Colonial Space Rockets

First published in New Zealand in 1881, the second volume of science fiction  novella The Great Romance lay hidden on the shelves of Dunedin’s Hocken Library until the 1990s when the work was discovered. Published under the pseudonym ‘The Inhabitant’, The Great Romance is a hybrid of utopian and space exploration narratives that reaches out to grasp the reader’s hand, unexpectedly and vigorously, from the equally remote milieu of late 19th century New Zealand. The novella follows John Hope as he travels into outer space, landing on a satellite of Venus where he meets the native humanoids, or “Venuses”. It is has been suggested the meeting with the Venuses is a science-fiction translation of the “more enigmatic and unique attitudes expressed by Pakeha settlers toward the Maori people of New Zealand.”