The New Zealand Company was formed in 1839 to promote the "systematic" colonisation of New Zealand. It was founded on the principles of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who envisaged the creation of a new model English society in the southern hemisphere. Wakefield's emigration system professed higher, more noble aims than mere financial profit. The company established settlements at Wellington, New Plymouth, Wanganui and Nelson and also planned settlements at Christchurch and Dunedin, reaching the peak of efficiency about 1841 before ceasing activity in 1858. The company's activities were notable for elaborate and grandiose advertising and its vigorous attacks on those it perceived as its opponents – the British Colonial office and successive governors of New Zealand. It was a strident opponent of the Treaty of Waitangi and was in turn frequently criticised by the Colonial office and New Zealand governors for its "trickery" and lies.[1]
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Early attempts at colonisation
The earliest attempt to colonise New Zealand had been made in 1825, when a company that also bore the name of "The New Zealand Company" was formed in London and headed by John George Lambton, MP. The company unsuccessfully petitioned the British Government for a 31-year term of exclusive trade as well as command over a military force, anticipating that large profits could be made from New Zealand flax, kauri timber, whaling and sealing. The following year it dispatched two ships under the command of Captain James Herd to explore trade prospects and potential settlement sites in New Zealand. In September or October 1826 the ships, the Lambton and the Isabella (or Rosanna), sailed into Te Whanganui-a-Tara, (present-day Wellington Harbour), which Herd named Lambton Harbour. Herd explored the area and identified land at the south-west of the harbour as the best place for a European settlement. The ships then sailed north to explore prospects for trade, "purchasing" what was later claimed to be one million acres (4000 sq km) of land from local Māori in Hokianga, Manukau and Paeroa on the way. The company opted against pursuing any trade or settlement ventures and ceased activity, having spent ₤20,000 on the venture.[1]
Edward Gibbon Wakefield
Plans for the settlement of New Zealand were revived during the 1830s by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who had grown up in a family with roots in philanthropy and social reform.[1] In 1829, while in prison for abducting a 15-year-old heiress, he had published a pamphlet and a series of newspaper articles – the latter eventually republished as a book – promoting the colonising of Australasia. Wakefield's plan entailed the company buying land from the indigenous residents very cheaply, then selling it to speculators and "gentleman settlers" for a much higher sum. The emigrants would provide the labour to break in the gentlemen's lands and cater to their employers' everyday needs. They would eventually be able to buy their own land, but high land prices and low rates of pay would ensure they first laboured for many years.[2] His ideas were embraced by many of those who had been in the New Zealand Company of 1825 and used in 1834 as a basis for the colonisation of South Australia, where his supporters proposed recreating "a perfect English society".[1] Wakefield regarded the South Australian experience as a failure, however, and in 1836 set his sights on New Zealand, where his theories of "systematic" colonisation could be put into effect. A year later he chaired the first meeting of the New Zealand Association. Its members soon included MPs William Hutt and Sir William Molesworth, R.S. Rintoul of The Spectator and London banker John Wright. Wakefield drafted a Bill to bring the association's plans to fruition. The Bill attracted stiff opposition, however, from Colonial Office officials and the Church Missionary Society, who took issue both with the "unlimited power" the colony's founders would wield and the inevitable "conquest and extermination of the present inhabitants".[1] Anglican and Wesleyan missionaries were particularly alarmed by claims made in pamphlets written by Wakefield in which he declared that one of the aims of colonisation was to "civilise a barbarous people" who could "scarcely cultivate the earth". Maori, he wrote, "craved" colonisation and looked up to the Englishman "as being so eminently superior to himself, that the idea of asserting his own independence of equality never enters his mind". Wakefield suggested that once Maori chiefs had sold their land to settlers for a very small sum, they would be "adopted" by English families and be instructed and corrected.[1]
New Zealand Land Company
By late 1837 the association was gaining favour in government circles, and in December was offered a Royal Charter to take responsibility for the administration, and the legislative, judicial, military and financial affairs of the colony of New Zealand, subject to safeguards of control by the British Government. To receive the charter, however, the association was told by Colonial Secretary Lord Glenelg it would have to become a joint stock company.[1] Despite objections by its members to that condition, and the withdrawal in February 1838 of the offer of a charter, the association was wound up in August 1838. In its place was born both the New Zealand Colonisation Company and New Zealand Land Company, both of which merged with the 1825 New Zealand Company to form the New Zealand Land Company in May 1839. In December the name "New Zealand Company" was selected for the one and only company that would send emigrants to New Zealand. Once again Edward Gibbon Wakefield provided the driving impetus. Within the British Government, meanwhile, concern was rising about the welfare of Maori and increasing lawlessness among the 2000 British subjects in New Zealand. Because of the population of British subjects there, officials believed colonisation was now inevitable[1] and at the end of 1838 the decision was made to appoint a Consul as a prelude to the declaration of British sovereignty over New Zealand. The officers of the New Zealand Company knew that any such declaration would involve a freeze on all land sales pending the establishment of effective British control, and control over the purchase of Maori lands by Europeans.[3] They had other plans, which involved treating New Zealand as a foreign country and buying the land directly from the Māori, knowing they could get a better deal that way.
1839 expedition and land purchases
The New Zealand Company hastily organised a land-buying expedition, which sailed to New Zealand in the Tory in May 1839, commanded by Wakefield's younger brother, Colonel William Wakefield. A second vessel, the survey ship Cuba, with a team headed by Captain William Mein Smith, R.A., sailed in August, followed a month later by the first of nine immigrant ships, even before word had reached London of the success of the Tory and Cuba. The immigrant fleet had instructions to sail to Port Hardy on D'Urville Island where they would be told of their final destination. With the aid of whaler and trader Dicky Barrett, who had good contacts with Māori and a grasp of their language, William Wakefield began negotiating to buy land from the Māori around Petone in the Wellington area as soon as he arrived in New Zealand, and by the end of 1839 had concluded several purchases extending as far north as Patea that quickly became mired in controversy over their legitimacy. The settlement was far from what had been planned in England: among the many falsehoods in company prospectuses and advertising about the nature of the country, Wellington had been described as a place of undulating plains suitable for the cultivation of grapevines, olives and wheat.[4] Plans prepared in England showed parallel streets and sections that bore no relation to the physical contours of the area. Streets and sections, parks and cemeteries had been drawn in an area that consisted of swampy delta or high hills and steep gullies.[2] As early as 1839 the New Zealand Company had resolved to "take steps to procure German emigrants" and appointed a Mr Bockelman as agent of the Company in Bremen. At one stage the Company made an agreement in principle to sell the Chatham Islands to the Deutsche Colonisations Gesellschaft, but were thwarted by the British Government. However, Lord Stanley did agree to make the German colonists instant British subjects upon arrival in Nelson after being vetted in Hamburg first.
Treaty of Waitangi
The New Zealand Company had long expected intervention by the British Government in its activities in New Zealand and this finally occurred following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840. The treaty not only transferred sovereignty from Māori to the British Crown, but under its so-called pre-emption clause, Māori were prohibited from selling land to anyone but the Government and its agents. Lieutenant-Governor Hobson immediately froze all land sales and declared all existing purchases invalid pending investigation. The treaty put the New Zealand Company in a very difficult position. They did not have enough land to satisfy the arriving settlers and they could no longer legally sell the land they claimed they owned. Hobson also sent his Colonial Secretary, Willoughby Shortland, and some soldiers, to Port Nicholson (Wellington) to raise the Union flag and put an end to what it perceived as a challenge to British sovereignty – a "colonial council", complete with primitive legal institutions, headed by Wakefield and Smith. Hobson considered the colonists were creating a "republic" and regarded the council's activities as treason.
Wellington
The initial settlement of 1100 one-acre town sections, to be called Britannia, was established at Pito-one, at the mouth of the Hutt River. As well as a town section, each settler had bought 100 "country acres" (about 40ha) to be located nearby, on which they could grow thir food and support themselves initially. However the valley at Pito-one was a mix of dense forest, scrub, flax and swamp, prone to flooding and with a beach so flat ships were forced to anchor 1600 metres from the shore.[1] In April, 11 weeks after the first passenger ship arrived, Wakefield decided the settlement would move to Thorndon, to the south-west of the harbour, one of the few comparitively flat areas on the harbour. The area was named Lambton Bay (later Lambton Quay), in honour of Lord Durham, who had been closely associated with the formation of the Company. Surveyors quickly encountered problems, however, when they discovered the land selected as the new settlement was already inhabited by Māori, who were astonished and bewildered to find Pākehā tramping through their homes, gardens and cemeteries and driving wooden survey pegs into the ground. Surveyors became involved in skirmishes with the Māori, most of whom refused to budge, and were provided with weapons to continue their work.[1] The land had been purchased by Wakefield during a frantic week-long campaign the previous September, with payment made in the form of iron pots, soap, guns, ammunition, axes, fish hooks, clothing – including red nightcaps – slates, pencils, umbrellas, sealing wax and jew's harps.[1] Signatures had been gained from local chiefs after an explanation, given by Wakefield and interpreted by Barrett, that the land would no longer be theirs once payment was made. However evidence later provided to the Spain Land Commission – set up by Governor FitzRoy to investigate New Zealand Company land claims – revealed three major flaws: that chiefs representing pā of Te Aro, Pipitea and Kumutoto, where the settlement of Thorndon was to be sited, were neither consulted nor paid; that Te Wharepouri, an aggressive and boastful young chief eager to prove his importance, had sold land he did not control;[1] and that Barrett's explanation and interpretation of the terms of the sale was woefully inadequate. Barrett told the Spain Commission hearing in February 1843: "I said that when they signed their names the gentlemen in England who had sent out the trade might know who were the chiefs."[2] Historian Angela Caughey also claimed it was extremely unlikely that Wakefield and Barrett could have visited all ther villages at Whanganui-a-Tara in one day to explain the company's intentions and seek approval.[2] The occupants of the disputed land were promised reserves equal to one-tenth of the area, with their allotments chosen by lottery and spinkled among the European settlers.[1] Spain eventually negotiated a settlement with Te Aro, Kumutoto and Pipitea chiefs to accept payment of their land as well as retaining possession of their pa, cultivations and burial places.[2] In August 1840 the New Zealand Company suffered a further setback when a New Zealand Land Claims Ordinance was passed by the Legislative Council in New South Wales, decreeing that no payment was to be made for land in New Zealand unless it was made to the original inhabitants, and no individual sale was allowed to be more than "four square miles". The NSW Government planned to examine all the purchases of the New Zealand Company – which had already bought two million acres and sold them directly to settlers – as well as more than 1200 individual land claims throughout the country. Panic swept Wellington, as the town was now called, and hundreds of settlers chose to abandon their land and sailed to Valparaíso, Chile.[2][5]
Further settlements
The New Zealand Company went on to establish settlements at Wanganui, 1840, at New Plymouth in 1841 and at Nelson in 1842 and sent surveyors down the east coast of the South Island to consider further sites, where they made contact at Akaroa with the fledgling French colony there. However the Company soon go into serious financial difficulties. It had planned to buy land cheaply and sell it dearly. It anticipated that a colony based on a higher land price would attract affluent colonists. The profits from the sale of land were to be used to pay for free passage of the working-class colonists and for public works, churches and schools for instance. For this scheme to work it was important to get the right proportion of labouring to propertied immigrants. In part the failure of New Zealand Company plans were because this proportion was never achieved, there were always more labourers than landed gentry. But there was another flaw in the plan which made the problem worse. A proportion of the land in the new colony was bought for speculative reasons by people who had no intention of migrating to New Zealand. They had no plans to develop the land they bought. This meant that the new colonies had a serious shortage of employers and consequently a shortage of work for the labouring classes. From the outset the New Zealand Company was forced to be the major employer in the new colonies and this proved a serious financial drain on the Company.
Dissolution
The income from the sale of land to intending settlers never met expectations and came nowhere near meeting expenses. In 1844 the Company ceased active trading. It surrendered its charter in 1850. The British Government initially assumed responsibility for the New Zealand Company's debts, but bequeathed them to the fledgling New Zealand government in 1854.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Patricia Burns (1989). Fatal Success: A History of the New Zealand Company. Heinemann Reed. ISBN 0-7900-0011-3.
- ^ a b c d e f Angela Caughey (1998). The Interpreter: The Biography of Richard "Dicky" Barrett. David Bateman Ltd. ISBN 1-86953-346-1.
- ^ Keith Sinclair (2000). A History of New Zealand (revised edition). Penguin. ISBN 0-14-029875-4.
- ^ Michael King (2003). The Penguin History of New Zealand. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-301867-1.
- ^ An Account of the Settlements of the New Zealand Company by The Hon H W Petre (Smith, Elder and Co, 1842), Chapter 3.
- First New Zealand Company in the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
- Second New Zealand Company in the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
- The Wakefield Myth in the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
- A society of gentlemen: the untold story of the first New Zealand Company by Richard Wolfe (2007, Penguin, North Shore Auckland) ISBN 9780143020516
- An Account of the Settlements of the New Zealand Company by The Hon H W Petre (Smith, Elder and Co, 1842).
