1845 - Wakefield, E.J. Adventure in New Zealand [Vol.I.] - CHAPTER XVIII

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CHAPTER XVIII.

GREAT and good was the news which had arrived from England while I was away. The Bailey, a fast-sailing schooner, had been sent by the Company with the announcement of the favourable aspect which things had taken at home.

New Zealand had been proclaimed as an independent colony, and Captain Hobson as Governor. But the inquiry so ably set on foot and directed by Lord Eliot had furnished a complete exposition of the absurdities which had marked the first era of the colony as one of rivalry between the Colonial Office and the Company at home, and between the local Government and the Company's settlers here. The consequence had been, a complete reconciliation between the discordant parties in England; for which great credit was given to Lord John Russell, the then Colonial Minister. The famous "Agreement" between the Government and the Company guaranteed to the latter a grant of an acre of land for every five shillings which they had expended upon

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the colonization of the country; and the Company yielded to the Government all its claims in right of purchases from the natives. I shall not inflict upon the reader the minor provisions of this document, as none of them qualified these main conditions in any important particular. The Company were incorporated by Royal Charter, required by the Government to double their capital, and recognized as a valuable instrument for the colonization of the country.

Another very satisfactory piece of news was the certainty that a Bishop of New Zealand would soon be appointed. Private letters described that the influence of the powerful body of men composing the New Zealand Church Society had overruled the scarcely concealed opposition to this measure of Mr. Dandeson Coates, the lay Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, and of Mr. Stephen, one of the permanent Under-Secretaries of the Colonial Office. It was very naturally concluded that, even if our Governor should persist in fixing his desert capital at a distance from the centre of population and of the islands, the future Bishop at least could not fail to recognize Wellington as the place most fit for his location, both by the number and by the character of its inhabitants.

The birth of the Princess Royal, now also made known in this country, afforded an opportunity of addressing her Majesty. A meeting was therefore held, and a loyal address adopted, which did not fail to thank her Majesty for the recent act of justice done to the colony by the advice of her Ministers, or to pray that the representative of the Queen might be instructed to take up his abode among a community which had such claims to his care and attention.

While public dinners and rejoicings marked the welcome with which the separation of the colony from

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New South Wales was received, all parties felt deeply grateful to Sir George Gipps for the act of speedy and statesmanlike justice which had induced him to consider favourably the peculiar claims of the settlement; and it was especially in parting from his rule, that we called to mind how he at least had treated us with a fostering hand.

A few days before the arrival of all this intelligence, a trading schooner from Kawia and the Thames had brought the news that four gentlemen of Wellington were appointed Magistrates of the territory. These were, Colonel Wakefield, Mr. George Hunter, Mr. Henry St. Hill, and Captain Edward Daniell. The three gentlemen who composed the deputation to Sir George Gipps had been placed in the commission of the peace some time before; but, ignorant of the New South Wales law, and not having been regularly sworn in, they had refrained from acting as Magistrates until a very recent period.

A public meeting, however, had been thought necessary to consider "the steps necessary to protect the public from the outrages of the Police establishment." Complaints had been made of the use of pistols and handcuffs, and ruffianly dragging to the lock-up, on unfounded charges, by the Police constables. If the conduct of the inferiors was thought irritating to the highest degree, the administration of the penal code of New South Wales by the Police Magistrate had also been complained of, and some of his decisions were severely remarked upon as illegal and unconstitutional. With no appeal from this irresponsible and undefined authority, which dispensed in capricious quantities a law unintelligible to free Englishmen, the aggrieved parties had determined on requesting Dr. Evans and Mr. Hanson (Mr. Moreing being absent

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from the settlement) to take their place on the Bench of Magistrates. Dr. Evans had acceded to the request, notwithstanding the petulant display of temper made by Mr. Murphy on the occasion of his first acting upon this resolution. The hitherto unrestrained potentate declared, in the Police Court, that he would not sit on the Bench while Dr. Evans did, except in cases which, by law, required the presence of two Magistrates.

The first act of the newly-created Justices was to address a very able paper to Captain Hobson, congratulating him on his new and independent position.

They seized the opportunity to urge upon him a cessation of the lamentable hostilities which had already existed between the great mass of the subjects and the Government of the colony, and to impress him with the importance of considering the changed aspect of affairs, in such a manner as to fix the authority of his presence in the nucleus of the only systematic scheme for peopling the islands. They dwelt at some length on the results of the exploring expeditions which had proved Port Nicholson to be essentially a central position for the whole islands to be so peopled, although they acknowledged that Auckland might perhaps have been chosen advantageously for a capital had no British settlement previously existed, and had it fallen to the province of the Governor to choose a centre from which colonization should diverge. But they pointed out to him, that the Agreement seemed to recognize the Company as the colonizing instrument of New Zealand, and to leave the Governor to the discharge of the higher functions of government. And they argued, that for the sake of the native as well as the White population, he would best do this by directing in person that portion of the European colony

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which far exceeded in numbers, means, and vigour, all the rest put together. If Captain Hobson had possessed the slightest wish to repair his insults to the community of Port Nicholson, he would have jumped at such an excellent opportunity of reconciliation, and of ruling Cook's Strait with pleasure and honour, instead of leaving it to be neglected by a Police Magistrate. This very statesmanlike document was signed by Colonel Wakefield, Mr. Hanson, Mr. George Hunter, Mr. Henry St. Hill, Captain Daniell, and Dr. Evans.

Two other ships had arrived from England just before the schooner.

One, bearing the Agent of the Plymouth Company and the first batch of settlers for New Plymouth, had anchored in Cloudy Bay. The Agent, Mr. Cutfield, had crossed to Wellington in a small craft, in order to learn from Colonel Wakefield whither he was to proceed, and had returned to take the ship to her destination. This body of West of England settlers had started under the auspices of a very distinguished festival at Plymouth, at which the first announcement had been made of the happy termination of the negotiations with the Government. Bearers of good news, they had met bright hopes on their arrival; for each new account from the surveying-party and travellers spoke more highly of the great capabilities of the Taranaki district, and confirmed the reputation which had long earned for it among the natives the title of the "Garden of the Land."

Another vessel had brought nearly two hundred and fifty more immigrants and passengers to Wellington. Among the passengers was Mr. Edmund Storr Halswell, who had been appointed by the Company Commissioner for the management of the Native Re-

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serves. It was understood that this gentleman bore letters from the Colonial Minister to Governor Hobson, recommending his confirmation in the above office.

The New Zealand Company had always wished that some impartial party should be intrusted with the management of the Native Reserves for the benefit of the aboriginal population. They had taken no steps to apply those already selected to any purpose, because they were liable to be accused of interested conduct. It was now hoped that the Governor would enable Mr. Halswell to derive from the native estate the great advantages which it was capable of conferring on those for whom the Company had reserved it.

I must add, that in the six weeks during which I had been absent, a road long in progress round the west side of the harbour had been completed by the Company's labourers; and Sam Phelps had been the first to drive his bullock-dray over it to Pitone. A bridle-road from Kai Wara Wara to Porirua was also in progress, as well as one from the town into an elevated valley of some extent, called Karori, situated a mile to the south-west. A wooden building of some pretensions in point of architecture had been erected as a Public Exchange at Te Aro, and a wharf had been run out into the harbour near the same spot by Captain Rhodes. New stores, houses, and fences, had sprung up in every direction; and the clinking of the hammer and sudden apparition of new habitations still went on, day after day, with unceasing activity.

The day after I arrived, another vessel, which had sailed at the same time as the Bailey, arrived in the harbour. Besides duplicates of despatches, it brought upwards of a hundred more colonists of various classes for Wellington.

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Official despatches from Government to Captain Hobson, announcing to him the arrangement with the Company, and requesting him to treat the settlers in Cook's Strait "with kindness and consideration," had been sent in the Bailey, and were forwarded in a brig to Auckland.

On the 21st, a very severe gale from the north-west was experienced. No damage occurred to the vessels in our excellent harbour; but we were sorry to hear that the Jewess schooner, on her way to Wanganui, full of settlers and goods, had been driven away from her anchorage at Kapiti, and totally wrecked on the beach near Paripari, after being cast on her beam-ends in the attempt to make an offing. A Brazilian whaler, also driven from the anchorage, had managed to get clear out to sea.

Two lives had been unfortunately lost in this wreck. George Wade, one of two brothers who had been among the earliest to bring cattle and horses from Hobart Town, and whose energy and perseverance had contributed not a little to the active progress of the settlement in its younger days, was one of those lost. The other was the native chief Wide-awake, whom I have already mentioned more than once.

The Waikanae natives, we heard, who were related to him, had made his death an excuse for plundering the wreck. Although all professing to be mihanere, or Christians, they had not scrupled to allege the old native custom as their apology, and claimed whatever they could collect or take as utu for the death of their chief. On the receipt of this disastrous intelligence, forty young settlers armed and started for the spot, taking it for granted that the Police Magistrate would, as usual, be unable or unwilling to interfere. Mr. John Wade joined the

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party, hoping to find at least the remains of his brother. I furnished him with letters in Maori to Hiko and other chiefs of that part of the coast, begging them to assist him in this object, and also in that of preventing the disgraceful plunder and the bloodshed which might ensue.

An anonymous writer in the Wellington newspaper complained of the social state of Wanganui, and commented on the "debauchery of the settlers." I published a letter attributing this vice, and, moreover, the frequent robberies and outrages committed by the runaway convicts and other ruffians who had congregated there, to the improper conduct of the Government in licensing two grog-shops, without providing any officer for the maintenance of law or order of any sort.

An answer was received from Sir George Gipps to the remonstrance against the official jobbing in allotments at Auckland. His Excellency had signalized the end of his rule over New Zealand by disapproving, in the strongest terms, of the whole proceeding.

Some chance arrivals from Auckland and the Bay of Islands about this time furnished a doleful account of the stagnation and despondency produced there by the various experiments in founding and governing cities. The people of Auckland, consisting of a few mere land-sharks or hangers-on, attracted from Sydney and the Bay of Islands by the expenditure of the Governor and his suite, and the approaching land-sale, vented their ill-temper at the disappointment of their hopes, by the expression of undisguised hostility and vulgar jealousy towards the thriving settlers of Wellington. The news concluded, as usual, with a report that Captain Hobson was about to visit us.

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This last piece of intelligence, however, was already becoming too worn-out to attract much attention. It was a byword and a joke at all the hotels, at the Club, the Exchange, and other places of assemblage where the gossip of the day was discussed. To the question, "what news from the north?" the invariable answer was "Hobson's coming!" and it became the custom to say of a waiter, a ship, or anything else proverbially dilatory, but which was "coming," instead of "so's Christmas," "so's Hobson!" This was in fact a better figure of speech, for Captain Hobson, unlike Christmas, had been "coming" for more than a year.

On the 5th of May, the Brougham sailed for London with a full cargo of oil and whalebone and several passengers. Among these was Captain Chaffers. He had been independent enough to sign the petition for Captain Hobson's recall. His services as Harbour-master had then been declined by the Government, while they refused even to authorise his acting in the pay of the Company, and neglected to appoint an officer in his stead. He carried with him, however, a highly creditable testimonial of his great ability and of the services which he had rendered to the colony, signed by seventy of the most respectable of the settlers, who moreover presented him with a sum of money which they had subscribed and begged him to apply to the purchase of a piece of plate in England, commemorative of this opinion. The other passengers were persons who, like Mr. Petre, went with the intention of returning to take up their final abode in the colony.

The inhabitants of Wellington, anxious to secure the advantages of a Municipal Corporation, as proposed to be granted them by Sir George Gipps, determined to meet

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and consult upon the course to be pursued, and upon the details of a measure, such as they could approve, which they might after mature deliberation submit to Governor Hobson as the basis of such an arrangement. The working-men again resolutely claimed, and persevered till they obtained, their share in the deliberations. The discussions between the two parties, and the formation of Committees from among their united ranks, occupied a considerable space of time. But, notwithstanding the little differences as to the share which either class was to be allowed in the preparations, an observer could not fail to be struck by the fixed determination of the colonists of all ranks to obtain the power of managing their own local affairs. The utter neglect and indifference which the distant authority had manifested towards these matters thus became an evil not unmingled with good, since it had brought forcibly home to the mind of each individual the urgency of the local institutions being entrusted to the direction of those persons who were sure to be most interested in their wholesome state.

I spent a month at Wellington very pleasantly. Horses were now plentiful, and the new roads afforded delicious rides; a curious contrast being presented by the neat macadamized causeway, and the groups of workmen and wheelbarrows, among the primaeval forest and wild scenery which they penetrated. At the Hutt, the cultivations and clearings looked cheerful and promising. From sixty to a hundred families were now permanently settled in that district; neat cottages and luxuriant gardens appeared along the banks; the rich crop had induced many a doubting settler to clear some land this year; and the axe-men had begun to be a large and important class. Groups of smiling children bobbed and pulled their fore-locks

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to "gentlemen from town" as they rode up the river-bank; and new fields were to be noticed at every successive visit.

Cattle-driving, too, on the pasture hills, afforded exercise and excitement. Following the system pursued in New South Wales, owners of cattle brand their herd and let them run loose over the hills, and then drive them at a gallop into the stock-yard when they are wanted. The cattle get exceedingly wild and fast; so that it requires bold and hard riding in some instances to head them. The gentlemen and the stock-keepers who had come from that country soon taught us the manner of proceeding; and idlers were often enlisted as volunteers when a grand muster was to be effected, or some particularly wild heifer to be found and driven in. The stock-whip, a very necessary instrument for this work, requires some description for English readers. A stout wooden handle a foot in length is attached to a heavy thong of plaited hide, about fifteen feet long from the handle to the end of the lash. This whip is whirled two or three times round the head, and cracked with a report as loud as that of a pistol in the face of a stubborn animal. The wildest cattle when charging you will turn from it, if it be used with skill; but an inexperienced hand is very apt to slice his own face or injure his horse severely, without at all alarming the cattle.

About the middle of May, Mr. William Gordon Bell, a stout Scotch farmer, showed a noble example of enterprise by driving the first herd of cattle to Wanganui. Mr. Bell had enjoyed farming experience in several parts of the world. While connected with an estate in the West Indies, he had married a woman of colour, by whom he had a fine hardy family of two sons and two daughters. After residing some time in

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various parts of the Australian colonies, he had crossed over to this country, with Mr. James Watt, who had been the first to attempt agriculture at Port Nicholson. Long before the town was distributed, Mr. Bell had begun to farm a piece of land between the harbour and the sea for Mr. Watt; and had been the first to use the plough in Cook's Strait. The land in question was of a poor clayey nature, and in a spot swept by both the prevailing winds; so that the crop of wheat, though good in quality, was scanty. The industry of Bell and his family, while working for an employer, had been most remarkable. He owned two or three sections in the second series, including the seventh choice; and having completed his engagement with Mr. Watt, he determined to start for Wanganui with his family, a cow, and six fine oxen which he had bought. The bridle-road to Porirua was only partly finished; and the crossing of the various rivers seemed to offer some difficulty; but the old man had walked over the whole route to satisfy himself, and on his return declared his determination to get the cattle there. His departure was a fine sight. The cow and the six bullocks yoked in a team, with packs on their backs, were attended by old Bell and his two sons. He was known by every one to possess an unlimited stock of perseverance, firmness, and energy. In coming from Watt's farm to the beginning of the Porirua road, he had to pass through the whole town; and all the spectators flocked to shake his iron fist, and wish him every success. He answered in broad Scotch dialect, that "they should go--he would take care to succeed." And many an eye watched them file up the steep path from Kai Wara Wara, and disappear among the woods on the top. I had furnished him with letters to various chiefs along the road with whom I was

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acquainted, requiring their help at the rivers and their friendly assistance along the road. His ploughs, drays, bags of seed, and other implements and articles of bulk, were put on board the Sandfly and another schooner, in which the women of his family also pro- ceeded.

On the 15th of May, an American trading-ship came in from Auckland. The long expected sale of the first town-lands had taken place, and twenty-six acres had realised the enormous sum of 21,000l. Considering the very small and purely land-jobbing population of the place, and the reasonable doubts as to whether a bona, fide colonization of the neighbouring country would for many years give a real town value to these lots, the land-jobbers had started at a very high figure. The only other intelligence was that the Governor had begun his independent reign by gazetting Lieutenant Shortland as Colonial Secretary, and fixing his salary at 600l. per annum.

END OF VOL. I.

London: Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES and SONS, Stamford Street.