1 New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, 41, 479 (15/6/1882).

2 Manawatu Standard, 4/1/1886.

3 Gordon Kear, A Century of Service: A history of the Palmerston North Fire Brigade 1883–1983, Palmerston North, 1983, pp. 14–6, for the account which follows.

4 Gilbert White, The Natural History of Selborne, London, 1924, p. 32.

5 Stephen J. Pyne, Burning Bush: A Fire History of Australia, New York, 1991, p. 163.

6 See Roger Wells, ‘Rural Rebels in Southern England in the 1830s’ in C. Emsley and J. Walvin, eds., Artisans, Peasants and Proletarians, 1760–1860, London, 1985, pp. 124–65, passim.

7 E.J. Hobsbawm and G. Rudé, Captain Swing, London, 1969.

8 Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Swing Unmasked or, The Causes of Rural Incendiarism, London, [1831].

9 E.L. Jones, Seasons and Prices, London, 1964, p. 41.

10 Pyne, Burning Bush, p. 261.

11 Feilding Star, 12/1/1886.

12 Marlborough Express Weekly Edition, 7/1/1885, p. 14.

13 Ibid., pp. 4, 13.

14 F.W. Pennefather, A Handbook for Travellers in New Zealand, London, 1893, p. 73.

15 Y, 22/4/1887, p. 5.

16 NZ Parliamentary Debates, 41, 479 (15/6/1882)

17 Ibid., 477.

18 LT, 9/3/1886.

19 NZ Parliamentary Debates, 41, 481 (15/6/1882).

20 D.G. Head, From the Ashes: 100 Years of the Gisborne Fire Brigade, [Gisborne, 1988], p. 20.

21 Hirst Family, Letters, 1820–96, MS [1820–1896]P, ATL, Vol. 10, letter dated 27/1/1886.

22 HBWC, 1/1/1886, p. 11.

23 Head, From the Ashes, p. 19.

24 B.C. Cathcart, ‘Water On!’ The First Hundred Years of the United Fire Brigades' Association of New Zealand, Palmerston North, 1978, for the history of the association.

25 HBH, 27/1/1886.

26 HBH, 30/1/1886.

27 NZ Parliamentary Debates, 41, 480 (15/6/1882).

28 Cathcart, ‘Water On!’, p. 12.

29 M.D.N. Campbell, Story of Napier 1874–1974, Napier, 1975, pp. 41–2.

30 A.B. Scanlan, 100 Years of Firefighting: The New Plymouth Fire Brigade 1866–1966, New Plymouth, 1966, pp. 10–17.

31 T.N. Moore, Hawera Fire Brigade 1882–1982: A Centennial History, Hawera, 1982, pp 13–20.

32 Pyne, Burning Bush, pp. 221–2.

33 TN, 16/1/1886, p. 14.

34 [Wickham], Ramblings, pp. 83–5.