New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Index  >  Vol 28 Middleton

 

NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY ISSN 0110~540X ABSTRACT

 

 

Mission Station as Trading Post:

The Economy of the Church Missionary

Society in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Angela Middleton1

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the economy and trading relationships of Church Missionary

Society (CMS) mission stations in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, from 1814,

when the country’s first mission was established, until about 1840. Archival sources

from the CMS store accounts are examined and compared with archaeological

remains recovered from the site of Te Puna mission station. These two sources of

evidence are used to reconstruct the fundamental aspects of the CMS economy and

to explore the role of the mission station as trading post in the decades before a cash

economy was established. The sources also raise questions about the relationship

between the archival and archaeological evidence, such as what was supplied to Te

Puna mission and what was recovered from the archaeological investigation, and

what were the long-term outcomes of this venture.

Keywords: MISSION STATION, COLONISATION, TRADING POST, TRADE

AND EXCHANGE.

1 Department of Anthropology, University of Otago, Box 56, Dunedin

Ó Copyright New Zealand Archaeological Association.

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