1859 - Thomson, A. S. The Story of New Zealand [Vol.II] - Part II. (Contd.) History of the Discovery of New Zealand by Europeans - CHAPTER V. COMMENCEMENT OF COLONISATION, 1839 TO 1842.

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CHAP. V.

COMMENCEMENT OF COLONISATION, 1839 TO 1842.

I HAVE already related how public attention was drawn to New Zealand previously to 1839. It is now requisite to narrate the events which immediately led to the colonisation of the country, as for many years to come these events must form a curious page in its history.

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To the late John Lambton, first Earl of Durham, and Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, England is chiefly indebted for the systematic colonisation of New Zealand. After the failure of the scheme of 1825, of which Lord Durham was the most influential mover, the formation of a colony in that country was considered hopeless. On several occasions the question was mooted, but those persons to whom it was referred invariably asked, Who would prefer migrating to a country inhabited by cannibals?

In the year 1836 a committee of the House of Commons was inquiring into the condition of the aboriginal inhabitants of colonised countries, and another committee into the best mode of disposing of waste lands in colonies, and on both committees New Zealand was incidentally mentioned as an eligible field for colonisation. This drew Mr. Francis Baring's attention to the country, and in 1837 the New Zealand Association was formed, of which that gentleman was chairman, and Lord Durham senior member of the managing committee. This Association consisted of people intending to emigrate, and of public men, who gave the influence of their names to collect information, and were willing to carry the measure into execution. A volume entitled The British Colonisation of New Zealand was soon afterwards published, and widely circulated. The Association stated that its sole aim was to hasten the systematic colonisation of New Zealand, as the only remedy for the irregular colonisation then going on; to protect the natives, and to induce the government to sell land at 1l. an acre, and not give it away for a few shillings as in other colonies.

Her Majesty's government were at first inclined to

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favour the Association, but after some time a legal difficulty caused the ministers to oppose it. The Association, the secretary of state said, was not a company trading for profit, and on the condition of it becoming such a charter was offered to it. This boon the directors announced they could not accept, having excluded all purposes of private gain from their object. 1

The Association then changed its ground, and attempted to form a colony by another method. This was done by Mr. Baring, who introduced a bill into parliament in 1838 "to establish a provincial government of British Settlements in New Zealand under the control of sixteen commissioners." Meanwhile Lord Durham had assumed the high office of Governor-General of Canada, and Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield accompanied him to that colony, so their influential support to this scheme was lost. Ministers now openly opposed the colonisation of New Zealand, and Mr. Baring's bill, described by Lord Howick as "monstrous," 2 was thrown out of parliament by a large majority.

During these proceedings the British government was guided in its policy towards New Zealand by missionaries. A deputation of the New Zealand Association waited on the great Duke of Wellington, and Mr. Dandeson Coates, the secretary of the Church Missionary Society, to solicit their support. His grace said Great Britain had enough colonies, even although New Zealand might become what the deputation represented, a jewel in England's colonial crown; he promised, however, not to oppose the scheme. Mr. Coates told the deputation he was against the colonisation of New Zealand

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in any shape, and was determined to thwart the Association by every means in his power. 3

Mr. Coates published two pamphlets against the scheme; in one addressed to the colonial minister, and marked confidential, he charged the Association with being influenced by motives of personal gain; an accusation which drew a pamphlet from Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, one of the Association's most active members. Mr. John Beecham, secretary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, also published two pamphlets against establishing a colony in New Zealand. From these pamphlets it seemed the missionaries were anxious the islands should be left in their hands, and they characterised the arrival of colonists as an enemy pouring in like a flood. The baffled Association accused the missionaries of wishing to rule the country, and of attempting to erect it into a sort of Levitical republic similar to that of the Jesuits in Paragua.

The reasons assigned for their violent opposition were not kept secret; they said the New Zealanders would pine and melt away before white men; that in no temperate climate, where a colony has been formed, have the aboriginal inhabitants kept up their original numbers, even although the colonists declared on setting out, that their principal aim was the propagation of the Christian religion; 4 that colonists would obtain the lands of the natives for mere baubles; that wherever savages and civilised men have come in contact the story has been written in blood; that in a few years the New Zealanders would look on the missionaries as enemies, as men who had led the way for those who

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deprived them of their lands; that the Association's plan for their civilisation was Quixotic, destitute of any provision for religious instruction, and under the management of the notorious Edward Gibbon Wakefield. 5

The accuracy of some of these objections cannot be doubted, and it is an idle task to discuss the merits of the others, for this very obvious reason; the settlement of Europeans in New Zealand could not be prevented after the year l838 without a fleet to blockade the coasts, and as this was impossible, it was better to have a British colony formed in the country, than a number of republics similar to that flourishing at the Bay of Islands. The missionary opposition was a pious attempt to work a miracle. Such philanthropy, although honourable to the hearts of men, is discreditable to their judgments; and from similar ill-judged attempts to do good, much evil has often arisen in this world.

Intimately acquainted with the ways of the world were the directors of the New Zealand Association, and they were now convinced that nothing could be done with the opposition arrayed against them; so after Mr. Baring's bill was defeated in parliament the Association broke up, and, to excite sympathy indirectly, accused the ministers of having destroyed a body founded solely for the public good. The secret history of the Manukau Company discloses that internal dissension had some influence in producing this result. 6

In 1839 several of the members of the defunct New Zealand Association took advantage of the colonial minister's suggestion of a charter, and established the New Zealand Land Company, with a capital of 100,000l., in

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400 shares at 25l. each share. This joint-stock company assumed the memorable name of the New Zealand Company, on purchasing from individuals, and the New Zealand Company of 1825, some acres of land at Hokianga, and two islands near the mouth of the river Thames. Lord Durham, who suddenly returned from Canada, became the governor of the company, Joseph Somes, Esq., deputy governor, and the following gentlemen were the first directors: Lord Petre, Hon. F. Baring, J. E. Boulcott, Esq., J. W. Buckle, Esq., Russell Ellice, Esq., Ralph Fenwick, Esq., J. B. Gordon, Esq., W. Hutt, Esq., M.P., George Lyall, Esq., Stewart Marjoribanks, Esq., Sir William Molesworth, Bart., M.P., Alex. Nairne, Esq., J. Pirie, Esq., Alderman, Sir George Sinclair, Bart., M.P., J. A. Smith, Esq. M.P., W. Thompson, Esq., M.P., Sir H. Webb, Bart, Arthur Willis, Esq., J. F. Young, Esq., J. Ward, secretary.

It was soon ascertained her Majesty's ministers were as much opposed to the New Zealand Company as to the Association; and the directors, knowing from past experience that it was impossible to move the colonial office, determined to consider New Zealand a foreign country, and to establish settlements in it without the crown's permission. In May 1839, before the directors had divulged their scheme to the public, the ship Tory, 400 tons burthen, sailed for New Zealand, having on board Colonel Wakefield, the Company's chief agent, a staff of intelligent officers, and Nayti the New Zealander, who had been living for two years as a prince with Mr. E. G. Wakefield. Eclat was given to the expedition by the appointment of a naturalist. These pioneers were directed to purchase land, acquire information, and make preparation for the formation of a republic under the fictitious auspices of some independent chief.

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Two days after the ship was clear of England's shores, the directors announced that the Company was formed to purchase land in New Zealand, promote emigration, lay out settlements, resell such lands according to the value bestowed on them by emigration, and with the surplus money give free passages to skilled tradesmen and agricultural labourers.

The colonial office was completely surprised at this energetic step. An explanation and an account of the whole affair were immediately demanded by the secretary of state, and Lord John Russell informed the directors that the instructions sent out for the government of the emigrants, and the entire expedition, were illegal, because no body of Englishmen can form a colony in any country without the consent of the crown. 7 After a considerable display of wordy resistance, the directors admitted their errors, asked for a favourable construction of their motives, and put themselves under the protection of her Majesty's ministers. 8

Queen Victoria's government had been hesitating about sending a consul to New Zealand ever since the formation of the republican association at the Bay of Islands in 1838, and the New Zealand Company's proceedings decided the question. Without delay letters patent were issued under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom on the 15th June 1839, extending the boundary of New South Wales to include any part of New Zealand that may be acquired in sovereignty by her Majesty; and Captain Hobson, R.N., an officer who visited New Zealand in 1837, when commanding her Majesty's ship Rattlesnake, was immediately ordered

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out in the Druid for the purpose of erecting the country into a British colony. The treasury minute of the 19th July, 1839, directs him to proceed to New Zealand as consul, to endeavour to obtain the sovereignty of the country, and then to act as lieutenant-governor. 9

Ministers took this step with much regret, and Lord Normanby informed Captain Hobson that her Majesty's government had deferred as long as possible the colonisation of New Zealand, because the approximation of civilised with uncivilised men had hitherto proved destructive to the latter, and the white man's progress in the New World had been over the dead bodies of the aborigines.

For many months after the departure of Colonel Wakefield and Captain Hobson nothing was heard from either of them. Meanwhile it became known in London that a vessel named the Comte de Paris, having on board emigrants, had left France, in October 1839, for Akaroa, in the Middle Island; and that the French frigate L'Aube was on the eve of sailing for the same destination. The shareholders in England grew uneasy at this intelligence, for it was gravely announced that France contemplated the formation of a penal settlement and a colony in New Zealand; and, although this statement was denied, I am convinced from inquiries made at Akaroa that the French did intend to form a colony in the country. Louis Philippe possessed shares in the company which sent out the Akaroa settlers; and M. de Belligny, the agent of the expedition, openly stated that the French government promised protection to the emigrants. 10 The French occupation of the islands of

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Tahiti and New Caledonia in the Pacific, since this period, tends to confirm the accuracy of the above rumour. 11

Another curious circumstance revived uneasiness on this subject. On the 10th March 1840, a highly favourable despatch was received from Colonel Wakefield. This drew public attention to some papers relating to Captain Hobson's appointment, already laid before parliament; and several influential London merchants were surprised to find the ministers had not ordered that officer to proclaim her Majesty's sovereignty over New Zealand. Without delay, one hundred and fifteen bankers, merchants, and traders of London called a public meeting at Guildhall on the 15th April 1840, to consider the subject, and from this assembly petitions were sent to both Houses of Parliament, praying them to annex the New Zealand islands, "the Britain of the South," to her Majesty's dominions. This led to the appointment of a select committee of the House of Commons to collect evidence on the question, and it was then ascertained that Captain Cook took possession of the islands in the name of King George III., in 1769, and that when New South Wales was declared a portion of the British dominions in 1787, these islands, although not named, were within the proclaimed boundaries as much as Norfolk Island; but that certain acts had occurred since these events which prevented the Queen of England assuming the sovereignty; these were King William IV. having addressed the New Zealanders as an independent people in 1833, and having recognised their national flag in 1834. 12

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All these singular discussions drew much attention to the New Zealand Company, and as the directors were men of great political and commercial influence, it rose high in public estimation, as may be inferred from the quantity of land sold. In June 1839, 110,000 acres, in lots of 101 acres each, at 101l. a lot, comprising 100 country acres and one town section, were disposed of by lottery without difficulty. The conditions of sale were, that 75l. of the purchase-money could be claimed for free passages for purchasers and their families, or for their servants and labourers; and the directors informed the public that when no such claim was made the benefit was equally conferred on the landowner, as the whole of the emigration fund would be spent in conveying labourers to the colony.

For the purpose of attracting emigrants the Company published a New Zealand journal in London, and paid a numerous corps of newspaper writers all over Great Britain, who gave glowing and occasionally fictitious descriptions of New Zealand; thus the river flowing into Port Nicholson, now called the Hutt, was stated to be as broad and deep as the Thames at London Bridge for eighty miles, the fact being that a boat can with difficulty get six miles up the river; while panoramas of the valley of the Hutt and of the site of Wellington were exhibited in London to admiring intending emigrants.

The directors of the Company described in strong language the system of colonisation which they meant to pursue: not the shovelling out of paupers, but the removal of a community in all its component parts from England to New Zealand; the transplanting of English society in its various gradations in due proportions, carrying with them the laws, customs, associations, habits,

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manners, everything in England but the soil and the climate; the founding of a colony, which in a few generations will offer to the world a counterpart of England in its social system, national character, wealth, and power. It was made known the settlers were to be concentrated into one spot, in place of being dispersed about the country, that this would make land valuable, reduce wages, and prevent labouring men from becoming independent. It was also announced that men of birth, education, and refinement had become owners of land in New Zealand; that several Jews were about to embark, who were to have accommodation for a priest on board to kill animals according to Jewish custom; that houses and other buildings in frames ready to be put up like a bedstead in an hour, with machinery of all kinds, steam-engines, agricultural implements, mechanics' tools, types, presses, and an editor, were among the articles ready to be carried out; and that a library and scientific institution were established. And this was not all. To disarm the hostility of the Church Missionary Society, and to obtain the support of the High Church party, arrangements were made to have a bishop appointed to the colony. The labouring emigrants already congregated for embarkation were described by the directors to be of the finest sort, in the prime of manhood, of approved moral character, and in good health, the proper persons to carve fortunes out of the wilderness.

Such flattering descriptions made simple-minded persons in England believe that the purchase of 100 acres of land and a "town lot" from the New Zealand Company was equivalent to a prize in the lottery. On the 30th July, 1839, a month after the first prospectus was issued, the directors announced that they were ready to

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receive applications for country lands to the extent of 50,000 acres, in sections of 100 acres each, at the price of 100l. the section, or at 1l. an acre, to be paid in full in exchange for a land order, either at the Company's principal settlement, or at Hokianga, Kaipara, Manukau, or the islands of Waiheke and Paroa.

Men acquainted with New Zealand could scarcely believe the directors were in their senses, and some doubted their honesty; for it will be hardly credited that when these prospectuses were published, and large quantities of land sold, the Company had as much right to sell estates in Spain as in New Zealand. It is still more wonderful that, before February 1840, 216 first and second-class passengers, and 909 labourers, sailed for a country inhabited by a well-armed race of men, who might dispute their disembarkation, and refuse them land upon which to build their houses. The emigrants were apparently bewitched; and there was a feeling among them that they were moving with, and not away from, the civilised world; and, from the wealth of some, the migration was not a flight from starvation to exile, but a short road to abundance and affluence. Most of them were Englishmen and Scotchmen. Irish emigrants were not encouraged by the directors, as they were considered "turbulent and dangerous."

In August 1839, the ship Tory hove in sight of the lofty snow-capped mountains in the Middle Island of New Zealand, and after touching at various places in Cook's Straits, anchored on the 20th September in Port Nicholson, a magnificent harbour in the North Island, rather difficult of access, which was discovered by a flax-trader in 1828, and named in honour of the Sydney

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owner of the vessel. A number of natives came on board, who were kindly received and well fed; they looked over the pictures in Cook's voyages, said the English were the first visitors, and gave unmistakable evidence that the native brought from England as an interpreter and a prince, was a slave and not a chief. From the ship's deck Colonel Wakefield inquired, through an interpreter called Barrett, an old whaler, the names of such and such points; and then asked the natives if they would sell all those headlands, rivers, mountains, points, coasts, and islands? To which questions they answered yes.

In less than three months Colonel Wakefield reported he had purchased a territory as large as Ireland, extending from the 38th to the 43rd degree of south latitude on the west coast, and from the 41st to the 43rd degree of latitude on the east coast. The deeds of purchase are three in number; in the first, the tenth part of the whole land is reserved for the natives; in the second and third the native reserves are not specified. These deeds are drawn out after the model of those used in the missionary land-purchases, and are signed or marked by fifty-eight chiefs, few of whom, according to subsequent proceedings, rightly comprehended what they were doing. To obtain the protection of white men against the inroads of the Hawke's Bay natives, and eagerness for the articles ostentatiously displayed before their eyes, were the two great motives which actuated them in this bargain.

The goods paid by the Company's agents for their lands were valued at 8,983l., and the articles given are worthy of record:--

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300 red blankets.
200 muskets.
16 single-barrelled guns.
8 double-barrelled guns.
2 tierces tobacco.
15 cwt. tobacco.
148 iron pots.
6 cases soap.
15 fowling pieces.
81 kegs gunpowder.
2 casks ball cartridge.
4 kegs lead slates.
200 cartouch boxes.
60 tomahawks.
2 cases pipes.
10 gross pipes.
72 spades.
100 steel axes.
20 axes.
46 adzes.
3,200 fish hooks.
24 bullet moulds.
1,500 flints.
276 shirts.
92 jackets.
92 trowsers.
60 red nightcaps.
300 yards cotton duck.
200 yards calico.
300 yards check.
200 yards print.
480 pocket handkerchiefs.
72 writing slates.
600 pencils.
204 looking glasses.
276 pocket knives.
204 pairs scissors.
12 pairs shoes.
12 hats.
6 lbs. beads.
12 hair umbrellas.
100 yards ribbons.
144 Jew's harps.
36 razors.
180 dressing combs.
72 hoes.
2 suits superfine clothes.
36 shaving boxes.
12 shaving brushes.
12 sticks sealing wax.
11 quires cartridge paper.
12 flushing coats.
24 combs.

No person can look over the above list of things given to the New Zealanders for their lands without sorrow mingled with mirth. Europeans acquainted with the natives at this period must laugh at the idea of seeing them with shaving brushes and red night caps, and feel sorrow on reflecting what they would do with 200 muskets, 16 double-barrelled guns, 8 double and 15 single-barrelled fowling pieces, 81 kegs of powder, 2 casks of ball cartridge, 1500 flints, lead, and bullet moulds.

It is difficult to conceive why weapons of destruction were given to the natives: there is no analogy between the bartering of fire-arms by the early settlers for flax and the present transaction. Common sense should

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have whispered to the Company's agent that these weapons might some day be turned against the colonists, and scarcely four years elapsed before that event actually occurred, and Colonel Wakefield's brother was one of the sufferers.

On the 30th of September, 1839, the Company's agent took formal possession of Port Nicholson, under a royal salute, and the New Zealand flag was hoisted on an immense staff, erected for the purpose. There was a war dance on this celebrated occasion, at which the natives whirled their newly-acquired muskets in the air, and the English spectators drank the health of the chiefs and people of Port Nicholson in bumpers of champagne. The natives expressed delight at the prospect of having white men and women to settle among them, to grow corn and bring cattle. The Company's pioneers were surprised at the civilisation of the aborigines, and bore testimony against previous adverse opinions as to the benefits conferred on the New Zealanders by the irregular settlement of white men in the country. 13

Leaving this auspicious commencement of colonisation in the south of New Zealand, we shall now turn to Captain Hobson's doings in the north.

After a prosperous voyage, her Majesty's ship Druid landed Captain Hobson at Sydney; here he took the oaths of office, and had the good fortune to receive advice in the art of ruling a colony from that able man Governor Sir George Gipps. Captain Hobson then sailed for New Zealand, accompanied by a treasurer, a collector of customs, a police magistrate, two clerks, a sergeant, and four troopers of the New South Wales

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mounted police, and landed at the Bay of Islands on the 29th of January, 1840.

The consul was loyally received by the motley population of Kororareka, and next day, on the beach of that notorious settlement, two commissions were read; one under the Great Seal extending the limits of New South Wales to include New Zealand; the other under the royal signet, appointing Captain Hobson lieutenant-governor over such parts of New Zealand as shall hereafter be added to her Majesty's dominions. Two proclamations, afterwards printed at the missionary press at Paihia, were at the same time promulgated. The first asserted her Majesty's authority over British subjects in the colony, and the second announced that the Queen would acknowledge no titles to land but those derived from Crown grants, that purchasing land from natives after this date was illegal, and that a commission would investigate into all the land purchases already made. This last announcement startled the whole community, being a death-blow to men who had purchased principalities for baubles.

Captain Hobson had now to perform a duty which has fallen to the lot of few British governors; the declaration of her Majesty's sovereignty over the country he was commissioned first to acquire and then to rule. This task weighed on his broken spirit during the dreary solitude of the voyage to the Antipodes; and when he contemplated the multitude of armed warriors in the neighbourhood of Kororareka with his own defenceless position, he saw the declaration could not be made without the almost unanimous permission of the people. But how to obtain this without exciting their suspicion, was a delicate and dangerous task.

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KERI-KERI WATERFALL, NEAR WAITANGI, BAY OF ISLANDS.
Vol. II. page 19.

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As the work brooked no delay, an assembly of natives was convened five days after his arrival, for the purpose of laying the question before them. The spot chosen for the conference was where the Waitangi river falls into the sea. Here, on the 5th of February, a great number of chiefs with their followers were gathered together. The day was singularly beautiful even for the Bay of Islands, and the place of assembly equally so; but superstitious men augured evil from the conference, because "Waitangi" signifies "weeping water." A spacious marquee profusely decorated with flags had been erected; and at noon Captain Hobson entered the tent accompanied by Mr. Busby, the late Resident, the principal European inhabitants, the heads of the English and French missions, the Government officers, and the officers of her Majesty's ship Herald.

The following treaty, prepared by Mr. Busby, was explained to the natives by the Rev. Henry Williams, and Captain Hobson, at the conclusion of the explanation, asked the chiefs individually to sign the treaty in the name of their respective tribes.

Article the first. The chiefs of the confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand, and the separate and independent chiefs who have not become members of the confederation, cede to her Majesty the Queen of England, absolutely and without reservation, all the rights and powers of sovereignty which the said confederation or individual chiefs respectively exercise or possess over their respective territories as sole sovereigns thereof.

Article the second. Her Majesty the Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the chiefs and tribes of New Zealand, and to their respective families

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and individuals thereof, the full exclusive and undisputed possession of their lands and estates, forests, fisheries, and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess, as long as it is their wish and desire to retain the same in their possession. But the chiefs of the United Tribes and the individual chiefs yield to her Majesty the exclusive right of pre-emption over such lands, as the proprietors thereof may be pleased to alienate, at such prices as may be agreed upon between the respective proprietors and persons appointed by her Majesty to treat with them on that behalf.

Article the third. In consideration thereof, her Majesty the Queen of England extends to the natives of New Zealand her royal protection, and imparts to them all the privileges of British subjects.

Twenty chiefs addressed the meeting in favour of the treaty, and six against it. The objectors stated, in speeches full of quotations from ancient songs and familiar proverbs, that the treaty would deprive them of their lands, that it was smooth and oily, but treachery was hidden under it; and these orations so moved the audience that an unfavourable termination of the conference was anticipated. At this critical juncture a chief afterwards celebrated as our best ally in the day of battle, Thomas Walker Nene, rose and spoke. He called to the minds of his countrymen their degraded position before the arrival of white men among them, told them they could not govern themselves without bloodshed, besought them to place confidence in Captain Hobson's promises, and acknowledge the Queen of England as their sovereign, by signing the treaty. The Governor insinuated that the opposition to the treaty was got up by French missionaries and evil-disposed

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white men, and that the former employed for this purpose a cannibal European called Marmon. 14

As the debate produced much excitement, twenty-four hours were given for deliberation, and this time was separately occupied by each tribe in earnestly considering the question. Next day without further discussion, forty-six chiefs in the presence of 500 followers signed the treaty. The first name on the roll is Kawiti, one of the leaders of the insurrection in 1844.

From Waitangi the treaty was taken about the country by missionaries and government agents for signature. Captain Hobson took it to Hokianga, where 3,000 natives were collected together for the purpose of again discussing its terms, and up the river Thames. Major Bunbury and the Rev. Henry Williams were despatched with it to the eastern and western coasts of the North Island, to Cook's Strait, Stewart's Island, and the Middle Island. Before the end of June, 512 New Zealand chiefs signed the treaty of Waitangi. To most of the signers, a blanket and some tobacco were given, but several refused these presents lest they might be construed into payments for the land.

The great legal difficulty was thus removed, and the Queen of England could now assert her sovereignty to the satisfaction of state lawyers. This was proclaimed over the North Island on the 21st of May, 1840, in virtue of the treaty of Waitangi; and over the Middle Island and Stewart's Island on the same day, in virtue of the right of discovery. To remove all doubts regarding the legality of this last act, Major Bunbury proclaimed the Queen's authority over the Middle Island on the 17th of June in virtue of the Waitangi treaty.

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The sovereignty of Stewart's Island still rests on the right of discovery. 15

Few natives rightly comprehended the nature of the treaty of Waitangi. Nopera, an intelligent chief, said "the shadow of the land goes to Queen Victoria, but the substance remains with us." All who signed the treaty knew their lands were guaranteed to them; none were aware that it exposed them to the danger of being hung for killing slaves, or to imprisonment for acts of the criminality of which they were ignorant. A conspiracy was hatched at the Bay of Islands, in consequence of the dread produced by the treaty, to murder every white settler and appropriate their wives; but the missionary natives loudly opposed, and were the means of preventing this diabolical deed. 16 Chiefs who refused to sign the treaty taunted those who had with slavery. Te Heu Heu, the great Taupo chief, when addressing some natives who had signed the Waitangi treaty said: "You are all slaves now, and your dignity and power are gone, but mine is not. Just as there is one man in Europe, King George, so do I stand alone in New Zealand, the chief over all others, the only free man left; look at me, for I do not hide when I say, I am Te Heu Heu." 17

For nearly twenty years the treaty of Waitangi has been law, and although dissatisfaction has been several times expressed with the act, yet it has never been repudiated by any large party of New Zealanders.

By many Europeans the treaty of Waitangi was laughed at as a solemn farce, a bartering of sovereignty for blankets. The New Zealand Company considered the

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whole business as illegal, and doubted "whether a treaty made with naked savages could be treated by lawyers as anything but a praiseworthy device for their amusement," 18 and a committee of the House of Commons, in 1844, characterised the treaty as an injudicious proceeding. But settlers unconnected with the company, the land sharks, or the Government, who have watched events since the formation of the colony, universally admit that the treaty of Waitangi was a wise measure, a Christian mode of commencing the colonisation of the country, and an act which has proved of signal benefit to the natives and the peace of the colony for the following reason.

It is contended by Vattel in his "Law of Nations" 19 that an unclaimed country, in which there are none but erratic natives incapable of occupying the whole, cannot be allowed to appropriate exclusively to themselves more land than they have use for; it is urged that their unsettled habitation cannot be accounted a true and legal possession, and that the people of Europe, too closely pent up at home, are lawfully entitled to seize the waste and settle it with colonies. Lawyers, historians, and statesmen can see nothing worthy of argument against Vattel's opinion; and, according to it, all the land in New Zealand did not legally belong to the natives. The treaty of Waitangi did this great good to the New Zealanders and to the cause of peace; it clearly recognised their legal title to all the land in the country, and on that account the act may be denominated the Magna Charta of the people.

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To return to the Cook's Strait settlers. On the 22nd of January, 1840, the Aurora, the company's first emigrant ship, arrived at Port Nicholson, and before the end of the year twelve hundred settlers disembarked. The natives were transported with wonder at the sight of so many white women and men, and inquired if the whole tribe, meaning all the people of England, had come to New Zealand. The natives instructed the settlers in building huts, and cheerfully sold them numerous pigs and abundance of potatoes. There was no quarrelling, and both races lived in the confidence of each other.

At the entrance to the valley of the Hutt, Colonel Wakefield laid the foundation of a town which was named Britannia; but as this was soon found to be a bad selection from its exposure to the open sea, in March, 1840, after several men were drowned on the beach by the upsetting of a boat, it was determined, at a public meeting, to move it to the opposite side of the harbour. The new town was called Wellington. Unfortunately this place was inhabited by natives who strongly protested against the settlers appropriating land used by them for cultivation. They denied having sold the land, and told the settlers they were acting unjustly. But no physical resistance was offered to the erection of houses, as the natives were informed by persons collecting signatures for the treaty of Waitangi that her Majesty's Government would send magistrates to see justice done them. This was the first instance of the settlers taking possession of disputed lands, and with regret be it stated, it was not the last.

The remarkable earnestness with which the natives urged their complaints against the location of the settlers at Wellington, made some of the more thinking

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emigrants inquire into the nature of the company's land purchases. It was then found, that Colonel Wakefield had bought twenty millions of acres from fifty-eight persons, upon which land ten thousand souls were living of different tribes from those who sold the land, each of whom, according to native custom, had a vested right in some part of it, and according to native usage a voice in its disposal; that missionaries and whalers, previously to Colonel Wakefield's bargain, had bought portions of the same lands from the natives; and that the New Zealanders denominated the company's land purchases "thievish bargains."

These ominous mutterings of a distant storm, and the scenes at the Waitangi conference, convinced the Governor that his authority was imaginary without troops, as disputes might arise between the two races which a military force alone could put down. In consequence of this feeling, urgent applications were sent to Sydney for soldiers, and two companies of the 80th regiment arrived at the Bay of Islands. This force was soon required to support the civil power. A native was arrested on the charge of murdering a European employed by the Rev. Henry Williams in the interior; during the prisoner's examination at Kororareka, an armed mob surrounded the court-house, and demanded his release. Secretly a messenger was despatched for the troops, and as they approached with fixed bayonets the mob fled. When, however, the affair was explained to them, they willingly allowed the law to take its course. Of the man's guilt there was no doubt, and he died not by the executioner but from dysentery, contracted by his imprisonment previous to the day of trial.

On this occasion the presence of the troops prevented

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the natives doing what on explanation they admitted to be wrong; in the following affair they protected the natives from the rage of Europeans. Pomare's tribe, in June 1840, captured a deserter from a whale ship, and the master of the vessel not only refused to give the usual reward for this service, but endeavoured to take the man from them by force. A scuffle ensued, shots were fired and men injured, when Captain Lockhart's company was ordered out, and the riot was immediately arrested. Next day Pomare thanked the Governor for the protection the soldiers afforded his people. 20

Governor Hobson, although possessed of a force which terrified the natives, did not treat their customs with contempt, as may be inferred from the following trifling incident. A public building was erecting at Kororareka on a sacred spot; to prevent this desecration a deputation of chiefs waited on the Governor, and his excellency immediately ordered the house to be pulled down.

Difficulty was experienced in finding a good site for a town in the Bay of Islands. This arose from the broken nature of the country, the quantity of land claimed by Europeans, and their exorbitant terms of sale. A property belonging to Mr. Clendon, on a narrow neck of land opposite Kororareka, at the entrance of the Kawa Kawa river, was bought by government, after much higgling, for 15,000l. This spot was surveyed, and named Russell; after some time the Bay of Islands was found an unsuitable place for the capital, in consequence of an insufficiency of available land.

It was then remembered that Captain Cook, in 1769, recommended the Houraki gulf as a good place for a

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European settlement; and the Governor, after visiting this noble inlet, chose a site for a town on the right bank of the Waitemata, the native name of one of the rivers flowing into the gulf, and signifying "glittering water." Captain W. C. Symonds, surveyor-general, had no difficulty in purchasing the land from the natives; and on the 19th of September 1840 the British flag was hoisted at Auckland, the name given to the future capital.

Captain Drury, after surveying the entire coast, pronounced Auckland to be the best site in the colony for a town. It is central with regard to both sides of the island, has water communication with distant parts of the country, and much available land in the neighbourhood. The eastern harbour is safe and easy of access; that on the west, called Manukau, is suitable for steamers. Auckland may be compared to Corinth for commerce and to Naples for beauty; the commercial view may be seen from the top of Mount Eden, the beauty of the place from an elevated position above the lake on the north shore. The Queen approved of the site, and in January 1841 Captain Hobson took up his abode there. The removal of the seat of government was a death-blow to Russell. In 1853 one ruined stone house was still standing, a few English flowers were growing wild, but not a vestige was to be seen of the streets, quays, squares, and public buildings so beautifully drawn in the plan of the town laid before Parliament.

The first sale of crown lands took place at Auckland, in April 1841. It was advertised for several months in New South Wales, and attracted a number of speculators. The lands were put up to auction, and forty-one town acres sold at an average price of 595l. each, a price

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which excited the surprise of the Wellington settlers, and caused people to anticipate a splendid future for New Zealand. In September, another sale of suburban allotments and small farms was held, but this auction was not so productive as the last. Suburban lots realised 45l. an acre, and small farms 3l.

These sales were made under the sign manual, dated 1840, which directed all crown lands in New Zealand to be sold at a uniform price. After this date, the Australian Land Sales Act was introduced, by which all lands were sold by auction at an upset price of not less than ll. an acre. Half the proceeds were to be applied to public purposes, the other half to promote emigration. By a subsequent act New Zealand was exempted from the Australian act, and the crown's power over the waste lands restored. The Secretary of State then directed that all such lands should be sold by public auction, at not less than ll. an acre; and the Governor was given permission to bestow grants of land on individuals and public bodies.

While matters were thus progressing at Auckland, various domestic disputes of a trivial nature had convinced the Wellington settlers, whom Governor Hobson had neglected, that they could not live in harmony without a code of laws; and accordingly a committee of colonists, a provisional government as it was called, was formed in March 1840, for the preservation of peace and order. Colonel Wakefield was the first president. For some violation of the laws of the provisional government, the master of a trading vessel, named Pearson, was imprisoned. Being an ingenious man, he managed to escape from confinement, and immediately sailed to the Bay of Islands, where he lodged a complaint of illegal imprisonment. The Governor magnified the

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formation of a provisional government into an act of rebellion, and no time was lost in chartering a vessel to convey Lieutenant Shortland, R.N., colonial secretary, and thirty soldiers, to put down the insurrection. On arriving at Wellington, the troops landed in battle array, the British flag was hoisted, the provisional government was proclaimed illegal, and all persons were required to withdraw therefrom.

This ridiculous affair gave occasion to several good caricatures against the Governor and his Lieutenant, and created much ill feeling between Colonel Wakefield and Captain Hobson. From this day forward, everything done by the Government was wrong in the eyes of the Company's agent. Colonel Wakefield accused the Protectors of Aborigines of doing harm, and Captain Hobson of interested motives in not making Wellington the seat of Government; in reply, Captain Hobson broadly insinuated that the New Zealand Company were a set of gamblers. Colonel Wakefield's and Captain Hobson's despatches to their respective superiors are not unlike the advertisements of rival shopkeepers, each praising his own settlement. Colonel Wakefield was supported by the powerful English press, and Captain Hobson by the Colonial Office; consequently, when the shareholders in England spoke of the New Zealand settlements, they always meant the Company's settlements, and books written about New Zealand confined their information to these. 21 Auckland was only mentioned to be decried.

This Wellington Provisional Government caused Governor Hobson to proclaim Her Majesty's sovereignty over the Middle Island sooner than he had intended,

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and it was fortunate this was done; for in August, 1840, the Comte de Paris, the French emigrant ship, whose departure created so much sensation in London, arrived at Akaroa under the escort of the French frigate l'Aube. Fifty-seven settlers disembarked, and Captain Owen Stanley, who was sent by the Governor to watch their proceedings in Her Majesty's ship Britomart, protested against six long 24-pounders mounted on field carriages being landed. An English magistrate was left at Akaroa, and Captain Lavaud of the Aube acknowledged the emigrants were French settlers in an English colony. Five hundred more settlers were leaving France when news of the declaration of Queen Victoria's sovereignty over New Zealand reached Europe.

The origin of the Akaroa settlement was this. Langlois, the master of a French whaler, purchased from the natives in 1838, 30,000 acres of land on Banks's Peninsula, and two mercantile houses in Nantes and two at Bordeaux, with three gentlemen from Paris, associated themselves with Langlois under the denomination of the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, to form a colony in New Zealand. Although circumstances prevented the colony from prospering, Akaroa has never since been neglected by the French. In 1843, Commodore Berard visited the settlement to inquire into the settlers land claims, during which year nineteen sail of French vessels entered the harbour, and most of the French men-of-war in the Pacific still touch at Akaroa.

Before the establishment of the British Government many English and Americans, like the Frenchman Langlois, purchased land from the natives. These purchases were at first confined to a few persons; but when it became evident that the country must soon be-

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come a British colony, a rush was made by traders, and by people from Australia, to buy lands in any locality. Land was to the early settlers in New Zealand, what gold was to the Spaniards in Mexico. Out of this scramble sprang up the "land-sharks," a class of men who bought land from savages, and took advantage of their childish ignorance regarding its value. Land-sharking was not, however, limited to persons whose sole object in life was money-making, as several missionaries, Mr. Wentworth, an eminent Sydney lawyer, and the British Resident, were to be found among them. To such an extent did trading in land go, that on Captain Hobson's arrival in New Zealand 45,000,000 of acres, or about one half of the whole country, were claimed as having been bought from the natives. The following table shows the quantity of land claimed and the date of purchase:--

One of Captain Hobson's proclamations on the Kororareka beach put an end to land-sharking, and a bill passed the Legislative Council in New South Wales, empowering the Governor to send commissioners to examine into the purchases already made. Dismay

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seized upon the land-sharks when the nature of the ordinance was promulgated, and the Wellington settlers sent a deputation to Sydney, for the purpose of obtaining a favourable consideration of their case. Three commissioners arrived in New Zealand, and announced, in accordance with the land claims bill, that no Crown grant would be given for more than four square miles of land, or 2560 acres; and that all land claims must be lodged in the Government within six months. A schedule was given of the value put on the lands at different periods. Before the year 1824, land was to be valued at sixpence an acre; between 1825 and 1829, from sixpence to eightpence; in 1835, from one to two shillings; and 1839, from four to eight shillings an acre. The commissioners were directed to charge absentee purchasers more than residents. Goods given for land were to be valued at three times their Sydney prices.

Mr. Busby, the late British Resident, and some other land purchasers, objected to the validity of the land claims act, on the ground that they bought their lands from an independent people.

The secrets of land-sharking were laid bare by the commissioners. It was found that deeds of conveyancing were drawn out in Sydney and England with blanks for boundaries, and sent to agents in New Zealand; that a lawyer's clerk in Sydney prepared a cargo of these parchment deeds, which he sold in New Zealand for 5l. each; that in several cases the natives were ignorant of the lands they had sold; that the same tract of land was claimed by different individuals; that permission to fish along a certain line of coast was converted into a claim for miles of property inland; that large tracts of land, defined sometimes by latitude

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and longitude or the course of large rivers, were sold for a trifle on half a sheet of paper; that boundaries were inserted after signatures; that land was sold by chiefs who had no right to dispose of it; that the whole Middle Island was purchased from a few natives who were at Sydney when the land-sharking mania was at its height; that land was paid for with powder, ball, guns, blankets, pipes, pots, pans, iron nails, tomahawks, Jews' harps, &c. &c.; that ten shillings an acre were given for some land, and 100 acres were bought with a farthing; and that one land Mammoth designated most of the land purchases as "legal farces." 22

Out of twenty-six millions of acres claimed by less than three hundred persons in separate claims, crown grants were awarded for about one hundred thousand. The commissioners were accused of harshness and injustice in not awarding more land to the claimants, because of nearly one thousand claims adjudicated on not twenty were disputed by the natives. But this is a fallacious evidence of a just purchase. It is occupation of the land alone which shows whether the natives admit that land has been fairly bought from them. Some of the pioneers of civilisation, who bought land in a fair spirit, could not substantiate their purchases, and these men suffered for the sins of the land-sharks. In 1856, when the people had obtained self-government, an act was passed, and a commission appointed, to inquire into some of these and other land-claims. Purchasers who refused to acknowledge the power of the commissioners never obtained their lands. In 1855, Mr. Busby, the most active representative of this class, tried before the

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Supreme Court at Auckland the validity of a title derived from the aboriginal natives for land purchased by him in 1839 at Wangarei, and a jury of settlers decided that he had no claim without a crown grant. 23

The New Zealand Company's land purchases were settled by another tribunal. The directors in England led government to believe they were proprietors of almost half the land in New Zealand; and on ministers receiving an assurance that an equitable purchase of several millions of acres had actually been made, a charter of incorporation was given to the company in February 1841. But government soon became aware that none of the company's land purchases were good, by Governor Hobson declining to give Colonel Wakefield crown grants for any of them. Then the directors of the company turned round, and said that the original validity of their land purchases did not rest with the native chiefs, but was derived from the agreement made with the Crown previously to the execution of the charter. The colonial minister would not admit this proposition. A long correspondence ensued; Mr. Pennington, an accountant, was appointed to ascertain the amount expended by the company; and it was arranged that one acre should be allowed for every five shillings fairly expended in purchasing land and promoting emigration. The inquiry disclosed that the directors had spent 249,256l. which sum entitled the company to receive 997,024 acres.

Before this arrangement was concluded, a change of ministers occurred, and a transaction not creditable to some of the company's agents came to light. In con-

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sequence of this, Lord Stanley, the colonial minister, refused to carry out his predecessor's intentions, accused the company of obtaining a charter under false pretences, intimated to the directors that the native title of all their lands must be extinguished, and appointed a commissioner to proceed to New Zealand to see this done.

What injured the company with Her Majesty's Government was a wily bargain the directors were making about the Chatham Islands. These islands, four in number, are two days' sail from New Zealand, and the largest is thirty-six miles long, with an area of six hundred thousand acres. They were discovered in 1791 by Lieut. Broughton, R. N.; and on his landing to take possession of them for King George III., a combat ensued with the natives in which two English sailors were wounded and one native, killed. The aboriginal inhabitants belong to the Polynesian race, speak a dialect similar to that of the New Zealanders, and number 510 souls. In 1838 an English vessel made the existence of the Chatham Islands known to the New Zealanders, and a number of them in terror of Rauparaha fled thither from Port Nicholson in the brig Rodney. On their arrival they conquered and enslaved the aborigines, and some of them returning to Port Nicholson told Colonel Wakefield about their new home. That gentleman, not satisfied with his imaginary princely possessions in New Zealand, sent an agent in the ship Cuba, and in July 1840 purchased the Chatham Islands for the company from some of these intruders. No settlement was made on the islands by the agent. The directors in London tried to resell the group to a Hamburgh Colonisation Society; but before the completion of the bargain, a reference was made about it by

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the Dutch Government to the English Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and a curious correspondence ensued. The crown lawyers declared the purchase of the Chatham Islands by the New Zealand Company illegal, and the directors were threatened with the loss of their charter for interfering with the royal prerogative. The end of it was, that the bargain between Mr. Syndicus Sieveking on one part and the New Zealand Company on the other fell to the ground, and the Chatham Islands were declared a dependency of New Zealand. 24

Hitherto New Zealand was attached to New South Wales, but when the New Zealand Company obtained a royal charter it was proclaimed an independent colony, and the announcement of this produced much joy among the settlers. The town of Kororareka was illuminated, and addresses were presented to Captain Hobson, who was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief. The islands of New Zealand, generally known as the North, Middle, and Stewart's Islands, were respectively denominated New Ulster, New Munster, and New Leinster. 25 An executive council, consisting of the Governor, the Colonial Secretary, and Colonial Treasurer for the time being, was appointed by Her Majesty, and a legislative council composed of the above officers and the three senior justices of the peace. Magistrates were commissioned, a chief justice, and an attorney-general were created, and the colony was constituted a bishop's see.

The first meeting of the newly-created legislative council was held at Auckland in May 1841. It was opened by Governor Hobson with a short address, and several ordinances were passed. It is hardly necessary to remark that this council was a mockery of freedom,

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as any member could be removed who spoke or voted against the governor. With similar constituted councils colonial governors have done things they would not have done if the responsibility of the acts rested on themselves. Such councils have the outward appearance of free assemblies, and that is all.

Soon after the foundation of Wellington and Auckland, four new settlements were formed. The first was at Wanganui. Late in the year 1840, two hundred Wellington settlers, finding they were impoverished by living on their own resources, and seeing no prospect of obtaining country sections of land nearer than forty miles to the town, migrated by sea to Wanganui, a place on the west coast, one hundred and twenty miles to the north of Wellington. This new settlement was named Petre, and the site chosen for the town, up to which vessels of fourteen tons' burthen could be easily navigated, was four miles from the mouth of the Wanganui river. The Wanganui district was Colonel Wakefield's second land purchase from the natives. In old maps the river is called Knowsley, and in some of the company's flattering publications it is improperly described as navigable for large vessels. It rises sixty miles inland, at the base of Tongariro, and after running a tortuous and picturesque course of one hundred miles falls into the sea. Like all rivers on the west coast, a shifting sandbank at the mouth renders its entrance dangerous in stormy weather. The native population in the neighbourhood was numerous, and the land fertile, and there is a communication between it and Wellington along the sea beach. 26

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Another settlement was formed by the Company at Taranaki, in the North Island, in the year 1841. The first settlers arrived in March, and the main body in September. These colonists were sent out by a joint-stock association, denominated the New Plymouth Company, from a town celebrated in the early colonisation of Massachusetts, and seated in a district which gave birth to that leader of colonists Raleigh Gilbert. Lord Devon was the association's patron, and the directors invested 10,000l. of the shareholders' money in purchasing 50,000 acres of land from the New Zealand Company. Before the site was fixed on, a plan of the settlement was exhibited in London; and the regularity of the town and country sections drew admiration from all surveyors. It was then announced that the country lands were to be sold at thirty shillings an acre, and for every hundred acres purchased one acre of town land was to be given for nothing.

On his arrival at Wellington, Mr. Carrington, who was despatched to New Zealand to select a site, met Colonel Wakefield, who recommended the Taranaki district as the best location for the colonists, at which place, he said, the New Zealand Company were owners of sixty miles along the coast, and from fifteen to twenty miles inland. Taranaki, described as the garden of New Zealand, is situated on the western coast of the North Island, and the beauty and grandeur of the spot is much enhanced by Mount Egmont, a solitary snowcapped mountain, about 10,000 feet high, of singularly elegant proportions, and rising out of a densely wooded plain. Mr. Carrington approved of the site, and commenced surveying the land; but the settlers, on their arrival, complained of the want of a harbour, and that

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the loud roar of the waves breaking on the coast prevented sleep, and caused deafness. To the grand music of the sea their ears soon grew reconciled, but they never cease to lament the open roadstead.

Late in the year 1841, twenty-seven settlers from Great Britain arrived in the Manukau harbour. This is a large estuary on the west coast of the North Island, exactly opposite Auckland harbour, and only six miles distant. These colonists were sent out by a Scotch colonisation company, which claimed 19,000 acres of land, purchased from the natives in 1835 by Mr. Mitchell, and resold in 1839 to Major Campbell, Mr. Roy, and Captain Symonds. The settlers, on disembarkation, squatted on the ground; but, as the company could not establish their right of purchase, no more emigrants were sent out, and the settlement never took root. Those already in the colony were given lands in other localities, and after twelve years' correspondence the colonial government reported that the Manukau Company were only entitled to 1900 acres of land.

The secret history of this abortive Manukau settlement is worthy of record. At a dinner given by Lord Durham to the New Zealand Association, when most of the arrangements for sending out emigrants were complete, his Lordship proposed the health of Major Campbell as the Governor of their first settlement. Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who was present, and secretly anxious to obtain this office, objected to Major Campbell's appointment, not directly, but in that cunning way so peculiarly characteristic of himself. A meeting of the influential members was in a few days convened, at which circumstances occurred which led to

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the breaking up of the Association. Mr. Wakefield's party then formed the New Zealand Company, and Major Campbell's attempted to found a settlement in the Manukau. 27

The directors of the New Zealand Company, encouraged by the eagerness with which land was purchased in England at the Wellington and New Plymouth settlements, issued a prospectus in 1841, for the formation of another settlement, to be called Nelson. 201,000 acres were offered for sale in allotments of 201 acres each, at thirty shillings an acre, with a town lot: the money to be paid before sailing. Three-sixths of the sum realised was to be paid to assist emigrants; two-sixths to defray the company's expenses; and one-sixth was to be held in trust for the purpose of rendering the settlement attractive, which last appropriation gave origin to the Nelson educational fund. Four hundred and forty-two properties were sold to three hundred and fifteen purchasers, of whom eighty proceeded to New Zealand. Priority of choice was determined by lot. Captain Arthur Wakefield, R.N., a brother of the Colonel's, was appointed leader of the expedition and resident agent.

In April, 1841, the ships Whitby and Will Watch sailed from London with emigrants for Nelson, and arrived at Wellington in September; Governor Hobson, who met the settlers at this place, wished them to be located in the northern part of the North Island, and suggested as good sites Mahurangi, the river Thames, and the Waipa district. Several of the emigrants were anxious to squat on the plain since appropriated by the

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Canterbury settlement; but Governor Hobson opposed this proposition. Colonel Wakefield settled the question by selecting Blind Bay in the Middle Island for the settlement, and for this site the ships sailed out of Port Nicholson. Touching at the Island of Kapiti, the emigrants met Rauparaha, who listened with suppressed alarm to the accounts of the expected advent of many more Europeans.

On the arrival of the ships in the Nelson Haven, a conference was held with the native owners of the soil, and Captain Wakefield promised them presents when the settlers obtained possession of the lands his brother had purchased. This speech produced a long silence. One chief said, "We welcome the white men, but decline their presents, lest they might be construed into proofs that the lands were fairly bought;" but a majority acceded to the agent's conditions; after which, surveyors and settlers landed to select a site for the town. One emigrant, years' since rich in flocks and herds, pitched his solitary sixpence overboard, and now boasts of having landed without a penny.

The settlers were delighted with the calm atmosphere of Nelson, after the boisterous Wellington weather, and the natives told them the Cook's Strait gales rarely extended so far down the Bay as Nelson. The harbour was pronounced excellent, but difficult of entrance; and the curious bank of boulders, which forms a perfect breakwater to it, attracted the attention of the geological and sea-faring emigrants. Gardeners were surprised to see delicate plants flowering in the plains, and snow on the mountains around; while agriculturists, hinting that the Waimea plain was not extensive, were told of fertile valleys across the first mountain range.

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From the nature of the country Captain Wakefield saw that the company's plan of selling land cut out in blocks like a chess-board was an imposition, and he sent Mr. Heaphy to England to explain this to the directors.

In all these settlements the Anglo-Saxons were brought into daily direct intercourse with the New Zealanders, and the great question was now to be solved, how the two races would agree. Lord John Russell, foreseeing danger from this source, transmitted with the charter of the colony a highly-philosophical despatch relative to the management of the natives. In that state paper Governor Hobson is directed to protect the aborigines from injustice, cruelty, and wrong; to establish and maintain friendly relations with them; to turn into useful channels their hitherto neglected capacities for labour; to avoid every practice injurious to their health or the diminution of their numbers; and to educate the young, and diffuse among the whole population the blessings of Christianity. "If the experience of the past," says his lordship, "compels me to look forward with anxiety to the too probable defeat of these purposes by the sinister influence of the many passions, prejudices, and physical difficulties with which we shall have to contend, it is, on the other hand, my duty and your own to avoid yielding in any degree to that despair of success which would assuredly render success impossible. To rescue the natives of New Zealand from the calamities of which the approach of civilised men to barbarous tribes has hitherto been the almost universal herald, is a duty too sacred and important to be neglected, whatever may be the discouragements under which it may be undertaken." 28

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The noble spirit contained in this despatch found small sympathy among some of the settlers, and there was little community of feeling between the races. Besides, the settlers were destitute of that species of worldly wisdom which adversity taught the pioneers of civilisation, and of that subordination, patience, and industry, from which success in such enterprises as they were engaged in springs. Unfortunately they did not conceal their contempt for brown-skinned men who were once cannibals, claimed land without title deeds, disfigured their faces for ornament, lived in dog-kennels, fed on putrid fish and fern-root, and spoke a language in which there was no written literature. These feelings were most common among the company's settlers, many of whom looked on the New Zealanders as the curse of the country, as the only obstacle to their obtaining possession of their lands.

The Wellington settlers, as already stated, had estranged themselves from the natives by occupying lands the latter cultivated, and within the limits of Wellington there were three native villages. Races so situated could have little intercourse without quarrelling, and the natives frequently complained that their cultivated grounds were destroyed by white men; and, as no redress could be obtained, they hinted at retaliation. One day an English boy died of a spear-wound in Wellington, but there was no evidence to support the general opinion that he had been speared for stealing potatoes. In August 1840, a dispute arose regarding a pot of ground, and the settlers took up arms. Lieutenant Shortland suppressed the riot by taking possession of the disputed ground, and by proclaiming that it was illegal for persons to assemble in arms without authority.

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In August 1841, Governor Hobson visited Wellington, and several chiefs asked his protection against the unscrupulous demands of the company's settlers. His excellency, in consequence, reported to the Secretary of State, that the two races in Wellington were suspicious of each other, and that the settlers were excited by a venal press.

In this same year, a New Zealander of rank was found dead in the suburbs of Wellington, and on the evidence of a knot tied in flax after the white man's fashion, the natives declared with one voice that he was slain by white men. Warepore, the murdered man's chief, requested the life of a gentleman as payment, and when reasoned with on the injustice of such a demand, said, a labouring man's life would be sufficient, but he must have life for life. This affair was nearly forgotten, when Mr. Alexander Milne was killed on the Petoni road near Wellington; and it was universally believed, and subsequently admitted, that the fatal tomahawk wounds on his head were inflicted by natives. Shortly after Milne's murder, the native village on the Te Aro flat within the town of Wellington was burned, and the New Zealanders loudly accused the white men of incendiarism, and demanded payment for their losses.

From this day forth, the natives, in their opposition to the Wellington settlers, acted on principle; they did not commit personal violence or steal, but pulled down houses erected on disputed lands, and informed Colonel Wakefield beforehand that such acts would be perpetrated. Singular to relate, none of the property within the houses was destroyed or taken away. A warrant was issued to arrest Rangihaeata, the author of these defiant acts, but no bailiff would execute it. Mr. Swanson,

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the eminent naturalist, and other settlers, reported to Colonel Wakefield that the natives opposed their occupying lands in the valley of the Hutt. Colonel Wakefield reported to the directors of the company that the government police magistrate was instructed not to interfere against the natives, and in consequence he asked for soldiers and permission to form a militia. 29

In 1842 Mr. Halswell, the native commissioner at Wellington, informed Colonel Wakefield that the disputes between the two races were daily becoming worse, that the New Zealanders were hourly calling on him for advice, and that he dreaded a collision. The settlers now took warning, and a public meeting was convened to consider what steps should be taken. Colonel Wakefield declared he had done his utmost to put the settlers into possession of their lands, and as a last resort a report of the state of affairs was sent to the governor. Such was the melancholy condition the Wellington settlement had fallen into.

The Wanganui settlers fared no better than those at Wellington. On arriving at Wanganui they took possession of land pointed out as their own by the company's agent; but the natives warned them off, and announced that they were ready to fight for their inherited possessions. To prevent bloodshed the governor appointed a police magistrate to reside at Wanganui, and cautioned the people from settling on land under company's orders. After lengthened suffering twenty-six Wanganui settlers reported that they were impoverished by living on their own means, by the want of land, and by the absence of other legitimate sources of industry.

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Both races lived together in harmony in Auckland; but at Kaipara, Mongonui, and Wangarei there were disputes between solitary settlers and natives for squatting on disputed lands. At the Bay of Islands the two races were discontented, not with each other, but from a cause affecting both, and which soon afterwards burst into a conflagration. Both races were enraged at the removal of the seat of government from Russell, and Pomare complained that the customs duties had driven most of the whale ships from the Bay of Islands. 30 In 1842, when these murmurs were deep not loud, the government house at Russell was burned to the ground, and the settlers insinuated that the place was fired by discontented New Zealanders; but the natives denied the accusation, and hinted that the deed was done by respectable Europeans. One chief wrote to the governor, "that he could recollect white men, whether gentlemen or men of low degree he cannot say, but they were clothed in tailed coats, very good coats indeed, very good trowsers, and the shoes they walked in were polished," standing near the government house before the flames appeared. 31

The New Plymouth settlers soon suffered from their ill-judged location, and complicated causes led to this result. Taranaki, 32 well inhabited in 1820, was occupied, when Colonel Wakefield purchased it, by ninety natives, living for security in cliffs around Mount Egmont, and in holes in the sugar-loaf rocks; part of the proprietors were fugitives in Cook's Strait, part were slaves among

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the Waikato and Bay of Islands tribes, and only those living on the spot divided the goods which alienated the whole land. Taranaki, celebrated in the songs and traditions of the people for the size of its taros and the sweetness of its sweet potatoes, was, in 1839, apparently a waste.

In 1841 Christianity and other causes manumitted many Taranaki slaves, and these men returned with joy to their fatherland. To them Colonel Wakefield's purchase was unknown, and they told the pioneers of the New Plymouth settlement that they were surveying their lands. Twisting their long arms round gigantic trees, tapued long ago for canoes, they besought Mr. Carrington to stop the woodcutter's axe, and he was only allowed to proceed in his survey on stating that the lands would be paid for in a just spirit when the settlers came. In September eight hundred of these arrived at Taranaki, and more fugitives and manumitted slaves likewise returned to the district. The surprise of the latter on finding the lands of their fathers parcelled out among strangers cannot be described, and it is not to be wondered at if disputes daily occurred between men so situated.

Governor Hobson bought for 400l. the right Te Whero Whero held over Taranaki in virtue of conquest, and a connection of that chief told the police magistrate at New Plymouth that these complaining slaves and returned fugitives had no legal claim on the land; that Te Whero Whero was the true lord of the soil, and that this right he had sold to the Queen. Acting on this opinion the magistrate sanctioned Mr. Cook swearing in twenty-eight special constables, who, after arming themselves, drove off a party of natives cultivating land near the

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Waitara river. Slavery and defeat had cowed the ancient spirit of the people, and they bowed their heads to the invaders without striking a blow, and heard their ancestral chief threatened with imprisonment for occupying land cultivated from time immemorial by his ancestors.

In December, 1842, Mr. Wickstead, the company's agent at New Plymouth, emboldened by success and aided by twenty settlers, destroyed a native fence. On this occasion a scuffle ensued before the work of destruction was completed, during which a native brandished a tomahawk over Mr. Wickstead's head, and for this he was taken into custody and charged with an assault. But the accusation was too glaringly unjust, and a bench of magistrates discharged the man, and informed Mr. Wickstead that he was acting illegally. These successful appeals to physical force diffused joy among the company's settlers. 33

Nowhere was this joy greater than at Nelson, as there a dispute had arisen in principle not unlike the New Plymouth one. Coal and lime were found cropping out in Massacre Bay soon after the formation of Nelson, and a party proceeded in a vessel to examine the spot. The natives living at the place denied having sold the land, and they refused the proffered presents for it; nevertheless, in defiance of their threats, the vessel was laden with coal and lime. At Nelson the value of both was appreciated, and a number of picked labourers were sent to work the seams. No physical resistance was given to the workers during the day, but at night the natives heaped in the coal the labourers dug out during

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day, and one chief broke the top of a lime cask ready for shipment. For this act a warrant was issued to arrest him, and an armed party proceeded from Nelson to execute it. The chief was arrested without resistance, tried on the spot, and sentenced to pay a fine or suffer imprisonment. Confident in the justice of his case, he refused to pay the fine, but his wife paid it without his knowledge, and he was forthwith liberated. At the termination of this affair, the police magistrate returned to Nelson highly elated with the success of his expedition, and the lesson given to the natives in English law. 34 Little did he think that this was the prelude to a future tragedy.

These disputes gave the emigrants a practical proof of the evils of settling in a country occupied by aborigines, although it never entered their minds to compare themselves to the Israelites, as the Puritans did in New England, and shoot the New Zealanders on the strength of a text out of Joshua. From these transactions the settlers began to look upon the New Zealanders as cowards: they did not comprehend that peculiarity in their character which makes them slow to commence hostilities. The Anglo-Saxon feeling, that one Englishman was a match for several "black fellows," the term frequently applied to the natives, was now universal.

At Wellington, Wanganui, Taranaki, and Nelson, Colonel Wakefield's thievish land purchases were the direct and indirect causes of strife; in the north the disputes were attributable partly to the ignorance both races had of each other's customs,--as where a settler's house was burned because he had taken a skull from a

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cemetery,--partly to the irregular manner in which lands were bought; and some disputes were magnified by discontented colonists to embarrass Government.

In these quarrels there may have been slight faults on both sides, but it is necessary to bear in mind that the white men were the intruders; that one race spoke the noble language of England, the other a tongue only written by the aid of Englishmen; that the Wellington colonists were the first to occupy disputed lands, and the first to resort to arms; and that at Taranaki and Nelson the forbearance of savages prevented evil results from the rashness of civilised men.

It is worthy of remark that the Portuguese authorities at Angola, on the west coast of Africa, forbid the Portuguese passing the boundary. Long acquaintance with the people has made the authorities assume that where the white trader is killed the aggression was made by him, and they adopt this means to avoid punishing those who had been provoked to shed Portuguese blood. 35

While the company's settlers were instructing the New Zealanders in English law, at the expense of justice, an event occurred in the Bay of Islands, early in 1842, indicative of the moral strength of the British Government in a good cause, and the feeling of justice prevalent in the native mind. Maketu, a New Zealander aged seventeen years, was employed by Mrs. Roberton, a widow lady living with her son aged eight years, two female children, one a half-caste, and a European male servant, on an island near Kororareka. One day the European servant spoke harshly to Maketu, and for this he split his skull while asleep. Mrs. Roberton, who accidentally

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saw the deed done, was likewise murdered, and also the two children; the boy fled, but Maketu caught him and flung him over a rocky precipice. No human being could now bear witness against Maketu; he fired the house where the murdered lay, paddled in a canoe to his father's village, and, strange to say, immediately related what he had done.

The flames of Mrs. Roberton's house were seen at Kororareka, and when the affair became known the people were panic-stricken. Maketu was soon afterwards delivered into the hands of the police magistrate by his tribe; partly from a sense of justice, and partly from terror of the relations of the murdered half-caste infant, a powerful tribe in the Bay of Islands. The murderer was conveyed to Auckland for trial, to inaugurate the opening of the Supreme Court of Justice in New Zealand. On trial day the Court was crowded with natives. Maketu confessed his guilt, and was sentenced to die. When his sentence was made known to him he asked to be killed on leaving the dock, complained bitterly of the cruelty of keeping him alive after his doom was fixed, and said he inflicted no such pain on his victims. He admitted the white men were justified in taking away his life, but not in the cold-blooded manner they intended.

On the 7th of March Maketu was brought out for execution at Auckland, where crowds of natives had congregated from distant parts of the country to witness this novel and awful scene. The murderer was calm, the spectators were agitated; when the rope was put round his neck a low sound of horror ran through the crowd, and as the drop fell a loud deep expiration, like that which ends a war song, burst from the spectators. When the body was cut down some of his relatives

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asked for it, but this was refused, and it was interred within the jail.

Ten months after the execution Maketu's father begged for his son's bones, which request was granted, and in the dead of night the body was exhumed. The rotten flesh was scraped from the bones, still held together by the ligaments; the skeleton was conveyed to the Bay of Islands and deposited in the cemetery of his ancestors. Maketu's father composed the following lament on this sad occasion.

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Maketu was the first man legally hung in New Zealand, and the execution had an indescribable influence on the native mind. The natives could not separate the affair from the judge, who condemned him to die, and when that gentleman made an overland journey from Wellington to Auckland in 1843, crowds came from a distance to see him pass. All admitted the justice of Maketu's death, but loudly deprecated the cruelty of the execution. The force of this opinion will be understood from the following fact. A number of Maoris were captured near Tara Wera, and it was arranged that if the chief concluded a speech with a certain word, having no reference to death, all were to be tomahawked; they were to die without knowing their fate, the usual principle of New Zealand executions, sensibility being extinguished by a blow on the head, before bodily suffering begins.

Maketu was a Christian and a lad of violent temper, revenge caused him to murder the male servant, and the others were slain on the running a muck principle. It was asserted before his execution that the lad was insane; of this, however, no proof was given, but I saw his uncle a lunatic in the Auckland Asylum in 1855. Two days previous to Mrs. Roberton's murder, she established her right to the island where she was slain, and it was then said that the deed was done by the natives to get the island back, but they indignantly denied this insinuation.

Several members of the Executive Council of the colony were anxious that this moral power of Government should be frequently exerted for the public good, and a rare opportunity occurred. Within fifty miles of Auckland two human beings were publicly eaten in

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1842, and cannibalism and child-murder were the two native customs the Governor was directed not to tolerate. 39 The persons eaten were Christians; and their tribe, in requesting the assistance of the Governor, cunningly suggested that the ringleader Taraia should be hung like Maketu. The Government called on several natives for an account of the affair, and the following narrative was laid before the Executive Council. 40

Between Taraia's tribe in the river Thames, and the Tauranga natives, wars have occurred for several generations, and their hatred commenced thus. A marriage took place in which the husband belonged to one of these tribes, the wife to the other; and some time afterwards the girl's father was cast ashore near his married daughter's residence, where he was killed and eaten. The girl fled to her father's people, and war broke out between the two tribes, which has been renewed on trivial grounds ever since. It was the Tauranga people that killed the canoe-wrecked man, aud in excuse for their conduct they alleged that it was a law written on their hearts, that persons saved from drowning always brought evil on their preservers.

In 1842 Taraia was living quietly in his pa, when he received insulting letters from the Tauranga natives. Secretly he collected forty picked warriors, and started with the night flood up the Thames to wreak his vengeance on the slanderers. On reaching the upper part of the river the war party disembarked, dragged their canoes on shore, and crossed the mountains which lie between the Thames and Tauranga. On the road

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they halted until evening, lest their approach might be observed. The pa to be surprised was Engaro, and in it were sixteen men with women and children; the remainder were absent at a funeral ceremony. Before dawn Taraia's party approached close under the pa. One man within it had risen early to smoke his pipe, and was standing at the fence overlooking the sea; hearing the stones rolling under the war party's feet, he called out "Halloo! whence came these men outside our pa?" Te Whanake, who came to the fence on hearing the cry, said, "No, it is the tide dashing against the stones;" but the chief, whose Christian name was Thompson, called out a second time, "Which of our men is outside our pa?" Te Whanake again replied, "No, it is the tide dashing against the stones." Thompson now saw the enemy advancing, and shrieked out, "0 my friends! there is a war party attacking us;" but before the exclamation was finished the enemy were in the pa. Three chiefs, one woman, and a child were slain, and twelve women and children enslaved, the remainder escaped to their canoes. The bodies of Te Whanake and Reko, after being cooked, were entombed in the warriors' stomachs. Tautahanga was interred, and not eaten, being a blood connection of the war party.

After the action Taraia went over the deserted pa, and collected the guns, the religious books of God and the hymn-books of the people, then his party returned to their canoes on the Thames. On the road they robbed a white man's house, but Taraia made them restore the blankets. Paddling down the Thames they stopped one night at a Christian settlement. There they ran to the church with the two chiefs' heads, rang the bell,

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and caricatured the Christian service; to the great God of Heaven they prayed boastfully, and danced war dances; one old man tore prayer books with his teeth, put out his tongue at the Christian natives, and stretching wide his arms, cried aloud, "When will Christ your God come to save those of you who have been cooked in the oven? What is your God? -- all lies." Then the whole party jeered the Christians.

The next day Taraia reached his own village. In it there was a church and a few believers; here they rung the prayer bell and mocked the great God of Heaven. When the Christians were at their evening prayers, Taraia rolled the two chiefs' heads into the midst of them. A portion of the body of Te Whanake was sent to Te Taniwha at Coromandel, but that chief returned the flesh, and announced that he and his people would continue worshipping God only.

The perusal of this narrative shocked the members of the Executive Council, and it was apparent to them that there never could occur a better case for Government interference than this, seeing the laws of God and man were alike violated. Without delay orders were issued for the soldiers at Auckland to embark in the Government brig and seize Taraia. During the delay which occurred in getting the brig round from the Manukau into the Auckland harbour, Taraia heard of the Governor's intentions, and he addressed a letter stating that His Excellency had no right to interfere in a purely native quarrel, and that any attempt to arrest him would only make things worse.

The good sense of the cannibal's letter changed the minds of the Executive Council, and when the brig was ready to sail she was despatched to Taraia's pa with

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missionaries instead of soldiers. Taraia then asked what relation the Governor was to the men slain, that he should interfere. The missionaries suggested that Taraia should give some compensation to the sufferers' tribe; and to this he had no objection, provided the tribe paid him for his relations they had slain. "Have they not eaten my mother?" said Taraia, at the conclusion of his eloquent harangue upon this subject.

The illness Governor Hobson laboured under on his arrival in New Zealand was converted into a fatal disease by the anxiety incident to his position, and the irritating conduct of several settlers. The latter annoyance assumed various shapes. The people of Auckland petitioned for his recall, because the country was reduced to bankruptcy, and because he did not purchase land from the natives; and the Company's settlers begged her Majesty to relieve him, because he misrepresented them.

It accidentally became known that, like most officers of the royal navy, Captain Hobson was keenly alive to newspaper criticism, and after this discovery he never had a day's peace. Newspapers unknown beyond the place where they were printed kept him in a perpetual fever. He removed one gentleman from the Legislative Council, and another from the commission of the peace, for writing against him. As his presence in Auckland caused activity among his enemies, he made a trip up the Waikato and Waipa rivers, crossed over to Kawhia, and returned by the coast to Auckland. Immediately on his arrival, a public meeting was called, to consider the best means of alleviating the distress of the colony; and when an address of congratulation to her Majesty, on the birth of a princess, was also made the means of

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personal annoyance, the Governor's heart sunk, a relapse of paralysis followed, and he died on the 10th of September, 1842, aged forty-nine years.

Captain Hobson governed New Zealand for thirty-five months; and the Secretary of State approved of his general policy. But a man who had spent thirty years of his life at sea was ill suited to lay the foundation of a colony in the midst of natives. Much personal dislike arose from the irresponsible nature of his power; but none of his opponents could justly accuse him of using his public position to promote his own gain. By the natives who knew him he was highly respected, and some chiefs in asking for a new Governor from her Majesty said, "Let him be a good man, as this Governor who has just died." His body lies in the cemetery at Auckland, and in St. Paul's Church of that city a marble slab commemorates in English and Maori that he was a native of Ireland. But Governor Hobson requires no monument in New Zealand, as the town of Auckland, the site of which he chose, now rapidly springing up around his grave, will better perpetuate his fame than a pillar of stone or a statue of brass. 41