ZEALAND, NEW.

Ιν the article Australasia (vol. iv. p. 215) we have already given a general description of New Zealand, sufficiently comprehensive for the degree of importance which then belonged to the subject. But within the last two years the New Zealand group has been made the theatre of so extraordinary a movement in colonization, that we are induced to devote to the subject a greater space than would otherwise have been justifiable; and we avail ourselves of a license which the name furnishes, to give in this place a brief history of the recent proceedings for the colonization of these interesting islands.

It may, in the first place, be proper to describe the complete revolution which of late years has taken place, both in the practice of colonization, and in the state of public opinion respecting it.

Until within a very recent period, it was the custom of the British government to give away the waste lands in our colonies to all applicants. System there was none; but several hundred different modes of granting land have at different times been recognised by the government, all of them however agreeing in rendering land as cheap as possible. Every labouring man who applied for land had a certain number of acres allotted to him: although conditions were sometimes imposed, they were easily evaded; and, in practice, land may be said to have been given unconditionally away. The effect of this upon men of the labouring class may easily be conceived. In the country which they had just quitted, to own land was to be great and powerful. The idea of wealth was inseparably united with that of land; and the prevailing desire of nearly every emigrant is to become an independent freeholder. The consequence of this very natural desire was, that no man would labour for hire, but would rather content himself with scratching up the soil by the aid of some rude help to labour, which scarcely deserved the name of capital.

Now, where labour cannot be obtained, capital is not very prone to establish itself; and even if it did perchance find its way into such a country, a considerable portion of it must have remained unproductive, and must frequently have rotted for want of hands to use it. In a country, in short, where the temptation to take land is very great, the capitalist can offer to the labourer no inducement to labour for hire, equal in force to the inducement to occupy land. On the other hand, the land-owning labourer cannot pre [7:21:976]sent to the capitalist’s mind any motive to induce him to part with his capital. Thus that degree of co-operation between the capitalist and labourer, which effects such wonders in this country, cannot exist in a country where land is excessively cheap; and production, wanting that co-operation, is reduced to the minimum. The labourer certainly gets the whole produce of the soil; he has nothing to pay to a capitalist for the use of his implements; but then it is a very small whole that he secures. In like manner, the capitalist may perhaps felicitate himself on having nothing to pay for labour. In his turn he secures all the produce of his fields, but that all is extremely scanty.

Another evil of the excessive cheapness of land is, that there can be no combination of labour wherever it exists. There may be some degree of skill, together with many other valuable qualities, generated by the labourer’s habit of independent exertion; but that exertion is isolated, and results which require the combined exertion of numbers can never be attained.

It must be further evident, that where each individual possesses a considerable breadth of land, only a small portion can generally be brought under cultivation. The cultivated spots are therefore scattered over a vast extent of country; dispersion of population necessarily exists; and barbarism prevails throughout the country. In a country so circumstanced, a man scarcely knows his neighbour; schools cannot be maintained; and the very rudiments of the social state become extinguished, if indeed they ever appeared.

Into a country in such a condition, capital would speedily cease to flow, because there would be nothing to attract it; and the country would soon exhibit the phenomenon of a population of pauper land-owners. There would be no colonization, properly so called; there would simply be the emigration of masses.

The last colony deliberately established on the principle, if such it can be called, of rendering land as cheap as possible, was that of the Swan River in 1829. Mr Peel was the first grantee. He took five hundred thousand acres, and marked out his land around the port. This, says Mr Wakefield, in his evidence before the Waste-Land Committee in 1836, was as much as to say, “this is a desert; no man shall come here; no man shall cultivate this land.” Other persons took large blocks; and so complete was the dispersion, that the settlers could not find each other. “That,” continues Mr Wakefield, “was why some people died of hunger; for though there was an ample supply of food at the governor’s house, the settlers did not know where the governor was, and the governor did not know where the settlers were. Then, besides the evils resulting from dispersion, there occurred what I consider almost a greater one, which is the separation of the people, and the want of combinable labour. The labourers, on finding out that land could be obtained with the greatest facility, the labourers taken out under contracts, under engagements which assured them of very high wages if they would labour during a certain time for wages, immediately laughed at their masters. Mr Peel carried altogether about three hundred persons, men, women, and children. Of these, about sixty were able labouring men. In six months after his arrival, he had nobody even to make his bed for him, or to fetch him water from the river. He was obliged to make his own bed, and to fetch water for himself, and to light his own fire. All the labourers had left him. The capital therefore which he took out, viz. implements of husbandry, seeds, and stock, especially stock, immediately perished. Without shepherds to take care of the sheep, the sheep wandered and were lost; eaten by the native dogs, killed by the natives and by some of the other colonists, very likely by his own workmen; but they were destroyed. His seeds perished on the beach; his houses were of no use; his wooden houses were there in frame, in pieces, but could not be put together, and were quite useless, and rotted on the beach. This was the case with the capitalists generally. The labourers, obtaining land very readily, and running about to fix upon locations for themselves, and to establish themselves independently, very soon separated themselves into isolated families, into what may be termed cottiers, with a very large extent of land, something like Irish cottiers, but having, instead of a very small piece of land, a large extent of land. Every one was separated, and very soon fell into the greatest distress. Falling into the greatest distress, they returned to their masters, and insisted upon the fulfilment of the agreements on which they had gone out; but then Mr Peel said, ‘ all my capital is gone; you have ruined me by deserting me, by breaking your engagements, and you now insist upon my observing the engagements when you yourselves have deprived me of the means of doing so.’ They wanted to hang him, and he ran away to a distance, where he secreted himself for a time, till they were carried off to Van Diemen’s Land, where they obtained food, and where, by the way, land was not obtainable by any means with so great facility as at the Swan River.” (Report, &c. 53—4.)

That the semi-barbarous state of what are called new countries arises from the extreme facility of acquiring land, was first shown by Mr Wakefield, in a little work called a Letter from Sydney, published in 1829;^[1. Edited by R. Gouger, Cross, Holborn, 1829. ] but his views had been communicated to government, we believe, before the departure of the Swan River settlers. The remedies which he proposed have since been substantially adopted, and wherever they have been applied, they have been attended with singular success.

Facility of acquisition being the evil, the remedy consisted in removing it by placing a price upon the waste lands in our colonies, and by stopping all alienation except in consideration of a price.

The first consequence of requiring a price for land is, that the labourer is compelled to labour a while for hire, until he shall have saved a sufficient sum to enable him to become a purchaser; and by devoting the proceeds, or a considerable portion of the proceeds, to defray the cost of removing people from the country in which people are abundant to the country in which they are deficient, a continual supply of labour is kept up. The supply being thus guaranteed, the colony becomes at once attractive to the capitalist; capital flows readily into such a country; and combination of labour, with perfect co-operation between the capitalist and labourer, being secured, production is facilitated and accelerated.

The mode of expending the labour-fund is another point of importance which requires explanation. The object is to relieve the population of the old country, and to increase to the utmost that of the new country, at the smallest possible cost. How is this to be done? Evidently by selecting the emigrants as to age and sex. By confining the expenditure of the emigration-fund derived from the land, to equal proportions of both sexes between certain ages, say eighteen and thirty-five, we give the greatest relief to the old country, and provide for the rapid peopling of the new. In other words, we remove from the country where people are in excess, to the country where they are deficient, the greatest germ of future increase at the smallest cost.

“By removing the selected class,” says Mr Wakefield, [7:21:977]“not only would you remove the greatest seeds of increase in the smallest number of people, but you would remove the greatest quantity of labour (using the term labour to express saleable muscular exertion) at the least cost. If there were a pressure upon the labour-market at home, by removing that class which was then commencing to work, and which had before it a long period of health and strength for labour, you would give the greatest relief to the labour-market with the least expenditure; and, in the next place, your object in the colony being the greatest possible labour at the least expense, by bringing to the colony a young man who had just arrived at his strength, but who had the prospect of a long life, you would give to the colony the greatest benefit at the least expenditure. Thirdly, there is in emigration the same sort of evil as there is in storms and floods. Emigration per se is an evil. It is the greatest evil to remove from the country of one’s birth and one’s affections. Now, by the proposed selection, since the greatest amount of emigration would really take place with the removal of the least number of people, you would obtain the maximum of good to be obtained by emigration, with the minimum of evil, whatever that evil may be. In the fourth place, there are great objections to any but young people; I will not say any but the narrow class to which I have adverted. Children suffer immensely in being removed. They suffer on board ship; they suffer from the confinement; and when they arrive in the colony, they are either neglected, or are a great encumbrance. Old people suffer much more from being removed from the scenes to which they are attached, and they are also less able to bear the fatigues which necessarily attend upon a long voyage. Lastly, almost every young couple no sooner marry in this country, or wherever they may be, than they look out for a new home. At the moment when they contemplate marriage, or at least when they are about to marry, they may be said to be on the move. You would catch them moving. You do not tear them from a place where they are fixed, but you would enable them to move to that place where their labour would be of the greatest possible value to them.”

Such are the principles of colonization, which have been successful wherever they have been applied, and the effect of which, in the colonization of New Zealand, we shall presently shew. They embrace a combination of the means which are requisite, not only for conveying masses, but for permanently establishing society in a new settlement. They perform their peculiar functions with the least possible disturbance of previous habits. They are the very opposite, the antagonist principles, as it were, of that planless practice which seems to have proceeded on the assumption, that to convey people to the new colony was the one thing needful. The example of Virginia has shewn, that the conveyance of mere masses alone to the fertile lands of new countries, is not sufficient to establish a colony. In Virginia, after twenty years of perseverance in colonizing, and after conveying 20,000 people, not above 2000 were to be found at the end of the period. There were people, there was wealth, there was intelligence, but all was ill directed. There was no system, and combined exertion was unknown. All our early efforts at colonization were disastrous. Under the new system, the causes of such disaster have been investigated and guarded against, with what success the following pages will shew.

Under the impulse of these principles, a complete revolution has taken place in the state of opinion on the subject of colonization. Persons to whom the bare idea of severing themselves from their native country was insuperably repugnant, now readily embrace a favourable opportunity of emigrating. Among the educated portion of the middle class, whose families are numerous, it is now not unusual to find some one or more of the sons seeking fortune in our distant possessions, and carrying to the antipodes those energetic habits which have made this country what she is.

Coelnm, non animum, mutant, qui trans mare currunt.

Women of refinement, too, no longer object to emigration, if circumstances favour the step; and New Zealand affords many instances of the emigration of whole families who have been accustomed to a species of society of which the older colonies were destitute, but which in our newer colonies they themselves help to form.

In the article Austkalasia, to which we have already referred, and in the life of the great navigator Cook , are stated the geographical position and extent of the New Zealand group, together with the circumstances of its discovery. As early as the year 1814, the northern part of the northern island began to be the resort of ships engaged in the whale-fishery, and men would occasionally desert from their ships and take up their residence among the natives. About the same time, some few of the natives of New Zealand occasionally made their appearance at Port Jackson, and being seen and conversed with by the Rev. Samuel Marsden, he conceived the idea of establishing a mission in the islands, which he accordingly visited for the purpose;^[2. Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand in the Years 1814 and 1815, in company with the Rev. Samuel Marsden, by John Liddiard Nicholas. 1817. ] and although not immediately successful, the ultimate establishment of a mission was the result. Since that period, the Wesleyan Methodists ami the Catholics have established missions, all of which have of late years extended their influence, bringing the natives into familiar intercourse with the Europeans, and generally promoting their civilization, in spite of certain questionable practices on the part of the church missionaries, which have brought them into some disrepute.

But the missionaries are not the only white men to whose influence the New Zealanders have been subjected. Up to the date of the commencement of the present movement, namely, 1839, the only colonizers of New Zealand were the very outcasts of an outcast population. Escaped convicts from the penal settlements; runaway sailors from whaling ships; needy adventurers, whose improvident habits and evil courses have made them men of no country; these, with a small admixture of worthy and energetic men, such as will find their way into all eligible fields, but who at that time formed too inconsiderable a minority to cure the vicious propensities and neutralize the evil passions of the majority, formed the bulk of the European population of New Zealand in 1839.

Dr Lang, principal of the Australian College at Sydney, who visited New Zealand during that year, thus describes the mass of the European population.^[3. New Zealand in 1839; Four Letters to Lord Durham, by the Rev. Dr Lang. Smith and Elder, Cornhill. ] “Of the character of the European population, now permanently settled in New Zealand, it is scarcely necessary to inform your lordship. With a few honourable exceptions, it consists of the veriest refuse of civilized society; of runaway sailors, of runaway convicts, of convicts who have served out their term of bondage in one or other of the two penal colonies, of fraudulent debtors who have escaped from their creditors in Sydney or Hobart Town, and of needy adventurers from the two colonies, almost equally unprincipled. In conjunction with the whalers who occasionally visit the coast, the influence of these individuals on the natives is demoralizing in the extreme. Their usual articles of barter are either muskets and gunpowder, or tobacco and rum. Most of them live in open concubinage or adultery [7:21:978] with native women; and the scenes of outrageous licentiousness and debauchery that are ever and anon occurring on their premises, are often sufficiently revolting to excite the reprobation and disgust of the natives themselves.

“Of the character and practices of a considerable portion of the European population of New Zealand, the following may perhaps serve as a specimen. There is an individual at present at the Bay of Islands, who is known among the Europeans by the respectable soubriquet of the ‘rat-catcher.’ He had been a dealer in slop clothing, and a notorious gambler, in New South Wales; but having been obliged, when his affairs became desperate in Sydney, to leave that colony altogether, he embarked for the usual refuge of the destitute, New Zealand, and commenced his old practices as a general dealer and gambler at the Bay of Islands. On one occasion, when he had gambled away all his property at the Bay but a single box of spermaceti candles, he took a boat at Kororarika, and embarking with the box, rowed over to Paihia, one of the stations of the Church Missionary Society on the opposite shore, where he offered the candles to the missionaries at sixpence per lb., telling them he could procure them sixty pounds worth at the same price, from a vessel which had just arrived in the port, provided he could only advance the ready money for them. The missionaries of course advanced the money, which the ‘ rat-catcher’ of course pocketed, and applied to his own purposes; thereby teaching the missionaries not to deal in future with disreputable persons, and especially not to attempt to purchase articles of property from such persons at one fourth of their market price.”

Such was the character of the European population at the time when the present movement for the systematic colonization commenced, and indeed until it was in a manner neutralized by a large infusion of a sounder population. This movement had its origin in a conversation which took place in a committee-room of the House of Commons, on the occasion of the inquiry into the mode of disposing of the waste lands in the colonies in 1836. In the course of the evidence, New Zealand had been mentioned as one of the many eligible fields for colonization open to Great Britain. Mr Francis Baring’s attention was thus excited; and the result was, that the New Zealand Association was formed, of which Mr Baring was chairman, for the express purpose of promoting the colonization of the islands.^[4. New Zealand seems at all times to have been considered an eligible field for the formation of a settlement. Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan for opening a civilizing commercial intercourse with New Zealand in 1771. In 1825. a commercial company was formed in London, under the auspices of the late earl of Durham. Two vessels were despatched to New Zealand, and land was acquired at Hokianga, Herd’s Point, and at the estuary of the Thames; but the vessels returned without forming a settlement. From that period until 1839, the colonization has been confined to the species described in the above extracts. ]

The New Zealand Association consisted of two classes of members; first, heads of families who intended to establish themselves in the proposed settlement; and, secondly, public men, who, on public grounds alone, were willing to undertake the responsible task of carrying the measure into operation. The sole aim of the association was to induce the legislature to apply to New Zealand the peculiar system of colonization which we have briefly described, and at the same time to make provision for guarding the natives from the evils to which they had been exposed by their intercourse with a lawless European population.

In 1837, this philanthropic body of men entered into communication with government on the subject, and at first there seemed some degree of willingness to promote the association’s view's; but at length a strange objection was raised, namely, that the association was not a company trading for profit. A charter was offered, on condition of its becoming such; but with this condition the association was not able to comply, having expressly excluded all purposes of private profit from its object. Having thus failed in its negotiation with the government, the association addressed itself to parliament. A bill was introduced “to establish a provisional government of British settlements of New Zealand but as ministers opposed the bill, it was of course lost. But although the association did not succeed in its object, it certainly did much to instruct the public on the subject. Through its exertions a committee was moved for in the House of Lords by the earl of Devon, and a large mass of valuable evidence was collected;^[5. House of Commons Paper, 8th August 1838. No. 680. ] besides which, several publications issued from the press, either published by the association, or at their instance.^[6. See especially the Colonization of New Zealand; being an Account of the principal Objects and Plans of the New Zealand Association. Parker, 1837. ] By these the public were undoubtedly prepared for the proceedings which have since taken place.

On the failure of its objects, the New Zealand Association became virtually dissolved; but some of its colonizing members attempted the formation of a joint-stock company, to meet the views of the government. After some difficulties and disappointments, the plan was attended with success. A company, with adequate capital, was established; and early in 1839 it had become possessed, by purchase from individuals and from the company of 1825, of some extensive tracts on the northern island. The proceedings of the New Zealand Company for the years 1839 and 1840 constitute a somewhat remarkable history; the history of British colonization from first to last does not furnish a more striking instance of vigorous action. Seldom has so much been effected in so short a period of time, and that too not merely without the sanction of the government, but in the face of opposition from it. That opposition, as we shall presently see, has been entirely obviated; and at this moment (August 1841) we find the New Zealand Company an efficient instrument for the colonization of New Zealand, under the superintendence of government.

Before the New Zealand Company made its plan of operations known to the public, it had purchased a fine bark of 400 tons, called the Tory. This vessel was fully equipped and ready for sea, when, on the 2d of May 1839, the company deemed itself in a situation to announce its plan of operations to the public. “The attention and business of the company,” says the Prospectus, “will be confined to the purchase of tracts of land, the promotion of emigration to those tracts directly from the united kingdom, the laying out of settlements and towns in the most favourable situations, and the gradual resale of such lands according to the value bestowed upon them by emigration and settlement. It is also proposed, that to facilitate the transmission of capital between England and New Zealand, the company shall act as agents for that purpose only.”

The Tory sailed from Plymouth on the first of May; and in a very able body of instructions given to Colonel Wakefield, the company’s chief agent, the objects of the company are explicitly stated under three heads: 1st, the purchase of lands for the company, including the mode of dealing with the natives; 2d, the acquisition of general information respecting the country; and, 3d, preparations for the formation of settlements under the auspices of the company.

In these instructions, a strong leaning was exhibited towards Cook’s Straits, as an eligible site for the first settlement, as being the great highway, so to speak, between the [7:21:979]Australian and eastern colonies and Great Britain. These predilections were shared by most of those who formed the first colony. Indeed as a commercial locality it is probably not surpassed in any one of our Australian possessions. The Tory made an extremely short passage of ninety-six days; and Colonel Wakefield being thus in the field before any competitors, was enabled to fulfil the wishes of the company in every particular. He acquired for the company the whole of the territory on both shores of Cook’s Straits, including Port Nicholson, one of the finest harbours in the world, where the principal settlement has since been successfully formed, and now numbers about four thousand people.

But the most gratifying feature in the company’s instructions relates to the mode of dealing with the native tribes. Unhappily, the whole history of European colonization is but a continuous record of barbarity and injustice towards the aboriginal races. Civilization having often been found difficult, extermination has been openly practised. Even very recently, in New South Wales, a small body of the natives was hemmed in and shot down in cold blood by a few Europeans; and when the government took some steps to bring the monsters who perpetrated the act to justice, the press raised an outcry against punishing men for shooting monkeys; and an intimation was held out, that if this course were persevered in, it would be necessary to find some more secure method of getting rid of the “vermin and the mode recommended was, to dose wheaten cakes, of which the natives were very fond, with arsenic! This, reader, is no exaggeration; for in a letter from a brother-in-law of the present writer, a member of the English bar, dated Port Philip, December 3, the practice is mentioned as of common occurrence. “Some of the white people here treat the natives most shamefully. For the slightest offence they kill them, and drop their bodies into some creek; and some have been known to leave about what are called dampers, a species of bread baked in the bush, in which arsenic has been previously put, for the very purpose of destroying the blacks.”

But the New Zealand Company inherited the higher views of the association of 1837. The elevation of the natives in every possible way is an object never lost sight of, and it is in their contracts with the natives respecting land that this object is especially conspicuous. In the first price, as regards the original purchase-money of the land, it was much more considerable than had been paid by any previous purchaser. This however was not the real consideration. The substantial advantage secured to the natives is, a reserve of one tenth of the whole of the lands purchased, which tenth must, as settlement proceeds, become of far greater value in consequence of colonization, and will confer much more substantial comfort on the native population, than the whole of the land could possibly do, so long as it remained in their own possession. Of the 1100 town acres, with the 110,000 country acres, which constitute the first colony, one tenth was so reserved. The company sold these lands at 20s. per acre, consequently the native reserves were worth at the time L.11,110; but such has been their rise since, that they are worth upwards of L.35,000 in the London market; a value which will place the natives of Port Nicholson in a most advantageous position in relation to the colonists.

The plan is indeed admirably suited to promote the civilization of the natives. They do not require an enormous breadth of land, for they are, and always have been, cultivators, not hunters like the American Indians. America abounds with animals which either serve as food for the natives, or furnish them with the means of procuring by barter such objects as are suited to their wants. New Zealand, on the contrary, has no aboriginal animals. This may have made them cannibals; but it has also of necessity made them cultivators, and has thus advanced them one step in civilization. It has rendered them prone to labour, and they now adopt with great readiness the improvements of civilized life. Among hunters, such as the American Indians are at this day, no circumstance could give value to a small quantity of land, so as to make it provide for the subsistence of the natives; but with a race of cultivators, a great breadth of land is valueless. They cannot use much land; and they may therefore be deemed well provided for, in proportion as they are taught to use a comparatively small quantity of land with effect.

All modern accounts which deserve credit agree in describing the habits of the New Zealanders as exceedingly favourable to their elevation. They learn the use of mechanics’ tools with great readiness, and even become good ship-carpenters. Many of the first settlers at Port Nicholson found the houses built by the natives, called warrees, much more comfortable than any others. They become excellent boatmen and sailors; and there are instances of small vessels built and navigated by New Zealanders. Dr Lang states, that Toki, a New Zealander, was the best helmsman on board the ship in which he made a passage; and in the evidence before the Lords’ Committee, many instances are given of natives capable of taking charge of a ship as master, were it not that, as foreigners, they were incapacitated by law from so doing.^[7. Information relative to New Zealand, by John Ward, Esq. Parker, 1840. The New Zealanders (Library of Entertaining Knowledge). Knight, 1830. ]

The views of the company touching the aborigines have up to this time been admirably seconded in the colony, not merely by their own officers, but by the settlers at large. In the very first instance, by the uniform fairness of his dealings, and especially by the temper displayed in all his negotiations, Colonel Wakefield succeeded in gaining their confidence, and in establishing the most friendly relations; and the settlers, on their arrival, found them predisposed to receive them with friendship, and perform for them such services as they immediately needed. In the various letters from the first settlers which have been published^[8. A great number of such letters bas appeared in the New Zealand Journal, a paper published in London once a fortnight, and devoted to the colonization of New Zealand. ] from time to time during the last twelvemonths, both the capacity and disposition of the natives are well spoken of, and it is quite evident that mutual feelings of kindness and good will have grown up between the settlers and the natives.

Soon after the departure of the Tory, the company made preparations for disposing of a limited portion of their lands already acquired, or hereafter to be acquired, for the purpose of forming the first colony. The quantity assigned for this purpose was eleven hundred acres for the town, and one hundred and ten thousand acres to form the rural sections, of one hundred acres each. These lands were divided into eleven hundred sections, each section to comprise one hundred rural acres and one town acre. Deducting the reserved land for the aborigines, the remainder was offered for sale at L.l per acre, or L.101 per section. On paying down this sum, the purchaser received a land-order on the company’s local officer, entitling the holder to select his section according to priority of choice, afterwards determined by lot at the company’s offices.

The quantity of land thus disposed of in the first instance, was taken in a few weeks. The total sum realized, [7:21:980]after deducting the native reserves, was L.99,990. Of this sum 75 per cent. or L.74,992. 10s. was set apart to form the emigration fund for the purpose of defraying the cost of conveying emigrants to the colony, and so impart value to the lands already sold. By the conditions of sale, the purchasers of land-orders were entitled to claim 75 of their purchase-money, either in the shape of free passages for themselves and families, or for their servants and labourers; and where no claim was made, the benefit was equally conferred on the landowner, as the whole of the emigration fund would be devoted to the conveyance of labour to the colony.

It should be observed, that the buyers of these lands knew not at the time where the first colony would be located. They knew that the company had some land to fall back upon, but the general impression was, that the first colony would be established on the lands about to be acquired, and Port Nicholson was looked to by some of the principal colonists as likely to form an eligible site. This has since been accomplished. Port Nicholson was found to be in every way fitted to become a great commercial emporium, and the satisfaction which the settlers express with the selection is universal.

Immediately after the realization of the land-fund in July, active preparations were made for the departure of the first, colony. A surveyor, with what was then deemed an adequate staff, but which subsequent experience has shewn to have been too small, was despatched in the Cuba. She sailed two months in advance of the settlers, but, unfortunately, she made a long passage, and at the time the first emigrant ship reached Port Nicholson, not a step had been taken towards the laying out of the town. This inconvenience was however obviated by Colonel Wakefield’s arrangements; and by assigning small allotments of land to the settlers, on which they might erect their tents and houses, discontent was entirely avoided.

The ships chartered by the company to take out the first colony were five in number, namely, the Adelaide, the Aurora, the Oriental, the Duke of Roxburghe, and the Bengal Merchant. It afterwards became necessary to take up the Glenbervie to take out stores, and the Bolton to take about 232 passengers, who had been disappointed in obtaining passages by the first ships. The first sailed on the first of October, and the last in the middle of November, and, with the Coromandel, a private ship, conveyed 1125 persons to the colony.

The distinguishing feature of this first colony is its completeness. No colony was ever established under more favourable prospects. The labouring emigrants, the bone and muscle of the colony, formed the finest body of people we ever saw congregated together for such a purpose, albeit our experience in such matters is not small. Selection was observed not merely to the extent which the principles require, but also as to the moral and physical qualifications of the people. They were for the most part in the prime of life, in full health, and of approved moral character; and it was impossible to look upon them without a conviction that they were the very people to carve fortune out of the wilderness.

Among the wealthier classes were several persons of birth, education, and refinement, who, in planting a new colony, will not be content with a mere rude abundance, nor with their new home, unless it bear distinct marks of a high degree of civilization. They went out impressed with the value of a system of which they themselves form a part; they believe that system to be efficient for the creation of a society complete in all its parts; and believing so, all their energies will be directed to the verification of the principles to which they are attached. The varieties of form in which the capital was conveyed to the colony will show how efficient that capital is likely to become as a means of contributing to the satisfaction of the wants of the colonists. Houses and other buildings, in frames, ready to be put up like a bedstead in the course of a day^[9. The house designed for the printing of the first newspaper, the New Zealand Gazette, was put up by the proprietor and a couple of men in two days. It was made by Manning of Holborn, and was taken out in trame. ] or two; mill-machinery of all kinds, both for sawing and grinding; steam-engines; agricultural implements of the most improved kind; mechanics’ tools, especially all that might be necessary to the builder, were among the articies carried out. But this was not all. In addition to that in which the idea of immediate profit was predominant, the moral and intellectual wants of the people have not been forgotten. Even before the departure of the first colony, a literary and scientific institution was established, and the germ of a library formed, to which the archbishop of Dublin, the Rev. Dr Hinds, and several other friends of the colony, contributed. The press also was not forgotten. The first number of a newspaper, called the New Zealand Gazette, was published in London in August 1839, with the intention of publishing the second and succeeding numbers in the colony. The types and presses, the editor, foreman, and compositors, went out in the Adelaide. She reached Port Nicholson on the 7th of March, and on the 18th of April the second number was printed at Port Nicholson. We have now before us a file to the 5th of December, and its contents bear remarkable testimony to the completeness of the system, and the extraordinary rapidity with which the settlement has increased. A newspaper “exclusively devoted to New Zealand,” is also published in London. It is called the New Zealand Journal; it appears once a fortnight, and has a considerable and steadily increasing sale; a proof that what has very aptly been called the “New Zealand public” in this country is also large and increasing.

We have already seen that neither the New Zealand Association of 1837, nor the New Zealand Company of 1839, could win the sympathy or even the countenance of the government. By the energetic operations of the latter body, however, the government were forced into action; and just as the first colony was ready to start, Captain Hobson of the navy was sent to New Zealand for the purpose of ultimately erecting it into a British colony. Unfortunately, New Zealand, or rather the northern portion of the northern island, had been treated in 1831 as a sovereign independent state, and Captain Hobson was instructed to begin by calling himself consul. He was then to obtain a cession of the sovereignty from the chiefs, and declare so much of the country as should be ceded to him, and also such part thereof as should be in possession of British subjects, a dependency of New South Wales. Of this portion he was to cease to call himself consul, and was to become lieutenant-governor under Sir George Gipps, the governor of New South Wales. In other words, New Zealand was treated as a foreign country, over which her majesty could have no authority, until it should be obtained by formal cession, from the date of which, sovereignty with all its consequences would commence.

From this course of policy much difficulty has since arisen, and more will yet arise. It is a well-understood principle of international law, that discovery and occupation give to the discovering nation a right of sovereignty as against all civilized powers. The relations which the discovering country may establish with the native tribes do not in any way affect this right of sovereignty. The [7:21:981]Americans, for instance, recognise a certain modified sovereignty as continuing in the Cherokees and other aboriginal tribes, but they nevertheless assert the sovereignty of the Union as against all European nations. Of our original sovereignty over New Zealand no one ever doubted, until it was lately repudiated or renounced by the colonial department. Acts of sovereignty had frequently been exercised. Magistrates had been appointed; criminals had many years since been arrested, sent to Sydney, tried, and punished; and yet it was determined that Captain Hobson should take a new lease of sovereignty, dating from a first cession or successive cessions from the natives.

One of the consequences of this was, that New Zealand, which had all along been respected by foreign powers, was immediately thrown open to colonization by any European power. France at once took the hint, and sent out the Comte de Paris transport with about sixty settlers, to found a French colony there. This expedition was only twenty days too late to take possession of the southern island in the name of France. Twenty days before, Captain Hobson had declared the queen’s sovereignty over both islands, otherwise we must either have submitted to have a French colony on the southern island, or have reverted to our ancient seisin, declared a species of retrospective sovereignty, and stultified the recent proceedings of the government in that behalf. And in point of fact this has been done. Captain Hobson at first pursued the plan of cession. The chiefs of a small portion of the northern island north of the estuary of the Thames were assembled to barter sovereignty for a blanket. Captain Hobson thereafter proclaimed the queen’s authority. With the proclamation of sovereignty a second proclamation was issued, appointing a commission to inquire into the titles to land, to confirm such as might have been obtained by fair means, and to disallow such as might have been obtained for a fraudulent or inadequate consideration, or where the extent of territory claimed was unreasonably large. This second proclamation has since been carried into effect by an act of the council of New South Wales. Now this act, together with the second proclamation respecting titles, is utterly inconsistent with the first proclamation, which makes her majesty’s sovereignty commence with the date of the cession in January 1840. Proclamation No. 1 denies her majesty any jurisdiction previously to 1840. Proclamation No. 2 asserts jurisdiction for an indefinite period before that date. In other words, our “ancient seisin” is reverted to; her majesty, to use the language of our ancient legal writers, is “in of her old estate and the whole ceremony of the formal cession is treated as a solemn farce. Indeed Captain Hobson himself found it necessary to cut the gordian knot, and renounce the scheme of obtaining the sovereignty bit by bit by means of cession; for in May he issued a proclamation, declaring her majesty’s sovereignty over both islands, and so anticipated the French expedition by twenty days.

Without reverting to our ancient sovereignty, so as to give her majesty jurisdiction antecedently to January 1840, not merely could no title be questioned previously to that date, but many crimes must go unpunished, if they were not crimes according to the customs of New Zealand. What we call murder was undoubtedly sanctioned by the “sovereign chiefs of New Zealand” in 1839; and a mere tyro in pleading would have no difficulty in framing a plea in abatement of the indictment, provided the doctrine of the proclamation was to be maintained.

But to return to the proceedings in this country. After the departure of the first colony in the autumn of 1839, no further emigration took place for some time. In the month of February 1840, two vessels, the Brougham and the Platina, were despatched, the former with provisions for the colony, and the latter with one of Manning’s houses for Captain Hobson; but in the state of uncertainty which then existed, the company did not deem it expedient to promote emigration. Nothing had been heard of the Tory, all was doubt respecting Captain Hobson’s proceedings, the government continued hostile, or at least withheld its sanction, and rumours of French rivalry, greatly exaggerated and over-estimated, conspired with the unsatisfactory state of our relations with France to render delay prudent. The friends of New Zealand felt that any one favourable piece of intelligence would renew public interest in the question, and create a spirit which would dash aside all other difficulties; but when all was uncertainty and doubt, it would be unwise to attempt to carry public opinion by storm. This state of uncertainty did not long continue. Early in March, news of the arrival of the Tory reached this country. The expedition had been in every way successful, and Colonel Wakefield’s despatch, published in the New Zealand Journal of the 10th of March, shewed that all the expectations of the company and the public would be abundantly fulfilled.

The very favourable accounts which were received from New Zealand at the very moment that the rumours were current respecting the designs of the French in that quarter, aroused the great commercial interests of the city. On the 15th of April, a numerous and very respectable meeting took place in Guildhall. It had been convened by a requisition signed by one hundred and fourteen “of the higher classes of bankers, merchants, shipowners,” as they were described by the Times newspaper, and it was attended by a numerous assemblage of persons, by some of whom all the great interests in the city were represented. As if in anticipation of this meeting, a series of papers was laid on the table of the House of Commons the evening before the meeting, entitled “Correspondence with the Secretary of State relative to New Zealand,” where, in the shape of a “memorandum,” dated 18th March, “the pre tensions made in behalf of her majesty” respecting the sovereignty of New Zealand were “repelled,” and New Zealand declared “a substantive and independent state.” A meeting of this character was not to be put down, however, by a mere declaration of the opinion, for it really amounted to no more, of one of the under secretaries of state. It merely seemed to stimulate both speakers and listeners, and a petition to her majesty and both houses of parliament, praying that the subject might be taken into immediate consideration, “to preserve these valuable islands to her majesty’s dominions,” was numerously signed in the hall. The petition was afterwards brought before the house by Lord Eliot, who, with great industry, had completely mastered the subject. A committee was appointed, and a body of evidence collected, which completely showed that the government could no longer lag behind the active colonizers of New Zealand.

From the period of Lord Eliot’s successful motion, the colonization of New Zealand, and every thing connected with it, have prospered in every way. From Lord John Russell’s speech, although in the first place he opposed Lord Eliot, it was evident that he was actuated by no vindictive feeling, and the friends of New Zealand were soon made aware that the fostering aid of government would no longer be denied them. Immediately after the city meeting, the arrival of a second favourable despatch from Colonel Wakefield justified the company in recommencing emigration. The Martha Ridgway was taken up, and sailed on the 9th of July, taking out the report of the debate on Lord Eliot’s motion, since which time a shipload of emigrants, selected on the principle we have described, has sailed every month; so that up to the end of June 1841, 3469 emigrants had been sent out by the company alone, besides about four hundred by the Plymouth Company, [7:21:982]and perhaps about three hundred others independently of either company.^[10. The following is an estimate of the white population of New Zealand at this time, including the emigration from this country during 1840, but exclusive of that of the present year. [table] ]

The relations between the company and the government for some time previous to the close of the year 1840 had been on a most satisfactory footing. Though the state of quasi hostility which had existed might have created feelings of acrimony, Lord John Russell, in the negotiations which took place after the committee of July, displayed great magnanimity; and towards the end of October the New Zealand Company were enabled to announce that the differences which had existed between the government and the company had been finally adjusted. On the 5th of December the terms were published, by which it appeared that New Zealand was to cease to be a dependency of New South Wales, as Captain Hobson, according to his instructions, had declared it, but was to become an independent colony. A charter was to be granted to the company, which was to cede its land to the government, receiving, in return for its outlay, an ample consideration in land. These arrangements have since been carried into effect. The charter has been granted, and the company has become a most efficient instrument in the hands of government for the colonization of the country.

Great discontent prevailed, both at Port Nicholson and the Bay of Islands, respecting their state of dependency on New South Wales, and the numerous inconveniences to which that relation gave birth. To quiet the minds of the colonists without delay, a fast-sailing vessel was taken up to carry the despatches containing the terms of the final arrangement, which, it was calculated, would reach Port Nicholson by the end of March.

From this time forward, therefore, nothing will be wanting to the rapid colonization of the islands. All the settlers’ letters agree in describing the country as rich and fertile, and the climate as salubrious. The country is abundantly watered, and the droughts which prevail in Australia are utterly unknown. The only complaint is the scarcity of flat clear land. But the wooded character of the land is no evil. In America it is deemed the test of a good soil, and no man will take land which does not require the labour and expense of clearing. The opinion in favour of clear land is an Australian prejudice, justifiable if confined to pasture land, but not so if extended to land destined for tillage. New Zealand, in fact, is destined to become a wheat country, the granary of the Australian colonies. As a sheep country, it must yield to the dry and arid wastes of Australia. The vine and the olive flourish already almost without the aid of man; and there is no doubt that New Zealand is adapted to all the productions of southern Europe.

The natives, instead of being an encumbrance, are an acquisition. It is gratifying to read in the settlers’ letters the affectionate terms in which their intercourse is carried on. Mutual kindness to each other’s children is one of the most striking features. We have already stated the aptness of the natives to imitate the arts and contrivances of Europeans. In this respect they are improving rapidly. Their physical superiority is greatly in their favour. The women are comely, and some beautiful; they are gentle in their manners, and are said to make good and attached wives. Several are united to Europeans; and there seems no impediment to more extensive amalgamation, which the principles of the company, now adopted by the government, by investing the natives with property, will greatly encourage.

The geographical character of both the islands seems to point out the peculiar mode of settling which the company have put in practice. The islands being long and narrow, present an immense line of sea-coast in proportion to the extent of surface. This line of coast is broken into numerous splendid harbours, on many of which Europeans had established themselves; but as far as our present information goes, there are no large rivers extensively navigable for large ships, though many of them are well adapted for internal navigation. The best mode of colonization therefore is to establish distinct settlements on all to the principal harbours of both islands.

Port Nicholson, the site of the first colony, is one of the finest harbours in the world. Its situation will make Wellington the great commercial metropolis, not merely of New Zealand, but of the whole of our Australasian possessions. The Bay of Islands, another admirable commercial station, is already settled to a considerable extent. A branch of the New Zealand Company, called the Plymouth Company of New Zealand, has sent out a surveying expedition, and a body of settlers to establish a colony on some eligible spot, to be determined by their agent, in conjunction with Colonel Wakefield. An eligible site for the New Plymouth settlement has been found on the banks of the Waiters river, at Teranaki, twelve miles from the Sugar-Loaf Islands. The town is to be called Port Eliot, after an estate of Lord St Germains, and in honour of Lord Eliot, to whose exertions the New Zealand colonists are so much indebted.

Acting on this plan, the company are now about to form a second settlement (or reckoning the New Plymouth settlement as one, a third), to be called Nelson. The preliminary expedition, consisting of two vessels, the Whitby and Will Watch, and having on board the company’s agent, Captain Wakefield, R. N., the agent for the New Plymouth settlement, Captain Liardet, R.N., who was Commodore Napier’s commander on board the Powerful at Acre, together with a surveying staff, consisting of a chief surveyor, six assistants, twelve improvers or apprentices, and eighty men, sailed on the 27th April; and a large body of colonists are now ( August) preparing to depart.

The extent of land allotted for the second colony is two hundred and one thousand acres, divided into one thousand allotments of one hundred and fifty rural acres, fifty suburban acres, and one town acre. The price of each allotment is L.300, so that the total sum placed at the disposal of the company will be L.300,000. Out of the thousand allotments, only about three hundred remained to be disposed of at the end of June. The L.300,000 will be thus distributed: L.150,000 for the emigration of young couples to this particular settlement; L.50,000 to defray the cost of surveys, establishments, &c., any surplus to go to the next head; L.50,000 for public purposes, as, for instance, the encouragement of steam navigation (L.20,000), the establishment of a college (L.15,000), religious endowments (L.15,000); L.50,000 to the company for its expenses, and profit on the use of its capital. The body of the colonists will sail in September.

Emigration to Port Nicholson will still be continued. The company has just increased its capital from L.100,000 to L.200,000, in compliance with a condition in the charter, and emigrants will be conveyed to the first settlement in anticipation of the land-sales which will take place in the colony so soon as the “final arrangement” already alluded to shall have been made known in the colony.

One subject of great importance to New Zealand, indeed to all the Australian colonies, remains to be mentioned,
[7:21:983]
[table]

namely, communication with those colonies by way of the Isthmus of Panama and the Pacific Ocean.

The West India Steam Navigation Company have a contract to carry the mails by steam for a certain number of years. The steam-ships for this purpose are now building at Northfleet near Gravesend, and we believe will commence running in the autumn of the present year (1841). From Jamaica to Chagrès or Puerto Bello, on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama, is only 550 miles, which will also be accomplished by steam by the above-named company. It is now proved beyond all doubt that the isthmus offers no difficulty, in the way of a railroad or a ship-canal, which money, and even a moderate sum of money, will not accomplish. See Panama .

From Panama, on the Pacific side of the isthmus of that name, steam is already established to Lima, and occasionally to Valparaiso. All, then, that will remain to be done after the vessels of the West India Steam Navigation Company shall have commenced running, will be to establish some regular communication between the western coast of South America and New Zealand. This can be done monthly with four fast-sailing vessels; and it is understood that the company is prepared to give a remunerating charter to any builder or merchant who will undertake to provide the ships. It should be observed, that there is every prospect of a remunerating trade for such vessels, as, even at this early stage of the settlement, two vessels from Valparaiso have arrived at Port Nicholson, and at the date of the last advices one was preparing to sail for that port. Callao in Peru is mentioned in the Report of the Directors of the New Zealand Company as a port favourable for the establishment of such communication.

The time at present occupied by the voyage to New Zealand is one hundred and twenty days. By the way of the isthmus it may be calculated as follows:

It only remains to mention that Captain Hobson has fixed upon the harbour of Waitemata, in the estuary of the Thames, as the seat of his government. He has made preparations for the establishment of a town, to be called Auckland, which is in latitude 30° 51' 36'' south, and longitude 174° 43' east. At present it only contains about 200 inhabitants; and although under the fostering influence of the government it will doubtless increase, it must ever remain insignificant compared with the commercial capital, Wellington. To that and the other settlements separate municipalities will be given. Judicial and other officers have been appointed and sent out; so that before the end of the present year the government of New Zealand will be completely organized, and the country will be in a fair way to become one of the most prosperous, as it is now one of the most attractive, of our colonial possessions.

For the use of such of our readers as may wish for full information on the subject, the following is a chronological list of works relating to New Zealand, which, with the exception of a few controversial pamphlets, is believed to be complete.

1770-80. Cook’s second and third Voyages.

1807. Some Account of New Zealand, by John Savage, Esq. Surgeon.

1817. Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand, by J. Liddiard Nicholas, Esq., 2 vols.

1824. Journal of a ten Months’ Residence in New Zealand, by R. A. Cruise, Esq., Major in the 84th Regiment of Foot.

1830. The New Zealanders (Library of Entertaining Knowledge).

1832. Authentic Information relative to New South Wales and New Zealand, by James Busby, Esq.

1832. A Narrative of a nine Months’ Residence in New Zealand in 1827, by Augustus Earle, Draftsman to H. M. surveying ship Beagle.

1835. An Account of New Zealand, by the Rev. W. Yate,

Missionary of the Church Missionary Society.

1836. Polynesian Researches, by the Rev. William Ellis.

1837. The British Colonization of New Zealand; published for the New Zealand Association.

1838. The latest Official Documents relating to New

Zealand, with introductory Observations, by the Rev. Samuel Hinds, D. D.

1838. Report of the Lords’ Committee on the present State of the Islands of New Zealand.

1838. Journal of a Residence in New Zealand, by J. S.

Polack, 2 vols.

1839. New Zealand in 1839, or four Letters to the Earl of

Durham, by John Dunmore Lang, D. D.

1840. Information relative to New Zealand, compiled for the use of Colonists, by John Ward, Esq.

1840. Supplementary Information, published by Parker, West Strand.

1840. An earnest Address to New Zealand Colonists, with reference to their Intercourse with the Native Inhabitants, by the Rev. Montague Hawtrey.

1840. Manners and Customs of the New Zealanders, by J. S. Polack, 2 vols.

1840. Correspondence relative to New Zealand. Par. Paper.

1840. Report on New Zealand, Lord Eliot’s Committee.

Par. Paper, No. 582.

1840-41. The New Zealand Journal, published every other Saturday. London.

1841. Parliamentary Paper, No. 311, 11th May; with an excellent Map. (d. l. )