New Zealand Journal of History, 34, 1 (2000) Claudia Orange, Peter Munz

A Tribute to Bill Oliver on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday

WILLIAM HOSKING OLIVER 1925-Emeritus Professor of History

FOR OVER 50 YEARS Bill Oliver has been one of New Zealand's most influential historians. Through his own work, and as a promoter of excellence in the work of colleagues and younger historians, he has encouraged quality in a wide range of historical scholarship.

He completed his student years at Victoria University College, where he was a Junior Lecturer (1948-1951), with a Master's degree from the University of New Zealand (1951). This was followed by Oxford's Balliol and Nuffield Colleges and a DPhil on British trade union history. Returning to New Zealand he lectured in history, first at the University of Canterbury (1955-1959) and then at Victoria University (1960-1963). But it was establishing and developing a new department of history at Massey University that stands in his own estimation as the most challenging period of his career (1964-1983). As Professor and Head of Department, and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities (1964-1967), he served on the University's Council and on the University Grants Committee (1973-1977).

Though the Massey years made heavy administrative demands, broken only by a year as Visiting Professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, Bill was productive as a published historian, biographer and poet, renowned for his scholarship in all three. At the same time he was also making a mark as editor of the journal Comment (1977-1981) (resuming an earlier commitment (1958— 1963)), and shaping a major contribution to New Zealand history by commencing in 1978 as editor (with B.R. Williams) of the Oxford History of New Zealand (1981).

In 1983, after nearly 20 years at Massey, he moved to Wellington to apply his editorial and administrative skills as General Editor of The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, a new project within the Department of Internal Affairs. Considered the historian best qualified to secure much-needed co-operation from the historical profession, he conceptualized the Dictionary as a composite picture of New Zealanders — a balance of occupations, regions, gender, ethnic identities and achievements. This design for the series of five volumes in English, with five companion volumes in Maori, placed the Dictionary at the leading edge of biographical dictionaries. Moving to Consulting Editor from 1990-2000, his editorial and historical expertise is evident in every essay in the series. Given the 1000 writers for the Dictionary, this crafting of historical and literary

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expertise has created a remarkable body of writers, who include academics and history enthusiasts from wide and varied circles of activity and occupation.

An influential contributor to the broad intellectual life of the nation, Bill has encouraged historical writing — as a supervisor of research, as an editor, as a thesis examiner and publishers' reader, and as critical reviewer of publications. In the 1980s he was foundation chairman of the Stout Centre's Board, and subsequently has become involved in the Waitangi Tribunal process through submissions and assessments of work, and through the Crown Forestry Rental Trust Research Advisory Committee.

His stature as an historian was recognized in 1990 when he was awarded a CBE and received an honorary DLitt from Wellington's Victoria University. Such honours provide significant public acknowledgement of decades of achievements and are unsought rewards. Not so visible, but of greater value and more to be celebrated, are the many historians, spanning more than one generation, who express their debt to Bill Oliver for the unique blend of quiet, informed and persuasive guidance (always spiced with gentle humour) that he has generously given — and still gives — particularly in fields of social and cultural history in which he has been so formative an influence. As a practising historian that role continues to be a central focus. We celebrate and honour this kaumatua of New Zealand historians.

CLAUDIA ORANGE Historical Branch, Department of Internal Affairs

ACADEMIC HISTORIANS tend to veer wantonly from the extreme position of G.N. Clark, that there is a hard core of facts surrounded by a pulp of disputable interpretations, to the opposite view of E.H. Carr, that there is a hard core of interpretations surrounded by a pulp of disputable facts. It is Bill Oliver's remarkable achievement to have pursued a balance by being both historian and poet. When I first met him in 1946 as a student, at the start of what was to become half a century of personal friendship, I thought he was going to be a poet because he looked so ethereal: tall, lean and slightly stooped even at the age of twenty-one. But I was proved wrong. I will never forget the smile of genuine satisfaction on his face when the news arrived in 1951 that he had been awarded a Travelling Scholarship, which took him to Oxford and the heart of academic history. After his return to New Zealand there followed a rapid succession of academic promotions and scholarly publications, culminating in his editorship (with Bridget Williams) of the Oxford History of New Zealand (1981) and the founding editorship of The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in 1983.

One can appreciate the conscientious dedication of his scholarship when he said in his Hocken Lecture of 1969: 'history is no more than the job of looking hard, putting together carefully and reporting faithfully — and doing this in an

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attempt to answer questions. Sociological models are simply a set of suggestions about questions; sociological methods, a set of suggestions about techniques." But from time to time his own poetry burst forth. The sensitivity of his poetic imagination was felicitously combined with his sober respect for the facts in his 1982 biography of his friend James K. Baxter for which he used Baxter's poetry as a source, when conventional academic scholarship might have endeavoured to seek a truth behind Baxter's poems. While he took poetry seriously as source material, he was as readily able, in two published lecture series on the history of poetry in New Zealand, to do it the other way round, and treat poems as historical facts that stand in need of interpretation. Bill produced meticulous work, which stood on the solid foundations of indisputable facts and sensitive poetry that bear witness to indisputable interpretations of lived experience. On one side there are his historical works; on the other, his volumes of poetry. All these works, though their perspectives differ, have one thing in common: they show their author's astonishing ability to distil experience as well as hard facts into words, pared down to the most precise way of designating both.

PETER MUNZ Wellington

1 W.H. Oliver, Towards a New History, Hocken Lecture, 1969, Dunedin, 1971, p.22.

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A Select Bibliography of Writings by W.H. Oliver

BOOKS Writing in New Zealand: Poetry in New Zealand, Wellington, School Publications, 1960.

The Story of New Zealand, London, Faber and Faber, 1960; 2nd ed., London, Faber, 1963.

The Inadequacy of a Dependent Utopia: the Anderson Memorial Lecture, Palmerston North, Massey University, 1964.

Problems and Prospects of Conservatism in New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand National Party, 1965.

Further Steps Towards a Welfare State since 1935, Auckland, Heinemann Educational Books, 1968.

Challenge and Response: a Study of the Development of the Gisborne East Coast Region (with Jane M. Thomson), Gisborne, East Coast Development Research Association, 1971.

Towards a New History? Hocken Lecture, 1969, Dunedin, Hocken Library, 1971.

Prophets and Millennialists: the Uses of Biblical Prophecy in England from the 1790s to the 1840s, Auckland, Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1978.

James K Baxter: a Portrait. Wellington, Port Nicholson Press, 1983; new ed., Auckland, Godwit Press/Bridget Williams Books, 1994.

Claims to the Waitangi Tribunal, Wellington, Waitangi Tribunal, 1991.

The Social and Economic Situation ofHauraki Maori after Colonisation, Paeroa, Hauraki Maori Trust Board, 1997.

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A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WRITINGS

EDITED BOOKS The Oxford History of New Zealand (with B.R. Williams), Oxford/Wellington, Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press, 1981.

The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume One, 1769-1869, Wellington, Allen & Unwin/ Department of Internal Affairs, 1990.

A People's History: Illustrated Biographies from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume One, 1769-1869, Wellington, Department of Internal Affairs, 1992.

The Certainty of Doubt: Tributes to Peter Munz (with Miles Fairburn), Wellington, Victoria University Press, 1996.

ESSAYS IN EDITED BOOKS 'A Society and its Universities: the Case of New Zealand', in J. Lawlor, ed., The New University, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968.

'Reeves, Sinclair and the Social Pattern', in P. Munz, ed., The Feel of Truth, Wellington, Reed/Victoria University, 1969.

'The Place of the Humanities', in L.B. Brown, ed., Trends and Issues in Higher Education, Wellington, New Zealand Council for Educational Research/ AUTNZ, 1970.

'Owen in 1817: the Millennialist Moment', in S. Pollard & J. Salt, eds, Robert Owen: Prophet of the Poor, London, Macmillan, 1971.

'The Origins and Growth of the Welfare State', in A.D. Trlin, ed., Social Welfare and New Zealand Society, Wellington, Methuen, 1977.

'An Uneasy Retrospect', in I. Wards, ed., Thirteen Facets: Essays to Celebrate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, 1952-77, Wellington, Government Printer, 1978.

'The Awakening Imagination, 1940-1980', in G. Rice, ed., The Oxford History of New Zealand, Wellington, Oxford University Press, 1981.

'Petrus contra Mundi', in The Certainty of Doubt: Tributes to Peter Munz, Wellington, Victoria University Press, 1996.

'The Fragility of Pakeha Support', in Living Relationships, Kokiri Ngatahi: the Treaty of Waitangi in the New Millennium, Wellington, Victoria University Press, 1998.

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A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WRITINGS

JOURNAL ARTICLES (excluding Book Reviews) 'The Trial of Ezra Pound. Is He Poet? Was He Traitor?', Student, May 1946, p.l.

'Pastor Niemoller',Arachne, 1 (1950), p.39.

'The Empty Country: An Attitude to Wordsworth', Arachne, 2 (1951), p.2.

'The Writers' Conference', Landfall, 5, 3 (1951), pp.220-2.

'A Performance of "Death and the Maiden'", New Zealand Poetry Yearbook, 4 (1954), p.73.

'The Christchurch Convention on International Relations', Landfall, 9,4 (1955), pp.338-42.

'Ten Years of Landfall', Education, 6, 3 (1957), pp.62-64.

'Robert Owen and the English Working-Class Movements', History Today, 8, 11 (1958),pp.787-96.

'The Labour Exchange Phase of the Co-operative Movement', Oxford Economic Papers, 10, 3 (1958), pp.355-67.

'Revival of Militancy?', Student, April 1959, p.17.

'The Church and the Churches I : The Fruits of Fragmentation', Comment, 1

(1959), pp.15-19.

'Memento of Harry Scott', New Zealand Monthly Review, 1, 1 (1960), p. 16.

'Catholics and History', Zealandia, 26 May 1960, p.10.

'Young Poet in Wellington', New Zealand Listener, 3 June 1960, p.34.

'The Church and the Churches II: A Step Towards Re-integration', Comment, 2

(1960), pp.18-21.

'The Politics of a Pacific Power', Comment, 8 (1961), pp.6-8.

'Growth in the University', Comment, 8 (1961), p.12.

'Sir Sydney [sic] Holland', Comment, 9 (1961), pp.4-6.

'Bursaries and Fees', Comment, 11 (1962), pp.2-3.

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A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WRITINGS

[Report of the Royal Commission on Education: State Aid to Private Schools], Comment, 13 (1962), pp.6-7.

'The Thai Visitors', Comment, 13 (1962), pp.8-9.

'The State of the Unions', Comment, 13 (1962), pp.9-11.

'Labour Party', Comment, 15 (1963), pp.3^t.

'Is this the N.Z.B.C?', Comment, 15 (1963), pp.5-7.

'Religion in Schools', Comment, 16 (1963), pp.4-5.

'Election', Comment, 17 (1963), pp.4-5.

'Leadership in a Happy Land', Weekly News, 27 November 1963, p.43.

'The Consolidated Trades' Union of 1834', Economic History Review, 17, 1 (1964), pp.77-95.

'The Future of a University', Comment, 19 (1964), pp.20-24.

'Youth Forum, 1964', Comment, 20 (1964), p.4.

'Moralism and Foreign Policy', Landfall, 19, 4 (1965), pp. 375-82.

'Attitudes to Dissent: the Government and Foreign Policy', Comment, 25 (1965), pp. 14-20.

'Religion in New Zealand: Christianity Among the New Zealanders', Landfall, 20, 1 (1966), pp.4-20.

'Tolpuddle Martyrs and Trade Union Oaths', Labour History (Australia), 10 (1966), pp.5-12.

'A Future of Politics: Trends to the Right or Wrong?', Comment, 19 (1967), pp.14-18.

'What Was "Native Land"?', New Zealand Listener, 3 April 1976, pp.40-41.

'After an Interval...', Comment, New Series 1 (1977), p.3.

'A Partisan Governor-General,' Comment, New Series 1 (1977), pp.3^L

'Sacrificial Women', Comment, New Series 2 (1978), pp.3-4.

'Fostering Dissent', Comment, New Series 2 (1978), pp.6-7.

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A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WRITINGS

'Oral and Other History', New Zealand Journal of History, 12,2 (1978),pp.99-103.

'The Man on a White Holden', Comment, New Series 3 (1978), p.l.

'The Scramble for Office', Comment, New Series 3 (1978), pp.4-5.

'The Buck Stops Further Down', Comment, New Series 3 (1978), pp.8-9.

'The Abortion Law — Again', Comment, New Series 3 (1978), pp.10-11.

'A Surfeit of Charisma', Comment, New Series 4 (1978), p.3.

'The Value of Values', Comment, New Series 4 (1978), pp.5-6.

'After Bastion Point', Comment, New Series 4 (1978), p.8.

'Disloyal Opposition', Comment, New Series 5 (1978), p.3.

'Unholy Alliance', Comment, New Series 5 (1978), pp.10-11.

'When the Axe Falls on Tertiary Education', Comment, New Series 7 (1979), pp.20-23.

'Social Welfare: Social Justice or Social Efficiency? 1. Social Policy in the Liberal Period', New Zealand Journal of History, 13, 1 (1979), pp.25-33.

'The Myth of the Middle', Comment, New Series 6 (1979), pp.3^1.

'The State of Welfare', Comment, New Series 8 (1979), pp.3^1.

'In Search of Jimmy Blacksmith', Comment, New Series 9 (1979), p.3.

'After-Dinner Mince', Comment, New Series 9 (1979), pp.8-9.

'Thirty Years On', Comment, New Series 10 (1980), pp.3-4.

'Captive Media', Comment, New Series 14 (1981), pp.10-11.

'The Listener Monopoly', Comment, New Series 15 (1982), pp.14-15.

'The Arts on the Air', Comment, New Series 16 (1982), pp.6-7.

'Robert Thompson: Two Responses', Landfall, 37, 1 (1983), pp.24-26.

'Lives of New Zealanders: a New Dictionary of New Zealand Biography', Historic Places in New Zealand, 3 (1983), p.6.

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The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography project', Archifacts, June 1984, pp.68-72.

'Dictionary of New Zealand Biography', New Zealand Libraries, 44,7 (1984), p. 127.

'A Destiny at Home', New Zealand Journal of History, 12, 1 (1987), pp.9-15.

'Social Policy in New Zealand: an Historical Overview', Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, H-2 (1988), pp. 1 ̂ 45.

'Tributes to Jim Collinge: Retiring Director of the Stout Research Centre', Stout Centre Review, 2, 1 (1991), pp.2-4.

'Obituary, Keith Sinclair', New Zealand Journal of History, 27, 2 (1993), pp.221-3.

REPORTS AND THESES 'Roger L' Estrange: a Study in the History of Royalist Opinion in England, 1659-1688', MA thesis, Victoria University College, 1948.

'Organisations and Ideas Behind the Efforts to Achieve a General Union of the Working Classes in the Early 1830s', DPhil thesis, Oxford University, 1954.

'New Zealand about 1890', Wellington, Macmillan Brown Lectures, 1972.

'The Crown and Muriwhenua Lands: An Overview', Waitangi Tribunal, Wai 45, L7, 1994.

'Economic Decline and Social Deprivation in Muriwhenua, 1880-1940' (with John Koning), Waitangi Tribunal, Wai 45, L8, 1994.

POETRY (excluding individually published poems) BOOKS

Fire without Phoenix: Poems 1946-54, Christchurch, Caxton Press, 1957.

Out of Season: Poems, Wellington/New York, Oxford University Press, c. 1980.

Poor Richard: Poems, Wellington, Port Nicholson Press, 1982. Bodily Presence: Words/Paintings (with Anne Munz), Wellington, BlackBerry Press, 1993.

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