The Treaty of Waitangi; or, how New Zealand became a British Colony. Thomas Lindsay Buick
In 1821 Mr. Henry Goulburn, by direction of Earl Bathurst, informed R. M. Sugden that his Lordship "did not feel he had any power of approving any particular encouragement to the establishment of a colony in New Zealand." In 1822 Earl Bathurst informed Thomas England and Messrs. Taylor and Upton that no encouragement was given by the Government to settlers to proceed to New Zealand. In the same year Mr. John Thomson, A.M., Edinburgh, offered to found a colony of 50 sober men, 100 Sepoys, and 100 convicts, as "the inhabitants of New Zealand are just in that state of civilisation to be made useful." In November 1823 Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolls, an ex-Indian officer, made a proposal to Earl Bathurst to establish a colony of military pensioners. In the following month Baron de Thierry's scheme was brought under the notice of the Government. The year 1825 saw the first New Zealand Company established. Colonel R. Torrens, who afterwards did such good work in South Australia, applied in 1826 for the command of a military force in New Zealand, and so enable him to "make preliminary arrangements which would facilitate the future colonisation of these islands upon sound economical principles."
[30] It was said that at one period of its existence the New Zealand Association could command 42 votes in the House of Commons.
[31] Lord Glenelg did not on this occasion urge as an objection that New Zealand was not a part of the British Empire.
[32] After the Association was formed into a Company Lord Howick became one of its most ardent supporters.
[33] A select Committee of the House of Lords was set up in 1838 "to enquire into the present state of the Islands of New Zealand and of the expediency of regulating the settlement of British subjects therein."
[34] "It was only within the last three months that I received a letter from Paisley, stating that if a colony were formed in New Zealand on the principles laid down in our publication in that neighbourhood alone there were a hundred respectable persons—indeed I am not sure the expression was not 'respectable families,' but I have not the letter with me—who would emigrate immediately" (Dr. Hinds before the House of Lords Committee). Mr. G. S. Evans, LL.D., in his evidence stated there was an Association in the West of Scotland consisting of 200 members, and another in the Carse of Gowrie consisting of at least 100 persons, all anxious to emigrate to New Zealand.
[35] Vide his letter to Lord Durham, December 29, 1837.
[36] "I was the principal founder of the Company and the principal Managing Director from the time of its formation till the summer of 1846, allowing for intervals of absence occasioned by illness and other occupation at a distance from England. My incapacity changed the whole character of the direction of the New Zealand Company's affairs, which then fell into the hands of a few persons in whose minds sound principles of colonisation and colonial government were as nothing compared with pounds, shillings, and pence."—Evidence of E. G. Wakefield before a New Zealand Parliamentary Committee on New Zealand Company's debt—Sessions 1 and 2.
[37] For the text of the above Memorandum I am indebted to Mr. R. M'Nab, who copied it from the original in the Record Office, London. Mr. Stephen, who wrote the Memorandum, was, at the time, an officer of the Church Missionary Society.
[38] Lord Normanby became Colonial Secretary on February 8, 1839.
[39] Vide his letter to Lord Palmerston, December 12, 1838.
CHAPTER III
FINDING A WAY
The favour of Ministerial selection for the onerous task of bringing New Zealand within the realms of Britain fell upon Captain Hobson, because his record in the Navy had justified the opinion expressed of him by Sir Richard Bourke, that he was an experienced and judicious officer. Moreover, his visit to the country in the Rattlesnake had given him a local knowledge of which few men of eminence and character were at that time possessed. There is no reason to suppose that the appointment was in any way a party one, and except that the new Consul was the victim of indifferent health, it was probably the best that could have been made at the time, its greatest justification being the complete success which attended his mission up to the time of his early decease.[40] Captain Hobson left England in the H.M.S. Druid commanded by Lord John Churchill. He went out fortified for his task by a series of instructions which left little doubt that if Ministers had been slow to move, they had at least endeavoured to take a statesman-like view of the position when circumstances compelled them to act, the breadth of which can be best understood from the instructions themselves. After adverting to the social conditions existing in New Zealand, with which Captain Hobson was perfectly cognisant and which Lord Normanby assured him the Government had watched with attention and solicitude, the Colonial Secretary proceeded to explain the attitude which the Government had adopted in regard to this branch of Imperial policy.
We have not been insensible to the importance of New Zealand to the interests of Great Britain in Australia, nor unaware of the great natural resources by which that country is distinguished, or that its geographical position must in seasons, either of peace or war, enable it in the hands of civilised men to exercise a paramount influence in that quarter of the globe. There is probably no part of the earth in which colonisation could be effected with a greater or surer prospect of national advantage.
On the other hand, the Ministers of the Crown have been restrained by still higher motives from engaging in such an enterprise. They have deferred to the advice of the Committee of the House of Commons in the year 1836 to enquire into the state of the Aborigines residing in the vicinity of our colonial settlements, and have concurred with that Committee in thinking that the increase in national wealth and power, promised by the acquisition of New Zealand, would be a most inadequate compensation for the injury which must be inflicted on this kingdom itself by embarking in a measure essentially unjust, and but too certainly fraught with calamity to a numerous and inoffensive people whose title to the soil and to the sovereignty of New Zealand is undisputable and has been solemnly recognised by the British Government. We retain these opinions in unimpaired force, and though circumstances entirely beyond our control have at length compelled us to alter our course, I do not scruple to avow that we depart from it with extreme reluctance.
The necessity for the interposition of the Government has, however, become too evident to admit of any further inaction. The reports which have reached this office within the last few months establish the facts that about the commencement of 1838 a body of not less than two thousand British subjects had become permanent inhabitants of New Zealand, that amongst them were many persons of bad and doubtful character—convicts who had fled from our penal settlements, or seamen who had deserted their ships—and that these people, unrestrained by any law and amenable to no tribunals, were alternately the authors and victims of every species of crime and outrage. It further appears that extensive cessions of land have been obtained from the natives, and that several hundred persons have recently sailed from this country to occupy and cultivate these lands. The spirit of adventure having been effectually roused it can be no longer doubted that an extensive settlement of British subjects will be rapidly established in New Zealand, and that unless protected and restrained by necessary loans and institutions they will repeat unchecked in that quarter of the Globe the same process of war and spoliation under which uncivilised tribes have almost invariably disappeared, as often as they have been