1 John Armstrong, ‘The role of coastal shipping in UK transport: An estimate of comparative traffic movements in 1910’, The Journal of Transport History, 3rd series, 8, 2, Sept. 1987, pp. 164–78, is the model on which the following discussion of the relative contributions of railways and coastal shipping has been based. See pp. 164–5 for his discussion of ton-mileage as the most informative and accurate measure of total cargo movement.

2 See Appendix 3 for these calculations.

3 Armstrong, ‘Role of coastal shipping in UK transport’, p. 166.

4 Wanganui Chronicle, 5/9/1885. A good complement to our treatment of the colonial coastal trade in the mid 1880s is Peter J. Rimmer, ‘The Changing Status of New Zealand Seaports, 1853–1960’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 57, March 1967, pp. 88–100. While the main weight of the evidence for Rimmer's article is borne by the statistics of the value of overseas trade for the various ports, he does have some valuable discussion of the coastal trade. See also Simon Ville, ‘The Coastal Trade of New Zealand Prior to World War One’, NZJH, 27, 1, April 1993, pp. 75–89.

5 Ruth Allan, The History of Port Nelson, Wellington, 1954, p. 11.

6 Y, 9/1/1885, p. 3.

7 TH, 5/6/1886, p. 3.

8 Gavin McLean, The Southern Octopus: The Rise of a Shipping Empire, Wellington, 1990

9 Wanganui Chronicle, 5/9/1885

10 We are taking Northland as consisting of the six counties of Mangonui, Bay of Islands, Hokianga, Hobson, Whangarei and Rodney.

11 John O'C. Ross, Pride in their Ports: The Story of the Minor Ports, Palmerston North, 1977, p. 17.

12 P. A. Eaddy, ‘Neath Swaying Spars; the Story of the Trading Scows of New Zealand, Auckland, [1939]

13 Note that a minor part of the East-West and West-East figure consists of sailings around North Cape and Cape Providence.

14 All figures for distances between ports are taken from New Zealand Nautical Almanac and Tide Tables 1914, Wellington, page 299 1918 (translated into land mile equivalents).

15 P.S. Bagwell, ‘The Decline of Rural Isolation’, in G.E. Mingay, ed., The Victorian Countryside, London, 1981, Volume 1. p. 34

16 Y, 7/11/1884, p. 6; Statistics of New Zealand, 1885, p. 204.

17 [Wickham], Ramblings by A Tramp, p. 32.

18 AWN, 28/4/1883, p. 6

19 HS, 20/10/1885

20 HS, 6/7/1885

21 HS, 6 & 22/7/1885

22 Y,14/8/1885, p. 4, 4/9/1885, p. 4; HS, 5/8/1885

23 HS, 22/7/1885

24 For an example see Arnold, ‘Community in Rural Victorian New Zealand’, p. 16.

25 New Zealand Farmer, August 1891, p. 338, for fruit tree agents, ‘book fiends and picturesque atlas agents’.

26 Rangitikei Advocate, 7/3/1890. For an example of life at the end of a pack horse track see Arnold, ‘Community in Rural Victorian New Zealand’, pp. 8–9.