[introduction]
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AN appendix of some length, containing refutations of a series of malicious attacks, equally unfounded as unprovoked on my part, made by persons interested in setting aside the colonization of New Zealand, or of obtaining place under Missionary patronage, or that of the New Zealand Land Company, was originally forwarded by me to Messrs. Madden & Co., with the manuscript of the following sheets; but those gentlemen having subsequently purchased the copyright, declined publishing the justification I had deemed as due to the public, regarding the aim of the slanderers to have originated in a feverish desire for notoriety, (certainly not an enviable one, but it is impossible to account for the morbid taste of some individuals,) and feeling assured that any reply I might make, or facts adduce, would tend to give the ephemeral importance that had been sought for by the calumniators aforesaid, (as the lawyers have it,) with anxious avidity.
Notwithstanding an enlightened jury of my
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countrymen, directed by Lord Denman had given damages and costs in my favour, in an action instituted for one of those libels, yet I was desirous of proving to my readers the secret animus that had directed some persons, who drove a trade with religion, first to rob me of my former literary labours, and then to calumniate me, thinking thus to hoodwink the public from discovering the source from whence they drew their information, though it might reasonably be expected, that a writer who had casually entered the Bay of Islands on board a ship that from stress of weather was obliged to be put under repair, and remaining in that part for six days, could have no personal knowledge of the country or inhabitants, and any account he might give, except when indebted to travellers who have written on the subject, would be similar to a Frenchman entering a port in Cornwall, without any knowledge of England, its people, or language, and returning to Gascony , after a residence of SIX DAYS, and an intercourse with the lowest class of the place, and publishing HIS history and political views, without the most remote acquaintance with its judicial or political institutions.
The work preceding these volumes was written expressly with the views stated in the preface, to excite public attention towards the islands of New Zealand, by a statement of plain unvarnished facts. I laid no claim to literary merit, but simply that credit on the part of the reader, due to unimpeach-
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able fidelity. I was also actuated with the desire of seeing a weaker people (morally speaking) protected from the ill effects of the intercourse consequent to the irregular colonization that had been carried on for a series of years. The advancement of my native land was a paramount consideration, as New Zealand presented a new and unlimited mart for commercial enterprise, adding not only to the riches of this country, but affording an enlarged opportunity for the enterprise of her industrious sons.
Those volumes, on their appearance, were immediately noticed by nearly forty reviewers, among whom, without an exception, I had not the pleasure of an acquaintance, and on whose unbiassed criticism were I to add more than my best thanks and acknowledgments for their esteemed opinions, a charge of egotism would result.
Actuated by the above motives, patriotic, if you please, I did feel, that though perhaps in a literary view ill qualified for the task, yet for the INTENTION in furnishing information of the existence and state of a country by which our redundant population might obtain a valuable homestead, in a land ample in its resources and splendid in its climate, deserved at least the good will of my contemporaries; but I was wofully deceived, as was discovered to my cost, the subject having become the prey of faction and party.
I have already alluded to one shameless indi-
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vidual, who, unable to disprove a single line out of nearly 900 pages comprising my former volumes, to which he is deeply indebted, made an attack on my morals, probably expecting that he could eke out an edition of his pamphlet by such a factitious aid. Granting for argument that such false aspersions had been even true, in what manner could it concern the public, whether on the score of delicacy, I stood A 1 on the list, or was erased as being (naughty-cally speaking) cracked and unseaworthy. I came before the public as a writer who could adduce facts worthy of their serious attention, and not as a Joseph (Surface) in unseemly plight, with another tale of Egypt to tell.
In all new colonies (and few of the older ones are exempt) where society is huddled together, and the palace reared alongside the mud cabin, personal dislikes are fostered, while envy is aroused, and malice, with a hundred tongues, is busy, at the unpalatable prosperity of a neighbour, and probably few colonies can be adduced as examples, where such reprehensible feelings arise to a healthy perfection as in the settlements of Australia and New Zealand; consequently, for a stranger to visit those places, and give credit to the ex-parte statements that are clamorously obtruded on his auricular organs, would be actually evincing an utter ignorance of the habits and manners of a certain portion of mankind, but for the said stranger to turn eavesdropper, and not only deliberately put to
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paper, but print, revise, and finally publish the said vulgar scandal, shows the hardihood of a heart naturally depraved and vicious, though tricked out in outward religious trappings, and a venomous disposition that can answer no good purpose , and were such a system to be adopted by travellers, the chaos of olden times would be PERFECTIBILITY itself, compared to such an unhinging of the forms and laws of society.
I beg to repeat, that my publishers, of whose conduct I must express my satisfaction, have requested me to refrain from further repelling the unprovoked malice I have alluded to, which is probably not only the best method of proceeding, but agreeable to my natural temperament, education, and turn of mind; and I would apologize in having recourse to this method of self-justification, in consequence of the long-protracted delays and enormous expenses attending legal investigations for libel.
Before concluding this subject, one accusation must not be passed over, made by a mendacious pamphleteer, on the strength of his character being unknown in England , in my having obtained from the New Zealanders "princely and cheaply-acquired territory--bought land for the merest trifle, and perhaps cheated them in the payment." I shall not follow so ill an example as to give a justification in the language of cant and mendacity used by
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this person, for where facts are wanting, virulence, and fanatical intolerance is invariably substituted.
This statement, made with the self-assurance of its being wholly without foundation , would have met with no reply from me, had it not been noticed in a Magazine having a large circulation, which has induced me to make the following declaration. That my possessions in New Zealand consist of five several properties purchased in the Bay of Islands, for their water-frontage, the principal portion, seven years since, when the very supposition of that country being colonized in our time, would have been accounted Utopian and preposterous. The utmost extent of ALL those purchases TOGETHER, does not exceed 1100 acres, and when it is taken into consideration that many single landed proprietors in the Canadas, United States, New South Wales, and other colonies, possess from 1100 to 11,000, aye and 111,000, acres and even larger domains, our "princely estates" dwindle to a very low figure. Possibly I may be even excused from possessing 1100 acres, save by my envious opponent, when so far from buying land for the "merest trifle," I actually paid for some portions at the rate of 6pounds 10s. 0d. per acre to the resident native Chiefs, proprietors of the soil, and that I paid an EQUITABLE, FAIR, and JUST PRICE, is evidenced on my title-deeds, (copied from that made by William Penn with the North
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American Indians) by, among other signatures, that of the informant of this traducer. This man, born at Peterhead, was a seaman before the mast of a whaling-ship, from which he absconded in the Bay of Islands, forfeiting his articles and wages. The Missionaries, seeing his wretched state among the natives, scarcely obtaining food or raiment, employed him in cutting the knees for a small cutter which they laid down about that time, which on completion was wrecked while intrusted to his care. He then insidiously habited himself in the garb of religion, which his actions repeatedly falsified, and has fed the natural venom of an aspirant for the loaves and fishes, by turning even on his masters, who fostered, clothed, and relieved him in the years of his distress.
This man is best described by the fact, that, he has learnt to sign his name since his arrival at New Zealand, a consummation that may be ascribed to Lord Brougham's schoolmaster abroad, as this neophyte had never the benefit of one at home. He was a sawyer for some years, at Wangaroa, and the Bay of Islands, and as for "cheating the natives of their payment," I am always willing to produce the newly-learnt, but ill-constructed pothooks and hangers, alias signature, of this informant, that the CONTRARY is the fact. In addition to the signatures, as witnesses, of respectable gentlemen, as to the honourable nature of my transactions with the native chiefs, I have
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letters of the Rev. Henry Williams, Chairman of the Church Missionary Society, a gentleman as honourable and devout as these detractors (arcades ambo) are the contrary, relative to this subject.
The magazine reviewer closes his critique, that "Messrs. Polack, Fairburn, and Marsden, who have neither parliamentary nor family interest, would relish the idea of subjecting their titles to a strict revision." Mr. Fairburn must answer for himself; the Rev. Samuel Marsden is beyond the privileges of parliament; and the pamphleteer is the only person who has published the name of Mr. Marsden in a spirit of detraction, arising from envious malignity; he was a truly pious and devout man, and died in (I believe) 1838, aged nearly ninety years, passed in REAL usefulness, and to the thousands who knew him, such envenomed shafts fall harmless. He was senior chaplain of New South Wales for many years, which place he filled alike honourably to himself, and justly to his creed. I feel persuaded, despite the accusation, that he did not possess A SINGLE INCH of land in New Zealand, and his frequent absences from Sydney, from a happy home, to encounter, at his advanced age, vicissitudes in a barbarous country, were solely undertaken for bettering the degraded condition of the New Zealanders, I would recommend to his detractor the oft-repeated adage, De mortuis nil nisi bonum , and to adopt that of Beneficiis maleficia
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pensare . In conclusion, I can only observe DECIDEDLY AND ENERGETICALLY, that NOW Or HEREAFTER, I challenge from any appointed authority the STRICTEST SCRUTINY as to the mode by which I acquired my "princely estates" in New Zealand; the EQUITY AS TO THE VALUE I GAVE for the said estates, at the time, to the absolute proprietors, and the ENTIRE LEGALITY OF THOSE PURCHASES I MADE, and SECURE IN THE HONESTY OF MY TRANSACTIONS, I regret not the want of the influence alluded to, but which induced me to place my title-deeds in the hands of the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Devon, at the select committee of the House of Lords, in May. 1838.
"Further this deponent sayeth not," as I can say, in truth, that in speaking and writing of men, I have mentioned their honesty with alacrity ; and when forced to mention their faults, have touched on them with regret, slightly, and with much reluctance, and should have left those clansmen "alone in their glory," had I not been solicited by various gentlemen, as to disposing, exchanging, and leasing my properties in the Bay of Islands, and consequently was imperatively called upon to expense (in part) and disprove the foregoing unprovoked as unfounded statements previously to attending to such requests.
It is irrelevant to my purpose to enter into a disquisition whether the lands of an independent
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people (and acknowledged as such by European powers) may be purchased or not; suffice it, that notwithstanding the laws, customs, and habits of the New Zealanders, fully recognise the purchase, exchange and sale of all property, landed or otherwise, that vast forests and prairies, as extensive as counties in Europe, are depopulated; the former tenants of the soil having been extirpated by ruthless wars, the few surviving conquerors, not daring to cultivate their newly-acquired territories, even when possessed of numerical force to do so, fearful of being set upon in turn by the billigerent tribes of the neighbouring country, or that the produce they would sow might be reaped by an enemy. My native property has been purchased in a manner agreeably to the custom of the missionaries, the principal portion being bounded between the lands purchased by those gentlemen and the estate of James Busby, Esq., Her Majesty's British Resident, the purchases being made from the same chiefs on similar terms . This method has been pursued by the New Zealand Land Company, with this difference, that my property was not purchased until after a protracted residence in the close vicinity of the native proprietors, so that not a slave born on the soil was excepted in obtaining a portion of the purchase, whereas, the land of the company was bought by Captain Herd, after a few days' intercourse with the natives, to whose habits in selling land, and lan-
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guage, he and his people were absolutely strangers. The purchase was nevertheless valid, as I resided twelve months in the vicinity of the Hokianga lands, and though several offers had been made to the chiefs of the district, for a resale of the property, they invariably refused their assent.
The price I paid to the chiefs in some instances per acre , seven years since, was twenty-six times the value now asked by the New Zealand Land Company, in London; superiority in the locality causes the difference. 1 In reference to land purchases I cannot regard myself as "the most offending soul alive," as the British government has during the last three reigns, and that of her present Majesty, been equally culpable in purchasing the splendid timber of the country, to furnish masts and yards for the navy, and flax for its rigging; also in the reign of his late Majesty, of respected memory, the independence of the New Zealanders was especially acknowledged by the British government, and a flag expressly presented to them through the medium of Captain Lambert, commanding His Majesty's ship "Alligator," and despatches were forwarded to the Admiral commanding on the East India station, to respect the said flag. Mr. Busby was further appointed accredited agent from the British government to the
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natives of New Zealand, and in that capacity I placed in his hands, on printed memorandums, copies of my title-deeds that I had sworn to before A. B. Spark, Esq., magistrate of the territory of New South Wales, and similar copies I also placed in custody of the Reverend Henry Williams, Chairman of the Church Missionary Society, and my local agent Captain J. R. Clendon, American Consul.
In reviewing the past, whether as an artist in Europe, a ship-chandler in Australia, a servant to the British government (Commissariat and Ordnance) in Africa, or a traveller for personal gratification in America, I feel justified in concluding with the words of Lord Chancellor Erskine, when advocating the cause of a plaintiff in a case of libel, "It was the first command and counsel of my youth, ALWAYS to do what my conscience told me to be my duty, and to leave the consequences to God. I shall always carry with me the memory, and I trust, the practice, of this parental lesson to the grave, I have hitherto followed it, and have no reason to complain that my obedience to it has been a temporal sacrifice."
J.S. POLACK.
2 MACCLESFIELD-STREET, SOHO
MARCH, 1840.
