"I shall not want another home on this planet", a study of the tradition of elegiac poetry in the work of three New Zealand female poets, Ursula Bethell, Robin Hyde and Katherine Mansfield : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University

This thesis is a discussion of the elegiac poetry tradition as it exists in English literature and how it impacts on the New Zealand literary tradition. The discussion centres around three New Zealand female poets; Mary Ursula Bethell, Robin Hyde and Katherine Mansfield and their participation in the elegiac tradition. The time period which encompasses these three poets reaches from 1915-1945, a period of intense growth and discovery in the literature of New Zealand, as it dissociated itself from the English model and redirected itself in a Pacific direction. Each of the three poets was influenced by the literary beliefs which were cultivated in New Zealand and exhibited this knowledge through their work. Mary Ursula Bethell and Katherine Mansfield composed personal elegies on the loss of companion and brother respectively, yet Robin Hyde composed a more formal elegy on Mansfield's death, though she had not personally known her. One theme runs through the work of Bethell, Hyde and Mansfield, the theme of exile. Bethell was the typical Englishwoman exiled in New Zealand by geography, but also by her education and her upbringing. Mansfield chose the life of an expatriate, yet this was no more than a self-delusion, when after the death of her brother she realised that the New Zealand of her childhood was no more. Hyde also fled to England, like Mansfield, yet her impetus was no more than a schoolgirl memory. She too, as in the case of Mansfield, produced her finest compositions when the idea of exile became reality. In some way, all three poets experienced the intensity of exile, from the known landscape whether of New Zealand or England, and transferred that yearning into their elegiac verse, as they became exiled from all that their loved one represented. For Mansfield, her brother's death ensured she could never go 'home' and yet provided the impetus for her New Zealand stories within which she challenged short story convention and wrote lasting memorials to both her country and her self. For Hyde, her elegy on Mansfield was an elegy to New Zealand and her reality without it. Bethell, after the death of her companion Effie Pollen, became exiled from her physical home in the Cashmere Hills, and, more poignantly, her garden. All three of the poets were faced with a universe which had been altered irreversibly by exile and in elegy attempted to describe and mourn that loss. These three women, though participating in a genre and a tradition which was undeniably male-oriented, expressed themselves as women within a tradition which through its very versatility accommodated both them and their grief

Power dynamics and representation in innovation platforms

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Nudging sustainability transitions in Central Mozambique

An Agricultural Innovation Platform (AIP) facilitates and accelerates transition of farmers from subsistence farming to socially inclusive, environmentally sound and market-oriented farming. AIPs adapt interventions around interlinked levers in the food value chains, with entry points based on a good understanding of farming systems and input/output market requirements. Learning activities around these entry points strengthen stakeholder networks. Capacitating farmers through stakeholder networks, using mutual learning and additional technical training sessions, improves their self-organization and helps them become entrepreneurs, with the private sector as business mentors and government and extension as facilitators and support. Prospects for change in complex farming systems often appear few and uncertain, leaving farmers feeling helpless in the face of challenges. AIPs demonstrate that small interventions around significant leverage points will have far-reaching benefits. With time, stakeholders facilitate multiple changes through AIPs, magnifying the impact and paving the way for initiatives beyond a project’s lifespan. The ‘AIP experience’ changes their self-perception, resilience, motivation and empowerment forever

How community initiatives are making a difference in goat farmers’ lives in Central Mozambique

In risk prone farming areas like Marara District, goats are a profitable and resilient source of income. A goat restocking and pass-on approach – providing goats to extremely poor farmers who would then pass on the goats’ first offspring to other farmers – was developed, thus enabling the farmers to participate in local development pathways via goat farming. Benefits were identified at different levels of participation. Selling goats enables smallholder farmers with the means to pay for food, education, human health and farm labor, enabling them to transition to a better livelihood. For communities, an activity such as restocking strengthens their capacity to respond to threats (drought, theft) by building a common knowledge base and developing assets. Stakeholder networks bring goat market partners closer for cost-effective collection and sale/purchase of goat

Leaf nutrient concentrations in oil palm as affected by genotypes, irrigation and terrain

Four clonal oil palm materials namely AVROS, Yangambi, La Me and NIFOR and two DxP hybrid Yangambi, grown on terraced and unterraced fields were subjected to irrigated and non-irrigated conditions. There were significant differences in all leaf nutrient concentrations for all the planting materials for both terrain and irrigation conditions. For non-irrigated palms, most of the leaf nutrients were higher than the irrigated palms, especially K and Mg concentrations. Most of the leaf nutrient concentrations in palms grown on undulating area were also high, especially for leaf Mg and K concentrations. Leaf K concentration for DxP hybrid Yangambi-DQ8 was consistently lower than AVROS-A122 by almost 15-20% in all the growing conditions. In contrast, the leaf K contents for Yangambi-DQ8 and Yangambi-Y103 were comparable to that of AVROS-A122 and these three planting materials produced the highest oil yields. In view of future high current fertilizer cost, selecting oil palm genotypes that are able to produce good oil yields on low fertilizer inputs and giving consistent leaf nutrition need to be given consideration