CHAPTER II
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CHAPTER II.
RECENT PROGRESS OF THE COMPANY'S SETTLEMENTS
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WHEN I quitted Port Nicholson in March last, the settlers had been in possession of their lands at Wellington about seven months, and the number of white inhabitants of the town was commonly estimated at three thousand souls. In my own opinion, this estimate was then somewhat excessive. What they had done at that time may be in some measure conceived from a view of a portion of the site of the town, recently published by Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. of Cornhill. 1 It represents about one-third of the water-frontage of Wellington, and less than a third of the inhabited parts of the town; and is a faithful picture of what actually existed at the time. Judging from the preparations which were then in progress for an increase of building, and from the number of settlers who must have since reached Port Nicholson, I cannot doubt that the town presents at this time a much more advanced appearance. It
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must not, however, be supposed, that all the emigrants would settle at Wellington. A road was begun and has been since completed, which would provide easy access from Wellington to the mouth of the Wanganui River; and here a settlement had already been commenced. The way from Port Nicholson to Wanganui, after passing the road which has been made from Wellington to the shore of Cook's Strait at Porirua, is by an extremely hard beach of sand, broken in only one place by rocks, which may be easily removed. The reports of various officers of the Company, who had walked from Port Nicholson to the neighbourhood of the Sugar-loaf Islands, where the settlement of New Plymouth has commenced, left no doubt that the way from the latter place to Wanganui was as easy as that from Wanganui to Port Nicholson. The number of persons who have emigrated directly from England to New Plymouth is 534. It may be considered, therefore, that the whole of the coast, from Port Nicholson to New Plymouth, has been opened for settlement. The progress, however, of the Company's Settlements, down to the time of my departure, is so fully and accurately described in a letter from Colonel Wakefield to the Company, of which I was the bearer, that I cannot do better than print it here.
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Wellington, New Zealand,
Feb. 26, 1841.
SIR,---At the last moment, previous to the sailing of the Cuba for Valparaiso (by which route I hope my letters will reach you more speedily by means of the Panama steam communication, than if forwarded to Sydney,) I beg to give you, for the information of the Court of Directors of the Company, the latest accounts of the condition of the Colony, and a short retrospect of its first year's history.
The Directors will remember the disadvantageous circumstances under which the foundation of this Colony was laid. The disinclination of her Majesty's Government to introduce a system of Crown colonization, or to adopt or sanction that proposed by the Association and the Company, coupled with the disavowal of British sovereignty over New Zealand, rendered titles to land precarious, and the establishment of law and order a matter of extreme difficulty.
The first expedition despatched by the Company to this country acquired a vast territory in strict accordance with the hitherto recognized form of obtaining title to land herein, and with the usages of the aborigines. It, moreover, gave to the aborigines more than the full market and a satisfactory price for the land ceded; besides various tangible and moral advantages, including
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reserves of land for their maintenance, schools, hospitals, and other establishments. This liberality, without precedent, I believe, in the history of colonization, justified a foreign power taking possession of a savage country in following the recognized customs of extinguishing native rights. Under these circumstances, the first Colony, consisting of 1,200 souls, arrived in this settlement.
I need scarcely recall to your recollection the instructions of the Court of Directors received by me, to recommend to the settlers an abandonment of the agreement entered into in England; or of the steps which we took to guard against any violation of our allegiance, by means of the native power sanctioned and approved of in the most formal manner by her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies. Deriving authority from that native power, the settlers, speedily after their arrival, formed themselves into a Council for the maintenance of law and order among her Majesty's subjects and the aboriginal population; but, upon the appearance at Port Nicholson of the acting Colonial Secretary of these Islands, the Council of Colonists suspended its sittings and functions, and the settlers unanimously greeted the arrival of a single subordinate magistrate as the harbinger of the rule of the British crown and legislature.
Again the infant settlement put forth its
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strength, and, in conjunction with numerous arrivals from the neighbouring Colonies, showed what could be produced by combined capital and labour upon a field full of resources, such as we possess. Experience having proved the unfitness of the valley of the Hutt for a commercial city, the greater number of Colonists wisely removed their establishments to the other end of the bay. Our noble harbour received shipping to an extent unprecedented in the annals of so young a Colony, and gave signs that, as a port of entry and export, it would become, in union with our invaluable commercial supporters at home, the principal entrepot of this country.
A full meeting voted an address of congratulation and support to the Lieutenant-Governor, and to this, and to the offers of assistance by the Company, I received a courteous answer, declining, however, the proposals of both, as regarded his making this the seat of the local government. The Act of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, instituting a commission of inquiry into, and restricting the extent of the titles to the land---although such titles, if fairly acquired, had been guaranteed by repeated declarations of the Queen's Ministers,---threatened the stability of the settlement, and induced many to propose an abandonment of New Zealand for South America. A deputation from the settlers to Sir George Gipps, the Governor of New South
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Wales, to whom the question of titles had been referred, received and brought to us satisfactory assurances from his Excellency of his high estimation of the body of settlers, and of the measures of the Company. These assurances, showing sound judgment and enlightened statesmanship, the want of which had been so apparent in the neglect and errors of the Home Government, revived confidence amongst us. Sir George Gipps ratified, so far as his power extended, the titles to land acquired by purchasers under the Company in the 110,000 acres first bought by them, subject only to the occupation of that extent in one continuous block. His Excellency refused to sanction the plan of selection by the first purchasers from all the Company's possessions, which would have been tantamount to the system of special surveys practised in other neighbouring Colonies.
The proposition of his Excellency was cordially accepted, and the settlers, assured of their titles to their purchases in the preliminary sections, proceeded vigorously to lay out their capital in calling into life the city of Wellington. It remains for Sir George Gipps to decide,---and there is no reason to anticipate a refusal,---whether the subsequent purchasers of land from the Company shall receive the same protection and privileges, in other blocks of land now in progress of settlement in the Company's possessions.
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The number of settlers sent from England at the expense of the Company, together with those arrived from Australia, at this time exceeded two thousand souls. An impetus to enterprize had been given by Sir George Gipps' decision, and an union of purpose amongst the Colonists bade fair to push forward the settlement at a rate unanticipated by the most sanguine. Commerce, founded on the capital introduced from home and the other Colonies of this hemisphere, gave a life to the place similar to that of old countries. Mechanics and the labouring class obtained full employment at ample wages, in the erection of buildings and cultivation of the fruitful land in the neighbourhood of the harbour, whilst native labour and native produce realized to the fullest extent the value set upon them by the proposers and advocates of New Zealand colonization.
At this period of our history, when the fostering care of the Lieutenant-Governor might have been reasonably expected by the infant Colony now placed under his dominion, and become a recognised portion of the British Empire, (although until that recognition occurred, we had no right perhaps to expect protection from Government,) Captain Hobson struck a blow at the prosperity, and even existence of the settlement, which was as little sanctioned by the Governors of the neighbouring Colonies, as it was consistent
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with justice and fair dealing. Although Sir John Franklin, the Governor of Van Diemen's Land, and the authorities of other adjacent Colonies, had expressly and pointedly disapproved of, and taken measures to prevent, the abstraction of workmen from one settlement for the benefit of another, Captain Hobson sent a vessel hither with offers of free passage, of temporary locations without rent, and of other inducements to the working classes to emigrate to the settlement now in progress in the Gulf of Shouraka, whither a difficult navigation, a doubtful harbour, and a barren district, have deterred any but some hungry officials and Bay of Islands land-expectants from bending their steps. The only apologies that can be offered for his proceeding are, that the recognition of the Company's title to the land acquired from the natives (who at the time of such acquisition were expressly acknowledged to have the full power of selling their territory) gives the Government a right to dispose of the labour sent out by the Company (by means of the 75 per cent, put apart for an emigration fund out of the proceeds of the sales,) in the same manner as if the importation of that labour into these islands had been defrayed out of the national emigration fund; and that the settlement at Auckland being in New Zealand, a seduction of labourers from Port Nicholson is not a fraudulent abstraction from one Colony to benefit another, such as is denounced
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by Sir John Franklin, Colonel Gawler, and the settlers of every Colony which may be liable to injury from the same cause.
The first plea is answered by the fact of the Company having voluntarily expended on emigration 75 per cent, of its profits on the sale of land, purchased before the Government claimed a right to sell land in this country; and the second may be as easily disposed of, by asking whether Port Nicholson and Auckland, 400 miles apart, and separated by the East Cape, are not as much distinct and separate settlements as Port Jackson and Launceston; or to give more striking examples, as Launceston and Port Phillip, before the latter was made a separate Colony? The conduct of Captain Hobson has naturally given much uneasiness to those who, having expended capital here, fear a deficiency of labour, and universal disapprobation of it has consequently been strongly expressed; but the reliance upon the continuance of a supply of labour by the Company, and the fortunate plantation of the settlement a year in advance of that of Auckland, reassure all reasonable people as to the stability and bright prospects of this place.
Thirty soldiers sent hither from the Bay of Islands have been suddenly withdrawn to Auckland, much to the satisfaction of our settlers, to whom their drunken and disorderly conduct was a constant annoyance.
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The above is a hasty but faithful sketch of the principal events in our first year's existence as a British Colony. Let us now glance at our present state and future prospects. These I cannot but regard as in a high degree satisfactory. It is established, almost beyond doubt, that the north side of Cook's Straits will be colonized by Englishmen in immediate connexion with the Company. A considerable number of settlers are already at Wanganui, preparing to select the land which has been surveyed for them with praiseworthy despatch, and which will be open for selection in a few days. Large reinforcements to their number may now be daily expected.
Proceeding higher up the Straits, we find the foundation of New Plymouth already laid in the vast and fertile district of Taranaki. 2 The Surveyor-General of the Plymouth Company, with assistants, is employed in marking out the site of the future city. From Taranaki and Wanganui, immense supplies of agricultural produce and of flax will be conveyed to Port Nicholson; and the fisheries on the coast will also become the source of much profitable employment. In anticipation of a large coasting trade, numerous small vessels
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are now building in the various harbours and inlets on both sides of the Straits.
It is impossible to over-rate the value of flax as a staple article of commerce; and the only impediment to the introduction of the Phormium tenax into Europe and America, has been removed by the discovery of a cheap method of preparing large quantities for export, in reduced bulk, and without injury to the fibre. A short time only will elapse before our settlement will provide a profitable return cargo for the foreign vessels visiting Cook's Straits. Already, and before the agricultural resources of the settlement have had time for development, the shipping belonging to Port Nicholson has become worth 5,000l .; and this is almost exclusively employed in bringing pigs and potatoes, in return for blankets, guns, and other articles sought after by the natives.
The houses erected in Wellington have cost at least 18,000l .; and the merchandise and provisions now in the place may be safely put down at not less than 200,000l . In every direction large stores and private dwellings are springing up. Within a few weeks, measures have been in progress for the erection of the large steam saw and flour mill, brought from England by Messrs. Hopper, Petre, and Molesworth. A company is formed with sufficient capital to carry on the business; and ships, not full of flax and oil, will be supplied with sawn timber for home consumption, and for the
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neighbouring Colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land.
My confidence in the success of this settlement rests in no slight degree on the vigour with which many gentlemen are now employed in raising stock, and in farming operations. Even inferior land has produced some excellent wheat and barley, whilst some of that grown on the banks of the Hutt is the finest I ever saw. The importation of cattle from New South Wales supplies us with the means of increasing the best breeds. In enumerating the various sources of future prosperity, I ought not to omit the material advantage which may be expected from the operations of the Church Society. It is understood that the large property purchased from the Company by the Society will be improved by a judicious and liberal expenditure, with a view, not so much to immediate returns, as to the creation of a valuable estate a few years hence. Of the success of this experiment, under judicious management, there can be no doubt. In the meanwhile, the circumstance of the Society having fixed upon the Wellington district as the residence of the bishop and the site of a college, is of itself gratifying, and certain to be productive of benefit to the settlement.
All that has been said or written of the extraordinary healthiness of this place has been borne out by experience. I believe that every tem-
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perate and well conducted person in the Colony is entirely free from disease of every description.
The pleasing circumstances mentioned would be comparatively worthless, did our rising settlement exhibit the spectacle, too common in new Colonies, of internal discord; but here again I find matter of congratulation. With no exception worth notice, the settlers on the Company's territory are on the most friendly terms with each other, and with the native population. The slight differences which occasionally will occur are soon adjusted.
More might be said on the different topics which I have touched upon, but more is not needed to satisfy the Directors of the increasing prosperity of the Colony. Difficulties of no ordinary nature have been overcome, and severe trials have proved the determination of the settlers to second manfully the exertions of their friends in England. On continued support from England perfect reliance is placed, although no longer absolutely necessary to the now fairly established Colony.
Neither is it unreasonable to expect a favourable change in the disposition of Government; but at the same time, it is on their own efforts, which founded the Colony in the face of official hostility, the settlers depend. This spirit of manly self-reliance daily gains force, as we proceed; and I am mistaken if the British people, which has
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watched our progress with so much interest, will not discern in it the chief reason for anticipating continued success.
I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,
(Signed) W. WAKEFIELD.
To the Secretary of the New Zealand Company.
