The petty bourgeoisie in colonial Canterbury : a study of the Canterbury Working Man's Political Protection and Mutual Improvement Association (1865-66), and the Canterbury Freehold Land Society (1866-70).

摘要

This thesis argues for the existence of a distinct petty bourgeois socio-economicclass, with particular liberal values, in colonial Christchurch. It approaches this through anexamination of two related mid-Victorian Christchurch institutions, the Canterbury WorkingMan's Association and the Canterbury Freehold Land Society, and of the wider activities oftheir members. The first chapter looks at the issue of class definition and identity, andperceptions of the social topography of the mid-Victorian period. The four chapters thatfollow relate the characteristics of the British petty bourgeoisie to the colonial environment,and in so doing, distinguish a colonial petty bourgeoisie that is broadly similar, but withsome significant variation. These differences centre on the ideology of liberalism, and itsidealistic precept, 'independence', The independence oriented colonial environment produceda petty bourgeois who were assertively liberal. This shows in a heightened expectation ofgovernment intervention in employment and land distribution, and serves to highlightdifferences between the political liberalism of the petty bourgeois and that of the governingbourgeois. The individualistic and idealistic notion of a colonial independence also meant thatthe petty bourgeoisie pursued a different course of self-improvement than did their Britishcounterparts. Some self-help institutions important in Britain were insignificant in colonialChristchurch. The acquisition of land became particularly pivotal, though a disjunctionbetween rhetoric and practice shows that this may have had a different meaning for the pettybourgeois than it did for other classes of colonist.