From Sextants to Satellites: A Cartographic Time Line for New Zealand

Abstract

This time line records the main events in the surveying and mapping of New Zealand. Also included are events relating to map publishing, map keeping and map librarianship, the teaching of surveying and cartographic skills, the formation of societies and associations relating to surveying and cartography - in fact, to "cartography" in the broadest possible meaning of the word.Maps are an essential tool for developing a nation, from its initial discovery right through to the creation of its modern economic and social infrastructure. Maps record what is known about a place, and at different points in time. Maps are a unique portrayal of place, displaying a wide range of phenomena in a way that is virtually impossible via any other medium.This time line records the activities of people who clearly considered themselves to be surveyors, hydrographers or cartographers. Also included are many who conducted survey work and, often, constructed the resulting maps as well, but did not see themselves primarily as surveyors at all. These people were explorers, adventurers, exploiters of natural resources (whalers, sealers, timber and flax collectors, miners), engineers, geologists, soil scientists, environmental scientists, and the like. Many of these groups of people were assisted by Maori, who possessed a detailed "cartographic" knowledge of the shape and form of the land long before Europeans arrived, and were able to draw for Europeans maps of different parts of New Zealand when asked to do so.Very important were the draughtsmen and many early surveyors were in fact draughtsmen turned surveyors. As Nola Easdale (1988, page 13) points out, "Charles Heaphy began his New Zealand career as a draughtsman and artist with the New Zealand Company, but was very soon exploring and surveying. Other surveyors came in from the cold and became draughtsmen. Some, depending on the work which was offering, were draughtsman for a time then returned to the field."Within the time line will be found details of the introduction of new equipment and the development of new cartographic techniques. This in turn leads to changing roles for many of the major players in the surveying/mapping environment. The 1935 decision of the mapping subcommittee of the New Zealand Committee for Imperial Defence to initiate compilation of organised inch to the mile topographic coverage of the whole of the country marks one of the significant points in our cartographic history. Its associated decision, to use methods utilising aerial photographs, also signals the beginning of a significant change in the mapping role of the land surveyor. The function of defining terrain details and contour lines began to shift from the survey team, with plane table, alidade, Abney level and "a good eye for country", to office-based staff using increasingly sophisticated equipment. By the 1960s the main contributions of surveyors to the national mapping process were the establishment of coordinates and elevations of identifiable points to be used by photogrammetrists as reference points and the 'field checking' of maps before their publication. By 1988, Professor Basil M. Jones, of the School of Surveying at Otago University, was acknowledging in his editorial in the centennial issue of New Zealand Surveyor that, "many of the tasks which were formerly carried out by professional surveyors are now carried out by technical staff using modern technology" (Vol.32, page 316). This transformation of course is not unique to the cartographic profession! These changes can be seen against a background of changing Government policies towards surveying and mapping, whether these policies relate to opening up and developing the country, ensuring the correct recording of title to land, responding to war, implementing cost-recovery policies, privatising state owned assets, accessibility of public information and the monitoring of environmental changes.While an endeavour has been made to be as all-inclusive as possible, some restraints have had to be imposed. Discovery and exploration is limited to events where a substantial increase in the knowledge of the land was subsequently provided, and preferably where maps resulted as well. There were difficulties with "events" relating to European and Chinese (but pre-Tasman) discoveries of New Zealand, described by some writers but repudiated by most scholars. These have mostly been included, with an indication that they are not part of mainstream scholarship or thinking, but tales of visits by Arabs, Tamils, Phoenicians, and others (Wiseman, 1998, 2001) have been excluded until more substantial evidence for their veracity can be provided. Also excluded is a claim by Reinoud M. de Jonge (2005) that King Huni (2599-2575BC), the last King of the 3rd Dynasty of Egypt, discovered New Zealand. De Jonge bases his claim on petroglyphs at Dissignac, Brittany, France, which he believes are actually 'route pictograms', or very stylised maps.No attempt has been made to ascribe any level of importance to events. This timeline is simply a listing of events, a kind of super-catalogue that puts everything in, and in order. Major events often take up only one or two lines, and receive the same emphasis as something like a local town survey. The timeline should be seen as a starting point for further research rather than some kind of final end product.