[INTRODUCTION]
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The Otago Expedition
Introduction
As well as the entries for the period up to 1st June taken from Frederick Tuckett's diary, there are in the following pages a number of letter writers and characters, first there is Frederick Tuckett, Explorer, Agent and Surveyor for the proposed site of the Settlement of New Edinburgh, who obviously writes the largest amount of correspondence, next there is John Jermyn Symonds, PM (possibly Police Magistrate), who was on the expedition to look after the interests of the Maoris and who writes a number of letters to Tuckett, then there is Daniel Bell Wakefield, Barrister, one of the Wakefield brothers, who came to Otago Harbour with Symonds to mediate between him and Tuckett, who presumably was in the employ of the New Zealand Company and who also wrote to Tuckett. Then there are some minor characters, John Barnicoat, who appears to be Tuckett's principal assistant surveyor and writes one short letter, David Scott, Interpreter, presumably employed by D. B. Wakefield, writes one letter. Of the non letter writers there is Dr. Munroe, possibly the expedition doctor, Davison, another of Tuckett's assistant surveyors, Rev. Wohlers, with whom Tuckett kept up a voluminous correspondence, as well as various "squatters" and numerous Maori. Finally there is the important Colonel William Hayward Wakefield, Principal Agent for the New Zealand Company, Wellington, to whom most of the letters are addressed, but whose replies and opinions we do not know because, at this time, we do not have that information. Below are details of the lives of the principal characters, although some are quite brief due to a lack of information.
Frederick Tuckett, 5th and youngest son of Philip Debell and Elizabeth Tuckett, member of the Society of Friends, Quakers, was born on the 27th of August, 1807 at the village of Frenchay, situated in the County of Gloucester at a distance of 5 miles to the N. E. of Bristol.
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His nephew Francis Fox Tuckett writes, "He secured the greater part of his education at a school in the adjoining village of Fishponds, kept for many years by a Friend of the name of Joel Lean, which enjoyed a high reputation and where he was associated with many who have since occupied honourable positions in society
"In 1824, at the age of 17, he was apprenticed by his parents to Arthur Clothier a tanner carrying on business at Street nr Glastonbury in Somersetshire, with whom he remained until he attained his majority in 1828 and possibly longer. He appears, however, to have felt no inclination to pursue the trade, for in 1829 he started for the United States and during that and the two following years, travelled, often on foot or horseback over a large extent of country in the eastern United States and often through districts which at that time were but scantily inhabited and were still the resort of wild animals and somewhat lawless men. Of these wanderings he kept a minute and careful journal which would have been of special interest for those residing in regions which underwent a rapid and wonderful transformation in the late 19th century". This journey was published as "American Journey 1829-1830 by the Frenchay Tuckett Society in 2002. In 1833 and 1834 he was travelling once more, this time extensively in Europe, visiting Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Moscow, Sweden and Norway, and again this Journal was published by the Society as "European Journey 1833 & 1834" in 2003.
"Of his mode of life & place of residence after his return to this country there appears to be no record until he appears as studying civil engineering under Mr Charles Lean C. E. at Corsham in Wiltshire and subsequently was entrusted by Isambard Kingdom Brunel with the oversight of the construction of a section of the Western Railway, from London to Bristol, in the neighbourhood of Wooten Basset, a small town in Wiltshire about 6 miles from Swindon
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"How soon it may have been after the conclusion of this engagement we cannot say, but in April 1841 he received from the New Zealand Company a deed of appointment as their "principle Surveyor and Civil Engineer in the intended Settlement of Nelson", and accordingly set sail for New Zealand where he remained in their service for the next 6 years, withdrawing from it and returning to this country in 1847. I was a mere child at the time but I remember that on many points connected with the policy of the Company, & especially in relation to the rights of the aborigines, my uncle's letters showed that he felt very little sympathy, and after his return home, he devoted much time and energy to bring his views before the Directors & the Public".
"Establishing himself in London he henceforth took a lively interest in a variety of philanthropic, religious & other objects, amongst which may be especially mentioned Missionary enterprises, the labours of the Peace, Anti Slavery, and Aborigines Protection Societies, Temperance, Emigration, & Geographical Research, besides devoting a good deal of time & money to aiding established or intending emigrants. For New Zealand, where he had taken at Nelson an active part and liberally aided in the early beginnings of an educational movement, he continued a full and lively interest and solicitude, maintaining a prolonged and voluminous correspondence with many valued friends in that colony".
"Journeys to America & the West Indies, as well as to Spain and other countries of the Continent were successively taken and with almost all he seems to have associated some special benevolent or religious object, and to have sought not merely his own pleasure or health but the good of his fellow creatures. With means more than adequate for his own very moderate and self denying personal expenditure he liberally aided those who lacked, & from such, whether relative or not, his generous and repeated help was never withheld, though he was judiciously discriminating in his gifts and always sought to aid
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others to help themselves permanently rather than merely temporarily to tide over some difficulty or embarrassment".
"As the years went by the tall, powerful, & specially erect figure became somewhat bowed, and he increasingly shrunk from ordinary normal intercourse, but, in spite of trials and discouragement's, his truly Christian character was maintained and deepened by a constant and reverent study of the Bible, &, when a telegram suddenly announced that after some few days of illness, apparently the result of a somewhat neglected cold he had passed away to his rest on the 16th of April 1876, none who knew him could doubt that the summons had not found him unprepared, but that with him all was well. He never married and survived all but one of his brothers, who is still alive".
John Jermyn Symonds has been more difficult to track down, as information about him is very sparse and at first it looked as though there may even have been two persons of that name, one who arrived in New Zealand about 1841 and another who arrived in 1849. However when the Alexander Turnbull Library Website was checked a reference was found which is as follows. "Symonds, John Jermyn, 1816-1883. youngest son of Sir William Symonds (R. Adm. C. B. K. C. B. ) and brother of William Cornwallis Symonds (1810-1841). He arrived in New Zealand in 1841, and was appointed acting-protector of aborigines and engaged in the survey and purchase of native lands. In 1844 he was sent as police magistrate with F. Tuckett to purchase the Otago Block. In 1845 he volunteered for service with the 99th Regiment in Heke's war; received a commission, and was present at Ohaeawai and Ruapekapeka. In 1846 he was appointed private secretary to Governor Grey. He afterwards exchanged into the Ceylon Rifles and proceeded to England. In 1849 he returned to New Zealand on the Berhampore in charge of a detachment of the New Zealand Fencibles. In 1855 he was appointed Native Secretary and a year later resident magistrate at Onehunga and principal returning officer. He was also a magistrate
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at Kaipara but resigned in 1858 on being elected to represent the Pensioner Settlements in the House of Representatives, 1858-1860. in 1861 he was again appointed magistrate and some years later a judge of the native land court, from which he retired in 1862".
Within a few months of George Grey's (the new Governor) arrival in 1845? he decided to abolish the Protectorate because it "was maintained at an annual cost of £2500 of which sum about £1000 was appropriated to salaries and allowances to Mr Clarke and his two sons, and not a single hospital, school or institution of any kind.... was in operation for the benefit of the Natives", so this may explain Symonds appointment as private secretary to Governor Grey and his decision to return to England. We do hear of J. J. S. in 1880 when he made a statement to the Government about the negotiations for the Otago land purchase when there was an enquiry into why the Maori were not given "tenths" in the settlement when this was the previous policy of the New Zealand Company.
It is of some interest to note that although Frederick Tuckett has an entry in the New Zealand Dictionary of National Biography there appears to be no entry for Symonds.
Daniel Bell Wakefield, the second son of Edward Wakefield and Susannah Crush was born on 27th February 1798 at Romford, Essex. In 1807 he attended Tottenham Grammar School and from there went to Westminster School where he was considered stolid and in late 1815 he stayed and worked at Francis Place's learning bookkeeping, conveyancing and practical farming, Place said of him "he is a hard working, plodding fellow, with the vice of lying about him, and with a good deal of sly cunning. ..... The boy is capable of being made a good man -- a clever one he never will be". After spending time in Amsterdam and Italy it was hoped that D. B. W. would obtain steady employment in the offices of the Hon. William Hill (later Lord Berwick) but it is possible that he began working with his father. In 1824 he followed his elder brother's (Edward
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Gibbon Wakefield) example by eloping with Selina Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Godfrey de Burgh of West Drayton Hall, Middlesex. Whether D. B. W. was motivated by love or money, or both, it is difficult to determine and if he eventually acquired a marriage settlement it was not of much consequence because, like all the Wakefield marriages of his generation, it ended in tears and by 1828 Selina lay buried in the de Burgh vault.
D. B. W. was called to the Bar in January 1832 and was involved in political activities and stood for Parliament as an independent Liberal for Lambeth, but was not elected. He was then involved with the South Australian colonisation in 1834 and 1835 and also made a second marriage to Angela Attwood, the eldest daughter of Thomas Attwood, but after a few years D. B. W. separated from Angela "for giving her a loathsome disease". By April 1843 he was in debt and disgrace having "defaulted at the Newmarket races to the tune of £4,000", and to enable him to escape his creditors and tormentors, E. G. W. despatched him, under the pseudonym of "Mr Bowler" to New Plymouth, N. Z., where he stayed for a few months before going to Wellington under his own name. Once there he obtained employment with the New Zealand Company, presumably one of his assignments was his trip to Otago with J. J. Symonds in June 1844 and where he signally failed to support Tuckett and the New Zealand Company in the purchase of lands for the Settlement of New Edinburgh. However his support of the "Government" Representative paid off because by 1847 he was appointed Crown solicitor and public prosecutor and by 1850 he became Attorney General for the province of New Munster (south part of the North Island), and was residing in the Hutt Valley. In 1855 D. B. W. was appointed temporary Puisne Judge, being unique among N. Z. Judges as the only one who had emigrated to the country under an assumed name, otherwise his tenure was unremarkable and the stress of the job soon began to tell. In October 1857 he resigned and by January 1858 he was dead, aged 59.
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William Hayward Wakefield, the fourth son of Edward and Susannah Wakefield was born 8th August 1801. Like his elder brother D. B. W., W. H. W. was educated at Tottenham Grammar School and Westminster School (where he obtained better Latin), and finished his education on the Continent, returning from Paris, aged 17 in March 1819. Between that time and 1824 it is hard to trace him but it appears he was working for his eldest brother, E. G. W. Whilst working in Paris he fell in love with Emily, the daughter of Sir John Sidney, and over the following two years they became very attached, possibly it was an intimate relationship, so they became formally engaged in January 1826 and, after some discussion and arguments over the terms of the marriage settlement, were married later the same year. However, as seems to have been a Wakefield trait, this marriage didn't last long because Emily died in August 1827, after giving birth to a daughter six months earlier.
During these eventful two years, 1826/27, W. H. W. was involved in assisting his brother E. G. W. in elopement (abducting) and illegally marrying the fifteen year old heiress Ellen Turner for which they were both put on trial, although W. H. W absconded to Paris before the trial began, leaving in the lurch the two men who had stood surety, in the sum of £2000, for him. However he returned to England and the trial of the two brothers took place in March 1827 and in May were both found guilty and given sentences of three years, W. H. W. in Lancaster Castle and E. G. W in Newgate Prison.
W. H. W. was released from prison in 1830 with his prospects for employment and social rehabilitation ruined, but he then travelled to Austria, Russia and Lapland on unexplained missions before going to Portugal in 1832 where he spent the following six years as a mercenary in the armies of Portugal and Spain, finally becoming a Colonel in the Reina Isabel Lancers, a title he kept for the rest of his life.
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Returning to England W. H. W. became involved with the New Zealand Company and by 1839 was appointed Commander and Principal Agent of the Tory expedition to New Zealand, which by 1840 had founded the Settlement of Wellington and it is in this situation that we find Col. W. H. W. in 1844 during the exploration for the site of New Edinburgh which is the subject of the following letters.
By the end of August 1844 the New Zealand Company was in financial difficulties and although Col. W. H. W. appeared to get on well with the new Governor George Grey this, and the manipulations of E. G. W. with the Government in London didn't save it, so "Wideawake", as the Maoris called Col. W. H. W., settled down to his pursuit of Natural History, the only highlight being a pistol duel in March 1847 (both men missed) with Dr Isaac Featherstone, the editor of the Wellington Independent, who published an editorial savaging the N. Z. Company and, by association, Col. W. H. W. and implying that he was a thief. During the latter half of 1847 he was unwell, and in January 1848 he suffered a minor stroke, then a second and severe one in August and on the 15th September he died.
(Although the actions of the Wakefield brothers appear far removed from the Quaker principles of honesty, integrity and humbleness, it is interesting to note that their grandmother, Priscilla Bell was a Quaker (the great granddaughter of Robert Barclay of Ure, and the daughter of Daniel Bell) and it is possible that her husband, Edward Wakefield was also a Quaker as they were married at the Meeting House in Tottenham High Road.)
John Barnicoat, the son of John Barnicoat and Elizabeth Bullock, was born in June 1814, in Falmouth, educated at Falmouth Proprietary School and trained as a civil engineer. On 23 February 1842 he arrived in Nelson in the "Lord Auckland" so was an early immigrant. From 1842 until 1846? he worked as a surveyor for the N. Z. Company, then for the Government until
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the early 1850's. Around 1849 he is recorded as living in Waimea East, Nelson and about this time married Rebecca Lee Hodgson, by whom he had seven children and was said to be a farmer. In 1867 he is recorded as living at Ashfield, which was possibly the name of his farm. He kept a journal of his time as a surveyor which included the exploration and founding of New Edinburgh. He was a true immigrant New Zealander as he settled and spent the rest of his 91 years in the country until his death in 1905, something the majority of the other letter writers never intended.
Sir David Monro, (the Dr Munroe in Tuckett's diary and letters), the seventh child of Dr Alexander Monro, (Professor of Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, and President of the College of Physicians) and Maria Carmichael-Smyth, born in Edinburgh on the 27th March 1813, he was a foundation pupil at Edinburgh Academy before going on to university where he graduated as a Doctor of Medicine in 1835. He studied in Paris, Berlin and Vienna before beginning to practice in Edinburgh.
Having bought four allotments of land in the proposed Nelson settlement he sailed for Melbourne, Australia, as surgeon on the "Tasmania". He spent some time with a brother who had settled in Victoria, then sailed to New Zealand on the "Ariel", arriving in Nelson in March 1842, where he took up the life of a pastoralist in Nelson and Marlborough. In 1844 he was a member of Tuckett's expedition seeking a site for the proposed settlement of New Edinburgh, remained with Tuckett throughout the exploration and during the negotiations with the Maori. He tried, unsuccessfully, to mediate in the "dispute" between Tuckett and Symonds before Symonds left for Wellington on the second occasion. Monro, who knew Tuckett well, warmly praised his efforts at advancing the colonisation of New Zealand.
Of all the participants in the "Otago Survey", David Monro possibly became one of the most famous. He took an ac-
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tive part in the political development, not only of the Nelson Province but of the colony as a whole. He accepted office, briefly, in 1849, as a nominee member of the New Munster Legislative Council and was elected to New Zealand's first Parliament of 1854 as the member for Waimea district. He served assiduously, but unspectacularly for the first two Parliaments, then succeeded as Speaker in 1861, a chair he occupied through six changes of Government. Realising the need for dignity and decorum he was able, with his impressive deportment and extensive knowledge of House of Commons procedure, to lift the office of Speaker to a high plane. His smooth but firm control of debate set a standard which has been rarely surpassed in New Zealand.
He resigned the office of Speaker in 1871 and finally left Parliament in 1873. He died on the 15th February 1877 after a long and tedious illness.
There appears to be no information about W. E. Davison, the second of Tuckett's Surveyors, or David Scott the interpreter. Regarding Rev. Wohlers there are the numerous letters he wrote to Tuckett from Ruapuke Island, now in the Hocken Library, Dunedin, but as these would require a separate publication, and because he is hardly mentioned in the following correspondence, it was felt to be unnecessary to give his details.
Finally there is the argument between Symonds and Tuckett which at first sight appears to be rather childish and could have been caused because the "youngish" Symonds expected to be treated as the most important person on the expedition due to his "exalted" position as the Government Representative and as English "Gentry", whereas Tuckett was Quaker "Trade". A good example of this (as mentioned in Tuckett's diary) was the fact that when the Deborah anchored in Wellington harbour he expected it to dock at the landing stage to collect him rather than go out by boat and it is well to bear in mind that for a sailing ship this required a lot of effort and time, something
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Tuckett considered very important and no doubt made plain, so the two got off to a very bad start.
When Tuckett accepted the "leadership" of the expedition he was just about to return to England, so he obviously wished to carry out his commission as speedily as possible, hence his displeasure at the delays caused by Symonds. Of course if he had chosen Banks Peninsular and Canterbury, as was intended, the expedition would been completed speedily, so Tuckett's insistence on exploring all down the coast to present day Invercargill could have been another cause of dissension. However there could have been some "secret" objective behind the reason for Symonds abrupt departures for Wellington, perhaps the Government knew that the New Zealand Company was in financial difficulties and did not wish the purchase to be completed before they were "liquidated", so that the Government could then take over the exploration on behalf of the intended Scottish Settlement, thereby ensuring that the Maoris were given a fair deal.
Finally it should be understood that Tuckett was placed in an impossible situation when given carte blanche as leader of the expedition to choose the site of the settlement, because the Government Representative, Symonds, had the final say over the purchase. Also the fact that he was expressly prohibited from carrying out a survey before the purchase made things very difficult, hence his request by "word of mouth" to Major Richmond that he would qualify his instructions to Symonds to allow surveys of ports and roadsteads, as this was a most important matter in the choice of a site, after all it would have been irresponsible for him to choose a site without adequate port facilities when the main means of transport was by ship. In the above circumstance the expedition could have proved a failure if a less "determined" man than Tuckett had been in charge.
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The Otago Expedition & Survey 1844
When the Wakefields formed the New Zealand Company in the late 1830's to colonise New Zealand, many people in Britain were interested and therefore invested in the Company and, because the Company were propounding such high principals for its colonisation project it attracted investment from the Tuckett family, and perhaps in view of this Frederick Tuckett was appointed principal civil engineer and surveyor to the intended settlement of Nelson. In 1841 Frederick Tuckett sailed to New Zealand on the "Will Watch" with the advance party, landing in Tasman Bay on the 9th October 1841. Tuckett, possibly because he was a Quaker, thought the land needed to be suitable for small farm holdings rather than for large land owners (sometimes absentee land owners) who would employ the labourers that the Company were encouraging to emigrate. This misunderstanding of the Company's aims soon led to him being at loggerheads with Captain Arthur Wakefield, the settlements leader, over the suitability of the land. Being highly principled, and a person who didn't spare himself he soon had problems with his labourers who protested against the long hours he would have them work.
The first immigrants to Nelson arrived in the "Fifeshire" on the 1st February 1842. Sufficient land was available for suburban sections within reasonable distance of the town but Tuckett had to explore further afield for rural land. In March 1842 he went to Massacre Bay (now Golden Bay), finding some 55,000 acres he considered suitable, as well as useful resources of coal and timber. This land was still not enough, so J. S. Cotterell (one of Tuckett's surveyors and another Quaker) explored to the south-east of the settlement and found a vast area of suitable land in the Wairau Valley.
The survey started in April 1843 but there was some dispute over the legality of the Company's claim to the Wairau Valley and
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the Maori Chiefs Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata resisted the survey, pulling up survey pegs, burning huts, starting cultivations, and evicting the surveyors. This led to the decision to arrest Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata which ended in the now famous (or infamous) Wairau Affray in which 22 settlers were killed (and an obscure number of Maoris, including Te Rangihaeata's wife), Captain Wakefield and J. S. Cotterell being amongst the dead. Tuckett, with his Quaker background refused to bear arms, he and another of his surveyors, J. W. Barnicoat (also a Quaker) escaped and with some 25 others made his way to safety.
Frederick Tuckett was then appointed acting agent for Nelson, but unnerved by the recent events, with the problems he had with the unemployed labourers and because his colonisation aims were still at such odds with the Company's, when he was offered the post on a permanent basis declined and proposed that the post be given to another of his assistants, William Fox. There was no problem between Fox and the Company over the colonisation of New Zealand and he went on to greater and greater things, eventually becoming Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Completely disillusioned Tuckett made plans to return to Britain and resigned at the end of January 1844. In the meantime, however, the New Zealand Company had agreed to act on behalf of the Free Church of Scotland in finding suitable lands in the South Island for its projected New Edinburgh settlement and urgently needed a person of Tuckett's experience to carry out the necessary exploration. Frederick Tuckett accepted this new task on condition that he had a completely free hand in choosing the site, this being accepted he was therefore the Companies agent and in fact in charge of the expedition. In view of the problems still surrounding the Wairau Valley project, the Company quickly accepted Governor FitzRoy's proviso that a government officer, John Jermyn Symonds should travel with the expedition, to safeguard the Maori interests during a purchase. This arrangement inevitably
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led to conflict because Symonds maintained that the purchase from the Maori must be completed before any survey was carried out, whilst Tuckett, in my opinion, quite rightly insisted on a survey of ports and roadsteads and an "eye" survey of the land before deciding upon any area that should be chosen.
The New Zealand Company had predetermined that the Port Cooper (Lyttleton), Banks Peninsular and the Plains should be the site for the New Edinburgh settlement, but Tucketts exploration gave him proof that area's light soils and lack of timber made it unsuitable for the kind of smallholdings for the Scots farmer-proprietors. It was better suited, he decided, for "landed proprietors" who needed large acreages for grazing. It was the old argument rearing its head again, such a one that had caused his disillusionment in Nelson, so he sailed on south to explore all the lands from the Rakaia River to Invercargill, before finally choosing Dunedin and Otago. It is necessary to take into consideration all the foregoing comments when reading Frederick Tuckett's letters.
Tuckett came to his conclusions based on the circumstances ruling in the mid 1800's, and, when looking at the present landscape of the South Island, it would be easy to conclude, with hindsight, that he made mistakes. For instance when he writes about his trip from Port Cooper to the Deans homestead, he is in fact walking over three quarters of present day Christchurch, from Lyttleton and Sumner to Riccarton, where the small cottage homestead became the present day Victorian Riccarton House. As he finished his explorations in the Bluff and Oreti River area (the present site of Invercargill) he thought it would be a good area for immigration and, if the land claims around Oreti Harbour had not already been investigated and confirmed, it would have been a good site for a town. This site is now where the present day City of Invercargill stands. However he finally settled on Otago as the site for the settlement and the City of Dunedin and the very pleasant surrounding countryside confirms his wise choice.
