear marketable meanings and commodified production� states New Zealand novelist, essayist and poet Gregory O�Brien. This statement is the motivation for research that is explored in a collaborative ethnographic study of brand culture perceptions in New Zealand. It takes its inspiration from The Poetics of Space (Bachelard, 1978) and provides intimate lyrical insights into the experience of brands and brandscapes. Gregory O�Brien describes the artists that inspire him as: �Those who resolutely stand on their own creative terms, working towards their own objectives, as oblivious as they can be to any market forces.� O�Brien�s observations are relevant to the research project in two essential ways: first to cast light on a shared cultural commodity construct such as a brand from its proposed opposite cultural site of individual imagination and secondly, to accept the poetic in the form of the undiluted voice of vocational poets as valuable media in their own right to achieve insightful interpretations. Critical marketing projects have the duty to generate an alternative �marketing gaze� sufficient to the task of �revelation� (Brownile & Hewer, 2007). With regards to individual artists and poets specifically, critical marketing concepts implicitly pose the main research question as to the scenarios that are conceivably available to consumers: how does �working against marketable meanings� imaginatively work? The project proposes the new construct of co-imagination as the co-active mental and spiritual engagement of consumers with the cultural artefacts of brandscapes that invite individual meaning making. It substantiates this individuality in a poetic evocation of brandscapes by thirteen artists. It analyses the holistic imaginative process on the basis of mental models, strategic scenarios and evocative aesthetics, in order to assess how talented consumers work against marketable meaning. It subsequently offers the relationship of co-imagination with existing co-optive concepts in marketing, literature and consumer behaviour, such as co-creation (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004), co-performance (Deighton, 1992) and co-duction (Booth, 1988). It results in a collaborative artistic inquiry that assembles individual evocations of enchantment and disenchantment with the beauty and ugliness of brandscapes, through newly created poetry. The research introduces the new concepts of aesthetic scarcity and aesthetic community and in its collaborative method of inquiry offers an alternative to a poetic tradition in consumer behaviour of the poet / researcher conflation (Sherry & Schouten, 2002). As a result, the project complements the understanding of the individual meaning-making process in brand culture and is relevant to both practitioners and researchers in consumer behaviour and brand strategy. The design of the project included a four month research journey that covered the North and the South Island of New Zealand with the objective of meeting a variety of poets in their local inspirational environments and brandscapes and catalyse an unusual creative cooperation of highly individual radical artists. In the thick description and analyses of the extensive field research, the project implicitly adds to existing work on brand culture (Schroeder, Salzer Morling, & Askegaard, 2006), brand aesthetics (Saizer-Mörling & Strannegård, 2004) and the relationship between artists and brands (Schroeder, 2005). The research includes design elements based on romantic pragmatism (Rorty, 2007a) and cognitive aesthetics (R. H. Brown, 1977), both post-romantic concepts that explore aesthetic perception as perspectival knowledge and aesthetic distance as a means to transcend the dichotomy of objectivity and subjectivity.

Adequate vitamin D status plays an important role in bone health and may also protect against Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), multiple sclerosis and certain cancers. Vitamin D is obtained from two sources; diet and through skin synthesis through the action of ultraviolet (UV) light. Dietary intakes of vitamin D are low in New Zealand (NZ) and the majority of our vitamin D comes from UV exposure. The NZ population may be at risk of low vitamin D status because of low dietary intakes, the country�s latitude (35-46 �S), and high proportion of darker skinned Maori and Pacific People. While case reports have described the occurrence of rickets, predominantly in immigrant groups, there are currently no national data on the vitamin D status of the NZ population. Reports of low vitamin D status in countries of similar latitude to NZ justify an examination of New Zealanders� vitamin D status. The best method to assess of vitamin D status is to measure circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations. This thesis comprises three main studies. The first two had the following aims: to measure 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and their determinants in a national sample (n=1585) of NZ children aged 5-14 y and to measure serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and their determinants in a national sample (n=2948) of New Zealanders aged 15 y and over. The 2002 Children�s Nutrition Survey CNS02 was a year long (December, March-November) cross-sectional survey of a nationally representative sample of NZ school children 5-14 y. Over-sampling of Maori and Pacific children allowed ethnic specific analyses. The 1997 National Nutrition Survey (NNS97) participants were recruited over one year according to an area-based sampling frame with a 3 stage stratified design consisting of primary sampling units, households within each unit, and one randomly selected respondent from each household. Mean (99% CI) serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were similar in children and adults (both 50 nmol/L). Among Maori, Pacific and NZEO children respectively, prevalence (%, 99% CI) of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D deficiency (< 17.5 nmol/L) was 5% (2, 12), 8% (5, 14), and 3% (1,7). Based on a cutoff of < 37.5 nmol/L, prevalence of insufficiency was 41% (29, 53), 59% (42, 75) and 25% (15, 35), respectively. Based on a cutoff of 50 nmol/L, 56% of children were insufficient. Three percent of adult New Zealanders had serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations indicative of deficiency ([less than or equal to] 17.5 nmol/L); 48% and 84% were insufficient based on cutoffs of [less than or equal to] 50 and [less than or equal to] 80 nmol/L The main determinants of vitamin D status in NZ children were season, ethnicity and sex. After adjustment for other factors and covariates, boys had an adjusted mean (99% CI) 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration 5 (1, 9) nmol/L higher than girls, Maori children were 7 (2, 11) and Pacific children 15 (11, 20) nmol/L lower than NZ European and Other (NZEO) children. Obese children were 7 (2, 11) nmol/L lower than overweight or �normal� weight. Children�s mean 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations (adjusted for other variables) peaked in March (69 nmol/L) and was at its lowest in August (36 nmol/L). In adults, there were effects of a similar magnitude of ethnicity and season on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations. Obesity, latitude and age were determinants of vitamin D status in women but not men. Obese (BMI > 30) women had an adjusted mean vitamin concentration 6 (3, 10) nmol/L lower than women with BMI < 25. Women living in the South Island were 6 (3, 9) nmol/L lower than women living in the North Island. Additionally, adjusted mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was 13 (8, 18) higher in women 15 -18 y than women 65 y or older. The third and final study aimed to determine whether the higher rates of vitamin D inadequacy reported in the winter than summer months in NZ also result in higher PTH concentrations, which would provide evidence for functional effect of inadequate vitamin D status. We also aimed to objectively explore the effect of natural skin colour on vitamin D status, given the higher prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in dark-skinned groups living far from the equator. Skin colour measurements were taken with a hand-held light reflectometer (Datacolor Mercury[TM] 1000 colorimeter, Lawrenceville, NJ). In the 342 residents of Invercargill and Dunedin, mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were lower in the late summer versus early spring (79 vs 51 nmol/L; P< 0.001). The lower serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in early spring versus summer was associatedwith a 2 pg/mL (P< 0.001) higher parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentration. Interestingly, no significant effect of natural skin colour, based on light reflectance at the inside of the upper arm, was discovered, though there was a positive effect of tanning, based on light reflectance at the upper forearm, on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations. Ethnicity and season are major determinants of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in New Zealanders. There is a high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in NZ children and adults, which may contribute to increased risk of osteoporosis and other chronic disease. While there is a pressing need for more convincing evidence with regards to the health risks associated with the low vitamin D status in children, evidence from the study of adults, where higher PTH concentrations were found during spring versus summer, suggests that the low 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations are having an adverse effect on bone health of adults. The high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in New Zealanders, warrants serious consideration of strategies such as fortification, to improve the vitamin D status of the population.

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of oral implant treatment provided at the School of Dentistry, University of Otago from 1989 to 2005. Methods: Oral implant patients (n=320) with 586 implants were identified and invited to attend for a clinical examination. Implant demographics of all the patients were extracted from the files. Implant demographics of the examined and unexamined patients were compared to assess if the examined patients were representative of the total group. One hundred and three patients with 214 implants agreed to attend for an examination. In the clinical examination full mouth plaque scores, probing depths, bleeding on probing and suppuration were measured. In addition, around implants recession and width of keratinized gingiva were also recorded. For the radiographic examination, baseline radiographs and radiographs taken at the time of examination were digitized and compared to measure the amount of bone lost or gained around implants using NIH Image J software. Results: There were equal numbers of males and females with a mean age of 46.3 � 15 years at the time of implant placement. The smoking history at the time of examination was recorded, 56% of the patients were non-smokers, 37% former smokers, and 7% were current smokers. More than half of the implants (56%) were placed in the anterior region. Based on the type of implant system, 79% were Branemark implants, 10% Straumann, 6% Southern implants and 4% were unknown. Most of the patients (64%) had implant-supported crowns, 19% had fixed denture prostheses, and 17% had implant-supported overdentures. The overall implant survival rate was 97.7% with five implants lost (2.3%) and 8 implants treated for peri-implantitis (3.8%). The mean PD around implants was 2.3mm (SD 0.6mm), mean recession was 0.5mm (SD 0.8mm) and mean attachment level of 2.8mm (SD 0.9mm). Probing depths [greater than or equal to] 4mm with BOP were recorded around implants in 8.9% of patients. The mean full mouth plaque score was 30% while mean plaque score around implants was 15.9%. The average bone loss around implants was 0.3mm (SD 0.8). Maximum bone loss observed was 2.9 mm. Conclusion: The prevalence of peri-implant inflammation and implant survival rates in this group of patients appeared comparable to that reported in the literature. The prevalence of peri-implant lesions was low in the group of patients examined.

This research investigates the relationship between principalship and policy in small New Zealand primary schools. A distinctive feature of small primary schools is that their principals typically have to teach as well as manage. Overseas research indicates that in times of educational reform, teaching principals face particular difficulty and may need special support. Following the watershed educational reforms of 1989 and a decade of ‘hands-off’ policy in education (1989-1999), central policy towards school support in New Zealand is now more ‘hands-on’. The impact of this policy change on small schools has not been researched hi New Zealand, where such schools make up over fifty percent of all primary schools. The aims of this study are to analyse the impact of current support policy in New Zealand on small primary school principalship, and to evaluate the extent to which policy adjustment might be needed in the future. Using multiple methods and a case study approach to gather data, the study focuses on small school principalship in one New Zealand region - the Central Districts region. It also considers the recent policy initiatives, their rationale and the extent to which they appear to be meeting the support needs reported by the principals whose work has been researched in the study. Broadly, the study has found that within small schools, the role-balance within a teaching principal’s work is a critical factor, as the ratio within the principal’s role-balance between the teaching role and the management role creates variation in work-demands, work-strategies and types of support needed. Teaching principals in New Zealand generally feel better supported now than they did in the 1990s and the study identifies factors associated with this change. However the analysis in this study suggests that the current policy aim to both rationalise and strengthen the small school network as a whole is rather problematic. Without better targeted support policy in this area, old style parochial and competitive attitudes between schools are unlikely to change in the future.

Human development has occurred against a timeline that has seen the creation of and diffusion of one innovation after another. These innovations range from language to complex computing and information technologies. The latter are assisting with the distribution of information, and extend to the distribution of the human species beyond the planet Earth. From early times, information has been published and mostly for a fee to the publisher. The absorption and use of information has had a high priority in most societies from early times, and has become institutionalised in universities and institutes of technical learning. For most in Western societies, education is now a matter of ‘lifelong learning’. Today, we see higher education institutions, worldwide, adapting their organisational structures and operating procedures and forming strategic alliances with communications content providers and carriers as well as with information technology companies. Modern educational institutes seek productivity and efficiency. Many also seek to differentiate themselves from competitors. Technological convergence is often seen by management to be a saviour in many educational organisations. It is hoped that lower capital and recurrent costs can be achieved, and that competitors in an increasingly globalised industry can be held at bay by strategic use of knowledge media (Eisenstadt, 1995) commonly associated with distance education in the campus setting. Knowledge media set up costs, intellectual property costs and training costs for staff and students are often so high as to make their use not viable for Australian institutes of higher education. Against this backdrop, one might expect greater educator and student use of publisher produced textbooks and digital enhancements to the textbook, particularly those involved in distance education. A major issue is whether or not the timing of instructor adoption of converging information technology and communications technologies aligns with the wishes of both higher education management and government, and with those who seek commercial gain from the diffusion and adoption of such technologies. Also at issue is whether or not it is possible to explain variance in stated intentions to recommend adoption of new learning technologies in higher education and implementation. Will there occur educator recommendation for adoption of individual knowledge media such as World Wide Web access to study materials by students? And what will be the form of this tool and others used in higher education? This thesis reports on more recent changes in the technological environment and seeks to contribute to an understanding of the factors that lead to a willingness, or unwillingness, on the part of higher education instructors, as influencers and content providers, to utilise these technologies. As such, it is a diffusion study which seeks to fill a gap in the literature. Diffusion studies typically focus on predicting adoption based on characteristics of the potential adopter. Few studies examine the relationship between characteristics of the innovation and adoption. Nearly all diffusion studies involve what is termed discontinuous innovation (Robertson, 1971). That is, the innovation involves adoptees in a major departure from previous practice. This study seeks to examine the relationship between previous experience of related technologies and adoption or rejection of dynamically continuous innovation. Continuous and dynamically continuous innovations are the most numerous in the real world, yet they are numerically the least scrutinised by way of academic research. Moreover, the three-year longitudinal study of educators in Australian and New Zealand meets important criteria laid down by researchers Tornatzky and Klein (1982) and Rogers (1995), that are often not met by similar studies. In particular the study examines diffusion as it is unfolding, rather than selectively examining a single innovation and after the fact, thus avoiding a possible pro-innovation bias. The study examines the situation for both ‘all educators’ and ‘marketing / management educators’ alone in seeking to meet the following aim: Establish if intended adopters of specific knowledge media have had more experience of other computer-based technologies than have those not intending to adopt said knowledge media. The analytical phase entails use of factor analysis and discriminant analysis to conclude that it is possible to discriminate adopters of selected knowledge media based on previous use of related technologies. The study does not find any generalised factor that enables such discrimination among educators. Thus the study supports the literature in part, but fails to find generalised factors that enable unambiguous prediction of knowledge media adoption or otherwise among each grouping of educators examined. The implications are that even in the case of related products and services (continuous or dynamically continuous innovation), there is not statistical certainty that prior usage of related products or technologies is related to intentions to use knowledge media in the future. In this regard, the present study might be said to confirm the view that Rogers and Shoemaker's (1971) conceptualisation of perceived innovation characteristics may only apply to discontinuous innovations (Stratton, Lumpkin & Vitell, 1997). The implications for stakeholders such as higher education management is that when seeking to appoint new educators or existing staff to knowledge media project teams, there is some support for the notion that those who already use World Wide Web based technologies are likely to take these technologies into teaching situations. The same claim cannot be made for computer software use in general, nor Internet use in general.

Using a series of interlocking case-studies, this thesis investigates environmental anxieties in New Zealand�s settler society in the period 1830-1920. A central premise of this study is that the rapid environmental transformation of New Zealand stimulated widespread anxieties and reforms within settler society. These anxieties focussed as much on the changes already begun as on apprehensions of the results of these changes. Applying the concept of environmental anxiety to settler New Zealand expands understandings about colonial culture and its environmental history. It moves debate beyond simple narratives of colonial environmental destruction. Instead, this thesis highlights the ambiguities and complexities of colonial views of the natural world. This thesis points to the insecurities behind seeming Victorian confidence, even arrogance, in the ability of science and technology to bring constant material improvement. Europeans recognised that modern living brought material advantages but that the rapid environmental changes that underpinned these improvements also brought and threatened to bring unwanted outcomes. A diverse range of settlers worried about the effects of environmental changes. Individuals, institutions, committees, councils, doctors, scientists, artists, governments, engineers and politicians expressed environmental anxieties of one kind or another. Some farmers, politicians and scientists held that deforestation decreased rainfall but increased temperatures. Other scientists and politicians feared that it brought devastating floods and soil erosion. Some Maori, travellers, politicians and scientists held that it destabilised sand that would inundate fertile fields. Councillors, engineers and doctors constantly debated ways of improving the healthiness of towns and cities, areas seen as particularly dangerous places in which to live. Doctors� and settlers� anxieties focused on the effects of New Zealand�s climate on health and racial development. The impact of environmental change on the healthiness of certain areas, as well as the role played by humans in climate change, also provoked lively discussion. The effects of these anxieties are evident in some of the land policies, artworks, legislation, parliamentary and scientific debates, and writings of this period. Settlers believed curbing pollution, laying out parks, planting trees and restricting the construction of unhealthy properties improved living conditions in cities. Some scientists and politicians thought setting aside forest �climate reserves� in highland areas, tree-planting legislation and sustainable forestry practices prevented flooding and climate change. Individuals and authorities also established sanatoria and spas in particularly healthy spots, such as at the seaside and in high, dry places. In investigating these topics, this thesis expands the discipline of environmental history, bringing to light the importance of studying urban environments, aesthetics, climate change, desertification and health. It expands the largely �national� narratives of New Zealand�s environmental histories by acknowledging that local environments, events and attitudes as well as global environments, events and attitudes shaped anxieties and policies. Global ideas, often operating at a local level, played a role in reinforcing and providing solutions to New Zealand�s environmental anxieties. This thesis also acknowledges the on-going significance of Christianity in under-girding ideas about improvement and environmental protection. Most significantly, perhaps, this study underlines both that many settlers displayed an emotional attachment to the New Zealand environment and that most colonists wanted to ensure the long-term productivity of its lands.