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1 In his new column my friend Chris Trotter argues NZ was never a white supremacist society, like South Africa or America. I think Chris' case rests on a false dichotomy & on a denial of the historical record. I want to argue against him & post a few old documents. (thread)
2 Chris argues that NZ doesn't have a white supremacist history, because white settlers sought to assimilate Maori, rather than segregate the races. But settler societies have commonly deployed both assimilationist & segregationist policies. The two can complement each other.
3 Let's consider the case of South Africa, which Chris cites as the sort of white supremacist society NZ was not. Apartheid-era SA was notorious for isolating its non-white peoples. It had laws against miscegenation, & segregated toilets. But SA also practiced assimilationism.
4 The Soweto uprising of 1976 began as a protest against the attempts of South Africa's rulers to assimilate blacks linguistically. Black schoolkids rejected the demand that they use Afrikaans, the language of their oppressors, in the classroom. 
5 Australia offers another example of a settler society combining segregation with assimilationism. Before 1968 Aboriginals were isolated from other ethnic groups in Australia. Their movements were restricted; they could not participate in electoral politics.
6 But Aboriginal Australians also suffered from assimilationist policies. White administrators created a 'stolen generation', by removing half-caste children from Aboriginal mothers, & making sure they were raised in a white world. This policy was s'posed to 'whiten' Aboriginals.
7 Just like Sth Africa & Australia, NZ deployed a mixture of segregationist & assimilationist policies towards non-white peoples in the 19th & 20th centuries. The attempts at assimilation, like the demand Maori kids use English at school, are infamous; the segregationism is not
8 Segregationist policies began v early in colonial NZ history. In the 1840s British administrators created a Juries Act for NZ. The act provided for Maori & Pakeha to be tried before different courts, & barred Maori from sitting on juries considering cases involving whites
9 Altho settler govts allowed Pakeha to serve on juries considering cases involving Maori, the ban on Maori serving on general juries lasted until 1962. Maori were not considered fit to judge whites, just as SA blacks were kept off juries in that country.
10 Chris contrasts NZ with America in its 'Jim Crow' era, when both public facilities & private businesses often segregated white & non-white patrons. The segregated rest rooms of mid-century America are notorious. But few Pakeha know that NZ had the same facilities.
11 It is not possible yet for me to give an exhaustive account of the segregation of rest rooms in NZ, but my research suggests that the practice was widespread. I want to offer a few examples, with the help of old newspapers.
12 In 1936 Maori inhabitants of Tauranga protested against their exclusion from the town's rest rooms, & from some rest rooms that were being planned. In response, Tauranga's mayor said that Maori wld have to donate some land, if they wanted to get their own, segregated, toilets
13 Hamilton was another town with whites-only rest rooms. In 1945 the Waikato Times reported the standoff between the city's mayor & the Maori community. The mayor wanted Maori to pay for a segregated toilet; Maori rejected his request.
14 Maori had always resented the segregation of rest rooms, but by the late '40s they were being joined by Pakeha. When Gisborne councillors announced plans for whites-only women's rest rooms in 1949, locals of both ethnicities wrote angry letters to their local paper.
15 Kaitaia was another town that saw protests over segregated rest rooms in the '40s. When the rest rooms were being planned, local politicians had happily broadcast their plans for segregation. Their insouciance tells us something about the prevalence of segregation at the time.
16 Rest rooms were not the only public facilities that local politicians tried to bar Maori from in early 20th C NZ. In 1921 the Waipa District Council closed Te Awamutu's fledgling library, because it was being visited by too many 'undesirable' elements, like 'Maoris' & 'dogs'.
Private businesses as well as public amenities often practiced segregation in NZ. A 1938 survey found that 26 of Hamilton's 27 hotels & hostels refused to host Maori. Local politicians suggested building a Maori-only hostel.
17 It was not only Maori who suffered from segregation in 20th C NZ. Indian & Chinese migrants often found themselves barred from taverns, barbers, & swimming pools. In 1918 Hamilton's Indians protested their inability to get a haircut.
18 Jelal Natali was a campaigner for the civil rights of Indian Kiwis for decades. In the '20s Natali protested against the segregation of Auckland's tepid baths, pointing that all but one of the facility's pools were reserved for whites.
19 Sometimes segregation led to violence. On February 25, 1920, at a time when NZ troops were fighting Indian sugar workers in a turbulent Fiji, a group of Indians were ejected from a tavern in Te Awamutu. White patrons followed them onto the footpath, and a riot began
20 Chris contrasts the US, with its Ku Klux Klan, with NZ. He appears not to know that the KKK was violently active here in the 1920s, when it formed in opposition to Asian migration. In 1923 the KKK took responsibility for attacks on businesses in Auckland & in Christchurch.
21 Chris might argue that the KKK was, in NZ, a short-lived & uninfluential organisation. He'd be right, but other, much larger & more powerful groups aligned themselves with the KKK. One was the Protestant Political Association, whose leader Howard Elliott praised the Klan.
22 The White NZ League was another influential organisation that shared the goals of the Klan. The League formed in 1926, & called for the deportation of all non-white migrants from NZ. It was endorsed by the RSA & by Auckland's Trade Union Council.
23 The White NZ League was based in Pukekohe, & helped to enforce the segregation of South Auckland's pubs, barber shops, & cinemas. In 1959 a major civil rights battle began when Dr Rongomanu Bennett tried to get a drink at Papakura Hotel, & was turned away
24 Dr Bennett had many contacts in politics & the media, & he made sure Papakura's refusal to serve him a drink was reported widely. The suburb was dubbed 'the Little Rock of NZ' by some journalists. PM Walter Nash eventually intervened, & the colour bar at Papakura ended.
25 How widespread, in the postwar era, was the sort of colour bar Rongomau Bennett encountered in Papakura? While researching my book Ghost South Road, I focused on the Waikato & South Auckland. But Noel Hilliard's 1960 novel Maori Girl suggests it extended beyond the north
26 Hilliard's autobiographical account of a cross-racial marriage caused a sensation when it was published. Hilliard described the open prejudice of Wellingtonian business owners - hoteliers, for example - who refused Maori clients.
27 Of course, NZ was never a mirror image of the Jim Crow US, or South Africa. Maori like Carroll & Ngata rose to positions of power. Interracial marriages were never banned. But segregation as well as assimilationism is part of our history, contra what @BowalleyRoad claims
