Abstract:
This research examines the life of an ordinary man, situated in an extraordinary time
and place in New Zealand history. The topic of this study. English-born surveyor Fred
Mace. was an avid diarist and journal writer, and recorded many aspects of his life in
New Zealand. Although not a highly descriptive or self-reflective writer, he recorded
many details about everyday interactions and life as a surveyor in New Zealand
The King Country, where Mace spent much of his life, was a guarded area usually out
of bounds to Europeans - especially surveyors. fred Mace was allowed access to the
King Country however, and his daily accounts of life inside the boundary lines are an
interesting ponrayaJ orms relationships, movements and interactions.
The diaries of Fred Mace are also interesting with respect to Mace's position as a
surveyor. This is because surveying in New Zealand was overtly connected to colonial
ideals of expansion and empire. yet Fred Mace lived within the realms of a Maoricontrolled
'kingdom' and was married to a Maori woman.
Mace therefore not only measured and created boundaries (as a surveyor); he also
pushed certain social boundaries, and lived his life balanced on the fissure between two
distinct cultural (and social) worlds.
Keywords: Fred Mace, Boundary, King Country, Rohe Porae, au/cari, Kairuri,
Surveying, New Zealand