Ecology: A Science of Nation? The Utilization of Plant Ecology in New Zealand, 1896–1930

Abstract

Following the creation of the Empire Marketing Board in 1926, Australia's development was influenced by an imperial science increasingly aware of ecology. The present paper traces similar New Zealand links in the ecological approach to pasture development promoted in the Dominion by Bruce Levy and fuelled by the vision of George Stapledon of the Welsh Plant Breeding Station, who visited New Zealand in 1926. However, plant ecology came much earlier to New Zealand by way of Leonard Cockayne, who in 1908 used ecological arguments to press for the extension of Tongariro National Park and who saw New Zealand's unique plant associations as emblems of nation rather than endowments of empire. By comparing the application of ecology, in New Zealand at different times, to the separate (though not necessarily opposed) goals of building a nation and supporting an empire, insight is gained into the changing ways in which any science may be drawn into the service of societal priorities and aspirations.