> I have been working on a comparative history of Aborigine protection policies that suggests to me that the Crown's on-off support for native land rights indicates a substantial difference with the colonists over settlement, and also had the effect of entrenching the division between settlers (which ultimately worked against natives, though the policy was of the face of it more generous than the settlers' own).
Sounds really interesting, is this an article or a book or what? What division between settlers, and how did it work against natives? This is my wife's area of expertise much more than mine but I'm really interested. The differences between NZ and Australia are huge.
Scott's mentioned the idea of doing a book at some point on Pacific colonisation in general and I hope he does; he's been visiting the islands over the last couple of years and there's a bunch of historical stuff on his blog.
Mike Beggs