A Kingdom of the Mind

Abstract

One relatively distinct group in the British empire were the millions of Scots who extended their cultural networks in the various new worlds. From New Zealand to Australia and Canada, Scottish settlers used their books and reading as a means of replicating and promoting their own cultural values far from home. This chapter examines a number of pioneer communities settled by Scots, particularly members of the Free Church, established after the Disruption of 1848. Under the fiercely sectarian leadership of a number of prominent church ministers in Dunedin, Waipu, and elsewhere, institutional libraries were established that reflected the cultural and religious affiliations of home. Later in the nineteenth century, even in these enclaves of Scottishness these same communities became increasingly integrated into an overseas colonial identity. A key figure in this regard was the pastoralist, George Russell of Victoria. An important colonial representation of Scottishness in this stage of transition was articulated by Catherine Helen Spence in her novel Handfasted. By the twentieth century, almost in direct proportion to their distance from their national origins, colonial Scots remained faithful to a number of cultural practices, not least of which was the keen promotion of literary works by their countrymen and women.