A limited express or stopping all stations? Railways and nineteenth-century New Zealand

Railways have been a significant part of New Zealand life, yet their treatment in

historiography often does not reflect this. I argue for a greater appreciation of

railways, focusing upon their role in shaping the developing colony in the nineteenthcentury.

I introduce the existing literature to indicate contributions with which greater

engagement is required and to identify directions requiring further research. The

provincial ‘prehistory’ of railways preceding the Vogel boom of the 1870s requires

particular emphasis; railways figured prominently in the settler imagination even

though physical construction was minimal. I then show that the forces unleashed by

Vogel were more than economic and offer tentative conclusions regarding the

railway’s role within a range of fields. The railway was a site for contesting morality,

it deepened the colonial project and identity, and it defined the contours of daily life.