Historian John McLean's new book focuses on country's infrastructure build

Front cover of Sweat and Toil.

Book: Sweat and Toil: The Building of New Zealand
Reviewer: Roger Childs

Historian John McLean has written an interesting and informative book on the building of New Zealand's infrastructure.

Lockdown proved to be the ideal time for completing this study of the late 19th and early 20th century construction of many of the country's roads, bridges, tunnels, viaducts, wharves, lighthouses and other public works.

As the author observes, this work "was not achieved without the brains of the engineers, the organising ability of the contractors and the sweat and toil of workers, sometimes numbering in the hundreds for just one project".

McLean has written a number of books on New Zealand history including Parikaha: The Facts, Captain Cook For Young People and Gate Pa and Te Ranga The Full Story (co-authored with John Robinson).

Now, in Sweat and Toil: The Building of New Zealand, he uses his broad knowledge of our country's story to set the many infrastructure projects he covers, in their historical context.

John has a family link to this vital work in building the nation, as one of his ancestors founded the business John McLean and Company which constructed many bridges, railways, tunnels and tramways.

Although the appropriate Public Works department of the time was involved in building some of the infrastructure, most projects were carried out by private companies tendering for the jobs.

As businesses know today, tendering is not an exact science, and it was definitely problematic back then.

"When one put in a tender it was a gamble that one could do the work within the contract price and within contract time so as to make a profit."

For example what price would you put on building the Otira Tunnel under the Southern Alps? Nonetheless, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries a large number of projects were completed on time and under budget.

However there were some horrendous cost over-runs and some companies went bankrupt.

Furthermore the interference of bureaucrats often caused problems and delays.

McLean gives the example of an officious government inspector insisting that in the Makarau Railway Tunnel being built north of Helensville, sills supporting a brick arch be removed before the mortar had set.

This was understandably against the advice of the contractor and workmen.

The inevitable outcome occurred - "the tunnel collapsed over a length of 18 feet".

Most of the labour for the projects was provided by settlers and their descendants, although some Māori worked on road building projects.

Many tribes were happy to see the new transport facilities constructed across their lands.

The famous 19th century chief, Rewi Maniapoto, told the surveyor of the railway through the King Country: "Tell Mr Bryce (Minister of Native Affairs) to hasten on the railway. I am an old man now and would like to ride the railway before I die."

Sweat and Toil pays tribute to the men who "built the nation" with very basic equipment compared to today.

They worked long and hard to tame the challenging New Zealand terrain with its dense forests, rugged hills and mountains, soggy swamps, numerous rivers and deep gorges, and endured snow, heat, mud and flooding, "… one can only salute the surveyors, engineers, contractors, stonemasons, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, platelayers, axe-men, navvies … and the sweating horse and bullock teams…"

In this very readable, well-illustrated 252 page book Mclean devotes separate chapters to the different types of public works from bridges and railways to reclamations and swamp drainage.

In each he provides detail on a number of public works constructed around the country.

At the end, there is a bibliography, index and a comprehensive set of footnote references.

A wide range of sources have been used and all the chapters are laced with numerous quotes, notably from the newspapers of the time and people involved in the projects.

Sweat and Toil The Building of New Zealand, by John McLean, is published by Tross Publishing.

It is available for $40 from Paper Plus and can also be bought online.