This thesis addresses the roles and experiences of fourteen London correspondents for New Zealand newspapers, 1884-1942. It argues that these correspondents made a small but significant contribution to news flow into New Zealand and that the importance of London’s role as an imperial, cultural and news-flow metropole make it central to studies of the New Zealand press during this period. However, correspondents identities as New Zealanders and the unique requirements of the New Zealand press system were also important, meaning that correspondents and their correspondence need to be addressed in terms of layered identity and of both imperial and domestic press systems.

The relationship between the European Union (EU) and New Zealand has expanded considerably since the protracted trade negotiations of the 1970s and now includes dialogue and cooperation on a range of policy issues. In recent years, environment has become an increasingly high priority matter and is increasingly referenced as playing an important part in EU-New Zealand relations. At the same time, the EU has been praised for its leadership role in climate change negotiations, and some scholars have described it as a “green” normative power with the ability to influence other actors internationally on environmental policy. Taking the EU-New Zealand relationship on environment as its case study, this thesis attempts to address a gap in the academic literature concerning relations between New Zealand and the EU on environmental issues. It compares and contrasts the concept of EU normative power with that of policy transfer, arguing that both address the spread of ideas, but finding that what might appear to be normative power and the diffusion of norms, can in fact be best explained as policy transfer and the diffusion of policy or knowledge.

The emergence of China as a dominant force in international politics has challenged the traditional roles states have played in regions such as the South Pacific. The 2006 Fiji coup heralded a new era of competition in the region as PRC policy response conflicted with that of existing powers such as New Zealand. China continued to engage and expand its relationship with Fiji while New Zealand attempted to isolate the interim Fijian administration. This thesis looks at how New Zealand and PRC policy towards Fiji has clashed following the 2006 coup and assesses the implications for these powers as well as the long term stability of the region. New Zealand responded to the coup by placing strict sanctions on Fiji and lobbying the Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth to suspend Fiji’s membership. Meanwhile, the PRC expanded its diplomatic, military and financial ties with Fiji and provided funding for the MSG, a frequent supporter of the Fijian regime.

Professions are characterised by the services they provide and in accounting this includes standard setting. The accounting profession became increasingly involved in the regulation of external financial reporting during the twentieth century by setting standards of accounting practice for its members and entity stakeholders. This narrative analysis of the history of accounting standards in New Zealand focuses on why the accounting profession in New Zealand, as elsewhere in the English-speaking world, assumed the responsibility to draft accounting standards. It argues that accountants did so to maintain their professional status. The New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants was instrumental in creating accounting standards in New Zealand. Cautious to begin with, the Institute soon became a progressive and innovative standard setter, not only developing a conceptual framework for New Zealand standards but also making the standards sector neutral. The Institute retained control of the drafting of accounting standards even when, as happened in the latter decades of the twentieth century, the New Zealand Government became more involved in the standard setting process. Recent changes in the standard setting process, however, such as the development and use of international accounting standards and the creation of statutory bodies to draft and authorise standards raise questions about the accounting profession’s continuing use of standard setting as a mechanism for maintaining professional reputation.

Situated amidst farmland 18 kilometres from the centre of Christchurch is Paparua men’s prison, one of New Zealand’s oldest and largest penal institutions. Prisoners have been housed at the Paparua site since 1915 and when the prison buildings were completed in 1925, around 120 prisoners were incarcerated there. Still at the same location where the two original wings continue to accommodate inmates, Paparua has the capacity for nearly 1,000 low to high-security male prisoners. Despite being almost a century old, very little has been recorded about Paparua, which is symptomatic of the paucity of published material on New Zealand prisons. This thesis seeks to address this shortfall in the literature by, for the first time, documenting the events which have taken place at Paparua and giving insight into life for prisoners there over the last 100 years. These events and the changes to prison life have been driven by the social conditions of the day and their intersection with a complex range of factors at the inmate, community and administrative levels. Paparua’s evolution, therefore, has been the product of the changing socio-political climate and by contextualising the prison’s history I will show how these dynamics have contributed to the development of Paparua. The research undertaken to achieve such a task involved an historical analysis of 130 years of departmental reports, government reports, parliamentary debates and newspaper articles. This was accompanied by 13 comprehensive interviews with former and current staff and inmates of Paparua. The reconstruction of Paparua’s past is valuable not only in that it captures the details of an interesting feature of New Zealand history but because it offers insight into the complex range of forces that a are likely to influence its development in the future.

This thesis aims to undertake an evaluation of the potential for renewable energy to be used as a mechanism for the development of the Pacific region. Further to this, it examines whether NZ and the EU are well placed to contribute to any renewable energy transition in these countries by analysing their internal energy policy documents, policy ties to the Pacific region and previous actions in the renewable energy arena. The Tonga Energy Road Map, a progressive plan for renewable energy implementation, is then investigated in depth to determine its effectiveness thus far and its potential as a model for other Pacific island nations.

This study followed two similarly affected, but socio-economically disparate suburbs as residents responded to and attempted to recover from the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand, on February 22, 2011. More specifically, it focuses on the role of local churches, community-based organisations (CBOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), here referred to broadly as civil society, in meeting the immediate needs of local residents and assisting with the longer-term recovery of each neighbourhood. Despite considerable socioeconomic differences between the two neighbourhoods, civil society in both suburbs has been vital in addressing the needs of locals in the short and long term following the earthquake. Institutions were able to utilise local knowledge of both residents and the extent of damage in the area to a) provide a swifter local response than government or civil defence and then help direct the relief these agencies provided locally; b) set up central points for distribution of supplies and information where locals would naturally gather; c) take action on what were perceived to be unmet needs; and d) act as a way of bridging locals to a variety of material, informational, and emotional resources. However the findings also support literature which indicates that other factors are also important in understanding neighbourhood recovery and the role of civil society, including: local leadership; a shared, place-based identity; the type and form of civil society organizations; social capital; and neighbourhood- and household-level indicators of relative vulnerability and inequality. The intertwining of these various factors seems to influence how these neighbourhoods have coped with and taken steps in recovering from this disaster. It is recommended that future research be directed at developing a better understanding of how this occurs. It is suggested that a model similar to Yasui’s (2007) Community Vulnerability and Capacity model be developed as a useful way to approach future research in this area.

Global food production, supply chains, and food quality are coming under increasing scrutiny by consumers, environmentalists and governments. Particularly in developed countries, there is growing awareness among consumers about food origins and environmental practices. There are increasing concerns over animal welfare and protection and due to food scares in the late 1990’s, and more recently contamination issues from additives within supply chains and food borne illness outbreaks in Europe. It is no surprise then that food safety and traceability matters have become an issue of public and governmental concern. There is much debate currently about globalisation of the international trade of food commodities. There is also a growing awareness about and changing attitudes towards the provenance of consumers’ food sources. This dichotomy provides the background argument to this thesis. Europe has long been considered the home of finely crafted cheeses and this thesis aims to examine how the use of Geographical Indications (GI’s) by the European Union (EU) can influence New Zealand made speciality cheeses. The EU system of GI’s and the protection of specialised food and agricultural products has enabled companies to build strong reputations in the global marketplace and also within the internal market in order to charge premium prices for these protected products. The vast majority of the world’s GI foods are located in Europe. This thesis aims to argue that while there is not an official system for the control of labels of origin for the names of speciality cheeses in New Zealand, they are used nonetheless. These labels of location are used to denote certain qualities, production methods or guarantee and differ from standardised, commoditised cheeses. This thesis discusses the use of GI’s in the cheese industry as a way for New Zealand cheese producers to create product differentiation and as a means of communicating product quality through provenance branding. This thesis uses qualitative research methods to gauge industry opinion regarding the nature of the speciality cheese industry in New Zealand in order to better understand the reasons for naming speciality cheese products and how European cheeses have influenced them. Findings indicate that naming and influences for these products are varied and complex, but have been ultimately influenced by European cheeses. For New Zealand cheese companies GI’s are used as a means to differentiate products from competitors.

Despite the ubiquity of the First World War as a key moment in the development of New Zealand’s national identity in scholarship and public memory, key aspects remain under explored. This thesis addresses a particularly noticeable gap – the operation and contents of New Zealand’s official First World War propaganda campaign. Through this focus, this thesis particularly explores how such propaganda reflected New Zealand’s place within, and engagement with, the concept of the ‘British world’. Propaganda is an ideal window into the workings of the British world during the war, illustrating both the operation of the practical connections, and the ideological reflections of national, imperial, and ‘British’ identities in the British world. Therefore, New Zealand and Britain’s First World War propaganda demonstrates the nature of the British world, particularly through exploration of the ways that New Zealand’s official campaign connected to and interacted with Britain’s official wartime propaganda campaign. Specifically, the thesis argues that a gap existed between the rhetorical ‘British world’, as constructed in the content of New Zealand’s wartime propaganda, and the practical realities of how the British world operated and interacted during the war. While New Zealand was comfortable rhetorically identifying itself as ‘British’ and part of the British world, practical limitations of communication and interaction with Britain often inhibited this theoretical community. The concept of ‘Dominion perspective’ is crucial to this interpretation. New Zealand’s Dominion status was central to the operation of propaganda in and between New Zealand and Britain during the war, and to New Zealand’s identification of itself within its propaganda. This interpretation reflects a wider view of New Zealand’s experience of the British world. Though concepts of Dominion status and the British world were centrally important to New Zealand during the war, they were not unproblematic. These concepts were frequently reshaped both theoretically and practically. The First World War was crucial to this development, as the closer interaction and cooperation within the British world it demanded, laid bare both the practical shortcomings of the British world, and the contested nature of concepts of Dominion status and the British world itself. The operation of official wartime propaganda in the British world reflects this wider process, and its significance to New Zealand.

The thesis explores the roles and reponsibilities of New Zealand Police deployed under the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, established in 2003. Their work under this banner continues a growing trend that sees the deployment of constabulary police officers to post-conflict societies to re-establish order and build a framework for sustainable peace. Where the existing literature considers the normative dimensions of this trend, this thesis looks more closely at the micro-level interaction between international police officers and citizens of post-conflict societies. In particular, it asks questions about the suitability and sustainability of the community policing model; a model that has developed over several decades in an internal law-enforcement context but is relatively new to the peace-building sphere. The research focus is drawn from the extensive literature on the use of community policing in domestic contexts but is adapted in order to speak back to the literature on peace-bulding and international policing. The everyday experiences of New Zealand Police were deployed to Solomon Islands were explored through semi-structured interviews. In particular, the thesis found that officers experiences little of the ethnic conflict that had, according to international media, been the hallmark of the Tension period and that they showed a nuanced understanding of the social and political climate of the communities they operated in. It further found that, while officers were often keen to show respect for local tradition and local power structures, they also saw that in some cases these structures needed to be broken down for the safety and well-being of local people, particularly women and children. The New Zealand style of community policing sometimes clashed with that other contingents but overall the strength of the personal and professional relationships they had with those they worked with was the most decisive factor influencing their experience. While much of the discussion centres on the community model, the findings highlight the importance of people in the peace-building process. The model played an important role in facilititating a broad-based policing initiative in Solomon Islands but it was the personal investment by individual officers going about their everyday work that was often crucial in breaking down the barriers to peace. The finding points to the importance of empowering communities in exercising ownership over the peace-building process and the role that police officers from another country can play in encouraging that process.