Distance and Proximity in Service to the Empire: Ulster and New Zealand between the Wars

This essay uses the concepts of ‘distance’ and ‘proximity’ to investigate and assess perceptions of community, nation and empire in inter-war New Zealand and Ulster (as well as Ireland and Northern Ireland) within a British imperial context, and explores the extent to which service of the empire (for example in the First World War) promoted both notions of imperial unity and local autonomy. It focuses on how these perceptions were articulated in the inter-war years during visits to Northern Ireland by three New Zealand premiers – Massey, Forbes and Coates – and to New Zealand by the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Lord Craigavon. It discusses the significant ways in which distance from their ‘home base’ and proximity to expatriate communities (in Craigavon's case) and Irish unionists and nationalists (in the case of the New Zealand premiers) inflected public statements during their visits. By examining these inter-war visits and investigating the rhetoric used and the cultural demonstrations associated with them, the factors of both distance and proximity can be used to evaluate similarities and difference across two parts of the empire. Thus, we can throw some light on the nature and dynamics of British imperial identity in the early twentieth century.

Cooling and changing seasonality in the Southern Alps, New Zealand during the Antarctic Cold Reversal

A comprehensively C-14 AMS dated pollen and chironomid record from Boundary Stream Tarn provides the first chironomid-derived temperature reconstruction to quantify temperature change during Lateglacial times (17,500-10,000 cal yr BP) in the Southern Alps, New Zealand. The records indicate a ca 1000-year disruption to the Lateglacial warming trend and an overall cooling consistent with the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR). The main interval of chironomid-inferred summer temperature depression (similar to 2-3 degrees C) lasted about 700 years during the ACR. Following this cooling event, both proxies indicate a warming step to temperatures slightly cooler than present during the Younger Dryas chronozone (12,900-11,500 cal yr BP). These results highlight a direct linkage between Antarctica and mid-latitude terrestrial climate systems and the largely asynchronous nature of the interhemispheric climate system during the last glacial transition. The greater magnitude of temperature changes shown by the chironomid record is attributed to the response of the proxies to differences in seasonal climate with chironomids reflecting summer temperature and vegetation more strongly controlled by duration of winter or by minimum temperatures. These differences imply stronger seasonality at times during the Lateglacial, which may explain some of the variability between other paleoclimate records from New Zealand and have wider implications for understanding differences between proxy records for abrupt climate change. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nineteenth and twentieth century sea-level changes in Tasmania and New Zealand

Positive deviations from linear sea-level trends represent important climate signals if they are persistent and geographically widespread. This paper documents rapid sea-level rise reconstructed from sedimentary records obtained from salt marshes in the Southwest Pacific region (Tasmania and New Zealand). A new late Holocene relative sea-level record from eastern Tasmania was dated by AMS(14)C (conventional, high precision and bomb-spike), Cs-137, Pb-210, stable Pb isotopic ratios, trace metals, pollen and charcoal analyses. Palaeosea-level positions were determined by foraminiferal analyses. Relative sea level in Tasmania was within half a metre of present sea level for much of the last 6000 yr. Between 1900 and 1950 relative sea level rose at an average rate of 4.2 +/- 0.1 mm/yr. During the latter half of the 20th century the reconstructed rate of relative sea-level rise was 0.7 +/- 0.6 mm/yr. Our study is consistent with a similar pattern of relative sea-level change recently reconstructed for southern New Zealand. The change in the rate of sea-level rise in the SW Pacific during the early 20th century was larger than in the North Atlantic and could suggest that northern hemisphere land-based ice was the most significant melt source for global sea-level rise. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Records of adventive marine algae in New Zealand: Antithamnionella ternifolia, Polysiphonia senticulosa (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta), and Striaria attenuata (Dictyosiphonales, Phaeophyta)

Three species of introduced marine macroalgae are reported for Wellington Harbour (North Island, New Zealand). One of these, Polysiphonia senticulosa (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) is illustrated from New Zealand for the first time, and the known distributional ranges of two species, Striaria attenuata (Dictyosiphonales, Phaeophyta) and Antithamnionella ternifolia (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta), are extended to the North Island.

A revised age for the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra, a key marker for the Last Glacial Maximum in New Zealand

The Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra (KOT) is a key chronostratigraphic marker in terrestrial and marine deposits of the New Zealand (NZ) sector of the southwest Pacific. Erupted early during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the wide distribution of the KOT enables inter-regional alignment of proxy records and facilitates comparison between NZ climatic variations and those from well-dated records elsewhere. We present 22 new radiocarbon ages for the KOT from sites and materials considered optimal for dating, and apply Bayesian statistical methods via OxCal4.1.7 that incorporate stratigraphic information to develop a new age probability model for KOT. The revised calibrated age, ±2 standard deviations, for the eruption of the KOT is 25,360 ± 160 cal yr BP. The age revision provides a basis for refining marine reservoir ages for the LGM in the southwest Pacific.