Maori bring pigs and chickens to New Zealand

[Ricardolindo]

What if the Maori had brought pigs and chickens with them to New Zealand? This would presumably lead to a higher Maori population, especially in the South Island, which was too cold for their crops. Could the Maori population be high enough for them to remain a majority in New Zealand?

 

[Elektronaut]

@Uhura's Mazda

 

[Juan Vogel]

I don't think that would have done it, by itself, as the crops were the big issue with persistent settlement and population growth. Would be interesting too, to see what the impact of feral pigs would be in NZ 600 years earlier or so. They're a massive problem as it is in NZ.

Anyway, yes, the population would no doubt be a fair bit higher, but not convinced that it would be significantly higher in the lower South Island.

@Jared would be the best person to get an opinion on, given his timeline revolved around an agricultural POD in Australia and then onto NZ

 

[Jared]

Missed this one at the time.

Re: feral pigs, I have some suspicions that their absence from New Zealand may have been deliberate rather than coincidence. I read an article a while back (I linked to it somewhere at T'Other Place years ago, but can't remember where) that some Pacific islands where pigs weren't available, the locals there knew about them and didn't want them, because of the damage they caused. So possibly pigs' absence was deliberate. On the other hand, chickens weren't present either, and it's hard to see why people wouldn't want them if they had access to them.

Either way, going with the assumption that porkers and chooks show up, yes, first implication is that the population of Aotearoa will be somewhat higher. Not hugely higher, mind; domesticated animals don't provide as many additional calories as better staple crops would. (Though I yam not sure what the best alternative staple crop might be.) But still, everything helps. More convenient sources of protein will also help the overall health of the population a bit, too.

I don't think it would make much difference in the South Island, though, particularly in the more southerly portions. Being able to eat pig and chook every few weeks doesn't make up for not being able to eat a staple crop every day. The crops that were available in the South Island (cabbage tree, bracken fern) weren't useless, but couldn't support a high population.

Butterflies aside, it's also not going to help the Maori keep a majority in Aotearoa. That would take something which can allow the Maori population to increase by something like four-fold, which isn't going to happen without some seriously good staple crops. (Wattle they do to find such things?).

 

[Juan Vogel]

The easiest POD for NZ, assuming no major changes, is to delay the Gold Rush in Otago in 1861.

It is hard to overstate the importance of the Gold Rush - as it drove massive population growth in Dunedin and Otago, much of which then went to the West Coast and elsewhere in NZ as the initial gold rushes died down. Many of these people subsequantly left NZ for other colonies/US/UK, but a lot of them stayed, as did their capital.

Dunedin experienced massive growth and many of these people later became very important political/economic figures elsewhere. You could argue that this the first big financial centre of NZ, where there grew a large pool of capital and people wanting to invest it locally. They did so and looked further afield in the North Island as well for minerals/land.

If the gold rush doesn't happen for a few more years, then Maori have a little longer to try and recover demographically. There may also be delayed pressure on their North Island lands for opening up to settlement by British settlers.